Is God Present in Hell?

The answer depends on what we mean by “presence.” Scripture teaches that God is omnipresent. Quite simply, God is everywhere at all times. But, Scripture also teaches that God’s presence is experienced by His people differently than by those under His judgment.

So, is God present in hell?  Yes. But not in the same way He is present with His people.

God is Always Everywhere
Before we go any further, let’s look at the Scripture. Psalm 139 makes the omnipresence of God clear:
  
David's point is that there is nowhere he can go where God is not present. Even Sheol, the place of the dead, is not beyond the presence of God.
 
That truth matters when we think about Hell. Hell is not a place where God ceases to be present. It is not a place where God has been pushed out or where Satan has established an independent kingdom apart from God's authority. God remains sovereign over all things, including the place of final judgment.
 
In the New Testament Paul says of Christ, “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Col. 1:17). The author of Hebrews writes, “He upholds the universe by the word of His power” (Heb. 1:3). The point of both of these verses is that everything that exists continues to exist because God sustains it. That includes those who are under His judgment. Even in hell, those who are being judged continue to exist because God continues to sustain them.
 
But there is another sense in which Scripture speaks about God's presence, and this is where the distinction becomes important.
 
Away from the Presence of the Lord
In 2 Thessalonians 1:9 Paul describes the final judgment this way:
At first glance, this might seem to contradict Psalm 139. How can someone be “away from the presence of the Lord” if there is nowhere that God's presence is absent?
 
The answer is that Scripture uses the language of God's presence in more than one way. There is God's omnipresence. God is everywhere, and nothing exists outside His sovereign power.
 
But there is also God's relational presence—His gracious fellowship and favor toward His people. This is the presence David celebrates when he says, “In your presence there is fullness of joy” (Ps. 16:11). This is the presence God promises to His people when He says, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest” (Ex. 33:14). This is the presence Jesus promises us: “I will be with you always” (Matt. 28:20).
 
This is also the presence that God's people will enjoy perfectly in the new creation. John writes:
 The great blessing of heaven is not simply that there will be no more death, mourning, crying, or pain. The greatest blessing is that God Himself will dwell with His people.
We will enjoy His presence. We will know Him. We will see His face. We will live in perfect fellowship with Him. It is this fellowship and dwelling with God in His presence that is absent in Hell.
 
Because God is omnipresent, it is not wrong for John to write that all who belong to the beast “will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and the Lamb” (Rev. 14:10). But because those in Hell will not experience the fellowship, blessing, and favor of God's presence, Paul is not wrong in his letter to the Thessalonians.
 
God's Presence Is Known in Judgment
The picture painted by John in Revelation 14:9–10 is sobering. The Lamb is present. The wrath of God is present. His holiness is present. His justice is present. Hell is not a place where sinners finally escape God. It is a place where sinners experience the righteous judgment of God.
 
The God who holds all things together does not cease to sustain His creation in Hell. The God who sees all things does not stop seeing those who are there. The God who rules over all things does not surrender His authority over Hell.
 
Those who endure Hell will not enjoy the gracious and favorable presence of God. They will not know God as their reconciled Father. They will not experience His presence as the source of joy, peace, fellowship, and blessing. In that sense, they are “away from the presence of the Lord.” But God is present in Hell in His holiness, justice, wrath, sovereignty, and sustaining power.
 
God is present in Hell, but He is present as Judge rather than Redeemer.
 
The Presence We Should Fear Losing
This distinction is important for at least two reasons:
 

1. First, understanding how God is present with His people helps us to understand what makes heaven so glorious. We don’t just get all the trappings of a wonderful place. We actually get the God who created it and us. We get Him! 
2. Second, understanding the distinction of God’s presence in Hell helps to show how serious it is. The same holy, righteous, ever-present, all-knowing, almighty God who creates and sustains will be the God whose wrath is poured out and drunk down by every person there. 

Those who reject Christ will not escape God. They will instead experience His presence in unrelenting judgment while being excluded from His gracious fellowship. They will know His justice, but not His favor. They will experience His wrath, but not His mercy. They will remain under His authority, but they will not enjoy His fellowship.
 
For the Christian, God's presence is the fullness of joy. For those under judgment, God's presence is the reality of His righteous wrath.
 
The difference is not whether God is there. The difference is how His presence is experienced.