Chapters
four, five, six, seven
Chapter one is at http://www.robertwr.com/index.html
RESURRECTION
Or
IMMORTALITY
--------------
LIFE IS ONLY IN
CHRIST
Subtitled, The Resurrection,
Our Only Hope Of Life After Death
The
Resurrection, Our Only Hope Of Life After Death
William Robert West
Author of The Rapture And Israel
"The Wages Of Sin Is Eternal
Life With Torment In Hell"
An Immortal Soul
And The Doctrine Of Hell
Is There A Soul
In You That Will Live After You Are Dead?
Updated 9/24/2021
Over 1,655,880 download
CHAPTER FOUR
Is
"The Wages Of Sin Is Death"
Or
"Eternal Life With
Torment In Hell"
An Immortal Soul and the
Doctrine of Hell
Chapter
Four, the four occasions Christ used Gehenna.
THE
VANISHING HELL
THE
CHANGING HELL
THE
MANY DIFFERENCE HELLS
THIRTY-ONE
PLUS VERSIONS OF HELL
THREE
ROMAN CATHOLIC VERSIONS OF HELL
(1).
The Dark Age Roman Catholic version of Hell.
(2).
The New Roman Catholic version of Hell.
(3).
The Roman Catholic Nether World.
SOME
OF THE MANY DIVISIONS
OF
THE PROTESTANT VERSIONS OF HELL
(4).
The underground chamber Hell of yesterday.
(5).
The newer who knows where the Hell of today is at.
(6).
The Calvin version of Hell.
(7).
The Jonathan Edward version.
(8).
The revisionist version of Hell.
(9).
The Graphic view of Hell.
(10).
The literal Hell.
(11).
Satan doing the tormenting.
(12).
God doing the tormenting.
(13).
The Metaphorical view of both Heaven and Hell.
(14).
Mental anguish only Hell–Billy Graham.
(15).
The eternal sinning version of Hell.
(16).
C. S Lewis–the almost pleasant Hell.
(17).
Protestant Traditionalist.
(18).
Many Protestant Premillennial versions.
(19).
Realized Eschatology–A. D. 70 version.
(20).
Dantes cold Hell with nine levels of torment.
(21). The
Sudden Realization version of Hell.
(22).
Protestant Rephaim version.
EIGHT
OTHER VERSIONS OF HELL
(23).
Abrahams bosom after Judgment Hell, A newer version, Church of Christ,
Christian Church.
(24).
Edward Fudge version, the short Hell.
(25). Christadelphians
version.
(26).
Church of God and others.
(27).
Universalist version of Hell.
(28).
Seventh-Day Advent version.
(29).
Latter-day Saints version (Mormons).
(30).
Grave is Hell version (Jehovah's Witnesses).
(31).
Christian Science Version of Hell.
NO
BIBLE HELL
Use
of fire and torment in the New Testament.
Chapter
Five, Sheol, Hades, and Tartarus.
Chapter
Six, Sheol in the Old Testament.
THE
WAY SHEOL IS TRANSLATED IN THE KING JAME VERSION
(1). Down
into a pit in the earth in 3 passages.
(2). Nations
in a grave in 4 passages.
(3). Nations
in Hell in 14 passages.
(4). The
good in a grave in 10 passages.
(5). The
bad in a grave in 7 passages.
(6). The
good and bad in graves together in 10 passages.
(7). The
good and bad in Hell together in 2 passages.
(8). The good in Hell in 7 passages.
(9). The
bad in Hell in only 8 of the 65 passages.
HADES IS USED ELEVEN TIMES
IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
(1). That
has reference to the death of Christ in 3 passages.
(2). That
has reference to death in 1 passage.
(3). That
has reference to the destruction of cities or countries in 2 passages.
(4). The
symbolical passages in 5 passages.
Chapter
Seven, A strange and unexplainable silence. The reinterpreting of life, death,
torment, destruction, destroy, perish, die, and end.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
How did a real earthly
valley near Jerusalem, which existed in the time of Christ and is still today
called by the same name Gehenna become a place of eternal torment named Hell,
which is a place that is not on this earth? The name Hell in the King
James Version is translated from four different words, two are common nouns and
two are proper nouns, three are in the Greek New Testament, Gehenna, hades and
Tartarus, and one, sheol is in the Hebrew Old Testament. Both sheol in the Old
Testament, and hades in the New Testament are common nouns and both mean grave;
Sheol is both translated (1) grave (2) and was changed to Hell in the King
James Version, and Tartarus is changed Hell one time. Most other translations, American
Standard Version, New American Standard Version, Revised Standard Version, New
Revised Standard Version, New International Version, and others changed only
one word, only Gehenna is translated into Hell, and only in the New Testament,
not four different words that have completely different meanings, but all four
were changed to Hell. The word Hell is not in the Old Testament in any of the
above translations, or is not in most other translations. Although this valley
is mentioned thirteen times (Joshua 15:8 two times; Joshua 18:16 two times; 2
Kings 23:10; 2 Chronicles 28:3; 2 Chronicles 33:6; Nehemiah 11:30; Jeremiah
7:31; 7:32; 19:2; 19:6; 32:35;) in the Old Testament it is called the valley of
Hinnom, always a proper noun, the name of a particular place, the name of a
well-known valley that is a geographical location that is easily found on any
map of ancient Jerusalem, and it was never changed to another proper noun, even
the King James Version in the Old Testament did not change the name of this
valley to another proper noun, did not change the name of this valley to
"Hell," but in the New Testament they changed this proper noun into
another proper noun of a completely different place that is not found on any map.
