Is God Present or Absent in Hell?

Ask Pastor John

Desiring God

John Piper, Unknown, 163859, Pastor, Ask, Theology, Desiring God, Religion & Spirituality/christianity, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality, Questions

4.8 • 3.8K Ratings

🗓️ 27 June 2022

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Is God present in hell, as John seems to say in Revelation 14:10 — or is he absent, as Paul seems to say in 2 Thessalonians 1:9?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Well, serious Bible students ask sober questions about hard texts, and that's what I love
0:09.5	about this podcast, and our listeners, sober questions about hard texts get asked and
0:15.6	answered here. That will be especially true for the next two weeks as we narrow our attention
0:21.4	to three hard Bible questions from you related to eschatology questions on the first two chapters
0:27.1	of 2 Thessalonians. And we have three of them, namely, is God present or is he absent in his
0:34.0	eternal judgment? 2 Thessalonians 1-9 seems to say that he's absent. That's today. Then many of
0:41.5	you have asked about the man of lawlessness in chapter 2. Who is that? That's on Friday in
0:46.7	ABJ 1803. We'll look at that. And then a question about God sending strong delusions into the world.
0:52.9	Does he do that today? So how so? That's a question on 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 11.
1:00.1	And that will be on the table two Fridays from now in I think it's ABJ 1806.
1:07.5	Be watching for that. So today we have sober questions on the nature of God's judgment.
1:12.2	A listener named David writes us this, Pastor John, thank you for taking my question. It's a
1:16.6	serious one. Namely is the presence of God in hell. 2 Thessalonians 1-9 seems to say no. Is
1:25.8	that right? And Josiah writes us this, Pastor John, hello. I read that hell includes the presence of
1:33.4	God per Revelation 1410. Or is it away from the presence of God according to 2 Thessalonians 1-9?
1:41.8	Can you help me understand which one is right? Whenever I am asked a question about hell,
1:50.1	I always feel the need to take a deep breath. So to speak and step back and make sure that we are not
2:00.4	handling this reality in a breezy, easy, superficial, cavalier way.
2:11.8	So let me say a few things by way of preface so that we can feel the appropriate weight of the
2:19.8	question. It's possible, I think, to think about hell too little and too much. To think about hell
2:32.5	too little would mean that it rarely comes into your mind and therefore has little effect upon your
2:41.0	life. But the Bible's teaching on hell is not just for the sake of random occasional curiosity.
	...

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