2019-2023

Is hell really as hot and terrible as believers have been taught for centuries until today? Did a God who is love really create a place where he tortures evildoers and those who do not want to believe in him for all eternity, burning them with hellish pain while they are conscious?

Strange ... Adam and Eve were perfect people who ate of the forbidden fruit. God said that the day they ate of it, they would lose their eternal life and die. These disobedient, rebellious people were to return to the dust (elements of the earth) from which God had created Adam. Their life actually ceased. (Or have you ever seen a married couple without a navel?).

But we imperfect human beings, born with original sin (mortal), separated from God, have to live on in eternal torment in a sea that burns forever, with hellish pain? A place for the imperfect descendants of Adam and Eve? Strange and difficult to understand, isn't it ....?

Moreover, in contradiction with God's own statements and in line with the first lie Satan uttered. ("You will certainly not die if you eat of the fruit of this tree.") God says that he has no pleasure in the destruction (permanently) of godless people and evildoers.

But annihilation is something different than continuing to live in hellish torment for all eternity. This is the "second" lie, which is in harmony with the first lie. Existence is something else than non-existence, and death is something else than living on.

Many people think that the soul is something like a spiritual, non-material body that lives on after we die. But God also says that the soul that sins will die, that is, cease to exist (Ezekiel 18:4). Do good people disappear into heaven, do they actually not die either? John chapter 3 verse 13 says:

Would God have to overturn His entire plan of creation through the rebellion of an anointed cherub (who made himself Satan), who also incited many people and other angels (spirit creatures) to rebel and disobey God? Is God not omnipotent, after all, that he cannot carry out his plan of creation because of these rebels?

How then should or must we understand it..., what are errors and false doctrines, and what agrees with what the Bible conveys to us? In the following article we have tried to explain clearly and understandably the subject of hell and its real (original) meaning, and what false teachers have made of it.

Because the word "hell" is an ancient word, originally a good translation for the words Sheol and Hades in the original text. But because it later acquired a completely different meaning, these words can be better translated as "grave, sepulcher, burial cave," so that this is not misunderstood as it so often is.

This erroneous teaching is not only seen with us Christians and with Muslims..., but many religions have similar ideas in their beliefs. But is this not rather the handwriting of Satan, a vengeful God (2 Corinthians 4:4) than of a loving, merciful God?

If Almighty God Yahuwah says He has no pleasure in the death and annihilation (non-existence) of ungodly wicked people-does annihilation then involve letting someone live on forever in a place of eternal torment and pain, horror and torture....? Doesn't such an approach fit much more with a sadistic, bitter, vengeful Satan? Just by thinking logically, we come to logical conclusions.

But then, what exactly is meant by hell?

First of all, hell is not hot, and it does not burn there, but it is rather very quiet, dark and often humid there.... Have you now understood sufficiently that the doctrine of hell is different in many respects from the original meaning?

Are you someone who wants to know exactly what it is all about, then please read on.

Millions of Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists are taught that there is a place of eternal fire torment where the wicked go. This place has many names: Hell, Sheol, Jahannam ...

The Catholic Church teaches that hell is eternal; its sufferings would have no end. According to Jewish legend, at least the forefather Abraham can bring people out of torment. In Islam, the torment in the fire lasts as long as Allah wills; until then, "as often as their skin is burnt, they receive another skin, that they may taste the punishment" (Sura 4:56, Q'ran) ...!

How terrible! No wonder people refuse to even know such a cruel God!

But what does the Holy Scripture, the inspired Word of God, really say on this subject?

Did Almighty God Create Such a Place of Torment?

In ancient times, when the people of Israel started burning (sacrificing) children alive in the fire like the neighboring nations, YHWH God very clearly explained His point of view:

Please consider: If the thought of burning people alive in the fire never arose in the heart of God - how can it be that He created a hell of fire for people?

The Bible says that "God is love" (1 John 4:8). Would a loving God really torture people forever? Would YOU do such a thing? Would YOU punish your child whom you love by pressing his hand on the hot stove top FOREVER?

A hell of fire is absolutely incompatible with the loving, righteous personality of Yahuwah God. More on this later.

So where does the idea of a fire hell come from?

In the Beginning Hell Was Cool And Dark ...

The English word "hell", the German word "Hölle" and the Dutch "hel" are derived from a common root:

• From the Germanic word "hel", which means "to hide, to keep" .
• The Norse goddess of the dead is called Hel.
• The eponymous realm of the dead Hel means "the keeping, the hiding, the shelter".

Old earth cellar in Emsland, Germany

The German words "Hölle" or "Helle" are antiquated terms for a (usually dark, underground) room in which to store something - a kind of earth cellar.

Even today, the Dutch word "hel" refers to a dark storage room, e.g. under the foredeck or quarterdeck of a ship.

Burial cave Talati-de-Dalt

The dead are also buried in the earth or in a cave (German: "Höhle") and kept (literally and figuratively) in secret.

So "hell" was originally quite a good translation for Sheol and Hades.

