The Concept of Hell


 Chapter 30

   Is our concept of hell a place where people are burning, and consciously tormented in blazing flames of fire for all eternity based on scripture or tradition? Is there a conscious torment for humans in the scorching fire for millions, billions, and trillions of quadrillions of centuries upon centuries, and then be told this is just the beginning? The idea of hell, do we have it all wrong? Let us go over some scriptural facts.


 “Sheol” equals “Grave”

   Sometimes “Sheol” is translated into the English as “Hell,” and the popular perception is to think of a place where the wicked live in fiery torment as soon as they die. However, in the Hebrew Testament (Old Testament), the word “Sheol” means “death” or “grave” (gravedom or place or abode of the dead).

   There are sixty-five passages where the word “Sheol” appears. If we insert “gravedom” for “Sheol,” there would be more consistency and less confusion.

   Nowhere in the Hebrew scriptures did any prophet ever think or imply that Sheol was a place of endless fiery conscious torment for the wicked.

   In Sheol, there is no love, hate, envy, work, thought, knowledge and wisdom (Ecc. 9:6; 9:10). There is no light (Job 10:21-22; 17:13; Ps. 88:6,12;143:3 ). There is no remembrance (Ps. 6:5; 88:12; Eccl 9:5). There is no praise of God (Ps. 6:5; 30:9; 88:10 12; 15:17; Isa 38:18 ), and where there is no sound (Ps.94:17; 115:17 ). There is no activity at all. All are dead and buried.

   With all the variant translations of the word “Sheol,” it is no wonder the average reader finds it difficult to grasp the basic meaning of the word. For instance, the King James translators render Sheol twenty-seven times as “Hell,” thirty-five times as the “grave,” and three times as the “pit” (a hole in the ground).

   If Sheol were to signify a lake burning with fire and brimstone where the wicked are supposedly writhing in endless conscious misery, then why is Sheol rendered as “grave” and “pit” in more than half the passages? The answer is because, in the Hebrew Testament, Sheol meant “gravedom.” Whether righteous or wicked, it is the resting place of all the dead, not a place of torment for the wicked.

   Having said all that, we must also remember that there is also a figurative sense of the word Sheol. It represents “a state of degradation or calamity, arising from any cause, whether misfortune, sin, or the judgment of God.” As theologian Thomas B. Thayer has well stated:

This is an easy and natural transition. The state or the place of the dead was regarded as solemn and gloomy, and thence the word sheol, the name of this place, came to be applied to any gloomy, or miserable state or condition. The following passages are examples:

The sorrows of hell compassed me about; the snares of death prevented me. (Ps. 18:4-6) This was a past event, and therefore the hell must have been this side of death.

Solomon, speaking of a child, says, “Thou shalt beat him, and deliver his soul from hell,” that is, from the ruin and woe of disobedience. (Prov. 23:14)

The LORD says to Israel, in reference to their idolatries, “Thou didst debase thyself even unto hell.” (Isa. 57:9) This, of course, signifies a state of utter moral degradation and wickedness, since the Jewish nation as such certainly never went down into hell of ceaseless woe.

The pains of hell got a hold on me: I found trouble and sorrow.” (Ps. 116:3) Yet David was a living man, all this while, here on the earth. So he exclaims again, “Great is Thy mercy towards me. Thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell.” (Ps. 86:13) Now here the Psalmist was in the lowest hell, and was delivered from it, while he was yet in the body, BEFORE death. Of course the hell here cannot be a place of endless punishment AFTER death.

These passages sufficiently illustrate the figurative usage of the word sheol, “hell.” They show plainly that it was employed by the Jews as a symbol or figure of extreme degradation or suffering, without a reference to the cause. It is plain, then, by these citations, that the word sheol, “hell,” makes nothing for the doctrine of future unending punishment as a part of the Law penalties. It is never used by Moses or the Prophets in the sense of a place of torment after death; and in no way conflicts with the statement already proved, that the Law of Moses deals wholly in temporal rewards and punishments.65

 Hell In The New Testament

   There are three Greek words in the New Testament translated as “hell.”

