Note: Part 1 of this study was delivered at the EBible Fellowship 2008 Summer Bible Conference. The audio files for this study can be found on this page.
You have just been told by someone or you have heard through the grapevine that hell is not the frying pan of eternal torment that you once thought it was. Suddenly, the communication goes blank; you lose all touch. You were listening on the radio and you lost power. Your friend just passes by and leaves you with this statement, and you are left to try to figure out what that was all about.
Is hell less severe? Is it more severe? All that you heard was that it is not what you thought it used to be. Now what do you do? You are left with a challenge because a doctrine that you had held to throughout your life has suddenly been questioned.
So you are left with two choices. You can either sit there and wait for somebody else to tell you more or you can go into the Scriptures to try to dig it out for yourself to see if this statement is true and to see if there is more to this.
Hopefully, your curiosity is piqued and you are not just going to listen and believe what somebody else says. Rather, you are going to be challenged to get into the Scriptures and dig to find out what “hell” is really all about. After all, this word is in the Bible; plus you know that there is more than one Greek or Hebrew word that is translated as “hell” in the Bible. So you are now left with trying to figure out if this is so.
This is the challenge that we are going to have here today to close this session for this day’s studies. So I want to ask each one of you to go along with me as we go through the Bible to try to see what the Scripture teaches on this subject.
We are to have no bias going into the study and no preconceived notions that we will take in with us. Rather, we are going to now dig and find out what the Scriptures teach about this topic of “hell.”
The first place that I would start would be to look at the English word “hell” that we find many times in the Bible. I would start with a concordance to see how many times it is translated. Is it translated from different Greek and Hebrew words as “hell”?
The first place that you will probably come to is the word “hell” that is translated in the Greek from the word hades, so this will be the starting point of our study today. We are going to look at the word hades, which is translated many times as “hell” in the Greek of the New Testament, to see exactly what it is teaching.
Is it teaching about some place that is an eternal habitation for people? In the past, we always thought that this was a place where people who were unforgiven sinners would go. So let us take a look at the word hades in the Greek to see for ourselves if it really is so that “hell” is not that frying pan of eternal torment that we once or maybe always throughout our life thought that it was.
As we go into the Scriptures together, let us go to Matthew 11. Jesus is speaking and He says in Matthew 11:23:
And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.
What do you notice about the first reference that we are looking at today about the word “hell”? What are some things that you notice in this context of this one single verse where Jesus is speaking about Capernaum and says, “You are exalted unto heaven, but you shall be brought down to hell”?
I noticed two things right away in this one verse about “hell.” One of them is that it is referred to as “down,” and is that not what we always thought? We have maybe heard someone say euphemistically after someone dies, “Well, I hope that they are not ‘down there.’ I hope that they are ‘up there’ instead.”
“Hell” has always been referenced in directional terms as “down there,” whatever this was supposed to mean; because if you study the physics and geology of the earth, we know that somehow, probably, at the center of the earth, it is one big ball of fire, at least that is what scientists conjecture. Nobody can drill deep enough to figure this out at this point; obviously, they never will at this stage either. But whatever that was supposed to mean, is this supposed to be a place that is somewhere down below? The earth is not flat, is it? No, of course not. It is a ball; it is a globe and it rotates around the sun.
So once we figure this part out, what does “down” mean anyway? “Down” could only mean the center of the earth, right? We always thought that “hell” was “down” and “heaven” was “up.” There was an understanding that outside of our galaxy would still be considered “up” because we look up to the moon and the sun and outside of our galaxy, if that is where God currently resides. We understood “up” but not “down.” We do not know what “down” really means.
The other thing that I noticed about this verse, other than “hell” being representative of “down,” is the fact that it is the opposite of “heaven.” Capernaum is “exalted unto heaven” but they are going to be “brought down to hell.” So it is the opposite of “heaven”. Whatever “heaven” is, “hell” is now the opposite.
So let us try to figure out what “heaven” means. When you hear the term “heaven,” this means what? Among many things, what does this mean? Being in the presence of God is one answer. “Paradise” is another synonym that we use for “heaven.” If the term “heaven” insinuates that it is “with God,” then it is also going to be a place where you are going to live and reside forever. Whatever “mansions” that Jesus was going to prepare a place for, whatever that all means, that is “heaven,” at least we thought so up to this point.
“Hell” is the opposite of whatever that is, so this is what we get from this verse. Let us keep going though because we need to establish a solid footing in order to see what is meant by “hell” in the Bible. Again, we are questioning what we have just heard that “hell” is not that frying pan of an eternal torment that we thought it was, and we are trying to figure out for ourselves if this is true or not. The first verse that we looked at helped us to see that it is “down” and that it is the opposite of “heaven.”
So now let us go to Matthew 16:18 where Jesus says:
And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
So is this verse talking about the eternal or the external church? This is speaking about the eternal church, which is differentiated from the external because the external church is the external establishment and organization of the New Testament church that we now know today has been disbanded; God has vacated the external church. The eternal church is what is in view here even though those in the external church will point to this verse and say that the church age will never end. However, we know, spiritually speaking, that this is talking about the many other places in the Bible where it is speaking about the eternal church. By “eternal,” I mean the body of people who are all forgiven of their sins who are called the “saved” or the “elect”; it is those who are going to Heaven. So these are all synonyms of the same thing.
Here we see that Jesus said:
…I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
This is referring to the “gates of hades.” This is the word hades again in the Greek, so the “gates of hades” are not going to “prevail against” what? It is not going to prevail against the saved people. However, what is insinuated in this verse is that the “gates of hell” will prevail against the non-church, those other than the eternal church, which is anyone who is not saved, anyone who is not elect.
This is not going to necessarily cause us to change our view on “hell” as yet. I am still trying to establish what Scripture is teaching so far. So whatever “hell” is and the “gates of” is referring to, it is not going to prevail against the saved.
Let us go on to look at Luke 16 to try to build our understanding of “hell” so that we can come to some kind of consensus about what “hell” really is. In Luke 16, we have that great parable of the rich man and Lazarus. In Luke 16:19-23, we read:
There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom…
What is “Abraham’s bosom” a metaphor for? This represents God, God Himself. We especially and in particular see God the Father, but this also represents Heaven.
