IS THERE A HELL?
If hell
does exist, where is it - and can those who are there ever get out?
by Herbert W. Armstrong
If hell does exist, where is it - and
can those who are there ever get out?
WILL THOSE in hell leave hell at the
time of the resurrection - or are they confined eternally to hell, so that they
shall be UNABLE to take part in the resurrection?
What did Jesus mean when he said in
John 5:28-29: "... the hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will
hear his voice and come forth... those who have done evil, to the RESURRECTION
OF JUDGMENT" (RSV).
If "those who have done EVIL"
- the UNsaved - shall come forth in the RESURRECTION
of JUDGMENT, what is the connection between that resurrection of the UNsaved, and their being in an eternal hellfire?
It's about time we took this question
out of hiding, and took a good look at it! What is the TRUTH?
Common
Idea of Hell
First, what is the generally accepted
common belief in our Western world about hell? Here's the terse and brief
summation of this popular belief, which I quote from the Encyclopedia
Americana:
"... As generally understood, hell
is the abode of evil spirits; the infernal regions... whither lost and
condemned souls go after death to suffer indescribable torments and eternal
punishment... Some have thought of it as the place created by the Deity, where
He punishes with inconceivable severity, and through all eternity, the souls of
those who through unbelief or through the worship of false gods have angered
Him. It is the place of divine revenge, untempered,
never ending."
Now where, and how, did this popular
belief about hell originate? The Encyclopedia
Americana states further: "The main features of hell as conceived by
Hindu, Persian, Egyptian, Grecian and Christian theologians are essentially the
same." The Western religious leaders from Roman times through the Middle
Ages borrowed the doctrine of eternal torture from the pagan philosophers.
Certain writers of the Middle Ages had such tremendous
influence on the Christian-professing world, that their writings and teachings
came to be generally accepted and believed, until it became the doctrine of the
Christian-professing world. Among these influential writers were Augustine and
Dante Alighieri.
Some years ago, I ran across a book in
a large library, titled Dante, and His Inferno. It summed up the history of the
Christian-professing doctrine of hell. This factual history is rather amazing!
Dante lived A.D. 1265 to 1321. Dante, remember, wrote a tremendously popular
book, titled Divine Comedy, in three parts -
"Hell," "Purgatory" and "
From
the Pagans
Now I quote from the aforementioned
book of history: "Of all poets of modern times, Dante Alighieri was,
perhaps, the greatest educator. He possibly had a greater influence on the
course of civilization than any other man since his day... He wrote, in
incomprehensible verse, an imaginative and lurid account of a dismal hell - a
long poem containing certain phrases which have caught the attention of the
world, such as, 'all hope abandon... ye, who enter here!' This had a tremendous
impression and influence on the popular Christian thought and teaching. His
Inferno was based on Virgil and Plato."
Dante is reported to have been so
fascinated and enraptured by the ideas and philosophies of Plato and Virgil,
pagan philosophers, that he believed they were divinely inspired. Here is an
article on Virgil, from the
Plato was a pagan Greek philosopher,
born in
There is the general statement of the
popular belief about hell, and where that belief came from - actually from the
imaginations of pagans who knew not God!
What About the Millions of Heathen?
Now, before we examine the common idea about
hell to see whether it is TRUE, I want you to consider one or two FACTS: See
where this concept of hell, if true, leads us! On this earth are some 4,500
million people. The most POPULOUS lands are
That means that thousands of millions
of people on this earth have lived, and DIED, without ever having known
anything about Christian salvation - without SAVING KNOWLEDGE - never having
heard the ONLY name by which men may be saved! Now think what that means! IF
all unsaved go immediately to hell at death - the hell commonly believed in -
then more than HALF of the people who have lived on this earth have been
consigned there - and they are there, now, without ever having been given so
much as a CHANCE to escape it!
Ask yourselves candidly, do you believe
THAT is the plan by which an all-wise, all-merciful, loving GOD is working out
his purpose here below?
Now
what is the TRUTH?
We face this alternative: Either the
Holy Bible is the inspired WORD OF GOD, BY WHICH THE CREATOR reveals the TRUTH
on the subject, or else we must fling up our hands and confess WE JUST DON'T
KNOW - we are ignorant on the question - because no one has ever COME BACK from
such an ever-burning hell to tell us about it, and SCIENCE knows nothing about
it. We must believe what the BIBLE says, or we can believe nothing, if we are
rational and honest!
Does the BIBLE say anything about
"hell fire"? Did Jesus say something about hell fire? Yes, he did!
Hell
Fire in the Bible
He said, in the passage most often
quoted: "And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it
out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than
having two eyes to be cast into hell fire: where their worm dieth
not, and the fire is not quenched. For every one shall be salted with fire, and
every sacrifice shall be salted with salt" (Mark
Now exactly what is this hell fire?
This word hell is an English word. Mark wrote, originally, in the Greek
language. The word originally inspired, which Mark actually wrote, was the
Greek word gehenna, which
certainly does refer to FIRE.
But in most passages in the New
Testament where the English word hell is found in our English translations, the
original Greek word was a different word, hades -
which does NOT refer to FIRE at all, but has an altogether different meaning.