  1. Hades: This word occurs 11 times and equals grave. It is rendered 10 times as "hell,” and once as “grave” (1 Cor. 15:55). Like sheol, “hades” means the grave or gravedom.

   We can compare the Hebrew scriptures with the New Testament to confirm this. For instance, Ps. 16:10 states:

For you will not leave my soul in sheol, nor will you allow your holy one to see corruption.

   Peter quotes this Psalms in reference to Christ after his resurrection in Acts 2:27. We see that the Greek word “hades” (or hell) is substituted for the Hebrew word “sheol.” He states:

For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption.

   Some translations have “hell” instead of hades. And because of the twisted view of the word hell as a place of unending torment, they have Jesus going to Hell to be tormented so he could take the punishment in our place so we do not have to experience eternal torment in flames of fire. This is based on the assumption of an immortal soul, which the scriptures do not teach.

   When Jesus died there was no activity during his time in the grave. He was dead and he was buried. As author Anthony Buzzard has well stated:

The traditional notion of a separate conscious soul/spirit surviving death has nowhere wreaked more havoc on the Scriptural account than in the matter of the death of Jesus. It is not unusual to encounter analyses of the Lord’s death in which it is proposed that his body went to the grave, his spirit to heaven, and his soul to hades. At this point, one is bound to ask, “Where was Jesus?” The question, however, would not have occurred to the Hebrew writers of the New Testament, for they did not approach the subject with the Greek presuppositions about the nature of man which have become so deeply ingrained in our theology. The Biblical fact is that Jesus died. He, Jesus, was in hades, the grave; we have already seen that “his soul” is the Hebraism for “himself.” In Acts 2:27, Peter gives proof of the resurrection of Jesus by saying that “his soul was not left in hades, nor will you allow your Holy One to see corruption.” The ordinary Hebrew parallelism confirms the equation of “his soul” with “Holy One.” The message is simply that Jesus was not left dead in the grave, as Peter goes on to explain. David, in the Psalms, foreseeing the resurrection of the Messiah, stated that his soul (he himself) was not abandoned to hades, the world of the dead, but was resurrected to life. This account of the death and resurrection of the indivisible personality of Jesus of Nazareth will help to clarify the reference in 1 Peter 3:19 to his having gone to preach to the spirits in prison. This preaching is said to have been accomplished by Christ when he was “made alive in the Spirit.” This is clearly language descriptive of the resurrection state (John 5:21): “The Father raises the dead and makes them alive” Rom. 8:11: “He who raised up the Christ will make your mortal bodies alive”; 1 Corinthians 15:22: “In Christ shall all be made alive”— resurrected). Thus it was that when newly resurrected from the dead, he announced this triumph to the spirits—here being most easily understood as the fallen angels of 2 Peter 2:4.8 The term “soul” used of the eight souls saved in the flood (1 Pet. 3:20) is a typical use of “soul” to designate, by contrast with “spirit,” a human person. The confusion of these terms is due, we suggest, to the introduction of the foreign idea of man as surviving death as a disembodied spirit. This concept, so repugnant to the Hebrew mind, as Alan Richardson says, must be banished before we can approach the Scriptures in sympathy with the Biblical anthropology.66

  1. The second Greek word translated as Hell is “Tartaroo.” It means a place of gloomy darkness.

   It is used only once (2 Peter 2:4). This has nothing to do with human beings. Peter says that God imprisoned the angels that sinned and that they were delivered to “into the chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment” (1 Peter 3:19,20; 2 Peter 2:4). And Jude 1:6-7 tells us that this imprisonment lasts until the judgment of the great day. It has nothing to do with a place of endless punishment.

  1. Finally, we have the word “Gehenna” that is translated as hell.

   Contrary to all the incredible legends given over the centuries, it does not speak of a place of conscious eternal torment of the wicked. Gehenna is derived from the “Valley of Hinnom” and is located in the land of Israel. In Jeremiah’s day, the Valley of Hinnom was associated with the worship of Moloch. Moloch worship integrated human sacrifice. Under Ahaz (2 Chron. 28:3) and Manasseh (2 Chron. 33:6), children were sacrificed by fire on the altars inside the Valley of Hinnom. (Jer. 32:35)

   At the time of Jesus’ life here on earth, the valley was used for burning the dead bodies of criminals, animals, and for burning trash. When Jesus talked about Gehenna to his audience, they understood what he was saying. It was a “place of burning,” which is what Gehenna means.

