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Does the unquenchable fire of Matthew 3:10-12 refer to hell?

My book, What is Hell? is now available on Amazon. I am doing a series of podcast studies that focus on some of the content from the book. The studies look at the eight key terms that are often equated with hell, and about a dozen key passages that are thought to teach about hell.

If you want to learn the truth about hell and what the Bible actually teaches about hell, make sure you get a copy of my book, What is Hell?

Also, if you are part of my discipleship group, there will be an online course about hell as well.

In this article, we will be discussing the topic of “unquenchable fire” as it is talked about by John the Baptist in Matthew 3:10-12 (and the parallel passage in Luke 3:16-17).

Matthew 3:10-12 (Luke 3:16-17)

Many believe that John the Baptist is teaching about hell in Matthew 3:10-12. Here is what the text says:

“And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

This is a message from John the Baptist to the Jewish people who came to be baptized by him in the Jordan River.

The words of John are sometimes used by modern teachers who want to defend the idea that those who don’t have good works will end up in hell. They argue that all true Christians will prove the reality of their new birth by having good works.

In other words, the argument is that if someone doesn’t have the necessary good works, they will lose their eternal life (or prove they never had it in the first place) and so will end up in hell.

This misapplication of the text arises primarily from thinking that the fire John speaks about refers to hell.

But John is not referring to hell.

In the context, John the Baptist is not talking about hell, but about impending temporal judgment on the people of Israel if they fail to repent.

In Matthew 3:7-8, John warns the religious leaders that wrath was coming upon them, but they could escape this wrath if they bore fruits worthy of repentance. Scholars have always understood this as a prophecy about the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD.

There is no thought of hell here, but only of temporal judgment on the nation of Israel and the people who are part of it.

The references to fire in Matthew 3:10-12 must be understood in light of this context.

When John speaks of the ax being laid at the root of the tree, he is saying that the judgment is imminent.

The ruling class of Israel was often compared to a tree (cf. Isa 11:1), and so John is saying that the rulers of Israel (such as the religious leaders) will be cut down unless they repent.

But it was not just the rulers. While the root of the tree represents the leaders of the nation, from whom the teaching and direction of the nation comes, the tree itself represents the rest of the nation (Keener, Matthew, 123).

Similarly, when John uses the image of the wheat and the chaff, he is describing the common practice of farmers gathering the harvest into their threshing floor where the wheat was separated from the chaff with a winnowing fan.

A winnowing fan was a cross between a rake and a shovel so that large scoops of grain could be tossed into the air while also creating a bit of breeze. The heavier grain would fall back to the ground, while the lighter chaff would get blown off to one side, where it would pile up against a low wall of the threshing floor.

Once the wheat and chaff had been separated in this way, the grain would be taken away for storage, while the chaff would be set on fire. Since chaff is light and insubstantial, it burns quickly, leaving almost no ash behind and very little evidence that it ever existed.

John says that this is what will happen to the Jewish leaders and those who follow their teachings if they do not all repent and turn to follow God.

This was a challenging teaching, for while most Jewish people expected God to judge the surrounding Gentile nations, few believed or taught that God would judge the nation of Israel itself.

But this is what John preached. He was speaking to them as if they were Gentiles in need of repentance.

Repentance, of course, is not a necessary condition for receiving eternal life, but is an actual turning from sin toward obedience.

We receive eternal life by believing in Jesus for it, not by repenting, or turning, from sinful activities. Such turning is extremely helpful in experiencing the blessings that God wants for us in this life. But those who do not repent will experience the devastating and destructive consequences of their sinful choices.

This is what John warns the leaders about and the nation of Israel as a whole. John uses the image of fire to refer to this destruction.

But what about being “thrown into the fire”?

When John says they will be “thrown into the fire” (Matt 3:10), he is not talking about being thrown into the fires of hell, but is using the imagery of cutting down a tree which then gets burned. Many trees are cut down and then used to make planks of wood for building and construction.

But John says that Israel’s leaders, and those who follow their teaching with a lack of repentance, will be symbolically cut down and burned. They will not be useful for anything once the judgment comes.

But what about the baptism by fire?

The baptism by fire in Matthew 3:11 is to be understood in a similar way.

It does not refer to the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, but the impending destruction on Israel.

Since baptism simply means “immersion,” when something is immersed in fire, it is consumed by the fire.

The fact that Jesus is said to be the one who will bring this immersion in fire does not mean that Jesus is the one who performs or sends the destruction. Instead, that the destruction will come upon Israel by means of their rejection of Him as the Messiah (cf. Luke 12:49).

Then how about the “unquenchable fire”?

This fire will not come upon all, for John teaches that the Messiah will gather the grain into the barn, while the chaff gets burned with unquenchable fire (Matt 3:12).

This reference to unquenchable fire causes some to think that John is referring to hell. But the term “unquenchable” (Gk., asbestos) simply means that the fire completes its task. It burns all that it was meant to burn and fully consumes all that is fed into it.

As an interesting side note, the term asbestos not only means “unquenchable” but also refers to calcium oxide (or quicklime) that was made in the lime kilns of the ancient world, which, after being slaked with water, was widely used for art and construction. When a human body is completely burned, the ash it leaves behind looks very similar to asbestos, or calcium oxide (See Isaiah 33:12).

Chaff does not burn eternally. Quite to the contrary, it burns quickly and then is gone.

So the fact that this fire is described as unquenchable means that it burns hot and fast until there is nothing left to burn. It completes its task of burning so quickly and thoroughly, there is little trace of the flames or its fuel after the fire is gone.

Eusebius, in his Ecclesiastical History (Book VI: Chapter 41), writes about a Christian named Julian who was burned to death for being a Christian. Eusebius describes this fire as being an immense fire. The Greek words he uses are puri asbestō, exactly the same words used by John in Matthew 3:12. Eusebius goes on to use the exact same term to describe how other Christian martyrs were killed.

Clearly, when Eusebius used this phrase, he was certainly not saying that these Christian martyrs went to hell. Instead, Eusebius was simply describing the immense inferno which consumed their bodies in the flames.

The bodies of these Christians were reduced to ash in the fire; not sent to everlasting torment in hell.

John’s Warning was fulfilled in 69-70 AD

This is what happened to the nation of Israel within one generation of John speaking these words. In 69-70 AD, some Jewish people tried to revolt against Rome, and in response, Rome sent its military to destroy and burn the city of Jerusalem. Its walls were torn down, the temple was ruined, thousands of people were killed, and the city was burned to the ground. The rest of the nation scattered over the face of the earth.

In the minds of many, the nation of Israel ceased to exist, and there was almost no trace of it to be found. It was not until 1948 that Israel was resurrected from the ashes and became a nation once again.

This unquenchable fire was not the first time that such fires came upon Jerusalem.

Jeremiah prophesied that if the people of Jerusalem did not turn from their disobedience, then an unquenchable fire would be kindled upon the gates and palaces of Jerusalem (Jer 17:27). This fire came upon Jerusalem in 586 BC when Nebuchadnezzar burned the city, destroyed the temple, and razed Jerusalem to the ground. But even though Jeremiah said the fire was unquenchable, the fire burned itself out. Many years later, the city and temple were once again rebuilt.

John follows in the prophetic steps of Jeremiah by saying that if the Jewish people do not turn from their ways, the same thing that happened to Jerusalem in the days of Jeremiah would also happen in their own day.

Matthew 3:10-12 is not teaching about hell

So John is not warning the people about going to hell where they will be tortured forever in flames.

He is warning the people of Israel that a fire is coming upon them, and once it is ignited, it will not be extinguished, but will burn until there is nothing left to burn.

This is not a reference to hell or the eventual annihilation of unregenerate dead, but only to the temporal destruction that would come upon the nation of Israel if they did not repent and return to God.

Throughout this text, John uses the images of pruning and burning to invite his listeners to repent and prepare their lives for the coming Messiah.

He invites his listeners to burn the rubbish out of their own lives now in preparation for the Messiah, or have it burned up later when the Messiah comes.

This is not a threat from John that the Messiah will send people to everlasting hell, but is instead a call to national repentance as a way of preparing the way for the Messiah.

As we now know, however, the nation did not properly prepare themselves, and so the Messianic presence resulted in the fires of purification (cf. Luke 12:49).

Do you have more questions about hell? Are you afraid of going to hell? Do want to know what the Bible teaches about hell? Take my course "What is Hell?" to learn the truth about hell and how to avoid hell. This course costs $297, but when you join the Discipleship group, you can to take the entire course for free.

Does Isaiah 33:10-16 teach about hell?

By Jeremy Myers
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If you want to learn the truth about hell and what the Bible actually teaches about hell, make sure you get a copy of my book, What is Hell?

Also, if you are part of my discipleship group, there will be an online course about hell as well.

In this article, we will be looking at a key passage from the Old Testament about the symbolism of fire in the Bible. By understanding how the Bible refers to fire, we can understand what the Bible means when it talks about burning in hell, or the fires of judgment.

The key text we want to study is Isaiah 33:10-16.

Scores of passages from the Hebrew prophets could be considered which provide insight into what a Jewish person thought when they heard someone teach about everlasting fire.

Isaiah 33:10-16 is representative of many of these prophetic texts, and provides perfect insight into what the Bible means when it refers to fire that comes upon people who disobey God.

Isaiah 33:10-16 and Burning in Fire. Is this hell?

Here is some of what Isaiah 33:10-16 says,

You shall conceive chaff, You shall bring forth stubble; Your breath, as fire, shall devour you. And the people shall be like the burnings of lime; Like thorns cut up they shall be burned in the fire. … The sinners in Zion are afraid; Fearfulness has seized the hypocrites: “Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?” (Isa 33:11-12, 14).

There are three key insights to note from this text which help guide our understanding of all the others.

1. It is Not People who are Burned, but what People Produce

First, Isaiah writes that the people of Zion will “conceive” chaff and “bring forth” stubble.

Isaiah uses terms of conception and childbirth to speak of the works that these sinners produce. It is not their lives that are chaff, stubble, and thorns, but what they produce with their lives.

Of course, when your entire life’s work is destroyed, it may seem as if your life is destroyed as well. Indeed, when other prophetic passages (and later New Testament texts) talk about the destruction that comes upon people for their worthless way of living, it sometimes refers to the people themselves being destroyed, rather than the work of their hands.

This is how it feels when, at the end of your life, you discover that everything you have worked for has amounted to nothing.

This is not to say that many prophetic passages (including those in the New Testament) do not have the death and destruction of actual human lives in view. Many of them do, as we shall see. But in each case, the passages are always referring to physical death and temporal destruction rather than to everlasting death or eternal physical torture in flames of fire.

Some of the physical death and destruction during this life does indeed happen with literal flames when war comes upon a nation or its cities, and in such wars, many human beings do die. But once again, it is physical death that is in view, not eternal death in an everlasting place of torment.

2. The word “Everlasting” can refer to an event of limited duration with everlasting effects

But some point to Isaiah 33:14 as evidence that everlasting burning in the pit of hell is indeed what Isaiah has in view. This is the second important point to note from this text. While the term “everlasting” can indeed refer to a period of time that never ends, it can also refer to an event of limited duration which has effects that never end.

This second explanation provides the proper understanding for Isaiah 33:14.

In this text, people who are alive are saying that the works of their lives have been destroyed, and nobody in the future will know or hear of them.

They are afraid because they have lived hypocritical lives, and see that all they have lived and worked for will be consumed by fire, and will have no lasting value, significance, or remembrance for all eternity.

The fire that consumes these people and the works of their hands did indeed go out. It came upon them in 586 BC (when King Nebuchadnezzar invaded and destroyed Judah, along with Jerusalem and the temple) and has long since burned out.

But none of their work remains. It burned to ashes long ago and has forever been forgotten.

Note that even though Zion was destroyed with “everlasting fire,” the nation, its capitol city Jerusalem, the temple, and even the people of Zion rose again from the ashes.

In 538 BC, the Persian ruler, King Cyrus, allowed the Hebrew people to return to their land where they eventually rebuilt the city and the temple.

Though the everlasting fire prophesied by Isaiah destroyed many of the people and the works of their hands, this was not the end of the Hebrew people themselves, or their influence upon this world. They rebuilt and regained much of their former glory.

Furthermore, of the people who died in 586 BC, nothing is said by Isaiah or anyone else regarding their eternal state or destiny. It is only the work of their lives which was burned away into nothingness.

In fact, it is possible that many of them are already with God, and will spend eternity with Him.

We see evidence of this in the fact that Isaiah calls them “hypocrites.” A hypocrite is someone who acts in ways that are contrary to their stated identity. As such, anybody can be a hypocrite. Jesus often called some of His followers hypocrites (Matt 15:7; Luke 13:15), and Paul once referred to Peter and Barnabas as hypocrites (Gal 2:11-13).

