REGARDING HELL
“Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.” – Dante Alighieri
“The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.” – Dante Alighieri
“Hope not ever to see Heaven. I have come to lead you to the other shore; into eternal darkness; into fire and into ice.”― Dante Alighieri, Inferno
“And I--my head oppressed by horror--said:
"Master, what is it that I hear? Who are those people so defeated by their pain?"
"And he to me: "This miserable way is taken by the sorry souls of those who lived without disgrace and without praise.
"They now commingle with the coward angels, the company of those who were not rebels nor faithful to their God, but stood apart.
"The heavens, that their beauty not be lessened, have cast them out, nor will deep Hell receive them--even the wicked cannot glory in them.”― Dante Alighieri, Inferno
Now we can imagine how the many images of hell and crime and violent death and murders and every kind of treason and faithless activity populate the minds of those who were terrified to go to hell. And so God does use all of this fear, including the red of Hell's fire and all of the many evil acts done by a man, one to another. God uses this to remind all of us that at some point there's going to be a judgment. And if one does not have Christ standing in front of him at the Judgment seat then every person in that position is lost to an eternity of torment. And so Sin becomes its own picture, and illustration, and terror to drive the lost towards God.
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.” – Matthew 13:44
“For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.” – Romans 14:17