IS HELL ALMOST FULL? WILL IT EVER RUN OUT OF ROOM?

by Shawn Brasseaux

The Lord Jesus Christ revealed some staggering truths in Matthew 7:13-14: “[13] Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: [14] Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” Understandably, people dislike the Bible here. They want to believe that everyone is God’s child, and that everyone will go to Heaven eventually (an incorrect idea known as “universalism”). Therefore, they dismiss the ideas of Hell, divine wrath, God’s judgment against sin, justice in the afterlife, as fiction. However, if we are to be Bible believers, we must face the truth of the Bible and believe the truth of the Bible. Jesus Christ said more about Hell than He did about Heaven. Hell is indeed the real, eternal fate of all who die without faith in Christ’s finished crosswork as sufficient payment for their sins.

We can search the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, cover to cover, and find the majority always going against God. At any and every point in human history, we find just a very small fraction of believers when compared to the global, national, or municipal human population. Remember, for example, the eight believers on the Ark during the Great Flood of Noah’s day (Genesis 7:7; 2 Peter 2:5). Where were the millions—if not billions—of other people on the globe? Why, they perished in God’s wrath, being drowned in the floodwaters! There were less than 10 believers in the whole city of Sodom (Genesis 18:32; Genesis 19:24-25)! Consider the 7,000 believers in the whole nation Israel in Elijah’s day (1 Kings 19:18)! Think of the approximately 120 believers in Jerusalem after Christ’s three-year earthly ministry (Acts 1:20)! We could go on and on and on, but we trust the point has been made with these Scriptures.

So, the Holy Bible causes us to conclude that Hell is real place. The Holy Bible also shows us that many people have gone there in history, many are going there today, and many will go there in the future. When we think about the Lord Jesus’ words in Matthew chapter 7, and the above sample verses, that leads us to only one conclusion. There are billions of people in Hell today—and billions more will eventually arrive there! Of course, the questions naturally follow. Has Hell almost reached its capacity? Will Hell ever run out of room?

Hell is a spiritual place; we cannot see it with physical eyes or touch it with physical hands. As we know, the dimension in which it is situated is not the same as the dimension in which we exist. Whatever laws are appropriate here are not necessarily applicable there: we cannot take the laws of physics and nature that are true here in this dimension and make them fit another dimension. We do not know enough about the spiritual world. Personally, I have never been there, and neither have you, and all we have is the Bible’s testimony that Heaven is real and Hell is real. While there are various things in the spiritual world that we would recognize—fire, chariots, weapons, trees, water, animals, light, darkness, musical instruments, governmental organization (crowns, thrones), bread, et cetera—other elements we would not know or understand. There is no limit of time, for example. (When you think about it, endless time is the most unsettling aspect of Hell.)

When we wonder if Hell is going to run out of room, we are thinking of it from our physical point-of-view. We think of a physical building being able to hold only so many flesh-and-blood bodies before it reaches capacity. However, Hell is not like that (for the Bible is true that Hell can hold all of God’s enemies). We do not know the size of a human soul other than it is smaller than the physical body that houses it. A human soul could be the size of a human hand… or the size of the period at the end of this sentence. Whatever size the human soul is, Hell is large enough to contain all those billions that have died before us, and it is large enough to handle billions more. Has Hell almost reached its capacity? (No. More are still destined there if they die without Christ!) Will Hell ever run out of room? (No. It will always have vacancies!)

That is why it is important, dear friend, to not go another day without knowing the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour. Do not delay. We are all sinners by birth, and have fallen short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23). However, the Lord Jesus Christ came to die for our sins, to shed His blood to pay for our sins, that we be made righteous of God in Christ. “Christ died for our sins, He was buried, and He rose again the third day” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).

Romans 3:24–4:8: “[3:24] Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: [3:25] Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; [3:26] To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. [3:27] Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. [3:28] Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. [3:29] Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also: [3:30] Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith. [3:31] Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.

“[4:1] What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? [4:2] For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. [4:3] For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. [4:4] Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. [4:5] But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. [4:6] Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, [4:7] Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. [4:8] Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.”

Also see:
» How can a loving God send people to Hell forever?
» Why is Hell forever if life on Earth is but decades?
» If dispensational Bible study is true, how come so few believe it?