Obviously, if someone is a hypocrite, this does not automatically mean they are truly part of the family of God, but it also does not necessarily mean that they will spend eternity in hell. It just means that they claim one thing about themselves but behave in ways that are opposite.

This was true of the people in Isaiah’s day, and many of these hypocrites will spend eternity with God.

3. The Fire is not from God, but from the People themselves

The third and final thing to note from Isaiah 33:10-16 is that the fire comes from the people themselves.

Isaiah writes, “Your breath, as fire, shall devour you” (Isaiah 33:11).

While numerous passages in Scripture indicate that the fires of judgment comes from God, a look behind the curtain reveals that the fires of judgment that come upon human beings for their sinful ways are always self-inflicted.

Sin bears its own punishment; rebellion carries within it the flames of ruin.

Actions have consequences, and when we live in ways that are contrary to the will of God, these actions lead to destruction and devastation.

This is why God warns us against sin in the first place. God warns us against sin, not because He is a killjoy and wants to ruin our fun with arbitrary laws, but because He knows how best to live this life and get the most out of it.

He also knows what happens when we do not live this life as He intends and seeks to warn us against such ways of living.

When we sin, we hurt others and we hurt ourselves. And since God loves all of us, He does not want to see us get hurt, which is why He warns us about sin. Yet we often sin anyway, and so destruction comes.

This is what Isaiah is teaching.

The people were warned by the prophets, including Isaiah himself, about their sinful and hypocritical ways. But they continued to sin, and so the fire of judgment that comes upon them is a fire they lit themselves.

And while it is not always words that spark the flame, words are often the culprit, as Isaiah indicates. He says it is their “breath” that is the fire, which is a way of referring to the words that they speak.

Indeed, near the end of Isaiah’s life, King Hezekiah said some foolish words to the ambassadors from Babylon. He boasted to them about the treasures of the temple and showed them the riches that were within it.

As a result, Isaiah told Hezekiah that because he had said and done these things, Babylon would come against the city and destroy it (2 Kings 20:12-19), which is exactly what happened (2 Kings 24:1-16).

Eventually, the entire city, with the temple, was burned with fire, and its inhabitants were carted off into captivity (2 Kings 25:1-21).

Conclusion

So Isaiah 33:10-16 is a guiding paradigm for helping us understand all the passages in Scripture about fire.

As we will see, just like Isaiah 33:10-16, none of the passages which teach about the destruction of people in fire are referring to the everlasting torment of people in flames where they scream and burn for all eternity.

Instead, such texts refer to the worthless work of human hands that gets burned away by destructive forces in this world. All the work of their hands is turned to ash.

When lime is burned in a fire or thorns are put to flame, nothing is left but a fine, white powder which blows away with the first puff of wind.

So it will be for everything that some people have worked for in this life. As we keep this paradigm in mind, many of the New Testament passages which speak of fire make much more sense.

What is hell? (James 3:6 and James 5:3 provide the answer)

By Jeremy Myers
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If you want to learn the truth about hell and what the Bible actually teaches about hell, make sure you get a copy of my book, What is Hell?

Also, if you are part of my discipleship group, there will be an online course about hell as well.

In previous studies, we have looked at the words sheol, gehenna, abyss, tartarus, hades, the ‘outer darkness‘ and the Lake of Fire. In each case, we have seen that none of these words describe a place of everlasting torment for unbelievers in a place of burning fire.

Having studied several of the key terms that often get related to hell, it is also important to study several of the key passages that many people believe teach about hell. This study looks at James 3:6 and James 5:3.

Does James 3:6 teach that your tongue can send you to hell?

And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell (James 3:6).

Since the book of James is likely one of the earliest New Testament writings, James is heavily reliant upon the Hebrew Scriptures. And since James was a leader in the Jerusalem church and a half-brother to Jesus, he seems to base his letter upon the teachings of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount.

Therefore, what he writes about fire and hell is extremely important for understanding the overall imagery of these terms in the Bible.

In other words, the image of fire and hell in James can be used to help us understand how references to fire and hell are to be understood in the rest of Scripture.

According to Brad Jersak, who wrote the Foreword to my new book on hell, the imagery of fire and hell in James 3:6 is a definitive text for understanding both terms and how they were used by Jesus and the early church.

Jersak writes that the hell (Gk., gehenna) imagery in James 3:6 reveals that hell is not a destination to which people go after death, but rather the source of the flames that set the tongue and this world on fire.

And since the tongue itself does not actually burn with flames, nor do words literally set our lives, or the lives of others, on fire, this imagery too is symbolic of the devastation and destruction that the tongue can cause in a person’s life.

What then is hell?

Hell is a kingdom of darkness and destruction that is set against the kingdom of heaven in this life.

The two kingdoms are at war with each other, and while one brings light and life, the other brings death and devastation.

So James 3:6 is a key interpretive text for the fire and hell imagery of Scripture, and it reveals that neither are referring to a place of literal flames in the afterlife for the unredeemed dead, but instead refer to the devastation and destruction that can come into our lives when we stray from the values and principles of the kingdom of heaven.

The “fire” is not a place of burning and torture in the afterlife, but an experience of death and devastation in this life.

However, some of this fiery devastation and destruction might come upon believers at the Judgment Seat of Christ, which is what James warns the rich about in James 5:3. So let us also consider this text…

Does James 5:3 teach that rich people will go to hell?

Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days (James 5:3).

This passage is frequently cited by those who think of hell as eternal conscious torment, because James portrays a vivid image of the gold and silver eating rich people like fire.

And yet as James has pointed out frequently in his letter, the people to whom he writes are Christian brethren (cf. Jas 1:2, 16; 2:1, 5, 14; etc.), and James counts the rich among these Christian brethren (cf. Jas 2:1-7).

Indeed, it is because the rich are Christians that James is able to exhort them to follow Jesus and obey the law of liberty (Jas 2:12-13).

So if James writes near the end of his letter that the rich Christians could end up in hell if they are not generous with their money, then James is teaching that a person can lose their eternal life and that entrance into heaven is based on the good works of generosity and giving.

Both of these ideas are contrary to everything else Scripture teaches.

Therefore, it is better to understand James 5:3 in light of James 3:6, along with all the other imagery of fire in Scripture.

The fire in James 5:3 is symbolic of devastation and destruction that comes upon a person’s life for failing to follow the values and principles of the kingdom of heaven.

And while this devastation can come into a person’s life now, it can also come at the beginning of the next life when a person stands at the Judgment Seat of Christ. Our life in eternity begins with standing before Jesus to give an answer for the things we have done in the body, whether good or evil (2 Cor 5:10). How we live this life helps determine how we start the next life.

James is warning rich Christians that when they hoard wealth for themselves now, they are also storing up “treasure” for themselves at the Judgment Seat of Christ, which will be the experience of seeing all their earthly work and wealth consumed in the flames as if it were nothing more than wood, hay, and stubble (cf. 1 Cor 3:14-15).

The wealth of the rich eats away at their life now, and eats away at their life in the new heavens and new earth as well. Therefore, James encourages his rich readers to use their wealth and power to help those in need and to provide fair, just, and generous pay to their laborers (Jas 2:5; 5:4).

This passage is not about how the rich will go to hell because of their riches, but is about how the rich can use their wealth to help others now and store up true, spiritual riches in eternity. If they keep their wealth for themselves, it will only destroy their life now, it will also start their life in eternity with a negative experience.

James 3:6 and James 5:3 are not warnings about everlasting torment in the flames of hell

So neither James 3:6 or James 5:3 teach about an afterlife experience for unregenerate dead where they will burn and suffer in flames of fire for all eternity. Both texts are referring to the symbolic fires of destruction that can come upon a person’s life NOW in this world, destroying everything they have worked for and everything that is of value in their life.

Yes, there are also some warnings in James 5:3 about a fiery afterlife experience, but this warning is directed toward Christians rather than non-Christians, and is not a warning about everlasting torment in hell, but is instead a warning about experiencing shame and loss at the Judgment Seat of Christ (cf. 1 Cor 3:14-15).

This imagery and truth from James 3:6 and James 5:3 is key for understanding the rest of what the New Testament teaches about fire and hell. Most of the fiery and hellish imagery of the New Testament is referring to the “Kingdom of Hell” that seeks to rule and reign on this earth in direct conflict with the Kingdom of God.

James invites us to avoid fiery judgment now (and at the Judgment Seat of Christ) by living according to the ways of Jesus instead of the ways of destruction.

So what is hell?

If you want to understand what hell is, all you need to do is look at how Jesus lived and described the kingdom of heaven, and then think of its opposite. But there are numerous images and ideas from Scripture that also describe the kingdom of hell. The following chart shows some of the terms and imagery from Scripture which fit with both kingdoms.

Kingdom of Heaven	Kingdom of Hell
Everlasting Life	Everlasting Death
Exemplified by Jesus	Exemplified by Satan
Walking in Light	Walking in Darkness
Life Guided by Love	Life Guided by Hate
Abiding in the Truth	Abiding in Lies
Practicing Righteousness	Practicing Wickedness
Hope and Healing	Despair and Destruction
Fruitfulness and Creativity	Fire and Corruption
Fellowship and Unity	Separation and Fighting
Forgiveness and Grace	Accusation and Grudges
Fulfilling our Divine Purpose	Neglecting our Divine Purpose
Revealing the Image of God	Hiding the Image of God
Living Fully Human Lives	Living Sub-Human Lives

Note that all of the terms on both sides of the chart are available options for people here and now in this life. The two columns describe the two options we face in our present life, not in a future life after death. How we respond to the instructions and commands of God determine what sort of life experience we have here and now.

So where is hell? It is here, on this earth.

When is hell? It is now, in our lives.

And what is hell? It is the experience of life that is diametrically opposed to the life God wants for us. It is sickness and pain, death and disease, pestilence and famine, rape and murder, abuse and neglect, fear and loneliness, greed and lust. A person experiences hell to the degree that they experience such things.

This insight about the present reality of hell raises a startling truth.

The fact that the kingdom of hell exists here and now on earth rather than as an afterlife experience, means that any theological system which thinks of hell as only an afterlife experience is actually helping and aiding the kingdom of hell grow in power on this earth.

In other words, those who only think that hell is an afterlife experience for unbelievers will not be working to rescue and liberate people from the kingdom of hell that is here now.

And when the kingdom of hell goes unchallenged, it grows in power and influence. The three main view of hell (Traditionalism, Universalism, and Annihilationism) are all guilty in this regard.

Far from rescuing people from hell, by thinking that hell is only something that happens to people after they die, such views actually help keep people in hell.

The religious belief that hell exists only in the afterlife is the first step in creating hell here on earth for those whom the “religious” people think deserve to go there.

You might have heard it said that the greatest lie of Satan is that he does not exist.

If that is true, the second greatest lie of Satan is that hell exists only in the afterlife.

This lie causes Christians to ignore and neglect the many billions of people who live in hell right here on earth. We walk by them every day, ignoring their cries of pain and calls for help. Hell is here and hell is now, and until we recognize this truth, we will not work to rescue and liberate those who are trapped behind its gates.

Indeed, the traditional Christian doctrine of hell (especially Traditionalism, or Infernalism) is almost solely responsible for creating a spiritual and psychological hell in the minds of those who hear and believe it.

How can a person worship a God who sends all non-Christians (including those who never heard the gospel), along with children, mentally handicapped, and possibly our own family members to suffer forever in burning flames?

The traditional views of hell end up creating hell in the minds of those who hear them.

In a twisted perversion of the gospel, Christians who seek to rescue people from eternal hell end up consigning people to a living hell, as people tear themselves up spiritually and psychologically by living in fear of God, fear of sinning, and fear that they have not believed in the right things or performed enough good works to please and appease God.

And even if some are convinced that they themselves are headed for eternal bliss with God, such Christians are often in emotional and psychological distress about the eternal suffering of their loved ones.

A belief in eternal conscious torment does not lead to the deliverance of people from hell, but leads instead to the creation of hell in the minds of countless millions.

When we neglect the work of bringing heaven down to earth, we allow hell to rise up on the earth. There is no middle ground. There is no neutral way of living.

If we are not expanding the rule and reign of God upon the earth, then we are allowing the rule and reign of hell to remain instead.

So stop allowing hell to rule and reign in the lives of others. Live and strive for the kingdom of heaven by introducing it into the lives of those who live in the kingdom of hell. As you do this, they will be brought out of the kingdom of darkness, despair, and depression, and will be brought into the kingdom of light, love, acceptance, forgiveness, freedom, and fulfillment in Jesus Christ.

