Who shall be punished with everlasting
destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of
his power [2 Thess. 1:8–9].
"The
Word of God actually says very little about heaven. One of the
reasons is that it is so wonderful we could not comprehend it.
And the Lord does not want us to get so heavenly minded that we
are no earthly good. He wants us to keep our eyes on our pathway
down here, and I think He wants us to keep our noses to the
grindstone much of the time. In other words, He has a purpose
for our lives on earth, and He wants us to fulfill that purpose.
Scripture not only says very little about
heaven, it says less
about the condition of the lost. It is so awful that the Holy
Spirit has drawn a veil over it. There is nothing given to
satisfy the morbid curiosity or the lust for revenge. When
God
judges, He does not do it in a vindictive manner. He does it in
order to vindicate His righteousness and His holiness. There is
nothing in the Scriptures to satisfy our curiosity about hell,
but there is enough said to give us a warning. It does not mean
that it is less real because so little is said. Actually, Christ
Himself said more about hell than did anyone else. Hell is an
awful reality. I am not going to speculate about it; I’m just
quoting what is said right here: He is coming “in flaming fire
taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not
the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with
everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from
the glory of his power.”
Hell is ridiculed today, but that does not
mean it doesn’t exist. Our beliefs are sometimes only wishful
thinking. For example, it was the popular notion that Hitler
would not plunge Europe into a war and turn Europe into a
holocaust of flaming fire. But he did. Chamberlain, the man with
the umbrella, went over to meet with Hitler and Mussolini, and
he came back saying that we would have peace in our time. Well,
we didn’t have peace, and we don’t have peace in the world
today. Also, many people thought that Japan would never attack
America. Our government did not believe she would, and the
liberal churches at that time were teaching pacifism. Well,
whether they believed it or not, there was a vicious attack at
Pearl Harbor.
Friend, we might as well face the fact that
there is a hell. Christ is returning to this earth some day.
First He will take His own out of the earth, and then His coming
will be a terror to the wicked; it will be a judgment upon those
who “know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ.” “And this is life eternal, that they might know
thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent”
(John 17:3). Do you want to work for your salvation? Jesus said,
“… This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath
sent” (John 6:29). That is what the Word of God teaches.
I know that it is not popular to talk about
hell and judgment. Even the Christian testimonies that we hear
and read are filled with I, I, I—“I became successful in
business. I saved my marriage. My personality changed.” Nothing
very much is said about the Lord Jesus. How many testimonies
have you heard in which it is said, “I was a hell-doomed sinner
going straight to hell, I was lost, and He saved me”? The
important thing to say in a testimony is not what He has given
you but from what He has delivered you. That was the whole
purpose for the coming of our Savior. He came to redeem us! He
didn’t come to give us new personalities or to make us
successful. He came to deliver
us from hell!
That’s not popular to say. Folk don’t like to hear it.
There are too few people today who are
willing to confront folk with the fact that they are lost.
Suppose you were asleep in a burning building, and a man rushed
into that building to rescue you. He awakened you, picked you
up, and carried you bodily out of that burning building. He
liked you; so he made you his son. He brought you into his
lovely home and gave you many wonderful gifts. Now if you had
the opportunity to stand before a group of people and tell about
this man and express your appreciation in his presence, what
would you thank him for? Would you thank him for making you his
son? I hope you would. But wouldn’t you really thank him most
for the fact that he risked his life to save you out of a
burning building? Nothing else would have mattered if he had not
rescued you from a flaming death.
Now, my friend, the judgment of the lost is
coming. If you want to stay in that class, you shall be judged.
Somebody needs to tell you the facts, and I am telling them to
you right now.
Again, who are the lost? They are those who
(1) “know not God” and who (2) “obey not the gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ.” Let me repeat verse 9: “Who shall be punished
with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and
from the glory of his power.”"
McGee, J. Vernon: Thru
the Bible Commentary. electronic ed. Nashville :
Thomas Nelson, 1997, c1981, S. 5:410-411The
society of the wicked leads to hell (Pr 5:5; 9:18). The
beast, false prophets, and the devil shall be cast into
hell (Re 19:20; 20:10). Death and hell are
consigned to the lake of fire (the place of final
punishment [(Rev. 20:14]).
Thomas Nelson Publishers: Nelson's Quick Reference
Topical Bible Index. Nashville, Tenn. : Thomas Nelson
Publishers, 1995 (Nelson's Quick Reference), S. 370
Punishment,
everlasting, the concept that
after death an individual can be subjected to ongoing
retribution for evil acts committed during life. The idea
developed slowly over a long period of time. The ancient
Hebrews, like the other Semitic peoples of the ancient Near
East, believed that at death the human person lost earthly life
but did not go out of existence entirely. They had no notion of
an immortal soul separable from the body. Rather, they believed
that the dead had a shadowlike or phantomlike existence in the
realm of the dead. The realm of the dead was usually located
under the earth. It was called by various names, most commonly
Sheol. This name is related to the verb ‘to inquire’ in Hebrew
and probably reflects the practice of seeking oracles from the
dead. In the
ot Sheol is
not particularly a place of punishment. Existence there is
characterized by weariness and forgetfulness.
