The Nature of Hell: God’s Presence, Judgment, and Restoration

This book argues that hell is not separation from God but the painful experience of God’s inescapable, holy love by those who resist him. It compares major views of hell and explores whether the final outcome is destruction or eventual restoration.

Table of Contents


Chapter 1The God I Almost Lost

Chapter 2The Problem of Hell

Chapter 3The Four Standard Options

Chapter 4God Is Love, The Foundation of Everything

Chapter 5The Western Distortion

Chapter 6The Justice of God

Chapter 7The Wrath of God

Chapter 8The Fire of God—Purifying Love

Chapter 9Eternal Conscious Torment—The Case in Its Strongest Form

Chapter 10The Fatal Problems with ECT

Chapter 11The Choice Model

Chapter 12Conditional Immortality

Chapter 13Universalism, The Hope, the Tension, and the Question

Chapter 14Introducing the Divine Presence Model

Chapter 15The River of Fire

Chapter 16The Philosophical Case—Manis

Chapter 17Razing Hell Baker

Chapter 18Self Deception, Sin and the Hardening of the Heart

Chapter 19Hell as Natural Consequence

Chapter 20Answering the Critics

Chapter 21Hades and Gehenna

Chapter 22The Fire Passages

Chapter 23The Judgment Passages

Chapter 24The Parables of Jesus and Hell

Chapter 25Paul and the Purifying Fire

Chapter 26Revelation, the Lake of Fire and the Second Death

Chapter 27The Conscious Intermediate State

Chapter 28The Postmortem Opportunity

Chapter 29The Last Judgment and the Final State

Chapter 30Conditional Immortality or Universal Reconciliation

Chapter 31Can Anyone Choose Hell Forever

Chapter 32The Consuming Love

Appendix AScripture Index

Appendix BAnnotated Bibliography

Appendix CGlossary

Appendix DChurch Fathers Quick Reference