So here we see that this beggar is carried by the angels into “Abraham’s bosom,” and then we read:
…the rich man also died, and was buried…
This is a huge clue here. The rich man died and so did the beggar, but it says that the beggar was “carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom.” This does not say that the beggar was buried; it just says that he was carried:
…the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell…
Without even skipping a beat, we read the very next phrase, which should not even be a new verse because it is the same sentence that is only separated by a semi-colon after the word “buried”:
…And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments…
So in verse 22, we read that he “died” and was “buried,” with a semi-colon after it, and then we read, “And in hell,” and then what follows? Where was he buried? He was “buried” in the ground, “for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” Today, people are typically buried six feet underground. And here it says that he “was buried; And in hell.” In other words, this is insinuating that after he was buried, he was “in hell.”
We of course know what has been understood previous to this. He died, he was unsaved, and he went to hell. However, the Bible does not say this. It says that he “was buried; And in hell” all in the same phrase. It is saying then that he was “in hell” when he “was buried.”
So this is already giving us a clue that perhaps “hell” just means—at least the word hades so far—the ground, the grave where people are buried. But this is not enough, necessarily, to prove any point, so we have to go on.
Let us go to Acts 2 where we will find this word hades again. We are looking at this Greek word hades that is translated many, many times as “hell.” In Acts 2, we will read about Christ’s death and resurrection, and let us keep this word and this tableau in view. “Tableau” is a fancy word. It just means that it is like a sketch or something that happens to give us a picture of a certain reality. So the reality of Acts 2:25-27 is what is in view:
For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved: Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope: Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
It says here in verse 25 that David spoke, so this had to be
a Messianic Psalm, right? And when I say “Messianic,” what do I mean? It
means that what was said was about
Christ. David is speaking, but he is representing Jesus Christ.
Metaphorically and in a simile, David’s life was representing Jesus Christ in a
certain way.
So we see an example of this tableau because it says in verse 27, Acts 2:27:
Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
Notice again that this is just reiterating something. Acts 2:27 says two things, but it is reiterating something that is very similar. The last part of this is easy to understand:
…neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
What corrupts when you die? The body starts to corrupt as soon as it dies. Wherever someone might die, in a hospital or in a nursing home, they will leave the body for the family to come and pay their last respects, and they will only leave it for one to two hours at most. They will need to move it because it starts decaying that quickly. They will need to refrigerate the body to keep it from decaying. Then an undertaker or funeral director will come and get the body and take it back to the funeral home where they will refrigerate it and prepare it for the funeral.
So the body corrupts very quickly. This is why in Old Testament times when someone died, they buried them the same day. They could not even let the body sit overnight. If you remember when Lazarus was dead, his sister said to the Lord, “By this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.”
So the body corrupts, but Acts 2:27 also said:
…thou wilt not leave my soul in hell…
So what is Acts 2:27 telling us?
Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
The body corrupts in the grave. Where is the soul? In this case with Jesus Christ, in this tableau, in this Messianic Psalm of David’s that we have read referenced in Acts 2 by Peter who is giving a sermon in this chapter, we are seeing that it is the fact that He was not left in the grave. He was not left in the grave because He resurrected, did He not? Of course He did.
Let us go to Acts 13:33-37:
God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.
We can see that He raised Him up.
And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David. Wherefore he saith also in another psalm, Thou shalt not suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
You see, we are reading the same verse again from that Psalm.
For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption:
This is because David’s body was put in the grave, but then it says:
But he, whom God raised again, saw no corruption.
Jesus Christ, who is Messianically referred to by David in the Psalms, did not see corruption in the tableau that was seen 2000 years ago. We have been shown that His soul was not left “in hell.” And where does the body corrupt? It corrupts in the grave.
So this is all talking about the same thing, which gives me a little more credence to believe that this place of “hell” is not a place of eternal torment. It is a place where corruption happens. It is about corruption.
So let us now go to 1 Corinthians 15. Again, we are looking at the Greek word hades, which we also find in 1 Corinthians 15. We read in 1 Corinthians 15:54:
So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
Death is in view here, but in this chapter we read about the incorruption of the believer who escapes this corruption of death and the grave.
Then verse 55 says, 1 Corinthians 15:55:
O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
What is linked inextricably together in this verse? Death and the grave. We see them linked together again and again. We saw this earlier in Gospel accounts as we have been looking at this Greek word hades.
Once again, 1 Corinthians 15:55:
O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
This is the word hades.
O death, where is thy sting? O grave [hell], where is thy victory?
This is reiterating it once again. God underscores something a lot of times in the Bible by saying something twice but differently. Here He is saying:
O death, where is thy sting?
And then:
O grave, where is thy victory?
These are the same thing: death and the grave. These again follow suit, one after the other. They are almost the same thing because when you die you go into the grave; you are buried.
O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
Now, the English word “hell” is translated in the New Testament Greek as hades and in the Hebrew of the Old Testament as she’owl. But have you ever wondered how you can search out a word from the New Testament back in the Old Testament? The construction of this verse where “death” and the “grave” are talked about simultaneously can help us to look into the Old Testament to search out this Greek word hades.
So how can I know that the words that have been translated as “hell” from the Old and New Testaments are the same? The answer is found when we have a verse that links to the Old Testament where it uses the same word—for example, the same context of “grave” that we find here—then we know that we are on the right track.
Now we are going to go to the Hebrew of the Old Testament to look at the word she’owl to see if this is synonymous with the Greek New Testament word hades. We will start with this verse from 1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 15:55:
O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
Now let us transition to the Old Testament where we read in Hosea 13:14:
I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction…
Do you see the similarity? This is just like 1 Corinthians 15:55:
O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
Hosea 13:14 again:
…O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction…
Guess what the word is for grave here? This is not the New Testament Greek. This is the Hebrew of the Old Testament, and the word for “grave” here is she’owl.