The notion of eternal punishment does appear
a few times in the ot,
though not particularly associated with Sheol. In Isa. 66:24 it
is said of the wicked that ‘their worm shall not die, their fire
shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all
flesh’ (rsv).
In Daniel 12:2 it is said that some will rise from the dead to
shame and everlasting contempt.
In 2 Kings 23:10 the Valley of Hinnom, a
ravine south of Jerusalem, is mentioned as a place where
children were burned as sacrifices to the god Molech. Perhaps as
early as the third century
b.c., this valley
came to represent the place of eternal punishment (1
Enoch 27; 90:26-27; 2 Esdr.
7:36). This notion appears in the
nt, where the
valley is called Gehenna (e.g., Matt. 5:22). In Jewish
literature of the Greco-Roman period and in the
nt, the
punishment envisaged in this valley is a fiery one. The book of
Revelation does not use the term Gehenna but speaks of a lake of
fire in which the wicked will be punished (Rev. 20:14-15).
The notion of eternal punishment was greatly
elaborated in the early Christian apocalypses that came to be
called apocryphal (to the
nt). In
The Apocalypse of Peter,
for example, various places of punishment are revealed. In each
case the mode of punishment suits the sins for which the lost
souls are being punished. It is this later tradition that Dante
incorporated in his Inferno.
Today there is a range of interpretations of
this tradition among Christians. Fundamentalists and some
conservative evangelicals believe that hell is an actually
existing, physical place and that various horrible physical
afflictions will be visited there upon sinners in eternity. A
moderate view holds that hell is not a specific place and that
God is not preparing physical punishments for the wicked. Hell
is rather the state of eternal separation from God. It is the
conscious loss of the presence of God and of heavenly bliss.
Some liberals understand language about everlasting punishment
symbolically. From this point of view, these symbols express
something about earthly life, not about an afterlife. Hell may
be interpreted as the state in this life of hardened rebellion
against God, a state of disobedience beyond forgiveness and
redemption. Support for this view is found in the Gospel of
John. There the opposite of everlasting punishment, eternal
life, is presented primarily as a quality of life in the
present: real life, abundant life.
rsv
Revised Standard Version
Achtemeier, Paul J. ;
Harper & Row, Publishers ; Society of Biblical
Literature: Harper's Bible Dictionary. 1st ed.
San Francisco : Harper & Row, 1985, S. 842
Second death,
the death of the soul or spirit, the death of the resurrected
person, or eternal damnation. In Matt. 10:28 a saying attributed to
Jesus alludes to God as one who has the power to destroy both soul
and body. A Jewish text written in the second century
b.c. describes a
chaotic wilderness in which fire blazes brightly. In this place the
spirits of the wicked will be killed during the last days
(1 Enoch
108:3-4). According to the book of Revelation, all the dead will
rise on the day of judgment. Then the wicked will be cast into the
lake of fire to suffer their second death (Rev. 20:11-15; 21:8).
Achtemeier, Paul J. ;
Harper & Row, Publishers ; Society of Biblical
Literature: Harper's Bible Dictionary. 1st ed.
San Francisco : Harper & Row, 1985, S. 920
LAKE OF FIRE
Final abode of Satan, his servants, and unrepentant human
beings.
This place is mentioned only in Revelation (Rv
19:20; 20:10, 14–15; 21:8), but its terrible nature is
abundantly clear. It is described as a lake of fire or lake of
burning sulphur into which are cast (1) the “beast” and his
“false prophet” after the Lamb defeats them, (2) Satan after his
last rebellion, (3) Death and Hades, and (4) all whose names are
not found in the “Book of Life.” It is called the second death,
for it is the ultimate separation from God beyond the
resurrection and final judgment.
The lake of fire is probably the same place
that Jesus calls Gehenna (Mt 10:28; Mk 9:43; Lk 12:5), the
“outer darkness” (Mt 8:12; 22:13; 25:30), and the eternal fire
prepared for the devil and his angels (Mt 25:41; cf. Is 66:24).
The imagery is drawn from the fires in the valley of Hinnom
outside of Jerusalem and perhaps the stream of fire issuing from
God’s throne (Is 30:33; Dn 7:10; cf. Is 34:9–10). The picture
was known to Jewish as well as Christian writers (Assumption of
Moses 10:10; 2 Esd 7:36). Whatever the image or name, they all
point to a place of eternal torment and separation from God
where the unrepentant will suffer forever.
Elwell, Walter A. ;
Comfort, Philip Wesley: Tyndale Bible Dictionary.