Tophet, the name of a
real place is in the valley of Gehenna, just as Florida is in the U. S., which is in the valley of the son of
Hinnom, (2 Kings 23:10). Tophet is not in Hell. Tophet is named 9 times; 2
Kings 23:10; Isaiah 30:33; Jeremiah 7:31; 7:32; 19:6; 19:11; 19:12; 19:13;
19:14, and it is always a proper noun, always the name of a place that is on
this earth, always a place that is in the valley of Gehenna.
The valley of Hinnom
in the Old Testament, Gehenna in the New Testament was a well-known valley
south of Jerusalem long before it was made into a trash dump, and the valley still
exists to this day, and still has the name Gehenna
that it had in the New Testament. Josiah might have made this valley into a
rubbish dump (2 Kings 23:10; 2 Chronicles 28:1-4). In the time of Christ this
valley was the city dump. Most newer translations, and most all Bible students
now admit sheol, hades, and Tartarus do not mean Hell, but some still believe
Gehenna, a proper noun should be changed to Hell, changed to another proper noun,
one place changed to another place. The change of the valley of Gehenna into
Hell, a name that did not exist in the time of Christ and Christ could not have
used it, makes a detailed look at this valley as it is used in both the Old and
New Testament be necessary.
Gehenna in the Old
Testament was not a place of endless torment and would never have been
understood by those hearing Christ as anything but a place of destruction.
HOW
DID ONE PLACE
BECOME
ANOTHER PLACE?
HOW
DID THE VALLEY OF GEHENNA
BECOME
HELL?
Gehenna is the name of
a valley south of Jerusalem; it is a real location on this earth in both the
Old and New Testament, and it is still the same real location today, and many
tourists now take tours of Hell into Gehenna. The valley
of Gehenna was used in the time of Christ as the city dump of Jerusalem. In the
nineteen fifties I did some work at the dump of a city of a large city as
Jerusalem was in the time of Christ. The trash would be put in a large pile and
set on fire, and all day rains could not put the fire out. There would have
been no way for the people of Jerusalem to put out the fire in the valley of
Gehenna before it burnt up all there was to burn. Back in the fifties and
before, cities did not have landfills as they do now to burry the trash instead
of burning it to keep smoke out of the air, but they had garbage dumps where
the garbage would be put in piles and burned just as Jerusalem did in the time
of Christ. Big city garbage dumps were always burning night and day, and the
smoke could sometimes be seen for miles. The remains of animals were put in Gehenna,
and the remains would be full of worms (Greek, Maggots–Young, page 1074)
before the fire got to them. They were the same as Gehenna was in the time of
Jesus, and were literally used for the destruction of the unwanted city
garbage. Brimstone (sulfur rock) was added to Gehenna to keep the garbage
burning; it was always burning night and day, and those near by could see the
smoke always rising. Those Jesus was speaking to may have been able to see the
smoke of Gehenna in the background while Jesus was speaking. The people of
Jerusalem did not have a trash pickup as we do, and the people had to take
their trash to Gehenna; therefore, many of those Christ was speaking to would
be very familiar with the never-ending fires and worms that were in Gehenna;
they would see Gehenna as a place where they destroyed their trash, and a place
where the bodies of dead criminals were destroyed only after the criminals had
been put to death, only after they were dead, but never would have understood
Gehenna as a place of torment, it was a place of complete destruction,
annihilation by fire of anything they cast into it. They used Gehenna as an
incinerator or furnace for the purpose of destroying useless things.
(1). How did the name of a valley that is near
Jerusalem that exists to this day, and its name is still called Gehenna today
be changed to Hell in our English translations of the Bible. HELL IS AN
ANGLO SAXON WORD, A NAME THAT WAS UNKNOWN IN THE TIME OF CHRIST AND UNKNOWN TO
ANYONE UNTO LONG AFTER THE NEW TESTAMENT WAS WRITTEN; THE NAME HELL WAS NOT
USED BY CHRIST; IT IS A NAME THAT DID NOT EXIST UNTO CENTURYS AFTER CHRIST; IT
IS A NAME THAT IS NOT IN ANY WRITING BEFORE CHRIST OR IN THE TIME OF CHRIST,
THE NAME HELL IS NOT IN ANY WRITING UNTO CENTURYS LATER BECAUSE NEITHER THE
HELL THAT IS BELIEVED IN TODAY, NOR ITS NAME DID NOT EXIST THEN. In the time
of Christ Gehenna was a place of destruction on this earth with no torment.
Hell, as believed in today by many Christians, a place not on this earth where
God will forever torment souls that were in most of mankind IS A DARK AGE ROMAN
CATHOLIC DOCTRINE OF A PLACE THAT HAD NOTHING LIKE IT IN THE TIME OF CHRIST. A place of torment was added by the Roman Catholic Church in the
Dark Age to try to frighten people into joining the Roman Catholic Church.
(2). How did the name Gehenna
that Christ used get changed into Hell that means an endless place of torment
by God, changed to both a place and a name that did not exist unto long after
the last of the New Testament was written?
