Most people believed that when a believer died in Christ, he/she will pop up in heaven. Whereas when an unbeliever died, he/she will be eternally burned and tortured in hell. But what most people did not know is that such teaching is pagan in origin and man-made and not the teaching of Scripture. So where does all the talk about heaven and hell come from? The answer will surprise most people - from Greek and Roman philosophers and ancient poets/writers.
Many people, regardless of religious affiliation, believed in a perpetual fiery hell where the wicked will be burning in pain and suffering presumably without end. The idea was first penned by an Italian poet named Dante Alighieri (A.D. 1265-1321) in the early 1300s in his famous work The Divine Comedy.
In the poem, Dante dreamed that the Roman poet Virgil took him on a guided tour of hell, where the souls of wicked people undergo nine circles of hell in perpetual torment and suffering. He let his imagination runs with demons poking, jabbing and whipping the poor souls suffering in boiling blood, buried with their head first and feet burning in scorching flames. Some are frozen in a lake up to their neck to suffer the agony of bitter cold.
Such images have successfully etched in the minds of masses from different religions and cultures up to the present time! Even the Taoist monks practiced some rituals to help departed souls ride through nine circles of hell during the wake of those departed. I know because I was a participant at the wake when my grandparents passed on decades ago. Dante's fictional story has grasped the attention of people from all religious affiliation and culture much more than the Bible. Even the Catholics and Protestants are not spared from such influence, right up to the present time. The Catholic Encyclopedia calls it the Sacred Poem and the fictional story has largely remain the standard understanding of hell and all those who go there will have to endure for time without end!
Let's look at what the Bible actually teaches - For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23). Death means the absence of life, not eternal life in hell! For all who died, there is no consciousness of the passing of time or anything going on in and around the world. But some may wonder where did Dante got the idea from - the famous Greek philosopher Plato. His concept of the immortality of the soul is a legacy that seeps into many religions, including Christendom!
Plato wrote his renowned work titled The Republic in around 400 B.C. In the book he wrote about two chasms in the earth and two chasms in the heaven above. In between these chasms are judges who will bade the just to the right on the journey into heaven above and the unjust to the left to descend into hell below. Those who descend into hell below will suffer tenfold the wrongs done and those who done righteously will in like manner, be rewarded tenfold. Several centuries later, Catholic writers and theologians like Justin Martyr, Tertullian and Augustine incorporated these pagan teachings into Catholic theology. Subsequently, Protestant churches also adopted these ideas when great evangelists and preachers used them with much drama and effect "to frighten unbelievers into accepting Christ as their Savior".
To get to the bottom of this, one has to understand what the Bible means by "hell" as used in Scripture, otherwise the truth seeker will go round in circles with little hope of understanding. Four different words were translated as to depict "three hell" in the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible and three of the four words used have nothing to do with hell in the common understanding of the word.
The first "hell" is sheol in Hebrew and hades in Greek. The Old Testament was mainly written in Hebrew (with some Aramaic) and the New Testament primarily in Greek. Sheol and hades refer to the resting place of the dead - the grave - and nothing more. Most people with preconceived idea automatically assume a fiery inferno of everlasting fire, but that was never the original intent of the word in Scripture! Great men of old like king David and king Hezekiah knew full well that their resting place at death is sheol - the grave (Psalm 88:3; Isaiah 38:10). It is not referring to a place of fiery torment as countless billions had assumed.
Another Greek word "tartaroo", used only once is also translated as "hell" in 2 Peter 2:4. Here the Apostle Peter is referring to fallen angels (demons) who were cast down and are now under restraint or imprisonment. Such fallen angelic beings were and still are confined in chains unto darkness reserved for the day of judgment. This word is used specifically for fallen angels that sinned against the Creator and in no way refer to any fiery inferno reserved for fallen humanity. Many modern translations have left such word untranslated so as not to add to confusion.
The third "hell" is the Greek word Gehenna, which means the 'Valley of Hinnom' This is a deep valley which lies to the south-west of Jerusalem. Many years ago, my wife and I went on a Bible study tour to Israel and we had passed through the place with no fire burning at all - let alone an inferno! Instead, many ancient tombs dotted the hillsides of the Valley of Hinnom. In ancient past, the valley was the place where idolatrous worship of the Canaanite gods Molech and Baal took place where children were sacrificed by burning them alive in fiery flames under the reign of king Ahaz and king Manasseh (Jeremiah 7:31, 19:4-5, 32:35). At the time of righteous king Josiah, he put an end to such practices. Because of such ill reputation, the place became a city garbage dump during the time of Christ's First advent.