Wheaton, Ill. : Tyndale House Publishers, 2001 (Tyndale
Reference Library), S. 794
GEHENNA*
English transliteration of the Greek form of an Aramaic word,
which is derived from the Hebrew phrase “the Valley of [the
son(s) of] Hinnom.” The name properly designates a deep valley
delimiting the territories of the tribes of Benjamin and Judah (Jos
15:8; 18:16). It is commonly identified with Wadi el-Rababi that
runs from beneath the western wall of the Old City, forming a
deep ravine south of Jerusalem.
The place became notorious because of the
idolatrous practices that were carried out there in the days of
Judah’s kings Ahaz and Manasseh, especially involving the
heinous crime of infant sacrifices associated with the Molech
ceremonies (2 Kgs 16:3; 21:6; 2 Chr 28:3; 33:6; Jer 19:6;
32:35). The spiritual reformation of King Josiah brought an end
to these sinister proceedings (2 Kgs 23:10). The prophet
Jeremiah referred to the valley in picturing God’s judgment upon
his people (Jer 2:23; 7:30–32; 19:5–6).
Subsequently, the valley appears to have been
used for the burning of the city’s refuse and the dead bodies of
criminals. Interestingly, a well-established tradition locates
the scene of Judas’s suicide and the consequent purchase of the
Potter’s Field on the south side of this valley.
The ravine’s reputation for extreme
wickedness gave rise, especially during the intertestamental
period, to use of its name as a term for the place of final
punishment for the wicked (1 Enoch 18:11–16; 27:1–3; 54:1ff.;
56:3–4; 90:26; 2 Esd 7:36; cf. Is 30:33; 66:24; Dn 7:10). Jesus
himself utilizes the term to designate the final abode of the
unrepentant wicked (Mt 5:22; 10:28; 18:9). Since Gehenna is a
fiery abyss (Mk 9:43), it is also the lake of fire (Mt 13:42,
50; Rv 20:14–15) to which all the godless will ultimately be
consigned (Mt 23:15, 33), together with Satan and his devils (Mt
25:41; Rv 19:20; 20:10).
Gehenna must be carefully differentiated from
other terms relative to the afterlife or final state. Whereas
the OT “Sheol” and NT “hades” uniformly designate the temporary
abode of the dead (before the last Day of Judgment), “Gehenna”
specifies the final place where the wicked will suffer
everlasting punishment (cf. Ps 49:14–15 with Mt 10:28). The
Greek form “Tartarus” occurs only in 2 Peter 2:4 and identifies
the particular abode of the angels who fell in the primeval
satanic revolt.
Elwell, Walter A. ;
Comfort, Philip Wesley: Tyndale Bible Dictionary.
Wheaton, Ill. : Tyndale House Publishers, 2001 (Tyndale
Reference Library), S. 516
HADES* Abode
of the dead. In Greek mythology Hades was originally the god of
the underworld (also named Pluto), a brother of Zeus. He was the
abductor of Persephone and thus the cause of winter. His realm,
which was called by his name (and also called Tartarus), was the
dark land where the dead existed. Odysseus entered that realm
and fed the ghosts with blood to get directions back home
(Homer’s Odyssey
4.834). Originally the Greeks thought of hades as simply the
grave—a shadowy, ghostlike existence that happened to all who
died, good and evil alike. Gradually they and the Romans came to
see it as a place of reward and punishment, an elaborately
organized and guarded realm where the good were rewarded in the
Elysian Fields and the evil were punished (so described by the
Roman poet Virgil, 70–19
bc).
“Hades” became important to the Jews as the
typical term used by the translators of the Septuagint to render
the Hebrew name “Sheol” into Greek. This was a very suitable
translation for the Hebrew term, for both words can signify the
physical grave or death (Gn 37:35; Prv 5:5; 7:27), and both
originally referred to a dark underworld (Jb 10:21–22) where
existence was at best shadowy (Jb 38:17; Is 14:9). Sheol is
described as under the ocean (Jb 26:5–6; Jon 2:2–3) and as
having bars and gates (Jb 17:16). All people go there whether
they are good or evil (Ps 89:48). In the earlier literature
there is no hope of release from Sheol/hades. C. S. Lewis
describes this concept well in The
Silver Chair: “Many sink down, and
few return to the sunlit lands.” Of course, all these
descriptions are in poetic literature; how literally the Hebrews
(or the Greeks, for that matter) took their descriptions of
hades/Sheol is hard to say. They may have simply used the older
picture-language of Greek poetry to describe that for which
prose words were inadequate.
Jew and Greek alike came in contact with
Persia—the Jews at the time the postexilic writers were
composing their books (e.g., Malachi, Daniel, and some psalms),
and the Greeks somewhat later (they fought the Persians 520–479
bc and conquered
them 334–330 bc).
Whether because of Persian influence on these groups or not,
during this period, the idea of reward and punishment after
death developed, and Sheol/hades changed from a shadow land to a
differentiated place of reward and punishment for both Greeks
(and Romans) and Jews. Josephus records that the Pharisees
believed in reward and punishment at death (Antiquities
18.1.3), and a similar idea appears in 1 Enoch 22. In these and
many other cases in Jewish literature, hades stands for the one
place of the dead, which has two or more compartments. In other
Jewish literature, hades is the place of torment for the wicked,
while the righteous enter paradise (Pss of Sol 14; Wisd of Sol
2:1; 3:1). Thus, by the beginning of the NT period, hades has
three meanings: (1) death, (2) the place of all the dead, and
(3) the place of the wicked dead only. Context determines which
meaning an author intends in a given passage.