So at this point, our challenge is to see if the word hades in the Greek—which we have seen refers to the grave, the ground, the dirt, like the dirt that we toil in when farming, the dirt that we bury people under, the earth—is the same as she’owl. In this verse, we see that she’owl is the “grave”:
…O grave, I will be thy destruction…
So let us continue to look at she’owl, which in the Hebrew is Strong’s #7585, to see if this word is really referring to the “grave.” Let us see if the King James translators were correct when they translated this word as “grave.”
We are now going to do a word study where we compare hades in the Greek with she’owl in the Hebrew, but we are also tying these in because in both places these words were translated as “grave.” We saw that the verse in 1 Corinthians 15 allowed us to go to Hosea 13, and now we know that we are on the right track and that these two words are being used by God in the same context.
In 1 Samuel 2:6, we read:
The LORD killeth, and maketh alive: he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up.
What is the context of this verse? God kills and He also makes alive. He brings down to the grave and He also brings up.
If you were to take an SAT test in high school, A would be to B what C would be to D. These are the analogies that are often given, and we have this same construction here in this verse. The Lord kills (A) and He brings down to the grave (C); He makes alive (B) and He brings up (D). To make alive is equivalent to bring up; to kill is equivalent to bring down to the grave, which is the word she’owl.
So this is explaining that when you are killed, you are buried; you go to the grave. Hades and she’owl are often translated as “hell” and we are seeing and finding proof that these two words are pointing to the grave, the dirt, where someone is buried after they stop breathing and they are dead and where their body begins to corrupt. A dead body goes into the grave.
The first place that she’owl is mentioned in the Bible is found in Genesis 37, so let us go there for an interesting look at this word she’owl. Jacob is speaking. This is when Jacob thinks that his son Joseph is dead. We read in Genesis 37:33-35:
And he knew it, and said, It is my son’s coat; an evil beast hath devoured him; Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces. And Jacob rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days. And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted; and he said, For I will go down into the grave [she’owl] unto my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him.
Jacob’s name was changed to Israel. Jacob had twelve sons; he was the father of many nations, as Abraham was. But Jacob was not talking about going to an eternal place called “hell,” was he? No, of course not. Jacob was referring to his son, Joseph, who was a beautiful picture of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Old Testament and who was clearly a believer as Jacob was, and he says:
…For I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning…
And this is the word she’owl, so this cannot be referring to an eternal place of torment. Jacob knows that he will die one day and, therefore, he will be put in the grave like everybody else. Saved and unsaved people go into the grave.
If you are a believer, your body is no better or different than an unbeliever’s. This is why only God knows the heart of man and He is the only One who knows who is or is not saved. In the flesh, we look very similar in a lot of ways and we act similarly in a lot of ways. However, one thing is common: if we die, we are going to be buried in some manner. This is what Jacob is referring to here.
Now let us look at a few more verses where we find the word she’owl in the Hebrew, which is most often translated as “hell” or “grave.” Our question is: is this really just referring to the grave and not an eternal place that either exists now or would be created at a later time, a place that is or will be “down there” somewhere, wherever that is?
Let us take a look at Job because Job mentions this a lot and he has some neat things to say about it. Job says, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, in Job 7:9:
As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away: so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more.
Again, this “grave” is just like the first verse we looked at in Matthew where we saw two things. One of them was the fact that “hell” was where? It was not “up” but “down.”
Here we read in Job 7:9 the same thing:
As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away: so he that goeth down to the grave…
This is almost insinuating that “he that goeth down to the grave” vanishes, too. He is gone; he ceases to exist. This is saying that he goes down to the grave and he is not going to come up again. He is done; it is over.
Now let us go to Job 17 where we will pick up she’owl again. In these verses that we are going to in Job, every time we find the word grave, it is the word she’owl in the Hebrew. In Job 17, we are going to see a choice in these couple of verses. Job 17:13-16:
If I wait, the grave is mine house…
This is the word she’owl.
…I have made my bed in the darkness. I have said to corruption…
Again, this is linked to corruption. The grave, the ground, this is where your dead body is put and this is where it corrupts and returns to the dust, “for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” Job says here:
I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister. And where is now my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it? They shall go down to the bars of the pit…
Here we find a different translation: pit. Here it is translated in the English as “pit” and not “grave,” but this is the same word she’owl in the Hebrew.
They shall go down to the bars of the pit…
This reminds us of what?
…when our rest together is in the dust.
Can this be anything other than the dirt?
Let us look at this again:
They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust.
So if I go into this “pit,” which is the Hebrew word she’owl that is also translated as “hell,” and keep in mind that the Greek word hades is also translated as “hell” or “grave,” what does “hell” then mean? I am saying that this means “grave.” It says here:
…when our rest together is in the dust.
This “dust” is referring to the “ground.” In a cemetery is a common rest. The bodies that are in the grave are, give or take, six feet under. They are all pretty close to one another and they all “rest together in the dust.” They have gone “down to the bars of the pit.”
Now let us go to one more passage, which is in Isaiah 38. Maybe I am not totally convinced. Could she’owl and hades just mean the “grave,” the ground where I am buried and not some other place or some place where Satan is ruling? We read in Isaiah 38:9-10:
The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and was recovered of his sickness: I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave: I am deprived of the residue of my years.
If your days are cut off, if you are deprived of the rest of your years, what has happened to you? You are dead; you have died. In the middle of this, Hezekiah said:
…I shall go to the gates of the grave…
Okay. This makes sense. You die and you go to the grave. “The gates of the grave” is just like what we saw in Job 17 where we read of “the bars of the pit.” They are both referring to “the gates of she’owl” because it is the same word.
So what does this remind us of? This reminds us of the phrase, “the gates of hell.” If you remember, we looked at Matthew 16:18:
…I will build my church…
Remember that this is referring to the eternal church and not the external church:
…and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
The common wisdom has been that this was referring to “hell” as an eternal place of fire, the frying pan of torture, and that “the gates of hell” would never affect my church or come upon my church. But now we have looked at “the bars of the pit” and “the gates of the grave,” in other words, “the gates of she’owl,” and they are just like the construction of Matthew 16 where we read of “the gates of hell.” Plus we see clearly from the Old Testament in Isaiah 38 and in Job 17 that “the bars of the pit” and “the gates of the grave” are clearly talking about the grave, the dirt, six feet under where your body goes to corrupt after you die.
