Is Hell Forever?
1. 1 Timothy 6:16 teaches that only God is immortal – humans are not inherently immortal. Also:
- Romans 6:23 teaches that eternal life is a gift from God – it is not an inherent property of humanity.
- Genesis 3:22 teaches that eternal life is not typical for humans.
- John 3:16 teaches that only those who believe in Jesus will live forever.
2. The Bible says that hell is temporary. There are two words that may be translated hell in your Bible, depending on your translation.
- The Greek word hades means “the place of the dead” and is typically not used to refer to hell. Hades just means the grave or the state of death. I’m not going to talk about hades in this article because I want to spend most of my time on the next word.
- The Greek word Gehenna refers to a valley near Jerusalem where garbage was dumped and burned. Because of its constant smoke, the word came to refer to the place of punishment of the wicked. The word Gehenna is used 12 times in the New Testament and a careful look at each occurrence supports annihilationism. Let’s look at each occurrence of Gehenna, divided into seven categories.
Gehenna
1. Matthew 5:22 says that Gehenna is the place of punishment for those who call their brother a fool. This verse doesn’t give any indication about the duration of hell.
2. Matthew 5:29, 30 says that it’s better to lose part of your body than to have your entire body go to Gehenna – no indication about the duration of hell.
3. Matthew 23:15, 33 says that the Pharisees are going to Gehenna – again, no indication about the duration of hell.
4. James 3:6 says that “the tongue is a fire, a world of evil … set on fire by Gehenna” – as above, no indication about the duration of hell.
5. Matthew 10:28 and Luke 12:5 say that we should fear the one (God) who can destroy both body and soul in Gehenna. This is interesting because it says that body and soul can be destroyed in hell. The word destroy implies a cessation of existence. It doesn’t seem that destruction would last forever; it seems to be more of a one-time event whose result will last forever.
6. Matthew 18:9 refers to the fire of Gehenna and the previous verse (v. 8) indicates that the fire is eternal. Matthew 25:41, 46 also refer to an eternal fire, although those verses don’t use the word Gehenna. This seems at first glance to say that hell is forever … but look at the Biblical context more carefully. Jude 7 refers to Sodom and Gomorrah as an example of the “punishment of eternal fire.” This is interesting because Sodom and Gomorrah burned but are clearly not still burning today. A comparison of Matthew 18:9 and Matthew 25:41, 46 with Jude 7 indicates that the eternity of the fire of hell is a poetic way of describing its eternal result rather than its literal duration. More on this in the following verses, where we really start to dig deep.
7. Mark 9:43-48 uses the word Gehenna three times (vv. 43, 45, 47) to refer to “unquenchable fire.” Matthew 3:12 also refers to “unquenchable fire,” although it doesn’t use the word Gehenna. As above, this seems at first glance to indicate that hell is eternal. But a careful look at the Biblical context shows that this phrase actually supports annihilationism.
- Mark 9:48 is a quotation from Isaiah 66:24, which speaks of God’s judgement on the disobedient: “their worm will never die; their fire will never be quenched.” But Isaiah 66:24 is speaking of the corpses of the disobedient. So the worm that will “never die” and the fire that will “never be quenched” is clearly not eternal conscious torment. This is poetic language that refers to the severity and finality of God’s judgement
- 2 Kings 22:17 says that God’s wrath against the people of Judah “will not be quenched.” (The parallel account is 2 Chronicles 34:25.) Judah was conquered and burned but it clearly is not still burning today. The phrase “will not be quenched” indicated that nothing could prevent God’s judgement – not even, in this case, the revival led by King Josiah.
- Isaiah 34:10 says that the fire in the land of Edom “will not be quenched night or day; its smoke will rise forever.” Edom is not burning today. This is a poetic way of describing the finality of God’s judgement.
- Jeremiah 7:20 says that God’s “wrath will be poured out on [Judah] – on man and beast, on the trees of the field and on the crops of your land – and it will burn and not be quenched.” Judah was overrun and conquered and burned, but the trees and crops of Judah are not burning today. The meaning here is similar to the verses above.