The Lord Jesus used the term Gehenna eleven out of twelve times recorded in New Testament. During the time of Christ, dead animals and even corpses of criminals were thrown into the fire at Gehenna to be burned up as the flames were left burning continuously. Some corpses fell on branches grew out from the side of the valley and left hanging there but never made it to the fire below and were eventually devoured by worms (Mark 9:43-48)!
The audience listening to Jesus knew full well what the Lord was referring to - a place where everything dumped into went up in smoke - including human corpses. He used this illustration to point to the fact that those who refused to repent will eventually end up in the lake of fire - where they will be burned up (Matthew 5:22, 29-30, 23:15,33; Luke 12:5) - known as the second death (Revelation 20:6) with no possibility of resurrection!
All the unrepentant wicked who end up in the lake of fire will be annihilated as ashes and stubble under the feet of the righteous who will inherit and walk the earth (Malachi 4:1-3) - restored by Christ and His resurrected saints and refined by fire. That is why when the thief requested the Lord Jesus Christ to remember him when He returns to restore the kingdom of God on earth, Christ told him that he will be with Him in paradise (Luke 23:42-43) - when earth will be restored, including cleansing by fire as it was at the Garden of Eden before the Fall of humanity!
Some theologians and preachers believe that after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, all has changed. They would normally quote Ephesians 4:8-10, Wherefore he saith. When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things). The Roman Church use this to justify the doctrine of purgatory.
But the true meaning of 'captivity captive' is that sinners who were slaves to sin were converted to servants of righteousness. The following two verses in 9 to 10 refers to Jesus Christ in His pre-incarnate state (Jesus Christ in His pre-incarnate state was known as the WORD - John 1:1 and also the God of the Old Testament - John 8:24, 28, 58; 1 Cor 10:4), went to the abyss to preach to fallen angels before the time of the Flood in the days of Noah (1 Peter 3:19-20). Christ having overcome all evil and temptations in the flesh was eminently qualified to return to heaven to receive the kingdom of God from the Heavenly Father and will return at His Second Coming to rule and reign over all things on earth - the gist of the Gospel message that few understood even in Christendom to this very day!
Many people, regardless of religious affiliation, believed in a perpetual fiery hell where the wicked will be burning in pain and suffering presumably without end. The idea was first penned by an Italian poet named Dante Alighieri (A.D. 1265-1321) in the early 1300s in his famous work The Divine Comedy.
In the poem, Dante dreamed that the Roman poet Virgil took him on a guided tour of hell, where the souls of wicked people undergo nine circles of hell in perpetual torment and suffering. He let his imagination runs with demons poking, jabbing and whipping the poor souls suffering in boiling blood, buried with their head first and feet burning in scorching flames. Some are frozen in a lake up to their neck to suffer the agony of bitter cold.
Such images have successfully etched in the minds of masses from different religions and cultures up to the present time! Even the Taoist monks practiced some rituals to help departed souls ride through nine circles of hell during the wake of those departed. I know because I was a participant at the wake when my grandparents passed on decades ago. Dante's fictional story has grasped the attention of people from all religious affiliation and culture much more than the Bible. Even the Catholics and Protestants are not spared from such influence, right up to the present time. The Catholic Encyclopedia calls it the Sacred Poem and the fictional story has largely remain the standard understanding of hell and all those who go there will have to endure for time without end!
Let's look at what the Bible actually teaches - For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23). Death means the absence of life, not eternal life in hell! For all who died, there is no consciousness of the passing of time or anything going on in and around the world. But some may wonder where did Dante got the idea from - the famous Greek philosopher Plato. His concept of the immortality of the soul is a legacy that seeps into many religions, including Christendom!
Plato wrote his renowned work titled The Republic in around 400 B.C. In the book he wrote about two chasms in the earth and two chasms in the heaven above. In between these chasms are judges who will bade the just to the right on the journey into heaven above and the unjust to the left to descend into hell below. Those who descend into hell below will suffer tenfold the wrongs done and those who done righteously will in like manner, be rewarded tenfold. Several centuries later, Catholic writers and theologians like Justin Martyr, Tertullian and Augustine incorporated these pagan teachings into Catholic theology. Subsequently, Protestant churches also adopted these ideas when great evangelists and preachers used them with much drama and effect "to frighten unbelievers into accepting Christ as their Savior".
