Make Peace With Jesus

Having seen that the Old Testament is quite silent regarding our modern concept of hell, there yet remains something that I need to clarify.  In this series on Hell it is not my intention to argue or prove the non-existence of hell, but rather to clarify many sections of Scripture that are widely mistaken and misunderstood to be a reference to hell.

This present series on Hell will focus on a vast number of Scriptures have been incorrectly interpreted as indicating a place of never ending torment.  So, to get right to it; the first one that we should look at is the Hebrew concept of Sheol.

There are probably a lot of people who are not familiar with Sheol.  In fact, whenever the topic of hell is being addressed, it is highly likely that Sheol won’t even be mentioned.   Sheol is an odd concept, and almost anyone who spends time studying it will probably come away from the study more confused than when they began it!  Sheol seems to confuse even the scholars.  In my 10 years of studying the Bible and its concepts I have never come across any book, teaching, personal insight or another person’s insight which has defined Sheol in a truly satisfactory way.  And that I believe is the issue, the Western mindset needs everything defined, whereas the Hebrew mindset was content to let things remain a mystery.

Jeff Benner who is a self taught expert on ancient Hebrew has this to say about Sheol in his book The Living Words; Volume One,

The verbal root sha’al is used almost 200 times and is usually translated as “asked” such as in Genesis 24:7 – “and I asked her and said…” Why do we ask questions? We are looking for information that is currently unknown to us. This word, “unknown,” is the key to understanding the root sha’al and all the words derived from it.

The word she’ol, derived from sha’al, was understood as the place where one goes when they die. …

The Ancient Hebrews did not know where or even what she’ol was. To them it was an unknown place hence, the use of a word related to sha’al meaning “unknown.” It should also be noted that the Ancient Hebrews never speculated on something unknown, it was simply not known and left at that. It is only the Greek mind that desires to know the unknown. It is our Greco-Roman western mindset that needs to know where and what she’ol is.

Unfortunately this blog will most likely end with Sheol yet remaining a mystery.  However, we will be able to clarify a few areas regarding the Hebrew concept of death and Sheol so that we can eliminate certain misconceptions.

The reason Sheol is so confusing is because it is described with language that is extremely vague and at the same time seems to encompass contradictory ideas.  The western mindset likes having concepts all wrapped up in a nice, tidy box.  Sheol by contrast, in its variety of descriptions, prevents us from putting it into a nice little box.  Never-the-less, there are a few aspects of Sheol that we can understand.

Sheol, in it’s primary sense, means the metaphysical grave.  You could picture it as a grave for the soul.  It is the place where the dead abide (Job 17:16; Psalm 89:48; Isaiah 14:9, 28:15; Ezekiel 31:17).  It is actually paralleled with death itself multiple times (death in the sense of ‘the place of death’ rather than death in the sense of ‘dying’ – here a few examples – Psalm 116:3; Isaiah 38:18; Habbakuk 2:5).

Sheol in its secondary sense signifies a state of spiritual death, as if to denote rottenness, decay and corruption inside of one’s own soul (Proverbs 7:27, 9:18, 15:24).  It is used to express a state of life that is dead (morally) even though one is still physically alive.  In this sense one’s heart can be like Sheol, full of death and darkness.

We will restrict our focus in this study to Sheol’s primary sense.  The secondary sense, though not unimportant will certainly be better understood once we have a better idea of its primary sense.  With that in mind, let us see what insights we can glean.

Transliteration

The first thing that we need to understand is that our English Bibles do not translate the word Sheol (except for the 1611 King James Version) – instead Sheol is transliterated.  Transliteration is basically using a word from one language in a different language without translating it.  It is directly borrowing another language’s word, mainly b/c there are no sufficient words to describe it.  Thus Sheol is a Hebrew word, and our English language has no word or concept that can adequately compare to it.  So in order to maintain some level of integrity in translating scholars simply do not translate this word, they bring the Hebrew word into our English vocabulary.

Now this is important b/c it tells us 2 things.  1 – That our English language does not have a concept like Sheol (as is plainly evident).  And 2 – that our concept of hell is therefore incompatible with Sheol.  If it was, Bible Scholars and translators would have used “Hell” to translate “Sheol.”