(3). Changed from the
valley of Gehenna, a place that is on this earth to Hell, changed to a place
that many now believe to be a place that is not on this earth, but who knows
where they now put Hell.
(4). Changed from a
place on this earth of complete destruction of all worthless things that were
thrown into it, changed to a place where there is no destruction. The answer
is simple; the translators were willing to change the Bible to put their pagan
doctrine into the Bible.
(1). THE VALLEY OF GEHENNA
is a place of destruction with no torment, a real valley that is
on this earth.
(2). HELL is a pace of torment with no destruction,
a place that we are told by those that believe in Hell now believe that Hell is
not on this earth; they have moved it from a chamber inside of the earth where
Hell was first believed to be, but has now been moved from inside of the earth,
moved to who knows where. The name Hell did not exist at the time the New
Testament was written, a name that did not exist unto the Dark Age Roman
Catholic Church.
ALEXANDER CAMPBELL, "In the time of our Savior, it (Gehenna) was
the place to which all the filth, and the dead bodies of animals and criminals
from the city of Jerusalem, were conveyed. Here worms were ever reveling on the
carcasses of the dead, and fires were ever kept burning to consume the noxious
matter and to purge the air from its pestilential stench." "Five
Discourses On Hell," 1848, At
http://www.cimmay.us/campbell.html
MOSES STUART, After these sacrifices had ceased, the place was
desecrated, and made one of loathing and horror. The pious king Josiah caused it
to be polluted, 2 Kings xxii. 10; i.e., he caused to carry there the filth of
the city of Jerusalem. It would seem that the custom of desecrating this place,
thus happily begun, was continued in after-ages down to the period when our
Savior was on earth. Perpetual fires were kept up, in order to consume the
offal, which was deposited there. And as the same offal would breed worms (for
so all putrefying meat of course does), hence
came the expression, Where the worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched.
Exegetical Essays On Several Words Relating To Future Punishment. Presbyterian
Publication Committee, page 192.
JACOB BLAIN, For Dr. George Campbell says, Our Lord, we find from the
evangelists, spoke to his countrymen in the dialect of their own Scriptures,
and used those names to which the reading of the Law, and the prophets had
familiarized them. Not observing this fact has been the great cause of the
woeful mistake about future punishment. I affirm, then, that Hinnom, (Gehenna) is never used in the
O. T. to mean a place of infernal punishment, or world of woe. Death Not Life, Or, The Theological Hell and Endless Misery
Disproved, page 49, public domain.
ALBERT BARNES, "Gehenna became extremely offensive; the sight was
terrific; the air was pollute and pestilential; it was necessary to keep fires
burning continually there. The extreme loathsomeness of the place, and filth
and putrefaction, the corruption of the atmosphere, and the lurid fires blazing
by day and by night, made it one of the most appalling and terrific objects
with which a Jew was ever acquainted," Commentary on Matthew 5:22.
In
the time of Jesus the valley of Gehenna was used as a place of destruction, but
there was no torment in it; those who
heard Jesus speak of Gehenna would understand His use of the valley of Gehenna
as a place of complete destruction, but would not have been able to look at
Gehenna, their city dump and understand how it could be used as a place of
endless torment by God for there was no torment in their city dump; nothing
alive was thrown into it after the valley was made into a dump; after it became
a dump living persons were not tormented in the fire of Gehenna. When most
who use the King James Version read Hell they never understand that Christ was
speaking of destruction in the city dump, for they cannot from the King James
Version for the translators have completely hid this from their readers. The
name Gehenna was changes by the translators into a name that did not exist in
the time of Christ to make the readers understand Christ to be speaking of a
place where God will be forever tormenting immortal souls even after the earth
is destroyed when the Gehenna that Christ was speaking of will have been
destroyed with the earth.
CHANGING GEHENNA INTO HELL
1. Is the same as mistranslating New York into Jerusalem would be.
2. And the same as mistranslating Jericho into Florida would be.
3. The name of a real place is changed to the made up name of a
place that does not exist.
The
name of this valley that is on this earth was not changed into Hell that is not
on this earth in the Septuagint, a translation of the Old Testament from Hebrew
to Greek that was used in the time of Christ; in it Gehenna was left unchanged
the same as other names. "Hell"
is not a translation but a deliberate changing of one place to another
completely different place. I believe it was deliberately changed to put the
"Hell" the translators believed
in into the Bible, but the
Hell the translators believed in, a chamber inside of the earth is nothing like
the Hell many now believe in; their Hell and todays Hell are completely
different Hells. A place has been
made up that is not in the Bible; and a name given to it that is not in the
Bible, a name that did not exist at the time the New Testament was written; if
this is not adding to the Bible then what would it take to add to the Bible. That Christ used the name of a valley,
which was the city dump, is completely hid from the reader of the King James
Version and most other translations, whether intentional or not; and the
readers are led to believe Christ spoke of a different place that men have made
up and named "Hell;" the valley of Gehenna was changed to Hell by the
Dark Age apostate Roman Catholic Church long after the New Testament was
written. The teachings of Christ have been deliberately changed. Gehenna is
a real well known location on this earth, not somewhere under the earth as it
was then believed to be, not some place out in space as it is now believed to
be; in the time of Christ the valley of Gehenna was a real place where real
fires were constantly kept burning since it served as an incinerator for the destruction
of the useless trash of the city. Gehenna cannot be changed into Hell, no one
has the right to change what Christ said, and to do so is not translating but
deliberately changing one place to another place, deliberately deceiving the
readers. To say Gehenna, as used by Christ is Hell is to say it has no
reference to Gehenna, the city dump of Jerusalem.
