Proposed Thesis
Hell (and its related terms in Scripture) is an eternal place of never-ending fire,
intended for Satan and evil spirits, and a place where people will be cast into
as punishment for rejecting God. The goal of this treatise is to uncover the term and type of hell's punishment for humans. This is not a book and it is not written for persuasion. Rather, this is a personal endeavor to exhaustively evaluate the Biblical passages on the subject, and to come to a personal conviction.
The Fires of Hell
In many places throughout Scripture, hell is
described as a place of fire (Matt 5:22, Matt 18:8-9, Mark 9:43-48). The fire
is an eternal fire (Matt 18:8). Allegorically, the tongue is said to be “set on
fire by hell” (James 3:6; also see Jesus’ parable in Luke 16:19-31 where the
rich man’s tongue is on fire and in torment).
In Revelation 20:13-15, both death and hell (separate concepts in
Revelation, but always seen together) give up their dead and are themselves
thrown into the lake of fire, and those from them whose names are not written
in the book of life are also thrown into the lake of fire. Interestingly, it
makes the distinction of anyone whose name was not written in the book of life,
rather than saying that everyone is in death and hell. Is there redemption for
any of these people? Is there a distinction between death (perhaps simply
people who have died) and hell (those who have already served some sort of
punishment)?
The Power of Hell
The “gates of hell” (Hades) is a term used to
describe the power and authority of hell that will come against the church in
futility to destroy it (Matthew 16:18). Jesus holds the keys to death and hell
(Revelation 1:18).
Judgment
Jesus warns to fear the one who can destroy both
body and soul in hell by throwing people there after they die (Matthew 10:28,
Luke 12:5). “Destroy” here is hardly a concept of endless burning. Hell is a
place people are sentenced to (Matthew 23:33). Angels are said to have been
sent to hell by God when they sinned and “chained up in dark prisons” where
their judgment is pending (2 Peter 2:4).
Eternal Fire and Gehenna
Jesus says that the fire of hell “never goes out”
but says nothing about the duration of time people themselves will burn in the
fire, if it’s endless or if it’s a finite term (Mark 9:43-48; also see Matthew
10:28, Luke 12:5). This perpetual fire was commonly considered as Gehenna, the
valley of refuse on the south and east of Jerusalem where not only trash was
continually burned but also dead bodies of animals and criminals.
Alternatively, could this never-ending fire somehow be an allusion to the
perpetual fire of the altar that was to be kept ever-burning for burnt offerings?
(Leviticus 6:8-13) If so, there is a double implication here: people burn in
hell as a sacrifice of sorts for their own offenses, and people will burn up
and will not remain in a state of eternal torment. The purpose of the burnt
offering and the never-ending fire was to completely consume the sacrifices to
the point where only ashes remained. Jesus’ following statement “everyone will
be salted with fire” (Mark 9:49) is one that is rife with debate and can either
be interpreted as people being preserved in endless fire or destroyed
completely, and so it does little for clarifying the discussion. Regardless of
the precise allegory being referenced, the point of the reference seems to
remain the same: the substance in the everlasting fire will be consumed completely.
Gehenna is also pictured in Matthew 5:22 as the
destination of those who call another “fool”.
Death and Hades
In a
statement of judgment, Capernaum is prophesied to “go down to Hades”, which
perhaps is a picture of all those who reject the Messiah (Matt 11:23, Luke
10:15). However, the judgment is clear against Capernaum on account of their
unbelief in the face of the miracles performed for them, so this may be
isolated to that generation.
“Gates
of Hades” is a term used to denote the power of evil, specifically against the
church (Matt 16:18). In this picture, Jesus gives Peter the keys of the kingdom
of heaven (power and authority) to bind and loose things both in heaven and on
earth. In Revelation 1, Jesus claims to hold the keys of death and Hades. The
contrast in these two texts is intriguing - in one, Peter holds the keys of the
kingdom of heaven and thus Hades will not overcome the church; in the other,
Jesus holds the keys of death and Hades and thus they will not overcome him.
Death
is a pale horse in the great throne room scene of the seven seals, and Hades
follows with Death in an undistinguishable way. Authority is given to both of
them for destruction (killing) on earth (Revelation 5-6, specifically 6:7-8).
