The popular conception of hellis of a place of punishment for wicked ‘immortal souls'straight after death, or the place of torment for those who arerejected at the judgment. It is our conviction that the Bible teachesthat hell is the grave, where all men go at death.
Most of the contemporary English translations of Genesis 6:1–4 and Numbers 13:33 render the Heb. Nefilim as 'giants'. This tendency in turn stems from the fact that one of the earliest translation of the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint, composed in III/II century BCE, renders the said word as gigantes.The choice made by the Greek translators has been later adopted into the Latin translation. Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible. Be afflicted, and mourn, — We may and ought to rejoice in the Lord, that is, in the consciousness of his favour, and in the prospect of the happiness which is promised in the gospel; but in pride and envy, voluptuousness, or covetousness, we may not rejoice. The having been guilty of such. Thou art become guilty through thy blood that thou hast shed (Ezekiel 22:2, 3, 4, 6, 9). Flashcard hero 2 9 2 full. In the same:- The land is full of the judgment of bloods, and the city is full of violence ( Ezekiel 7:23). King James Bible Online: Authorized King James Version (KJV) of the Bible- the preserved and living Word of God. Includes 1611 KJV and 1769 Cambridge KJV. Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible. Be afflicted, and mourn, — We may and ought to rejoice in the Lord, that is, in the consciousness of his favour, and in the prospect of the happiness which is promised in the gospel; but in pride and envy, voluptuousness, or covetousness, we may not rejoice. The having been guilty of such.
As a word, the original Hebrewword ‘sheol', translated ‘hell', means ‘acovered place'. ‘Hell' is the anglicised version of‘sheol'; thus when we read of ‘hell' we are notreading a word which has been fully translated. A ‘helmet'is literally a ‘hell-met', meaning a covering for the head.In old English, especially in Scotland, there was the practice of'helling potatoes', burying them underground in Winter, covering them,in order to preserve them; putting a thatched roof on a building was to'hell a house', to cover it. Biblically, this ‘coveredplace', or ‘hell', is the grave. There are manyexamples where the original word ‘sheol' is translated‘grave'. Indeed, some modern Bible versions scarcely usethe word ‘hell', translating it more properly as‘grave'. A few examples of where this word‘sheol' is translated ‘grave' should torpedothe popular conception of hell as a place of fire and torment for thewicked.
§ 'Let the wicked..besilent in the grave' (sheol [Ps. 31:17]) - they will not bescreaming in agony.
§ 'God will redeem mysoul from the power of the grave' (sheol [Ps. 49:15]) - i.e.David's soul or body would be raised from the grave, or‘hell'.
The Bible 2 Online
The belief that hell is a placeof punishment for the wicked from which they cannot escape just cannotbe squared with this; a righteous man can go to hell (the grave) andcome out again. Hos. 13:14 confirms this: 'I will ransom them(God's people) from the power of the grave (sheol); I will redeemthem from death'. This is quoted in 1 Cor. 15:55 and applied tothe resurrection at Christ's return. Likewise in the vision ofthe second resurrection (see Study 5.5), 'Death and Hades (Greekfor ‘hell') delivered up the dead who were in them'(Rev. 20:13). Note the parallel between death, i.e. the grave, andHades (see also Ps. 6:5).
Hannah's words in 1 Sam.2:6 are very clear: 'The Lord kills and makes alive (throughresurrection); he brings down to the grave (sheol), and bringsup'.
Seeing that ‘hell'is the grave, it is to be expected that the righteous will be savedfrom it through their resurrection to eternal life. Thus it is quitepossible to enter ‘hell', or the grave, and later to leaveit through resurrection. The supreme example is that of Jesus, whose'soul was not left in Hades (hell), nor did his flesh seecorruption' (Acts 2:31) because he was raised. Note the parallelbetween 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 whichhis 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 gravewith the wicked' (Is. 53:9). In line with this, there are otherexamples of righteous men going to hell, i.e. the grave. Jacob saidthat he would 'go down into the grave (hell)..mourning'for his son Joseph (Gen. 37:35).
It is one of God'sprinciples that the punishment for sin is death (Rom. 6:23; 8:13; James1:15). We have previously shown death to be a state of completeunconsciousness. Sin results in total destruction, not eternal torment(Mt. 21:41; 22:7; Mk. 12:9; James 4:12), as surely as people weredestroyed by the Flood (Lk. 17:27,29), and as the Israelites died inthe wilderness (1 Cor. 10:10). On both these occasions the sinners diedrather than being eternally tormented. It is therefore impossible thatthe wicked are punished with an eternity of conscious torment andsuffering.
