'Hell' was created, as 'hell' is commonly understood to be, very early on, but not by God! As a place of torment it has been a part of ancient Pagan (non-Hebrew) beliefs and reached its epiphany in Greece. But Israel acquainted "hellfire" with fiery (national) judgment. And Sheol, of course, the place of the dead, was the grave and the dust of - Isaiah 14:11; Genesis 3:19 (Philippians 2:10).
- "Hell" is being without God. But that can't happen! God is Life. Every little drop of Life is God - Genesis 1:1 - so to be without God is to not be. Period. "And the last thing to be vanquished is death" - 1 Corinthians 15:26. (The opposite of Life, is non-life.)
- Jude, in verse 7, said "the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.. is the example of eternal fire" - Jude 7. Is there flames and fire there now, where Sodom and Gomorrah once were? Rather it is mounds of dust and ashes. Revelation 19:3 speaks of destruction as a "smoke that rises forever and ever." It is an eternal lesson which is remembered forever and ever, and then some. The smoke (memory) of it will rise forever in our memory and psyche. We cannot walk away from God in any means or fashion, because God is both Life and Perfection. To turn from Him in any little thing is to cease to be. It's an eternal "note to self (a great gift) which says "CANNOT BE DONE".
- But this journey and lesson of hell (death) and hellfire, this narrative of God is/was unavoidable, unless God is creating an ant farm and robots. But He's not. He's of course creating the absolutely best thing possible, because He is, after all, Perfection. So the 'end' result of all this can only be Perfect. Nothing else is possible.
