On “Hell”

One of the major stumbling blocks for people considering whether or not to believe in God is the notion of hell. Objections to hell range from the incompatibility of eternal torment with a loving, benevolent God to the sense that only a tyrant would condemn people to an eternity of torture for not believing in him.

While this teaching makes it difficult for some to accept Christianity, we cannot simply modify teaching to make it more palatable. Rather, we must take our ideas from the Bible if we want to remain faithful to Christianity. If the Bible says it, we are stuck with it, no matter how difficult it may be to understand and communicate.

For this reason I have long thought that “hell” in the sense of infinitely prolonged torment is one of those sad things we are stuck with. However, in the past several years I have noticed a number of things about the biblical evidence that have made me doubt this.

First of all, there is no word that corresponds directly to “hell” in the Bible. There are a number of terms: sheol (in the Old Testament), hades (the KJV uses this word, transliterating it from the Greek), and gehenna. The KJV translates “gehenna” as hell as does the ESV.

It is clear from context that “sheol” means “the grave.” In fact, KJV translates it that way (see, for example, Genesis 37:35 and especially Job 17:16 where Sheol is equated with “the dust”). It is a common destination for all who die; what happens after that is not clear. It does seem that there is no return from Sheol (Job 7:9).

“Hades” seems to be the equivalent of “sheol,” though for the Greeks this term had many associations different from the Hebrew “sheol”. That is, those in hades remained conscious to a greater or lesser degree. This is probably due to Greek metaphysics, in which human beings had a spark of immortality in them. However, in understanding the meaning of “hades” it is better to mentally substitute the corresponding Hebrew word. The Old Testament had no conception of, for example, Hades as a god. Thus it is better to think of “hades” as simply the translation of “sheol” into Greek.

Finally, there is “gehenna.” This is a term that comes from a particular location: the valley of the son of Hinnom. It is described in Jeremiah as the place where people sacrificed their children to Moloch in the fire (see Jeremiah 7:31,32; Jeremiah 32:35). (Jeremiah 32:35 says: “And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin”).

As a result, this became a cursed place. It was used as a garbage dump and a place to burn corpses. It became a metaphor for the fate of the wicked. Isaiah describes the idea prophetically when he says, “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” (Isaiah 66:24). Jesus echoes this description when he says “It is better It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into [gehenna], where ‘their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.'”

The key word that most associate with “hell” seems to be “gehenna.” Because their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched, people have come to think of hell as a place of eternal fiery torment. But the first thing to notice is that this describes what happens to dead bodies. They are eaten by worms and disposed of by fire. The only things that “do not die” are the worms that eat the corpses.

In other words, the fate of those who are not God’s people is that of corpses. There is no sense of an eternal life devoted to suffering. There is merely the destruction of all physical remnants of the person.

In fact the word “destroy” is often used to describe the fate of those who oppose God. Luke 20:16 says, “He shall come and destroy those husbandmen….” (The word “husbandmen” means tenant-farmers.) Similarly Matthew 10:28 says, “Rather, fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in [gehenna].”

Another word used to describe the fate of those who oppose God is “perish.” We all are familiar with John 3:16 which says that “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish….” Peter says, that “… he is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). Note that the fate that God saves us from is perishing. To perish means simply to die.

If all this is true, then what exactly happens to those who will not repent and be saved? I am arguing that they lose their existence. The opposite of eternal life is no life at all — no existence.

This only makes sense. The real problem with sin is that it separates us from God. But God is the source of all life and all being. When the Lord becomes all-in-all, what place will there be for anything that is not connected to God, that does not accept him? How can someone who is totally separated from God have any being?

There are a few places that speak of eternity in connection with the punishment of the wicked. In particular, Revelation 14:11 talks about the smoke of the torment of those who accept the mark of the beast “going up forever and ever.”

There are a number of things one could say about this. The passage literally says that the smoke goes up “from age to age.” Suffice it to say that the passage indicates the finality of what happens to those who accept the mark. The Greek word used — “aeon” — implies a quality of finality. It is the same word used for “eternal” in the phrase “eternal life.” We tend to think of this as indicating duration, but it is better to see it as “life incorruptible,” life that does not gradually dribble away as you live it.

Finally, we can note that this is all based on the idea that “immortality” is not something that we have by nature. John 5:26 says, “For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself….” Immortality, or “life in himself,” is a quality of the Father. He has given this to the Son. But human beings do not have this quality. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 15:53, says “For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” That is what the gift of eternal life means. Resurrection is something God does. It is not the outcome of an innate quality of human life.

All in all, then, we see that the punishment of those who reject God is that they should lose existence. While some might say that this is not a sufficient punishment for them, I believe it is a punishment that fits the crime. They rejected God’s purposes (see Luke 7:30) for themselves. But there is no place to be, no mode of existence, that does not somehow participate in God’s purposes. And so they are left out—of everything. They are “cast into outer darkness,” rejected with the statement, “Depart from me, for I never knew you.” Is not this final exclusion and annihilation punishment enough?