Who, Then, Made Hell a Hot Place?

We " thank " the shift of meaning to the hell of fire to

• the apocryphal Book of Enoch (1st century B.C.E.),
• the fantasy journey "Dante's Inferno" by the Italian Dante Alighieri (early 14th century) as well as
• Martin Luther's first German translation of the Bible (15th/16th century),
• as well as the King James Bible (1611).

In his German translation of the Bible, Martin Luther used the German word "Hölle" (hell) or "höllisch" (hellish) where the original text had the words "Sheol," "Hades" or "Gehenna." The King James Bible followed this example.

What was originally meant by these three ur-scriptural words (Sheol, Hades, Gehenna) that Luther translated as "hell"?

Sheol and Hades: the Grave

The place where people go at death is called "Sheol" in the Hebrew Scriptures and "Hades" in the Greek Scriptures. That these words mean the same thing is shown by a comparison of Psalm 16:10 with Acts 2:31:

So, Sheol and Hades are synonyms.
Is Sheol or Hades the "hell of fire"?

Read Acts 2:31 again. Who was in Hades but was not left there? Jesus Christ Himself, the only righteous man! Did God torture Him there in a hell of fire for His sins? Of course not, because God's Son did not commit any sin.

No, after Jesus died, he simply went to the grave.

Sheol = Hades = "grave" or realm of the dead.

In Sheol, according to the Bible, a person experiences - nothing.

At no point does the Bible associate the word Sheol with life, activity or torment, but always with death and inactivity.

Who Goes to Sheol?

In fact, not only bad but also good people go to Sheol or Hades. When faithful Job suffered greatly from Satan's blows, he pleaded with God:

Job longed for death so that his suffering would end. If Sheol was a fiery place of torment, he would hardly have wished to go there, would he?

No, he simply wanted to rest in death until the resurrection.

Can You Come Out of Sheol Again?

Yes. After the prophet Jonah was swallowed by a large fish, he prayed in the belly of the fish. He later reports:

The belly of the fish was certainly not a place of fiery torment, but it could have become Jonah's grave. In parallel, Yahusha ha-Mashiach (Jesus Christ) said about Himself:

Yahusha (Jesus) was dead in the grave for three days; then through the resurrection He came out of Sheol/Hades again, similar to how Jonah came out of the belly of the fish.

Through our Savior Yahusha, we too can come out of Sheol again! Let us look forward to the fulfillment of the biblical promise:

Gehenna and the Lake of Fire: Annihilation

A common question is, "But surely the Bible talks about a hellfire and a lake of fire. Doesn't that prove that there is a place of torment?"

It is true that many Bible translations, such as the Luther Bible, speak of a "hellish fire" and of people going "to hell, to eternal fire" (Matthew 5:22, 29; Mark 9:43).

In these verses (as well as 9 other places), the original Greek text has the word "géenna." Did Luther translate this correctly as "hell fire"?

Let's look at the original text.

géenna = ge ben-hinnóm = valley of the son of Hinnom

The origin of the Greek "géenna" is the Hebrew "ge ben-hinnóm", the "valley of the son of Hinnom". This geographical location is south of Jerusalem, and it was there that the Israelites sacrificed their living children in the fire in the pagan worship of Baal. An abominable custom!

Then, under King Josijah, the Valley of Hinnom was transformed into a vast garbage dump where waste was completely burned with the addition of sulfur (2 Kings 23:10).

This was still the case when Yahusha (Jesus) lived on earth. "Gehenna" was the place where garbage, animal carcasses, and even the corpses of criminals were thrown - but never living creatures!

When Yahusha said to the wicked spiritual leaders:

all his listeners understood what he meant: complete and eternal destruction, similar to the way the garbage in the valley of Hinnom disappeared forever. Whoever sins against the holy spirit with full consciousness (and the Pharisees and scribes did) cannot hope for resurrection.

Gehenna = gone forever

And the " Lake of Fire " in Revelation 20:10?

Again, the Bible explains itself. Revelation chapter 20 verse 14a explains the deeper symbolic meaning:

i.e. eternal death or annihilation, similar to Gehenna.

Moreover, the lake of fire must be meant symbolically and not literally, because death and Hades (grave) as well as the symbolic "wild beast" are thrown into it, i.e. eliminated or destroyed.

And What About Eternal Torment?

But does not Revelation 20:10b say that the devil, wild beast and false prophet will be tormented forever in the lake of fire? And is it not said of every person who takes the mark of the "wild beast":

If the lake of fire means the second death and dead people no longer perceive anything (see above, Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10), then this statement makes no sense.

The key to understanding lies again in the original text, in the Greek word for "torment" = "basanizó" or "torment" = "basanismos".

"basanizó" means first:

• Testing by rubbing against a touchstone (e.g., metals),
• then embarrassing questioning (as in the inquisition),
• suffer,
• torture or torment others.

"basanismos" can mean: Torment, or tantalizing detention.
"basanistés" are torturers, or simply prison guards.