   Gehenna appears in the New Testament twelve times67 and not once does it refer to a never-ending conscious blazing fiery torment of the wicked.


 Gnashing of Teeth?

   “Weeping and gnashing of teeth” has nothing to do with fire or being tormented in fire forever. Gnashing of teeth has to do with intense anger. Look at the following passages for the biblical expression.

His anger has torn and tormented me; He gnashes at me with his teeth; my enemy looks at me with daggers in his eyes. (Job 16:9)

The wicked plots against the righteous and gnashes at him with his teeth. (Psalm 37:12)

All your enemies opened their mouth wide against you; they hissed and gnashed their teeth. (Lam. 2:16)

When they heard these things, they became enraged and began gnashing their teeth at him. (Acts 7:54)

There will be weeping and the gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out. (Luke 13:28)

   Psalms 112:10 sums up what will happen to the wicked in the end:

The wicked man sees it and is angry; he gnashes his teeth and melts away; the desire of the wicked will perish!

   According to Luke (13:28), it appears that there will be people who will weep out of sadness or regret that they lost the chance for a life of immortality and will soon be put to eternal death. On the other hand, it sounds like there will be a group of people who will have such intense anger that they will be gnashing their teeth at God before being destroyed as well. It has nothing to do with the traditional view of tormented in flames forever.


 The Worm That Does Not Die?

   We know that worms are not immortal. So we can put that to rest immediately. Isa. 66:24 states:

And they shall go out and look on the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against me. For their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.

   And in Mark 9:47-48 we read:

And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell (Gehenna), where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.

   Jesus refers to Isaiah 66:24 and using Gehenna (translated as hell) as a picture of what will happen to the wicked in the future. Remember that Gehenna in Jesus’ time was the burning garbage dump outside the city of Jerusalem where they placed dead bodies of criminals, animals, and trash. Jesus uses “their worm that dies not” as a picture of Gehenna. The “worm” and “fire” are not consuming supposedly disembodied spirits but upon dead bodies. The worm and the fire are agencies working until all is totally consumed and destroyed


 The Unquenchable Fire?

   Unquenchable fire means an overpowering fire that cannot be quenched. It simply means that when it comes to God’s judgment, that the process of destruction is unstoppable.

   Some would say that it is a fire that never stops burning but goes on for all eternity. However, scripture shows this is not the case. In Jer. 17:27 we read that when judgment came upon Israel that the gates and palaces of Jerusalem will burn and that the fire will “not be quenched.” But we know that fire is not burning today. Another example is found in Ezekiel 20:47 where it says that every green tree will burn and that the fire will “not be quenched.” However, the fire has ceased.

   When Jesus talks about the judgment of the wicked in the end with unquenchable fire, it simply means that there is nothing that can stop or interfere to prevent the carrying out of God’s wrath upon the wicked until its completion of total destruction. Jesus never speaks about eternally burning, eternally punishing, and eternally destroying. It is not an ongoing process that never ends.


 Everlasting Fire and Eternal Fire?

   When the bible talks about eternal judgment, eternal punishment, eternal damnation, or eternal destruction, it is the result, not the process. Again, we can compare scripture by going to Jude 1:7. Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by “eternal fire.” But these cities are not burning in our time. The question then, how can it be eternal? It is because the result the fire produced is eternal. These cities no longer exist, nor will they ever.

   The bible talks about “eternal redemption.” However, we know it does not mean that the process of redeeming is an ongoing process but rather its result. It is the same with the wicked. The eternal judgment of the wicked refers to the result of their judgment being eternal. It is the literal destruction of the wicked. The ultimate penalty for sin is death. It is the eternal loss of immortality in God’s kingdom. It is not a “punishing” that is eternal, but rather the “punishment” that is eternal.

 But What About Rev. 20:10?

