This is a question that is playing off of yesterday’s question of what .Hell is. If you’ll remember I mentioned that God is present in Hell but we are separated relationally. This article is to try to better explain what was originally a sort of off the cuff statement. Well, what do I mean by being separated relationally? Imagine kind of like watching football. You are aware of what the people are doing but you cannot have a relationship with the football players. Let’s look at this from a biblical perspective though.
The bible seems to suggest both sides. “In a flame of fire, giving vengeance to them who know not God, and who obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Who shall suffer eternal punishment in destruction, from the face of the Lord, and from the glory of his power:” (2 Thessalonians 8-9). For legal reasons I use the Douay Rheims bible in these articles. However, I implore you to please read a more modern translation of this verse as they are a bit clearer in the intent. That being said, this verse suggests that God is not present in Hell.
Then in Revelations we read “He also shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mingled with pure wine in the cup of his wrath, and shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the sight of the holy angels, and in the sight of the Lamb.” (Revelations 14:10). So it would appear that Thessalonians and Revelations contradict each other.
However, that is only if we were to say that God is present in all senses. I propose, although I am not able to locate an official teaching of the church, that God is present in Hell in the sense that he sees and is aware of what is happening in it. He is not present in the sense that we could speak with him and even so much as be acquaintances. I refer you back to the metaphor used at the beginning of the article.
This all leads us back to (and I discussed this in my last article) the purpose of Hell. That is to make it possible for God to bestow perfect love. We don’t want to live our life for God and he respects that. So he has created this place called Hell in which we spend our afterlife separate from him and thus from all that is good. This doesn’t mean Hell is not in the presence of God or that God is not present in Hell. Rather, he has separated himself relationally because that is what we have chosen. Yet he maintains a presence in the sense that he is aware of what happens in Hell.
It is a complete severing of the possibility of fellowship with him. Going back again to my metaphor you are aware of the actions a team performs during the Super Bowl. You cannot, however, have a fellowship with them. You have effectively distanced yourself even though you are present through watching the television broadcast.