What is the Lake of Fire in the Bible? Is it hell?

By Jeremy Myers
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If you want to learn the truth about hell and what the Bible actually teaches about hell, make sure you get a copy of my book, What is Hell?

Also, if you are part of my discipleship group, there will be an online course about hell as well.

In previous studies, we have looked at the words sheol, gehenna, abyss, tartarus, hades, and the ‘outer darkness.’ In each case, we have seen that none of these words describe a place of everlasting torment for unbelievers in a place of burning fire.

But what about the Lake of Fire? Surely this term refers to hell as a place of eternal suffering and torment in flames for unbelievers … doesn’t it?

Well … let’s see.

What is the Lake of Fire?

The image of the Lake of Fire in the book of Revelation has caused much consternation about the living conditions for the unredeemed dead.

And while the image is thought to depict the eternal torment of non-Christians in hell, it has also been used to psychologically torment lots of people in this life. The thought of swimming around forever in a molten lake of lava is extremely distressing.

So what is the Lake of Fire and how can we understand it?

There are a wide variety of views, some more outlandish than others. I read one scholar who argued that the Lake of Fire was the sun at the middle of our solar system. I once talked with a seminary professor who argued that since all humans around the earth talk about “going down” to hell and the Lake of Fire, this means that all their concepts of “down” converge at the magma core of the earth, which is the Lake of Fire. (I am not making this up.)

Most concepts of the Lake of Fire, however, teach that it is a place created by God where He sends the unredeemed dead to suffer and burn in torment for all eternity.

A somewhat less horrific view is found among some Universalists who argue that the Lake of Fire is a temporary torture chamber where sinners have all their impurities burned out of them before they are allowed entrance into heaven.

Another view I have recently encountered argues that the Lake of Fire refers to the temporal destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD.

But whether we are talking about unending torture or a shorter period of time, many people are (rightly) concerned with the idea of God torturing and burning anyone.

Does God want us to torture people? No! We are called to love and serve.

So is it okay for God to do what He forbids us from doing? Some think so, but I do not.

I believe God’s commands to humanity are based on His own character and nature, and He sets the example for us to follow.

But if this is the case, then we must understand what John meant when he wrote about the Lake of Fire in Revelation 20:10, 14-15, and Revelation 21:8.

The Symbolism of the Lake of Fire in Revelation

Thankfully, when John wrote about the Lake of Fire, he was not thinking about tortured souls screaming in agony from being boiled in lava for all eternity. We know this because of the symbolic nature of the book of Revelation.

Very little in the book of Revelation is to be understood “literally.”

Yes, the book should be read and studied seriously, giving careful attention to its words, images, and ideas, but we must never forget that nearly every picture and event in the book of Revelation is full of allusions to the Hebrew Scriptures, Christ-centered theology, Roman politics, and ancient Mediterranean culture.

When we begin to study the symbolism of Revelation and look for clues in the first century Mediterranean world about what John might have been referring to when he wrote about the Lake of Fire, it does not take long to discover that there was an actual “Lake of Fire” in his day that he was referring to.

This lake still exists today and you can go swim in it if you would like.

But do not worry, for while you might get a sunburn, the lake itself will not burn you. But more on that in a bit.

To help us understand the imagery that John is using, as well as the identity and location of the Lake of Fire, imagine if someone today told you that they were going to live in Salt Lake. Would you think that this person would be floating around all day in the salty water of a Utah lake? No, you would understand that they were moving to the city called “Salt Lake” which is on the shore of a salty lake, and that it would be possible to live in Salt Lake for their entire life without ever setting foot in the lake of salt.

Or, to use another example, what if you heard that someone was going to visit the Valley of Fire on their vacation. Would you think that they were going to visit a place where they would get incinerated and tortured in flames? This would not be much of a vacation. Instead, if you were not familiar with the Valley of Fire, you might look it up online, and discover that it is a popular tourist destination about one hour from the city of Las Vegas. It would be foolish to assume that just because it mentions “fire,” this means that anyone who visits the Valley of Fire will be tormented or tortured in flames while they were there. It means no such thing. About 300,000 people go into the Valley of Fire each year, and they all come back, none the worse for wear.

A nearly identical situation occurs with “the Lake of Fire.” It was (and is) a literal place on planet earth. And since many people today (and throughout church history) do not know where this location is, they have wrongly assumed that John was describing an eternal place of fiery torture in the afterlife for the unredeemed dead.

So what and where is the Lake of Fire?

In the days of Jesus and John, what we now call the Dead Sea was referred to by some as the Lake of Fire, or the Fiery Lake (Jersak, Her Gates Will Never Be Shut, 82-87; Spencer, The Genesis Pursuit, 185-212).

The Dead Sea sits on a fault line, and during the several thousand years prior to the first century AD, it used to regularly erupt, spewing forth tar, pitch, bitumen, asphaltites, smoke, sulphur, and flame. As a result, the Greeks even named it the “Lake Asphaltites.”

But the Greeks were not the only ones to describe the sea in such a way. The Wisdom of Solomon also records that Lot “escaped the fire that came on the Five Cities, cities whose wickedness is still attested by a smoking waste” (Wisdom of Solomon 10:7).

Diodorus Siculus, a first century BC historian, wrote this about this region: “The fire which burns beneath the ground and the stench render the inhabitants of the neighboring country sickly and very short lived” (Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica, Volume II:48.6).

Philo, writing in the days before the ministry of Jesus, said that the valley of the Dead Sea was filled with fires, which were very difficult to extinguish, and that many of these fires had been smoking and burning for a very long time, even to his own day (On Abraham, XXVII:141).

When Josephus was writing his history of the Jewish wars, he said that one could still see the burnt remnants of the five cities, and that fruit from the region dissolves into smoke and ashes if plucked (The Wars of the Jews, IV:8.4.483-484).

The first century geographer Strabo called the valley “a land of fires” because there were frequent boiling outbursts of fire in the region, and the entire area smelled of sulfur and brimstone (The Geography of Strabo, XVI:2.42-44).

Even in more recent times, others have noted similar things about the valley. When the explorer Volney visited the region in 1787, he reported that “this valley [is] the seat of subterranean fire, which is not yet extinguished. Clouds of smoke are often observed to issue from the lake” (Travels, I:281-282).

In 1848, a scientific investigation of the region by a man named Lynch reported that the valley held a strong smell of sulfuret hydrogen (Journal of Royal Geographical Society, XVIII: 127). He also wrote that he witnessed a purple vapor rising above the Dead Sea, “contrasting strangely with the extraordinary color of the sea beneath and, where they blended in the distance, giving it the appearance of smoke from burning sulfur. It seemed a vast cauldron of metal, fused but motionless. In the afternoon of the same day, it looked like molten lead” (Ibid, 276, 324).

Some modern scholars and commentators have noted this as well. For example, John Gill, in his Exposition of the Entire Bible, in the section on Revelation 20:14-15, points out that the Dead Sea was also called the sulpherous lake, the lake of asphaltites, and the bituminous lake.

The Jewish people understood that the lake sat in the valley which used to be home to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, and so whatever idolatrous or sinful thing the Jewish people wanted to get rid of, they would cast it into the Salt Sea. Gill quotes the Babylonian Talmud as saying that “any vessels that had on them the image of the sun, or of the moon, or of a dragon, ‘let them cast them into the salt sea’” (Avoda Zara, 42.2; 49.1; 53.1; 71.2; Nazir 24.2; 26.1-2; Bava Metzia 52.2; Temura 22.2; Meila 9.2; 10:1).

This image of being cast into the salt sea is very similar to what John writes in Revelation 21:8.

Even the PBS documentary called “A Naked Planet Special” said this about the Dead Sea:

Geologists have discovered large pockets of gas trapped under the sediment … in the southern Dead Sea. [When these bubbles escape or are] released into the atmosphere by an earthquake, it would only take a spark to ignite a giant inferno; a vast ball of flame raining down.

One wonders if such a scenario ever occurred as people traveled along the edges of the Dead Sea, thereby causing it to also be named the Fire Sea. Indeed, one author even suggests that the lake itself occasionally caught on fire (Spencer, The Genesis Pursuit, 197).

It is also critical to remember that the ancient site of Sodom and Gomorrah are beneath the southern edge of the Dead Sea, where, on the western shore, there sits Mount Sodom and a rock formation called “Lot’s wife.” These images and memories of the destruction that came upon the cities of this valley help explain the list of sins that John mentions in Revelation 21:8.

So there is much historical evidence to see that in the first century, when people heard about the Lake of Fire, they understood this to be a symbol for the region that we now call the Dead Sea.

But how are people cast into the Lake of Fire?

After the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, the bodies of over one million Jews were thrown into the Valley of Hinnom outside of Jerusalem, where they were then burned. When the rains come, much that is in the valley is washed down into the Dead Sea through the Wadi an-Nar, or the “Streambed of Fire” (Spencer, The Genesis Pursuit, 197).

So it is a historical fact that as a result of the destruction of Jerusalem, over a million people ended up being cast into the Lake of Fire, also known as the Dead Sea.

Furthermore, many Jews of that time believed that if a body was burned to ashes and did not receive a burial, then that person would not be raised from the dead in the future resurrection (Spencer, The Genesis Pursuit, 197).

Therefore, if a person was cast into the Lake of Fire via the Streambed of Fire because their ashes were carried from Gehenna down to the Dead Sea, that person would remain in the Lake of Fire forever, never being able to experience the resurrection. (We know from Scripture, however, that everyone will be resurrected. See John 5:29; Acts 24:15; cf. Dan 12:2.)

With all of this in mind, how then are we to understand the references to the Lake of Fire in Revelation 20:10, 14, and 21:8?

The Lake of Fire in Revelation 20:10, 14, and 21:8

Bradley Jersak sees these statements as an “apocalyptic threat of being leveled by the fire of God’s wrath, historically fulfilled through obliteration by foreign armies. In Revelation, the threat is specific to Jerusalem” (Jersak, Her Gates Will Never Be Shut, 87).

Indeed, passages like Isaiah 1:7-10 equate the city of Jerusalem with the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, indicating that they will share similar fates. Other cities that behaved in similar ways also experienced similar ends (cf. Isa 34:8-10; Jer 49:17-18; Dan 7:9-11).

But the destruction of Jerusalem was not the end of Jerusalem. Jerusalem was “resurrected” from the ashes, so that one can go and visit it today. Furthermore, Jerusalem will play a significant and prominent role in the future, including in eternity when a New Jerusalem comes down out of heaven from God (Rev 21:2).

In this way, the restoration of Jerusalem appears to be a foreshadowing, or firstfruits, of the restoration of other cities that also experienced fiery judgment and destruction. For example, the description in Ezekiel 16:53-55 and 47:1-12 seems to indicate that the Dead Sea valley, along with the cities that are in them (which would include Sodom and Gomorrah), will also experience a restoration to fruitfulness, life, and fertility when Jesus returns and brings healing to this world.

It seems, therefore, that there is something unique in eternity about being cast into the Lake of Fire.

Though the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were burned with fire and brimstone, they will be restored.

Though Jerusalem was brought to ruin through fire and war, it too will be restored.

But the things that are cast into the Lake of Fire do not seem to experience restoration.

Being cast into the Lake of Fire is not about the wrath of God, invading armies, or even destruction by fire in this life or the next. Being cast into the Lake of Fire is not about being tortured in any way. Instead, those that are cast into the Lake of Fire are never heard from again. They have no more influence, power, or sway on this earth.

This seems to be the symbolic significance of the Lake of Fire.

And this indeed fits with what we read about the Lake of Fire in the book of Revelation.

When Jesus comes again, He will banish the spirit of accusation and scapegoating (the devil), the idolatry of science and money (the beast), human religion (the false prophet), all useless and destructive ways of living (death), and the reign of hell on earth (hadēs).

These are the five primary enemies of humanity, and Jesus sends them all away into the Lake of Fire, never to be heard from again. (cf. Rev 21:4 where they are not even named, but are simply called “the former things.” After this, they are never heard from again. “Death” is mentioned in 21:8 for the last time, but only as the second death.)

There is no possible restoration or redemption for accusation, idolatry, manmade religion, destruction, or the reign of hell. These are sent away into the sea of forgetfulness and have no more place on earth.

The fact that intangible concepts or powers such as death and hadēs are cast into the Lake of Fire strongly indicates that the Lake of Fire itself is also intangible.

That is, one cannot put an immaterial idea, concept, power, or force into something material.

When we say that we have “love in our heart” we do not literally mean that the immaterial feeling of “love” is literally being stored in the blood-pumping organ of our body. Instead, since “love” is intangible and immaterial, this means that the word “heart” is also understood as symbolic, intangible, and immaterial.