- Jeremiah 17:27 says that God “will kindle an unquenchable fire in the gates of Jerusalem that will consume her fortresses.” This prophecy was fulfilled in 586 BC, but the gates of Jerusalem are not still burning today. Jerusalem’s fortresses really were consumed and no longer exist because they were destroyed by unquenchable fire, a poetic way of describing the completeness and inevitability of destruction.
- Ezekiel 20:47, 48 says that God will “set fire to [Judah], and it will consume all your trees, both green and dry. The blazing flame will not be quenched, and every face from south to north will be scorched by it. Everyone will see that I the Lord have kindled it; it will not be quenched.” The fire of this judgement does not continue to burn Judah’s trees today, but it was unquenchable in the sense that nothing could prevent complete destruction.
- Revelation 18:8 says that Babylon the Great will be consumed by fire, and verse 21 says that it will “never be seen again.” The fire of hell here seems to result in a consumption of the disobedient rather than eternal conscious torment.
- Revelation 19:3 says that “her smoke rises forever,” a phrase taken from Isaiah 34:10 (see third bullet above), a poetic description of the all-consuming completeness of destruction. (Similar phrases occur in Revelation 14:9-11 and 20:10-15.)
- Hebrews 9:12 says that we have “eternal redemption.” It seems clear that we are not continually redeemed throughout the course of eternity. We were redeemed once and for all, and the effect of our redemption lasts forever. Similarly, eternal punishment does not continually occur throughout the course of eternity. Rather, it will occur once and for all, resulting in annihilation, and its effect will last forever.
- Hebrews 10:27 says that “raging fire will consume the enemies of God.” The Greek word here for consume occurs 65 times in the New Testament and it’s translated eat 64 times – this is the only place it’s not translated eat. The fire of God’s judgement is like eating food. Eating doesn’t last forever – it’s a one-time act and after the food is eaten, it ceases to exist.
This material convinces me that hell is not forever. The punishment of hell is forever in the sense that once someone ceases to exist, they cease to exist forever. But, in contrast to its popular depiction, hell is not eternal, conscious torment.
Why? In view of this evidence, why do most
Christians persist in their belief in the eternity of hell? Quite simply, they
believe it because that’s how they’ve been taught their entire lives, and a
superficial glance at the Bible seems to support their belief. Most Christians
don’t like to think and they prefer to get their beliefs from tradition
rather than the Bible. The church has always taught that hell is forever
because the earliest church leaders were intellectuals who were trained in Platonism.
Plato was a Greek philosopher who lived 400 years before Christ, and one of his
teachings was that the human soul is inherently immortal. That’s right –
the idea of the immortality of the soul didn’t originate with Christians – it originated
with Greek philosophers! As early Christian leaders struggled to reconcile the
teachings of the New Testament with their secular intellectual heritage, they
found a balance by retaining Plato’s viewpoint of the immortality of the soul, augmented
with the (apparently) Biblical doctrine that the immortal soul either spends
eternity in heaven or eternity in hell.
Apologetics – Annihilationism
is helpful for Christian apologetics in the following ways.
1. The problem of suffering – Non-Christians have a lot of problems with the doctrine of an eternal hell. It seems extreme that a person who’s lived a basically good life will spend an eternity burning in hell simply because he never took the claims of Christ seriously. The punishment does not fit the crime. The doctrine of the eternity of hell is an unnecessary stumbling block for many unbelievers.
2. Eternal evil – It seems strange that the universe would eternally include both good and evil. It would be more satisfying, and more consistent with God’s ultimate victory, if evil were completely eradicated and only that which is good lasts forever. Our loving God gives everyone a chance to live forever, and those who reject his offer simply cease to exist. Consider verses like Philippians 2:10, 11 – “At the name of Jesus every knee will bow … and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.” Really? Satan is going to bow to Jesus and confess his Lordship? I don’t think so. Rather, evil will someday be eradicated and the universe will be entirely populated by those who submit to Jesus Christ.
