Note 9 at 2 Th. 1:8: The church age is an age of grace (see note 8 at Rom. 3:24, p. 760). Jesus came preaching the good news (see note 22 at Eph. 1:13, p. 1098), not imputing men's sins unto them (see note 14 at 2 Cor. 5:19, p. 1006).

Therefore, judgment is not as prominent in the New Testament as it was in the Old Testament. But that doesn't mean that there is no impending judgment. The Christian will not suffer the wrath of God's judgment-Jesus bore that for us. But all the unbelievers will experience the fierceness of God's wrath.

Those unbelievers who are alive on the earth at Christ's second coming will suffer the plagues written in the book of Revelation and some will suffer physical death (Rev. 19:19-21). The unbelievers who have already died will be physically resurrected and then banished from the Lord for all eternity (v. 9). Although the Bible teaches that hell (present) and the lake of fire (future-Rev. 20:14) are places of torment (see note 7 at Lk. 16:28, p. 361), we can be assured that the greatest torment will be total separation from God and everything good which proceeds from Him (see note 10 at v. 9).

Many Christians who have spent their life meditating on the goodness of God find it hard to comprehend the wrath of God. It is emotionally unattractive. Yet God's eternal wrath on those who refuse His mercy is clearly taught in scripture.

God takes "no pleasure in the death of the wicked" (Ezek. 33:11). It is God's will that all men repent and receive His gift of eternal life (2 Pet. 3:9). Hell was made for the devil and his angels (Mt. 25:41), not people. Any person who ends up in hell does so of his own choice. That person will have had to climb over innumerable obstacles that God has placed in his way to turn him from hell. In a sense, the Lord will only be enforcing a person's own choice by condemning them to hell or the lake of fire. Heaven or hell is the result of our own choices made in this life.