So also with throwing the immaterial death and hadēs into the Lake of Fire.

Some might object that since I have just shown that the Lake of Fire was originally a literal place, namely, the Dead Sea, then the items thrown into it must also be literal, material objects.

But it works the other way.

Much like the symbol of gehenna, the literal place, cultural history, and theological significance of the Dead Sea provides insight into what it means to be cast into the Lake of Fire.

Again, to use the analogy of love, if I say that my love for my wife extends higher than the moon, I am using a literal place (the moon) as a symbol to describe the extent of an immaterial concept (my love).

The same is true with casting death and hadēs into the Lake of Fire.

This imagery of things that are contrary to God being cast into the Lake of Fire would have been immediately identifiable to John’s reading audience.

In the first century Jewish culture, people often made the journey to the Dead Sea to cast things into it which they considered to be sinful or idolatrous.

In his Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud and Hebraica, John Lightfoot records that

The Talmudists devote ‘to the sea of Sodom’ anything that is destined to rejection and cursing, and that by no means is to be used (Lightfoot, A Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud and Hebraica, 15).

Lightfoot goes on to cite several quotes from the Jewish Talmud which describe this practice being carried out.

But how are the things in the Lake of Fire Tormented Forever?

But John not only writes about things that are contrary to God being cast into the Lake of Fire, he also says that such things will be “tormented day and night forever and ever.” The word for “torment” (Gk., basanizō) literally means “to rub on a touchstone.”

A touchstone (Gk., basanos) was a stone that was used to test the quality of metals, especially gold and silver coins. It was usually a fine-grained dark schist or jasper stone that was used to determine the purity of gold and silver coins by the streak left on the stone when rubbed with the metal. A basanos helped discover whether or not a coin was counterfeit.

When used in reference to people, the verb form of the word can refer to physical suffering (Matt 8:6; Rev 9:5), hard toil (Mark 6:48), and the pain of childbirth (Rev 12:2). When used of inanimate objects, it has the idea of being buffeted and battered, like a ship in a storm (Matt 14:24). In the Gospels, the demons often ask Jesus if He has come to torment them before the set time (Matt 8:29; Mark 5:7; Luke 8:28).

But in Revelation, the word only applies to the devil, the beast, and the false prophet (Rev 20:10), which are not “people,” but institutions or powers that had been twisted and perverted away from God’s will and design.

These “things” will be “tormented” in that, like a counterfeit coin, they will be discarded and thrown out, having no more value, power, or influence in this world. They will be shown to be false and fake forgeries, twisted perversions of what God wanted and desired.

Death, after all, does have a role in God’s good creation, as does religion (Jas 1:27), and the proper use of judging between right and wrong (accusation is a perversion of judgment). But the perversions of these are done away with in eternity. This is a judgment of ungodly structures and institutions; not primarily a judgment upon people.

But doesn’t the text say that people are cast into the Lake of Fire?

Revelation 20:13-15 says that the sea, and death, and hadēs gave up the dead that were in them, who are judged at the Great White Throne Judgment, before being cast into the Lake of Fire.

And then Revelation 21:8 seems to list the sorts of people who are cast into the Lake of Fire, such as the cowardly, unbelieving, murderers, sexually immoral, and liars. If this judgment is not specifically upon people, then what is happening to the people who are described in these ways?

Some scholars try to argue that John is referring only to a past historical event here, in which cities and nations were destroyed by fire.

For example, since Sodom and Gomorrah were characterized by the sorts of behaviors described in Revelation 21:8, and since these cities were destroyed by fire, and since the “ruins” of these cities likely lie at the bottom of the Dead Sea (the Lake of Fire), some scholars say that this is what John is referring to in this text.

But this cannot be the case, for when people died in those historical events, this was their first death. Revelation 20:13-15 says that people are resurrected and brought back to life to face judgment, and are then sent to the Lake of Fire.

But note that the text does not say that the humans who end up in the Lake of Fire will be tormented by the Lake of Fire (Rev 20:15).

Unlike the devil, the beast, and the false prophet, humans are not tormented in the Lake of Fire. They are actually sent there to escape torment. A careful reading of Revelation shows how this works.

Earlier in Revelation, John wrote that the people who worship the beast and his image will “be tormented with fire and brimstone … and the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever” (Rev 14:10-11).

The word used for “torment” in Revelation 14:10-11 is the same word used in Revelation 20:10. But the torment that these people experience in Revelation 14:10-11 does not come from the Lake of Fire, because they are not there yet. They do not get sent to the Lake of Fire until after the Great White Throne judgment.

The torment these people experience comes from “fire and brimstone,” which is what brought the initial destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. The fact that the smoke ascends forever would remind the readers that the smoke of Sodom and Gomorrah was still ascending in the region of the Dead Sea to that very day.

So is John saying that humans will get tormented after all, but in a different way? No, for John subverts the violent imagery of Revelation 14:10-11 in a subtle way.

When people think and teach about the torment that people receive in the fires of hell for all eternity, they usually also teach that such people are completely separated from the presence of God. But Revelation 14:10 says that the torment these people receive is “in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.”

Isn’t this strange? They are only tormented when they are in the presence of Jesus (the Lamb) and the holy angels (which might represent the spirits of the church; cf. Rev 1:20). But does this mean that our entertainment in heaven will consist of watching people burn and suffer? It cannot be, for this would be less than restful (Rev 14:13).

Quite to the contrary, it appears that John is saying that as long as these people worship the beast and his image (whatever they may represent), it is torment for them to be in the presence of Jesus and His righteous church.

How is it torment? Earlier, in Revelation 11:10, John wrote that these same people were tormented by the preaching and presence of the two witnesses.

This does not mean that the two witnesses were burning people alive with their sermons. It refers instead to the inner conviction one feels when they are presented with something that is contrary to their spirit or nature. Righteous people have this same experience when they are in the presence of wickedness (2 Pet 2:8).

Therefore, the “torment” (Gk., basanizō) of humans in Revelation is not physical torture in fire, but refers to the spiritual vexation that unrighteous people experience when they are presented with the truth or when their behavior is challenged (Rev 11:10).

In Revelation 11:10, the people who experienced this torment, tried to escape it by killing the two witnesses, but John writes in Revelation 14:10 that they will continue to experience the torment of the truth as long as they are in the presence of Jesus and the holy angels.

Therefore, since Jesus knows that the life of those who worship Him is not compatible with the life of those who worship the beast, and that each group is tormented by the other, Jesus separates them so that neither group is tormented.

In Revelation 20:14-15, out of love for the people who do not want to hear the truth, Jesus sends them to be with the beast, the false prophet, death, and hadēs in the Lake of Fire. They are not sent to be tormented, but to escape the convicting and “tormenting” presence of Jesus and the church.

So what will their existence be like? What will they do? How will they live?

What will existence be like for those in the Lake of Fire?

The truth is that we do not know. But it won’t be torment or torture. It won’t be burning and screaming in agony for all eternity. Scripture does not say what their existence will be like, or if it can even be called “existence.”

It seems that the life in the Lake of Fire (which is not a literal place of burning and flame) is a place where people are allowed to live as they want.

It is a place where they will be given true human freedom apart from God, which is what many people think they want, but which is actually not freedom; it is slavery. It will likely be similar to life on this present earth, but without physical death.

While this initially sounds like heaven, such an existence will end up being hell. People who try to live life apart of from God, live life in a way that God never intended it to be lived. This way of living does not build loving relationships, but ruins and destroys them. It is a selfish, hateful, broken way of living.

And a truly hellish existence is having no way out of this sort of living.

True hell is an eternal existence in a sin-filled world without the blessed escape through death.

Currently, we have a “way out” through death and resurrection. But if there is no death, there can be no resurrection, and so those who experience the eternal second death (living in the realm of death, but never dying) are living in a hell of their own making.

Their eternal existence will be a life dominated by the sins mentioned in Revelation 21:8. In eternity, where there is no death to deliver a person from the devastation they have brought into their lives, this ongoing death will simply continue forever and ever.

C. S. Lewis’ theological fantasy book, The Great Divorce, depicts what this sort of everlasting death might look like. In this life, as we destroy our families, friendships, and health, we draw into ourselves and become more and more separated from others over time.

Death stops this process of separation so that we can finally see ourselves and others as we really are. Death and resurrection provide reconciliation, so that we can forgive and be forgiven, and begin to live in eternity with the love and grace that God desires.

But in an eternal existence without God, where physical death is not an option, people will continue to separate themselves until eventually, they cut off all contact from everyone, and live solitary lives of self-centeredness and complete separation.

For people who were created for community and relationships, this truly is a living hell. But it is a hell constructed by their own choices.

So what is the Lake of Fire?

It is literally the Dead Sea, into which all things are cast that are contrary to the will and ways of God.

As a symbol, therefore, it refers to an existence without God.

People who are sent to “the Lake of Fire” for eternity will not be tortured in flames for all eternity as more than people who live in Salt Lake are covered with salt as long as they live there.

Those who exist in the Fiery Lake will be given the freedom they think they want, so they can live life as they please, apart from the guidelines and instructions of God.

This way of living is not really “living,” however, and such people will ultimately find themselves separated, not only from God, but also from all other people. The Bible calls it the second death (Rev 21:8).

So the Lake of Fire is not traditional hell where people suffer and burn for eternity. They are not in torment there, but are sent there to escape their torment. While there, they can live according to their sinful desires, which will lead them into an eternal existence and experience of ongoing death.

What is Hades in the Bible? Is it hell?

By Jeremy Myers
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If you want to learn the truth about hell and what the Bible actually teaches about hell, make sure you get a copy of my book, What is Hell?

Also, if you are part of my discipleship group, there will be an online course about hell as well.

In previous studies, we have looked at the words sheol, gehenna, abyss, tartarus, and the ‘outer darkness.’ In each case, we have seen that none of these words describe a place of everlasting torment for unbelievers in a place of burning fire.

But what about the New Testament Greek word hadēs?

In this study, we will consider the word hadēs and whether or not it refers to hell as a place of eternal suffering and torment for unbelievers.

Is Hadēs Hell?

One of Greek words that is commonly translated as “hell” in the New Testament is hadēs. But the word hadēs is the Greek equivalent to the Hebrew word sheol.

In the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible (the LXX), the Hebrew word sheol is most often translated as hadēs. And since we have already seen that sheol is best translated as “grave” or “pit,” then this hints that the word hadēs should be understood in a similar fashion (cf. 1 Cor 15:55).

But hadēs is More than Just the Grave

In the days of Jesus and the apostles, Jewish teachers were rethinking the concept of the afterlife. The idea of a future resurrection was gaining prominence, and with this idea, people were beginning to speculate about what might happen to humans after they died but before resurrection.

So while most Old Testament texts which refer to sheol can be understood as only referring to a grave in which dead bodies were laid, the New Testament texts about hadēs seem to show an evolution in thinking about what happens to humans after they die.

Those who did not believe in a future resurrection (such as the Sadducees), continued to teach that after death, all people went to the grave (sheol or hadēs) and that was the end.

But those who believed in the resurrection (such as the Pharisees), began to think that there was some sort of conscious existence for the dead as they awaited the future resurrection.

For example, the apostle Peter quotes David (Psalm 16:8-11) as saying that God would not allow his body to see corruption in hadēs, but would raise Him up (Acts 2:26-27, 31). Peter used these texts to defend the idea of the resurrection, and to explain why God raised Jesus from the dead.

Therefore, those who believed in life after death also believed that people continued to exist somewhere and somehow after death while they awaited resurrection.

But they did not have a “heaven and hell” concept as many do today. Instead, people in the days of Jesus believed that all the dead went to the same place, though with different “compartments” for the righteous and the wicked (Josephus, Antiquities, 18.14).

This concept is seen in the story of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31. But Jesus’ use of this imagery should not be seen as an endorsement of it. Just as someone today might tell a story about meeting Peter at the Pearly Gates without believing that this is actually what will happen, so also, Jesus could tell a story about Abraham’s bosom in hadēs (Luke 16:22-23) without actually endorsing the concept.

Yet those who believed that hadēs was an actual realm in which the dead consciously existed, also believe that the dead would not exist there forever. Instead, hadēs was a “holding tank” for people while they waited for the resurrection. At some point in the future, when the resurrection occurred, hadēs would be emptied because all of the dead within it would be raised to life.

But this was not an endorsement of Universalism. Though hadēs would be emptied through the resurrection of all people, the righteous would go away to everlasting life with God, while the rest would go away to everlasting death with the devil (cf. Revelation 20:13-14).

This idea does not match the modern concept of hell, for in this first-century way of thinking, the people who go to hadēs do not stay there forever.

