The popular conception of hell is of a place of punishment for wicked
‘immortal souls’ straight after death, or the place of torment for those who
are rejected at the judgment. It is our conviction that the Bible teaches
that hell is the grave, where all men go at death.
As a word, the
original Hebrew word ‘sheol’, translated ‘hell’, means ‘a covered place’.
‘Hell’ is the anglicised version of ‘sheol’; thus when we read of ‘hell’ we
are not reading a word which has been fully translated. A ‘helmet’ is
literally a ‘hell-met’, meaning a covering for the head. Biblically, this
‘covered place’, or ‘hell’, is the grave. There are many examples where the
original word ‘sheol’ is translated ‘grave’. Indeed, some modern Bible
versions scarcely use the word ‘hell’, translating it more properly as
‘grave’. A few examples of where this word ‘sheol’ is translated ‘grave’
should torpedo the popular conception of hell as a place of fire and torment
for the wicked.
The belief that
hell is a place of punishment for the wicked from which they cannot escape
just cannot be squared with this; a righteous man can go to hell (the grave)
and come out again. Hos. 13:14 confirms this: “I will ransom them (God’s
people) from the power of the grave (sheol); I will redeem them from death”.
This is quoted in 1 Cor. 15:55 and applied to the resurrection at Christ’s
return. Likewise in the vision of the second resurrection (see Study 5.5),
“Death and Hades (Greek for ‘hell’) delivered up the dead who were in them”
(Rev. 20:13). Note the parallel between death, i.e. the grave, and Hades
(see also Ps. 6:5).
Hannah’s words in 1 Sam. 2:6 are very clear: “The
Lord kills and makes alive (through resurrection); he brings down to the
grave (sheol), and brings up”.
Seeing that ‘hell’ is the grave, it is
to be expected that the righteous will be saved from it through their
resurrection to eternal life. Thus it is quite possible to enter ‘hell’, or
the grave, and later to leave it through resurrection. The supreme example
is that of Jesus, whose “soul was not left in Hades (hell), nor did his
flesh see corruption” (Acts 2:31) because he was raised. Note the parallel
between Christ’s ‘soul’ and his ‘flesh’ or body. That his body “was not left
in Hades” implies that it was there for a period, i.e. the three days in
which his body was in the grave. That Christ went to ‘hell’ should be proof
enough that it is not just a place where the wicked go.
Both good and
bad people go to ‘hell’, i.e. the grave. Thus Jesus “made his grave with the
wicked” (Is. 53:9). In line with this, there are other examples of righteous
men going to hell, i.e. the grave. Jacob said that he would “go down into
the grave (hell)...mourning” for his son Joseph (Gen. 37:35).
It is
one of God’s principles that the punishment for sin is death (Rom. 6:23;
8:13; James 1:15). We have previously shown death to be a state of complete
unconsciousness. Sin results in total destruction, not eternal torment (Mt.
21:41; 22:7; Mk. 12:9; James 4:12), as surely as people were destroyed by
the Flood (Lk. 17:27,29), and as the Israelites died in the wilderness (1
Cor. 10:10). On both these occasions the sinners died rather than being
eternally tormented. It is therefore impossible that the wicked are punished
with an eternity of conscious torment and suffering.
We have also
seen that God does not impute sin - or count it to our record - if we are
ignorant of His word (Rom. 5:13). Those in this position will remain dead.
Those who have known God’s requirements will be raised and judged at
Christ’s return. If wicked, the punishment they receive will be death,
because this is the judgment for sin. Therefore after coming before the
judgment seat of Christ, they will be punished and then die again, to stay
dead for ever. This will be “the second death”, spoken of in Rev. 2:11;
20:6. These people will have died once, a death of total unconsciousness.
They will be raised and judged at Christ’s return, and then punished with a
second death, which, like their first death, will be total unconsciousness.
This will last forever.
It is in this sense that the punishment for
sin is ‘everlasting’, in that there will be no end to their death. To remain
dead for ever is an everlasting punishment. An example of the Bible using
this kind of expression is found in Dt. 11:4. This describes God’s one-off
destruction of Pharaoh’s army in the Red Sea as an eternal, on-going
destruction in that this actual army never again troubled Israel: “He made
the waters of the Red sea overflow them... the Lord has destroyed them to
this day”.
