Hell Is Real But Our Understanding Of It Is Not.
To understand how what you have been taught about hell is wrong, you have to understand the value God puts on His Words. Everything in creation came into being by the Word of God. The meanings of our words change over time, but God’s Word never changes. When God says something, He uses a language that He created, to express a distinct concept and He always does so with purpose. Basically, He says what He means and He means what He says. That is why Bible Study is so important.As our definition of words and understandings change, they change how we understand what we read, but that doesn’t change God’s original purpose for those words. This is one of the reasons we need the Holy Spirit to lead us into all Truth because He helps us to uncover things that have become hidden over time.
To illustrate this let’s examine some words as they were used by the early Hebrews and even Jesus in His day. Let’s start with a Bible passage that seems pretty straight forward:
"Then they also will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?'
Then He will answer them, saying, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.'
And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."
The Greek word for everlasting is aionion (also aion or aeon) and it means an age. It is a period of time, having a beginning and an end, complete in itself. It does not mean eternal or forever and ever, as we think of the word. The length of an aion actually depends on the subject to which it is attached and for the most part can be translated as “an age”.
Now look at the word for punishment which is kolasis. In Greek secular literature, kolasis is always used to denote remedial punishment, not some horrible place of fire and damnation where you enter and are left forever.
So this passage actually says that the unrighteous will go away into a time of remedial punishment. We don’t know exactly what that punishment will be or how long it will take.
In our culture, we have been taught that evildoers will have a place in hell which is a horrible place where souls are tormented day and night in eternal fire. Sometimes our pictures include such things as a devil in a red suit and a pitchfork or demons who continually torture their victims. Who wouldn’t want to escape such a place? But if hell is the terrible place we picture, why didn’t Jesus spend more time talking about it? You would think he would make a point to warn everyone he talked to but he didn’t.
The picture of torment that we are familiar with actually comes from the Greek concept of Hades where according to mythology, souls were punished in the afterlife. It has nothing to do with the Hebrew concept of what happens after death. In contrast, the Old Testament Hebrew teaches that the departed souls entered a state of sleep until the day of God’s Judgment. (This should be great news for those of us who are at a loss to explain how a loving God could consign one of our loved ones to hell simply because they never found Him in church or said a “sinner’s prayer.”)
A Closer Look at What Hell Is
There are three words translated as “hell” in the King James Bible and they do not mean the same thing.
Hades is the
Greek word translated for the Hebrew word, Sheol,
which the New Strong’s Concise Dictionary defines as
“unseen,” the place (state) of departed souls.
Throughout the Old Testament, it
refers to the state following death for both righteous
and unrighteous. The NIV translates it
“grave” or “death.”
Tartarus is a holding area prior to judgment for angels who have sinned (2 Pet 2:4).
Gehenna is not mentioned in the Old Testament or by John, Paul, Peter, Jude or James in all their writings (except once indirectly regarding the tongue – James 3:6) Nor is it mentioned in the book of Acts or Hebrews. The New Testament records Jesus as using the term "Hell" on only four occasions. How can such a horrible fate – to which most people are destined – not be warned against everywhere? How can we explain this? [Gerry Beauchemin in Hope Beyond Hell p.31]
Contrast the picture of an angry God consigning everyone to Hell with the message the shepherds heard at Jesus' birth -
And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
Luk 2:10,14
God is not angry with you.
How The Understanding Of Hell Changed From a Place of Rest to a Place of Torment
According to Bible history, Israel was taken captive to Assyria and from there historians have tracked their spread west throughout Europe and even to America but they never returned to the land of Israel and were considered “Lost Tribes.”
Judah was later taken captive to Babylon for 70 years and during that time was influenced by the religious/cultural ideas of that culture. In 332 B.C, Alexander the Great conquered Jerusalem and brought the Greek language and culture to that region. Then in 301 it came under the rule of the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt. The Ptolemies were benevolent and a thriving community of Jews developed in their capital city, Alexandria. They were allowed to keep their identity as God's special people, according to covenant but they integrated so fully with the secular life of Alexandria that their own first language became Greek. Soon many of them could no longer speak or understand Hebrew.
Because they could no longer read their own history book (Bible) they commissioned, the first translation of the Scriptures, the famous Greek version known as the Septuagint (The 70) because it was begun about 280 B.C. by a group of 72 scholars. This translation gives us a key to Hebrew-to-Greek word equivalents. As they translated the ancient Hebrew into Greek, they searched for the closest word they could find to the original, but since words are commonly understood by the culture you live in, they lost the original meaning of the grave being a place of sleep.
Thus death and hell took on the Greek meaning they had in the culture the Jews now lived in. The Greeks had a detailed mythology of death and the underworld that became the basis for most of what is commonly taught about hell.