Hell

Introduction

There are only two categories of people:

Saved or found (Luk 15:32, John 5:34). Those who have believed on Christ.

Lost, perishing (Matt 15:24, Luk 19:10, Joh 6:39, 17:12, 18:9, 2 Cor 4:3). Those who have not believed on Christ.

There is no in between. There are some purgatory teachings, but those have no biblical foundation.

Heaven

Heaven is the place of those who are saved or found. It is the dwelling place of God. In ancient times people thought in terms of three heavens. The first heaven being the sky where birds fly, where clouds form; the second heaven, the place of the moon and stars; the third heaven, where Paul was taken up in his spirit by the Holy Spirit (2 Cor 12:2). One day there will be a new heaven and a new earth (2 Pet 3:13, Rev 21:1). This will be preceded by two great events being the second coming of Christ (2 Pet 3:10-12) and the judgement (Heb 9:27-28). Therefore, there are two phases when speaking about heaven: the place where God dwells now or the place where we will be after the judgement. In the meantime, we refer to an intermediate state where people go when they die (Rev 6:9-11, 7:9-17). This is referred as the side of Abraham (Luke 16:22) or Paradise (Luke 23:43).

Hell

Hell is the place of those who are lost. There are three Greek words in the NT that are sometimes translated ‘hell’:

Tartarus, used only once in 2 Pet 2:4. It is not clear if hell is the best translation for this word, or that this is a seperate place where Satan and his angels now dwell; a non-material realm in which they live and move with definite limitations.

Hades, used eleven times (Matt 11:23, 16:18, Luk 10:15, 16:23, Acts 2:27, 31, 1 Cor 15:55, Rev 1:18, 6:8, 20:13-14), which means the grave or death. However, in Luke 16:23 shows a place and that its inhabitants are very much alive and conscious. Abode of all the dead or of the wicked dead. In Greek mythology Hades was originally the god of the underworld. Hades is the Greek word used in the Septuagint for the Hebrew word Sheol. Both words can signify the physical grave or death (Gen 37:35, Pro 5:5, 7:27) or to a dark underworld (Job 10:21-22, 38:17, Is 14:9). Sheol is described as under the ocean (Job 26:5, Jon 2:2-3) and having bars and gates (Job 17:16). All people go there whether they are good or evil (Ps 89:48). It is important to note that most of the descriptions of Hades/Sheol in the OT are in poetic literature. In many cases in Jewish literature, Hades stands for the one place of the dead, which has two or more comparments. In other Jewish literature Hades is the place of torment for the wicked, while the righteous enter Paradise. Thus by the beginning of the NT period, Hades has three meanings: death, the place of all the dead, and the place of the wicked dead only.

Gehenna, used twelve times (Matt 5:22, 29-30, 10:28, 18:9, 23:15, 33, Mark 9:43, 45, 47, Luk 12:5, Jam 3:6). Gehenna is a transliteration of “Valley of Hinnom”, a boundary marker between Judah and Benjamin (Josh 15:8, 18:16). Jeremiah began to associate the name with God’s divine wrath and judgement (Jer 7:32, 19:6) because kings Ahaz and Manasseh began sacrificing their children to Molech there (2 Kings 16:3, 21:6). The writers of the Gospels, therefore, refer the usage of this word to Jeremiah’s reinterpretation of the sacrifices in the Hinnom Valley, and Isaiah’s final prophecy of the undying worm and unquenchable fire (Isa 66:24). After Josiah destroyed this place of child sacrifice to foreign gods (2 Kings 23:10), this valley appears to have been used for the burning of the city’s refuse, the dead bodies of animals and the dead bodies of executed criminals. The continuing fires in the valley apparently led the people to transfer the name to the place where the wicked dead suffer. Gehenna must be carefully differentiated from other terms relative to the afterlife or final state. The OT Sheol or NT Hades uniformly designates the temporary abode of the lost between death and resurrection when referring to the place of the departed spirit of man. Gehenna specifies the final place where the wicked will suffer everlasting punishment.