So what is the New Testament concept of hadēs?

What did Jesus and the apostles have in mind when they taught and wrote about hadēs?

Several New Testament texts provide a shocking insight into the nature and location of hadēs.

Matthew 11:23 (Luke 10:15) and hadēs

For example, Jesus indicates that the hadēs is set in contrast to heaven. In Matthew 11:23, Jesus says that while Capernaum was exalted to heaven, it will be brought down to hadēs (cf. Luke 10:15). Does this mean that citizen of Capernaum were all headed for eternal suffering in the pit of hell? No, it cannot mean this, unless the citizens of Capernaum were all previously in heaven. Such an idea makes no theological sense. Even those who believe that it is possible for a person to lose their eternal life do not think that those in heaven can still be sent to hell.

Therefore, it is better to see that Jesus is speaking of both heaven and hadēs in symbolic ways.

In Matthew 11:23 and Luke 10:15, Jesus is speaking of heaven as a reference to the apparent blessing of God upon a city in this life and on this world. The city of Capernaum had great fame, honor, glory, wealth, power, and respect in the minds of most people.

Going down to hadēs, therefore, symbolizes the opposite. The city would lose its power, privilege, and position and would become weak, poor, and desolate, much like Tyre and Sidon (Luke 10:13) or Sodom and Gomorrah (Matt 11:23-24).

The “day of judgment” to which Jesus refers in these texts does not refer to some future judgment when all the people of these cities are condemned to eternal punishment in hell, but rather to the historical events which cause the physical destruction of the cities.

So when Jesus teaches about hadēs in Matthew 11:23 and Luke 10:15, He is speaking about the destruction of cities on this earth in history; not about the torment of human souls in fiery flames for all eternity.

Matthew 16:18 and hadēs

The greatest insight into what Jesus believed about hadēs is found in Matthew 16:18. In the preceding context, Peter has just declared that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah.

In response, Jesus states that it is on this declaration from Peter that He will build His church. Jesus then says that the “gates of hadēs” will not prevail against the church. Since the church Jesus is building exists here and now, on this earth, in and through our lives, this means that hadēs also is here and now, on this earth, and it is set against the church.

Furthermore, the church is on the offensive against the gates of hadēs, rather than the other way around. But the gates will not prevail, or stand, against the attacks of the church.

When many people read Matthew 16:18, they imagine that the church exists behind a gleaming white wall, and that hell is on the outside, trying to batter down the gates.

But as I point out in my book, The Death and Resurrection of the Church, the imagery is actually the opposite.

In Matthew 16:18, Jesus says that the “gates of hadēs will not prevail” against the church. In other words, it is hadēs that is behind a wall, and the church is attacking the gates.

And in order for the church to attack these gates, they must exist in this life and on this earth.

This further means that humans are imprisoned by these gates, so that the way Jesus builds His church is by attacking the gates of hadēs to rescue and deliver those within.

It appears, therefore, that in the mind of Jesus, hadēs is not a dwelling place for evil people in the afterlife, but is the experience of many people in this life, which is characterized by everything that is opposed to the ways of Jesus Christ and the will of God on earth.

So rather than life, light, liberty, and love, those who are trapped behind the gates of hadēs live in bondage, corruption, despair, and destruction.

Jesus leads His church to help free these people from their hellish life.

Hadēs is here and now, and Jesus leads to the church to set free those who trapped behind its bars.

The Book of Revelation and hadēs

The book of Revelation also contains several references to hadēs and while many people are most familiar with the reference in Revelation 20:13-14 where hadēs is emptied and its inhabitants are cast into the Lake of Fire, we must first understand the previous references to hadēs in Revelation (Rev 1:18; 6:8) before we can understand what John is talking about in Revelation 20.

In Revelation 1:18, we read that through His death and resurrection, Jesus gained the keys to death and hadēs.

What is interesting about this is that the Greek god Hadēs was occasionally depicted in Greek mythology as carrying a key to the gates of the underworld. He kept the gates forever locked so that nobody who was within could ever escape.

But in Revelation 1:18, we see that Jesus now carries the keys, and He plans to throw the gates of hadēs wide open.

When Revelation 1:18 is read in connection with Matthew 16:18, we discover that when Jesus storms the gates of hadēs with the church, there is no battle waged.

Jesus simply walks up to the gates and unlocks the door, calling those who are within to “Come forth!” The task of the church is to show people how to be free and live life.

Death and hadēs are once again paired together in Revelation 6:8. Death is depicted as riding a pale horse, though the “greenish-yellow” color of a corpse is probably a better translation for the Greek word used here.

Of the four horsemen in the context, this fourth rider is the only one who is given a name (i.e., “Death”), and is also the only one who does not have a tool or weapon. However, in place of a weapon, Death has hadēs. This means that while the other horsemen accomplish their devastation through an instrument, death accomplishes its task through hadēs.

In other words, hadēs is not a place to which people go after they die; instead, hadēs is the tool by which the rider on the pale horse brings death and destruction upon the world.

Death comes upon this world through the instrument of death, namely, hadēs.

Once again, this shows that hadēs is a present experience for some people; not a future place of existence.

In Revelation 20:13-14, we read that death and hadēs are thrown into the Lake of Fire. If we believe that hadēs is a place, then this description make little sense.

But when we recognize that death and hadēs are the powers that destroy and devastate life on this earth, then it comes as no surprise than before Jesus restores all things to the way God wants and desires them to be, He does away with death and destruction (hadēs) by throwing them into the Lake of Fire.

So “hell” is not a good translation for the Greek word hadēs

While the most basic meaning for hadēs is similar to sheol, the grave, further development in the New Testament era reveals that hadēs can primarily be understood as the power of despair, decay, and destruction that enslaves human beings in this life.

Hadēs operates in direct contradiction to the kingdom of God and the power of life, light, and love that accomplishes the will of God on earth.

Hadēs is not a place of burning suffering for the unregenerate dead. It is instead a destructive presence here on earth that ruins what God wants for our lives. And in the end, just as with everything else that is arrayed against God, hadēs will be cast into the Lake of Fire. But what does this mean?

We will discuss the Lake of Fire next week, so make sure you join us …

Conclusion

This brief study has shown that the word hadēs does not refer to hell as a place of eternal suffering in burning flames for the unbelieving dead.

So far in our study, we have seen the same thing about sheol, gehenna, the abyss, tartarus, and the outer darkness.

But what about “the Lake of Fire”? Surely this term in Scripture refers to a place of everlasting burning and torment for unbelievers! Doesn’t it? Join us next week to find out…

Do the words Abyss or Tartarus refer to hell?

By Jeremy Myers
12 Comments

If you want to learn the truth about hell and what the Bible actually teaches about hell, make sure you get a copy of my book, What is Hell?

Also, if you are part of my discipleship group, there will be an online course about hell as well.

In a previous study, we looked at whether or not the Hebrew word sheol refers to hell. We saw that it does not. It means “grave,” and is literally the hole in the ground in which dead bodies are laid.

But what about the New Testament Greek words abyss, gehenna, hades, and tartarus? Do these words refer to hell as a place of eternal suffering and torment for unbelievers? We have already learned that gehenna does not refer to hell, and next week we will consider the term “hades.” Today we look at the other two, abyss and tartarus.

Does the “abyss” refer to hell?

The Greek word abussos is often translated as “abyss” or “pit.” The word means “bottomless” and refers to a hole or pit of immeasurable depth.

In the LXX (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament), abussos is often used to translate the Hebrew word tehom, which means “the deep” and refers to the deepest parts of the sea (cf. Gen 1:2; 7:11; 8:2, 7; Psa 32:7; 35:7; 41:8; 104:6; Job 38:16; Jon 2:6; Isa 44:27; 51:10; 63:13; Ezek 26:19; 31:4, 15; Dan 3:55).

But the Hebrew concept of “the deep” (tehom) is not just equivalent to the deep parts of the ocean. As I taught in my podcast on Genesis 1:2 (and forthcoming commentary on Genesis 1), the word tehom was “an ancient, mysterious, and menacing word. To ancient minds, it was an evil word.” It carries the idea of powerful forces of chaos arrayed against the order of God’s creation.

When it comes to thinking about the relationship between “hell” and the abyss, we see that since the abyss refers to deepest parts of the sea on this world, it cannot refer to some sort of afterlife experience where people burn and suffer for eternity.

The abyss, the deep, tehom, is a symbol of the power of chaos arrayed against God and the order of creation. It is not a place where people go after they die to suffer in flames for all eternity.

The symbolic nature of the abyss is especially significant in the book of Revelation, where the word is used most frequently in the New Testament. Since the beast came out of the sea (Rev 11:7; 13:1; 17:8), this symbolizes that the beast brings chaos. And indeed, when the abyss is opened, chaos, in the form of fire and smoke, comes up out of the pit (Rev 9:1-2, somewhat like a volcano that rises from the sea).

But ultimately, just as Jesus sent a demonic horde back into the depths of the sea (Luke 8:31), so also, God will send the beast back into the abyss from whence he came (Rev 20:1-3).

So as with sheol, the abyss does not represent hell. The abyss is literally the deep waters of the ocean, and it symbolizes chaos and disorder in God’s creation. When people go down into the abyss, it symbolizes their death in the depths of the ocean (Ezek 26:19).

Similarly, to be delivered from the abyss is to be delivered from death in the sea (cf. LXX Psa 105:9; Jon 2:6; Isa 63:13).

No reference to the abyss ever contains descriptions of fire, suffering, or the torture of people for eternity.

Therefore, the word abyss cannot refer to a place of everlasting suffering and torment in the fires of hell.

But what about tartarus?

Does “Tartarus” refer to hell?

Another word from Scripture which might possibly refer to hell is the word tartarus. The word is only used in 2 Peter 2:4 (in the verb form, tartaroō), where Peter describes God’s action of casting the angels who sinned down into hell, delivering them in chains of darkness while they awaited judgment.

To understand Peter’s words, it is important to identify the symbolism of Tartarus, and also the event to which Peter refers. Let us first consider the symbolism of Tartarus.

Since the Bible nowhere else speaks of Tartarus, we must assume that Peter had the Greek and Roman mythology of Tartarus in mind when he wrote of it. In Greek mythology, the word tartarus spoke of two things. It was first of all the name of the one of the original primordial deities. However, the word tartarus also speaks of a place. In this way, the word tartarus is like hadēs, which also refers to a place and a god in Greek mythology.

As a place, tartarus was thought to be a dungeon of suffering and torment for the Titans. The Titans were the second generation of primordial deities, and ruled during the legendary Golden Age of humanity, but were eventually defeated by the third generation of gods, the Olympians, which are the Greek and Roman gods that most people are familiar with (Zeus, Hades, Poseidon, etc.).

When the Olympian deities defeated the Titans, the Titans were sent to Tartarus to suffer. Humans typically went to Hades rather than Tartarus, though later mythology describes how some of the “worst” humans were sent to Tartarus, such as King Sisyphus for violating the rules of hospitality, and King Tantalus for killing and eating his own son.

So by referencing Tartarus, is Peter endorsing the Greek and Roman mythology about this place?

No. While Peter is certainly alluding to this myth, we cannot accept that he is endorsing the idea of multiple generations of deities waging war with each other in primordial history. Peter is referring to the myth to make a point, without endorsing the myth itself. “Concepts from the cultural background may be taken up without acceptance of their underlying ideology” (Johnston, Shades of Sheol, 25.).

Even today, Christians might talk about Achilles’ heel or Cupid’s arrows, reference the days of the week or the months of the year, and even celebrate Christmas, Easter, and Halloween, all without any sort of endorsement of the pagan mythology that lies at the roots of all these terms and holidays. Peter is likely doing exactly the same thing with Tartarus.

However, having said that, the Greek and Roman myths do bear some resemblance to various events recorded in Scripture. So maybe in referring to tartarus in which angels were bound with chains as they await judgment, Peter is pointing his readers to one of these biblical events.

There are two possible options.

Option 1: The Angels Bound in Chains of Darkness Refers to the Angelic Rebellion

Some believe that Peter is referring to the angelic rebellion which is purportedly described in Isaiah 14:12-21 and Ezekiel 28:1-19 (cf. Luke 10:18; Heb 12:22; Rev 9:1; 12:3-9). As to the timing of this event, some believe it occurred before Genesis 1:1, others believe it occurred in a “gap” of time that might exist between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2, while a third group thinks it occurred sometime after the final day of creation in Genesis 2:3, but before the serpent comes to tempt Eve in Genesis 3:1.

So in this view, regardless of when the angels rebelled against God, He bound them with chains of darkness and sent them to a place called Tartarus to await judgment.

