Hell is not an eternal fire

What is hell? It is commonly taught in the Christian church that all those that are not saved will ultimately end up in hell and be punished with torment forever and ever and never have any rest from it. Does the Bible define hell and if so does it say that it will be a place where non believers will go and be punished for all of eternity? Let us look at what the Bible says about hell.

In the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible the word hell is found a total of 53 times. Of the 53 times that hell is used 31 are in the Old Testament and 22 in the New Testament. In the Old Testament every place the world hell is used is the Hebrew word sheol, which is #7585 in the Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, and this word means grave. So, in every case where the word hell is used in the Old Testament it actually means grave. Further, the Hebrew word sheol, is found in the Old Testament a total of 65 times of which 31 are interpreted grave, 3 interpreted pit and 31 interpreted hell. So one might ask why the word sheol is interpreted as hell about half of the occurrences it is used? In contrast, in the Green’s Interlinear Bible, which is a copy of the original Hebrew, Chaldee, and Greek manuscripts, the word hell cannot be found anywhere, neither in the old nor the new testament.

So, even though it is commonly believed that hell will be a place for all non-believers to spend all of eternity in which they will be continuously punished, does the Bible really teach that? This is not questioning God’s word but mans interpretation of it.

In the KJV Bible, the first occurrence of the word hell in the Old Testament is not until Deuteronomy 32:22 where is says: “For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.” So, if you put the word grave in place of hell in this verse it changes it from ‘the lowest hell’ to ‘the lowest grave’. That sounds more appropriate because otherwise it sounds like there are levels of hell which would have to mean that some will not have it as bad as others in hell, yet they are all supposedly in constant torment for all of eternity. What would be the purpose of levels if no one is ever getting out and it is always torment constantly? How much worse can it be? The idea of levels of hell does not make any sense and is simply a misguided idea that is probably taken from this verse long ago.

In the New Testament there are three words used for hell which are Strong’s #s 86, 1067 and 5020. Strong’s #86 is used four times and means: unseen, hades, place of departed souls, grave, hell. Strong’s #1067 is used 17 times and means: gehenna, valley of Hinnom, name for place or state of everlasting punishment. Strong’s #5020 is used one time and means: tartaros, incarcerate in eternal torment. In Revelation the word hell is used four times and in all cases is Strong’s #86, a place for departed souls.

In Deuteronomy 4:24 and in Hebrews 12:29 it says that God is a consuming fire. The word consuming in both verses, in Hebrew and Greek, means to consume or devour. In Matthew 10:28 Christ said “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”  This is referring to God being able to destroy or consume the flesh body and the soul, to utterly destroy them. Not a place of punishment, but a place of utter destruction.

Let’s look at John 3:16 for a moment. It says “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” The word perish in this verse is this word appollumi. What does ‘to perish’ mean? Does it mean to live eternally in hell or to die and be no more? In the New Testament, the word perish, is used 28 times of which 23 are the Greek word appollumi (Strong’s #622) which means: to destroy fully, die, lose, mar, perish. What Christ was saying is that whoever believes in Him will live in Heaven and never die. So one can assume that the opposite is true for those who do not believe in Him – they will die. So the question is, does die mean for the flesh only or is it also the soul and does it mean to exist no more? Perhaps it can be determined what this word means by looking at how it is used in the context of other verses. Looking at the English word perished it is found that this same word is what is used in 5 of the 7 occurrences in the New Testament. In the other two occurrences of this word it is Strong’s #599, which means: to die or be dead and the other is Strong’s #488, which means: to destroy, to be slain. From this it is quite clear that death means just that, to be dead and no longer alive.

Now, let’s go back to Matthew 10:28. The word kill in this verse is Strong’s #615 which means: to kill outright, to destroy, put to death, kill, slay. The word hell used in this verse is Strong’s #1067 which means:  gehenna. The word destroy in this verse is Strong’s #622 which is what we saw earlier in John 3:16 which means to destroy fully. Note that Strong’s #622 is from the base of two words, Strong’s #3639 and #575. Strong’s #575 is the Greek word apo which means:  off or away from. Strong’s #3639 is olethros, which is from the word ollumi, which means:  to destroy, and is used of death and punishment.