So this is what Christ meant when He said:
…the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
This means that you are going to die; but if you are in the eternal church, you are saved. But let us say that I am not saved. On the way home today, we both die in a car accident. I go into the grave and so do you.
Does this then mean that Jesus was wrong because He said:
…the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
No, because He was referring to the eternal church.
So what is the difference? Your body stays in the grave and my body stays in the grave, but your soul goes to be with Christ. “To be absent from the body [is] to be present with the Lord.” But if I am unsaved, “the gates of the grave” do prevail against me because I do not go “up.” Remember that “hell” is “down.” If I am unsaved, if I am not of the elect, I stay there and I am not brought “up.” And now we are beginning to see that hades in the Greek and she’owl in the Hebrew mean the “grave” or the ground where I am buried.
As we begin to draw this study to a close, let us take a look at Psalm 30. Psalm 30 is a Messianic Psalm. What do I mean by Messianic? I mean that David is speaking but it is really the words of Christ. It is spiritually referencing either what Christ is going to go through in the tableau or what He has already experienced. We read in Psalm 30:1-3:
I will extol thee, O LORD; for thou hast lifted me up, and hast not made my foes to rejoice over me. O LORD my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me. O LORD, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave…
This is the word she’owl again.
…thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.
Again, let us say that we both die in a car accident. If I am unsaved, I stay. My soul ceases to exist. My body goes into the ground and decays. If you are saved, your body goes into the ground and decays, but you go “up” because you have been resurrected. You are with Christ. In the last day, your body will be resurrected and you will have your brand new glorified spiritual body for “the new heavens and the new earth,” if you are the elect of God. If you are not the elect of God, this topic will be left for another study that I will do next week relating to another word for “hell.”
Before we close, let us look a little more at she’owl and hades. Maybe you are not convinced as yet. Can we look at this from another angle to get more proof? Maybe this is not all that “hell” is about.
Let us go to Proverbs 15:24 where we read:
The way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell beneath.
So the “way of life” is contrasted with what? The “way of life” is contrasted with “hell beneath,” because the “way of life” is “above…that he may depart from hell beneath.”
So if life is “above,” what is “beneath”? What is “beneath” is death, the opposite of life. “Down” is the opposite of “up.” Life is “up,” but this does not say “death.” It says:
…that he may depart from hell [she’owl] beneath.
This is death because the opposite of life is death.
So, again, I think that we can be more confident of what this word she’owl is talking about. This is inextricably tied to dying, which is followed immediately with being buried in the grave. I am dead. I am buried. I am done. I hope that you are now convinced that she’owl is the grave, the dirt where you are buried.
Now, we had said that there is this same link to the word hades. We saw this same link in 1 Corinthians 15:55:
O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
So let us go back to close this study with another look at hades to try to understand two verses from the book of Revelation. We will just look at this word hades for now because there is another Greek word, gheh’-en-nah, which is translated as “hell,” but that is for next week. For now, let us look at Revelation 1:17-18 where John is writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and says:
And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead…
So we see the word “dead” here. We have not read the word hades yet, but let us keep reading:
…And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.
Again, the word “hell” or hades and the word “death” are tied together with the conjunction “and,” and they are really saying the same thing.
This is like saying that someone is happy and joyful, which are two synonyms that try to describe the same demeanor. If I am saying that an individual is both happy and joyful, I am just using more flavorful language to try to express or explain how someone is behaving or how someone feels.
Here He is saying, “I have the keys of hell and death.” Again, this is referring to the “grave.” This is hades and death. So He has the “keys” of the “grave.” When you die, you go into the grave. This is not referring to a place called “hell” where there is an eternal torment while you are still alive. When you are dead, you are in the grave. You are in the ground.
Again, He says here in Revelation 1:18:
…I am alive for evermore…
Christ said that He “was dead”:
…and, behold, I am alive for evermore…and have the keys…
In other words, Christ can turn the key to let you out of “the bars of the pit” or “the gates of the grave.” These are “the gates of she’owl” from the Old Testament. Christ has the keys to unlock those bars. Like the bars in a jail, Christ has the keys to unlock them. He is the One who can get us out of that grave of death, which, of course, involves the resurrection.
If you were to go into a place called “hell,” what did we always believe? We believed that you could never get out, but Christ says here that He has the keys, which means that we are already behind those bars. We are there but He has the keys to unlock them so that we can come out.
Where would be the only place that we could come out? We can only come out of the grave. The body is put there, but it is going to be resurrected in the last day, even though your soul goes to be with Christ as soon as you are dead if you are a believer and if you are saved and forgiven of your sin.
I said that there were two passages that I wanted to look at briefly, so let us also go to Revelation 20. We are seeing that this Greek word hades that is translated as “hell” a lot of times is really referencing the “grave” where someone is buried. In Revelation 20:13-15, we read:
And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell…
Here we have the same two words tied together with the conjunction “and.”
…death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell…
Here it is again.
And death and hell [hades] were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
So two things are noticed here. The first thing we notice is from verse 13, Revelation 20:13:
And the sea gave up the dead which were in it…
Then this is contrasted with:
…and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them…
So this is in reference to dead people being in the sea. How much of the earth’s surface is covered by water? About three quarters of the earth’s surface is covered by the water. The other quarter is the crust of the earth, the ground, the dirt.
Just looking at this from the physical perspective, we read:
And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them…
Once again, this is referring to death and the grave. Where are most people buried? Most people are buried in the ground; but if someone dies at sea, sometimes they leave their body there. Right?
So it says here of the grave:
…death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them…
And then verse 14 says, Revelation 20:14:
And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire…
And this is referring to the grave. But who will not be “cast into the lake of fire”?
If I die unsaved and you die and you are saved, our bodies are both in the grave until Christ comes back and the world ends. But we read in verse 15, Revelation 20:15:
And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
This person is saved who died with me in the car accident, but we read:
And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
This means that I am going “into the lake of fire” if I am unsaved, but he is not. However, his body is right next to mine because we were buried right next to each other.
