Newsletter December 2008 - What the Hell is Hell

8/8/2019 Newsletter December 2008 - What the Hell is Hell

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Is this your

version of hell?Did Jesus really teach that God would punish people in

hell forever?

What The Hell Is “Hell?”

The question: Based upon the Bible and, in particular, the words of Jesus, do you believe

that God will punish people by sending them to hell forever?

My answer: ABSOLUTELY NOT! Based upon extensive biblical study, I don't believe Jesus

taught people would spend eternity in hell despite the 15 or so verses in the gospels of

some English translations that mention hell. I am also aware of the mention in Matthew

25:46 of everlasting punishment. Hours of study have led me to the conclusion that we

have grossly distorted the meaning of these verses.

This is a subject that I hope to address extensively on our website. Many within evangelical

fundamental Christianity would see my view as heretical, which it is since heresy is defined

as “any opinions or doctrines at variance with the official or orthodox position.” However, I

am confident that a careful study of the Bible will show that the doctrine of an eternal hell

is a completely man-made invention that is extremely useful if your goal is to control the

masses.

It will take a lot of evidence to "prove" my position and yet no matter how much evidence I

may be able to provide, many will not accept this as truth. I understand that.

They say that one of the best ways to teach is to create questions. We can't answer all of

the following questions in this article but let me mention them anyway. We will addressone of them in this article and ultimately the rest on our website and perhaps in this publi-

cation at a later date.

1) What if the Hebrew word sheol which is translated as hell doesn't mean hell as currently

defined and never did?

2) What if there is only one verse in the entire Old Testament that even remotely implies

the existence of “hell” and that interpretation disappears when the context is understood?

3) What if the Greek word, hades, translated as hell in English in the New Testament,

doesn't mean a place of eternal torment?

4) What if, in the first 4000 years of biblical human history, God never once warned hu-

manity about a place of eternal punishment?5) What if there are numerous verses throughout the Bible that suggest a much different

conclusion to the destiny of mankind?

6) What if many within Christianity from its' earliest days believed something very different

regarding the ultimate fate of mankind compared to those today who believe in hell and

eternal punishment?



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We could ask many more questions but let me conclude with the question that we will ad-

dress in this article.

7) In the New Testament, 3 different Greek words are translated as hell -- hades, tartarus

(1 time) and the word we will focus on, gehenna. Twelve times gehenna appears in the

gospels of Matthew, Mark and the book of James. What if we have totally missed the

meaning of this word when we consider culture, context and time? What if gehenna wasconveying something to first century Jews that had nothing to do with a place of eternal

torment? Let's see if we can answer this question.

Gehenna is basically a transliteration in Greek for the Hebrew words " Gan Hinnom" which

in English is “valley of Hinnom.” This is an actual place in the Old Testament. It is men-

tioned 13 times in the O.T. but never once do the translators call this place "hell." It is al-

ways translated as “valley of Hinnom.” That alone should raise a red flag that something is

wrong.

The valley of Hinnom was located just

outside Jerusalem and if you visit Jeru-

salem today you can still walk in "hell,"

a.k.a. the valley of Hinnom. My wife,

Kelly, and I have done so.

Some terrible things occurred in this

valley with the greatest abomination

apparently being the sacrifice of chil-

dren. Ultimately this place became a

garbage dump and that was the case at

the time of Jesus. Fires would burn con-

tinually consuming the garbage that was

constantly added. It seems that it was

also a place where bodies of the indi-

gent, homeless and some criminals etc. were

disposed of upon their death.

To be buried in the Valley of Hinnon, to have

your body end up in Hinnom meant that your

life had very little meaning. To end up in Hin-

nom would suggest that you lived a worthless

life.

To this day, the Jewish people honour the bur-

ial places of their great ancestors, rabbis etc.

Hebron has the Cave of the Patriarchs, the

second holiest site to Jews. It is reputed to be

the burial place of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob,

Sarah, Rebecca and Leah. They honour Jo-

seph's burial spot in Shechem/Nablus and Ra-

chel's burial spot near Bethlehem as well as the graves of many great rabbis.