Sleep

Therefore Sheol must be understood from a Hebrew/biblical cultural mindset.  Not our western mindset.  In order to do so we must take a small detour to help clarify how they understood death.  Once we have a good grasp on this, we will be better able to understand Sheol.  Therefore, in the Bible, as well as the Hebrew culture, death was viewed as a state of sleep.

David in Psalm 13:3 spoke of “sleeping the sleep of death.”  If you read the books of Kings or Chronicles you will find that each time a king died it says,

“and [so and so] slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers…” (2 Kings 2:10, 11:43, 15:8, etc…).

We also find this imagery used numerous times in the New Testament.  When Jesus rose from the dead it says in Matthew 27:52 that,

“The tombs were opened and the bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised.”

Earlier when Jesus’ friend Lazarus had died Jesus told His disciples in John 11:11-13,

“Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I go, so that I may awaken him out of sleep. The disciples then said to Him, ‘Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.’  Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that He was speaking of literal sleep.”

Later on in Acts 7:60 when Stephen was being stoned to death Luke records that he, “fell asleep.”  Paul used this same exact phrase later on in Acts 13:36 to describe King David’s death.  In fact, Paul uses this terminology numerous times in his epistles.  He uses it to refer to “many” in the church who had died due to some disregard to communion (1 Corinthians 11:30).  He uses it to describe some of the 500 who had seen Jesus in His resurrected state who had then passed away by the time of his writing (1 Corinthians 15:6).  He uses it to speak of the hope of resurrection for those who had fallen asleep in Christ (1 Corinthians 15:18-20), and to declare that not all of us will “sleep” (1Corinthians 15:51) – meaning that some of us wont experience a physical death b/c we will be transformed at Christ’s Return.

And in 1 Thessalonians 4:13,14 Paul encourages the church about those who have already died saying,

“But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.”

Peter also uses this vernacular in his epistle saying,

“Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.” (2 Peter 3:3,4).

So we see that sleep was how the ancient Hebrew culture understood death.  They believed that when you died your soul slept.  But their belief that death was sleep didn’t end there, they also believed that they would eventually “wake up!”  In fact, resurrection from death was often described with that language.  We see this in Daniel’s vision of the resurrection where he declared that,

“all those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake.” (Daniel 12:2)

And Paul quotes a song in his letter to the Ephesians,

“For this reason it says, ‘Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’” (Ephesians 5:14)

Sheol

All this is very important to understanding what the Bible has to say about death and the afterlife.  Without it, a study of Sheol can be quite depressing.  This is b/c it’s not so much a concept of ‘when we die we go to heaven or hell,’ depending; but rather that we will all be waiting for the time of the resurrection, which will be a waking up from that state of death (what that waiting time will be like, is a topic for another study).  Sheol, death and the grave were all synonymous with each other and were understood in this light.

For instance, Solomon declares in the Book of Ecclesiastes 9:10 that,

“there is no activity or planning or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol…”

He also says a few verses earlier in 9:5 and 6 that,

“the living know they will die; but the dead do not know anything…also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished.”

David states something similar in a few of his Psalms,

“For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?”  (Psalm 6:5)

And again in 88:10-12, speaking of death,

“Shall Your wonders be known in the dark?”  (see also Isaiah 38:18; Psalm 30:5, 115:17, 94:17)

So a small picture of Sheol now begins to emerge.

And even though there still remains much that is unclear about Sheol, what we have gleaned so far will help lift some of the fog surrounding it. And as we take a closer look at Sheol in the next blog we will see some glaring anomalies that will certainly disqualify Sheol from being considered synonymous with hell, and/or even being related to the concept of hell at all.  And that is exactly what we will look at in the next blog.

“To hell with it,” lets see what the Bible has to say regarding…hell! 😉

Judgment in the After Life

The first issue that needs to be addressed concerns the Old Testament’s complete silence about there being a very serious and horrifying consequence in the next life for sin committed in this life.  Now I will certainly agree that every man will be judged for the deeds done in the body, and will receive just recompense for them.  But we must realize that this judgment includes Christians.  That is why the Bible emphasizes the fact that “we must all appear before the judgment seat of God,” who will “judge without partiality” (2 Corinthians 5:10; 1 Peter 1:17; see also Matthew 16:27 and Romans 2:16).

