What I have to say on this topic may go beyond the scope of posting on this thread. If anyone wants to know more biblical proof that the traditional view of hell and the immortality of the soul is false, send me a message and we can dialogue.
The Bible does not support going to a fiery hell at death. This has occurred because of the mistranslation of the English word "hell" to represent 3 different hells in the Bible. The belief that when a wicked person dies, his "soul" goes to hell and he burns for eternity is a midieval amalgamation of three different hells into one hell. There are four words used in the scriptures which are wrongly translated " hell". They are Sheol, Hades, Gehenna and Tartarus.
Sheol - All OT texts in the scriptures use the word Sheol where we see hell. Sheol is translated the 'pit' or grave. ALL people went to Sheol whether good or bad.
a. The Nature of Sheol
The OT which uses only Sheol for our translation "hell", shows that there is no consciousness in Sheol. In Sheol there is no consciousness (Ecclesiastes 9:5,6). When one dies, both body and soul (life) dies and awaits resurrection.
“Whatsoever they hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might; for there is not work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in hell (Sheol) wither thou goest†- Ecclesiastes 9:10
“For the living know that they shall die, but the dead know not any thing. Neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion forever in anything that is done under the sun†- Ecclesiastes 9:5.6
“So man lieth down and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep....Oh that thou would hide me in Sheol (the grave)...If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change come†- Job 14:12, 13a, 14 (see also 1 Corinthians 15:51-56 for the NT reference of this event)
“The dead praise not the Lord, nor any that go down into silence†- Psalms 115:17
Notice that going to hell when man dies applies to both the righteous and the wicked. To all man. This cannot mean the burning hell that everyone thinks.
Hades The only Greek word that could convey the meaning of Sheol in the Greek was Hades. It is used in 11 places in the NT and conveys again the same meaning as Sheol. Sheol is the Hebrew word for the "abode of the dead", and Hades is it's Greek equivalent. These words mean "the grave".
In only one place in the scripture does it seem otherwise (in the parable of the Rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16 which will be looked at later). Many see the texts using Hades and interpret it as a fiery torment because there is only one word used to translate Hades: hell. Some texts that use Hades are Matthew 10:28, Luke 10:15, Acts 2:31 (which by quoting an OT passage directly links Hades and Sheol as the same thing).
Gehenna – Comes from the name of the burning pit outside of Jerusalem, the Valley of Hinnom, where bodies were burned. This was a place of absolute abhorrence and destruction to the Jews. Imagery such as "the worm dieth not†and the “fire is not quenched" came from the descriptions of the Valley of Hinnom. This was used by Christ many times in the NT to show the similarities of Gehenna at the end of time to what the disciples were familiar with in their time. He used this analogy to show the horror and nastiness of it all and that the end fires were a place of total destruction, not eternal torment. The texts that use Gehenna are from where most people get the idea of fiery torment from. However, Gehenna is NOT the same as Hades. You cannot take both words and amalgamate them into one meaning, which has been done with the English ‘hell’. These texts are used to describe the punishment AT THE END OF TIME not at death. Many have taken Hades and Gehenna to be the same thing i.e. When you die you go to hell (Hades) and burn forever in hell (Gehenna).
At death one goes to Hades (the grave), at the end of time, one receives Gehenna (eternal fire). (See Matthew 13:40-42, and Revelation 20:9,10 to see when one receives Gehenna).
Tatarus - Used only once in the Bible to show the realm of the demons beyond our dimension.
2 Peter 2:4 - For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell (Tatarus), and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment
There is reference to this place in Jude 6
And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, He hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgement of the great day.
The demons and Satan are not in a fiery pit, nor are they torturing sinners. Most likely, this place of “darkness they are chained to†is metaphorical for their banishment to this earth, but in a dimension that we cannot see (Tartarus). The Bible says that "Satan is a roaring lion roaming the earth, seeking whom he may devour". He is not underground in some fiery hell. His doom is met at the end of time as well. (See Revelation 20:9.10)
You see how the medieval concept and today’s concept of hell came about? The word 'hell' mushes them all together but they are not the same. Now we have this:
“When a sinner dies, he goes to hell. In hell he is tormented forever by Satan and his demons who are in hell.â€Â
Now substitute it with the real words and see if it makes sense:
When a sinner dies, he goes to Hades. In Gehenna he is tormented forever by Satan and his demons who are in Tatarus.
It doesn't make sense because they are totally unrelated. Here is how it should read:
When sinners die, they go to Hades or the grave where they are unconscious until the end where they will be resurrected and experience gehenna which will totally annihilate them. The demons who are residing in another dimension called Tatarus, will be cast into gehenna as well.
Any Christian who tries to hang on to the old belief of dying and experiencing burning fire at the hands of demons is fooling themselves and mocking the loving character of God.
Many Christians believe that the wicked will burn in hell for all eternity. some even believe that God and the saved watch with delight at the suffering! What damage this false belief has caused in turning people into atheists!