The “sea” holds a certain number of the dead (Revelation 20:13) distinct and
separate from death and Hades, which themselves hold a number of the dead. The
lake of fire is the second death (Revelation 20:14-15), a place for those not
written in the book of life. After the sea and death and Hades give up their
dead, both death and Hades (not the sea) are thrown into the lake of fire, a
place where the devil (Satan), the beast and the false prophet were already
thrown (Revelation 19:20-21, 20:10). The devil, beast and false prophet will be
tormented day and night forever and ever but this eternal torment does not
extend to anyone else. In fact, just prior to these three being thrown into the
lake of fire, the army that Satan gathered from the four corners of the earth
(countless in number as “the sand of the seashore”) are devoured by the sword
of God and by fire (Revelation 19:21, 20:7-9). The lake of fire has no apparent
prior context in all of Scripture (even in the story of Lazarus and the rich
man, it is a picture of Hades by name, not the lake of fire).
In the
story of Lazarus and the rich man in Luke 16:19-31, Lazarus dies and is carried
off (by angels) to “Abraham’s side”, and the rich man also dies and is carried
off nowhere - he is buried and the next we know is in Hades. We immediately
note two things about his condition in Hades: he is in torment, and he can see
Abraham and Lazarus. As we read more, it’s apparent that his torment is by
fire, and specifically his tongue is on fire.
Jesus
gives us no indication if this story is allegorical or a true picture of the
afterlife. He seems to be teaching a couple lessons in this story:
1.
The afterlife is
a place of justice for this life
2.
The unnamed rich
man’s punishable sin was not sharing his wealth with people in need
Neither
of these lessons speak to the duration of Hades’ torment. We learn only that
there is an agony of fire. Even so, Jesus gives no indication that this is
anything more than allegory - he frames the story like any other parable. We
don’t have any indication that the minutiae of this story paints a factual
representation of “heaven and hell”.
Perishing in the Old Testament
Writers
of the Old Testament use the word “perish” in a myriad of nuances but nearly
always to describe a physical reality:
•
to disappear or
no longer be seen, to not exist (Job 3:3, Job 18:17, Psalm 41:5, Isaiah 29:14,
57:1, Jeremiah 7:28)
•
to be ruined,
physically destroyed, or exiled, often in an act of punishment (Leviticus
26:38, Deuteronomy 4:26, Joshua 23:13, Psalm 71:13, Proverbs 19:9, Isaiah
27:13, Isaiah 60:12, Jeremiah 8:14, Jeremiah 27:10,15)
•
to die a physical
death, often in an act of judgment (Genesis 6:17, 7:21, 2 Kings 9:8, Esther
4:14, Jeremiah 16:4, Lamentations 3:54, Ezekiel 5:12, Zechariah 13:8)
•
to be burned up
(consumed) by fire (Psalm 80:16)
Perishing in the New Testament
Twice
we read of the heavenly Father not willing for anyone to perish as an allusion
to some kind of eternal destiny (Matthew 18:14, 2 Peter 3:9). In Luke, Jesus
warns the people to repent or perish, but he contrasts perishing to the fate of
those who died physical deaths, which leads us to believe that Jesus was
warning the Jews of the impending fall of Jerusalem, and in fact he follows
this up with a story of a fig tree being cut down, which is a clear reference
to the nation of Israel (Luke 13:1-9). However, Jesus very clearly offers
eternal life as an alternative to perishing (John 3:16 & 10:28), which is a
curious contrast to not only the text in Luke but also Caiaphas’ statement in
John 11:50.
Paul uses
the word perish to denote an everlasting outcome, and contrasts it with words
such as “being saved”, “imperishable”, “immortality” (1 Corinthians 1:18,
15:42-54, 2 Corinthians 2:15, 4:3, 2 Thessalonians 2:10). Peter connotes a
destruction of the extinction type when he says that blaspheming people will
perish like unreasoning animals, born only to be caught and destroyed (2 Peter
2:12). He uses the word often (6x), mostly to describe things that don’t last
beyond this world (and get burned up), not to describe things that somehow
endure.
Conclusion
We
often read texts about the everlasting fires of hell, and we presume that
people’s punishment there also extends endlessly but we never find that
conclusion in Scripture. On the contrary, the pictures offered - whether of
sacrifices at the altar or the fires of Gehenna outside Jerusalem or the
prophetic visions in Revelation - all point to a type of fire that consumes
anything that is thrown into it, except for the devil, the beast and the false
prophet, who explicitly burn eternally.