We have also seen that God doesnot impute sin - or count it to our record - if we are ignorant of Hisword (Rom. 5:13). Those in this position will remain dead. Those whohave known God's requirements will be raised and judged atChrist's return. If wicked, the punishment they receive will bedeath, because this is the judgment for sin. Therefore after comingbefore the judgment seat of Christ, they will be punished and thendie again, to stay dead for ever. This will be 'the seconddeath', spoken of in Rev. 2:11; 20:6. These people will have diedonce, a death of total unconsciousness. They will be raised and judgedat Christ's return, and then punished with a second death, which,like their first death, will be total unconsciousness. This will lastforever.
It is in this sense that thepunishment for sin is ‘everlasting', in that there will beno end to their death. To remain dead for ever is an everlastingpunishment. An example of the Bible using this kind of expression isfound in Dt. 11:4. This describes God's one-off destruction ofPharaoh's army in the Red Sea as an eternal, on-going destructionin that this actual army never again troubled Israel: 'He madethe waters of the Red sea overflow them.. the Lord has destroyed themto this day'.
One of the parables aboutChrist's return and the judgment speaks of the wicked being‘slain' in his presence (Lk. 19:27). This hardly fits intothe idea that the wicked exist forever in a conscious state, constantlyreceiving torture. In any case, this would be a somewhat unreasonablepunishment - eternal torture for deeds of 70 years. God hasno pleasure in punishing wicked people; it is therefore to be expectedthat He will not inflict punishment on them for eternity (Ez. 18:23,32;33:11 cf. 2 Pet. 3:9).
A misbelieving Christendom oftenassociates ‘hell' with the idea of fire and torment. Thisis in sharp contrast to Bible teaching about hell (the grave).'Like sheep they are laid in the grave (hell); death shall feedon them' (Ps. 49:14) implies that the grave is a place ofpeaceful oblivion. Despite Christ's soul, or body, being in hellfor three days, it did not suffer corruption (Acts 2:31). This wouldhave been impossible if hell were a place of fire. Ez. 32:26-30 gives apicture of the mighty warriors of the nations around, lying in theirgraves: 'the mighty who are fallen (in battle)..who have gonedown to hell with their weapons of war; they have laid their swordsunder their heads..they shall lie..with those who go down to thePit'. This refers to the custom of burying warriors with theirweapons, and resting the head of the corpse upon its sword. Yet this isa description of 'hell' - the grave. These mighty men lyingstill in hell (i.e. their graves), hardly supports the idea that hellis a place of fire. Physical things (e.g. swords) go to the same'hell' as people, showing that hell is not an arena ofspiritual torment. Thus Peter told a wicked man, 'Your moneyperish with you' (Acts 8:20).
The record of Jonah'sexperiences also contradicts this. Having been swallowed alive by ahuge fish, 'Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God from thefish's belly. And he said: ‘I cried..to the Lord..out ofthe belly of Sheol (hell) I cried' (Jonah 2:1,2). This parallels'the belly of Sheol' with that of the fish. Thefish's belly was truly a ‘covered place', which isthe fundamental meaning of the word ‘sheol'. Obviously, itwas not a place of fire, and Jonah came out of 'the belly ofSheol' when the fish vomited him out. This pointed forward to theresurrection of Christ from ‘hell' (the grave) - see Mt.12:40.
The Bible 40 Days Meaning
Figurative Fire
However, the Bible doesfrequently use the image of eternal fire in order to representGod's anger with sin, which will result in the total destructionof the sinner in the grave. Sodom was punished with 'eternalfire' (Jude v. 7), i.e. it was totally destroyed due tothe wickedness of the inhabitants. Today that city is in ruins,submerged beneath the waters of the Dead Sea; in no way is it now onfire, which is necessary if we are to understand ‘eternalfire' literally. Likewise Jerusalem was threatened with theeternal fire of God's anger, due to the sins of Israel:'Then I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall devour thepalaces 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. Thehouses of the great men in Jerusalem were burnt down with fire (2 Kings25:9), but that fire did not continue eternally. Fire represents theanger/punishment of God against sin, but His anger is not eternal(Jer. 3:12). Fire turns what it burns to dust; and we know thatthe ultimate wages of sin is death, a turning back to dust. Thisperhaps is why fire is used as a figure for punishment for sin.
Similarly, God punished the landof Idumea with fire that would 'not be quenched night nor day;its smoke shall ascend for ever. From generation to generation it shalllie waste..the owl and the raven shall dwell in it..thorns shall comeup in its palaces' (Is. 34:9-15). Seeing that animals and plantswere to exist in the ruined land of Idumea, the language of eternalfire must refer to God's anger and His total destruction of theplace, rather than being taken literally.