Option 2: The Angels Bound in Chains of Darkness Refers to the Sons of God of Genesis 6

A second view is that Peter is referring to the flood which came upon the earth as a result of the sons of God having children with the daughters of men (Gen 6:1-4). The offspring of this union is referred to as the Nephilim, which might have also been the “giants” among men (Gen 6:4; Num 13:33; Deut 3:11; Josh 11:21-22; 1 Sam 17).

Support for this view is found in 1 Peter 3:19-20, where Peter indicates that Jesus preached to the spirits who were in prison, who sinned in the days of Noah. Jude 6 also speaks about angels who did not keep their proper abode being bound by God with chains of everlasting darkness until the day of judgment.

As a result of what happened in Genesis 6:1-4, God may also have restricted or limited the actions and behavior of the angels so that they could not sin in such ways again.

Both views, however, suffer from one significant problem.

If the angels who sinned (either during a rebellion or preceding the flood) were all bound with chains of darkness and sent away into Tartarus, how is it that Jesus encountered evil spirits during His earthly ministry?

Furthermore, how is it that Satan still prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking whom He may devour (1 Pet 5:8)? Satan was, after all, one of the angels who rebelled. If all the demons and evil spirits are already bound, then why are we instructed to stand against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, and against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places (Eph 6:12)?

If fallen angels are already abound, how is it that Satan can be bound again for a thousand years (Rev 20:2)?

2 Peter 2:4 is symbolic for something other than a literal chaining of angels in a place called Tartarus

It appears, therefore, that nearly all of the imagery in 2 Peter 2:4 is symbolic for something other than a literal chaining of angels in a place called Tartarus. Support for this idea is found in Wisdom of Solomon 17:17, which describes the ninth plague of darkness that came upon Egypt (Exod 10:21-29) as a “chain of darkness.”

In fact, the entire chapter of Wisdom of Solomon 17 seems to be referenced by Peter. The chapter speaks of captives of darkness and prisoners of a long night who engage in secret sins and suffer from a self-kindled fire (17:2-6). The chapter says that the darkness came upon them from Hades (17:14), and so they were kept in a prison not made of iron (17:16).

All of this imagery describes the ninth plague of darkness that came upon Egypt. Literal chains and prisons were not involved at all. The imagery instead refers to the oppressive darkness that struck the people of Egypt with fear and caused them to be immobilized, as if they were bound with chains.

This appears to be the meaning of 2 Peter 2:4.

Since fallen angels have always been active after they rebelled against God, and have apparently not been literally bound with chains in some mythical Tartarus, Peter’s words must be understood symbolically, as referring to the fear of God that fallen angels feel as they wait in trembling for the judgment of God to come upon them (Jas 2:19).

The rebellious angels are immobilized in some sense by the fear (the chains of darkness) of the judgment that will come upon them from God.

Even if this view is not accepted, and someone wants to think that God truly did lock away fallen angels with chains of darkness in some mythological location called Tartarus, it is still important to note that Peter’s description says nothing about humans being sent there.

So even if Tartarus truly is a prison for fallen angels as they await judgment, Scripture does not teach in any way that humans are sent there.

Whether Tartarus is a literal spiritual prison for fallen angels or a symbolic way of referring to the fear of God that fallen angels feel and the judgment of God that is coming upon them, it is not describing a hellish place of suffering and torment for human beings.

There is no passage in Scripture which says that humans will be sent to Tartarus.

Therefore, just like sheol, abyss, gehenna, and the outer darkness, the word tartarus does not teach about a place called “hell” where humans will be sent to suffer and burn for all eternity.

Whatever Tartarus is, humans do not experience it at all.

Conclusion

This brief study has shown that the words “abyss” and “tartarus” do not refer to hell as a place of eternal suffering for the unbelieving dead. Unbelievers will not spend eternity suffering in the abyss or in tartarus.

So far in our study, we have seen the same thing about sheol, gehenna, and the outer darkness. Next week we will consider the word hades. Join us then!

What is the Outer Darkness in the Bible? Is it hell?

By Jeremy Myers
9 Comments

If you want to learn the truth about hell and what the Bible actually teaches about hell, make sure you get a copy of my book, What is Hell?

Also, if you are part of my discipleship group, there will be an online course about hell as well.

For now, let us discuss the term “Outer Darkness” and see whether or not it refers to hell…

Is “The Outer Darkness” referring to Hell?

There are three passages in Scripture which refer to “the outer darkness” (Gk., to skotos to exōteron) and all three are recorded as teachings of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew (Matthew 8:12; Matthew 22:13; Matthew 25:30).

In all three instances, the phrase “outer darkness” is further described as being a place of “weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Due to these descriptive terms, many have equated the outer darkness with hell.

If this were true, however, then it would be impossible for hell to be both a place of burning flame and darkness, for the two are mutually exclusive. One or both of the descriptions must either be figurative or not referring to hell at all.

A careful consideration of each passage that refers to the outer darkness reveals that Jesus was not teaching about hell in these texts, but rather about the initial experience of some Christians at the beginning of the physical reign of Jesus Christ on earth in the future.

In other words, when Jesus physically returns in the future to finally and completely restore justice and peace upon this world, some Christians will not experience His coming with joy, gladness, and celebration, but with regret, grief, and sadness.

They will not experience the initial party of the Wedding Feast of the Lamb, but will instead be left outside in the darkness, because they were not ready for the arrival of their King.

When Jesus returns, He will throw a party full of lights, music, feasting, and dancing. But not all Christians will get to experience this party. Some will be left outside the celebratory circle of lights in the darkness. They will be on the outside looking in.

Such Christians will still have eternal life, and will still enter into the new heavens and the new earth, but they will miss out on the initial inauguration party, and will instead be in the darkness outside the party (the outer darkness).

To see this, let us briefly consider the three texts that refer to the outer darkness.

Matthew 8:12 and the Outer Darkness

The first reference to the outer darkness is in Matthew 8:12, where Jesus teaches that while many from all corners of the earth will sit down with Abraham in the kingdom of heaven, “the sons of the kingdom will be cast into outer darkness” where there will be “weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Jesus said these things after seeing the great faith of the Gentile centurion, stating that He had not even found such great faith in all of Israel (Matt 8:5-10). So Jesus is contrasting the faith of the centurion with the faith of many of the people of Israel.

The image of people sitting down with Abraham in Matthew 8:11 refers to the kingdom of heaven arriving in all its fullness and glory. While the kingdom of heaven was inaugurated during the first coming of Jesus, it will not fully arrive or be experienced by people on this earth until His second coming.

Jesus is saying that when this future event happens, and the citizens of the kingdom are invited to sit down with Abraham at the celebration feast, it will be people like the Gentile centurion who had great faith that will participate in the celebration.

There will be other “sons of the kingdom” however, such as many among the Israelite people, who will not participate in the feast. They will instead be in the outer darkness, which simply means that they will be excluded from the light and joy of the inauguration party.

Note that if Jesus was referring to unregenerate people who were going to spend eternity in hell, He would not have referred to them as “sons of the kingdom.” The “sons of the kingdom” are those who are members and citizens of the kingdom.

But the fact that the “sons of the kingdom” are in the outer darkness does not mean that they lose eternal life and spend eternity in hell, but that they miss out on the initial celebration at the full arrival of God’s rule and reign on earth.

Some “sons of the kingdom” fail to participate in this party because they did not have the right beliefs and behaviors to warrant a seat at the table. They will instead stand outside the glow of the joyful celebration, watching from the darkness with profound regret and shame for how they lived their life on earth.

Hell is not in view in Matthew 8:12, but rather describes the experience of some Christians who miss out on the initial inauguration party when Jesus returns to rule and reign on earth.

Matthew 22:13 and the Outer Darkness

The second reference to the outer darkness is found in Matthew 22:13. This text makes it clear that the reference to outer darkness has exclusion from the Wedding Feast in view rather than hell, for Jesus specifically tells a parable about who gets to participate in this future celebration.

In the Parable of the Wedding Feast (Matt 22:1-14), many people are initially invited to the celebration, but are too busy to attend. So the king sends out his servants into the highways to invite anyone and everyone they find.

As a result, many people attend the feast, both good and bad. Yet one man shows up at the feast who is not wearing a wedding garment, and so the king has him thrown out of the party into the outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Some have wondered how the man should have known what to wear to the wedding celebration, or if he was poor, how he could have afforded the proper attire.

But many scholars point out that it was a common practice in the Middle-Eastern and Mediterranean cultures for the host to provide proper garments for the guests (cf. Judg 14:12). So regardless of this man’s background or social position, he would have been provided with a garment to wear into the celebration.

But for some reason, the man did not put on the clothing he had been given. He came wearing his own clothes. He thought the clothes he had on were just fine, and that he didn’t need the clothes provided to him by the king.

Yet he was wrong, and so he is removed from the celebration, and sent outside, away from the lights and feasting of the party, where he experiences shame and regret.

The fact that this man is at the wedding feast proves that he is a genuine believer, for only believers are welcomed into the feast.

If he was an unbeliever, then how did he get into the wedding celebration in the first place? He could not have even entered. Therefore, he is a believer, which granted him access to the feast.

But he didn’t come wearing the proper clothing, and so he is removed from the feast. His removal from the feast is not a removal from heaven and eternal life so that he ends up in hell, but is simply a disciplinary process in which the man is not allowed to participate in the inauguration celebration.

So what is symbolized by the man’s lack of proper clothing? As Gregory Sapaugh writes,

The wedding garment is a figure for righteous living. Therefore, this man did not faithfully perform the good works that are necessary to be present at the wedding banquet. … Eternal salvation is not an issue in this passage.

The man represents a person who believes in Jesus for eternal life, but who fails to put on the righteous garments that God provides, and instead lives selfishly and sinfully throughout their life. Such a person still has eternal life, but they might miss out on the initial inauguration banquet when Jesus returns and sets up His earthly kingdom.

In his book, The Skeletons in God’s Closet, Joshua Ryan Butler argues similarly:

When the King shows up, the prodigals and prostitutes are running into the kingdom while the self-righteous and self-made are weeping outside the party. The sick, poor, blind, and lame are partying it up at God’s Wedding Feast while those who thought their own clothes were good enough are cast out into the darkness.

Here again, the outer darkness is not hell, but instead describes the initial experience of some unfaithful Christians at the beginning of the future rule and reign of Jesus Christ at His second coming.

The second coming of Jesus Christ will begin with a great time of celebration. But those who did not look for the return of Jesus, or prepare for it with their lives, will miss out on the joy and excitement of this event.

Like Scrooge in “The Christmas Carol” who stands in the cold and darkness out in the street while he peers through the window at a happy and warm Christmas celebration inside, some Christians will only be able to watch the party from the darkness outside. Scrooge missed out on the celebration because of his behavior, and so will some Christians. Such a person is represented in this parable by the man who attends the feast without the proper garments.

In the book, What is the Outer Darkness?, Zane Hodges said this:

Matthew 22 doesn’t say there were a bunch of torturers out there in the darkness who suddenly take this poor man who is tied up hand and foot and start torturing him. The imagery is one of exclusion and limitation on activity. That’s what being tied hand and foot means. [He] can’t really do anything. Exclusion from the lighted banqueting hall is a synonym for co-reigning with Jesus Christ.

Matthew 25:30 and the Outer Darkness

The third and final reference to the outer darkness is found in Matthew 25:30, near the end of the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30).

Most Bible teachers believe that the Parable of the Talents refers to God’s gifts to believers, and our responsibility to use those gifts wisely in this life. If this view is correct, then the experience of the unprofitable servant at the end of the story can be understood in a similar way as seen in both Matthew 8:12 and 22:13.

As in both of those previous situations, the unprofitable servant of Matthew 25:30 would represent a believer who failed to live as God wanted and desired during this life, and so is cast into the outer darkness during the initial stage of the earthly reign of Jesus. Rather than experience the joy of this celebration, they only experience regret for how they lived their life and shame for missing out on the greatest celebration in all of celestial history.

However, I think there is a better way of understanding the Parable of the Talents. I have written about this elsewhere, but let me summarize the view for you here.

Though many assume that the Parable of the Talents describes the return of Jesus and how He judges Christians at His return, this is not what Jesus says.

While most Bible translations do include the words “the kingdom of heaven” in Matthew 25:14, these words have been added by the translators and do not exist in the Greek. Jesus is describing the kingdom of heaven in the preceding parable, the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins (Matthew 25:1-13), as well as in the following parable, the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats (Matthew 25:31-46), but He is not describing the final arrival of the kingdom of heaven in the Parable of the Talents.

Instead, this middle parable is a contrast with the other two, in which Jesus shows His followers what life will be like for them if they try to live in the kingdom of this world.