All these meanings appear in the NT. In
Matthew 11:23 and Luke 10:15, Jesus speaks of Capernaum’s
descending to hades (nlt
mg). Most likely he
simply means that the city will “die” or be destroyed. “Hades”
means “death” in this context, as “heaven” means “exaltation.”
Revelation 6:8 also exemplifies this: Death comes on a horse,
and hades (a symbol of death) comes close behind. This
personification of hades probably comes from the OT, where hades/Sheol
is viewed as a monster that devours people (Prv 1:12; 27:20;
30:16; Is 5:14; 28:15, 18; Hb 2:5).
Matthew 16:18 is a more difficult use of
hades. The church will be built upon a rock and the gates of
hades will not prevail against it. Here the place of the dead
(complete with gates and bars) is a symbol for death: Christians
may in fact be killed, but death (the gates of hades) will no
more hold them than it held Christ. He who burst out of hades
will bring his people out as well. This is also the meaning of
Acts 2:27 (quoting Ps 16:10): Christ did not stay dead; his life
did not remain in hades; unlike David, he rose from the dead. It
is uncertain in either of these cases whether hades is simply a
symbol for death or whether it means that Christ and the
Christian actually went to a place of the dead called hades;
probably the former is intended. Whatever the case, since Christ
did rise, he has conquered death and hades. He appears in
Revelation 1:18 as the one holding the keys (the control) to
both.
Two NT passages refer to hades as the place
where the dead exist: Revelation 20:13–14 and Luke 16:23. In
Revelation 20 hades is emptied of all who are in it (either all
dead or the wicked dead, depending on one’s eschatology)—the
resurrection is complete. When the wicked are judged and cast
into the lake of fire (Gehenna), hades is also thrown in. Luke
16:23, however, clearly refers to hades as the place of the
wicked dead. There the rich man is tormented in a flame, while
the poor man, Lazarus, goes to paradise (Abraham’s bosom).
Hades, then, means three things in the NT, as
it did in Jewish literature: (1) Death and its power is the most
frequent meaning, especially in metaphorical uses. (2) It also
means the place of the dead in general, when a writer wants to
lump all the dead together. (3) It means, finally, the place
where the wicked dead are tormented before the final judgment.
This is its narrowest meaning, occurring only once in the NT (Lk
16:23). The Bible does not dwell on this torment—Dante’s picture
in The Inferno
draws on later speculation and Greco-Roman conceptions of hades
more than on the Bible.
nlt
New Living Translation
mg A
variant reading noted in the margin or footnote of a
translation
Elwell, Walter A. ;
Comfort, Philip Wesley: Tyndale Bible Dictionary.
Wheaton, Ill. : Tyndale House Publishers, 2001 (Tyndale
Reference Library), S. 560
HELL Place
of future punishment for the lost, unrepentant, wicked dead.
PREVIEW
•Definition and Description
•Biblical Terms
•The Justice of Eternal Punishment
Definition and Description
Hell is the final destiny of unbelievers and is variously
described by the figures of a furnace of fire, eternal fire,
eternal punishment (Mt 13:42, 50; 25:41, 46); outer darkness,
the place of weeping and torment (8:12); the lake of fire, the
second death (Rv 21:8); a place for the devil and his demons (Mt
25:41). Evidently, those in hell experience everlasting
separation from the Lord, never to see the glory of his power (2
Thes 1:9). Those who worshiped the beast will be subject to
continuous torment (Rv 14:10–11).
Other expressions that indicate that the
final state of the wicked is eternal are these: “burn with
unquenchable fire” (Mt 3:12); “to the unquenchable fire … where
their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched” (Mk 9:43,
48); there is sin that “will not be forgiven, either in this age
or in the age to come” (Mt 12:32,
rsv). When
Scripture is understood properly, there is no hint anywhere of
the termination of the terrible state of unbelievers in hell.
Their doom is unending; there is a solemn finality about their
miserable condition. (It is significant that the most
descriptive and conclusive utterances about hell come from the
lips of Jesus.)
A summary of all Scripture that speaks of
hell indicates that there is the loss and absence of all good,
and the misery and torment of an evil conscience. The most
terrifying aspect is the complete and deserved separation from
God and from all that is pure, holy, and beautiful. In addition,
there is the awareness of being under the wrath of God and of
enduring the curse of a righteous sentence because of one’s sins
that were consciously and voluntarily committed.
Although the biblical descriptions of hell
are stated in very physical and literal terms, the essential
character of hell should not be conceived in or limited to
designations such as the worm that devours, the stripes that are
inflicted, the burning or being consumed by fire. This
affirmation does not detract from the horror or the gravity of
the situation in hell, because nothing could possibly be worse
than separation from God and the torment of an evil conscience.
