The REAL Hell
The Greek word gehenna denotes a place of punishment. Gehenna, or the Valley of Hinnom, is a place just outside Jerusalem where trash, filth and dead bodies were thrown to be burned up. It was a city dump and there was always a fire burning to consume the refuse that was thrown there. Jesus Christ and the disciples and apostles after Him used this word consistently when they were referring to that "hell" which will BURN UP sinners! Gehenna-hell is a synonym for the lake of fire into which the unrepentant dead are to be cast at the end of time. This is the only hell in the Bible which is associated with flames or fire. No inner caverns in the bowels of the earth are mentioned. No ice-filled rooms where people's feet are sticking out and being tickled by demented spirits are talked about in God's Word in reference to this gehenna-hell. It is never described as a fire in which the damned live, but a fire in which the damned DIE!
To explain the usage of the two basic words used in the Greek language and translated "hell" in the English language in the King James Version: "And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second DEATH. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire" (Rev. 20:14-15). The word translated "hell" in Verse 14 is hades, the grave. The grave itself and those which are not found written in the book of life are going to be cast into the lake of fire — gehenna-hell. This will empty the grave — hades-hell — and it will cease to exist — no dead will ever again be buried in the grave. They will be burned up.
Those who refuse to live by God's law, who insist on rebelling against the way of life that God knows brings happiness, health and peace, are going to be cast bodily into this gehenna-hell, the lake of fire, to terminate their miserable existence, to put them out of their misery, to END their life!
Why Does God Use Gehenna-Hell?
God's plan of salvation is a 7000-year plan. For 6000 years of this time God has allowed mankind to go his way, under the influence of his own mind and directed also by the mind of Satan the Devil. Man has tried every way he can think of to govern himself to bring peace, happiness, health, prosperity, but has failed miserably! Down through the ages God has selected some few whom He called out of this world to realize His plan of salvation, to repent of their ways which are contrary to His laws, and to change their way of life to agree with God.
When Jesus Christ returns to this earth in the very next few years, He will for the first time in mankind's history set His hand to save the whole world — that is, all people who are alive on the earth at that time. He will offer them the same salvation that He has in the past only offered to a few whom He has called out of the world. Then, at the close of a thousand years of this reign, all of those who have ever died, but never had a chance to know the True Jesus and His true Gospel message, will be resurrected and given their ONE opportunity to obey and by the strength of God's Holy Spirit enter into His Kingdom!
At one time or another every man who has ever existed will stand with his mind open and his understanding clear to live a life of overcoming with God's Spirit and endeavor to enter into His Kingdom.
There have been, and there will be, however, some few who will utterly REBEL against doing God's will — who will set their wills against obedience to His laws so completely that nothing can be done with them. These will be the individuals God refers to in His Word as those who have committed the UNPARDONABLE SIN!
God in His mercy has planned that these individuals should be completely done away with — made to CEASE TO EXIST! It is set down very plainly: "For the wages of sin [the transgression of God's law, living contrary to the very nature of life itself] is DEATH [the cessation of life]" (Rom. 6:23).
Lest anyone should question what God meant by this, He firmly stated: "Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: THE SOUL THAT SINNETH, IT SHALL DIE" (Ezek. 18:4). Regarding this to be of utmost importance, God was not satisfied with stating it once but restated it so that there would be no question that He did not mean just the body and not the soul, but very firmly reaffirmed, "THE SOUL THAT SINNETH, IT SHALL DIE" (Ezek. 18:20).
God's promise to all people is life or death! Not life or life!
God realizes that men are weak, that they are subject to vanity — He created them that way! He has not devised this lake of fire in order to torture human beings, but only to rid them once and for all from off the face of the earth — to do away with their lives. Knowing that they cannot continue to live the way they want to live, but that they would only bring misery and pain and suffering on themselves throughout eternity if He allowed them to live, God mercifully puts an end to their life. And even in this act God is NOT pleased. "For I have NO PLEASURE in the death of him that dieth" (Ezek. 18:32). God does not want anyone to be thrown into this lake of fire! But those who insist on living contrary to the laws of life are going to be mercifully snuffed from existence by this method.
