The Hell of Fire - Part 2

The Hell of Fire
“23 Minutes in Hell”


Nothing has caused more confusion about the doctrine of final punishment than the erroneous idea that all men are born with immortal “souls” that live forever! Perhaps no lie of the Devil has been more widely accepted. I will deal with this in more detail in a separate article, but for now let us focus on the next most confusing issue, the word aionios, usually translated “eternal” or “everlasting”.

Eternal Fire - Eternal Punishment

In our western way of thinking, these words elicit thoughts of a timeless existence which is incomprehensible to the human mind. The same Greek word “aionios” is used for eternal, or everlasting life (zoe aionios). Have you ever tried to imagine FOREVER? It makes you dizzy doesn't it? Although the word aionios does carry with it the idea of perpetual, ongoing, the more proper understanding of it is “age” (as in time), particularly used for the future.

In this light then, eternal life is better understood as “life in the age to come”! It is not so much life without time, as life in a future time (age). Insomuch as the age to come has no revealed or foreseeable end in Hebrew thought, it is described as perpetual – never ending. But to say that “time is no more” is inaccurate for it is really only time outside of the present age.

The main point to understand about aionios is that it speaks of a future age. It is my understanding that scholars have argued this point for many years, but for some reason it hasn't been accepted or understood by the general bible-reading, church-going public. But if this is correct, then just as eternal life is to be thought of as life in the age to come, so should eternal fire and eternal punishment be understood as referring to the age to come.

Consider the following passage of Scripture in Jude...

“Don't forget what happened to those people that the Lord rescued from Egypt. Some of them did not have faith, and he later destroyed them. You also know about the angels who didn't do their work and left their proper places. God chained them with everlasting chains (note that everlasting here is a different word - not aionios) and is now keeping them in dark pits until the great day of judgment. We should also be warned by what happened to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and the nearby towns. Their people became immoral and did all sorts of sexual sins. Then God made an example of them and punished them with eternal fire.” -- Jude 1:5-7 (CEV)

NOTE: Some (very few) translations use the name Jesus in place of Lord here. ASV, NASB, KJV, WEY, RV and most others render verse 5 "the Lord" saved a people out of Egypt. Not Jesus. Lord is the correct translation of kurios which is the word used in the Greek text here. The NET correctly notes (24) "The reading ᾿Ιησοῦς (Ihsous, “Jesus”) is deemed too hard by several scholars, since it involves the notion of Jesus acting in the early history of the nation Israel." - (NET footnotes on verse 5). Yet they argue that "Jesus" is supported by many early witnesses, while noting that there were many scribal variants.

Here Jude reminds his readers that God “destroyed those who did not believe”; this was their punishment – total destruction! And he uses the punishment of Sodom and Gomorrah as an “example” of eternal fire! It is evident that Sodom and Gomorrah are not still burning. If you go to that place on the map today you will not find any human souls writhing in torment in the fire. No. Jude uses the destructive punishment of Sodom and Gomorrah as a symbol of the fire which is to come. In other words, just as God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah by raining down fire and brimstone from heaven, so He will do to the ungodly in the judgment of the coming age! To solidify this truth, consider what the apostle Peter said...

“if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly” -- 2 Peter 2:6 (ESV)

Can it be any clearer than that?

The Bible seems to be quite specific about the fate of the ungodly and unbelieving. They will suffer extinction! While there are some Scriptures that seem to suggest that souls suffer perpetual torment in a burning hell, closer examination reveals that God has other, more merciful and just, plans for them.

Consider also what Paul has to say about the subject...

“They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from (or destruction that comes from) the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.” -- 2 Thess 1:9-10 (ESV)

The usage of the phrase “eternal destruction” here is the same as that of “eternal fire” in Jude. It is symbolic of the punishment which is coming in the next age. If this were not the case, we would have Paul teaching that souls will be in a perpetual state of destruction, yet never actually being destroyed. Unfortunately, there are some who believe that exactly! But this really makes a muddle of the language and (in my opinion) does great injustice to the nature of God.