Incorrectly
Translated "Hell"
Remember we merely read a translation
of the Bible from its original languages. A leading Bible dictionary, called A
Dictionary of the Bible, edited by James Hastings, says this:
"In our Authorized Version the
word 'hell' is unfortunately used as the rendering of three distinct words,
with different meanings. It represents, (1) the 'sheol'
of the Hebrew Old Testament, and the 'hades' of ...
the New Testament. ... It is now an entirely misleading rendering, especially
in the New Testament passages. The English revisers, therefore, have
substituted the original Greek word 'hades' for
'hell' in the New Testament. In the American revision the word 'hell' is
entirely discarded in this connection... The word 'hell' is translated (2) as
the equivalent of the Greek word tartaros, (II Peter
2:4; compare with Jude 6), and, (3) as the equivalent of the Greek word 'gehenna.' "
The original Hebrew word sheol and the Greek hades mean the same - the GRAVE, and these original words
are so translated in many places. Hell is an old English word, and 370 years
ago, when the Authorized Version was translated, the people of England commonly
talked about putting their potatoes in HELL for the winter - a good way of
preserving potatoes - for the word then meant merely a hole in the ground that
was covered up - a dark and silent place - a GRAVE. But PAGAN teachings that
gained popular acceptance have caused people to apply to the English word the
meaning of "hell" which came out of the imaginations of Dante.
The Greek word tartaros
occurs only once in the New Testament and does not refer to humans, but the
place of fallen angels. Its meaning, translated into English, is "darkness
of the material universe," or "dark abyss" or
"prison."
And
now the Greek word gehenna.
Here is the official DEFINITION of that
very Greek word which was inspired by God, and written originally by Mark. I
quote from
Hell -
a Place of Destruction
Gehenna was a place of DESTRUCTION and DEATH -
not a place of living torture! Jesus was talking to Jews who understood all
about this Gehenna or
Every text in the Bible translated from
this Greek word gehenna
means complete destruction - not living torture - NOT eternal LIFE in torment!
THE Bible says, in Romans 6:23, "The wages of sin is DEATH" - not
ETERNAL LIFE in torture. The PUNISHMENT revealed in the BIBLE is DEATH - the
cessation of life. Eternal life is the GIFT OF GOD!
Then WHY have we been
believing that PUNISHMENT is ETERNAL LIFE in fire? And WHY have we been believing we already have eternal life and don't NEED
to come to God through Christ to receive it as HIS GIFT?
The PUNISHMENT is DEATH. It is the
second death, from which there shall be no resurrection! The PUNISHMENT is for
ETERNITY - DEATH for eternity - ETERNAL punishment - but nowhere does THE BIBLE
say anything about the PAGAN teaching of eternal punish-ING. It's
eternal punishMENT, not eternal punishING!
When Jesus spoke of being cast into
"gehenna FIRE," he was using this
expression as an illustration of the
THAT fire will be much hotter than
Dante's imaginary HELL!
What
Happens in "Hell"?
Do people go at DEATH to the fictitious
hell of Dante's imagination to be TORTURED by flames of fire forever - and then
are they to be brought OUT, to go into a JUDGMENT, to see if God had made a
mistake in having punished them so long in this "hell"?
Notice Revelation 20:13-15: "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. And death and hell were cast into the lake of
fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book
of life was cast into the lake of fire." The
Notice what Jesus said in Matthew
10:28: "... fear him which is able to DESTROY both soul and body in
[GEHENNA]." Here in plain language JESUS said the SOUL could be destroyed
- and that it would be DESTROYED in this GEHENNA that has been falsely
translated by the English word hell! Gehenna is a
place of DESTRUCTION!
Again Jesus used this word gehenna as quoted in Matthew
The ancient rebellious cities
Now what happens in this
"hell" - derived from the Greek word gehenna? Let the Holy Word of GOD answer: "For,
behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and
all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them
up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them
neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of
righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow
up as calves of the stall. And ye shall tread down the
wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I
shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts" (Mal.
4:1-3).
God Is Love - and Justice! God is a God
of LOVE - or MERCY, as well as a God of ABSOLUTE JUSTICE! If he were the vain,
angry, unjust god pictured by the pagans who invented this popular conception
of heaven and hell, then, according to the common belief of the illustration of
Lazarus and the Rich Man, saved mothers up in heaven are hearing the shrieks,
seeing the indescribable AGONY, writhing, of their own lost children down in
hell - actually able to carry on a conversation with them - yet UNABLE to help
them.
Would THAT be the heavenly BLISS it is
generally represented?
Psalm 37 OUGHT to make plain to us this
matter of heaven and hell. Notice!
"For evildoers shall be cut off:
but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. For yet a
little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt
diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. But the meek shall inherit
the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. The wicked plotteth against the just, and gnasheth
upon him with his teeth. But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the
Lord shall be as the fat of lambs: they shall consume; into smoke shall they
consume away. For such as be blessed of him shall inherit the earth; and they
that be cursed of him shall be cut off. The righteous shall inherit the land,
and dwell therein for ever" (Ps. 37:9-12, 20, 22, 29).
And now, Psalm 104:35: "Let the
sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more."
And now, Isaiah 66:24: "And they
shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed
against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their
fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh."
Never
to Be Quenched?
"Neither shall their fire be
QUENCHED." Does that mean burning forever and never burning up? Try this
test: Put a piece of paper in a pan. Light it with a match. Now, don't QUENCH
that fire! Don't put it out - for that's what "quench"
means. Very soon the paper will burn up. Then put it down on the floor and step
on it! Now it's merely ashes under the sole of your feet - precisely as THE
BIBLE plainly says the wicked shall be! In Jeremiah 17:27, God warned the Jews
that
Do you know that THE BIBLE teaches the
resurrection of all who die? The apostle Paul said his HOPE was the hope of the
RESURRECTION! As the resurrection is true doctrine, then the pagan myth of an
eternal TORTURE, beginning at death, is as deceptive as Satan himself! If all UNsaved - even all who never heard the ONLY name Jesus
Christ - are roasting, screaming, in such a hell, and can never get out, HOW
can there be a RESURRECTION!
Thank GOD! - there
is to be a resurrection to JUDGMENT, as well as a resurrection to eternal life
of the dead IN Christ! Yes, thank GOD, he so LOVED the world - we NEED not
perish, but through Christ we may have EVERLASTING LIFE!