HEAVEN%20AND%20HELL

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CHAPTER 3 HEAVEN AND HELL
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The problem with the word hell in the Bible is
that different Greek and Hebrew words that all
translate as hell.
We have the Greek word Hades which is the same as
the Hebrew word Sheol. We have Tartarus which is
only used by Paul. We have Gehenna which except
for one occasion is only used by Jesus.
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Lets look at the evolution of the term hell from
the time of Jesus to today. Well concentrate on
just Hades and Gehenna since Tartarus is only
used once in the New Testament and thats by Paul
and the Hebrew word Sheol is essentially the same
as the Greek word Hades.
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Basically Hades is a kind of "nothingness," an
existence that is barely existence at all, in
which a "shadow" or "shade" of the former self
survives. Nothing is mentioned of torment. We
have the soul, not the body in hell where they
sleep not being punished.
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Quote John 316
John 316 gives to options, eternal life or
perish, it says nothing about punishment.
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There is another word that is translated as hell
in the New Testament. The Greek word is Gehenna
which is a translation of the Hebrew Ge Hinnom,
literally "Valley of Hinnom Hinnom is a valley
outside Jerusalem.
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In the Hebrew Bible, the site was initially where
apostate Israelites and followers of various
Caananite gods, including Moloch sacrificed
their children by fire.
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In Jesus day, the Sadducees rejected the concept
of a resurrection and afterlife. The Pharisees
believed in the resurrection of the dead. There
were to major schools of thought in Jesus day,
the School of Hillel and the School of Shammai.
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Ge Hinnom was used by the Rabbis of Jesus' day to
reference the afterlife of sinners. Shammai and
Hillel both used Ge Hinnom to speak
metaphorically of a place of purification of the
soul for those who were not righteous enough to
directly enter Ga Eden which was a metaphor for
heaven. Shammai believed that only the
extremely righteous went to Ga Eden when they
died everyone else went to Ge Hinnom . Most
would rise to Ga Eden after being purified,
having their sins burnt up - similar to the
Catholic concept of Purgatory.
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Hillel taught that only the wicked went to
Gehenna. Both Shammai and Hillel taught that
the longest most people would stay in Gehenna was
11 months, and only the most wicked evil person
would stay longer, possibly as much as 12 months.
Nothing is said of eternal punishment.
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When Jesus talks about hell, He uses Gehenna
which is translated as hell and is confusing to
us. He uses the term 11 times. Gehenna is a
completely different concept than the neutral
hell of Hades.
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Read Matthew 1028
No where in the Bible does it say that the soul
is immortal and here we see that the soul can be
destroyed. The Jews of Jesus day would have
understood what he meant by Gehenna and fire and
burning bodies,
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Read Revelation 2010-15
Here we see, among other things, Hades destroyed
in the fire. This lake of fire sounds a lot like
what Jesus was calling Gehenna. The fire burns
eternally, but things thrown in there are
destroyed.
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The Gospels were written in Greek so the words
Gehenna and Hades would have been used and thats
what early Christians would have been familiar
with. They would have understood about the term
Gehenna and its origin. In the late 4th
century when the Latin vulgate translation was
written the two terms were there also.
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When the first major English translation of the
Bible, Wycliffe Bible, appeared in the late
1300s the two words Hades and Gehenna both
appeared as hell. Remember that this
translation is written almost 100 years after
Dantes Inferno (Inferno is Italian for hell) is
written. Dantes inferno was representative of
the medieval concept of hell and consisted of a
lot of suffering. So this begins the meshing
of two concepts of hell, Hades and Gehenna, into
a single concept of hell with suffering.
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Most of what we believe about hell comes from
Catholicism and ignorance of the Old Testament,
not from the Bible. How do you feel about this
statement?
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The 16th century Tyndale translation and the 17th
century King James translation both follow the
trend of translating Hades and Gehenna as
Hell. New 20th century translations such as the
NIV and Living Bible only use hell for Gehenna
and go back to using the word Hades. This is a
complete switch from the way hell was understood
in the days of Christ.
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Why do you think this concept about eternal
torment has become so popular and widespread?
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Seneca (around 50CE) says Those things which
make the infernal regions terrible, the darkness,
the prison, the river of flaming fire, the
judgment seat., are all a fable, with which the
poets amuse themselves, and by them agitate us
with vain terrors.
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How comfortable are you with churches using the
fear of hell rather that the love of God to get
and keep converts?
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Read Luke 1619-31
What is your view on these verses?
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There were similar stories from different origins
in Jesus day. Some view this a a literal
story. There were similar stories from different
origins in Jesus day.
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Others say that this is not theology or a real
story, it is a fictional metaphor and not to be
taken literally. They say that it is an allegory
about the conflict between early Christianity and
Judaism. Others say it is an attack on the
wealthy Sadducees who did not believe in an
afterlife.
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For 1st century Christians who were being
persecuted, they would see that they would be
reward in the next life and their persecutors
would receive their just desserts. If we look
back at Matthew 1028, they would see that they
dont need to be worried about the people killing
them, but need to stay true to their faith so
they would not receive a worse punishment.
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What can we take away from this train of
thought. We can see that things might get really
bad in this life. There might be heartache,
pain, illness, injury, etc. but all this is
temporary. If you remain faithful, you will be
rewarded with an eternal life surrounded by love
and not have to worry about those things that
happened in this life.
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What Jesus teaches is that the decisions you make
in this life determine what happens to you in the
after life.
Do you think a decision for Christ can be made
after death?
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Read Luke 2343
Where is the comma placed And He said to him,
"Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me
in Paradise." And He said to him, "Truly I
say to you today, you shall be with Me in
Paradise."
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• Jesus and Paul speak very little about heaven and
  hell. They speak more about
• Second coming of Christ
• The coming Kingdom of God
• The future of Gods people
• Resurrection
• The millennium
• The new heaven and the new earth

Why is there so little said about heaven and hell?
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Im not convinced that the eternal life part
cannot be determined after death. For example,
the people who died before Christ was born had a
chance. Some people never had a chance to hear
about Christ in their life due to where they were
born.
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Heres a different way for you to consider
thinking about the afterlife. When a person dies
as a Christian, their soul goes to heaven and a
non-Christians soul goes to Hades, which is
non-suffering, to await the second coming. At
the second coming, the Christians are given a new
eternal body with soul while the non-Christians
(body and soul) along with death, hades, etc are
destroyed in the lake of fire (Gehenna)
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The bottom line for me If we have done all that
is required of us in terms of salvation, then it
really does not matter if hell is a holding place
or a place where the dead sleep awaiting
resurrection or a place of torment or a place of
annihilation. We will be in heaven. We need to
concentrate of sharing about Gods love and grace
not make people fearful.
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Link for more reading Jesus Teaching on
hell http//www.tentmaker.org/articles/jesusteach
ingonhell.html