Is There a Place Called Hell?

The subject of hell has been a cause of tremendous fear and anxiety. For centuries many have taught that before God created man, He first created a great abyss of fire and torment as a final and eternal habitation for those that are not pleasing to Him, and all the promises and threatenings of the Bible were to prevent as many as possible from being sent to this terrible place called hell.

But it is hard to harmonize this concept with the scripture in 1 John 4:16 which tells us that God is love.  Did God really intend that billions of His human creation should suffer for eternity in hell, or should we look for some other alternative as the penalty of sin?  

Genesis 2:17 answers that question. God, in telling Adam what the penalty for the disobedience of eating the forbidden fruit would be, said, "In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." From this scripture it is clear that death, not eternal torment, is the penalty for sin. And Ezekiel 18:4 agrees with this: "The soul that sinneth it shall die." But since the "father of lies," Satan, contradicted God and said, "Ye shall not surely die," Satan had to devise a cover-up to hide the fact that the human race was actually dying.

Throughout human history, Satan has been very successful in perpetuating the lie that man does not really die but lives on in an afterlife of bliss or torment, heaven or hell. And the world's religions have all carried on Satan's lie in one form or another until our day. The truth is that a loving and just God has not allowed for a burning hell because such a concept is contrary to His character!

The Old Testament Scriptures were written in the Hebrew language. The word "hell" is an English word sometimes selected by the translators of the English Bible to express the sense of the Hebrew word sheol.  This word sheol is also translated at times “grave” and “pit.” In the King James Version of the Bible, the word sheol was translated "hell" 31 times, "grave" 31 times, and it was translated "pit" 3 times.   

The word "hell" in old English usage, before Papal theology picked it up and gave it a new meaning, simply meant “to cover, conceal, hide, [base of Anglo Saxon helan]” (Webster‘s New World Dictionary Encyclopedic Edition 1951). The meaning of hell is really a concealed, hidden or covered condition. In old English literature, records may be found of the helling of potatoes, which meant the putting of potatoes into pits or root cellars where they were concealed or hidden from view until they were brought out to eat. When the helling of a house was spoken of, it meant covering the roof with a suitable roofing material.  

Genesis 42:38 reads, "Then shall ye bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave [sheol]." The translators chose to translate sheol as “grave” because they did not want to send God’s righteous servant Jacob to eternal torment.

And Job 14:13 states, "O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave [sheol]." The word “grave” here is the Hebrew word sheol. Certainly Job was not praying to God to hide him in a hell of eternal torture! Again, the translators, knowing this would be absurd, chose to use the word “grave” in this instance.

But when we go to Psalm 9:17, we will see they were not consistent. There it states, "The wicked shall be turned into hell [sheol], and all the nations that forget God." Again the word "hell" here is the same Hebrew word sheol. Since the Hebrew word is the same in both cases, there is no reason why the word "grave" should not be used in both verses.  

Having seen how the word sheol is used in the Old Testament, it is clear it does not mean a lake of fire and brimstone, or anything like it. Instead of a place of torment, it is described as a state of darkness (Job 10:21) and a place of silence (Psalm 115:17). Instead of representing in any sense a state of remorse, it is described as a condition of forgetfulness (Psalm 88:11-12). Similarly, Ecclesiastes 9:10 tells us that “There is no work, nor device, nor knowledge in the grave [sheol] whither thou goest."

In the New Testament, the Greek word hades corresponds exactly to the Hebrew word sheol. In fact, the Apostles, when quoting from the Old Testament, used the Greek word hades where the Old Testament used sheol.

Let’s look at a commonly misunderstood verse. Revelation 20:4, “And death and hell [hades] were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.” This verse means that Adamic “death” and its curse, which has passed on to all of Adam's children, will be completely destroyed by Christ; and hell (the condition of those in the grave) will also be destroyed -- all mankind will be raised to life to have an opportunity for everlasting life in Christ's kingdom.

So it is clear that the lake of fire is not a literal place because it is destroying "death and hades,” which are conditions.  This lake of fire is called "the second death" because it is not Adamic death; it is a final, complete destruction.

Rev 20:15 then says, "And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire."  This verse is referring to the end of Christ's 1000-year kingdom when those of mankind who refuse to obey Christ and his church will be destroyed in the second death.  "And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people." (Acts 3:23)

Another word that is translated “hell” in the New Testament is the Greek word gehenna. Gehenna is the Grecian mode of spelling the Hebrew words which are translated "Valley of Hinnom." This valley lay just outside and to the south of the old city of Jerusalem and served the purpose of a sewer and garbage burning site for the city. The garbage was emptied there, and fires were kept continually burning to consume all things placed there. Brimstone was added to assist combustion and to ensure complete destruction. But no living thing was ever permitted to be cast into gehenna as some sort of punishment because the Jews were not allowed to torture any creature.  

God was using the people of Israel to illustrate His dealings and plans, present and future. We should, therefore, expect that this Valley of Hinnom, or gehenna, would also play its part in illustrating things future. It was actually a picture of the final and complete destruction from which there can be no recovery -- the Second Death.

 The Bible Hell

So we see the scriptures teach that sheol, hades, and gehenna are conditions and not actual places.  

And in this investigation, thank God, we find no such place of everlasting torture in the Bible! Regardless of what man may say from long-held creeds, the Bible "hell" is actually the condition of death. The penalty upon all our race, condemned on account of Adam's sin, is death, not eternal torment.  

And it was this death condition that Jesus willingly gave his life to provide a ransom for all in due time. Hosea 13:14, "I will ransom them from the power of the grave [sheol]; I will redeem them from death."

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Last modified: 04/04/07