“Abandon all hope, you who enter here.”
Dante
The concept of hell is without a
doubt one of the most difficult to accept in the Bible. How can a loving God
send people to hell? Some think hell is on earth, found in terrible situations.
What is the truth? And, should we even bother asking these questions? If hell
is real, we sure don’t want to go there and we don’t want our friends or loved
ones to go there either. If there is a hell, only the most egregious sinners
will go there – such as Adolf Hitler, David Berkowitz, and Ted Bundy – right?
What is the truth?
Wish fulfillment?
Some people see Christianity as a
Freudian type of wish fulfillment: We
want to believe in a loving God who took Grandma and Grandpa to heaven and will
take us there as well someday. However, if this is true, hell creates a
problem. As Dinesh D’Souza said:
“Imagine a
bunch of people who have gathered in a room because they want to avoid life's
difficulties--sickness, suffering, death--by making up a religion that will
make them feel better. I can entirely see how such a group would come up with
the concept of heaven … But I don't see why this group would come up with the
concept of hell … Hell is not only worse than sickness but also worse than
death, because death is merely the end, while hell implies eternal separation
from God.”[1]
If Christianity was invented as
wish fulfillment, hell would likely not be on that list.
Different words for
hell
Several different Hebrew and
Greek words are typically translated as “hell” in the Bible. One of these – Hades
- is a temporary location for those who have died. In the Old Testament, the
Hebrew word normally translated in the KJV as “hell” or “grave” is sheol (Strong’s H7585) and appears 66
times in the NASB version of the O.T. This word is rendered as “grave; by
extension, realm of death, deepest depths, transliterated ‘Sheol’”.[2] In the New Testament, two Greek words are translated as hell: hades and gehenna (or geenna).
Hades (Strong’s G86), used ten times in the NASB version, is used to refer to
“the grave, the place of the dead, ‘the underworld’”.[3] Hades is more properly understood as “the region of the departed spirits
of the lost … it expresses the general concept of the invisible world or abode
into which the spirits of men are ushered immediately after death … [Hades is]
the intermediate state between death and the ultimate hell, Gehenna”.[4]
What is Gehenna?
This is what we normally think of
as hell, with fire and torment. The word geenna (Strong’s 1067), is rendered as
“Gehenna, hell, ‘Valley of Hinnom’”.[5] This valley was used at one time to offer child sacrifices to Molech.[6] The Valley of Hinnom was located just outside of the southern part of
Jerusalem and was used as a burning pit for trash from the city. The word Gehenna is used in the Bible twelve
times, eleven by Jesus and once in James 3:6. The allusion by Jesus of Gehenna
as a continuously burning trash dump for condemned souls would have been very
poignant for the Jews living near Jerusalem and it provides for us today a
powerful image of the destination for those who reject God.
What is Tartarus?
Tartarus was used in Greek and, later, Roman mythology to describe
“a sunless
abyss, below Hades, in which Zeus imprisoned the Titans.”[7] The Greek word tartaroo is used
only one time in the Bible translated as hell:
“For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them
into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment …” (2
Peter 2:4).
Referring to malevolent angels, this verse “signifies to consign
to Tartarus, which is neither Sheol nor hades nor hell, but the place where
those angels whose special sin is referred to in that passage …”[8] This
temporary holding location appears to be for rebellious angels, not humans, and
is different from sheol or gehenna.
Is hell real
according to the Bible?
Jesus believed hell is real and He warned us in very
vivid terms to avoid this place. For example, Jesus said it would be better to
cut off your right hand (Matthew 5:30), cut off your foot (Mark 9:25), or pluck
out one of your eyes “than to have two eyes [or feet or hands] and
be cast into the fiery hell” (Matthew 18:9). He explained clearly the future reality
for all people in Matthew 25:
“when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with
Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered
before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd
separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, and
the goats on the left” (vs.31-33).
“Then the
King will say to those on His right, 'Come, you who are blessed of My Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (v.34).
“Then He
will also say to those on His left, 'Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the
eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels’” (v.41).
A point to note here is that hell, the eternal fire,
was not originally prepared for humans. Jesus also strongly advised us not to
fear what humans can do to us, but “fear the One who, after He
has killed, has authority to cast into hell”
(Luke 12:5). Jesus, James[9], Peter[10], Paul[11], and John[12] taught that hell is real. Some people claim that hell may be on earth, found
in horrible, dire situations. However, neither Jesus nor any of the Biblical
writers make any reference to hell being on earth in this life. All mentions of
hell indicate this is a place reserved for those who have rejected God and have
departed this life.
Annihilation or
eternal punishment?
Some religions
promote the concept of annihilationism for the unsaved. For example, the
official website of the Jehovah’s Witnesses states concerning hell:
“Since the dead have no conscious existence,
hell cannot be a fiery place of torment where the wicked suffer after
death.” Later on the same page, it goes
on to say, “Willful, unrepentant sinners will also have their
"portion" in that lake. (Revelation 21:8) They too will be
annihilated forever.”[13]
One of
the verses some use to argue for annihilation is 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9, which
states:
“to those who do not know God and to
those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty
of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory
of His power”.
Use of the word “destruction”
seems, at first glance, to indicate not continuous punishment, but rather a
cessation of existence. The Greek word used here is olethros (Strong’s 3639),
which is rendered as “destruction, ruin” by Strong’s.[14]
Greek scholar Spiros Zodhiates, Th.D., states regarding the use of this word in
2Th 1:9; 1Cor 5:5; 1Th 5:3; 1 Tim 6:9: “The fundamental thought is not
annihilation, but unavoidable distress and torment.”[15]
The warning Jesus
gave in Matthew 25, used the term “eternal fire”, then He also used said “These will go away into eternal punishment, but the
righteous into eternal life" (v.46). Jesus spoke of hell as a place
of conscious torment:
“hell, into the
unquenchable fire, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched”
(Mark 9:43-44).
