Is There an Eternal Hell? No.

I do not believe there is an eternal hell of torment for those who are wicked. I could not worship or love a God who would do this to anyone. Very few human beings would torture people forever. If God is just, then this would not be justice.

The Jewish people of old did not believe in this teaching either. There are hundreds of scriptures that teach us the wicked will be destroyed, not live on forever. There are a few that have made some people think differently. But that is because they misinterpret the Bible.

The Bible must be searched carefully from beginning to end to understand a subject. We must not take a verse here or there on which to hang our teachings.

I have found some studies on Hell online and share them with you now. If you want to know the truth, you must study. “Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.”  Acts 17:11

The Origin of Hell-Fire in Christian Teaching.

Taken from: The Origin of Hell-Fire in Christian Teaching (truthaccordingtoscripture.com)

The concept of a soul within us that cannot die first became a ‘Christian’ doctrine at the end of the second century AD. Hell had been taught in Greek philosophy long before the time of Jesus, with Plato (427-347 BC) as the important leader in this thinking.

The teaching of an everlasting place of punishment for the wicked is the natural consequence of a belief in an immortal soul. By the year AD 187, it was understood that life, once we have it, is compulsory; there is no end to it, either now or in a world to come. We have no choice as to its continuance, even if we were to commit suicide to end it.

At the end of the 2nd century Christianity had begun to blend Greek philosophy —human speculative reasoning, with the teachings of God’s Word. Such words and phrases as ‘continuance of being’, ‘perpetual existence’, ‘incapable of dissolution’ and ‘incorruptible’ began to appear in so-called Christian writings. These had come straight from Plato, the Greek philosopher, all those years before Jesus. Other phrases used were ‘the soul to remain by itself immortal’, and ‘an immortal nature’. It was taught that this is how God made us. But this idea derives from philosophy, not divine inspiration. There are no such words in the Bible. It was Athenagorus, a Christian, but whose teachings, according to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, were strongly tinged with Platonism, who had introduced the teaching of an immortal soul into Christianity. In this way, he paved the way for the logical introduction of eternal torment for immortal, but sinful, souls. This was a hundred years and more after the time of the apostles, and came straight from popular philosophy. The apostles had consistently taught that death is a sleep, to be followed by resurrection. The early church leaders – Clement, Ignatius, Hermas, Polycarp, and others who also believed that death is a sleep, taught that the wicked are destroyed forever by fire – their punishment was to be annihilation.  These leaders did not teach of an immortal soul to be tortured by fire in hell for eternity.

About AD 240 Tertullian of Carthage took up the teaching of an immortal soul. It was he who added the further, but logical dimension. He taught the endless torment of the immortal soul of the wicked was parallel to the eternal blessedness of the saved, with no sleep of death after this life.

This came at a time when many Christians were being burned for their faith and it was natural for them to accept that their persecutors would at death be consigned to an ever-burning hell for the persecution they had inflicted on others while they went straight to eternal bliss.

From the third century the darkness of the infiltration of man-made beliefs into Christianity deepened until the Dark Ages had smothered almost all the light of God’s Word. At the beginning of this time, the first attempts were made to create a systematic set of beliefs. It is not surprising that an ever-burning hell and the immortality of the soul were prominently included.

It is at this time that such beliefs, held by most Christians today, had their origin. An ever-burning hell has remained a commonly taught doctrine of the Christian religion to this day. It was not based on the Bible but on philosophy. Bible verses were later sought to uphold the ancient philosophies of the Greeks, and added to the teaching.

Eventually under the influence of Augustine, AD 430, the concept of endless conscious torment was brought into general acceptance by the Catholic Church in the Western world. He taught that all souls were deathless and consequently the lost would experience endless fires of punishment, immediately upon the end of this life.

Doesn’t everlasting fire mean that hell will be burning ceaselessly and eternally?