Fire destroys anything that is cast into it, maggots destroys only what
is already dead, they do not eat or torment the living. In the time of Christ
there was no torment, and no idol worshipped in the valley of Gehenna the city
dump. Worms (maggots) do not eat living being, but dead ones, not to
torment them, but to consume, to eat up for food, neither do maggots eat
souls. As long as there was something to burn or eat, the maggots would never
die out, and the fire would not go out, but be destroying, not tormenting what
was being cast into the valley. In the time of Christ the valley of Gehenna was
a place used to dispose of the useless city trash, not to torment it. Many
misuse this change of the valley of Gehenna into Hell to show that living being
will be tormented forever, and make God be the endless tormenter. Living victims were not preserved alive and
tormented in Gehenna as we are told that God is tormenting living souls in Hell,
but fire and worms of the trash dump completely devoured the dead bodies.
To make Gehenna a place of endless torment by God is without any base
whatsoever.
BEFORE THE NAME OF A PLACE CAN BE USED AS
SYMBOLIC OF ANOTHER PLACE, THE PLACE AND ITS NAME FOR WHICH THE SYMBOL IS USED
MUST FIRST BE KNOWN TO EXIST; no such place as the Hell that is taught today
did not exist in the time of Christ; Hell or its name, did not exist in the
Old Testament, and did not exist, was not known or used by anyone in the time
of the New Testament. To use one place as symbolical of another place there
must be a parallel between the two. There is no parallel
between (1) Gehenna, a place of destruction with no torment, (2) and Hell, a
place of torment with no destruction. Gehenna that existed in the Old
Testament and in the time of Christ is not symbolic of the Hell that is taught
today. WE ARE TOLD THAT BOTH GEHENNA AND
THE LAKE OF FIRE ARE METAPHORS OF HELL; THERE IS NO WAY ANYONE COULD KNOW THEY ARE METAPHORS OF HELL IF THEY
DID NOT KNOW THERE WAS A HELL, BUT THERE IS NOT ONE PASSAGE IN THE BIBLE THAT
TELL US THERE IS SUCH A PLACE, THAT THERE IS A HELL; THE NAME HELL DID NOT
EXIST UNTO THE DARK AGE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH, UNTO LONG AFTER THE NEW
TESTAMENT WAS WRITTEN.
Both
Gehenna and the Lake of Fire are often thought by some to be the same metaphor.
(a). Gehenna was a place of
destruction, but not of torment.
(b). A lake of fire would be
a place that would destroy all life as we know it, a
place where no life could exist.
Both Gehenna and the Lake of Fire picture the total destruction of
whatever was thrown into them; both are a symbol of destruction, neither one is
a symbol of an eternal life of torment; the valley of Gehenna was a place of
destruction of trash, or destruction of whatever was cast into it; anything
that was alive and cast into a lake of fire its life would be totally
destroyed, no living thing can live in fire; neither Gehenna, nor the Lake of
Fire are not a place of endless life. Both picture complete destruction, not
endless life.
STEVEN CLARK GOAD, On
11/1/2010 I found this on the web by Steven Clark Goad, Church of Christ,
Christian Ekklesia Podcast. In summation, isnt it strange indeed
that false teachers have taken a real place (Gehenna) referred to by Jesus
himself as a metaphor of destruction and have changed it into another made
up/fabricated real place (hell) where souls (spirits, living beings,
whatever) will be tortured unendingly by a loving heavenly Father? If Gehenna
is a metaphor of hell as it is traditionally taught, isnt it a poor one, for
Gehenna (the Jerusalem city dump of Jesus era) was a real place of destruction
and consummation with no torment and no torture involved, while hell is a
made up place of torment and torture with no destruction at all? Is this
twisted thinking the height of misguided thinking? Thoughts on Punishment of
the Wicked at: https://www.truthaccordingtoscripture.com/documents/death/thoughts-on-punishment-of-the-wicked.php#.XMDWLS2ZNsZ
THOMAS WHITTEMORE,
The Sanhedrim of the Jews, for some offenses, sentenced the bodies of the
offenders to lie unburied in that valley, to burn with the carrion cast there,
which, among the Jews, was considered a great disgrace. The Doctrine Of
Eternal Hell Torments, page 15,1833.
An effect is now being made by some to
disprove that the trash dump in the valley of Gehenna was not what Christ was
speaking of by saying there is no evidence that Gehenna was ever a trash dump.
How can anyone that believes the Bible say that it was not in Gehenna where the
worm dies not and the fire is not quenched? Christ used the name Gehenna, which
no one can deny is the name of a real valley; they do not believe Christ used
the right name of the right valley and have changed the name Gehenna that He
did use into the name Hell that He did not use. A city the size that Jerusalem
was would have had much trash, where do they think the fire that burnt it were;
where do they think the maggots were that were as real as the fire? In A. D. 70
when Jerusalem was destroyed the valley of Gehenna stopped being used as a
trash dump; after over 2,000 years there would be no trash to be found. Those
that say Gehenna was not a trash dump because there is no sign of trash today
have not found any other place near Jerusalem where there is any trash from
before A. D. 70, but for a city of that size there would have to be one. To say
Gehenna was not used as a trash dump in the time of
Christ is nothing more than a very feeble attempt to put Hell in the Bible.