The Hebrew and Greek phraseswhich are translated 'for ever' mean strictly, 'forthe age'. Sometimes this refers to literal infinity, for examplethe age of the kingdom, but not always. Is. 32:14,15 is an example:'The forts and towers will become lairs for ever..until thespirit is poured upon us'. This is one way of understanding the‘eternity' of ‘eternal fire'.
Time and again God's angerwith the sins of Jerusalem and Israel is likened to fire: 'Myanger 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 withGod's judgment of sin, especially at the return of Christ:'For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, and all theproud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble. And the day which iscoming shall burn them up' (Mal. 4:1). When stubble, or even ahuman body, is burnt by fire, it returns to dust. It is impossible forany substance, especially human flesh, to literally burn forever. Thelanguage of ‘eternal fire' therefore cannot refer toliteral eternal torment. A fire cannot last forever if there is nothingto burn. It should be noted that 'Hades' is 'castinto the lake of fire' (Rev. 20:14). This indicates that Hades isnot the same as 'the lake of fire'; this representscomplete destruction. In the symbolic manner of the book of Revelation,we are being told that the grave is to be totally destroyed, because atthe end of the Millennium there will be no more death.
Gehenna
In the New Testament there aretwo Greek words translated ‘hell'. ‘Hades' isthe equivalent of the Hebrew ‘sheol' which we havediscussed earlier. ‘Gehenna' is the name of the rubbish tipwhich was just outside Jerusalem, where the refuse from the city wasburnt. 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 havebeen left untranslated as ‘Gehenna' rather than betranslated as ‘hell'. ‘Gehenna' is the Aramaicequivalent of the Hebrew ‘Ge-ben-Hinnon'. This was locatednear Jerusalem (Josh. 15:8), and at the time of Christ it was the cityrubbish dump. Dead bodies of criminals were thrown onto the fires whichwere always burning there, so that Gehenna became symbolic of totaldestruction and rejection.
Again the point has to be drivenhome that what was thrown onto those fires did not remain there forever- the bodies decomposed into dust. 'Our God (will be) a consumingfire' (Heb. 12:29) at the day of judgment; the fire of His angerwith sin will consume sinners to destruction rather than leave them ina state of only being singed by it and still surviving. At the time ofGod's previous judgments of His people Israel at the hand of theBabylonians, Gehenna was filled with dead bodies of the sinners amongGod's people (Jer. 7:32,33).
In his masterly way, the LordJesus brought together all these Old Testament ideas in his use of theword ‘Gehenna'. He often said that those who were rejectedat the judgment seat at His return would go 'to hell (i.e.Gehenna), into the fire that shall never be quenched .. where theirworm does not die' (Mk. 9:43,44). Gehenna would have conjured upin the Jewish mind the ideas of rejection and destruction of the body,and we have seen that eternal fire is an idiom representing the angerof God against sin, and the eternal destruction of sinners throughdeath.
The reference to 'wheretheir worm does not die', is evidently part of this same idiomfor total destruction - it is inconceivable that there could be literalworms which will never die. The fact that Gehenna was the location ofprevious punishments of the wicked amongst God's people, furthershows the aptness of Christ's use of this figure of Gehenna.
Joachim Jeremias explains howthe literal valley of Gehenna came to be misinterpreted as a symbol ofa ‘hell' that is supposed to be a place of fire: '[Gehenna]…sinceancient times has been the name of the valley west and south ofJerusalem…from the woes pronounced by the prophets on the valley(Jer. 7:32 = 19:6; cf. Is. 31:9; 66:24) because sacrifices to Molochtook place there (2 Kings 16:3; 21:6), there developed in the secondcentury BC the idea that the valley of Hinnom would be the place of afiery hell (Eth. Enoch 26; 90.26)…it is distinguished from sheol'(1).
A Matter Of Psychology
Robert Funk observed: 'Survey after survey has demonstrated thatmost people who believe in hell think themselves headed for heaven;people who believe in hell usually think it is for others' (2). I'vedone no surveys, but my experience chimes in with this completely.Those who believe and preach 'hell fire' do so from deep seatedpsychological reasons rather than from an honest examination of theBiblical text. A desire to 'legitimately' damn others, with theapparent weight of the Bible behind them; to hit back at the worldwhilst bolstering ones own righteousness.. it's really a classic.
Notes
(1) Joachim Jeremias, NewTestament Theology (London: S.C.M., 1972) p. 129.
