05/16/2026
The Bible clearly teaches that God is omni-present (present everywhere). But does this mean that God is also present in Hell?
In one sense, the Bible speaks of God’s presence as spatial proximity, as in Psalm 139:7 where David rhetorically asks God: “Where can I flee from your presence?” The implied answer is “nowhere”.
But the Bible also speaks of God’s presence as direct, personal audience with God. This is the personal experience of God’s glory, which is his infinite worth, beauty, and love. The word most often used to convey this sense of presence is translated as “face”. This is what David means in Psalm 27:2 when he says: “My heart says of you, ‘Seek his face!’ Your face, Lord, I will seek.”
Since God is spirit, he does not physically occupy space. However, God as spirit is present in every space, for as Paul says: “in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17).
In holding all things together, God’s power and awareness, in terms of proximity, are present everywhere. And that necessarily includes Hell.
But tragically, in sin humanity has rejected the infinite worth, beauty, and glory of God’s personal (“face”) presence.
As Paul says, “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him” (Romans 1:21).
In this sense, Hell is the logical and just outcome for sin because, in Hell, all knowledge, awareness, and experience of God’s “face” is completely and utterly absent.
But there is good news for you!
God, in his love and grace, has opened the way to forgive your sin and to welcome you openly and freely, without reservation or limit, into the glory of his “face” (presence).
And this is through the gift of salvation in Jesus.
