I grew up being taught that hell was separation from God; a place of eternal torment for those apart from God.  But as I have begun to step out from those things that I simply assumed to be true because they have been taught to me from my youth and pursued biblical truth I have formed some different views of hell. Mainly that hell is not and cannot be separation from God. God is omnipresent.  There is NOWHERE where God is not. Heaven, hell, the wings of the morning or the depths of the sea, God is there.

Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.” Heb. 4:13

Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!  If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. Psalm 139:7-10

If this is true then how does one justify the “sheep and the goats” passage of Matthew 25? I have been pondering this and think that I have come up with something. One cannot deny that God says, “depart from me”. This much is, indeed, true. But how can one depart from God if He is with us, even in “sheol”? I think the answer for this lies in a common theme throughout scripture.

From the moment of the fall, God has offered a chance to gain back, in part, one of the things we lost in the garden: communion and fellowship. One of the important ways God did this was through the tabernacle. In the wilderness the Israelites had a way to fellowship God though only in part. As a consequence of the fall only a certain person could have this fellowship as a representative of the nation.  Another consequence was that this fellowship was tainted with fear. Through our head we had destroyed peaceful fellowship with God and now required atonement and right worship to come before YAWEH.  So each year the priest went before God within the tabernacle  to offer a sacrifice in order to keep God , whose very presence was represented by the tabernacle itself, appeased.

Enter Jesus. “But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.” (Hebrews 9:11-15) Christ a picture of God’s fellowship with his creation came as high priest, among that very creation in order to offer himself as the spotless lamb. As the veil in the temple was torn so was the need for the temple itself.  The tabernacle was and is now in our hearts as believers.

So, what does this all have to do with hell and the sheep and the goats? Well it is my belief that God’s command to “depart” as well as the final judgment in general is a removal of the gift of this tabernacle. As God had invited us in to fellowship with him he is now saying that the time   to return and abide will be over. God’s offer of fellowship will be complete. We were invited in and now  those who never repented will be cast out. “These are those who came out of the great tribulation. They washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore they are before the throne of God, they serve him day and night in his temple. He who sits on the throne will spread his tabernacle over them. They will never be hungry, neither thirsty any more; neither will the sun beat on them, nor any heat; for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne shepherds them, and leads them to springs of waters of life. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” Revelation 7:14-17 (emphasis mine).

God is the chief good. God is the fountain of all goodness, from which all goodness flows to the creatures and by which it is continued in them, and to them. Whatever goodness or perfection, natural as well as moral, is in any creature– it is from God, and depends upon Him, as the light is from, and depends on, the sun. For every created being, as such, is a dependent one. Through common grace he has extended many benefits to those who reject him. At this moment of departure, however, common grace will be erased. It is this common grace that I believe the goats are told to depart from.

To a man that rejects God, being separated from him is what he wants. Therefore, separation from God will not be a punishment for him. Rather than being fully separated from God the reprobate will be separated from God’s goodness; separated from all those benefits God so graciously offered. In return God will place on the sinner the entire weight of his wrath. God’s wrath is often described as a winepress. And so it shall be for the sinner that he will for all eternity be wrung through the winepress of God’s wrath with no hope for mercy.  Through it all God will remain just. And this is the final nail in the coffin. Each sinner will have no excuse, no word to utter that might cause this punishment to be seen as unjust.

In the end, God’s presence will be the worst punishment for those that rejected him. But for those to whom he gave the gift of life his presence will be the opposite…

And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life. Revelation 21:22-27