Just as in my previous blogs about heaven, many people - including evangelical preachers - have misconceptions about hell. They think that 'eternal death' is 'eternal life in hell', the lost and wicked will forever be 'burning and suffering but the fire will never be quenched'. But think for a moment, is this what the Bible teaches about the person and character of God? Many wrongly assumed that because God is both a loving Father and one who punishes sin and the wicked, He is one who will send the lost and wicked to 'roast in hell forever'. Is our God one Who burns people for all eternity without ever burning them up? To me, that is a serious misreprecentation of the Person and character of God. Let us explore scriptures to find out the truth.
Most people are ignorant that the concept of an ever-burning hell originates primarily from pagan authors and poets, particularly Dante Alighieri's (1265-1321) famous work on Divine Comedy. This famous poet depicts life in paradise, purgatory and hell which in many aspects run counter to the teachings of the Bible. His view was a carry forward of the famous Greek philospher Plato about the concept of the immortality of the soul, which again is unbiblical.
If hell is a place of eternal suffering, then those who go there must also have eternal life! But the scripture from Romans 6:23 is clear, "For the wages of sin is DEATH, but the gift of God is ETERNAL LIFE in Christ Jesus our Lord". Similarly, John 3:16 says ' that whoever believes in Jesus should not perish but have eternal life'. It does not say, 'Should not suffer eternal life in hell or torment'. Let truth be told, the punishment of the wicked is death, not eternal life in a place of suffering or torment! But what then is 'death' ? Simply put, it means the absence of life, period.
Such confusion arises because many wrongly believe in the immortality of the human soul. But the Bible teaches that only God has an immortal soul (1 Timothy 6:15-16). Genesis 2:7 (King James) tells us 'that God formed man of the dust of the ground ... and man became a living soul'. In other words, men are souls as our forebear, Adam became a soul - he was not given a soul. The prophet Ezekiel understood this well, "The soul who sins shall die" (Ezek 18:4,20). Solomon in Ecclesiastes penned thus, "For the living know that they will die; but the dead know nothing" (Eccl 9:5). Hence, death is like sleeping (more like in comatose) with no consciousness of the passage of time and events (Psalm 146:4). So death is the CESSATION of LIFE, not leaving this life for a life in another place, at least not yet!
Consider the words of our Lord Jesus in Matthew 10:28, "And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him (God) who is able to destroy both SOUL and body in hell'. Physical bodies can die and be destroyed in various ways, but souls are destroyed by God in hell!
Job knew this full well when he wrote under the inspiration of God's Spirit, "If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait, till my change comes" (Job 14:14). He answered his own questions in Job 19:25-27, "For I know that my Redeemer lives, And He shall stand at last on the earth; And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, That in my flesh I shall see God, Whom I shall see for myself, And my eyes shall behold, and not another. How my heart yearns within me". Job knew that after death, he shall wait (sleeping/comatose) for his resurrection and then be born again into a new creation of spirit body (Job 14:14 ...till my CHANGE comes... see 1Corinthinas 15:51 & 52) to be forever with the Lord Jesus Christ ('my Redeemer' in Job 19:25) in the Kingdom of God on earth ('And He shall stand at last on the earth' Job 19:25) at His (Jesus Christ) call and I (Job) will answer (Job 14:15... see 1 Cor 15:52 -last trumpet). Similarly, in Daniel 12:13, the Angel Gabriel told prophet Daniel, "But you, go your way till the end ('end times' we are in right now), for you shall rest (sleep/comatose), and will arise (resurrect) to your inheritance (reward in the Kingdom of God - Super Government of God) at the end of the days (end of the church age).
We can also find such evidences in Psalm 6:5, "For in death there is No rememberance of You (God); In the grave who will give You thanks'. In Psalm 17:15 David wrote, 'as for me, I will see Your face in righteousness (only in the Kingdom of God is there righteousness - Romans 14:17); I shall be satisfied when I awake (resurrecttion) in Your likeness (born again new creation of spirit body that will live forever like our Lord Jesus Christ ... see 1 John 3:2). This is also echoed in Psalm 115:17, "The dead do not praise the Lord. Nor any one who go down into silence (death)". Such biblical evidences point to the truth contrary to popular misconceptions that the dead are either wailing or screaming in hell or praising God in heaven, as such scenarios cannot be considered as 'silence', these are absolutely false!
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