(2) Robert Funk, Honest To Jesus (New York: HarperCollins, 1996) p. 213
Bible Basics: Contents
Part 1: 'The things concerning the Kingdom ofGod' Study 1: God 1.1 TheExistence Of God || 1.2 The PersonalityOf God || Belief In Practice 1: Knowing God|| 1.3 God's Name And Character || Belief In Practice 2: Grace (John Parkes) || Belief In Practice 3: The All Seeing God || Belief In Practice 4: God Is Omnipotent || Belief In Practice 5: Responding To The One God ||1.4 The Angels || Belief In Practice 6: God As Creator|| Digression1: God Manifestation || Digression 2: Why TheTrinity Was Accepted || Study 1:Questions Study 2: TheSpirit Of God 2.1 Definition || 2.2 Inspiration || 2.3 Gifts Of The HolySpirit || 2.4 TheWithdrawal Of The Gifts||2.5 The Bible The Only Authority||Digression3: Is The Holy Spirit A Person?|| Digression 4: The Principle Of Personification||Belief In Practice 7: The Implications Of Inspiration || Study 2: Questions Study 3: The Promises Of God 3.1 Introduction|| 3.2 ThePromise In Eden|| 3.3 The Promise To Noah||3.4 The Promise To Abraham||3.5 The Promise To David||Belief In Practice 8: Covenant Relationship With God|| Study 3: Questions Study 4: God And Death 4.1 TheNature Of Man|| 4.2 The Soul|| 4.3 TheSpirit|| 4.4 Death IsUnconsciousness|| 4.5 The Resurrection|| 4.6 The Judgment|| Belief InPractice 9: Judgment Now||4.7 The Place Of Reward: Heaven Or Earth?|| 4.8 Responsibility To God||4.9 Hell||Digression 5:Purgatory||Digression 6:Ghosts And Reincarnation||Digression 7: The 'Rapture'|| Belief InPractice 10: The Motivational Power Of Understanding Death ||Study 4: Questions Study 5: The Kingdom Of God 5.1 DefiningThe Kingdom||5.2 TheKingdom Is Not Now Established|| 5.3 The Kingdom Of God In The Past||5.4 The Kingdom Of God In The Future||5.5 The Millennium||Digression 8: The Kingdom Of God Now (Graham Bacon)||Belief In Practice 11: What The Kingdom Of God MeansToday|| Study 5:QuestionsStudy 6: GodAnd Evil 6.1 God And Evil||6.2 The Devil And Satan ||6.3 Demons||Digression 9: The Implications And Origin Of TheBelief In A Personal Satan||Digression 10: Witchcraft||Digression 11: What Happened In Eden?||Digression 12: Lucifer||Belief InPractice 12: Battle For The Mind ||Study 6:Questions
Part 2: 'The thingsconcerning..the name of Jesus Christ' (Acts 8:12)Study 7: The Origin Of Jesus.7.1 OldTestament Prophecies Of Jesus ||7.2 The VirginBirth|| 7.3 Christ's Place In God's Plan||7.4 'Inthe beginning was the word'|| Digression 13:Jesus The Son Of God (Michael Gates)||Digression14: Did Jesus Create The Earth?|| Belief In Practice13: Jesus Didn't Pre-exist: And So What?||Study 7: QuestionsStudy 8: The Nature Of Jesus8.1 Introduction||8.2 Differences Between God AndJesus||8.3 The Nature Of Jesus ||8.4 The Humanity Of Jesus||8.5 TheRelationship Of God With Jesus|| Belief In Practice14: The Real Christ|| Digression 15: HowThe Real Christ Was Lost|| Digression 16: TheDivine Side Of Jesus||Study 8: QuestionsStudy 9: The Work Of Jesus9.1 TheVictory Of Jesus||9.2 The Blood Of Jesus||9.3 Jesus As Our Representative ||9.4 Jesus And The Law Of Moses||9.5 TheSabbath||Digression 17 The Crucifix||Digression 18: Was Jesus Born On Dec. 25th?||Belief In Practice 15: The Meaning Of Christ'sResurrection For Us|| Belief In Practice16: Christ Died For Me- So What Should I Do?||Belief InPractice 17: The Real Cross|| Belief In Practice18: The Inspiration Of The Cross||Study 9: Questions||Study 10: Baptism Into Jesus10.1 TheVital Importance Of Baptism||10.2 HowShould We Be Baptized?||10.3 TheMeaning Of Baptism||10.4 BaptismAnd Salvation||Digression 19:Re-baptism||Digression 20 TheThief On The Cross|| Belief In Practice19: The Certainty Of Salvation ||Study 10: QuestionsStudy 11: Life In Christ11.1 Introduction||11.2 Holiness||11.2.1 The Use Of Force||11.2.2 Politics||11.2.3 Worldly Pleasures||11.3 Practical Christian Life||11.3.1 Bible Study||11.3.2 Prayer||11.3.3 Preaching||11.3.4 Ecclesial Life||11.3.5 The Breaking Of Bread||11.4 Marriage||11.5 Fellowship||Study 11: Questions|| Tenorshare ultdata 8 5 2 23 download free.