"For if we sin willfully AFTER that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain FEARFUL looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall DEVOUR the adversaries" (Heb. 10:26-27).
Therefore we see from God's Word that hell fire is NOT held over the head of every individual to force him into accepting Jesus Christ as his personal Savior — it is NOT a threat of pain and eternal punishing that the Merciful and All-Powerful Eternal God is levying against those who refuse to hear His Gospel — but a final judgment, a doing-away-with the individuals who reject Him AFTER they have received a knowledge of His truth.
The time when the REAL fear of a REAL hell fire comes on an individual is AFTER he has sinned willfully against the knowledge of God's truth that has been opened to his mind!
How Hell Fire Works!
Long ago God set an example in His Word of what this fire is like, how it works, and what the result, of it is. "Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an EXAMPLE, suffering vengeance of ETERNAL FIRE" (Jude 7). Sodom and Gomorrah, the two sinful cities in the valley of the Jordan by the Dead Sea suffered, as you can read the account in Genesis 19, from a great fire that fell from heaven consuming everything it fell upon. All the people in those cities were burned to death. The cities themselves were consumed and ARE NOT THERE for us to see today!
But they are NOT STILL BURNING! They have suffered as an EXAMPLE of the vengeance of eternal fire.
THEY ARE BURNED UP. The eternity of this fire is its everlasting effect!
God explains that this is going to be exactly the penalty for those who insist on disobedience to Him. "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 ye [those who become the Sons of God in His Kingdom] shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ASHES under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts" (Mal. 4:1, 3).
When physical bodies come into contact with flame they burn up! David very graphically describes this in the Psalms. "But the wicked shall PERISH, and the enemies of the Lord shall be as THE FAT OF LAMBS: THEY SHALL CONSUME; INTO SMOKE SHALL THEY CONSUME AWAY" (Ps. 37:20).
Yes, that is what GOD says! Very plain and easy to understand! There is no mystery about it, no strange fire that burns forever and yet does not consume anything. No sadistic God on high who desires to execute pain on a human body forever because of sins committed over a period of a few years. Only a loving God Who, after offering a human being His Very Own Spirit and Mind and Power determines to it that individual out of his misery when that simple human being finally rebels against his Creator and refuses to hear any of His advice and to use any of His power.
There is a very real hell fire — a very real pain — a very real DEATH! "He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son [born into the very Kingdom of God — this is the purpose of life, the plan of creation from the beginning, the reason why you draw breath now]. But the fearful, the unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolators, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone [gehenna-hell]: which is [by GOD'S own interpretation, NOT by the imagination of mankind] the SECOND DEATH" (Rev. 21:7-8).
Whom You Really Need to Fear!
God offers salvation, not suffering! You do not need to fear men's imaginations. You do not need to fear the unreasoning tortures of an ever-burning hell, but you Do need to have a healthy respect for the One Individual in all creation Who is able to save you from being BURNED UP in a lake of fire-gehenna-hell — and grant you LIFE FOREVER with Him in His Kingdom!
"And fear not them which kill the body [those who kill and execute God's chosen people, making them martyrs because they believe the truth of God], but are not able to kill the soul [in Luke's account the word is "life"]: but rather FEAR HIM [fear God, not hell or the Devil] which IS ABLE TO DESTROY both soul and body in [gehenna] hell" (Matt. 10:28).
Do not fear the imaginations of ignorant men's minds. Do not fear that the Devil will plunge you into torture for eternity. But do begin to see how powerful and loving and reasonable and true your Creator really is. Begin to have that respect and awe — that proper fear, respect and honor due to the greatest Power in the universe — that fear that is the beginning of wisdom, not the beginning of terror.
Seek this God of truth; believe His Word, and His Word ONLY! Ask of this great God and He will grant to you the Spirit of love and of power and of a SOUND MIND!