WEEPING AND GNASHING OF TEETH
Both are used in the Old and New Testament
(1). WEEPING for
miseries and grief, both for personal miseries, and miseries and grief as a
nation are used to often to list them, use any good concordance. It is used in
the New Testament the same way it was in the Old Testament. See Matthew 2:18;
Mark 5:28; Luke 7:38; 8:52; John 11:33; 20:11; Acts 9:39; 21:13; James 5:1. The
weeping is the Jews when they see Israel being cast out as God's chosen people,
and Jerusalem and the Temple being destroyed, and the end of their national
identity, see Matthew 24. Two parables in Matthew 13 have the tares and the bad
fish gathered out of the kingdom at the
end of the age, there will be both weeping and gnashing of teeth. The end of the age was the end of the age
that then was, the Jewish age. The weeping is never said to be endless weeping,
never said to be immortal souls that are weeping in Hell because of being
tormented by God.
(2). GNASHING OF TEETH shows anger and rage
of the persons gnashing their teeth; it is not used to show that those that are
gnashing their teeth because they are being tormented by God; Gnashing of teeth
is used in both the Old and New Testament, but both weeping and gnashing of
teeth are
not used together in the Old Testament; in the New Testament weeping and gnashing of teeth are both
used together only in Matthew and Luke, six times in Matthew 8:12; 13:42;
13:50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30, and one time in Luke 13:28. They are all in
parables about the Jews both weeping and gnashing their teeth because when they
rejected Christ they were rejected as Gods chosen nation and the Gentiles
became Gods chosen people.
(a).
All your enemies have opened their mouths wide against you; they hiss and gnash their teeth
(Lamentations 2:16).
(b).
Like godless jesters at a feast, they
gnashed at me with their teeth (Psalm 35:15-16).
(c).
Wicked plots against the righteous, and gnashes at him with his teeth (Psalm 37:12).
(d).
His anger has torn me and hunted me down, he has gnashed at me with his teeth (Job 16:9).
This gnashing of their teeth is living persons gnashing their teeth on
others living persons in barbarous anger. If this were speaking of souls in
Hell, than souls that we are told have no substance, but these souls will have
teeth and will be gnashing on other immaterial souls that has no substance to
gnash on while they themselves are being gnashed on by other immaterial no
substance souls that also have teeth that can bite other souls that also are
only immaterial thoughts.
It
is used the same way in the New Testament. "And they gnashed on him with their teeth" (Acts 7:54). Who gnashed on whom? Those who stoned
Stephen were angry with him, they were not in pain; they were not dead, and
they were not in Hell, they were living people that were alive and on this
earth when they gnashed on Stephen who was also a living person. If gnashing of
teeth were in Hell, as many teach it is, whom are they going to gnash with
their teeth in Hell, each other? Does anyone believe some souls in Hell will be
angry with others souls in Hell, and will gnash on them with teeth? Gnashing of teeth are living persons that
are gnashing their teeth on other living persons because of anger or rage. It
is not because of the persons doing the gnashing of their teeth are being tormented in Hell. In the Bible in both the Old
and the New Testament, gnashing of teeth is always because of anger of living
persons doing the gnashing on other living persons. Does anyone that
believes God will be tormenting souls in Hell believe that one soul that is
being tormented by God will gnash it teeth on another soul that is also being
tormented by God? It is changed from gnashing to gritting and misused today
to show souls being tormented in "Hell" are gritting their teeth
because of their own pain.
(a). In the Old
Testament gnashing of teeth is because of violent anger and rage on the part of
a living person that is doing the gnashing on another living person (Job 16:9;
Psalms 35:16; 3712; Lamentations 2:16).
(b). In the New
Testament gnashing of teeth is because of rage and anger on the part of a
living person doing the gnashing on another living person (Acts 7:54).
Weeping and gnashing of teeth are two different things, which are
sometimes both are found together, but most often they are not together.
1. Weeping is because of sorrow, not because
of rage.
2. Gnashing of teeth is because of rage or
anger, not because of sorrow, not because of being in pain.
That either one will be in Hell is an assumption that is preached over
and over. In the Bible both weeping and
gnashing of teeth are always by living persons on this earth. Of the many times
both are use in the Bible it is living persons, not souls that are weeping or
gnashing their teeth after the Judgment Day, not souls that are being tormented
by God.
PARABLES USED BY CHRIST
(1).