From what we have found so far, hell sounds more like a final destruction of the soul than a place of never ending punishment for non-believers. We know that God’s word does not contradict itself so when referring to the final destination of the soul it cannot mean a never ending punishment some places and complete destruction in others. So, we must then ask, does God mean to punish non-believers for all of eternity? And if so, to what gain if there is never to be another chance for these souls to repent and come out of this state? Why did God create us in the first place and what did God say He wants from us? He created us, and all things, for His pleasure – Revelation 4:11. This particular word ‘pleasure’ in Revelation 4:11 is #2307 in Strong’s, thelema, and it means a determination, choice, specific purpose, desire, will. In addition, God has no pleasure in the death of His children, even the wicked as Ezekiel 33:11 says, “Say unto them, ‘As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live:” What does He want from us? He wants our love! Hosea 6:6 – “For I desired mercy, and not sacrifices; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.” Also Mark 12:33 – “And to love Him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

Let us look at the book of Luke 16:20-31 - Jesus tells the parable of Lazarus and the rich man to give us a glimpse of the difference between those who go to Heaven on the good side of the gulf and those who go to the wrong side of the gulf. The parable explains how after the rich man died and was on the wrong side of the gulf, referred to as hell, he was tormented. This word tormented is Strong’s #3600, odunao and means grief and sorrow. He was able to see those on the other side with the Lord and even spoke with Abraham. He asked for a drop of water to ease the pain. A drop of water would do nothing to ease pain of being burned by fire. He was not being tormented by fire but by grief and his own shame and embarrassment. You ever feel the burning sensation of embarrassment when your face turns red? He was ashamed of the fact that he didn’t make it to the right side of the gulf in Heaven and even asked if Abraham could send someone to his brothers that were still living so that they might be convinced and not end up in the same place that he was. So, if this is a picture of hell, which was given by Christ, then the people on each side can see each other and even talk to each other. Therefore if hell is a never ending, burning fire and torture, how is Heaven going to be all peaceful and wonderful if we can see and hear those in hell in torment – forever? What did God say about what will happen to satan? Ezekiel 28:18-19, “…therefore I will bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the Earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.”  What does perish mean? This word is Strong’s #398, awkal, which means to eat, burn up, consume. This no doubt means to be finished and be no more. To be brought to ashes leaves no doubt that satan will be utterly consumed and have no more life or existence. So much for the idea that satan will be the ruler of hell for all of eternity.

Let’s take a look at the example in Psalms 37 of what it will be like for the wicked in that so often they seem to get ahead financially. But God says to not be concerned about that and keep watching because when they die their soul will be like the fat of a lamb when it is roasted over a flame and it drips into the fire and burns up, Psalms 37:20. They become nothing but smoke just like the fat of the lamb when it hits the flames. This lines up with what God said will happen to satan as we just read, they will be burned up and be no more!

Finally, considering the fact that the first time the word Sheol is translated hell is not until Deuteronomy 32:22, what about all the people that lived prior to that time? According to what we see in the Bible they were not aware of a place called hell and therefore had no knowledge or warning of an eternal punishment for not believing in God. For example; in Genesis 2:17, when God told Adam and Eve to leave the tree of the knowledge of good and evil alone and strictly forbade them to touch it He never mentioned or warned of hell or of any kind of eternal punishment. When they disobeyed He banished them from the garden and sentenced them to an eventual physical death of the flesh. When God destroyed all the people during Noah’s flood because there was nothing but evil on their mind continuously, Genesis 6:1-7, there was never a mention or warning of hell or of an eternal punishment prior to that. Likewise, before God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, Genesis 19:24-25, there is no mention of a place called hell where there is eternal punishment. Yet God hated their sin so much that in one instant He wiped out the entire population in both of those cities. In fact, in each of these cases, and many others, there is no mention of hell or warning from God to the people of an eternal burning hell, but instead the people all suffered a physical death of the flesh and went to the grave (sheol). Further, as we saw what happened to Lazurus and the rich man, upon death of the flesh, everyone goes to paradise either on the good side of the gulf or the bad.

In conclusion, the origin of the word hell means to cover or hide, like when you cover a body in a grave, for example. The idea of a never ending burning flame and torment was probably conjured up in someone’s mind in the church long ago to try and scare people into going to church lest they go to this place called hell. The idea of an eternal hell is like the rapture theory in that they were not originally part of God’s word but after being taught as fact and part of the Bible for so long that most people generally accept them as truth without question. It’s the old saying that if you tell a lie for long enough it becomes the truth. It’s time to take the blinders off and start seeing what God’s word really teaches and stop following the traditions of men that do nothing but cause a great deal of confusion. Ask yourself this, why would a loving God, that wants all of His children to be with Him in Heaven, be willing to let those that did not choose to believe in Him after living in the flesh maybe 75 or 80 years, be tormented for all of eternity, in pain and suffering, forever and ever, without end?