e
are assured by nearly every Christian
denomination, as well as every obscure Christian
sect, that what they believe is based ‘solely on
scripture’. Usually, if we were to ask any of
these various groups why their particular
interpretation of the scriptures should be
favored against an opposing viewpoint we would
likely be told that the others must surely be
influenced by some extra-biblical authority,
while ‘our interpretation is based
solely on the scriptures.’
Sola Scriptura –
or, scripture alone – has become the ‘stamp of
authority’ for an innumerable myriad of
conflicting and altogether contrary doctrines.
Surely to a neutral outside observer these words
must seem totally meaningless. Apparently
anything can be proven ‘by scripture alone’.
Or can it?
To test this, let’s
examine for a moment a doctrine that is believed
by millions of Christians, taught in hundreds of
Bible Colleges and Seminaries, and proclaimed in
countless churches every Sunday: namely, that
Hell is a place of eternal torment.
This thought, that
the wicked will spend eternity in a hell of
eternal torment, is one of the most basic and
fundamental beliefs of Christianity and has been
for centuries. We are assured by many of its
adherents that this doctrine is based on
‘scripture alone’.
But is it? Let’s
confine ourselves to the ‘scriptures alone’ and
see what we come up with.
The word ‘hell’ as
it appears in our English Bible is actually
translated from one Hebrew word (Sheol),
and three different Greek words (Hades,
Tartarus, and Gehenna). Any honest Pastor,
Scholar or Bible teacher will tell you that
three of these words have little or nothing to
do with our modern conception of hell as a place
of everlasting torment. Don’t believe me? Ask
them.
For example, the
Hebrew word Sheol simply means ‘the
unseen’. In the Old Testament Sheol
received both the good and the wicked; it is
often synonymous with the grave. Put simply,
Sheol means ‘the death state’ and is never
connected with the concepts of hell and eternal
torment as taught today[1].
Likewise, the Greek
word ‘Hades’, which appears eleven
times in the New Testament, is used in precisely
the same way as the Hebrew ‘Sheol’[2].
At 1 Corinthians 15:55 the King James Version
renders this word as ‘grave’. Revelation 20:13[3]
makes it clear that Hades must be
emptied prior to the final judgment. Once again,
our widely held conceptions of hell and eternal
torment are not to be found in those Bible
verses that use the Greek word Hades.
Thirdly, the Greek
word Tartarus is used only once in the
New Testament (2 Peter 2:4), and refers only to
the punishment of fallen angels. Tartarus
is never used in reference to human
punishment either now or in the future, and so
also has nothing to do with our modern
conceptions of eternal punishment in hell.
This leaves us with
one Greek word - Gehenna. Concerning
this word we are assured that it certainly does
teach this doctrine of eternal torment.
But does it?
This word
Gehenna appears only 12 times in the entire
New Testament, and is almost always translated
‘hell’ by modern translators. I ask the reader
to carefully consider the following verses:
"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, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire." Matthew 5:22 |
"And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell." Matthew 5:29 |
"And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell." Matthew 5:30 |
"And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." Matthew 10:28 |
"And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire." Matthew 18:9 |
"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves." Matthew 23:15 |
"Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?" Matthew 23:33 |
"And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched:" Mark 9:43 |
"And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched:" Mark 9:45 |
"And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire:" Mark 9:47 |
"But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him." Luke 12:5 |
"And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell." James 3:6 |
It should be
obvious from the above that ‘Hell’, whatever it
may be, is to be avoided at all costs, and the
seriousness of the judgment mentioned in these
verses should never be diminished. But for the
sake of this discussion, that’s not what we’re
trying to prove.
Remember , the
proposition that we are attempting to prove
using ‘scripture alone’ is that ‘hell is a place
of eternal torment’. Confining ourselves to
‘scripture alone’ and examining the four
original language words which are variously
translated into the English ‘hell’, this is
the whole of the evidence.
[4]
Three of these original language words; the
Hebrew Sheol, and the Greek Hades
and Tatarus, have nothing to do with
the teaching of an eternal torment in hell, and
the remaining word, Gehenna, appears
only in the 12 verses listed above.
So what’s the
problem? One might think ‘Well see, the Bible
DOES talk about HELL, at least in those 12
verses you listed.’
But this IS
THE PROBLEM.
Even if we allow
that the Greek word Gehenna has been
properly translated into English as ‘HELL’[5],
none of the 12 places in which this word occurs
describes hell as a place of eternal torment as
taught by so many today. Look at the list of
verses above; none of them mention torment.
Put another way,
the Bible never says that anyone is
tormented in hell.[6]
I’m not sure that
the average Christian who believes in eternal
torment fully appreciates this problem. He or
she is usually so conditioned by what they
already believe about hell, that they cannot see
that these concepts ARE TOTALLY ABSENT FROM
EVERY VERSE IN WHICH THE WORD ‘HELL’ APPEARS.
To appreciate what this means, let’s say that I
asked the average Christian to show me from
their Bible one verse that states that
hell is a place of eternal torment. This can
never be done. Why? Because the entirety of the
evidence, so far as the actual words which have
been translated ‘hell’, has been given above –
not one of them speaks of torment.[7]
But if we really
want to base what we believe ‘solely on the
scriptures’ then the evidence above presents an
even bigger problem for those who teach eternal
torment in hell.
Let’s carefully
look at our Bible and see what we can learn
about the ‘hell’ presented in the 12 verses
listed above.
We see that ‘hell’
is a place of ‘unquenchable fire’. But
scripturally (since scripture is our SOLE guide)
what does this mean? What is an ‘unquenchable
fire’? Is it a fire that never goes
out? Isn’t that what we’ve been taught to
believe about the ‘unquenchable fire’ of hell?