(Source: Strong´s Greek Nr. 928. basanizó)

What does it mean?

Lake of fire: Trapped forever in non-existence

Those who are thrown into the "lake of fire" are, so to speak, imprisoned forever in the "second death"; they never come back to existence.

This view is supported by Jude verse 7, where there is also talk of an eternal fire:

Sodom and Gomorrah are obviously no longer literally burning today, but their depravity and punishing destruction have been a burning warning sign (beacon) for thousands of years, a "deterrent example for all" with an eternal after-effect, just as a plume of smoke continues to point to what happened long after a major fire.

The result of its thorough examination and condemnation is eternal: a precedent.

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We find a similar word picture in Isaiah chapter 34:

The Edomites received this severe punishment from Almighty God Yahuwah because they had been very hostile to His people Israel, their own brother nation.
Is Edom still burning today? Is smoke still rising? No. So the "unquenchable fire" and the "everlasting smoke" have a different meaning, as the following verses show:

Desolation, emptiness, nothingness - eternal fire with pitch and brimstone and eternal smoke simply stand for final destruction.

Therefore, Revelation 14:11 could be interpreted this way:

"Whoever worships the wild beast will be completely destroyed before the holy angels and before the Lamb. And the chilling effect of their fate ascends from eternity to eternity, without pause and without end."

And the Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man?

Why did Yahusha tell this parable:

The word that the translators of the King James Bible translated as "hell" is "hades" (the grave of mankind). Now please think for yourself:

• Is "hell" or the grave within shouting distance of heaven?
• He who literally sits in the fire no longer discusses, but screams like crazy.
• How shall only ONE drop of water bring relief to the rich?
• In death there is no more thought and reflection; it is like a dreamless sleep (Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10; cf. John 11:11, 13, 14).

This is clearly not a factual account, but a parable. Why did Yahusha tell this parable? There are several possible explanations:

• Yahusha's parable was directed at the arrogant spiritual leaders ("the rich man") who did not believe in him and neglected the common people ("Lazarus") who accepted the Son of God.
• The description of the rich man fits exactly the incumbent high priest Caiaphas: he wore purple and linen, had five brothers (brothers-in-law) in his (father-in-law's) house.
• Mocking parody of the Pharisees' belief in "Abraham's bosom," a heavenly place of bliss.
• At the same time sharp criticism of the unbelief of the Sadducees who denied the raising of the real Lazarus of Bethany, AND prediction of their unbelief in the then still imminent raising of Jesus.

How Yahusha actually meant it, I guess we won't know until he returns ....

Finally, two more questions to your logic, your common sense ...

Question 1: Was the Devil Right After All?!

It was the devil who said to Eve, "You will definitely not die" (Genesis 3:4). In doing so, he contradicted YHWH God, who had clearly said to Adam, "You will surely die." (Genesis 2:17)

Who was right - God or Satan?

To Eve, it may have looked at first as if Satan was right: she bit into the fruit and still stood there alive. In truth, for Adam and Eve, the dying process had begun the moment they separated from God's guidance. They began to age and died years later; nothing of theirs lived on. (Comparison: if you cut down a tree, it is not dead right away either; some trees may even blossom and sprout green once more. But it will die).

That man lives on after death (or at least a part of him, the "soul"), is the first lie of the devil. With it began the character assassination of the Almighty God YHWH. Also that the souls of the wicked are tormented in a hell or in a purgatory cannot be true, because the Bible clearly shows that the dead are without consciousness:

Question 2: Whose Signature Does the Doctrine of Hell Bear?

Do we agree? T. is a PSYCHOPATH with zero empathy and a completely distorted sense of justice. Let's then imagine that T. has the ability to resuscitate the charred dog and start this disgusting procedure all over again ... over and over again ...

This is exactly what is imputed to our loving Father YHWH God and our compassionate High Priest Yahusha - how absurd!

YHWH God is the holder of the highest, purest righteousness, and so is Yahusha in His image. They have always made sure that sin and atonement are congruent, that transgression and punishment fit together as well as the Ark of the Covenant and the "atonement lid" on top of it. Their command to the people of Israel, "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth," was not a call for vengeance, but a restraint on rampant retribution and vindictiveness.

Yes, this proportionality between sin and atonement was so important to them that Yahusha even made himself available and became an exactly corresponding atoning sacrifice for the perfect Adam - according to the highest justice, the only chance for us humans to still be justified!

And then one is supposed to believe that the same God tortures an unrepentant man after 70, 80 years of sin for punishment millions, billions of years in the fire?!

Do you recognize the enormous contrast between the sadistic doctrine of hell and our loving, righteous God and His divine Son?

Summary

Sheol / Hades is the grave, for the deceased a place of rest and unconsciousness until the day of resurrection.

Gehenna is a symbol of eternal destruction, not a place of torment. The lake of fire also represents the "second death" from which there is no resurrection.

The "smoke of eternal torment" means the eternal after-effect of the death sentence, quasi as a legal precedence. Never again will God have to allow misery and violence for so long.