Hell is hell for those who are there essentially because they
are completely alienated from God, and wherever there is
alienation from God, there is always estrangement from one’s
fellows. This is the worst possible punishment to which anyone
could be subject: to be totally and irrevocably cut off from God
and to be at enmity with all those who are around oneself.
Another painful consequence of such a condition is to be at odds
with oneself—torn apart from within by an accusing sense of
guilt and shame. This condition is one of total conflict: with
God, one’s neighbors, and oneself. This is hell! If the
descriptions of hell are figurative or symbolic, the conditions
they represent are more intense and real than the figures of
speech in which they are expressed.
Punishment for sin is a persistent teaching
of the Bible. The doctrine of judgment is as extensive as the
Canon itself. Typical of such passages are Genesis 2:17;
3:17–19; 4:13; Leviticus 26:27–33; Psalm 149:7; Isaiah 3:11;
Ezekiel 14:10; Amos 1:2–2:16; Zechariah 14:19; Matthew 25:41,
46; Luke 16:23–24; Romans 2:5–12; Galatians 6:7–8; Hebrews
10:29–31; and Revelation 20:11–15.
Biblical Terms
The Hebrew word “Sheol” in the OT is predominantly used for “the
grave, the pit, the place of the departed dead” (Gn 37:35; Jb
7:9; 14:13; 17:13–16; Pss 6:5; 16:10; 55:15; Prv 9:18; Eccl
9:10; Is 14:11; 38:10–12, 18). There does not seem to be a very
clear distinction in the OT between the final destiny of the
good and the evil. They all alike go to the grave, to the world
below, a world of gloom, weariness, darkness, decay, and
forgetfulness, where one is remote from God (Jb 10:20–22; Ps
88:3–6), yet accessible to him (Jb 26:6; Ps 138:8; Am 9:2). It
is a place characterized by silence (Pss 94:17; 115:17) and rest
(Jb 3:17). Other texts, however, seem to suggest some aspect of
consciousness, hope, and communication in Sheol (Jb 14:13–15;
19:25–27; Pss 16:10; 49:15; Is 14:9–10; Ez 32:21). A few texts
seem to suggest the threat of divine judgment after death (Pss
9:17; 55:15). On the whole, Sheol was regarded with dismay and
foreboding (Dt 32:22; Is 38:18).
It was not until the time of the
postcanonical Jewish literature, the writings that were
developed between the close of the OT and the beginning of NT
times, that clear distinctions were made between the final
destinies of the righteous and the unrighteous. The idea of
separate divisions within Sheol for the good and the evil was
developed. It is unmistakable that there was in Jewish thought,
as reflected throughout the OT, a belief in a future and
continued existence beyond death, however shadowy and indefinite
the concept.
The Greek word “hades” in the NT is used very
similarly to “Sheol” in the OT. It was, in fact, used by the
translators of the Septuagint, the Greek version of the OT, for
Sheol. It designated in general the place or state of the dead,
the grave, or death itself. In some versions the word is not
translated at all but is transliterated simply as “hades.” The
NT is not always very explicit about the meaning of hades, other
than what has just been described. Use of the word often does
not reveal much about the specific condition of the dead. There
are some passages, however, that indicate a distinct advance
over the use of Sheol in the OT. One NT passage definitely
describes hades as a place of evil and punishment of the wicked,
and may appropriately be translated “hell” (Lk 16:23). In all
other instances, hades indicates nothing more than the place of
the dead.
The Greek word “Gehenna” is used in a number
of NT texts to designate the fiery place for punishment of
sinners and is often translated “hell” or “the fires of hell”
(Mt 5:22, 29–30; 10:28; 18:9; 23:15, 33; Mk 9:43, 45, 47; Jas
3:6). It is usually used in connection with the final judgment
and often has the suggestion that the punishment spoken of is
eternal. Gehenna is derived by transliteration from the Hebrew
of the OT “valley of Hinnom” or the “valley of the son of Hinnom,”
a ravine on the south side of Jerusalem. This valley was the
center of idolatrous worship in which children were burned by
fire as an offering to the heathen god Molech (2 Chr 28:3;
33:6). In the time of Josiah it became a place of abomination,
polluted by dead men’s bones and rubbish (2 Kgs 23:10–14) and by
the garbage and filth of Jerusalem dumped there. A fire burned
continuously in this valley. It thus became a symbol of the
unending fires of hell where the lost are consumed in torment.
It was a symbol of judgment to be imposed on the idolatrous and
disobedient (Jer 7:31–34; 32:35).
Another Greek word used to designate hell or
“the lower regions” is “Tartarus” (2 Pt 2:4), a classical word
for the place of eternal punishment. The apostle Peter uses it
for the fallen angels who were thrown into hell, “committed … to
pits of nether gloom to be kept until the judgment” (rsv).