I know it sounds strange, but Christ stated that even Christians are going to get a few “just” (as in justice) spankings at the judgment seat (Luke 12:47,48).  In fact that passage seems to indicate that God’s servants are held to a higher standard than those who are not and that their judgment will be worse because they knew what they ought to do, but didn’t; whereas unbelievers who obviously did not know God’s will shall receive a greater mercy.

Further, 1 Corinthians 3:13-15 makes it clear that even our (Christian) works will be judged and burned up if they are carnal…and yet Paul declares that,

“If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.”

Therefore we would do well to understand that the consequences in the after life for sins in this life are not an issue of salvation.

Here is where the first anomalous issue with the popular concept of hell reveals itself.  Remember, these are only “problems” if endless hell were actually a Biblical truth; since I am convinced that it is not; it behooves me to point out such discrepancies in order to better prove that a doctrine of endless hell is inconsistent and inherently flawed.  Thus: If the horror of “endless” hell is the consequence of sins committed in this life, why is the Old Testament completely silent about it?

On a side note: some might claim that Sheol; which is used 66 times in the Old Testament concerns hell, but as we will see in the blog concerning Sheol, this is far from true.  I wont say anymore about it here, except to say that the Old Testament states that even saints (Hezekiah, Samuel, Joseph, Jacob, David, etc…) were in Sheol, therefore it cannot be a reference to the endless hell that we assume is for unbelievers.

Getting back to the silence in the Old Testament, let’s approach it systematically, starting from the beginning – the Garden of Eden and the creation of mankind.

If the consequences for sin were endless conscious torment then surely God would have made this abundantly clear to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.  If avoiding hell is the greatest motivator to obey God and also the greatest deterrent from sin, then surely God would have informed the beginning of the human race about it.  Yet there is not one word!  We would think that this would have been more than enough to keep Eve from eating the forbidden fruit!?  I can imagine God explaining this to Eve after the fact…

“Oh!  Sorry Eve! I guess I forgot to mention that sin will damn you to a state of unimaginable conscious agony that will never end…ever.  Sorry about that!  I’m assuming that there was no way you would ever have guessed it on your own…seeing as how you were one of the first two people ever created, so innocent and ignorant of anything that I did not take special care to inform you about.  My bad!”

Following this is the story of Cain and Abel.  We find that when Cain murdered Abel, God gave no warning of hell, no chance to alter his eternal destination.  He merely stated that if he continued down the path of sin, that he would become sin’s slave.  God seemed to care more about Cain’s spiritual bondage than his eternal destination.

Next we come to Noah and the world of iniquity to which he preached.  The whole known world was in sin and about to be destroyed with a flood; surely God had the wisdom to realize that the threat of endless torment would appeal to all those self serving people, especially if they would very soon be going there!  Yet we read of no such word preached to the sinners.  Perhaps if Noah had, the ark would have carried a lot more than 8 people through the flood.

Then there is Sodom and Gomorrah, inherently wicked and sinful to be sure, yet not one word of warning is given to them!  In fact, their judgment of fire and brimstone is said to be an example of God’s judgment on the wicked! (Jude 7)  How can that be?  Their fire was a real physical, earthly fire; and it certainly did not burn endlessly.  (We will see what exactly that means in the next series of blogs.)  And what makes it more confusing (with a doctrine of endless hell) is that Jesus said that it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for those who preferred the Pharisee’s teachings to Jesus’!?!  And the Pharisees actually believed in God and were trying to keep His laws!

That brings up another issue…how can endless hell be more tolerable or less tolerable?  No matter how bad it is, the hopelessness that it will never end makes any literal pain seem like nothing in comparison.

Anyways, Sodom received no warning of hell.

Following this comes Moses and the Law.  Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt and to Mount Sinai where he received the Law directly from God.  In case some are not aware, Moses grew up in the house of Pharaoh, being raised by Pharaoh’s daughter (Exodus 2:1-11).  The Bible also says that Moses was “educated in all the learning of the Egyptians” (Acts 7:20-23).  This is important because if you have read, or heard of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, it teaches the doctrine of endless conscious torment for sinners!   So Moses was definitely aware of such an idea and yet he mentions not one word in the whole of the Law concerning it!  Does that not seem suspicious?

