“I can’t wait to go” … are you sure?

As I began wrestling with the arguments for the existence of God and the divine authority of the Bible, I was quickly confronted with a daunting truth: If God exists, then He sustains the universe, and every good thing we enjoy flows from His goodness. But that leads to a sobering question: What happens when that goodness is removed?

Whenever I try to talk about Christianity with those I love, the conversation almost always turns to hell. And more often than not, I hear my friends joke about it—as if Jesus’ descriptions of hell in the Bible aren’t as serious or terrifying as they sound. “I’ll see you in hell,” they’ll say casually, laughing as if it’s just some rebellious party where people can enjoy sin without “Christian judgment.”

Honestly, this perspective saddens me. Deeply. And at times, that sadness becomes a heavy burden. How can people I care about be so nonchalant about something so serious?

The more I think about it, though, the more I understand where this misrepresentation comes from. If you don’t see the good things in life as gifts from a good and loving God, then how can you grasp what their absence would be like? Love, joy, friendships, moral restraint, beauty, art—these are all good gifts that God, in His mercy, gives to everyone, believer or not. In Reformed theology, this is known as common grace: God’s kindness that touches all of humanity.

So the real question becomes: What would life look like if all of that—every good thing—was removed?

The Bible describes hell as complete separation from God, who is Goodness itself. That means no love. No beauty. No laughter. No friendship. No joy. Nothing good. So when my friends casually joke about “seeing each other in hell,” it reveals how little they understand of what hell actually is. Relationships are good. Parties are good. Even moral boundaries are good. And hell is the absence of all good.

To be clear, I’m not writing this to make a detailed apologetic case for the existence of heaven or hell. My aim is simpler: to question why so many people, even when they hear about hell, respond with such a shallow or skewed understanding.

When we fail to see God’s glory revealed in the goodness of creation—or when we suppress the truth of His nature—we lose the ability to grasp what hell truly entails. As Jesus states plainly:

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.’”
— Matthew 25:41

Hell was not made for us—it was prepared for the devil and his angels. But Scripture is clear: those who reject God’s goodness also face this eternal separation.

So when Christians talk to nonbelievers and urge them to consider the claims of the Bible, it’s not out of self-righteousness or superiority. It’s because we understand something profound and terrifying about what life apart from God truly means. We believe that God is perfect Goodness, and that all the goodness we experience is an extension of Him. That’s why the idea of hell—a life entirely stripped of that goodness—is so dreadful. It’s also why many unbelievers can’t properly imagine it. When your life is saturated with blessings, a world without them seems inconceivable.

But that’s exactly what hell is.

So I ask: What would life be like if every good thing in it was stripped away? Can you honestly say you’re ready for that kind of eternity?

“But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!”
— Luke 12:5

“If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out.”
— Mark 9:43