As noted above, there are, in addition to
these terms, the very explicit and vivid phrases that clearly
teach the doctrine of hell, as developed at the beginning of
this article. The biblical doctrine is determined much more by
these decisive phrases than by the somewhat indecisive but
frequently used terms “Sheol” and “hades.”
Hades as
hell: a problem in translation
The
kjv translators
caused much confusion by translating two different Greek words (hades
and Gehenna)
with the same English word, “hell.” Hades almost always denotes
the grave or the place of the dead. Gehenna, a much rarer
expression in the NT, denotes the eternal fires. Thus, hell, as
most people think about it, is really Gehenna, not hades.
Unfortunately, this was not distinguished in the
kjv. Modern
translators have tried to correct the problem, but the popular
misconception persists.
The Justice of Eternal Punishment
It is difficult for us to understand the righteous judgment of a
holy God who, on one hand, hates all evil, yet, on the other
hand, loves the evildoers enough to sacrifice his only Son for
their salvation from sin. Divine wrath is the necessary reaction
of a holy God who hates all that is contrary to his righteous
nature. When the only remedy for human sin is rejected and all
appeals of a loving, seeking God for the reconciliation of
rebellious sinners are refused, there is no other course of
action that God himself can pursue but to leave the sinner to
his self-chosen destiny. Punishment for sin is then the
inevitable and inescapable response of holiness to that which is
morally opposite, and it must continue as long as the sinful
condition requiring it continues. There is no indication
anywhere in Scripture that lost sinners in hell are capable of
repentance and faith. If in this life they did not turn away
from sin and receive Christ as Savior with all the favorable
circumstances and opportunities afforded them on earth, it is
unreasonable to think they will do so in the life to come.
Punishment cannot come to an end until guilt and sin come to an
end. When the sinner ultimately resists and rejects the work of
the Holy Spirit whereby he is convicted of sin, there remains no
more possibility of repentance or salvation. He has committed an
eternal sin (Mk 3:29; Rv 22:11), which deserves eternal
punishment.
The impossibility of faith and repentance in
hell is seen also from the tragic reality of the depraved will,
conditioned and determined by its repeated rebellion against
God. Sin reproduces itself in the will, and character tends to
become irrevocably fixed. God responds to endless sinning with
the necessary counterpart of endless punishment.
If the question is raised, How can a loving
God send people to an everlasting hell? it must be replied that
God does not choose this destination for people; they freely
choose it for themselves. God simply concurs in their
self-chosen way and reveals the full consequences of their evil
choice. It must always be remembered that God is not only
loving; he is also holy and righteous. There must be some
adequate reckoning with justice in the universe where a revolt
against God has brought evil consequences of enormous
proportions.
While the duration of punishment in hell is
eternal for all who have chosen that destiny for themselves,
there are degrees of punishment proportional to the degrees of
guilt of each individual. Only God is able to determine what
those degrees are, and he will assign the consequences with
perfect justice according to the responsibility of each one.
Evidence of such gradations in future punishment is found in
Scripture (Mt 11:20–24; Lk 12:47–48; Rv 20:12–13; cf. Ez
16:48–61). An obvious comparison is made in these texts between
the differing intensities of punishment that are involved in the
contrasting privileges, knowledge, and opportunities.
From all that has been said, it should be
obvious that a variety of nonbiblical views must be ruled out,
however attractively they may be presented by their advocates
and however popular they may be from time to time. Among these
views are the erroneous, but sometimes persuasive, doctrines of
universalism, annihilationism, and second probation.
Universalism promotes the concept that God will save everyone in
the end. Annihilationism teaches that hell is not a place of
conscious suffering but of final extermination. And second
probation is a notion that people can be delivered from hell. It
must always be remembered that the Bible is our rule of faith
for the doctrine of hell, however difficult the doctrine may
seem for natural reason or for human sentiment. Scripture leaves
no doubt about the terrible nature and the eternal duration of
hell. Rejection or neglect of this doctrine will have dire
effects upon the mission of the church.
rsv
Revised Standard Version
Elwell, Walter A. ;
Comfort, Philip Wesley: Tyndale Bible Dictionary.
Wheaton, Ill. : Tyndale House Publishers, 2001 (Tyndale
Reference Library), S. 591
DEAD, PLACE OF THE
Term covering a number of descriptive biblical images of the
whereabouts of those who have died. Those images include Sheol
and “the pit” in the OT, plus hades, Gehenna, paradise, and
“Abraham’s bosom” in the NT. As their understanding advanced,
the Hebrews’ idea of what happens at death changed from rather
hazy beginnings to a developed concept found in the NT.