There are some Bible verses that may appear to say that. Let us look at some of these verses. ( From: How long does hell burn for? | Bibleinfo.com)

Everlasting” Bible texts

In Matthew 25:46, Jesus said, “These shall go away into everlasting punishment but the righteous into eternal life.”

Mark 9:43, “And if your hand makes you sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched.”

Revelation 14:11, “And the smoke of their torment ascends up forever and ever.”

Other Bible texts

Before we make a Bible doctrine from these verses, we need to see if there are other verses that speak of the punishment of the wicked.

First let us go to Malachi 4:1,3. “For behold the day is coming burning like and oven, and all the proud, yes all who do wickedly shall be as stubble. And the day that is coming shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, that shall leave them neither root nor branch. . . You shall trample the wicked for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet.”

These verses tell us that the wicked will be burned up, burned to ashes.

In another place the Bible says in Psalms 37:10, 11, “For yet a little while and the wicked shall be no more; Indeed, you will look diligently for his place, but it shall be no more.”

Jude 7 makes this subject very plain. “As Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them in a similar manner, having given themselves over to sexually immorality and gone after strange flesh,  are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.” Sodom and Gomorrah are not burning today, yet the Bible says they suffered the vengeance of eternal fire. How can this be explained? It means that these cities were completely burned, until there was nothing left.

What does everlasting mean?

There is another way to determine the meaning of the word eternal or everlasting.

In English these words mean that the fire will go on forever, but in the Greek it has a different meaning. Dr. Basil Atkinson explains it this way. 

“When the adjective aionios,  meaning  everlasting is used in Greek  with nouns of action it has reference to the result of the act, not the process. The phrase everlasting punishment  is comparable to everlasting redemption and everlasting salvation, both Scriptural phrases. No one supposes that we are being redeemed or saved forever. We were redeemed and saved once for all by Christ with eternal results. In the same way the lost will not be passing through the process of punishment forever but will be punished  once and for all with eternal results. On the other hand the noun ‘life’ is not a noun of action, but a noun expressing a state. Thus life itself is eternal.”

God is love

The Bible says, God is love, 1 John 4:8. God loves His enemies. As the soldiers were nailing Jesus to the cross, He prayed, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do (Luke 23:34). As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways!  For why should you die, O house of Israel (Ezekiel 33:11).

God cannot allow sin, crime and violence to continue to cause suffering and death in this world. But He is not one to torture His children. So He does the most loving thing He can do, He destroys them eternally. The Bible says, “he will make an utter end: affliction shall not rise up the second time” (Nahum 1: 9).

Myths About Hell.

Myths About Hell – Publishing (adventistpublishing.org)

Interestingly, the Bible gives us explicit information on when hell would begin and where it would be located. As you might have guessed, misconceptions abound on these two points. In Matthew 13:49 Jesus speaks plainly saying, “So shall it be at the end of this world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”* According to this text and many others like it,(1) the flames of hell will not exist until the end of the world. That’s right! Your loved ones are not being burned alive as you read this tract.

Next, we see that the apostle Peter gives us clear information on where hell will be located. Speaking of the end of the world he says, “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.”(2) The prophet Zephaniah also speaks of, “the whole land,” being “devoured by the fire of His jealousy.”(3) Here we see that hell is not some giant chasm of flames in the center of the earth; rather, it will be located right here on earth at the end of the world devouring “the whole land.”

Perhaps the most important thing to understand about hell can be found in the famous text John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Here Jesus clearly states that it is the believers who are the ones that live eternally, not the wicked. What!? The wicked don’t live eternally writhing in flames? Correct!

The wicked are to burn only until there is nothing left to burn. Malachi brings this point out well: “For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, and all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn them up,”(4) In fact, just so we could be sure that he was speaking literally about the utter destruction of the wicked he goes on to say, “’You shall trample the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day that I do this,’ says the Lord of hosts.”(4) Also, not only will the wicked be destroyed completely in the flames of hell but so will Satan and his wicked angels according to Matt. 25:41 and Rev. 20:10. Contrary to popular belief, God plans to destroy the forces of darkness, not put them in charge of an eternal fire pit in the center of the earth!

