newsletter december 2008 - what the hell is hell
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8/8/2019 Newsletter December 2008 - What the Hell is Hell
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Is this your
version of hell?Did Jesus really teach that God would punish people in
hell forever?
What The Hell Is “Hell?”
The question: Based upon the Bible and, in particular, the words of Jesus, do you believe
that God will punish people by sending them to hell forever?
My answer: ABSOLUTELY NOT! Based upon extensive biblical study, I don't believe Jesus
taught people would spend eternity in hell despite the 15 or so verses in the gospels of
some English translations that mention hell. I am also aware of the mention in Matthew
25:46 of everlasting punishment. Hours of study have led me to the conclusion that we
have grossly distorted the meaning of these verses.
This is a subject that I hope to address extensively on our website. Many within evangelical
fundamental Christianity would see my view as heretical, which it is since heresy is defined
as “any opinions or doctrines at variance with the official or orthodox position.” However, I
am confident that a careful study of the Bible will show that the doctrine of an eternal hell
is a completely man-made invention that is extremely useful if your goal is to control the
masses.
It will take a lot of evidence to "prove" my position and yet no matter how much evidence I
may be able to provide, many will not accept this as truth. I understand that.
They say that one of the best ways to teach is to create questions. We can't answer all of
the following questions in this article but let me mention them anyway. We will addressone of them in this article and ultimately the rest on our website and perhaps in this publi-
cation at a later date.
1) What if the Hebrew word sheol which is translated as hell doesn't mean hell as currently
defined and never did?
2) What if there is only one verse in the entire Old Testament that even remotely implies
the existence of “hell” and that interpretation disappears when the context is understood?
3) What if the Greek word, hades, translated as hell in English in the New Testament,
doesn't mean a place of eternal torment?
4) What if, in the first 4000 years of biblical human history, God never once warned hu-
manity about a place of eternal punishment?5) What if there are numerous verses throughout the Bible that suggest a much different
conclusion to the destiny of mankind?
6) What if many within Christianity from its' earliest days believed something very different
regarding the ultimate fate of mankind compared to those today who believe in hell and
eternal punishment?
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We could ask many more questions but let me conclude with the question that we will ad-
dress in this article.
7) In the New Testament, 3 different Greek words are translated as hell -- hades, tartarus
(1 time) and the word we will focus on, gehenna. Twelve times gehenna appears in the
gospels of Matthew, Mark and the book of James. What if we have totally missed the
meaning of this word when we consider culture, context and time? What if gehenna wasconveying something to first century Jews that had nothing to do with a place of eternal
torment? Let's see if we can answer this question.
Gehenna is basically a transliteration in Greek for the Hebrew words " Gan Hinnom" which
in English is “valley of Hinnom.” This is an actual place in the Old Testament. It is men-
tioned 13 times in the O.T. but never once do the translators call this place "hell." It is al-
ways translated as “valley of Hinnom.” That alone should raise a red flag that something is
wrong.
The valley of Hinnom was located just
outside Jerusalem and if you visit Jeru-
salem today you can still walk in "hell,"
a.k.a. the valley of Hinnom. My wife,
Kelly, and I have done so.
Some terrible things occurred in this
valley with the greatest abomination
apparently being the sacrifice of chil-
dren. Ultimately this place became a
garbage dump and that was the case at
the time of Jesus. Fires would burn con-
tinually consuming the garbage that was
constantly added. It seems that it was
also a place where bodies of the indi-
gent, homeless and some criminals etc. were
disposed of upon their death.
To be buried in the Valley of Hinnon, to have
your body end up in Hinnom meant that your
life had very little meaning. To end up in Hin-
nom would suggest that you lived a worthless
life.
To this day, the Jewish people honour the bur-
ial places of their great ancestors, rabbis etc.
Hebron has the Cave of the Patriarchs, the
second holiest site to Jews. It is reputed to be
the burial place of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob,
Sarah, Rebecca and Leah. They honour Jo-
seph's burial spot in Shechem/Nablus and Ra-
chel's burial spot near Bethlehem as well as the graves of many great rabbis.
