Hell

Scriptural discussion of Hell What does the Bible reveal about Hell? A wonderful, thorough survey of all Scripture says about this place of the dead, dispelling myth and revealing the love and goodness of God towards men.
Right click here to download the pdf version of "What the Bible really says about Hell".

What the Bible really says about HELL

Gehenna

About seventy-five percent of the time when Jesus himself referred to the place of punishment for the wicked dead, the actual word used is neither Sheol nor Hades. It is instead the Hebrew word Gehenna, which is derived from the Old Testament name of a valley outside Jerusalem, the Valley of the Son of Hinnom (more about this shortly). This Gehenna proves to be, upon close examination, not a reference to Hell but to the Lake of Fire. The evidence for this is overwhelming.

First, whenever Jesus mentions people being cast into Gehenna, Jesus always says simply "cast into Gehenna"; he never mentions one being cast down into Gehenna, as he does when he mentions Hades (e.g., Mt. 11:23).

Second, the similarity between Jesus' description of Gehenna and God's description of the Lake of Fire through the prophet Isaiah is undeniable. Jesus said, "It is better for you to enter into life maimed than having two hands to go into Gehenna, into the fire that shall never be quenched, where their worm does not die,6 and the fire is not quenched." Compare that description with this from Isaiah (66:24), remembering that Isaiah is speaking of the way things will be in eternity after the Final Judgment and after Death and Hell have been cast into the Lake of Fire: "They [God's saints] shall go forth and look upon the carcasses of the men who have transgressed against me, for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh." This must be a reference to the Lake of Fire because the only place after the Final Judgment where the saints could possibly view souls in torment is in the Lake of Fire; Hell will have already been destroyed.

Thirdly, note that, in the world to come, Gehenna will be located just outside the holy city of God, where the saved will gather to worship the Lord. Isaiah states that when the saved gather, they will "look upon the carcasses of the men who have transgressed" (Isa. 66:23-24). The location of this future place of eternal torment was perfectly prefigured by the Valley of Hinnom. It was also located just outside the holy city of God: Jerusalem.

Lastly, Jesus describes the fire in Gehenna as "everlasting" (Mt. 18:8). He adds that this fire "shall never be quenched" (Mk. 9:45). These phrases cannot describe the fires of Hell, if Hell itself will be destroyed (Rev. 20:14).

Here are the eleven places where Jesus used the word Gehenna:

Matthew 5:22

"But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment; and whosoever shall say to his brother, 'Raca', shall be in danger of the council. But whosoever shall say, 'You fool', shall be in danger of Gehenna fire."

Matthew 5:29-30 ( = Matthew 18:9)

"And if your right eye offend you, pluck it out, and cast it from you, for it is profitable for you that one of your members should perish, and not that your whole body should be cast into Gehenna. And if your right hand offend you, cut if off, and cast it from you, for it is profitable for you that one of your members should perish, and not that your whole body should be cast into Gehenna."

Mark 9:43-44 ( = vv. 45-46 and 47-48)

"And if your hand offend you, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed than having two hands to go into Gehenna, into the fire that never shall be quenched, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched."

Matthew 10:28 ( = Luke 12:5)

"Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; rather, fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna."

Matthew 23:15

"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, you make him twofold more the child of Gehenna than yourselves."

Matthew 23:33

"You serpents, you offspring of vipers, how can you escape the damnation of Gehenna?"

Tophet in Gehenna

The word Gehenna has a history that is as intriguing as it is obscure. In the beginning of Israel's history as a nation, when Joshua and Eleazar were dividing the land of Canaan among the twelve tribes, there lived, or had lived, a man named Hinnom. We know almost nothing about him, even whether or not he was an Israelite. What we do know is that he had at least one son. Just once, late in Israel's history, "children of Hinnom" is mentioned (2Kgs. 23:10), but that could be a reference to Hinnom's grand-descendants and not to his immediate sons; so, whether Hinnom sired more than one son must remain a mystery. The name of Hinnom's son, or of any other relative of his for that matter, also remains unknown.