3. God is love. If he can cause those who reject him to cease to exist, why would he instead choose to sentence them to eternal conscious torment? “Come follow our loving God … or else he will torture you forever.” No wonder people don’t take the church seriously.
I don’t believe in annihilationism simply because of its apologetic value. But it’s interesting that the Biblical view of hell is also the most apologetically helpful view.
- three words for "hell", the third being (Greek) Tartarus. Before commenting directly on the thesis, I would point out that the Bible translations are full of what I call "infinity-words" where in Hebrew there are none (that I know of, at least). The Hebrews didn't think like Greeks, though the Greeks - the Lacedaemonians or Spartans - were descendants of the tribes of Dan and probably Issachar, having founded from Alexandria the first Greek city of Argos. Even superlatives are different; we think of words like "all" in a Greek logical sense to mean "without exception" whereas in Hebrew the word translated "all" is better rendered "the preponderance of". "All" the cattle die in one plague in Egypt only to get boils in the next plague.
ReplyDeleteAnother example: "A third" in Hebrew is an idiom meaning "a significant part of", not 0.333... Keep this in mind when reading Revelation.
Infinite time is no exception. Psalm 23: "And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever."
"Forever" is the infinity-word and it literally is translated "for all the days". (There is "all" again.)
Eschatology does not extend beyond the beginning of the "age to come". The "end of the world" was an accurate translation 3 centuries ago but "world" (were-ald; were as in werewolf, or man-wolf, and ald from the Old German as age - the age of man) is not the planet but the present age. As the earth precesses from the age of Pisces to the age of Aquarius - not New Age neo-paganism but much older than Babylon - it is another sign of the transition ending the age.
The point is that Hebrew thinking stays within the realm of human conception, with what is finite in space and time. The Greek thinking that had infiltrated medieval universities and is ingrained in Western thinking also affects theological understanding. This too applies to the afterlife and hell, the place of the dead.
Well stated, thank you. It's not easy to change our perspective and mindset when trying to interpret the Bible, but I think it's necessary. Unless you believe, like many Christians today, that the Bible was written for 21st-century Americans.
DeleteWell, it was but it doesn't come conveniently packaged in 21st-century American thinking. My first rule of Bible study is: Do not trust the translators. It is not that they are sinister but that translation is virtually impossible. Anyone who knows more than one language finds this out quickly. There are words in Spanish that must be explained because there is no equivalent word in English. It is worse with Russian, and for Chinese ...
DeleteIt may be a matter of semantics, but I think a big part of the problem in modern-day "Christianity" is that people think the Bible was written for them. Paul's letter to the Romans was not written for Americans; it was written for first-century Romans. Acts was not written to Americans; it was written to Theophilus. Revelation was not written for Americans; it was written to the seven first-century churches of Asia Minor. And so on. This mindset is important because when we think the Bible was written for us, we read it superficially without worrying about the original audience, and a superficial reading of the Bible leads to a superficial understanding of the Gospel. When we humble ourselves and realize that we're reading someone else's mail, we take the time to learn about the original context - historical, religious, cultural, social, political, etc. This approach is a lot more work but also much more humble, much more accurate, and much more rewarding.
DeleteIndeed, step one in the study of any ancient documents is to understand them in their own settings. These comments bring us back to the fact that Christianity in our time is not in its Golden Age and church people are a reflection of the present degenerating culture. Eventually, only you and I (and the Guardians) will be left, Dan!
DeleteHappily, unexpected people appear, like Jordan Peterson in Canada. Even so, it would be wise to have a church Bible class that has as one of its textbooks Dmitry Orlov's The Five Stages of Collapse. In an indirect way, it explains eschatology. To seriously address spiritual regeneration in the churches, they will need to take an inventory of how they are living - a topic I address in part 2 of The Grand Deception.