The Centurion Gentile (Matthew
8:5-13). The Gentile centurion
ends with a parable about the rejection of Israel. Jesus marveled at the faith
of this Gentile centurion. "And when he was entered into Capernaum, there came
unto him a centurion, beseeching him, and saying, Lord, my servant is lying in
the house sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. And he said unto him, I will come and heal him. And the centurion answered and said,
Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof; but only say the
word, and my servant shall be healed. For I also am a man under authority,
having under myself soldiers: and I say to this one, Go, and he goes; and to
another, Come, and he comes; and to my servant, Do this, and he does it. And
when Jesus heard it, he marveled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say
unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. And I say unto you, that many shall come from the
east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in
the kingdom of heaven: but the sons of
the kingdom shall be cast forth into the outer darkness: there shall be the
weeping and the gnashing of teeth." Israel shall be excluded from being the children of God
by birth, cast into darkness of the world without the light of Gods word. Where Matthews
says, Sons of the kingdom were cast
forth Luke says, AND YOURSELVES CAST
FORTH WITHOUT (Luke 13:24-30). At that time the Jews were the sons of
the kingdom, but because of their rejection of Christ they were cast forth without. After seeing the
faith of this Gentile, Jesus says the Gentiles will sit in the kingdom, and the
sons (Jews) will be cast forth. The same as at the marriage feast (above), the
Jews, because they rejected Christ as their king, they were cast out of the
kingdom. The church, not Israel, is now God's kingdom. Those who teach Hell
read the prophecies of Christ about the judgment of Israel in AD 70 and move
the weeping and gnashing of teeth of the Jews changed to be souls weeping in
Hell after the Judgment Day is over. There is not one passage that says
anything about the lost after the judgment and second death. Nothing can happen to nothing. After the second death there could be nothing
said for there will be nothing to say anything about. There is (1) this life
(2) the first death, (3) a resurrection to life from the first death, (4) then the second death, an endless not
existing for the lost. But nothing is said about any kind of life for the lost
after the second death. They need
something to prove endless life in their Hell, and try to make it look as if
weeping and gnashing of teeth could only be because of God is endlessly
tormenting souls in Hell; although both weeping and gnashing of teeth are used
throughout the Old Testament and those who believe in Hell do not believe
weeping and gnashing of teeth in the Old Testament have any reference to a time
of punishment after the Judgment Day, but they assume that the way they are
used in the Old Testament is completely changed, that in the New Testament both
are used in reference to punishment in Hell after the Judgment Day. Weeping and
gnashing of teeth has a reference to Hell only when they want or need them to. Even according to those who believe in
Hell, no one is cast out of Heaven, but
if this "weeping and the gnashing of
teeth" is changed and made to be in Hell after the judgment, it is (1)
"sons of the kingdom" that
are cast out into the outer darkness (2) "sons
of the kingdom" that are both (1) weeping and (2) gnashing their
teeth. In using this passage to prove the outer darkness is Hell it makes some
be in Heaven before the judgment, but they are weeping and gnashing their teeth
while they are in Heaven, and then are cast out of Heaven into Hell after the
judgment. If "and yourselves cast
forth without" is cast into Hell where those who believe in Hell say
the "weeping and gnashing of
tenth" will be, then this makes those from the east and the west go to Heaven after the Judgment Day. If
this weeping and gnashing of teeth
were after the coming of Christ, it would have some going into Heaven, and some
being cast out of Heaven after the kingdom has been delivered up to God;
therefore, after the judgment. This is more than those trying to prove Hell
want to prove, for they do not think any will be cast out of Heaven after the
judgment, and no one who is in Heaven after the judgment will be cast out of
Heaven into Hell, so why is this passage used in a way that makes it prove
there will be some cast out of Heaven into Hell after the judgment; it is
because there is no passage that teaches what they want. None of the references
to both outer darkness and weeping and gnashing of teeth are not
references to Hell.
(2). and (3). The parable
of the tares (Matthew 13:36-42), and the
parable of the net (Matthew 13:47-50) are about
being cast into the outer darkness. If the "weeping
and the gnashing of teeth" is because of being in Hell, then the sons of the kingdom that are doing the
gnashing of teeth would have to be in Hell. If this is changed to be in Hell
after the judgment, which would be after
the coming of Christ, and after the resurrection, then Many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with
Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven, but this is not
speaking of being cast out of Heaven, it is speaking of coming from all parts
of the world into the church, not some going into Heaven after the judgment.
If
this were after the judgment, where is the
east and the west that they will come into Heaven from, from Hell or
where, earth will have been destroyed. There is no way that any persons not
with a white robes washed white by the blood of Christ could come from any
place after the judgment, not the east or the west, and set down in the kingdom
after the kingdom has been delivered up to God in Heaven, therefore; this could
only be speaking of coming from all parts of the earth into the kingdom, which
is the church in the life time of persons while they are alive on earth, not
anyone coming into the kingdom after their death, or after the resurrection,
not after the kingdom has been delivered up to Heaven. The references to both outer darkness and weeping and gnashing of teeth are not
references to Hell.
J.
W. McGARVEY on Matthew 8:12, "And I say unto you, that many shall
come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac,
and Jacob, in the kingdom of Heaven (Jesus here predicts the conversion
of the Gentiles, since that fact is suggested to him by the faith of this
centurion. The east and the west represent the extreme points of the compass in
the directions in which the world was most thickly inhabited12 But The Sons Of
The Kingdom (The child of anything
in Hebrew phraseology expressed the idea of special property which one has in
the thing specified, as, for instance, children of disobedience (Eph. ii. 2).
Jesus here means, then, the Jews, to whom the kingdom belonged by hereditary
descent–Rom. ix. 4). Shall be cast forth into the outer darkness:
there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth. (In this paragraph Christ's kingdom is
set forth under the simile of a great feast, a familiar simile with Jesus (Matt.
xxvi. 29; Luke xxii. 30). The Jews were accustomed to speak of the delights of
the Messianic kingdom as a feast with the patriarchs (Luke xiv. 15), but lost
sight of the fact that Gentiles should share in its cheer and fellowship (Isa. xxv. 6). Marriage feasts and other great feasts of the Jews
were usually held in the evening. Inside, therefore, there would be joy and
light and gladness, but outside there would be darkness and disappointment,
tears and bitter self-reproach (Matt. xxv. 10–13).