The little piece of Canaan belonging to the son of Hinnom was the valley just south of the walls of the city that would later be called Jerusalem. God led Joshua and Eleazar to make this Valley of the Son of Hinnom the dividing line between the tribe of Benjamin to the north and Judah to the south (Josh. 15:8; 18:16). The Valley of the Son of Hinnom, then, became a significant place on the map early in Israel's history in Canaan.

In time, sadly, this valley became notorious as a place devoted to the Ammonite god, Molech, who required child sacrifices to be offered by his worshipers. But one such altar proved to be insufficient, for the Israelites were zealous worshipers. Multiple altars for Molech's worship were constructed in the valley at a place called Tophet (Jer. 7:31) in order to accommodate the multitude of Israelite parents eager to offer their children to Molech, or to Baal, another god for whom altars for child sacrifice were built there (Jer. 19:5). Even some of the kings of Judah joined the crowds who descended into that horrible valley to burn their children to blood-thirsty gods. King Ahaz (2Chron. 28:1-3) and King Manasseh (2Chron. 33:1-6) are named specifically as visiting Tophet to sacrifice their children, but there can be little doubt that there were other kings and many princes who did the same.

God sent Jeremiah to Tophet one day to prophesy against the people who worshiped there, and in the smoky haze, the Spirit cried out through the embattled prophet, "They . . . have filled this place with the blood of innocents!" (Jer. 19:4).

God angrily denounced this cruel, senseless practice of child sacrifice and swore that he would fill the Valley of the Son of Hinnom with so many dead Israelite bodies that it would be impossible to bury them. He said, "The days come, says the Lord, that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor The Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but The Valley of Slaughter . . . I will break this people and this city as one breaks a potter's vessel, that cannot be made whole again, and they shall bury them in Tophet until there be no place to bury" (Jer. 7:32; 19:6, 11). This God would do "because of all the evil of the children of Israel and of the children of Judah which they have done to provoke me to anger, they, their kings, their princes, their priests, and their prophets, and the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And they have turned unto me the back, and not the face, though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not hearkened to receive instruction" (Jer. 32:32-33).

Next, before Jeremiah turned and walked out of that miserable valley, God warned the people and priests who were there that He would do in Jerusalem what they had done to their sons and daughters in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom; He would make the whole city of Jerusalem like Tophet, a wretched place of burning bodies and filthiness (Jer. 19:12-13). The priests and people there that day probably laughed Jeremiah to scorn, or ignored him. "Then came Jeremiah from Tophet, whither the Lord had sent him to prophesy, and he stood in the court of the Lord's house and said to all the people, Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold! I will bring upon this city and upon all her towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear my words" (Jer. 19:14-15).

This Tophet, the gruesome place of cruel, wicked worship by God's own people, was used at least once by God as a figure for the Lake of Fire. When the Spirit proclaimed through Isaiah that "Tophet is ordained of old" (Isa. 30:33), it was not of the Jews' Tophet in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom that the Spirit spoke, but of God's Tophet, the hideous place of everlasting fire that Jesus said was created "for the Devil and his angels" (Mt. 25:41). Isaiah's prophecy was this: "Behold, the name of the Lord is coming from afar, burning with His anger, and the burden thereof is heavy. His lips are full of indignation, and His tongue as a devouring fire . . . And the Lord shall cause His glorious voice to be heard, and He shall show the lighting down of His arm, with the indignation of His anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones . . . For Tophet is ordained of old. Yea, for the king it is prepared. He has made it deep and large; the pile thereof is fire and much wood. The breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, kindles it" (Isa. 30:27, 30, 33).

The events that transpired in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, and in Tophet particularly, when taken together with the revelation that God has a Tophet of His own, make an even more compelling case for interpreting Jesus' Gehenna as a reference to the Lake of Fire rather than to Hell.