And the devil who deceived them was cast into the Lake of Fire and Brimstone, where the beast and the false prophets were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

   In my reading and understanding of the scriptures, there will come a point when the devil will also be consumed and destroyed in the end. We read this in the book of Ezekiel 28:14-19. Though the King of Tyre is addressed (v. 11), God is ultimately talking to Satan who was an anointed Cherub (vs. 14-15-not an angel). God tells the Devil:

therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee. All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more. (vs. 18,19)

   I have to wonder. If Satan is a spirit being, how can a spirit being be destroyed by fire? How can he die? I do not know. However, what scripture does tell me is that Satan will be destroyed and be no more. Hebrews 2:14 states:

Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;

   The passage says the devil will be destroyed. It shows the same will happen with the rebellious angels. There may be some who believe that angels are immortal and cannot die taken from Luke 20:36 because those in the resurrection are equal unto the angels. However, we cannot let pre-determined belief get in our way. The passage in Luke has to do with the angels of God in heaven, those who do not rebel against God. We understand this from the parallel passage in Matthew 22:30. The angels in heaven are certainly not rebellious angels. As long as they are not rebellious, they will not die. However, God can terminate the life of the rebellious angels, and even the “anointed Cherub,” who rebelled, known as Satan.

   In a parable, Jesus said about the fate of the wicked:

Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. (Matt. 25:31)

   Apparently, something can happen to the devil and his angels in the fire. Also, the word “eternal” in the Greek is “aeonian” and means “age-lasting,” which is the same word Jude 1:6 uses concerning Sodom and Gomorrah, where Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by eternal fire, but we know that fire is not burning to this day.

   So the clear prophecy of the coming fate of Satan the devil is that he will be consumed by fire, turned into ashes, and be no more.

Question: What about the word “forever” as found in Rev. 20:10?

Answer:   The word “forever” does not always mean endless or eternal duration. Again, we can take an example from scripture. In Deut. 15:17 and Exodus 21:6, certain people were to be servants forever. We know this does not mean they are still servants and will be for all eternity. These servants are dead now. The word “forever” translated from the Greek is “aion.” It does not always mean forever as we understand it in our English language. The word “aion” is where we derive the word “eon.” An eon is an unspecified, indefinite period of time, which eventually has an end.

   People who believe that a person burns and is tormented without end in sight will bring up Rev. 14:11:

The smoke from their torture goes up forever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.

   The passage does not prove eternal torment with no end in sight. In Isa. 34: 9-10, while Edom was burning day and night, it also says that the smoke of the city would ascend up forever and ever. But to this day Edom is not burning day and night and the rising smoke has ceased. Since Edom does not exist any longer, the language simply tells us the burning of Edom was permanently destroyed.

   The bible is clear that the wicked are cast into the fire and the fire will consume the wicked until the fire has completely done its job and nothing is left but ashes. Malachi 4:3 states:

You shall trample the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day that I do this, says the Lord of hosts.

   When the Pharisees approached John the baptist, he warned them that if they did not repent:

Even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. (Matt. 3:10)

   In verse 12 we read:

His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.

   Jesus relates the wicked people as tares or weeds. The weeds are gathered and burned:

Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.

   In Psalms 37:20 we read:

But the wicked will perish; the enemies of the LORD are like the glory of the pastures; they vanish—like smoke they vanish away.

   The wicked are cast into the fire. The process of their destruction will ultimately come to an end, leading to their eternal or everlasting annihilation, which is what is signified by the use of the figure of smoke arising “forever and ever.” This interpretation of Rev. 14:9-11 is consistent with the rest of scripture language that gives us a picture concerning the final and ultimate end of the wicked.

   Unfortunately, the lake of fire is where the concept of an eternally burning hell comes from, dismissing the fact that the lake of fire is described as the “second death” as seen in Rev. 20:14; it is a death from which no one will ever be resurrected again. It is obliteration, destruction, annihilation, or extermination for all eternity. The “lake of fire” stands for annihilation because Rev. 20:14 states that the lake of fire is the “second death.” When humans die, that is the first death and it is temporary. All who are in the grave, whether they be righteous or wicked, wait for the resurrection and will be judged. Jesus said:

Don't be surprised! The time will come when all of the dead will hear the voice of the Son of Man, and they will come out of their graves. Everyone who has done good things will rise to life, but everyone who has done evil things will rise and be condemned. (John 5:28-29)

   There is coming a day when the wicked will face the “second death,” not the “second life” where they burn for billions of years, but never burning up, as commonly taught today.

