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Despite
the doctrinal variances within mainstream Christianity, there is one
point of consensus: they all believe that those who, through their
ungodly actions, reject God will be consigned to eternal torment in
hell. This shared belief rests on two mutually accepted factors.
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The
belief that human beings have an immortal soul and therefore never
really die after physical death.
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That
they are sent to a place of fiery torment that never ends.
Ever since this belief has
become widely accept within the Catholic Church and after the
Protestant Reformation, the tactic of motivating people to God was
the use of fear.
I had a friend whom I asked, “Why did you become a Christian?”
Her answer? “Because I do not want to go to hell.” I was rather
stunned by her answer. Fear should not be the motivation for
believing the gospel, but because of the “good news,” which is
what “gospel” means. The good news is not to instill fear in
people, but to show us a way to have a life of immortality through
the gospel by being reconciled to God through Christ since he has
taught and shown us how it is possible.
In order to escape purgatory
and hell, the Catholic Church was able to convince people that they
were able to buy
indulgences to release a dead loved one out of purgatory. In 1517
there was a Dominican monk named Johann Tetzel, who had grace and
power from the Pope to offer forgiveness as long as a contribution
would be put into the coffer. His cry around town was, "As soon
as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs."
Growing up in the Catholic
faith, I remember when we could pay the church to offer special
prayers for our dead loved ones so that one day they could get out of
purgatory. I often wondered how much money and how many prayers it
would take to upgrade a person out of purgatory. The Catholic Church
never seemed to answer that question.
However, through the centuries
the Catholic Church was able to control the masses by claiming to
have control of the gates of heaven and hell. The Protestant Church
fairs no better by using fear tactics. For instance, on July 8, 1741,
Jonathan Edwards delivered his famous sermon at Enfield, Connecticut
that was titled, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” He
described God as one who holds:
you
over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome
insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked: his
wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of
nothing else, but to be cast into the fire.
… It
would be dreadful to suffer this fierceness and wrath of Almighty God
one moment; but you must suffer it to all eternity. There will be no
end to this exquisite horrible misery. When you look forward, you
shall see a long forever, a boundless duration before you, which will
swallow up your thoughts, and amaze your soul; and you will
absolutely despair of ever having any deliverance, any end, any
mitigation, any rest at all. You will know certainly that you must
wear out long ages, millions of millions of ages, in wrestling and
conflicting with this almighty merciless vengeance; and then when you
have so done, when so many ages have actually been spent by you in
this manner, you will know that all is but a point to what remains.
So that your punishment will indeed be infinite.
Of course, much of this
rhetoric has been softened a bit with the exception of some street
preachers by condemning those walking by that they are sinners with a
one-way ticket to hell and must “turn or burn.”
In order to promote the
teaching of endless torment, many will cite Matthew 10:28 where Jesus
says:
And
do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But
rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
First, notice what it does not
say.
It does not say, “Fear
Him who is able to
torment both
body and soul in hell forever.” It says “destroy,” not
“torment.” Do you see how easy it is to read something into a
passage that it not there?
Jesus destroys this doctrine of
eternal torment in blazing flames of fire that never ends. Again,
many discard the context
in order to get the proper meaning. Beginning in verse 16, Jesus is
preparing the disciples that they will experience persecution and
possibly be killed (martyrdom) for spreading his message to others.
He was not instilling fear in them, rather, Jesus was encouraging
them not to fear what the people can do to them. The basic message to
his disciples was: “You do not need to be afraid of people or the
temporary harm they can do to you. Instead, fear God because He has
the power to destroy or save you for all eternity.” So the
disciples were to understand that though someone can physically take
their life, which results in a temporary
sleep
(Mark 5:35, 39; John 11:11-14) but when God destroys
one in hell, the result is eternal
death,
never to live again.
The
word “hell” that Jesus refers to in the verse is “Gehenna,”
which was the garbage heap of fire burning in the valley outside of
Jerusalem. This is symbolic of what scripture calls “the lake of
fire,” the second
death.
The second death is an irreversible
death where there is no hope of life ever. (Rev. 2:11, 20:6, 14,
21:8). It is complete
destruction -
annihilation of the whole person who ceases to exist. “…they
shall be as though they had not been” (Obadiah
1:16).
This concept of dualism
is not from scripture. Its roots are founded in Greek philosophy,
from Greek philosophers, whose teachings have plagued the church by
separating mankind into two components: the body (the physical) and
the soul (an immaterial part of a person that can never die).
Perish
Really Means Perish
Would
it surprise you that those who support soul
immortality will say
that the word “perish” does not really mean perish? The word
“perish” in the Greek is "apollumi." It is also
sometimes translated as “destroyed” and “lost” throughout the
New Testament.