Careful examination
shows that the scriptures make many references
to ‘unquenchable fires’. But what may surprise
you is that many of these ‘unquenchable fires’
are no longer burning. For example:
"Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, mine anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched." Jeremiah 7:20[8]
Here the prophet Jeremiah is warning the Jewish nation about their impending invasion and destruction by Babylonian armies. But did the fury and the fires spoken of here last for all eternity? Absolutely not. As the New American commentary states:
‘In this case God’s anger was going to be poured out on the land like burning pitch that would not be quenched until it had consumed everything it touched’[9] (emphasis mine)
So,
scripturally speaking, an ‘unquenchable
fire’ is not one that burns FOREVER -
it is simply one that burns until it has
accomplished its purpose. Therefore, using
scripture alone one cannot prove that ‘hell’ is
a fire that never goes out. That idea is simply
not scriptural. To be sure, like the
unquenchable fires of old, the fire of ‘hell’
will burn until it accomplishes its purpose.
This, however, is no proof that its fires will
never burn out.[10]
What else can we
learn from the 12 ‘hell’ verses listed above?
We learn that hell
is a place where ‘the worm dieth not, and the
fire is not quenched’. Well, that sounds
rather ominous, but scripturally, what does it
really mean?
Here Jesus is
quoting the sixty-sixth chapter of the book of
Isaiah which reads:
"And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that 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." Isaiah 66:24
Sticking to the
scriptures ALONE, what do we learn from this
passage? What is this ‘fire’ burning, and what
are these ‘worms’ feeding upon?
CARCASSES – or dead
bodies![11]
Once again, the modern concept of souls being
tormented after death is entirely absent!
How in the world
did the picture of fire and worms consuming
dead carcasses get turned into the modern
teaching of immortal souls being tormented for
all eternity? Certainly not by following
scripture alone!
So what have we
learned using scripture alone?
1) That four
different words are generally translated into
the English word ‘hell’, but of these only
Gehenna is believed to refer to the eternal
hell of common Christian thought.
2) None of the
verses containing the word Gehenna
speak of physical torment.
3) Scripturally, an
‘unquenchable fire’ is not one that never goes
out, but one that burn until it accomplished its
purpose.
4) Even if an
‘unquenchable fire’ is ‘eternal’ the only thing
it is said to burn are carcasses, and certainly
not conscious immortal souls.
This brief study
isn’t meant to address every scripture which is
usually offered in order to ‘prove’ that there
is a hell in which the lost will be eternally
tormented. However, I hope that the reader will
be compelled by this evidence to study this
topic further. Are you really sure that what
you’ve been taught about hell is based ‘solely
upon the scriptures’?
So let me ask the
average Christian today:
Since your belief
in hell as a place of eternal torment is
supposedly based ‘solely on scripture’, and
since none of the verses that contain
the word ‘hell’ actually teach it, which verses
in the Bible really teach what you believe about
hell?
________________________
Footnotes: Click Number to
Return
[1]
I invite the reader to verify this for
themselves. The Hebrew word sheol occurs 65
times in the Old Testament. A careful reading of
these verses will easily prove that the modern
concept of torment in hell cannot be established
from any of these.
[2]
In the LXX translation of the Hebrew Scriptures
into Greek, sheol is rendered by the Greek hades.
[3]
"And the sea gave up the dead which were in it;
and death and hades delivered up the dead which
were in them: and they were judged every man
according to their works." Revelation 20:13
[4]
I understand that other scriptures are cited in
defense of this doctrine, but we should expect
to find this doctrine at least once among the
actual Greek words which supposedly reference
this place of eternal torment.
[5] The
proper translation of gehenna is itself a matter
of much debate and its widespread translation
into the English ‘hell’, a word which carries so
much preconceived theological baggage, is simply
begging the question.
[6]
Among common passages cited in opposition to
this are Luke 16:24 (‘I am tormented in this
flame’ ) and Rev 14:11 (‘The smoke of their
torment ascendeth for ever and ever’). The
‘torment’ of Luke 16 (which many admit to be of
a symbolic rather than a literal nature) is
clearly in reference to ‘hades’ and is to be
distinguished from the supposed ‘final hell’ of
gehenna. Even ‘conservative’ scholars admit that
hades does not represent the absolute and final
state of the wicked. The word ‘hell’ does not
appear in the context of Revelation 14. While
the imagery of that verse is usually connected
with the concept of an ‘eternal hell’, the
association is an imaginary one in the mind of
the reader and not based on a careful reading of
scripture. The imagery is taken directly from
Isaiah 34 in which the judgments take place upon
the earth and are poured out upon the living.
Only to those who have been conditioned to
believe in an eternal hell of torment after
death do these verses become descriptive of that
condition.
[7]
The Anchor Bible Dictionary admits this:
‘Although not describing the torments of Gehenna,
Jesus warned his disciples to take all
precautions not to fall victim to it.’ Freedman,
D. N. (1996, c1992). The Anchor Bible Dictionary
(2:927). New York: Doubleday.
[8]
See also Jeremiah 17:27, Jeremiah 21:12, Ezekiel
20:47, Ezekiel 20:48, Amos 5:6
[9]Huey,
F. (2001, c1993). Vol. 16: Jeremiah,
Lamentations ; The New American Commentary
(108). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[10]
Other verses such as Matt 18:8 describe this
fire using the Greek word Aionios which is often
translated ‘eternal’. However, a careful
examination of all ways in which this word is
used proves that it need not mean, and indeed
often cannot mean ‘unending’.
[11] The Hebrew
word Peger appears 24 times in the Old Testament
and never means anything other than a corpse.