Revelation
20:10 describes the fate of the devil, the beast, and the false prophet as:
“the devil who deceived them was thrown
into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are
also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”
The next five verses
describe the fate of all humans who had died and “if anyone's name was not
found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire” (v.
20). So, the lake of fire is described as a place of torment “day and night”,
not cessation of existence. This is certainly not
stated gleefully - most of us would likely choose to either have no hell at all
or a hell only used for mass murderers and the most detestable malefactors.
However, it is crucial we hold no illusions. The future reality for those who
reject God will be eternal punishment.
Why is hell necessary
for all who reject God?
Why does God not
simply send all those who prefer to be apart from Him into exile somewhere, as
criminals were sent in 1787 from Great Britain to a penal colony now known as
Australia? By doing this, heaven would be filled with only those who choose God
and we could eliminate hell. The problem with this is that rejecting God is not
the same as rejecting a political candidate or a brand of cereal. God is the
personification of all that is good. So, to reject God is to reject truth,
because He is truth.[16]
Refusing God is refusing love, because “God is love” (1 John 4:8).
But, wait a minute –
atheists have some truth and some love without God. That’s right: Because we
are made in the image of God, all people possess some of His attributes. But,
there is disease mixed in with the healthy and the unsaved person remains
condemned for the sin and evil in his/her life. In addition to truth and love, God
is also holy[17]
and righteous.[18] By
choosing to go our own way, we turn away from the ultimate perfection of truth,
love, holiness, and righteousness. Daniel provides a good explanation of our
free will in relation to God’s attributes:
“"Therefore the Lord has kept the
calamity in store and brought it on us; for the Lord our God is righteous with
respect to all His deeds which He has done, but we have not obeyed His voice”
(Daniel 9:16).
Do we really think we
deserve heaven?
One of the main
reasons people don’t want to believe in hell is that we think of ourselves as
good people for the most part. However, that goodness is relative. By comparing
myself with other sinners, I think I’m not so bad. But, if humans are not so
bad, why are there so many murders, thefts, assaults, and other crimes in the
world? Why is there an abundance of hatred, jealousy, pride, greed, and
selfishness if people are good? And, those are merely comparisons among
sinners. What if we compare ourselves with Jesus Christ or God the Father? God’s
word states that no one is good:
“There is none righteous, not even one; …
there is none who does good, there is not even one” (Romans 3:10-11).
A common tactic of
critics and skeptics is to attack; for example, placing the blame on God for
sending people to hell. The truth is we send ourselves there through our own
stubbornness in rejecting the forgiveness He provides and the chance to escape
the punishment for our own sin.
Free Will
God will not force
people to choose Him and heaven. As Hank Hanegraaff explains, “the concept of
choice demands that we believe in hell” and “the unrighteous would be
incarcerated in heaven against their wills” and “humans would be forced to
worship God against their will”.[19]
People who have rejected God all their lives will not be forced to spend
eternity in His presence in heaven.
Good news!
God has
done everything in His power to offer a way out of punishment for our sin and
evil, short of overriding our free will. God’s word states:
“The Lord is
not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you,
not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9)
His love is so great
and He loves each of us so much that “God demonstrates
His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”
(Romans 5:8). God takes no delight in seeing people choosing hell and rejecting
the free gift of forgiveness and salvation He offers; rather, exactly the
opposite. God sent Jesus, who willingly gave His life, suffered an excruciating
death, so we may escape punishment we deserve.[20] Why would He do this if
He enjoyed seeing people on the way to hell? And, why would He send Jesus to
die if there was another way? “So, choose life in order that you may live”.[21]
(Biblical
references are from the NASB version.)
[1]
D’Souza, Dinesh, Sigmund Freud’s
Illusions, TownHall.com, published 8 Aug 2008, accessed 19 Oct 2008,
<
http://townhall.com/Columnists/DineshDSouza/2008/08/08/sigmund_freuds_illusions>
[2]
James Strong, John Kohlenberger, and James Swanson, The Strongest Strong’s
Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2001), 1569.
[3]
Strong’s, 1588.
[4]
Zodhiates, Spiros, Executive Editor, The
Hebrew-Greek Key Study Bible, (Chattanooga, TN: 1996), p. 1575.
[5]
Strong’s, 1599.
[6]
“They built the high places of Baal that are in the valley of Ben-hinnom to
cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire to Molech, which
I had not commanded them nor had it entered My mind that they should do this
abomination, to cause Judah to sin” (Jeremiah 32:35).
[7] "tartarus."
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. 22 Oct. 2008.
<Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/tartarus>.
[8]
Vine, W.E., Merrill Unger & William White, Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words,
(Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson
Publishers, 1996), p. 300.
[9]
James 3:6
[10] 2
Peter 2:4
[11] 2
Thess. 1:9
[12]
Revelation 20:15
[13]
Jehovah’s Witnesses official website, “What has happened to hellfire”, appeared
in The Watchtower 15 July 2002,
accessed online 23 Oct 2008, <
http://www.watchtower.org/e/20020715/article_02.htm>
[14]
Strong’s, p. 1630.
[15]
Zodhiates, Spiros, The Hebrew-Greek Key Study Bible, (Chattanooga, TN: AMG
Publishers, 1996), p. 1655.
[16]
Psalm 31:5 and Romans 1:25
[17] 1
Peter 1:16
[18]
Daniel 9:14
[19]
Hanegraaff, Hank, The Bible Answer Book, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2004), p. 211-212.
[20]
John 3:16
[21]
Deuteronomy 30:19
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