But some might say that there are other texts like Rev. 14:11 and 20:10 which point out that the wicked burn eternally. Well, the Bible also says that the prophet Samuel would abide before the Lord in the sanctuary forever,(5) and that the bars of the earth closed about Jonah forever(6) when he was thrown into the sea. Now it is clear from scripture itself that neither of these events lasted forever. What we see here are two examples of the Bible using the term, “forever” to mean a time of indefinite duration where the beginning and ending of that time depend on the nature of the person, circumstance, or thing to which it is applied. An example in our day which is similar is when a man and woman commit to their marriage vow forever. When they do so, the term “forever” simply means as “long as they live.” So how do we know how long “forever” is for those burning in hell? Simple: other passages on the topic explain that “forever” in this instance means until the wicked are utterly consumed. Context is key!

“The LORD preserves all who love Him, but all the wicked He will destroy.” Psalm 145:20

Faith to Forgive.

Sycamore Tree in Israel.

One of my problems in reading the Bible is that I take many things Jesus said as being literal. The disciples had this problem too. When Jesus said to sell your cloak and buy a sword, it sounded like advice to have a sword in case people persecuted you. But this flies in the face of the other things Jesus said about turning the cheek and loving your enemies.

Most commentators of the Bible say Jesus was not being literal. And I believe they are right since when Peter cut off the ear of one of the men who came to arrest Jesus, Jesus healed the man and told Peter not to use the sword.

Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary:

 “At the time the apostles understood Christ to mean real weapons, but he spoke only of the weapons of the spiritual warfare. The sword of the Spirit is the sword with which the disciples of Christ must furnish themselves.” 

 Whenever I would read what Jesus said about moving a mountain into the sea if we had enough faith, I would wonder what he really meant. Then I read someone say the mountain represented difficulties in our lives. They said in the Old Testament, mountains represented difficulties, and that made sense.

Today, I was reading Luke 17 and Jesus spoke about the Sycamore or Mulberry tree. He said, “If you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this sycamore tree, ‘May you be uprooted and thrown into the sea and it would obey you.’”

He said this in answer to his disciples who had asked him, “Increase our faith.” And they asked him to do this after he had spoken about forgiveness, the kind of forgiveness they thought impossible for them.

“Take heed to yourselves; if your brother sins against you, rebuke him, and if he repent, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn to you, you shall forgive him.”

So, uprooting a sycamore tree is impossible for anyone to do; therefore, if you think it is impossible for you to forgive over and over, you are wrong. Faith in God will make it possible for you.

This is what I read in some commentaries this morning:

Pulpit Commentary

“The Lord signifies that a very slight real faith, which he compares to the mustard seed, that smallest of grains, would be of power sufficient to accomplish what seemed to them impossible. In other words, he says, “If you have any real faith at all, you will be able to win the victory over yourselves necessary for a perpetual loving judgement of others.”

Barne’s Notes on the Bible

“This sycamore is a remarkable tree. It not only bears several crops of figs during the year but these figs grow on short stems along the trunk and large branches, and not at the end of twigs, as in other fruit-bearing trees. The figs are small and of a greenish-yellow color.

It is easily propagated, merely by planting a stout branch in the ground and watering it until it has struck its roots into the soil. This it does with great rapidity and to a vast depth. It was with reference to this latter fact that our Lord selected it to illustrate the power of faith.”

Thinking of all this reminds me of the fires of hell preachers talk about. I believe the fire is symbolic of something else. What would be the point of God burning people who are lost? Punishement? Punishment is supposed to be restorative. Actual, physical burning? I don’t think so. Being burned is very painful, and I think when the wicked realize they are lost, it is like a burning in their soul. A terrible pain in their heart at seeing what they have given up because they loved darkness rather than light.

