There’s an old commercial making fresh rounds on TV these days. It features Ron Reagan, son of the late president, Ronald Reagan. In the commercial, first aired in 2014, Reagan urges everyone to join with him in the promotion of an organization known as Freedom from Religion. Not freedom “of” religion, but freedom “from” it. He happily embraces atheism as his chosen perspective on the existence of God. But most amazing of all is that at the close Reagan boldly declares, “I’m not afraid of burning in hell.”

Then this week, I saw something tweeted by master tweeter and owner of Twitter, Elon Musk. I didn’t see it because I’m on Twitter. I’m not. It was an article at the Christian Post. Musk tweeted this comment in response to something someone else had said:

“Thank you for the blessing, but I’m ok with going to hell, if that is indeed my destination, since the vast majority of all humans ever born will be there.”

There are numerous things that are fair game for jokes and jesting. Hell isn’t one of them. What does the Bible say awaits those who persist in their rejection of Jesus Christ and the gospel of his saving grace?

Jesus himself warns about the reality of “eternal punishment” (Matt. 25:46), a place of “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 13:42). To remain in unbelief and idolatry, said Jesus, is to live under the “wrath of God” (John 3:36). Such people “are storing up wrath” for themselves “on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed” (Rom. 2:5). For those who presume upon God’s kindness and forbearance “there will be wrath and fury”, “tribulation and distress” (Rom. 2:8-9).

Paul describes the lifestyle of those who remain in unbelief and declares that “because of these things the wrath of God” will come (Eph. 5:6; see also Col. 3:6). God will “repay with affliction” those who oppose the gospel, “inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus” (2 Thess. 1:6-8). These “will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord” (2 Thess. 1:9).

These are but a handful of the many dire warnings addressed to the unbelieving world. Perhaps the most graphic and unmistakable portrayal of the reality of hell is Revelation 14:9-11. There we read:

“If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name” (Rev. 14:9-11).

I do not cite these texts to be mean or dismissive. All the biblical warnings of hell and our appeals to those who persist in unbelief are motivated by love. Clearly, Reagan and Musk and so many others like them have embraced ludicrous and unbiblical notions of what hell is like. My prayer is that someone, at some point, will alert them to the biblical truth of the eternal consequences of persistent unbelief and the glorious destiny of those who submit to the Lordship of Jesus.

In conclusion, may we never speak of hell without the painful realization that it is real and people are going there. May we never speak of hell without the overwhelming joy and gratitude to God for his grace in assuring us that those who trust in Christ Jesus will never taste its bitter torment.