There are descriptions of hell which are not literally linked to hell, but are implied. Hell is a place of darkness, fiery furnace, eternal fire, everlating destruction, weeping and gnashing of teeth, torment, and the place of God’s wrath. From the text it is not clear if these descriptions refer to the intermediate state and the final place of the lost. They could refer to either or both since they do not vary in what they show: consciousness, torment, permanence. Hades is probably refered to as an intermediate state. As the saved go to be with Christ, so the lost go to a place of torment (Luk 16:19-31) and they too await the Final Judgement (John 5:29). The lake of fire or Gehenna is then the final place of the lost which would parallel the new heaven and new earth. First and foremost, it is the final destination of the devil (Rev 20:10), this place was created for him (Matt 25:41) and he is there tormented forever. It is also the final destination of those who had been in Hades (Rev 20:14-15). Revelation 14:10-11 refers to people in the same way of punishment as described of the devil. What was made for the devil will be the place of the lost as well (Matt 25:41).

Types of punishment

There are five main positions regarding the issue of eternal punishment.

Agnosticism

This view believes that there is no hell at all, and that it is impossible to know what happens after life.

Annihilationism

Annihilationism holds that those who go to hell will suffer final destruction rather than eternal conscious punishment. As such, it diverges from the traditional teaching of the church that hell entails endless torment for the unsaved. People who support this view affirm the decisive division of saved and unsaved persons at the last judgement, yet they argue that the suffering of those condemned must eventually cease, since the perpetuation of that suffering, and of hell itself, whould be inconsistent with God’s plan to restore the cosmos to perfect peace and harmony. They highlight biblical indications (Luk 10:12, 12:47-48) that divine judgement might be graded in severity, and that this might correspond to varied lengths and degrees of finite punishment of the unsaved, rather than undifferentiated eternal punishment for them all.

Universalism

This view holds that all human beings, without exception, will eventually attain salvation. This belief has taken various forms:

God will eventually restore the entire created order, including satan himself, to a perfect state (Col 1:18-20).

The sovereign love of God is bound to save all eventually, and that heaven would be spoilt if its inhabitants were forced to witness the eternal sufferings of the damned. Like a concentration camp in the middle of heaven.

In modern universalism, appeal is often made to the apparent teaching of such passages as Rom 11:32, held to be in tension with passages predicting judgment, and recourse is often had to the idea of the limitless ages of future time, after death, during which the love of God will eventually draw all people freely to accept the proffered salvation.

Conscious endless existece

The lost and found are eternally seperated from each other, but will both live eternally, this is something the Lord has created us with, in His image. The lost will experience continual and unimaginable suffering and torment. The phrases “weeping and gnashing of teeth”, “outer darkness” and “their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenced” indicate emotional, physical, and spiritual suffering. This could make hell a literal place described with figurative language, just as heaven is described by figurative speech in the book of Revelation. As heaven is more magnificent than the description in Revelation, so is hell more terrible that our language falls short. The assertion that God would be unfair or unjust to eternally punish a finite being making a temporal sin underestimates the seriousness of sin, the spiritual nature of sin, and the supreme holiness of God.

Bibliography

Brand, Chad, Charles Draper, Archie England, Steve Bond, E. Ray Clendenen, and Trent C. Butler, eds. “Gehenna.” Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2003.

Clendenen, E. Ray with Shackelford David G. “Hell.” Edited by Chad Brand, Charles Draper, Archie England, Steve Bond, and Trent C. Butler. Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2003.

Davids, Peter H. “Hades.” Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1988.

Elwell, Walter A., and Barry J. Beitzel. “Gehenna.” Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1988.

Hilborn, D. H. K. “Annihilationism.” Edited by Martin Davie, Tim Grass, Stephen R. Holmes, John McDowell, and T. A. Noble. New Dictionary of Theology: Historical and Systematic. London; Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press; InterVarsity Press, 2016.

Kendall, R.T., Understanding Theology - Systematic Theology, 1996.

Winters, Clifford T. “Gehenna.” Edited by John D. Barry, David Bomar, Derek R. Brown, Rachel Klippenstein, Douglas Mangum, Carrie Sinclair Wolcott, Lazarus Wentz, Elliot Ritzema, and Wendy Widder. The Lexham Bible Dictionary. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016.

Wright, N. T. “Universalism.” Edited by Martin Davie, Tim Grass, Stephen R. Holmes, John McDowell, and T. A. Noble. New Dictionary of Theology: Historical and Systematic. London; Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press; InterVarsity Press, 2016.