The despised outcasts should be brought in and placed at the festal board,
while the long–invited guests–the natural and fleshly heirs of
Abraham's invitation–would be excluded (Matt. xxi. 43)." The
Fourfold Gospel, page 272, Standard Publishing Company, 1914, Church of
Christ.
J.
W. McGARVEY on Luke 13:28-30, "There
shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth, when you shall see Abraham, and
Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and yourselves cast forth without. 29
And they shall come from the east and west, and from the north and south, and
shall sit down in the kingdom of God. 30 And behold (little as you may think
it), they are last who shall be first, and they are first who shall be last.
(A familiar proverb of Christ's (Matt. xix 30; xx.
10), to be interpreted by such passages as Matt. xxi. 31 and Rom. ix. 30, 31. The Jew who thought the Gentile had no hope at all,
and that he himself was sure of salvation, would be surprised to find that his
opinion was the very reverse of the real fact as time developed it)." The
Fourfold Gospel, page 490, Standard Publishing Company, 1914. The Jews were cast forth out of the kingdom,
cast out as Gods chosen people; NOTHING IS SAID ABOUT ANYONE ENTERNING HEAVEN
AFTER THE RESURRECTION, OR ABOUT ANYONE BEING CAST OUT OF HEAVEN INTO
"HELL."
B.
W. JOHNSON on Matthew 8:12, "But the children of the kingdom. The Jews, the natural children of Abraham, the 'Father of the
faithful,' heirs of the promises made to him. Cast out because they
rejected the Messiah, in whom all the promises center. The People's New
Testament With Notes, Gospel Light Publishing Company, 1889, Church of Christ.
H.
LEO BOLES on Matthew 8:11-12, The sons
of the kingdom were the Jews; they were heirs of the kingdom according to
the promise; to them it was first offered, and it was because they rejected it
that they were to be cast forth into the
outer darkness. While the Jews rejected Christ as their Messiah, the
Gentiles would accept him as their Savior; this prophecy of Jesus has literally
been fulfilled. These Jews were sons of
the kingdom as the wicked are sons
of disobedience (Eph. 2:2), and children
of obedience (1 Pet. 1:14) and children
of wrath (Eph. 2:3). Outer darkness is an expression, which denotes the blackness of darkness. (Jude 13; 2 Pet. 2:17). It is described as a place where there shall be weeping and the gnashing of
teeth, while at the same time others, Gentiles, shall be enjoying a feast
with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The weeping
and the gnashing represent intense suffering; they shall weep because
they have lost their favor with God, and shall gnash their teeth because others
have obtained it. A Commentary On The Gospel According
To Matthew, Page 191,Gospel Advocate Company, 1954, Church of Christ.
JAMES BURTON COFFMAN on Matthew 8:10-12, The centurions faith
contrasted sharply with the lack of it in the Jewish leaders who, although they
should have been the first to recognize Christ and believe on him, were nevertheless
his carping critics and sworn enemies. Jesus first comment was directed toward
that shameful and tragic condition. It was, then and there, announced by Jesus
that the Gentiles would be received into the kingdom of God and that many sons of the kingdom, that is, Jews,
would not enter. Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, Firm Foundation
Publishing House, page 105, 1968, Church of Christ.
ADAM CLARKE on Matthew
8:12, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.–That is, I have not found so great an instance of
confidence and faith in my power, even among the Jews, as this Roman, a
Gentile, has shown himself to possessMany shall come from the east and
west–men of every description, of all countriesThe
rabbins represent the blessedness of the kingdom of God under the notion of a
banquetWith Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob–In the closest
communion with the most eminent followers of GodShall be cast out into
outer darkness–As the
enjoyment of that salvation which Jesus Christ calls the kingdom of heaven is
here represented under the notion of a nuptial festival, at which the guests
sat down in a reclining posture, with the master of the feast; so the state of
those who were excluded from the banquet is represented as deep darkness;
because the nuptial solemnities took place at night. Hence, at those suppers,
the house of reception was filled with lightsso they who were admitted to the
banquet had the benefit of the light; but they who were shut out were in
darkness, called here outer darkness, i.e. the darkness on the outside of the
house in which the guests were; which must appear more abundantly gloomy, when
compared with the profusion of light within the guest-chamber.
R. C. H. LENSKI on
Matthew 8:12, As the physical descendants of Abraham the Jews were, indeed,
the first heirs of the Messianic covenant and kingdom. The only trouble was
that they failed to inherit. John 8:37-41 states why. Although they were beyond
question the sons of the kingdom
because they were Abrahams seed and
thus the potential heirs, they forfeited their inheritance of the kingdom by
unbelief.
JOHN WESLEY founder of
Methodist Church on Matthew 8:12, Many from the farthest parts of the earth
shall embrace the terms and enjoy the rewards of the Gospel covenant
established with Abraham. But the Jews, who have the first title to them, shall
be shut out from the feast.