To be buried in Hinnom would be disgraceful and knowing this, Jesus says to those listen-
ing to him that they should do all they can in this life to avoid ending up in "Gehenna" or
the Valley of Hinnom. When we understand Jesus' words within the culture and context of
Hell today - the valley of
Hinnom at Jerusalem
Cave of the Patriarchs
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1st century Israel, he isn't telling his listeners that they are going to have to "convert' or
"get saved" or they will end up being punished forever in some place of eternal torment
called hell. He is telling them that they need to change the way they are living so that at
the end of their lives, their lives will have been lived with meaning and significance and will
warrant an honourable burial as opposed to those who end up in the valley of Hinnon.
What makes the words of Jesus even more forceful is that he directed this warning to notonly the public in general but He very specifically directed his warning to the religious lead-
ers of his time, the scribes, priests and Pharisees. Can you imagine being a great religious
leader, confident that you are living a holy, righteous life and along comes this itinerant
rabbi from Galilee, of questionable parentage by the way, and he has the audacity to sug-
gest that the way you are currently living isn't worth anything more than having your body
disposed of in the Valley of Hinnom, the local garbage dump?
How would you feel today if the body of a close relative or, in fact, your own body was
simply taken to the garbage dump and dropped onto a pile of garbage to be consumed by
the fires that were burning because your life was viewed to be relatively worthless?
At another time we will address the other questions that we listed but people must realize
that nowhere in the Bible up to the time of Jesus, did God ever mention a place of eternal
torment called hell. Every single time in the Old Testament in the King James Bible that
you read the English word hell, you will find the Hebrew word sheol. It is translated hell
but it is also translated as grave and the translators would have been better off using
grave each and every time. To use “hell” every time would require a very different defini-
tion of hell other than the one used today.
Do Christians for example believe Jacob or King David is spending eternity in hell? The Bi-
ble definitely sees them going to sheol. Do you think it means they went to "hell?" I doubt
very much that there are any Christians who think Jacob or David is in hell being punished
eternally.
The translators would have been more accurate if they hadn’t used the word grave eitherto translate sheol. There is another Hebrew word that is better translated grave. If you do
a little digging you will find out that the name Sha’ul, a.k.a. the apostle Paul, and sheol are
related words. They both come from a three letter root word, shaw-al, which means to in-
quire, to ask or demand. A basic Strong’s Concordance will confirm this meaning. If that
seems to have little, if anything, to do with the grave and absolutely nothing to do with
“hell,” I would agree. To interpret the meaning somewhat literally, when someone dies, the
“earth” asks or perhaps demands that the body be returned to where it came from. Since
are bodies are made up of physical elements of the “earth,” our bodies return there, i.e.
“ashes to ashes” and “dust to dust.” From a more allegorical view, sheol is simply the place
of dead. In essence, sheol carries no meaning as to the “state” of the dead. To suggest
sheol implies a place of eternal torment is simply not true.
If you visit a Jewish bookstore you will find very few, if any, books on hell. There is a rea-
son for that. Their Bible, the Old Testament or TaNaKh, simply doesn’t mention it so why
would they write about it? That fact alone should cause us to reconsider our view. Do we
really believe that God left humanity in the dark for some 4000 years and then Jesus came
along and dropped a bombshell on mankind concerning their "eternal destiny" or was Jesus
speaking to the Jews of his time, using figures of speech that were relevant to his culture
in order to make his point? Ultimately we each must decide for ourselves.
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I s t h i s h e l
l t o d a y
….
o r i s i t t h i s ?
I do not believe in a God or Goddess who will fail in any way. Using biblical terminology,
God is the Good Shepherd and even if the Good Shepherd has 99% of his flock, God will go
out and gather in the lost 1%. Today fundamental Christianity seems to serve a God who
will have to settle for 1% or maybe 10% or even 20% but in the end will punish the huge
majority of mankind in hell forever. To put it simply and to quote Neale Donald Walsch in
Conversations With God -- "we need a new God" or at least “a new understanding of God.”
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