IS THERE REALLY A HELL?
Bill Becker
In a 1990 Gallup Poll 1 less than sixty percent (60% ) of people surveyed believed in a
literal hell (down 10% from 1978). Not surprisingly, few people (4%) believed hell was
their personal destination. A Barna Research Group poll conducted in 1996 2 found thirty-
one percent (31%) believed hell was an actual place of torment while forty percent (40%)
said it was only a state of permanent separation from God. Twenty percent (20%)
identified hell as only symbolic.
Questions about Hell abound. Is hell eternal? Can a loving God punish people and still be
just? Is purgatory another name for hell? Why is the Greek word Ge Hinnom (or
Gehenna) translated in English as “hell” when it means “Valley of Hinnom”?
Gehenna, found twelve times in the New Testament,3 refers to the valley of Hinnom
outside of Jerusalem where garbage, refuse and human waste burned day and night. Jesus
used gehenna to describe the place where both body and soul could be destroyed
(Matthew 10:28) and asked the Pharisees how they could escape the damnation of
gehenna (Matthew 23:33). English versions translated gehenna as “hell” (from the Old
Norse helan) because it was a term popularly understood by English speaking people as a
place of punishment for the heathen dead.4 KJV consistently renders gehenna as “hell.”
Another term, hades, is found eleven times in the New Testament 5 and means “to
conceal” or “hidden.” Therefore, hades is regarded as the place where the unseen spirits of
the dead dwell and is best translated as “grave”or transliterated as hades (as in ASV,
NKJV, and others). Unfortunately, KJV consistently translated hades as “hell,”
conveying several misconceptions. When Jesus died, for instance, he did not go to
torment (gehenna), he went to the grave (hades)! Peter quoted David (Psalm 16:8-9 cf.
Acts 2:27-31) as declaring that Christ’s soul was not left in hades (not gehenna). Also,
Christ promised the grave (hades), not torment (gehenna), would not keep him from
building his church (Matthew 16:18).
On the cross Jesus promised the penitent thief “Today thou shalt be with me in paradise”
(Luke 23:43). Yet, after the resurrection, Jesus said to Mary Magdalene “Touch me not,
for I am not yet ascended to my Father” (John 20:17). Jesus had not yet ascended but he
had been in paradise! Where, then, was paradise? The record of the Rich Man and
Lazarus provides some insight (Luke 16). The Rich Man was in hades (“hell” in KJV) and
was in torment and flames. Lazarus, also in hades, was at peace in “Abraham’s bosom.”
Father Abraham said a “great gulf” was fixed between them and neither man could pass
over. We may think of hades, then, as having separate compartments within it for the
righteous dead and the wicked dead; gehenna, a place of torment for the wicked; and
paradise, a place of rest for the righteous. Jesus and the thief both died. Both went to
hades that day. Both went to paradise, not torment. Conversely, Peter said the angels
that sinned were “cast down to tartarus”(KJV, “hell”-2 Peter 2:4). This term, regarded by
ancient Greeks as the abode of the wicked dead, corresponds to the gehenna of the Jews.
6 Given its identification with gehenna, tartarus is simply rendered in English translations
as “hell.” Abraham’s bosom and paradise, then, are synonymous expressions denoting a
place of peace for the righteous dead in hades. Gehenna and tartarus are synonymous
expressions denoting a place of torment for the wicked dead in hades.
Is hell eternal? At judgment, Jesus will say to those on his left hand, “Depart from me,
ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41).
The righteous will leave hades and enter heaven, the wicked remain in hades which is then
cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:13-14 cf. 21:8). They are with the devil and his
angels and are, according to John, “tormented day and night for ever and ever”
(Revelation 20:10). This “everlasting fire” is the same as the “eternal fire” Sodom and
Gomorrah suffer (Jude v. 7).
Can a loving God punish evil and still be just? A better question is “Would God be just
if He did not punish evil?” The answer is “No!” If so, eternity would be no different for
them than the righteous. This would make a mockery of the sacrifice of Christ and render
every promise God made to avenge wrongs against his people null and void (Romans
12:19).
Is purgatory another name for hell? No! Purgatory, a place where those who die in
grace and friendship with God go to be punished and purified by separation from God and
physical suffering,7 is not found in the New Testament.
This article has 898 words with footnote citations, 798 words without.
1 This information taken from Rick Rood (www.probe/org/docs/Hell )
2 This information taken from the Barna Research Poll, March 1996 (see
www.barna.com).
3 KJV Matthew 5:22, 29, 30; 10:28, 18:9, 23:15, 23:33; Mark 9:43,45,47; Luke 12:5;
James 3:6.
4 “Hell” Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, G& C Merriam Co., 1966.
5 KJV Matthew 11:23, 16:18; Luke 10:15, 16:23; Acts 2:27, 31; Revelation 1:18;
6:8;20:13,14
6 “tartaro,w” Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, Joseph Henry Thayer
(Zondervan, Michigan, 1977).
7 Brantl, George, Catholicism, Washington Square Press, New York, 1962, p. 252.
