Question:  Dear Greg,

            I have a new and disturbing twist on the question of hell.  I know there’s been much speculation and I believe there is a spiritual death or separation from God.  I began to wonder if maybe “hell” is simply death and the alternative is eternal life.  John 3:16 says the wages of sin are death—not eternal torment.  Well, I looked up the word, “hell” on the Internet and found a site that contained a link to a real soundbite that is supposedly the real and literal sounds of people screaming and wailing.  They said it happened in Siberia when scientists were digging into the earth’s crust and found a chasm and actually recorded these sounds with a high tech microphone.  The sounds were chilling and there’s no doubt it sounded like a multitude of people in torment.  This site said that Jesus himself said hell is in the “belly or heart of the earth”.  They make it seem as though hell is a literal place in the center of the earth.  I’m very distraught over this.  I’m not sure why.  Maybe I secretly was hoping there was no such place as hell and now come to find out it’s been underneath my feet all this time.

            Have you heard of this story?  Let me know your thoughts please.  Sorry for my rambling.

            Yours truly,

            Robyn

Answer:  Dear Robyn,

            The best definitions for hell and heaven are, in my mind, respectively—eternal separation from God, and eternity with God, in his presence.  The specifics beyond that are vague, according to the Bible.  I have an article in the 2003 Plain Truth (May-June) that addresses a number of issues about hell, “The Hotter the Better?”, so I will not repeat them here.  If you do not subscribe to the Plain Truth, the article is available online.

            Sites like the one you mention, that purport to offer “real and literal” sounds of hell, discovered by some oil company as they drilled for oil, etc. are nothing more than fabrications, inventions and frauds.  They are urban legends that gain credibility solely on the basis of sensationalism, for they lack any of the normal criteria of truth or evidence.  We might as well believe that aliens have landed, that Elvis is working at a Burger King in Bismarck , North Dakota , and that Hitler is alive and well and living in Argentina .

            I realize that hell can be very troubling.  I know that there are those who prey upon people’s fear, and spin all kinds of stories about hell and how people will go to hell if they don’t do—yada, yada, yada.  Some of the people who do so sincerely believe that they are doing God’s work.  However, biblically based, Christ-centered Christianity is not fear religion.  The fruit of God’s Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22 -23) is not fear.  Reject religion, superstition, appeals to fear and misrepresentations of God, and instead accept Jesus Christ, who is Lord and Savior, the Shepherd of your soul, who will never forsake you, and will love you with an everlasting and perfect love.

            In Christ,

            Greg Albrecht