To get to the bottom of this, one has to understand what the Bible means by "hell" as used in Scripture, otherwise the truth seeker will go round in circles with little hope of understanding. Four different words were translated as to depict "three hell" in the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible and three of the four words used have nothing to do with hell in the common understanding of the word.
The first "hell" is sheol in Hebrew and hades in Greek. The Old Testament was mainly written in Hebrew (with some Aramaic) and the New Testament primarily in Greek. Sheol and hades refer to the resting place of the dead - the grave - and nothing more. Most people with preconceived idea automatically assume a fiery inferno of everlasting fire, but that was never the original intent of the word in Scripture! Great men of old like king David and king Hezekiah knew full well that their resting place at death is sheol - the grave (Psalm 88:3; Isaiah 38:10). It is not referring to a place of fiery torment as countless billions had assumed.
Another Greek word "tartaroo", used only once is also translated as "hell" in 2 Peter 2:4. Here the Apostle Peter is referring to fallen angels (demons) who were cast down and are now under restraint or imprisonment. Such fallen angelic beings were and still are confined in chains unto darkness reserved for the day of judgment. This word is used specifically for fallen angels that sinned against the Creator and in no way refer to any fiery inferno reserved for fallen humanity. Many modern translations have left such word untranslated so as not to add to confusion.
The third "hell" is the Greek word Gehenna, which means the 'Valley of Hinnom' This is a deep valley which lies to the south-west of Jerusalem. Many years ago, my wife and I went on a Bible study tour to Israel and we had passed through the place with no fire burning at all - let alone an inferno! Instead, many ancient tombs dotted the hillsides of the Valley of Hinnom. In ancient past, the valley was the place where idolatrous worship of the Canaanite gods Molech and Baal took place where children were sacrificed by burning them alive in fiery flames under the reign of king Ahaz and king Manasseh (Jeremiah 7:31, 19:4-5, 32:35). At the time of righteous king Josiah, he put an end to such practices. Because of such ill reputation, the place became a city garbage dump during the time of Christ's First advent.
The Lord Jesus used the term Gehenna eleven out of twelve times recorded in New Testament. During the time of Christ, dead animals and even corpses of criminals were thrown into the fire at Gehenna to be burned up as the flames were left burning continuously. Some corpses fell on branches grew out from the side of the valley and left hanging there but never made it to the fire below and were eventually devoured by worms (Mark 9:43-48)!
The audience listening to Jesus knew full well what the Lord was referring to - a place where everything dumped into went up in smoke - including human corpses. He used this illustration to point to the fact that those who refused to repent will eventually end up in the lake of fire - where they will be burned up (Matthew 5:22, 29-30, 23:15,33; Luke 12:5) - known as the second death (Revelation 20:6) with no possibility of resurrection!
All the unrepentant wicked who end up in the lake of fire will be annihilated as ashes and stubble under the feet of the righteous who will inherit and walk the earth (Malachi 4:1-3) - restored by Christ and His resurrected saints and refined by fire. That is why when the thief requested the Lord Jesus Christ to remember him when He returns to restore the kingdom of God on earth, Christ told him that he will be with Him in paradise (Luke 23:42-43) - when earth will be restored, including cleansing by fire as it was at the Garden of Eden before the Fall of humanity!
Some theologians and preachers believe that after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, all has changed. They would normally quote Ephesians 4:8-10, Wherefore he saith. When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things). The Roman Church use this to justify the doctrine of purgatory.
But the true meaning of 'captivity captive' is that sinners who were slaves to sin were converted to servants of righteousness. The following two verses in 9 to 10 refers to Jesus Christ in His pre-incarnate state (Jesus Christ in His pre-incarnate state was known as the WORD - John 1:1 and also the God of the Old Testament - John 8:24, 28, 58; 1 Cor 10:4), went to the abyss to preach to fallen angels before the time of the Flood in the days of Noah (1 Peter 3:19-20). Christ having overcome all evil and temptations in the flesh was eminently qualified to return to heaven to receive the kingdom of God from the Heavenly Father and will return at His Second Coming to rule and reign over all things on earth - the gist of the Gospel message that few understood even in Christendom to this very day!
