WHAT
THEN ABOUT HELL?
In
the Old Testament the only word translated by the English
word “Hell” is “Sheol.” This word
“Sheol” is used in the Old Testament 65 times.
In 34 places it is translated “Grave” and “Pit,”
in 31 places it is translated “Hell,” and in
3 of the 31 places, Ps. 55:15, Ps. 86:13, and Isa. 14:9,
the margin explains that “Grave” is meant. While
in the other 29 the words “Grave” or “Pit”
would make better sense than the word “Hell”
with its generally understood meaning.
SOME TEXTS WHERE SHEOL IS TRANSLATED HELL.
For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto
the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase,
and set on fire the foundations of the mountains. (Deut.
32:22)
The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations
that forget God. (Ps. 9:17)
The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell
gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow. (Ps. 116:3)
If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my
bed in hell, behold, thou art there. (Ps. 139:8)
Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.
(Prov. 5:5)
Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers
of death. (Prov. 7:27)
Hell and destruction are before the LORD: how much more
then the hearts of the children of men? (Prov. 15:11)
Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his
soul from hell. (Prov. 23:14)
Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death,
and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing
scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for
we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we
hid ourselves:
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion
for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner
stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make
haste. Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness
to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge
of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your
agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing
scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down
by it. (Isa. 28:15-18)
“In the New Testament, the Greek word hades corresponds
exactly to the Hebrew word sheol. As proof see the quotations
of the Apostles from the Old Testament, in which they render
it hades. For instance, Acts 2:27, ‘Thou wilt not
leave my soul in hades,’ is a quotation from Psa.
16:10, ‘Thou wilt not leave my soul in sheol.’”
SOME
TEXTS WHERE HADES IS TRANSLATED HELL
And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon
this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it. (Matt. 16:18)
And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt
be brought down to hell: … (Matt. 11:23)
And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and
seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. (Luke
16:23)
Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt
thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. (Acts 2:27)
I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive
for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.
(Rev. 1:18)
And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that
sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power
was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to
kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with
the beasts of the earth. (Rev. 6:8)
And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death
and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they
were judged every man according to their works. And death
and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second
death. (Rev. 20:13,14)
“The Greek word tartaroo occurs but once in the New
Testament, and is translated hell. It is found in”
For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them
down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness,
to be reserved unto judgment; (2 Pet. 2:4)
“The word tartaroo, used by Peter, very closely resembles
tartarus, a word used in Grecian mythology as the name for
a dark abyss or prison. But the word tartaroo seems to refer
more to an act than to a place. The fall of the angels who
sinned was from honor and dignity, into dishonor and condemnation,
and the thought seems to be — ‘God spared not
the angels who sinned, but degraded them, and delivered
them into chains of darkness.’”
“There is one more Greek word used in the New Testament
which is translated by our English word ‘Hell,’
the word ‘Gehenna.’ It is the Grecian mode of
spelling the Hebrew words which are translated ‘the
Valley of Hinnom.’ This valley lay just outside the
city of Jerusalem, and served the purpose of sewer and garbage
burner to that city. The offal, garbage, etc., were emptied
there, and fires were kept continually burning to consume
utterly all things deposited therein, brimstone being added
to assist combustion and insure complete destruction. But
a living thing was never cast into gehenna. The Jews were
not permitted to torture any creature.”
So, then, gehenna was a type or illustration of the second
death
— final and complete destruction, from which there
can be no recovery; for after that, “there remaineth
no more sacrifice for sins,” but only “fiery
indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.”
(Heb. 10:26,27)
TEXTS
WHERE GEHENNA IS TRANSLATED HELL
And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able
to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy
both soul and body in hell. (Matt. 10:28)
But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which
after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea,
I say unto you, Fear him. (Luke 12:5)
But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother
without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and
whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger
of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall
be in danger of hell fire. (Matt. 5:22)
And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast
it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of
thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should
be cast into hell. (Matt. 5:30)
And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it
from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with
one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell
fire. (Matt. 18:9)
And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for
thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to
go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched:
Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.