So what happened? Christ will resurrect the believer’s body and give him a brand new resurrected spiritual body to live in “the new heavens and the new earth,” but the body of the unsaved remains in the grave.
In that last day, an earthquake will happen. The graves will just tumble to where these bodies will be coming out of the earth during those five months. Then on the last day, they will finally be thrown into the “lake of fire,” which we will look at next week when we will be looking at a different Greek word, the word gheh’-en-nah.
So the bottom line here is that those who will be “cast into the lake of fire” are those who are unsaved, because 2 Peter 3:10 says:
But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
This is referring to everything that remains on this earth: all of the works, all of the dead bodies that are in the grave, in hades, in she’owl, which is the dirt, the ground, the grave, where the body is buried. I really believe this.
This is only a cursory view of the word “hell.” This is only the beginning. We looked at hades in the Greek and she’owl in the Hebrew, but this is enough evidence to get you started today to see that this is the grave where the body goes. These words are tied to dying and going to the grave. The dead body is in the dirt, “for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”
The last and the next word that we have to look at, which again will be in the next study, is going to be the word gheh’-en-nah that is also translated as “hell” in the Bible. We will look to see what this word means before we tie all of this together in a nice bow and come up with a brand new understanding of what the word and concept of “hell” really is.
This is the exercise that we all need to go through whenever we are exposed to new doctrine, rather than just saying, “Oh well; because I hear this, I now believe it.” No. We need to look this up ourselves in the Word and “search the Scriptures” to see “whether those things were so.”
May God give us all the discernment to recognize truth from error. Amen.
Today we are going to pick up on our study on hell from last week. In Part 1, if you recall, we studied two words. One word was in the Hebrew, which was she’owl. The other word was in the Greek, which was hades. We tied them together with common verses, such as 1 Corinthians 15:55:
O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
We tied them together in the New Testament and in the Old Testament. We saw that she’owl in the Hebrew and hades in the Greek were really the same word in different languages.
Does anyone recall what a synonym for “hell” would be? We translate these words in the English as “hell,” but what did we find was a more common and descriptive word? We saw, without a doubt, that she’owl in the Hebrew was referring to the grave where someone is buried in the ground six feet under and that hades in the Greek was referring to the same thing, that it really referred to the grave where the body is put after someone has died.
Well, there is another Greek word that is used in the New Testament that is also translated as “hell” in the English in the King James Bible, and that Greek word is gheh’-en-nah. It is Strong’s #1067, gheh’-en-nah. This is the word that we are going to be looking at today to finish and complete our study on the word “hell” from the Bible.
If you recall, our challenge last week was to discover if our previous understanding of “hell” was accurate. Is it a fact that it would be some place of eternal torment, a veritable frying pan, where God would just be tormenting with fire and brimstone and pain and suffering throughout all of eternity?
We found last week that the first two words we looked at were really talking about the grave. Today we need to finish this up to see what gheh’-en-nah really means in the New Testament. Is gheh’-en-nah a place of eternal torment or is it something else?
So this word gheh’-en-nah is found twelve times in the New Testament, and we are going to focus on three passages in the beginning of this study. The focus of the word for “hell” today is going to be gheh’-en-nah, but I would also like you to notice another word that is tied inextricably to this word gheh’-en-nah in these passages, and that is the word “fire.” This word “fire” actually means fire, literal fire.
The first verse that I would like to look at is Matthew 5:22, so let us go there to begin this study of the word “gheh’-en-nah” in the Greek, which is translated as “hell” in the English. In Matthew 5:22, Jesus is speaking, and we read:
But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.
This word “hell” is gheh’-en-nah. It is Strong’s #1067 and it is followed by the word “fire.” This verse refers to being “in danger of hell fire,” whatever this means.
Again, we are taking an open view of the word “hell,” with no preconceived notion of what this may or may not mean. We have been challenged to look at “hell” differently, so now we are going to do a study as if we did not know anything about what “hell” means. We have no prejudice against what it might or might not mean. We are freshly looking at the Scriptures to teach us what “hell” is really about.
For now, as far as this word “fire,” I am only going to ask you to notice this, “hell fire,” whatever this means. There is not enough information in this verse to build any kind of doctrine from this word “fire.” Therefore, we have to go on to other areas in the Bible that will elucidate its meaning for us.
The next passage is also going to be in Matthew, Matthew 18, so let us go there. This is the second out of twelve places where the word gheh’-en-nah is found in the New Testament. We are going to break into the middle of what is being taught in this chapter. Once again, Jesus is speaking, and we read in Matthew 18:9:
And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.
So we have a little bit of a description here. Again, the word “fire” is found in this verse as well as the word “hell” or gheh’-en-nah, whatever this means. Is this a place or is this something different? Again, we do not know. We are trying to look at this with an open mind. All that we can see here is that Jesus is saying that it is better to have one eye to enter into life, rather than having two eyes and eventually “be cast into hell fire.”
Let us just keep this in mind as we go to the third reference, which is in Mark 9. Again, Jesus is speaking, and we read in Mark 9:43:
And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched:
So now we have a new piece of information. We see that fire is once again featured with the word gheh’-en-nah. However, unlike the last two, we see something that is more descriptive about this fire. What is more descriptive? We have a new description here. It is not just “hell fire,” it is gheh’-en-nah where there is “fire that never shall be quenched.”
So now we can understand perhaps why there has been a notion, a teaching from the past, that would seem to indicate that this place called “hell,” whatever it is or whatever it may mean, is never “quenched,” meaning that it burns continually. It is a fire that continually goes on and on and on.
Let us keep reading. Mark 9:44-47:
Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.
Again, we are getting a reaffirmation of the fire not being quenched.
And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell…
Once again, we read:
…into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.
We get a picture in our minds of a fire that just keeps burning, right?
And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire:
Jesus is teaching a parable here. If one of your eyes is looking at the wrong thing, “pluck it out.” Get rid of it because it is better to have only one eye and go into Heaven than to have two eyes and keep sinning and wind up being “cast into hell fire,” “into the fire that never shall be quenched.”