Numerous lines of evidence support this view. Chief among them is the fact that the actions of this man who travels to a far country would have been understood as quite evil in the first century Mediterranean world. They not only closely follow the actions and behaviors of King Herod and how he went to Rome to become the king of Israel, but the values of this man also reveal the opposite of what Jesus taught and encouraged.

The first century Mediterranean world was guided by the cultural values of honor and shame. Modern western culture is guided by materialism. Today, we value any activity which gets more money and gains more possessions.

Yet in an honor-shame culture, such activities were great sins. They believed that money and possessions were zero-sum commodities, which meant that the only way for one person to gain more money and possessions was by taking it away from someone else. This was very shameful behavior. “Anyone who suddenly acquired something ‘more’ was automatically judged to be a thief” (John Pilch, The Cultural World of Jesus, 164).

Therefore, in light of these cultural values about money, the first two servants, like their master, were exploiters. This means that “from the peasant point of view … it was the third slave who acted honorably, especially since he refused to participate in the rapacious schemes of the greedy, rich man” (Malina and Rohrbaugh, Social-Science Commentary on the Synoptic Gospels, 125).

So Jesus is saying that if one of his disciples does not look with anticipation for the coming of the kingdom of heaven, their only other option is to participate with the kingdom of this world, by imitating its greedy ways.

If a person does not follow the way of Jesus, they will either behave very shamefully in stealing from their brethren, or will receive harsh judgment and punishment from the rulers of this world for not participating in their greedy game.

The rulers of this world expect and demand their subjects to follow their twisted, thieving ways to enrich themselves at the expense of others. Those who refuse to follow these marching orders will be punished by the rulers, and will be banished to the edges of society and culture.

But when followers of Jesus experience such treatment at the hands of the rulers of this world, they should not despair, for the punishment of worldly rulers is not the end of the matter.

So in this interpretation, the Parable of the Talents is not about the second return of Jesus, but about life in this world now and the two ways that people can live.

If we help the rulers steal from others, we ourselves will gain recognition and reward from those greedy rulers. But if we refuse to play their evil game, we will gain only condemnation from them, and they will even steal from us what we have and give it to others who do not need it. But Jesus surrounds this parable with two others about what it looks like to live life in light of the kingdom of heaven.

Zacchaeus is the perfect example of the two kingdoms at work.

Indeed, the Parable of the Talents in Luke 19:11-27 immediately follows the story of Zacchaeus. Prior to meeting Jesus, Zacchaeus operated according to the principles of the kingdom of this world and became very rich as a result. Yet his actions were extremely shameful as he stole from the poor to gain wealth for himself.

So when Zacchaeus started to follow Jesus, he adopted a new set of values and behaviors, which caused him to give away all of his accumulated wealth. His new behavior, however, likely cost him many rich friends, powerful politicians, and invitations to fancy parties. He also likely lost his job, and along with it, his house, servants, possessions, and status in Roman society.

Those who continued to live within that system likely looked upon Zacchaeus’ new behavior with shock and disdain, thinking that he would eventually regret his decisions.

This is also what the lord of the servants in Matthew 25:14-30 thinks of his unprofitable servant.

The rich landowner commands that the man be cast out into outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 25:30). This is not a reference to hell, and in this case, is also not a reference to Christians missing out on the Wedding Feast of the Lamb.

Here, the imagery represents the perspective of the rich lord. Since the third servant didn’t use his talent to steal from others, nor did he even gain usury with the bankers (Matthew 25:27), this servant can no longer join the human party where there is light, laughter, feasting, and dancing.

Instead, he is sent out of the palace into the dark alleyways where there is only poverty and problems. In Matthew 25:30, the master is essentially saying, “Since this servant didn’t play by my rules, he doesn’t get to enjoy the privileges of my household. Kick him out into the street where he will experience profound regret that he didn’t do what I wanted. He passed up the deal of a lifetime, and will live to regret it.”

But this is not the end of the story.

Jesus now goes on in the final parable of Matthew 25 to show His disciples that even though they might be rejected by the kingdoms of men and miss out on the parties of men, they will not be rejected or despised by the kingdom of God.

Since the values and behaviors of the two kingdoms are diametrically opposed to one another, the consequences for actions are different as well.

While a lack of greed brought punishment from the kingdoms of the world, this same behavior brings praise and honor in the kingdom of heaven. With the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats (Matthew 25:31-46), Jesus shows the distinctive characteristics that separate the two kingdoms, and calls His disciples to choose which kingdom they will serve.

The parables represent the choice Jesus laid out earlier in His career, when He stated that no man can serve both God and money (Matthew 6:24).

So once again, the outer darkness does not refer to hell, nor does the accompanying description of weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Instead, both terms are symbolic ways of referring to “missing out on the party” and “expressing profound shame and regret” as a result. It is an image of loss. The phrase “weeping and gnashing of teeth is an oriental term for extreme sorrow” (Hodges, What is the Outer Darkness?, 50).

The imagery can be used of believers missing out on the inauguration ceremony of the kingdom of heaven when Jesus returns to rule and reign on earth, but it can also be used of the experience of believers who get neglected and forsaken on this earth by worldly rulers for not living according to the rules of the kingdom of this world.

But those who miss out on the party here on this earth now can expect to enjoy a better party when Jesus returns.

The truth that Jesus reveals is that believers will experience outer darkness in one form or another. If we seek the praise of kings and the riches of men now, we will lose out on such things when Jesus returns.

If, however, we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33), then while we might be reviled and hated by men now, we will receive a warm and rich welcome by Jesus when He returns to rule and reign.

So what is the Outer Darkness?

So what is the outer darkness, and why is it described as a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth?

The outer darkness is a term which describes the place of darkness outside the lights of a party or celebration. It can describe our experience here on earth when we do not live according to the ways and rules of this world, and it can also describe the experience of some Christians at the beginning of the next life if they do not live according to the rules and ways of Jesus.

If Christians do not live in light of the kingdom of heaven, and so experience the outer darkness at His return instead of the inner light of the party, this does not mean they will spend eternity in hell.

They still have eternal life, and they will still participate in the eternal rule and reign of Jesus Christ on earth and throughout the universe, but they will miss out on the initial inauguration celebration when Jesus sets up His throne on earth.

The people who miss out on this party experience profound shame and regret. They miss out on the party of the ages!

So they weep and gnash their teeth in shame and disappointment at how they lived their life here on earth before Jesus returned. The phrase “weeping and gnashing of teeth” is not a description of suffering torment in hell, but is a Middle-Eastern idiom describing the expression of sorrow and lament for missing out on a great blessing or opportunity.

The people who weep and gnash their teeth at the return of Jesus do so because they are in the darkness outside the lights of the party, looking in at the great joy and celebration taking place inside, knowing that if they had just lived with greater obedience and expectation, they could have been participating in the party as well.

Such sadness will not last forever, of course. For after the Wedding Feast of the Lamb (Rev 19:6-9), every tear will be wiped away (Rev 21:4) so that all children of God will be welcome to participate in the never-ending joy and peace of the new heavens and new earth, where there will be no more death, sorrow, mourning, or pain.

So the outer darkness does not refer to hell.

There are no passages in Scripture which describe hell as a place of darkness where people are tormented for eternity as they wail and gnash their teeth. Jesus’ teachings on the outer darkness are a warning for believers to watch how we live our lives now, looking for the soon and blessed return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

What is Gehenna? Is it hell?

By Jeremy Myers
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If you want to learn the truth about hell and what the Bible actually teaches about hell, make sure you get a copy of my book, What is Hell?

Also, if you are part of my discipleship group, there will be an online course about hell as well.

They key phrase we are looking at in this study is the word gehenna.

Does Gehenna refer to everlasting torment in hell?

The word gehenna is a Greek transliteration from the Hebrew “Valley of Hinnom” (or Ge-Hinnom) which was a deep gorge to the southwest of Jerusalem. It was also called the Valley of Tophet.

The valley has a sordid history. It was a place of idolatry, injustice, and spiritual infidelity. It was here that child sacrifices to Molech were performed in the days of Ahaz and Manasseh (2 Kings 16:3; 21:6; 23:10).

Furthermore, when 185,000 Assyrian soldiers died during their siege in the days of King Hezekiah, the bodies were piled in the valley of Hinnom and set on fire (Isa 30:31-33; 37:36). Jeremiah built on this history and said that if the Israelites did not turn and follow God, something similar would happen to them (Jer 7:30-34; 19:2-13). And indeed, after the slaughter of the Israelite people by the Roman military in 69-70 AD, this is what occurred.

But it was not just the history of prophecies of this valley which made it a place of horror. In the days of Jesus, the valley was used as the city dump.

The valley of Gehenna was not only filled with garbage, refuse, and sewage, but also with dead bodies that people were trying to dispose of (due to crime, sickness, poverty, or shame).

City officials occasionally sought to get rid of the garbage and also cover the stench by igniting the refuse on fire. But since there was so much garbage, and since more was added every day, the fire never really died. It burned day and night, seemingly forever and ever.

Even in places where there was no open flame, the piles of refuse would still smolder for weeks on end, sending constant billows of smoke and ashes into the air.

Yet not everything in Gehenna burned. As is the nature of flames, they go where they will, sometimes leaving entire sections untouched. In these areas, worms and maggots went to work on the refuse and corpses that were left behind.

Furthermore, as is the nature of all city dumps throughout the world (even to this day), the sick and poor often scavenged through the garbage looking for things to eat or sell. Some of these were undoubtedly lepers in various states of disease and decay who might have lived in the rock tombs on the lower end of the valley.

Imagine Going into Gehenna…

With all this in mind, imagine what it would be like to “take out the garbage” on a typical Jerusalem morning.

As you haul your cart of trash down the hill into the valley, you first become aware of the smoke that rises continually from the dump. It is acrid and oily from the burning trash and causes your eyes to smart.

But soon, not even the smoke can cover the stench that rises from rotting food and corpses on a hot Middle-Eastern day. The smell is so bad, you struggle not to vomit and retch.

But the smoke in your eyes and the smell in your nostrils are not the worst of it. As you descend down into the pit, it becomes harder to see. The sun turns blood red due to the smoke and there is a constant gloomy haze that surrounds you.

But this is a blessing in disguise, for what you do see is difficult to forget. On your left there is a mangled corpse. It is missing some limbs and is half-burned from the fire. The remaining half is crawling with maggots and buzzing with flies.

You avert your eyes, only to see a ragged leper stumbling through the smoke while eating a moldy piece of fruit he has pulled from the trash. He is missing his nose and an arm and appears to be a walking corpse.

Horrified, you decide you have traveled far enough into the pit. You dump your trash as quickly as possible before retreating back up the slope toward Jerusalem.

As the smoke recedes and the sun brightens above you, you peer back over your shoulder at where you left your trash, only to see half a dozen walking corpses shuffling toward your pile of garbage as fast as their mangled feet will carry them. They are eager to be among the first to dig through what you have left behind, hoping to find a bit of food or clothing that will get them through another day.

You shudder and pick up your pace to leave the nightmare valley behind and return to the land of the living.

Gehenna in the Days of Jesus

In the days of Jesus, this is what came to mind when someone used the word “Gehenna.” The term conveyed “a sense of total horror and disgust. … Gehenna was a place of undying worm and irresistible fire, an abhorrent place where crawling maggots and smoldering heat raced each other to consume the putrefying fare served them each day” (Fudge, The Fire That Consumes, 161-162).

Therefore, since Gehenna was a literal place outside the walls of Jerusalem, the word should not be translated in our Bibles.

We do not translate “Jerusalem” as “City of Peace,” “Bethel” as “City of God,” or “Gilgal” as “circle,” even though that is what those place names mean. So also, we should not translate Gehenna as “hell” or any other word.

It should be left as it is, thereby alerting the reader to the fact that the text is referring to the valley called Gehenna outside the gates of Jerusalem. Translating it as “the Valley of Hinnom” would also be fine.

But even if we leave gehenna as “Gehenna,” we are still faced with the question as to whether Jesus had something more in mind than the physical and literal Valley of Hinnom when He taught about gehenna.

In other words, when Jesus spoke about gehenna, was He only speaking about the Valley of Hinnom, or was He using the imagery, history, and inherent horror of this valley to teach His listeners about the experience of some people in the afterlife?

The Symbolism of Gehenna

When the various texts are considered (cf. Matt 5:22, 29, 30; 10:28; 18:8-9; 23:15, 33; Mark 9:43-47; Luke 12:5; Jas 3:6), the answer becomes obvious. Jesus (and James, who is the only other person in the New Testament to speak about gehenna), is indeed using the Valley of Hinnom in a symbolic way, but not to teach about what happens to some people in the afterlife, but rather to teach about what can happen to some people in this life.

