Jesus Christ plainly taught that there was to be a literal hell and
that this hell would be a place of conscious suffering, suffering far
beyond that experienced by any one here in this present life, but we
are faced by another question of great importance, Is this future,
conscious suffering of the impenitent to be _endless_? There are many
who believe in future punishment of a very severe and awful character,
and who indeed believe in a literal hell of awful, conscious suffering,
but they deny, or at least doubt, that this future hell will be a place
of _endless_, conscious suffering. Many of them admit and teach that
the suffering may go on for a long time, and perhaps for thousands of
years, but they hold that it will end at last and that all men will
ultimately come to repentance, accept Jesus Christ, and be saved. What
is the exact truth about the matter? We cannot decide this by asking
what the majority of supposedly reliable theologians believe, for
majorities are often wrong and minorities are often right. Neither
can we decide it by reasoning as to what such a being as God is must
do. It is impossible for finite and foolish men such as we are, and
such as the wisest philosophers and theologians are, to judge what an
Infinitely wise and Infinitely holy God must do. All reasonings by
finite men as to what an Infinitely wise God must do are utterly futile
and an utter waste of time. _All we know about the future is what God
has been pleased to tell us in His Word._ The Bible, as we have seen,
is beyond a question the Word of God, and therefore what it has to say
on this subject, or any other subject, is true and absolutely sure, and
in a question of this character one ounce of God's revelation is worth
more than a thousand tons of man's speculation. The whole question then
is, what does the Bible teach in regard to this matter?