To be buried in Hinnom would be disgraceful and knowing this, Jesus says to those listen-

ing to him that they should do all they can in this life to avoid ending up in "Gehenna" or

the Valley of Hinnom. When we understand Jesus' words within the culture and context of

Hell today - the valley of

Hinnom at Jerusalem

Cave of the Patriarchs



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1st century Israel, he isn't telling his listeners that they are going to have to "convert' or

"get saved" or they will end up being punished forever in some place of eternal torment

called hell. He is telling them that they need to change the way they are living so that at

the end of their lives, their lives will have been lived with meaning and significance and will

warrant an honourable burial as opposed to those who end up in the valley of Hinnon.

What makes the words of Jesus even more forceful is that he directed this warning to notonly the public in general but He very specifically directed his warning to the religious lead-

ers of his time, the scribes, priests and Pharisees. Can you imagine being a great religious

leader, confident that you are living a holy, righteous life and along comes this itinerant

rabbi from Galilee, of questionable parentage by the way, and he has the audacity to sug-

gest that the way you are currently living isn't worth anything more than having your body

disposed of in the Valley of Hinnom, the local garbage dump?

How would you feel today if the body of a close relative or, in fact, your own body was

simply taken to the garbage dump and dropped onto a pile of garbage to be consumed by

the fires that were burning because your life was viewed to be relatively worthless?

At another time we will address the other questions that we listed but people must realize

that nowhere in the Bible up to the time of Jesus, did God ever mention a place of eternal

torment called hell. Every single time in the Old Testament in the King James Bible that

you read the English word hell, you will find the Hebrew word sheol. It is translated hell

but it is also translated as grave and the translators would have been better off using

grave each and every time. To use “hell” every time would require a very different defini-

tion of hell other than the one used today.

Do Christians for example believe Jacob or King David is spending eternity in hell? The Bi-

ble definitely sees them going to sheol. Do you think it means they went to "hell?" I doubt

very much that there are any Christians who think Jacob or David is in hell being punished

eternally.

The translators would have been more accurate if they hadn’t used the word grave eitherto translate sheol. There is another Hebrew word that is better translated grave. If you do

a little digging you will find out that the name Sha’ul, a.k.a. the apostle Paul, and sheol are

related words. They both come from a three letter root word, shaw-al, which means to in-

quire, to ask or demand. A basic Strong’s Concordance will confirm this meaning. If that

seems to have little, if anything, to do with the grave and absolutely nothing to do with

“hell,” I would agree. To interpret the meaning somewhat literally, when someone dies, the

“earth” asks or perhaps demands that the body be returned to where it came from. Since

are bodies are made up of physical elements of the “earth,” our bodies return there, i.e.

“ashes to ashes” and “dust to dust.” From a more allegorical view, sheol is simply the place

of dead. In essence, sheol carries no meaning as to the “state” of the dead. To suggest

sheol implies a place of eternal torment is simply not true.

If you visit a Jewish bookstore you will find very few, if any, books on hell. There is a rea-

son for that. Their Bible, the Old Testament or TaNaKh, simply doesn’t mention it so why

would they write about it? That fact alone should cause us to reconsider our view. Do we

really believe that God left humanity in the dark for some 4000 years and then Jesus came

along and dropped a bombshell on mankind concerning their "eternal destiny" or was Jesus

speaking to the Jews of his time, using figures of speech that were relevant to his culture

in order to make his point? Ultimately we each must decide for ourselves.



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I s t h i s h e l

l t o d a y

….

o r i s i t t h i s ?

I do not believe in a God or Goddess who will fail in any way. Using biblical terminology,

God is the Good Shepherd and even if the Good Shepherd has 99% of his flock, God will go

out and gather in the lost 1%. Today fundamental Christianity seems to serve a God who

will have to settle for 1% or maybe 10% or even 20% but in the end will punish the huge

majority of mankind in hell forever. To put it simply and to quote Neale Donald Walsch in

Conversations With God -- "we need a new God" or at least “a new understanding of God.”

Newsletter December 2008 - What the Hell is Hell

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