If Hell does not exist would God have sent Jesus to die? There have been several comments on this site which tend to deny the existence of Hell.

But Jesus tells me that the lake of fire is the place of Eternal punishment that God created for Satan and the rebellious Angels, and that the unsaved will also be cast into it.

Matthew 25:41  KJV


  Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: 


Revelation 20:12 through 15


  12  And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
  
  13  And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. 
  
  14  And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 
  
  15  And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.


And Jesus himself spoke of Hell 15 times in the Gospels and one time in the Revelation.

But by far there is one question that haunts me the most, and that is that if there was not the most horrendous of all punishments awaiting the unsaved, why would God send Jesus to be tortured and die on the Cross?

You say it is because of his great love for us, but that doesn't pass the smell test; in that if he loves us that much why would he love his own son less.

To take him from Heaven and make him go through what he went through on Earth has to be a lot worse than us just dieing.

Even beyond that unless he was saving mankind from a fate worse than his torture and death on the cross, why would Jesus voluntarily go through it?
It depends on how you interpret the word "perish" in John 3:16.


  For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that
  whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
  (John 3:16, NIV)


Physical death: To say that the word 'perish' here means physical death would mean that the moment we believe in Jesus Christ, we will become immortal and we will never die; which is obviously false. One might also interpret this as the resurrection at the last day, which would mean that non-believers will never be raised again, they will remain in the dust forever, which is again in contradiction to Revelation 20:5, which has resurrection of the unjust after the Millennium.

"Hell/Lake of fire/ Second death:" We will go to Hell after we die if we do not accept the salvation offered by Jesus Christ. Revelation 20(NIV) has something to say about this.


  [4-6] I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given
  authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded
  because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God.
  They had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received
  its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and
  reigned with Christ a thousand years. (The rest of the dead did not
  come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first
  resurrection. Blessed and holy are those who share in the first
  resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will
  be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand
  years.
  
  [11-15] Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it.
  The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no
  place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before
  the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is
  the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done
  as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it,
  and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each
  person was judged according to what they had done. Then death and
  Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the
  second death. Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of
  life was thrown into the lake of fire.


I was born and brought up in the Assembly of God Church. Most of the preachers always interpret John 3:16 as, 


  Those who believe in Jesus will not go to Hell. After the fall of Adam and Eve, everyone is destined to go to Hell because we no
  longer belonged to God and we are now children of Satan. When God saw
  that all men are going to Hell, He could no longer stay where He was. God then came down from Heaven to earth, to pay the death penalty of sins for
  us, so that we may escape the fire of Hell by accepting Jesus Christ as our savior.


No wonder why the Apostles' Creed states  "Jesus descended into hell".