And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for
thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be
cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched:
Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.
And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better
for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye,
than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire: Where their
worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. (Mark 9:43-48)
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye
compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he
is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than
yourselves. (Matt. 23:15)
Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape
the damnation of hell? (Matt. 23:33)
And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the
tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body,
and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set
on fire of hell. (James 3:6)
Perhaps no other scriptures are so frequently quoted in
support of the doctrine of a Hell of eternal suffering as
Luke 16:19-31.
THE
PARABLE OF DIVES AND LAZARUS (Luke 16:19)
“While this is admitted to be a parable, it is generally
treated as if it were a literal statement. To regard it
as a literal statement involves several absurdities; for
instance, that the rich man went to hades because he had
enjoyed many earthly blessings and gave nothing but crumbs
to Lazarus. Not a word is said about his wickedness. Again,
Lazarus is blessed, not because he was good, or full of
faith in God, but simply because he was poor and sick.”
“If this be interpreted literally, the only lesson
to be logically drawn from it is that unless we are poor
beggars full of sores, we will never enter into future bliss;
and that if now we wear any fine linen and purple, and have
plenty to eat every day, we are sure of future torment.”
“Again, the coveted place of favor is Abraham’s
bosom; and if the whole statement is literal, the bosom
must be literal, and surely would not hold very many of
earth’s millions of sick and poor.”
“But why consider absurdities? As a parable, it is
easy of interpretation. In a parable, the thing said is
never the thing meant; as, for instance, in the parable
of the wheat and tares, the Lord explained that wheat meant
children of the kingdom, and tares the children of the devil;
and similar classes in another parable were represented
by sheep and goats. So in this parable, the rich man must
represent a class, and Lazarus another class; and the parable
as a lesson applies to these classes.”
“The Rich Man (Dives) represented the Jewish people,
which up to, and at the time of the parable ‘fared
sumptuously,’ as the special recipients of God’s
favors and promises. As Paul said, the Jews had ‘much
advantage every way, chiefly, because to them were committed
the oracles of God’ (the Law and the Prophets). The
promises to Abraham and David invested that people with
royalty, as represented by the rich man’s ‘purple.’
The typical sacrifices of the law constituted them, in a
typical sense, a ‘holy nation,’ represented
by the rich man’s ‘fine linen’ —symbolic
of righteousness.” (Rev. 19:8)
“The Poor Man (Lazarus) represented the God- fearing
people of other nations, debarred, until the close of the
Jewish Age, from those blessings conferred upon Israel specially.
As the linen represented Israel’s justification, so
the sores represented moral defilement in this class, for
whose justification no sin offering had at that time been
made. They were not even typically cleansed, and had as
yet no share in the rich promises of the kingdom, the ‘purple.’
They were, on the contrary, outcasts, strangers from Israel’s
favors. (Eph. 2:11-13)
As to how these ate of the ‘crumbs’ of divine
favor which fell from Israel’s table of bounties,
and how they accounted themselves as companions of ‘dogs,’
the Lord’s conversation with the Syro-Phoenician woman,
who was one of this class, explains.” (See Matt. 15:27)
“But there came a change to both of these classes.
The ‘rich man’ (the Jewish nation) died, ceased
to exist as a nation, and as the national representatives
of God’s favors, when those favors were taken from
them (Matt. 21:43) and given to some, formerly outcasts.”
“The ‘rich man’ class was cast out of
favor, into trouble. And from then till now, the Jews as
a people have been in torment; yet are hindered by their
law prejudices (as a great gulf) from accepting of Christ.
The ‘Lazarus’ class also died, or ceased from
their former condition, and were received into the favor
of God.” (Acts 10:28-35)
Accepting
Christ, these thenceforth were received to Abraham’s
bosom—that is, they were accepted as the true children
of believing Abraham, and the true heirs of the promise
made to him.” (See Gal. 3:16,29; Rom. 11:7-9,12-25)
