The Truth About Hell
There was a moment when the majority of people believed smoking was good for you. Doctors promoted it, ads shared the benefits of it, but then that all came crashing down.
How is it that sometimes the mass majority says something and then we find out later it’s not true.
The majority of Christians today believe there is a place of fire where bad, mean or ‘evil’ people are being burned and tortured – they call it hell. But what if this concept is not true and even worse – not even in the bible?
Revelation 1:18
I [a]was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hell.
Jesus oversees Hell – but what hell is may not be what we’ve always thought.
If Jesus is the creator of all things, did He create hell?
"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
Jesus, the Creator, says that ‘hell’ has been prepared for the devil and his angels. Notice it was never created for anyone else besides those who rebelled against the law of heaven.
A Barna poll indicated that 76% of Americans believed in Heaven and 71% believed in Hell.
What is hell?
The concept of hell does originate in the Bible. Here are a few verses that talk about hell.
Revelation 21:8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
Matthew 25:46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
2 Thessalonians 1:9 Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;
Matthew 13:50 And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Psalm 9:17 The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.
Hell is equated with destruction and punishment. It is not necessarily a place. There are examples of the usage of ‘eternal fire’ many times in the Bible. But none of these are referring to eternally burning of someone or something. So there is something else going on here.
Jude 1:7
In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.
One question to ask about eternal fire is – are Sodom and Gomorrah still burning today? If not, what fire is being spoken of? Another question or point is that fire by necessity needs fuel – otherwise it burns up something entirely until it dies out. If God keeps people burning, then he is providing the fuel which per other points in this study doesn’t equate with the character of a loving God.
To build on the point of fire burning something up especially the wicked, notice Malachi 4:1:
Mal_4:1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
And also note, Revelation 20:10---- also touching on fire completely devouring something.
Rev 20:9 And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
So where did the idea of an actual place where people are being burned and tortured come from?
Sadly – the church made it up.
Why you ask?
Have you ever heard the expression ‘power corrupts but absolute power corrupts absolutely’.
When the church left the teaching of scripture as was predicted in the prophecies of Daniel, she began to resort to force rather than the love of God.
We are told that the love of money is the root of all evil.
One of the ways to motivate people to give money in the dark ages was to scare them with the teaching of eternal torment – that God took pleasure in torturing people in fire for as long as he liked. This led to the baptizing of babies at birth because all were deemed sinners and should fear this fire.
It led to a grand marketing and sales effort by the church. It led to the sale of indulgences which were free passes or certificates out of ‘purgatory’ or hell. Purgatory was told to be like a middle place, a waiting room to determine if you would go to heaven or hell. None of this finds any truth in scripture.
If God tortures people forever for choosing their own way aka sinning, do you think you would do that to someone that did something bad?
If we all had a guy in our city who tortured prisoners every single day, we would eventually say “ok that’s enough, they have been punished, stop torturing them.” So in that scenario, we would have more mercy than the God of mercy. Does that make sense?
But this scare tactic based in Rome, was the tool used to fund the building of St. Peter’s Basilica led by Pope Leo X. This began to be a huge funding source to the Christian economy. Now you can see why Martin Luther’s message of justification by faith and how anyone could freely access heaven and gain forgiveness for your sins and not suffer in hell but be saved for paradise. He was disrupting the whole economy.
One author put it like this – “Now the prince of darkness, working through his agents,represents God as a revengeful tyrant, declaring that He plunges into hell all those who do not please Him, and causes them ever to feel His wrath; and that while they suffer unutterable anguish and writhe in the eternal flames, their Creator looks down upon them with
satisfaction.”
Another said it like this “In my mind the justice of God eclipsed His mercy and love.
The mental anguish I passed through at this time was very great. I had been taught to believe in an eternally burning hell; and as I thought of the wretched state of the sinner without God, without hope, I was in deep despair. I feared that I should be lost, and that I should live throughout eternity suffering a living death. The horrifying thought was ever before me, that my sins were too great to be forgiven, and that I should be forever lost.”
It is beyond the power of the human mind to estimate the evil which has been wrought by the heresy of eternal torment. The religion of the Bible, full of love and goodness, and abounding in compassion, is darkened by superstition and clothed with terror. When we consider in what false colors Satan has painted the character of God, can we wonder that our merciful Creator is feared, dreaded, and even hated? The appalling views of God which have spread over the world from the teachings of the pulpit have made thousands, yes, millions, of skeptics and infidels.
Either God is good or He is not. This is the decision we must make.
The Bible is clear that we don’t just pass into another realm upon death but instead we sleep in the ground awaiting a resurrection. The resurrection does not happen until a judgment has been thoroughly reviewed.
And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened:
and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out
of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. -Revelation 20:12
And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of
fire. - Revelation 20:15
And the smoke of their torment ascends up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receives the mark of his name. -Revelation 14:11
As we mentioned earlier, when God punishes it is forever but it is not keeping people alive to torture them. They will be destroyed in a moment and don’t think for a second this will be a good day in God’s eyes. Souls He created and died for are lost because they did not choose to be saved, not because He did not want them to be saved.
He loved the world so much that He gave his only son so that none should be lost and that whoever believes in Him will be saved. – John 3:16
Hell was never prepared for anyone but the devil and his angels. You have to now decide how knowing this changes your relationship and perspective of God.