i read my Bible it is real . just out of curiosity .what saith the posters ?
Hell (Gehenna) as just as real, eternal, and tangible as Heaven. Had there been no Hell, there would have been no need for Christ, the crucifixion, the resurrection, and the Gospel.
However, your reference to Luke 16 --
which is a divine revelation of the afterlife -- is a reference to Sheol/Hades, not Gehenna (the Lake of Fire). People who hate the doctrine of Hell call this a parable, but that is simply not true.
One of the reasons there is much confusion about Hell is because the word "hell" has been used for three different places: (1)
Gehenna (the actual Hell), (2)
Sheol/Hades (the abode of departed souls and spirit in the lower parts of the earth), and (3)
Tartarus [the subterranean prison of the evil angels which sinned before the Fall (by co-habiting with human women), and are now chained and awaiting their final judgment].
Before Christ spoke about Gehenna and Hades, the Old Testament spoke many times about
Sheol. However, once again it was mistranslated as "the grave" and thus the cults adopted the false doctrine of Soul Sleep.
When Christ presented the narrative of the Rich Man and Lazarus, He was speaking about
a real incident and its aftermath. Both died and their bodies were placed in their respective graves. But both went to Sheol/Hades, except to DIFFERENT COMPARTMENTS or regions in the heart of the earth. One region was reserved for the unrighteous dead, the other region -- called Abraham's Bosom -- was reserved for the righteous dead (the OT saints). There was a very wide gulf or chasm between these two regions, but the souls and spirits could communicate back and forth. The unrighteous dead were in torments of Hell, whereas the righteous were at peace. And there was no crossing over.
When Christ rose from the dead, He took all the OT saints from Sheol/Hades to Heaven to remain in the New Jerusalem and be perfected.
However, the unrighteous dead still go to Hades (which for all practical purposes is Hell) until the Great White Throne Judgment. At a future time there will be a resurrection unto damnation, those souls and spirits will receive imperishable bodies, and then they will be judged according to their works. Since their names will be absent from the Lamb's Book of Life, they will be cast into the Lake of Fire, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, where their worm dieth not, and the fire is never quenched.
Why would a loving God create a place of such intense torment?
Jesus said that Hell (Gehenna) was created for the devil and his angels. And that is why it is imperative that the Gospel be preached to every person. And God now commands all men everywhere to (a) repent and (b) believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. God wants no one in Hell, but when they reject Christ, they choose Hell.
God does not elect or predestine some for Heaven and the majority for Hell. That is a damnable doctrine. But as Christ said, there are relatively few who enter the narrow gate (Christ) and choose the narrow way (surrender to God and Christ). Many prefer the wide gate (man-made religions) and the broad way (the ways of the world).
The cults and theological liberals deny and reject the doctrine of Hell, and today many evangelicals and fundamentalists avoid preaching on Hell and its reality.
But Christ -- who is God -- is the one who created Hell, and also spoke about it in no uncertain terms, therefore we are to believe Him and not the liars who manufacture their own dogmas.
There is no second chance after death, there is no Purgatory, there is no transmigration of souls, there is no reincarnation. Those are all lies from the devil, who knows perfectly well that his eternal doom is sealed in the Lake of Fire (along with the Antichrist, the False Prophet, and all the evil angels) and would therefore love to drag all humanity to Hell.