Everything You Need To Know About Hell

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This leads me to the final question: is the fire literal, or is it a metaphor? Scripture says, “Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell [gehenna/lake of fire].” (Mat 10:28) Fire is a physical element– which cannot burn a soul, but body only. Fire is but a shadow to the reality of the glory of God. What fire does to the body, God does to the soul. The usage of fire may be a metaphor, but the shadow is always lesser than the reality. The fires of hell being a metaphor is not a time for relief, but a time for worry. Because if people are actually in a metaphorical lake of fire, they’re going to wish it were literal.

The kingdom of God is within us (Luk 17:21). It comes not with observation, rather, it is a state of being. By contrast, the kingdom of darkness is within the enemies of God. Inner darkness leads to outer darkness, and hatred will always gnash his teeth at love.

“I also maintain that those who are punished in Gehenna are scourged by the scourge of love. For what is so bitter and vehement as the punishment of love? I mean that those who have become conscious that they have sinned against love suffer greater torment from this than from any fear of punishment. For the sorrow caused in the heart by sin against love is sharper than any torment that can be. It would be improper for a man to think that sinners in Gehenna are deprived of the love of God. Love is the offspring of knowledge of the truth which, as is commonly confessed, is given to all. The power of love works in two ways: it torments those who have played the fool, even as happens here when a friend suffers from a friend; but it becomes a source of joy for those who have observed its duties. Thus I say that this is the torment of Gehenna: bitter regret. But love inebriates the souls of the sons of Heaven by its delectability.”

- St. Isaac the Syrian