In the Old Testament
The OT contains meager information about the dead. At death,
according to some OT passages, one descends to Sheol (often
translated as “grave,” “hell,” “pit,” or simply “the dead”),
which at times means merely that one is laid in a grave (Nm
16:30, 33), but more often indicates an underworld. The abode of
the dead is pictured as a place beneath the earth to which one
“goes down” (Gn 42:38; Prv 15:24; Ez 26:20) and as a place of
gloomy darkness (Jb 10:21–22), silence (Pss 94:17; 115:17), and
forgetfulness (Ps 88:12). God is not remembered there and his
praises are never sung (Pss 6:5; 30:9; 115:17). Even God
himself, it was believed, does not remember those who are there
(Ps 88:5, 11; Is 38:18). The dead were seen as permanently cut
off from contact with the Lord and from participating in his
activity in history. Even though the border between life and
death was considered fluid (as shown by a resurrection in 2 Kgs
4:32–37 and by Samuel’s ghost in 1 Sm 28:7–25), communication
with the dead was forbidden to the Jews (Dt 18:11). (Worshiping
the dead was a common practice in the nations surrounding
Israel.)
Although one’s fate in the underworld could
not properly be called life, it was a kind of existence, perhaps
even in the company of one’s countrymen and ancestors (Gn 25:8;
Ez 32:17–30). The realm of the dead was not beyond the reach of
God’s power (Ps 139:8; Am 9:2; Jon 2:2). Although Sheol was
pictured as a hungry monster wolfing down the living (Prv 27:20;
30:16), God’s power could save one from its grasp (Pss 49:15;
86:13). By the end of the OT period, there was even hope that
one would finally be delivered from Sheol (Jb 14:13–22;
19:25–27; Pss 49:15; 73:23–28), although only Daniel expressed
that hope clearly (Dn 12:1–2). So although the ancient Hebrews
never looked forward to death in the same way that the apostle
Paul could in the NT (2 Cor 5:1–8; Phil 1:21–23), nevertheless
they did come to understand that death was not a hopeless state.
In the Intertestamental Writings
Between the exile and the beginning of the NT period (586
bc–ad
30, overlapping with the end of the OT), contact with the
religions of Persia and Greece stimulated the Jews to clarify
their ideas about life after death. When the OT was translated
into Greek, the Greek name for the underworld, “hades,” was used
to translate the Hebrew “Sheol.” In the NT, hades was carried
over to become the common name for the abode of the dead.
Along with new names came new ideas. Many
different notions circulated about the place of the dead. A
common one appears in the pseudepigraphal 1 Enoch 22, where the
dead are said to be kept in hollow places in a great mountain
waiting for the final judgment. One relatively pleasant section
was reserved for the righteous and one full of torments for the
wicked. Other writers continued the OT concept of hades or Sheol
as a place of separation from God and from happiness (Ecclus
14:12, 16; 17:27–28).
During that period, the Jews also began to
use a new term, “Gehenna” (Hebrew “Hinnom”), the name of a
valley south of Jerusalem. The valley was noted in the OT period
for the abomination of child sacrifices (2 Kgs 16:3; 21:6;
23:10) and in the NT period for its smoldering garbage. Gehenna
became a designation for the final place of the wicked dead, a
place of fiery torment (1 Enoch 90:20–27; 2 Esd 7:70). Over
against that place of punishment stood “paradise” (a Persian
name for a pleasure garden), a place where the righteous would
enjoy blessedness.
All those concepts—hades, Gehenna,
paradise—were molded by NT writers into forms most appropriate
to the revelation of Christ.
In the New Testament
Although the NT uses a variety of terms for the abode of the
dead, it contains surprisingly few references to it—about 35
verses in all. Those passages are concentrated in the Gospels
and the book of Revelation. The apostle Paul said a lot about
heaven, but only Jesus and John said much about hell.
The word “hades” is attributed to Jesus only
once, in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Lk 16:23). In
that parable hades is a place of torment where the wicked go at
death. The torment is described as a “flame” that afflicts a
person physically despite bodily death. All comfort is refused
to those in agony.
Although the wicked go to hades as soon as
they die, their ultimate destination is Gehenna, a place of fire
and worms, both indicating corruption (Mt 5:22, 29–30; 18:9; Mk
9:48, quoting from Is 66:24). Jesus also referred to Gehenna as
“the outer darkness” where there will be “weeping and gnashing
of teeth” (Mt 8:12; 22:13; 25:30). Evidently, after the final
judgment, the wicked are sent there at the command of Christ (Jn
5:22, 27; Acts 10:42; 17:31; 2 Tm 4:1). That place of torment
picks up the negative side of the OT concept of Sheol as a place
of separation from God.
As a preacher of repentance, Jesus stressed
the danger of Gehenna. He had much less to say about the place
of the righteous when they die. Ultimately, though, the
righteous would enter into “the kingdom,” instead of Gehenna,
after the last judgment (Mt 25:34). Jesus twice indicated that
the righteous enter a blessed state immediately at death. Luke
16:22 refers to the dead Lazarus as being in “Abraham’s bosom,”
a place of comfort and peace. Luke 23:43 calls the same place
paradise in a promise that the dying thief would join Jesus
there at death. Paul’s wording about paradise seems to align it
with heaven (2 Cor 12:2–3), and John associates paradise with
the new heaven and new earth (Rv 2:7; 21:1–2; 22:1–2).