In fact, one would assume that God finally had His opportunity to warn the world about the consequences of sin in the after life, and would make it priority number one in giving the Law.  We would think that God, being so wise, would know that people are inherently selfish and self preservation is their most innate instinct, therefore one of the greatest motivators to encourage people to obey Him and follow His laws would be the understanding that the punishment for disobedience would be endless agonizing torment in the next life!?  Right?  Yet oddly enough there isn’t even a hint of hell in the Law!

Are you beginning to feel as perplexed as I was when I began looking into this?

All of the punishments of the Law, apparently, concern this life only!  Can that really be true?  Even murder was only punishable by the death of this life.  What’s more is that the Law actually had limits to its punishment!  It says that when a wicked man’s sin deserves a beating,

“He may beat him forty times but no more, so that he does not beat him with many more stripes than these and your brother is not degraded in your eyes.”  (Deuteronomy 25:3)

God cared enough about the sinner that He forbade any punishment that became degrading!  Not that a spanking wasn’t degrading, but if it kept going on and on without remorse, that it would no longer be considered just.  Eventually even the hardest heart at some point would begin to feel uncomfortable (read compassion) and feel that the sinner/criminal had learned his/her lesson – paid the price so to speak.  Quite an amazing law if you think about it, especially if you consider “the spirit of the law,” the law being but a “type and shadow of the good things to come.” He who has ears to hear, let him hear ;).

Alas, no hell up to this point in history.  But surely the Bible has to introduce it eventually…?  Right?  Well, next comes the History Books, again, with no mention of such a consequence for sin, even though Israel turned from God time after time to worship false gods!  Yet all their rebellion only ever brought physical, earthly judgments (per the Law – see Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28).

Then comes the Wisdom Books, from which we get a lot of our Theology, but no iota of hell is found therein.  Even Proverbs, the greatest book of wisdom, which is full of reasons not to pursue sin, does not utter one syllable of a consequence in the after life.  No nuggets of wisdom to warn us of the endless horrors that await the sinner! (It should be noted that Proverb’s references of sin leading to “death” are misunderstood from our western culture and do not concern the concept of hell.)

Finally we have the Prophets who were sent specifically to those who in some form or another were being morally disobedient or were in some form of rebellion towards God.  The Prophets are replete with calls to repent, to turn from sin, to forsake their rebellious ways, turn from all their wicked deeds and return to God.  Yet they fail to mention that the path of rebellion against God will lead to an endless state of agony and terror.  In fact, their warnings only seem to indicate that if they refuse to repent, they will only continue to suffer further destruction in this life; destruction of their nation, capitol, land and finally being deported to another country far away (as per the Law).  Its almost like God cared more about them remaining a nation than He did about them not going to hell!?!

If hell is truly endless, this would seem extremely odd.  And one would be led to wonder how the Old Testament (and God) could be so silent on the issue?   Why would the concept of hell be kept quiet for 4000 years of human history?  Especially in light of the fact that for those 4000 years God was revealing His mind and will to His people?  How could God withhold the reality of such a horrifying destiny for such a long time?  How could God be considered Good in light of that?  How could a God who is “rich in mercy” fail to warn His creation, His children that He loves so much, that they will forever be separated from Him?

Perhaps (and I believe this is the truth) it is because there is no such danger.  Perhaps our understanding of this issue in Scripture has been wrong.  Perhaps God is good and He did not warn people about endless hellfire because

“burning His children in fire…never entered [His] mind” (Jeremiah 7:31, 19:5, 32:35; Deuteronomy 18:10).

At least not eternally burning them in fire.

This brings us to the New Testament.

The New Testament

The New Testament, in contrast with the silence of the Old, is quite different for it is not silent concerning a state of judgment in the afterlife.  The New Testament actually uses a variety of language to describe such judgment, however, none of them are referring to hell.  This might seem confusing, for I am sure you have read several times in the Gospels where Christ mentions “hell.”  But we will soon see He was speaking of several different concepts that are completely at odds with our idea of hell.

As for all the other descriptions such as “punishment, judgment, destruction, etc…” they are not describing hell either.  But we must wait until the following series to look at those words.  For now our focus will be on what we tend to assume are direct ‘hell’ references.

