Hell is our own suffering on this planet. If you read through the bible and allow yourself to see some things as symbolic representations you will find it describes hell as life on earth for the vast majority of people. While there are moments and times of joy, even the realization of that joy seems to bring about suffering when it is lost or withheld. We trap ourselves in a cycle of suffering and can't seem to get out. The suffering is seen as infinite and we don't see a way out. We have completely enveloped and convinced ourselves of our role - which at this point is suffering (we can escape this, which is what many of these articles aim to do for us).

Even the fire and lake of fire symbolism is descriptive of our refinement here on earth. It is symbolic of our separation from God, by our choosing. We are never separate from God, but we have chosen to believe that we are. Enter suffering. In this way we enter Dante's Inferno (a book written long ago). While that book provides very concise visual images of suffering, they are exactly equivalent to how we live on earth. We plunge ourselves into a lake of fire, a lake of suffering right here on earth. Even if we believe in God, our action and thoughts don't align with this belief and so we see people of all faiths, all religions continuing to suffer in the lake of fire here on earth. We feel feeble and not a true part of God, we feel bad, and so we put ourselves into a suffering state and put some distance from God because we feel unworthy of God and feel unworthy and insecure of who we are.

Therefore hell does not exist as a physical place (like a lake of fire) from anything that I have been able to discern. Rather hell is a word to describe what we put ourselves through each day. It is not the devil that creates bad things in our life, it is us. It is our personal thoughts which are predominantly negative, pessimistic, selfish and unloving. These thoughts begin to dictate action and we see negative manifestations of this acted out in the world around us, and we even do it to ourselves. This coupled with the obstacles we have chosen to face in our lifetime can create hell on earth for us. It is our purpose and God's purpose for us to move out of hell. We can do this by expressing love for our self, others and the planet in the same way we believe God loves us - unconditionally.