   Scripturally, the words “forever” or “everlasting” simply means the entire length of duration of something. If we are talking about something that is immortal then “forever” would mean eternity, but we are mortal or temporary beings. Scriptures tell us that Jesus the Messiah has “abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Tim. 1:10).

   The biggest fear man has is to die. No one wants to die. But scriptures tell us everyone is in bondage to the “fear of death,” whether we admit it or not (Heb. 2:14-15). However, a Christian is not without hope. Our hope is because we believe the gospel of the kingdom Jesus preached, and look forward to his coming again so that we may enter the kingdom of this new earth, with a new body, to a life of immortality, the same immortality Jesus received from His Father who raised him from the dead. However, those who live wickedly will not inherit a life of immortality, but rather will experience the “second death,” which is permanent, when the wicked will be consumed by fire and perish. The wicked will become ashes under the soles of the feet of the righteous as we have just previously read. 68

   So the subject of hell taught by most of the Christian and non-Christian is not biblically sound. Some try to win people to Christ with “scare tactics” by telling the lost they will consciously burn and be tormented endlessly in a raging fire. They deny the teaching that the wicked will be consumed by fire and be no more, which includes the devil himself!

   God the Father is not some sadistic being who takes pleasure in keeping people alive merely to torment them for billions and billions and billions of years and then told, “That is only the beginning!” This is not the God of the bible. This doctrine is not only atrocious and unbiblical, it also creates atheists, and is a stumbling block to acceptance of the true gospel and of God.

   Jesus came preaching the Good News! He did not hang over their heads the threat of hell with unending torture. Contemporary evangelism has reduced the gospel of the kingdom of God to a belief in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, and if one does not repent of their sins, they will consciously burn in sizzling fire for all eternity as the whole gospel! Folks, this is not the whole gospel. Jesus preached the gospel of the kingdom of God for three years before he mentioned anything about his death and resurrection. People are missing the main gospel message of the kingdom. This gospel of the kingdom is the central message of Jesus and the apostles. The kingdom of God refers to the apocalyptic kingdom to be inaugurated at the second coming of Christ where the “meek shall inherit the earth.”

Thanks to the labors of church historians, we can be certain that Jesus not only proclaimed the kingdom as the raison d’être of his mission (Luke 4:43), but the kingdom he meant what any who belonged to his Jewish heritage meant, namely, “the world empire of God,” the divine reign in place of every earthly monarchy. This will be perfectly realized, fully established, here upon earth 69

   As Anthony Buzzard states:

Such a vision of divine world empire had been indeed the vision of all the prophets of Israel. Their message Jesus merely amplified and made the subject of his urgent call to repentance in view of the great Event Coming.

   So the way to enter this kingdom, on this renewed earth, into a life of immortality, is to repent and believe the gospel Jesus preached or perish. We can have a life of immortality or experience the “second death” and cease to exist.


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65 “The Origin and History of the Doctrine of Endless Punishment,” by Thomas B. Thayer, Written in 1855
66What Happens When We Die? A Biblical View of Death and Resurrection,” p. 29-30
67 Matt. 5:22,39,30; 10:28; 18:9; 23:15,33; Mark 9:43, 45,47; Luke 12:5; and James 3:6
68 See also: Psalm 37: 9-11, 20,38; Psalm 68:2; Psalm 104:35; Ezekiel 28:18-19; Malachi 4:1-3; Isaiah 47:14; Psalm 145:20; Psalm 21:9; Obadiah 1:15-16
New Testament: The consequence for sin is death, not burning forever: 2 Peter 2:9; 2 Peter 3:7,10; 2 Timothy 4:1; etc. etc.

69 F.C. Grant, Ancient Judaism and New Testament Christianity, pp. 114,115