There
are two things we must remember when it comes to the word “destroy,”
because in the bible there is a primary
meaning and a
secondary
meaning.
-
Primary:
The
primary meaning has
to do with death,
to lose life,
to
come to an end,
or to suffer complete
ruin or destruction,
destroyed.
-
Secondary:
The secondary meaning
of the Greek word that is translated as perish is also translated as
“lost.”
Thus,
in the secondary meaning, we have the lost
sheep of the house of Israel (Matt. 10). There is the lost
son in the parable (Luke 15). We have fragments that were left over
after feeding the five thousand that were gathered so nothing should
be lost
(John 6:12). There is the lost
coin in the parable that a woman found (Luke 15:9). We can understand
that “lost” in the secondary
meaning does not have
the primary meaning
in the strong sense as to literally kill or wipe out. To use the word
“destroy” in the primary meaning in all cases would be ludicrous.
We are not so naive to think that the “lost sheep” really means
“destroyed sheep,” or the “lost coin” a “destroyed coin.”
In cases like this, we must ignore the primary meaning. Context will
determine the meaning.
We
must also remember that “perish” does not mean everlasting
torment where the
wicked live in a state of conscious miserable existence in flaming
fires, but rather to suffer death, to suffer complete ruin and
destruction. Notice the contrast between perish
(death) and life
(everlasting life) in the following verse:
For God so loved the world that
He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall
not perish
(Gk: apollumi; be destroyed), but have everlasting
life (i.e., the life
of immortality in the coming kingdom for those who know God).
John
also testifies in the same sense. Notice that in the Son we have
eternal life and the consequence of not having the Son is to not
have life:
And this is the testimony: God
has given us eternal
life, and this life is
in his Son. The one who has the Son has this eternal life; the one
who does not have the Son of God does not
have this eternal life.
(1 John 5:11-12)
If
one does not have life, how can those who do not have life still be
living, much less, in fiery torment?
The
following verses will show the primary meaning of destroy
or destruction.
It is not a comprehensive list, but enough to show it means what it
says:
Psalm 1:6 “But the way of the
ungodly shall perish”
(Nothing about life forever in fiery torment.)
Psalm 37:20 “But the wicked
shall perish…
they shall consume;
into smoke
shall they consume
away.” (Nothing
about the wicked who will be consciously tormented and never be
“consumed.”)
Ps. 34:16, 21 “evil brings
death to
the wicked.” (Nothing about life continuing in hell where they
still live.)
Psalm 92:7 “… shall be
destroyed forever.”
(Primary meaning, nothing about “living forever.”)
Prov. 24:20 “the lamp of the
wicked will be snuffed
out.” (Meaning to
die, but the traditional view of hell says they will not be snuffed
out or die.)
Isa. 1:28, 30–31 “rebels
and sinners shall be destroyed
together, and those
who forsake the Lord shall be consumed.”
(Still self-explanatory.)
Obadiah 1:16 It will be as if the
evil “had never
been.“ (How can the
wicked “still be” if they are still alive and and consciously
tormented in hell for all eternity if they are as if they “had
never been?”)
Mal 4:1 “All the arrogant and
every evildoer will be stubble,
and the day that is coming will set
them on fire,” says
the LORD Almighty. “Not
a root or a branch will be left to them.” (Right
here it says the wicked will be destroyed by fire and there will be
nothing left.
This means they no longer exist. This is annihilation. Is the LORD
Almighty mistaken? The traditional teaching of hell goes against the
words of God Himself!)
Matthew 10:28 “Rather, fear him
which is able to destroy
both soul and body in
hell.” (Traditional view says God will not destroy, but rather that
the dead continue to live in eternal conscious hell.)
John 3:16 “…whosoever
believes in him should not perish…”
(Jesus must be mistaken because people do not really perish, they
just continue to live forever in hell.)
Philippians 3:19 “whose end is
destruction…“
(Not eternal torment.)
2 Thessalonians 1:9 “who shall
be punished with everlasting
destruction …”
(Not eternal torment.)
1 Cor 3:17: “God will destroy
that person”
(Opposite of eternal life in hell.)
2 Cor 2:15-16: “those that
perish”
(Opposite of eternal life in hell.)
Romans 6:23: “For the wages of
sin is death.”
(Opposite of eternal life in hell.)
Hebrews 10:39 “But we are not
of them who draw back unto perdition;
but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.” (Same meaning:
utter disaster, ruin, or destruction.)
2 Peter 2:3: “Their
condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction
is not asleep.”
Revelation 20:14 “This is the
second death…”
All
has to do with destruction, to be destroyed. Nothing about still
living in eternal torment in flames that never go out. It is
destruction, the second
death.
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