Conclusion:

It is apparent to this writer that the Old Testament is silent concerning the concept of Hell.  I am NOT claiming that there is no hell, but that our idea of it has been grossly misunderstood.  I do believe that the Lake of Fire in Revelation is the only direct and clear reference to hell in Scripture.  And it certainly is not endless.  Nevertheless there is quite a mess we have to undo in the Gospels concerning misunderstandings of hell.

Therefore we will next begin to take a look at the 4 words in Scripture that are most commonly considered as regarding the doctrine of hell – the Hebrew Sheol; and the Greek Hades, Tartarus and Gehenna.  We will discover a lot of information that will prove just how completely misconstrued that idea is.  To begin, in the next blog we will look at the Hebrew word Sheol.

Hell.  Horrifying, agonizing – hopeless.  The mere mention of it creates unease.  Even Christians who believe that their faith in Christ will exempt them from hell have close friends and family whom they fear will end up there, or have already ended up there.  The Secular world is certainly familiar with it; due to the fact that some Christians incessantly barrage them with claims that they will suffer there for all eternity.  In fact, this single aspect, more than any other reason, is what so greatly deters the world from Christianity.  What Christian has not heard the argument, “How can a good God damn so many people to endless torment?”  The implication being, “Why would I follow a God like that?”

Because of the horrific connotations of hell in the public’s eye, most Christians avoid the subject like the plague.  The topic is too offensive and if it is ever broached the conversation is so awkward its almost unbearable.  We feel ashamed to vocally affirm our belief in it around those who do not agree with the Bible.  Not only that, but even when we are discussing the topic in Church or small Bible studies it is only as a fear based motivator to get people to evangelize.  And yet even then it never ceases to leave people feeling sick inside.

So why does hell evoke such uneasy feelings in us?  And why are we so eager to change the subject when it comes up?  We instinctively and swiftly turn a blind eye to it within our own heart.  It is too heavy, too hard to bear.  We treat it as if we wished that it were not even a possibility.  How could the Gospel, which means Good News, have such a dark and horrifying aspect to it?  This, in turn, causes us to accept foolish logic – doctrines of men – in vain attempts to somehow make it somewhat agreeable.  It is almost as if something within our conscience cannot accept it.  Which I find interesting because most of us are aware that man has some form of a moral conscience within him; that when he does something bad he can feel it is wrong.  How then do we not recognize this same moral conscience screaming at us that something is terribly wrong with the concept of an endless hell!?!

Albert Barnes in his famous commentary on the Bible; says it best:

“That any should suffer forever, lingering on in hopeless despair, and rolling amidst infinite torments without the possibility of alleviation and without end; that since God can save men and will save a part, he has not proposed to save all-these are real, not imaginary, difficulties. … My whole soul pants for light and relief on these questions. But I get neither; and in the distress and anguish of my own spirit, I confess that I see no light whatever. I see not one ray to disclose to me why sin came into the world; why the earth is strewn with the dying and the dead; and why man must suffer to all eternity. I have never seen a particle of light thrown on these subjects, that has given a moment’s ease to my tortured mind. … I confess, when I look on a world of sinners and sufferers-upon death-beds and grave-yards-upon the world of woe filled with hosts to suffer for ever: when I see my friends, my family, my people, my fellow citizens when I look upon a whole race, all involved in this sin and danger-and when I see the great mass of them wholly unconcerned, and when I feel that God only can save them, and yet He does not do so, I am stuck dumb. It is all dark, dark, dark to my soul, and I cannot disguise it.”

This is why we avoid thinking about hell.  For if we were honest with ourselves and truly contemplated the gravity of endless hell, then we would find ourselves in the same state of anxiety as Albert Barnes.  In fact, it was this very issue that ultimately led me to discover what the Bible really teaches about hell and the ultimate restoration of all men to God.

It was during my time in Bible College that I began to discover grave difficulties with hell.  We were taught that the great mass of humanity was going to perish in unending torment and that we ought to go to the ends of the earth to try to save any we could.  We were guilted into believing that if we failed to evangelize someone that their blood would be on our hands for all eternity!  Can you imagine!  Not only will those in hell suffer unending torment, but also those of us in heaven who failed even once to share the gospel with a stranger that might have been saved would have to endure the endless guilt of knowing that person was suffering in unimaginable agony b/c of us.  I was soo horrified that I could barely function!  I avoided going anywhere public, for fear of all the people I would have to approach.  I couldn’t even go for a walk b/c if I saw any sign of life, I would feel the unbearable burden that I had to share the gospel with them or I would forever bear the guilt of their fate.