People who are sent to the Valley of Hinnom (usually because of crime or leprosy) lose their friends and family, and face a life filled with horror, decay, and destruction.

The warnings about gehenna are given by Jesus so that we do not destroy our health, life, family, friendships, and reputation in this life. God does not want us to live in the Valley of Death, but to instead enjoy everything God has given to us. In his book, Surprised by Hope, N. T. Wright says this about gehenna:

When Jesus was warning his hearers about Gehenna he was not, as a general rule, telling them that unless they repented in this life they would burn in the next one. As with God’s kingdom, so with its opposite: it is on earth that things matter, not somewhere else.
His message to His contemporaries was stark, and (as we would say today) political. Unless they turned back from their hopeless and rebellious dreams of establishing God’s kingdom in their own terms, not least through armed revolt against Rome, then the Roman juggernaut would do what large, greedy and ruthless empires have always done to smaller countries (not least in the Middle East) whose resources they covet or whose strategic location they are anxious to guard.
Rome would turn Jerusalem into a hideous, stinking extension of its own smoldering rubbish heap. When Jesus said “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish,” that is the primary meaning He had in mind (Wright, Surprised by Hope, 176).

Gehenna is NOT hell

Therefore, a word that is commonly translated as “hell” in the New Testament, gehenna does not in fact refer to a place of burning torture or torment in the afterlife.

Instead, the word gehenna refers to a literal place outside the walls of Jerusalem.

Jesus uses the history and imagery of this place to warn His disciples about what can befall them in this life if they do not follow His teaching and take steps (sometimes drastic) to protect themselves and their loved ones from the devastation of sin.

When Jesus speaks about gehenna, He is not warning about hell in the next life, but a hellish existence in this life. We will see more about this in future studies when we look at the actual New Testament texts in which the word gehenna is used.

But for now, we have a few more New Testament words to look at which are often thought to be references to hell. We will look at the word hades next …

But whatever hell might be, it is not an eternal garbage dump where God sends some humans to rot and burn for eternity. The word gehenna in the Bible teaches nothing of the sort. It was a literal valley outside of Jerusalem that symbolized the death and destruction that can come into people’s life NOW, if they refuse to follow the ways and teachings of Jesus. The symbol of gehenna tells us nothing the afterlife.

What is Sheol? Is it hell?

By Jeremy Myers
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If you want to learn the truth about hell and what the Bible actually teaches about hell, make sure you get a copy of my book, What is Hell?

Also, if you are part of my discipleship group, there will be an online course about hell as well.

In this study, we look at the word sheol.

The Hebrew word sheol is the most common word in the Old Testament that is used in reference to the state of the dead.

Curiously, however, the word appears only one time outside of the Old Testament, where it means ‘grave.’ So when it comes to understanding what the Old Testament authors meant with the word sheol, we are limited to its usage within Scripture itself.

Thankfully, there are numerous passages which guide our definition of this word.

The Meaning of the Word sheol

The word sheol occurs sixty-six times in the Hebrew Scriptures, and a few of these are occasionally translated as “hell” depending on which Bible translation you are reading.

Yet “hell” is not a good translation of any of the occurrences of sheol in the Bible.

The Hebrew bible never indicates any form of punishment after death, so this translation is inappropriate. This is seen in a variety of ways.

For example, both good men and evil men go to sheol (cf. Gen 37:35; Num 16:30; Jon 2:2).

Since it is not a place only for wicked and evil people, for even the righteous go to sheol, it cannot be equivalent to the modern concept of hell. Some teach, therefore, that sheol was a special “holding tank” or “intermediate state” for all people who lived and died prior to the death and resurrection of Jesus, and that after the resurrection of Jesus, people no longer go to sheol, but are immediately sent to either heaven or hell.

Texts such as Matthew 27:52, Ephesians 4:8-10, and 1 Peter 3:19 are used to defend this idea.

However, when all the references to sheol are considered together, it appears that the most likely definition of the word is also the most literal translation.

The word sheol means “grave” or “pit.”

When Hebrew authors wrote about sheol they were thinking about a hole in the ground in which dead bodies were laid. It does not represent any sort of afterlife experience.

When adjectives are used to describe sheol, it is portrayed as a wet, dank, dark, dusty, musty hole.

Support for this understanding is found in the fact that the Hebrew word bor is often used as a synonym for sheol, and bor is literally a hole dug in the ground (cf. Isa 14:11-20).

And much like any grave, sheol is characterized by the presence of worms and decay (Job 17:13-16; 24:19-20).

There is not a single Old Testament text which speaks of sheol as an eternal place of suffering and torment for the unregenerate dead.

Even when New Testament authors quote Old Testament texts which speak about sheol, they do so in connection with the bodily resurrection of people from the grave (cf. Psa 16:10; Hos 13:14; Acts 2:27; 13:35; 1 Cor 15:55).

The idea is that their bodies went into the ground, and at the resurrection, their bodies will come up out of the ground, and be made whole and complete once again. So even the New Testament supports the idea that sheol is simply “the grave.”

And since all people die and go to the grave, it makes sense for the Old Testament texts to speak about all people going to sheol.

The Old Testament, therefore, does not have much to say about the afterlife for either the righteous or the wicked. All it knows is that when all people die, they are put down into a grave, into sheol, where worms and decay destroy their bodies.

As such, the word sheol has nothing whatsoever to say about “hell” and should not be translated as “hell” in any of its uses (contrary to KJV texts such as Deut 32:22; Psa 16:10; Prov 9:18; Isa 14:9-10).

The best way to translate all uses of sheol is “grave,” and it literally refers to a pit or hole dug into the ground in which dead bodies are laid. When used metaphorically, it can refer to depression, sorrow, or loneliness, which are emotions often associated with death and burial.

So what is sheol?

The term, sheol, therefore, is the theological opposite of the life that God wants and desires for His people.

Since God is a God of the living, not the dead, then sheol represents the experience of those who are not functioning as God desires, whether it is because they are dead and buried in the ground, or because they are cut off from community due to loneliness and depression.

There is not a single text that describes sheol as a place of suffering and torment in the afterlife for the unregenerate dead.

So the Old Testament teachings NOTHING about hell

The word sheol is the only possible Old Testament term that can refer to hell, and since it does not, this means that the Old Testament teaches nothing about hell. (The image of fire might refer to hell in a few passages, but we will discuss this in a later study. … or you can just get my book on hell …)

This helps us realize that if the doctrine of hell as a place of suffering torment is correct, then God left humanity completely ignorant and blind to this idea for most of human history.

If it is true that the vast majority of people from the days of Adam to the days of John the Baptist will end up in a place of burning torment forever and ever, wouldn’t it have been loving for God to at least warn people about such a potential fate?

Yet there is not a single such warning in all of the Hebrew Scriptures.

Yet despite the complete silence in the Hebrew Scriptures about eternal conscious torment in hell, people today continue to hold to the doctrine, primarily because they believe it is taught in the New Testament.

As we will see in future studies about hell, nearly all the evidence provided for the doctrine of eternal torment in a fiery hell comes from the New Testament.

But again, if this is truly the case, then was it just and right for God to not warn a single person prior to the birth of Jesus about the eternal torment that awaited them in eternity?

Was it Right For God to Fail to Warn Billions of People About Hell?

Is it conceivable that the God revealed to us in Jesus Christ could watch billions of humans fall into a pit of eternal suffering and torment while never saying a single word of warning about it to those who were alive?

If the traditional doctrine of hell is true, how could God have overlooked or neglected mentioning it in His revelation to humanity for the majority of human history?

People often say that it is loving to warn people about hell, just as it is loving to warn people about driving off a cliff. But if this is so, why did God not warn people about hell for most of human history?

Is God unloving? To ask the question is to answer it. God is infinitely loving, and would not have failed to warn the objects of His love about such a potential disaster.

Therefore, the only other rational conclusion is that such a disaster does not exist. God didn’t warn people because the warning was not needed.

Nearly all the evidence provided for the doctrine of eternal torment in a fiery hell comes from the New Testament. But if the Hebrew Scriptures do not teach the concept of eternal torment in hellfire, it is legitimate to ask whether the New Testament does.

Maybe we have misunderstood what the New Testament teaches about hell as well.

The New Testament contains seven terms which are thought to refer to hell. They are: abyss, gehenna, hadēs, outer darkness, tartarus, the Lake of Fire, and the image of fire. We will consider all of these, along with several passages from Scripture, in future studies.

If you want to learn the truth about hell, and what the Bible actually teaches about hell, make sure you get a copy of my book, What is Hell?

I will also be teaching about hell in my Gospel Dictionary online course:

I interviewed Frank Viola about his book, ReGrace, and he accused me of heresy. ??? (He was joking. I think.)

By Jeremy Myers
7 Comments

This is a BONUS episode of my One Verse Podcast. In it, I interview best-selling author, Frank Viola, about his new book, ReGrace. This book shows how Christians can get along with each other, even when we disagree with one another.

The book goes into some of the shocking and outrageous theological views that were held by several of the greatest Christians in history. This should not cause us to shun or condemn them, but simply to realize that we ALL have some crazy ideas.

Frank Viola has some crazy views … and so do I.

And you do too.

This book shows that we ALL have some crazy theological views, and so rather than condemn each other as heretics, let’s learn to live and laugh together.

By taking a humorous look at some of the crazy views of theological giants like C. S. Lewis, Marin Luther, John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, Augustine, Billy Graham, and others, Frank Viola shows us that all of us have some views that could be condemned as heresy by somebody.

But that’s no reason to get all worked up, frothing at the mouth, while we seek to burn people at the stake through our keyboards.

Instead, it’s an opportunity to show grace toward others, as we want them to show grace toward us. Most of all, charging people with heresy might be the biggest heresy of all.

This book shows how. It’s humorous, lighthearted, and instructive.

So let’s learn from each other and laugh with each other as we all enjoy the ride of following Jesus in this great adventure.

Links Mentioned in this Interview with Frank Viola

You can get Frank Viola’s new book, ReGrace, here.
Download the first five chapters for free here.
Subscribe to Frank Viola’s new Insurgence Podcast here.
Visit Frank Viola’s website here

Here are some of the things I have written in the past about heresy as well.

Matthew 3:10-12 (Luke 3:16-17)

But John is not referring to hell.

But what about being “thrown into the fire”?

But what about the baptism by fire?

Then how about the “unquenchable fire”?

John’s Warning was fulfilled in 69-70 AD

Matthew 3:10-12 is not teaching about hell

Isaiah 33:10-16 and Burning in Fire. Is this hell?

1. It is Not People who are Burned, but what People Produce

2. The word “Everlasting” can refer to an event of limited duration with everlasting effects

3. The Fire is not from God, but from the People themselves

Conclusion

Does James 3:6 teach that your tongue can send you to hell?

Does James 5:3 teach that rich people will go to hell?

James 3:6 and James 5:3 are not warnings about everlasting torment in the flames of hell

So what is hell?

What is the Lake of Fire?

The Symbolism of the Lake of Fire in Revelation

So what and where is the Lake of Fire?

But how are people cast into the Lake of Fire?

The Lake of Fire in Revelation 20:10, 14, and 21:8

But how are the things in the Lake of Fire Tormented Forever?

But doesn’t the text say that people are cast into the Lake of Fire?

What will existence be like for those in the Lake of Fire?

So what is the Lake of Fire?

Is Hadēs Hell?

But hadēs is More than Just the Grave

So what is the New Testament concept of hadēs?

Matthew 11:23 (Luke 10:15) and hadēs

Matthew 16:18 and hadēs

The Book of Revelation and hadēs

So “hell” is not a good translation for the Greek word hadēs

Conclusion

Does the “abyss” refer to hell?

Does “Tartarus” refer to hell?

Option 1: The Angels Bound in Chains of Darkness Refers to the Angelic Rebellion

Option 2: The Angels Bound in Chains of Darkness Refers to the Sons of God of Genesis 6

2 Peter 2:4 is symbolic for something other than a literal chaining of angels in a place called Tartarus

Conclusion

Is “The Outer Darkness” referring to Hell?

Matthew 8:12 and the Outer Darkness

Matthew 22:13 and the Outer Darkness

Matthew 25:30 and the Outer Darkness

So what is the Outer Darkness?

Does Gehenna refer to everlasting torment in hell?

Imagine Going into Gehenna…

Gehenna in the Days of Jesus

The Symbolism of Gehenna

Gehenna is NOT hell

The Meaning of the Word sheol

So what is sheol?

So the Old Testament teachings NOTHING about hell

Was it Right For God to Fail to Warn Billions of People About Hell?

Links Mentioned in this Interview with Frank Viola

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