What does “shall never be quenched” or “unquenchable” mean in the English? This is referring to something that never goes out. In the Greek, “unquenchable” is the word asbestos and it is Strong’s #762. Of course, this is where our English word “asbestos” comes from.
Let us turn to a passage in the New Testament where we will read about this unquenchable fire, whatever this means. I believe that this will help us to understand hell a little bit better. In Luke 3:16-17, we read:
John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire: Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his garner; but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable.
This word “unquenchable” is the Greek word asbestos, so this is talking about an asbestos fire. This is where we find this word “unquenchable” and I think that it is used here in a way in which we can understand its meaning. So let us take a look at this verse 17 where the “fan is in his hand,” purging the floor, gathering the wheat.
What is a garner? When you gather wheat and put it into a garner, you are putting it into a place where you are going to store it. Wheat is something that is good; it is nourishment for us.
In the Bible, we read of the parable of the wheat and the tares that are contrasted together. The wheat is that which is good. It refers to the people who are righteous, those who are saved and forgiven of their sin.
But here, it says:
…the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable.
In other words, in this threshing floor where the wheat is being sifted, the chaff is going to fall through. This is what is left over after the wheat has been sifted. It is just excess. It is rubbish and good for nothing.
If a farmer burns this chaff, what is going to eventually happen to it? Maybe he will throw it into a big pile or perhaps into a pit in his field. He is going to burn it and then what is going to happen to the chaff? Is it going to keep burning? No. What is it going to turn to? It is eventually going to turn into ashes. It will smoke, the fire will smolder, and then eventually it is just going to turn into ashes that will eventually go out.
But here He uses the term asbestos fire, so let us take a look at this word a little bit more to understand what it means in the English. Then we are going to try to see if the Greek word helps us understand this a little bit better.
In the English, the primary definition of this word “asbestos” is “inextinguishable when set on fire.” So this Greek word asbestos that is translated as “unquenchable” means “inextinguishable when set on fire.” In other words, if it catches on fire, you will not be able to put it out; it will be impossible to put out.
We, however, use the secondary definition of this term in the English. Asbestos was used many years in buildings to be a retardant against fire, yet now there is a negative connotation that surrounds this word because of certain health hazards that are associated with exposure to this substance. The way in which we use this word is primarily to signify “minerals that are readily separated into long flexible fibers suitable for use as a noncombustible material.”
It is interesting how we use this substance in an opposite way to protect something from catching fire in the first place; recognizing that if this substance should catch fire, it would be very difficult to put it out. Asbestos material has been used in buildings to help contain or stop a fire from spreading, should one start.
So to be unquenchable or asbestos means that once something is set on fire, it cannot be put out. Therefore, let us look at the question of what happens to that chaff. The chaff is going to get burned with “fire unquenchable.” This is what I think that we need to understand.
I am proposing that this word does not mean that something is going to be on fire eternally or forever. I am proposing that this means that once something catches fire, it will not be reversed and put out. In this world, a fire truck is not going to be able to come spray hoses on it and put it out.
In other words, the idea is that once the Rapture happens, it will be irreversible. If you are left behind, you will not be able to change course. If you catch fire, in other words, figuratively speaking, you are not going to be able to be put out; but this does not mean that the fire is going to go on forever and ever and ever.
I have not proved this as yet; I am just proposing this idea. Let us try to prove this now to see if this is so.
Looking at this concept of this word “hell,” gheh’-en-nah, we have seen that this word “fire” has been related to the first three times we saw this word in the New Testament. So this “gheh’-en-nah fire” that is unquenchable, I am proposing that it does not mean that this fire is just going to keep burning. Any fire that we see today, once it is out of fuel, what happens to it? It goes out and everything in its path turns to ash; at which point, it is done.
Now we are going to look at the term “perishing in hell”; because along with “gheh’-en-nah hell,” we find terminology in the Bible surrounding the word “perish” or “perishing.” Again, we are looking at the English word “hell” that is Strong’s #1067 and is the Greek word gheh’-en-nah. We are still looking at this same word.
Let us go to Matthew 5:29 now and see if we can prove the fact that this fire that is never put out is actually referring to the fact that once something is put on fire, it is going to be impossible to put it out; and that once it goes out, there is nothing left; there is nothing that can be reserved from it, nothing can be gotten out of it.
I am reminded of when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown into the “fiery furnace.” They were cast into this “burning fiery furnace,” but it did not touch them. However, the king’s men who cast them in perished immediately because “the furnace [was] exceeding hot.”
So Jesus is speaking in Matthew 5:29-30 where we read:
And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.
We have not looked at this verse as yet and we see something different here. We are trying to understand the meaning of the Greek word gheh’-en-nah. This is the same “gheh’-en-nah hell.” What is the insinuation here? The insinuation is that an eye or a hand is better off perishing, whatever this means, rather than what? What is going to be thrown into this “gheh’-en-nah hell”? This says, rather than “thy whole body should be cast into hell.” This is interesting terminology that is being used here, “thy whole body.”
So we saw earlier that the word she’owl in the Hebrew and hades in the Greek, both words translated as “hell,” mean the grave where the body is put when someone dies. But there is something else being talked about here. Jesus is saying:
…for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish…
One of your hands or one of your feet or one of your eyes.
…and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.
Notice that there is a simile here: as your eye or your hand can perish, your whole body will also later. This is saying to take care of whatever the problem is now before your whole body is thrown into hell. This is insinuating that hell would be where something perishes and that it is better to lose just an eye or a hand now and be spared later. Another way of putting this is to say that it is better to go to Heaven and live forever than to keep the eye or the hand that is offending you and causing you to sin, by which the whole body will perish.
Now let us look at this word “perish” to see what this means. It is Strong’s #622. In the Greek, this word means “to utterly destroy,” which is interesting. We will pick this word up in Matthew 2. In Matthew 2:13, we read:
And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.
This is that word “perish.” It is the same word that Christ used when He said that it was better for your eye to be cast from you and perish, rather than having your whole body be cast into hell.
So what do we see that Herod wanted to do with Jesus? What does this mean that Herod wanted to “destroy him”? This means that Herod wanted to kill Christ. He wanted to take His life from Him. He wanted Him to “perish.” This is the same word as “perish.”