One of the parables about Christ’s return and the judgment
speaks of the wicked being ‘slain’ in his presence (Lk. 19:27). This hardly
fits into the idea that the wicked exist forever in a conscious state,
constantly receiving torture. In any case, this would be a somewhat
unreasonable punishment - eternal torture for deeds of 70 years. God has no
pleasure in punishing wicked people; it is therefore to be expected that He
will not inflict punishment on them for eternity (Ez. 18:23,32; 33:11 cf. 2
Pet. 3:9).
A misbelieving Christendom often associates ‘hell’ with
the idea of fire and torment. This is in sharp contrast to Bible teaching
about hell (the grave). “Like sheep they are laid in the grave (hell); death
shall feed on them” (Ps. 49:14) implies that the grave is a place of
peaceful oblivion. Despite Christ’s soul, or body, being in hell for three
days, it did not suffer corruption (Acts 2:31). This would have been
impossible if hell were a place of fire. Ez. 32:26-30 gives a picture of the
mighty warriors of the nations around, lying in their graves: “the mighty
who are fallen (in battle)...who have gone down to hell with their weapons
of war; they have laid their swords under their heads...they shall
lie...with those who go down to the Pit”. This refers to the custom of
burying warriors with their weapons, and resting the head of the corpse upon
its sword. Yet this is a description of “hell” - the grave. These mighty men
lying still in hell (i.e. their graves), hardly supports the idea that hell
is a place of fire. Physical things (e.g. swords) go to the same “hell” as
people, showing that hell is not an arena of spiritual torment. Thus Peter
told a wicked man, “Your money perish with you” (Acts 8:20).
The
record of Jonah’s experiences also contradicts this. Having been swallowed
alive by a huge fish, “Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God from the fish’s
belly. And he said: ‘I cried...to the Lord...out of the belly of Sheol
(hell) I cried” (Jonah 2:1,2). This parallels “the belly of Sheol” with that
of the fish. The fish’s belly was truly a ‘covered place’, which is the
fundamental meaning of the word ‘sheol’. Obviously, it was not a place of
fire, and Jonah came out of “the belly of Sheol” when the fish vomited him
out. This pointed forward to the resurrection of Christ from ‘hell’ (the
grave) - see Mt. 12:40.
Figurative Fire
However, the Bible does
frequently use the image of eternal fire in order to represent God’s anger
with sin, which will result in the total destruction of the sinner in the
grave. Sodom was punished with “eternal fire” (Jude v. 7), i.e. it was
totally destroyed due to the wickedness of the inhabitants. Today that city
is in ruins, submerged beneath the waters of the Dead Sea; in no way is it
now on fire, which is necessary if we are to understand ‘eternal fire’
literally. Likewise Jerusalem was threatened with the eternal fire of God’s
anger, due to the sins of Israel: “Then I will kindle a fire in its gates,
and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched”
(Jer. 17:27). Jerusalem being the prophesied capital of the future Kingdom
(Is. 2:2-4; Ps. 48:2), God did not mean us to read this literally. The
houses of the great men in Jerusalem were burnt down with fire (2 Kings
25:9), but that fire did not continue eternally. Fire represents the
anger/punishment of God against sin, but His anger is not eternal (Jer.
3:12). Fire turns what it burns to dust; and we know that the ultimate wages
of sin is death, a turning back to dust. This perhaps is why fire is used as
a figure for punishment for sin.
Similarly, God punished the land of
Idumea with fire that would “not be quenched night nor day; its smoke shall
ascend for ever. From generation to generation it shall lie waste...the owl
and the raven shall dwell in it...thorns shall come up in its palaces” (Is.
34:9-15). Seeing that animals and plants were to exist in the ruined land of
Idumea, the language of eternal fire must refer to God’s anger and His total
destruction of the place, rather than being taken literally.