Paul and other writers of the NT epistles had
little to say about the abode of the wicked dead. Paul spoke
only in passing of “the abyss”—his term for the pit of Sheol
(Rom 10:7). His reference to Christ’s descent to the “lower
parts of the earth” (Eph 4:9) is probably only his way of saying
that Christ, having died, went to the place of the dead. (“The
lowest earth” was a term used by Jewish rabbis for Sheol/hades/Gehenna.)
Peter spoke of Christ’s going in “spirit” after his death to
some “prison” where he “preached to the spirits” (1 Pt 3:18–20).
Interpretations of that passage differ. Some think that Christ
entered hades and preached to the fallen angels of Noah’s day
(“sons of God,” Gn 6:1–4), not that he preached to imprisoned
human spirits. In 2 Peter 2:4 the prison for spirits (usually
translated “hell”) comes from “Tartarus,” another Greek name for
the underworld.
Paul had much to say about the abode of the
righteous dead. In his earliest letters he never mentioned their
location, only that they would be resurrected (1 Cor 15; 1 Thes
4:13–17). After facing almost certain death himself (2 Cor
1:8–11), he began to discuss where the dead “went.” To die means
to be with Christ, Paul said, and thus is better than life (Phil
1:23). To be “away from the body” is to be “at home with the
Lord” (2 Cor 5:8). Paul probably meant that the righteous dead
went directly to paradise to be with Jesus (cf. 2 Cor 12:2–4,
where Paul called paradise “the third heaven”). Death has
absolutely no power to separate Christians from Christ (Rom
8:38–39). Instead, it brings them into the presence of God.
The book of Revelation contains much about
the abode of the dead, especially the wicked dead. It uses two
names for that place: “the abyss,” the home or prison of all
evil spirits; and “hades,” the name for the place of the human
dead. From the abyss (or bottomless pit) come the demonic forms
that torment humanity (Rv 9:1–11) and the satanic “beast,” who
kills the two witnesses and carries the “great prostitute” on
its back (11:7; 17). There Satan himself will be imprisoned
(20:2–3). Jesus described it as a place prepared for the devil
and his angels (cf. Mt 25:41). The good news for Christians is
that the abyss, or hades, is not an autonomous realm. The book
of Revelation begins with Jesus’ announcement that he has the
keys to hades (Rv 1:18), and in the end he will force it to give
up its dead (20:13). Until then, the key to the abyss is not in
the hand of Satan, but hangs on a heavenly key ring to be
distributed only to the messengers of God (9:1; 20:1). In the
end, hades, death, and the wicked will be cast into the lake of
fire (Gehenna), where they will suffer eternal torment (19:20;
20:10, 14–15; 21:8).
John, the writer of the Revelation, agreed
with Paul that the righteous will not share the fate of the
wicked at death. Instead of going to hades, they go to heaven.
The martyrs appear under the altar, calling to God to avenge
them (Rv 6:9–11). In another image innumerable Christians appear
before the throne of God, praising him (7:9–17). Those
believers, shepherded by Christ himself, suffer no hunger,
thirst, discomfort, or sorrow.
Conclusion
In summary, the place of the dead began in the OT as an
undifferentiated, hazy idea of a place of separation from life
and God. Later writers came to see that instead of one place for
all (Sheol), there must be two. According to Christian teaching,
the wicked enter the underworld, hades, a place of torment,
where they suffer until the time of judgment; ultimately they
will be cast into Gehenna, the lake of fire. Christ—not the
devil—is in control of hades, as he is of the rest of creation.
The righteous do not go to hades, but go directly to paradise
(“Abraham’s bosom” or heaven). There they are with Christ; faith
has become sight, suffering has become blessedness, and prayer
has become praise. Christians believe that death, although
fearful as the “last enemy,” has no torment for them. It has no
power to separate them from their Lord. Rather, it brings them
face-to-face with the One they love.
This meeting may occur as soon as one dies or
as soon as one is resurrected—the intervening time is of no
consequence, because it is nothing more than just a time of
sleep. In other words, the very next experience after death for
the believer will be that of meeting Christ.
Both Old and New Testaments speak of death as
sleep. Commonly in the OT, when a person dies, he is said to go
to sleep with his fathers (e.g., Dt 31:16; 2 Sm 7:12). Jesus
himself spoke of death as sleep (Mt 9:24; Jn 11:11). So did the
apostle Paul (1 Cor 11:30; 15:20, 51; 1 Thes 4:14). At least in
some of these references it would seem that it is the temporary
nature of death that is the reason why it is spoken of as sleep.
Even in the OT passage Daniel 12:2, it is said that death is a
sleep, until the dead rise up—some to everlasting life and some
to shame and everlasting contempt.
Elwell, Walter A. ;
Comfort, Philip Wesley: Tyndale Bible Dictionary.
Wheaton, Ill. : Tyndale House Publishers, 2001 (Tyndale
Reference Library), S. 364