How Real Is Hell?: A Close Exploration of the Biblical Texts

How Real Is Hell? offers guidance for those in pastoral ministry as to what the Bible teaches concerning the eternal fate of the unrighteous. How can the hell-fire language of Jesus be reconciled with Paul’s teachings about death and destruction and passages that appear to offer universal hope? What did people understand at the time when Jesus talked about hell, weeping and gnashing of teeth, and worms that will never die? What does the story of the rich man and Lazarus teach us about future judgment? What possibilities are valid for interpreting Jesus’ phrase “eternal punishment”?
Through an examination of the biblical texts, How Real Is Hell? offers arguments for and against the three main positions on the eternal fate of the unrighteous: traditional, conditional, and universal. At a time when evangelicals remain divided on the issue, this book will provide helpful insights to enable ministers and others to further reflect on the issue.
The book arose following a pastoral conversation with a person who was deeply disturbed by her traditional understanding of hell as a place of everlasting conscious suffering. How Real Is Hell? aims to better equip those in pastoral ministry to offer help and support to such a person.

Steve Barber is a United Kingdom Baptist minister with over twenty-five years' experience of pastoral ministry. Currently he serves part-time as co-minister of a local church and part-time as regional minister with Southern Counties Baptist Association. He studied mathematics at Cambridge University and theology at Spurgeon's College and latterly gained an MTh in applied theology at Regents Park Baptist College at Oxford University.