So I began to study “hell” in the Bible, in the hope that I would find some sort of relief.  But this only made things worse, for it began to dawn on me that most (if not all) of the classic references to hell concerned God’s followers, not the lost!  (This will become much clearer as this series on hell progresses.)

At this point my heart was so weighed down with the horror of an endless hell that I began to beg God to give me relief on the subject.  I just could not imagine one single person suffering without end, even if it was only a drop of water dripping on their forehead – the fact that it would be endless was so dark and hopeless that my heart felt like it was about to collapse from the crushing weight of it.  I also couldn’t reconcile how – if I, being evil, could feel such compassion for the lost, then how could God bear it, the very Father of all people, who is infinitely more loving than me? (Matthew 7:11; Eph. 4:6; Acts 17:28)  And bear it for all eternity?

Thank God there is hope!  Thank God that “mercy triumphs over judgment;” for “though His wrath is but a moment, His mercy endures forever!” (James 2:13; Psalm 30:5)  Thank God that when Christ was born the angel that appeared to the shepherds said, “Behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for ALL people.” (Luke 2:10)  Thank God that whatever hell is, it is assuredly NOT endless .

Having seen in the previous series (what I feel is) incontrovertible proof that Scripture does not refer to an endless judgment; this series will focus primarily upon the misunderstanding of certain passages in Scripture that we presume to refer to hell.

We are building from the ground up, therefore, if hell is not endless – we can approach the topic with a more open mind and more easily discover its nature and purpose.

The series will be structured as follows:

Anomalies in the Bible concerning Hell:

We will look at how the idea of a punishment in the after life is nowhere found in the Old Testament.

Sheol:

We will see that the Old Testament idea of Sheol is a place where all souls go when they die, whether good or bad.  It is a waiting place, a kind of sleep state for the soul until the resurrection.

We will also look at its usage in Scripture to show that it cannot be related to the modern concept of a fiery and agonizing place of torment.

Hades:

We will see that Hades is the Greek equivalent of Sheol; a waiting place for the dead, and that the Septuagint uses Hades to translate Sheol and therefore must be understood as being synonymous with Sheol.  We will see how Christ has the keys to Hades and Hades will be invaded by the Church.  We will also see how Hades will eventually give up all the dead that are held there and that it will itself be cast into the lake of fire along with death to be destroyed.

We will also look at its use in Scripture (it only occurs 10 times, in 6 different contexts).

Tartarus:

We will look at the Greek Mythology surrounding Tartarus; how it is a place of darkness where rebellious and disobedient gods are kept imprisoned.  The word Tartarus is only mentioned 1 time in the Bible and in that single instance is used to convey the place where fallen angels are confined until the day of judgment; which fits perfectly with its sense in Greek Mythology.

Gehenna:

We will look at the word Gehenna; noting especially that it is an entirely Jewish concept, one locally known and taught only to those familiar to Jerusalem.  We will see how it came to be understood through the progress of history and the Old Testament.  That it signified a certain consequence of destruction and disgrace in this life for disobedience to God’s will, and that it further had a significance of national consequences for rejecting the Word of God.

We will then look at the use of Gehenna in Scripture; spending the necessary time to examine the context each time that it is referenced (it only occurs in 6 different contexts).

The Outer Darkness:

We will also examine the verses that reference “the outer darkness” which involves “the weeping and gnashing of teeth” as well as “the furnace of fire.”  We will see how in every single reference it is a warning of judgment upon the followers of God, not upon the unsaved secular world.

Conclusion:

These studies will be concise; not exhaustive.  There will be much more that we could look at concerning each theme, but for the sake of time and attention I have kept them as brief as possible while still being comprehensive.

Finally, as I said in the last series, I believe that truth is a whole and therefore the majority of evidence will always testify of the truth.  If hell is not endless and God is going to save all men then what the Bible teaches concerning Hell will reflect this.  I hope that you will take the time to read this series and discover what the Bible actually teaches concerning what we have mistakenly considered hell.

May God bless you as you read,

Luke Kessler