Let us now go to Mark 4:38 to try to further define this word “perish.” In Mark 4:38, we read:
And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish?
Here again we find this word “perish.” What did they mean by this? What was happening on that boat? The waves were crashing down and they were fearful that they were going to die, that they were just going to be consumed by the waves and the sea, by the boisterousness of the sea. They were concerned that they were just going to perish and die and be destroyed.
In Hebrews 1, we will take one more look at this word “perish.” In Hebrews 1:10-11, it reads:
And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands: They shall perish…
This is the same word: they shall be destroyed.
…but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment;
So what do we understand from Hebrews 1 is going to distinctly “perish”? We can see that this is referring to the heavens and the earth, this globe that we presently live on; it is going to “perish.” Fortunately for us, we know from other places in the Bible how this is going to happen. From this understanding, we are going to be able to understand what the whole body being cast into “hell” to “perish” means because we now know that the heavens and the earth are also going to “perish.”
At this point, let us turn to 2 Peter 3 to see how this is going to take place: In 2 Peter 3:11-12, we read:
Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire…
Here we see this “fire” again.
…shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
What have we rightly understood throughout time or at least lately during the New Testament era? What is going to happen to the heavens and the earth?
We have understood that the heavens and the earth are going to be dissolved; they are going to perish. We saw this in Hebrews 1 and now we are seeing this word “dissolved” here in 2 Peter 3, and 2 Peter 3 is telling us that it is just going to turn into ash; it is just going to be dissolved into nothing. It is not like it is going to continue on in some other galaxy. On that last day, which we now know will be October 21, 2011, the heavens and the earth “shall be dissolved.” They will “melt with fervent heat,” which is another description of the “unquenchable fire.” The heavens and this whole earth are just going to melt, like a nuclear meltdown. This system that we live in today is going to perish.
So let me ask you this. Are human beings going to “perish” in this same manner or are they going to go to a place called “hell,” a place that is different, a place that does not have this heat and fire that will just dissolve the heavens and the earth? Are people going to go to some other place where Satan will reside and be forever tormented in this place that is like a dungeon, a frying pan of torment?
Well, we know what is going to happen to the human beings left on this earth because of what we read in a verse before what we just read in 2 Peter 3. In 2 Peter 3:9, we read:
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish…
And here is that same word again.
…but that all should come to repentance.
This whole chapter of 2 Peter 3 is talking about the end of the world. This is the chapter where we read of the flood of Noah’s day and the reference to “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” And here we also see that God is “not willing that any should perish.” 2 Peter 3:10-12 goes on to tell us that the heavens and the earth are going to “perish.” They are going to dissolve, like Hebrews 1 told us. 2 Peter 3:10 tells us that they are going to “melt with fervent heat.”
This being so, what is going to happen to the human beings who are left on this earth? We have been warned that it is better that our eye be cast from us and perish now rather than having our whole body be cast into hell and perish at some point in the future. So the human beings are going to perish in the same sense that the heavens and the earth are going to perish, in that same way. They will perish in that same conflagration, that same fire on that same day, the last day, October 21, 2011.
At this point, let us see what the Bible has to say about being destroyed in hell. Is this destruction all going to happen in one day? Or is this just terminology that God uses to mean that it is over but the unsaved will still live forever, though in pain?
Let us go to Matthew 10 to see if we can understand further the meaning of being destroyed in hell. In Matthew 10:28, Jesus is speaking:
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…
Here we find again this word for “perish/destroy.”
…destroy both soul and body in hell.
We may have thought in the past that at the time of the Rapture the believers would be resurrected and given glorified spiritual bodies and that the unbelievers would also be resurrected in some form to go into a place called “hell” where they would reside forevermore. However, there is a key phrase in this verse that we just looked at.
What is going to be destroyed in hell? What is going to be destroyed in hell is “both soul and body.” Together, they are going to be destroyed.
We already proved that the body is going to perish like the heavens and the earth in that fire on the last day, and Jesus is now teaching us in another verse that “both soul and body” are going to be destroyed by Him. He is telling us that we do not have to fear someone who can kill the body, in the sense that the body is going to be put into the grave and perish where it will return to dust, but we also read something about the soul.
If you are a believer, “to be absent from the body [is] to be present with the Lord.” If you are an unbeliever, we have learned that your soul does not go to a place called “hell.” It cannot because your “soul and body” are going to be destroyed “in hell” and we have already seen that the body is going to be destroyed like the heavens and the earth. It is all going to “melt with fervent heat” on that last day.
So “both soul and body” are now being linked together. Your whole personality—what you are as a human being in both body and soul, everything that means “you,” everything that has your fingerprint and that is unique to you—is going to be destroyed in hell; it is all going to be “utterly destroyed.”
What is the opposite of destroying? Remember that we read that Herod “sought the young child’s life” and that he did this “to destroy him,” to kill Him, to kill Jesus as a young child; it was this same word “destroy.” So what would be the opposite of destroying something? It would be to preserve something; for example, to go on and live forever.
Let us look at Matthew 2:13 again:
And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.
Did Herod succeed? No he did not succeed in destroying Him. Who else attempted to destroy Jesus? Satan, but he was unsuccessful because Christ is the One “who liveth for ever and ever.” Christ told John in the book of Revelation, “I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore.” The opposite of destruction is to live forever, to have eternal life.
Do you remember what happened to Adam and Eve when God told them, “for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die”? Let us go back to Genesis and look at this because we are about ready to close this study and to really tie this all together. Do you remember what happened shortly after Adam and Eve disobeyed? We read in Genesis 3:22:
And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
So what did God not allow man the opportunity to do? He disallowed them to freely take of the “tree of life”; because if he ate of that tree, he would “live for ever.” This is why God’s salvation is totally sovereign to Him. Man does not have free will to pick and choose salvation. He cannot choose Christ and decide to “live for ever.” When Adam and Eve sinned, God made it very clear, “the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” At that point, they obviously gave up their right to eternal life; they gave up their right to “live for ever.”