What Would You Think?

What would you think if I told you I keep a dog chained up in my basement? I feed him and keep him alive, but every day I go down and burn him with a hot poker. What would be your opinion on what kind of person I am?

Yet, most Christians believe God does that  to human beings in a place they call Hell.

I wonder how many atheists are atheists because of this doctrine?  Why would anyone want to worship or love a being who would do that to an animal, never mind people. But when I tell people I don't believe in a hell like this, most Christians are deeply offended. As if this belief is a cherished one!

I was raised in a church that taught us death is a sleep until either Jesus resurrects us and takes us to heaven, or a sleep until Jesus raises us for the judgement and we will be told why we are lost. This is a teaching from the Bible I can live with and then love and admire God for his wisdom and mercy.

I have read the teaching of eternal torment in hell originated with the Greeks. Christians adopted it around 200 years after Jesus went back to heaven. Augustine taught this and it was incorporated into the Catholic Church. They later added Purgatory as a stop-off place to be purged of your sins. You could pray or buy your relatives out of purgatory.

So, that is the history of an eternal  hell of torment for the wicked. There are a very few verses in the Bible where people could get this teaching, but the vast majority of verses in the Bible about death call it a sleep or unconscious state.

And do those who love God go straight to heaven when they die? No, they also sleep. Jesus himself called death a sleep. Before he raised Lazarus from the dead, Jesus said to his friends, "I go to wake him out of his sleep." The disciples argued that if Lazarus was sleeping he would recover. But Jesus then said plainly, "Lazarus is dead."  John 11.

Now, Jesus didn't say, "Lazarus has died, gone to heaven, and I'm going to call him back from heaven." No, because Lazarus wasn't in heaven. The Bible says when Jesus died, many of the saints were raised. They went around Jerusalem telling the people about Jesus. The Bible doesn't tell us who these people were; it just says they were raised from the dead. It doesn't say they came back from heaven and walked around. "The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many." Matthew 27:52,53 Perhaps John the Baptist was in that group. People would have recognized him!

When Jairus' daughter died, Jesus called it a sleep. "And when he had entered, he said to them, “Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping.” Mark 5:39

"Consider and answer me, O LORD my God; Enlighten my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death..." Psalm 13:3

"You have swept them away like a flood, they fall asleep; In the morning they are like grass which sprouts anew."  Psalm 90:5

"But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 4:13,14

"He died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him." 1 Thess. 5:10

God said, "When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom." 2 Samuel 7:12

"Consider and answer me, O LORD my God; Enlighten my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death..." Psalm 13:3

"But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!" Jude 1:9
Moses was raised with his body. His "spirit" didn't fly up to heaven. God raises the dead when he wants to and who he wants to. Moses was probably raised before many other people but most will be raised when Jesus comes back.

As for the word, "eternal" or "forever" in the Bible, it does not mean what we think it means. There are many sites that explain this. I've put one of them below. The "everlasting" fire of hell means, "until it is done." If you google this topic you can read what other scholars say about it.

http://www.goodnewsaboutgod.com/studies/forever2.htm

Well, I could tackle the few verses that seem to say hell is a place of torment without end and what Jesus' parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man meant, but I'd have to write a book. I'll just add a few more verses and ask you to have an open mind and study this topic for yourself if you are interested.

"You will tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day which I am preparing," says the LORD of hosts." Malachi 4:3

"... he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.
And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever; they have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name." Rev. 14:10

The wicked will be destroyed at the judgement day in front of God and the angels - not in some pit somewhere underground.

Speaking of his judgement on the nations, God says "It will not be quenched night or day; Its smoke will go up forever. From generation to generation it will be desolate; None will pass through it forever and ever." Isaiah 34: 10  

But the world will not burn forever - in our idea of what forever means, because God says in Revelation that one day this earth will be the home of the City of God - the Holy City will come down here from heaven. God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit and the angels will live among us, therefore the world cannot be on fire forever.