I received a tract from a reader entitled: "No Eternal Burning In Hell." He said he only learned this a few years ago. But he has made many grave mistakes in his study. It seems strange that most of the verses he refers to do not even mention the word "hell." For one to learn about "hell" he must search the passages that speak about hell.
The word "hell" is sometimes translated from the Greek word Hades and according to Thayer's Greek English Lexicon, means: "the place of departed souls" or "the grave." But the word we need to study is translated from the Greek gehenna. The writer of the tract says that this word means: "the place of the dead, but denotes a retribution for evil deeds, and the retribution will be God denying the unrighteous eternal life in heaven. That will be an awful punishment." He contradicts that by saying: "Sin leads to death of the soul, and there is no life in death, and without life, the soul ceases to exist." How can there be "awful punishment" if the soul ceases to exist at death? "So there will not be any unrighteous souls to suffer torment of fire for ever and ever, as some teach".
The Bible nowhere teaches that the only "retribution will be God denying the unrighteous eternal life in heaven." The Greek word gehenna is defined by Mr. Thayer: "The place in Hades where the wicked after death will suffer punishment." Sixteen times Jesus used that word and each time in the KJV it is translated "hell." In some of those verses he referred to it as "hell fire." In Rev. 21:8, it says the wicked "shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone." That seems like a very strange way for the Lord to describe a place that will not be used.
In Luke chapter 16, we read of the rich man and Lasarus. In verse 23 it makes reference to the rich man "in hell...being in torment." In verse 28 the rich man says that he has "five brethren" that he didn't want to "come into this place of torment." Mr. Thayer defines the word "torment" used in these two verses as a place "of the torment of the wicked after death." Note what the rich man said: "Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame"(v 24). Mr. Thayer says the word "tormented," means: "to cause intense pain; to be in anguish, be tormented."
Then in verse 26 Abraham says that "between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us that would come from thence." Some say this is only a parable. But that wouldn't change one thing, because parables are always based upon truth. If the soul ceases to exist at death, as the writer claims, who could explain these verses?
The writer states that to interpret the scriptures to mean that the wicked will burn in hell "contradicts every scripture in the Bible on the subject of love." But he overlooks other scriptures. "For our God is a consuming fire" (Heb 12:29). "Then shall he say unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels" (Matt.25:41). "And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes" (Luke 12:47-48). Ignorance is no excuse. "I tell you, Nay: but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish" (Luke 13:3).
"If any man speak let him speak as the oracles of God" (I Pet. 4:11).
Don H. Noblin
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