The soul of man died on that day. Eventually, their bodies would die, too. If their bodies had died on that same day, then there would have been no more people; but God preordained “before the foundation of the world” all those whom He would save during the 13,000 years of earth’s history. Therefore, He allowed man to live. But what happens as we grow older? We see the evidence of sin in the degeneration of our bodies as we continue to decline until we finally die.
But God said here:
…and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
The opposite of living forever is to be destroyed. It is not living forever with the pain of torment. We know this because everywhere in the Bible where it talks about death, we do not see it contrasted with joy, exuberance, happiness. Rather, we see death, “gheh’-en-nah hell,” contrasted with life forevermore, eternal life.
So the opposite of eternal life is destruction, death, perishing, all of these words that we have looked at today. What will be destroyed are the heavens and the earth and the body and the soul. Therefore, they are not going to live forever.
However, the saved person—the one who has been forgiven of all of their sin—will have life forevermore. And it just so happens that this life is going to be without pain, without suffering, without sorrow. This is the description that Jesus gives us and it is wonderful, which is why we want it.
Many people become desirous of committing suicide because they believe that life is just too hard to bear. If eternal life meant the same kind of thing, would it be that appealing to people? Maybe not. But eternal life is the ultimate perfection. Having eternal life is the ultimate perfection. Therefore, the opposite of life is death, not life with pain and torment.
Let us close this study with one verse in Malachi 4, which I think underscores what we have been learning about gheh’-en-nah, another word for “hell” that simply means to be finally destroyed in that fire on the last day. In the Old Testament book of Malachi, we will see a verse that speaks loud and clear of that last day that we have been looking at in 2 Peter 3 where the heavens and the earth, the body and the soul, will be destroyed and perish in the same way. We read in Malachi 4:1:
For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble…
Everything, as we know it today, is going to be burned up and turned into ash. Like the chaff when it is burned up, it cannot be reversed once it catches on fire. Once it starts to burn, it is too late; it is done; it is over.
…and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
It is permanent; in other words, it is over.
So we have seen that “hades hell” in the Greek and “she’owl hell” in the Hebrew are both referring to the grave, and that “gheh’-en-nah hell” in the Greek is referring to the fire on the last day when everything will be completely burned up. We found no place in the Bible where the English word “hell” translated from one of these three foreign words in the Hebrew or Greek meant “a place of eternal torment.” We have seen I think fairly clearly that these words are either referring to the grave or to the fire on the last day when everything will be consumed at once, never to be again.
Let us pray not only in thanksgiving that God’s mercy is so great, because there is no place of eternal torment, but also because of the opportunity for eternal life where there is a perfection that we can hope for. Let us give thanks that we can cry out to God for mercy. Let us pray for this mercy, that He would be pleased to give it to each and every one of us here today. Amen.
1st Question: I wanted to ask about Matthew 10:28. Could this verse only pertain to the body and soul of those alive during the five months?
John: In Matthew 10:28, Jesus says:
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, obviously. The question is if this verse is referring to just those who are still alive on October 21, 2011, or if this would also include anyone who was unsaved throughout the 13,000 years of earth’s history preceding this time.
I do not know. This is a great question, but I do not know. Our understanding at this time is that when you die, your soul does not go to a place called “hell” because there is no place called “hell” other than the grave. Therefore, the soul just ceases to exist.
I did several studies back in 2007 (“The Essence of the Soul” November 18, 2007; “The Essence of the Spirit” December 30, 2007). These studies were based on “the dividing asunder of soul and spirit” and concerned the “twoedged sword” that pierces between the two. I still believe that the soul died when Adam and Eve committed that sin. If we are unsaved, we have a dead soul; we have a dead soul. Our spirit is alive—meaning that we have “the breath of life” in us from God—but that soul is spiritually dead; it is dead.
When you die, does it just maintain its nothingness? I do not know. Would it be cast into “gheh’-en-nah hell” on the last day? Is there still any substance to it? I do not know.
This is a challenging question and something to ponder. If anyone has any thoughts on this, please talk to me at lunchtime. I would love to hear your ideas on this.
2nd Question: You were mentioning “where their worm dieth not.” As the fire burns our bodies, are maggots going to be coming out of the bodies of the unsaved while that fire is consuming them? Let us focus on October 21, 2011 when this is going to happen.
John: I do not know what the term “where their worm dieth not” means. I have not done a study on this. Does anyone here understand this term? Greg is saying that this phrase relates to the shame. In other words, this term is focusing more on the shame that is related to death.
3rd Question: Have you looked at the parable of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16? This parable states that he was in “hell.”
John: We looked at this parable last week and saw that this is referring to the grave. The Greek word for “hell” in Luke 16 is the word hades. This is the grave where the body is put when someone dies. In that parable, God is saying that if the rich man could understand what had actually happened to him, he would then want to warn his brothers because he then recognized that life was over, that his whole life was a mistake, that he was deceived and that the life of leisure and riches that he apparently led was a complete deception and of no value. It definitely was not worth what he now faced, which was the loss of his eternal inheritance.
4th Question: Can we learn anything about the meaning of the unquenchable asbestos by looking at a parallel verse to Mark 9:45, which is Matthew 18:8?
John: In Matthew 18:8, we read:
Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire.
Notice, interestingly, that I did not bring this verse up because the word gheh’-en-nah is not here; the word “hell” is not here. But this is that fire that we always associate with gheh’-en-nah. Most places in the New Testament where you read gheh’-en-nah, it is also linked to the word “fire” that is in reference to October 21.
This is a good point. Does this “everlasting fire” relate to the word asbestos; meaning that once caught on fire, it cannot be reversed or put out, which would mean that you are not going to come out of it like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego did?
I would think this does relate asbestos to the “unquenchable fire.” It is a different word, “everlasting” instead of “unquenchable,” obviously. However, this might be a different lesson that the Lord is teaching with this word “everlasting.” I have not done a study on this.
Does anyone have any comments on this? I would think it is very much related to asbestos. I will, at least, look at this tonight when I go home. I thank you for this idea because it probably is the same thing, just looking at it from a different angle. My suspicion is that an “unquenchable fire” and an “everlasting fire” are the same concept, just looked at from a different angle of the picture. Thank you.