I had a guy reason with me recently that hell can only be a metaphysical concept since a person’s soul—which he didn’t believe existed anyway—couldn’t be physically found in a body.

The answer is our individual souls exist in a different dimension and are made from different material than the Carbon 14 stuff of our bodies.

“A soul, when it goes to hell, encounters gates and bars in a spiritual dimension with doors and locks because it’s a real, literal place,” confirms my pastor, Richard Jordan, in a study I have on tape. ” Matthew 16:18 talks about the ‘gates of hell.’ Preachers say, "Well, that means the ‘power of hell.’ If it does, why doesn’t it say the ‘powers of hell’? Why is it that Jesus Christ in Revelations 1 says, ‘I am he that hath the keys of death and hell’? You know what a key’s used to do? Open a gate. Jonah goes down into hell and he talks about the bars. You know what you have with a gate? Sure sounds real to me.”

As Jordan explains, there's a place over in Palestine in the earth that is currently clogged with dirt, but at the Second Advent will be opened up. Hell’s in the heart of the earth for now but one day it’s going to be moved.

“There's a place God already has prepared; it's down here at the bottom of the universe, where He's going to put darkness, and where it's going to be housed, and it's where it's going to be forever and ever,” says Jordan. “God says, ‘Job, you ever searched out the deep and found the place where darkness is going to live forever.’ He prepared that place in Gen. 1. He created the whole universe with the view of the destruction of the satanic policy of evil in the ‘last days.’ ”

People want to make arguments about the literary style of Bible passages on hell precisely so they can do away with the literal teaching of it. They want to believe mentions of hell simply mean the grave.

As we know, there’s no activity or memory in the grave. From Luke 16: 22-24, though, we see people in hell are fully conscious.

The passage reads, “And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;

“And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

“And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.”

“The guy in hell isn't just, ‘Poof, he's gone,’ ” says Jordan. “He's there, he's talking, he's active, he's got a mind about him, he's asking for help, he's suffering.”

From verses like Matt. 25:41 we also know the punishment in hell is everlasting. Everlasting means “there shall be no end,” as Luke 1:32 defines the term.

In a television interview last year, a Catholic priest was asked, “Do you know where you’re going to spend eternity?” He answered, “Well, I’ll either spend it in heaven or hell or purgatory.”

Of course, the Bible just has two places to go—heaven or hell. There’s no place in between and the Catholic teaching of purgatory is nothing but superstition from pagan mythology.

In Israel’s history, the Pharisees actually picked up this pagan doctrine of purgatory from the Babylonian captivity and then taught it as part of their traditions.

An intimation to purgatory belief can be found in Matt. 23:14, when Jesus Christ says, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.”

As Jordan explains, “They're praying for the dead and why would you pray for dead people? They’re praying to get them out of purgatory. Christ’s making the point that that's not what's going to happen. There's no purgatory; the separation is final. There's no hope of deliverance, or help, or relief.”

Amazingly, most preachers anymore don’t want to talk about hell or recognize the fact that Jesus Christ was the greatest "fire and brimstone" preacher who ever lived, preaching about it more than any other subject.

When TV mega-church pastor Joel Osteen, for example, appeared last year on Larry King Live, and King said, “But you're not fire and brimstone, right? You're not pound the decks and hell and damnation?” Osteen answered, “No. That's not me. It's never been me. I've always been an encourager at heart. And when I took over from my father, he came from the Southern Baptist background, and back 40, 50 years ago there was a lot more of that. But, you know, I just—I don't believe in that. I don't believe—maybe it was for a time. But I don't have it in my heart to condemn people. I'm there to encourage them. I see myself more as a coach, as a motivator to help them experience the life God has for us.”

Jordan says no one should get the idea when somebody goes to hell that they all of a sudden become repentant believers who are sorry for the things they did wrong.

“The indication is that in hell people's character only solidifies,” says Jordan. “The old saying is, ‘As death finds you, so eternity will hold you.’ Their character is such that there's no way they're going to be believers.

“So don't get idea that God is some mean ogre who sends people to hell and then they become believers, but He won't let them out because it's too late.

“That's the idea you're given about hell and the lake of fire. It's that, ‘Well, they won't repent now, but when they all die and go to hell, then they’ll all become believers and they’ll know God was right.’

“They don't want to get saved in hell any more than they want to get saved now. Their mind’s the same all the way through, and it's a mental attitude; it's a choice.”