The Hebrew
and Greek phrases which are translated “for ever” mean strictly, “for the
age”. Sometimes this refers to literal infinity, for example the age of the
kingdom, but not always. Is. 32:14,15 is an example: “The forts and towers
will become lairs for ever...until the spirit is poured upon us”. This is
one way of understanding the ‘eternity’ of ‘eternal fire’.
Time and
again God’s anger with the sins of Jerusalem and Israel is likened to fire:
“My anger and My fury will be poured out on this place - (Jerusalem)...it
will burn, and not be quenched” (Jer. 7:20; other examples include Lam. 4:11
and 2 Kings 22:17).
Fire is also associated with God’s judgment of
sin, especially at the return of Christ: “For behold, the day is coming,
burning like an oven, and all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be
stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn them up” (Mal. 4:1). When
stubble, or even a human body, is burnt by fire, it returns to dust. It is
impossible for any substance, especially human flesh, to literally burn
forever. The language of ‘eternal fire’ therefore cannot refer to literal
eternal torment. A fire cannot last forever if there is nothing to burn. It
should be noted that “Hades” is “cast into the lake of fire” (Rev. 20:14).
This indicates that Hades is not the same as “the lake of fire”; this
represents complete destruction. In the symbolic manner of the book of
Revelation, we are being told that the grave is to be totally destroyed,
because at the end of the Millennium there will be no more death.
Gehenna
In the New Testament there are two Greek words translated ‘hell’. ‘Hades’ is the equivalent of the Hebrew ‘sheol’ which we have discussed earlier. ‘Gehenna’ is the name of the rubbish tip which was just outside Jerusalem, where the refuse from the city was burnt. Such rubbish tips are typical of many developing cities today (e.g. ‘Smoky Mountain’ outside Manila in the Philippines.) As a proper noun - i.e. the name of an actual place - it should have been left untranslated as ‘Gehenna’ rather than be translated as ‘hell’. ‘Gehenna’ is the Aramaic equivalent of the Hebrew ‘Ge-ben-Hinnon’. This was located near Jerusalem (Josh. 15:8), and at the time of Christ it was the city rubbish dump. Dead bodies of criminals were thrown onto the fires which were always burning there, so that Gehenna became symbolic of total destruction and rejection.
Again the point has
to be driven home that what was thrown onto those fires did not remain there
forever - the bodies decomposed into dust. “Our God (will be) a consuming
fire” (Heb. 12:29) at the day of judgment; the fire of His anger with sin
will consume sinners to destruction rather than leave them in a state of
only being singed by it and still surviving. At the time of God’s previous
judgments of His people Israel at the hand of the Babylonians, Gehenna was
filled with dead bodies of the sinners among God’s people (Jer. 7:32,33).
In his masterly way, the Lord Jesus brought together all these Old
Testament ideas in his use of the word ‘Gehenna’. He often said that those
who were rejected at the judgment seat at His return would go “to hell (i.e.
Gehenna), into the fire that shall never be quenched ... where their worm
does not die” (Mk. 9:43,44). Gehenna would have conjured up in the Jewish
mind the ideas of rejection and destruction of the body, and we have seen
that eternal fire is an idiom representing the anger of God against sin, and
the eternal destruction of sinners through death.
The reference to
“where their worm does not die”, is evidently part of this same idiom for
total destruction - it is inconceivable that there could be literal worms
which will never die. The fact that Gehenna was the location of previous
punishments of the wicked amongst God’s people, further shows the aptness of
Christ’s use of this figure of Gehenna.
Joachim Jeremias explains how the
literal valley of Gehenna came to be misinterpreted as a symbol of a ‘hell’
that is supposed to be a place of fire: “[Gehenna]…since ancient times has
been the name of the valley west and south of Jerusalem…from the woes
pronounced by the prophets on the valley (Jer. 7:32 = 19:6; cf. Is. 31:9;
66:24) because sacrifices to Moloch took place there (2 Kings 16:3; 21:6),
there developed in the second century BC the idea that the valley of Hinnom
would be the place of a fiery hell (Eth. Enoch 26; 90.26)…it is
distinguished from sheol” (New Testament Theology, London: SCM, 1972 p.
129).