It is interesting that in all of the New Testament, there are but a few places that actually deal directly with final punishment. They are 1 Thessalonians, 2 Peter, Jude, and Revelation. The others are found in the gospels, where Jesus talks about “hell fire” and “everlasting fire”. The everlasting fire we have already dealt with as being fire representative of the age to come. The imagery of “hell fire, worms, and unquenchable fire” in the gospels, are all references to gehenna, the refuse dump of Jerusalem. Jesus used this place (that would be clear to any Jew) to illustrate the destruction of the wicked in the age to come, where the fire cannot be put out until it has completed it's job – total destruction. Complete information about gehenna can easily be found in any good Bible dictionary.

The doctrine of final punishment, as taught by Christian “orthodoxy”, is not “right thinking” at all (the meaning of orthodoxy is right thinking)! The evidence for final destruction, as opposed to eternal punishment, is overwhelming when one simply takes the time to study it. But for some reason, many orthodox believers are more eager to defend the traditions than to believe the truth. They find destruction to be too merciful a punishment for sin, and of course, extinction is impossible because of the supposed immorality of the human soul. And as we suggested at the first, this may well be the most devious lie that Satan has perpetrated on mankind!

Keith Dyer

The Hell of Fire

Recently, I attended a Church service which presented a video of a man who claimed to have spent “23 minutes in hell.” I learned from the video that he also authored a book by the same title. What he experienced, he called a vision – an “out of body” experience. Now, he seemed genuinely sincere, and very humble, not desiring to set himself up as some kind of prophet or spiritual guru. He was also adamant that everything he said was backed by Scripture – 150 Scripture references to be exact. Plus, he claimed to have partnered with some Bible scholars regarding the Scripture references to be sure that none were “out of context.” Yet, as I listened intently to his story, it seemed to me that, almost without exception, every Scripture he used was either “out of context” or a gross misinterpretation.

At the end of the video, almost an hour, the pastor turned off the DVD player and asked for comments and responses. One man commented that “...he backed everything up with Scriptures, and you can't argue with that.” Others related how we are “more fearful of men than of God” and that's why we are lax in telling people about hell. The general attitude seemed to be that this was indeed a Scriptural message that needed to be preached more often; that people must be told that if they don't repent, the only alternative for them is an eternity in the conscious torment of a fiery hell.

Well, I can't tell you how heavy my heart was after hearing all this. I wanted so bad to stand up and say NO! NO! NO! This is all wrong! Can't you see that this “hellish” doctrine does not honor God at all? Can't you see that it does no justice to God's nature and character, much less to His precious Word? On the one hand, we believe that God is patient, not wanting any to perish but that all should come to repentance; we believe that God is merciful and “His mercy endures forever”; and that he is just!? And yet, this doctrine of an eternal punishing hell requires that, at some point in the future, God is no longer patient or merciful or just, much less loving or kind! He willingly consigns the murderer and rapist along with a good husband and father alike, to the same eternal punishment! The doctrine posits that eternal punishment is "away" from God's presence and yet we must consider that only God can sustain the life of the impenitent and therefore He must keep them forever in the state of misery and torment!

Of course, supporters of the doctrine attempt to vindicate God from this cruelty by pointing out that He created "hell" for the devil and his minions. Therefore, it is man's choice to go to hell, not God's. Yes, they say, men who reject Jesus, regardless of how they live their lives – good or bad – choose hell because they do not choose Jesus! But can this be right? What about those who have never heard? Who never even had a chance to hear? And what about those who rejected Christianity purely on the basis that they cannot reasonably accept such a cruel and merciless doctrine? I cannot help but think that the teaching of this doctrine offends our loving heavenly Father! I do not question the reality of “final punishment” - the Bible is quite clear about that fact. The question is rather, what is the nature and duration of that punishment?

I knew it would not be well received and would serve no good purpose to disrupt the meeting with my opposing opinion, so I kept quiet. After all, how could I fight against 150 Scripture references in only a few moments! Plus, I had the disadvantage of not having had a vision, or “out of body” experience! It never ceases to amaze me how blind people can be to the plain language of the Bible (I once was blind to these things myself), and how open people can be when they hear that someone has had a vision – especially if that vision supports long held traditions!

If this topic is of interest to you (and I think it certainly should be), you may profit from reading a couple of very excellent articles. Just click the links below. I will also be posting more on this topic myself.

God Bless,
Keith

Making the Dead Alive: Translating Sheol as Hades Brings the Dead to Life

The Final End of the Wicked – by Edward Fudge