Although many of the wisest preachers and writers whose writings have
stood the test of time say the "weeping
and gnashing of teeth" is speaking of the Jews both (1) weeping for
miseries and grief and (2) the Jews gnashing their teeth in anger is because of
being rejected as God's chosen people, and the Gentiles coming into the
kingdom, the church from the East and the West, from all over the world. Some
still misuse them; as did Stephen Wiggins in the Firm Foundation, 2006, page 6.
Gehenna is not in any of the passages with "weeping
and gnashing of teeth." If he did any study he would know there is no
way to make the weeping and gnashing of teeth have any reference to
"Hell." The use of this passage is just a desperate attempt to find a
passage that teaches God is an endless tormenter? Because of the
desperate need for proof of the doctrine of Hell they try to make this have a
hidden double meaning.
(a). The clear meaning, Israel will no longer
be Gods chosen people.
(b). The assumed hidden
meaning, God is going to forever torment the souls that are believed to have
been in most of mankind in Hell. There is absolutely no hidden meaning, nothing
about Hell,
nothing about being endlessly tormented by God, or nothing about anything after
the judgment in this passage.
UNQUENCHABLE
FIRE
AND
WORMS OF GEHENNA
"Unquenchable
fire" and "their worm dies not" as they
are used in the Old and New Testaments, complete destruction.
Unquenchable fire is commonly used in the Old Testament only when speaking of
Gods earthly judgments on wicked nations (1) Jeremiah 17:27, (2) Isaiah 66:24,
(3) Jeremiah 4:4, (4) Jeremiah 21:12, (5) Ezekiel 20:47-48, (6) Amos 5:6, (7)
Isaiah 34:10, (8) Jeremiah 7:20, (9) Jeremiah 7:31-33, (10) Jeremiah 19:6-9,
(11) Nehemiah 1:3, (12) 2 Chronicles 34:25, (13) also in the New Testament
Sodom is said to suffering the
punishment of eternal fire (2 Peter 2:6, and Jude 7). Unquenchable fire in
any passage never has any reference to Hell, or never to punishment after
death.
In
Jeremiah 17:27 God said He would burn the gates of Jerusalem, And it will devour the palaces of Jerusalem
and not be quenched. Jeremiah 7:20, Therefore
thus says the Lord God Behold, My anger
and My wrath will be poured out (1) on this place, (2) on man, (3) and on beast, (4) and on the trees of the field, (5) and on the fruit of the ground; and it (Gods anger) will
burn and not be quenched. No one thinks any of the above five
where Gods anger is poured out are places that are burning in Hell, they
believe that only a soul that had been in a man or woman that are dead will be
tormented in Hell, but Gods anger and wrath burn all five with the same
unquenchable fire of Gods anger; the burning of all five is on this earth, not
in Hell. This destruction of Israel was a destruction that took place on this
earth, and came to an end when the destruction was complete when Israel went into
captivity, no one could quench it, it did the work of destruction that God sent
it to do.
And remove the
foreskins of our heart, men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, Lest My wrath go forth LIKE FIRE and burn
with none to quench it, because of the evil of your deeds (Jeremiah
4:4); this is speaking of Gods wrath on Israel, Gods wrath on Men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem,
if they did not keep His word then the fire of Gods wrath will completed
consume them because of the evil of their deeds as fire consumes what it is
burning, and none can stop Gods wrath before they are consumed; in this
passage the unquenchable fire was not a literal fire but was symbolical of
Gods unstoppable judgment on Israel. The
Jew in the time of Christ knew the Old Testament and would not have understood
Christ to be speaking of God burning souls after the death of the persons that
souls are believed by many to have been in.
John the Baptist used unquenchable fire on one occasion as a
judgment on Israel just as it was used in the Old Testament as a warning of a
coming judgment. He said Christ "will
gather his wheat into the garner, but the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire" (Matthew 3:12; Luke 3:17).
Will this unquenchable fire forever torment the chaff, which John said the fire
would burn up? John compared the
unfruitful Jews to which he was speaking to unfruitful trees and chaff that
will be burned up (Matthew 3:10); burned
up trees do not live forever in torment; neither trees nor the chaff of
wheat are preserved alive by fire in endless misery being torment by fire; fire
is not a preserver, it utterly consumes what is cast into it, both trees and
chaff are completely destroyed by fire. John could not have used any language
that would show complete destruction any clearly than what he did; just as fire
was used in the Old Testament, yet this is changed to teach that fire cannot burn
up the lost. As therefore the tares are gathered up and burned with fire; so shall it be in the
end of this age, end of the Jewish age
(Matthew 13:40), not end of the world as it is mistranslated in the King
James Version end of this age
changed to end of the world.
Fire always consumes
whatever it is burning, it never preserves alive; unquenchable fire is a fire
that cannot be extinguished before it has done it work of consuming the chaff.
The meaning of burn up cannot be reversed so that the chaff is preserved by
the fire and is not burn up. The imagery is the complete destruction of what is
worthless, whether it be Israel at the end of that age that ended at the death
of Christ; it is not God endlessly trying to burn up souls that cannot be consumed or burned up.
Unquenchable fire is
used on one occasion by Christ of the burning of trash in the city dump in Mark
9:43 where He repeats it a second time in verses 48 in the American Standard
Version, Revised Standard Version, New International Version. "Unquenchable fire" is repeated
four times in Mark 9:43; 9:44; 9:46; and 9:48 in the
King James Version. In verses 44 and 46 the American Standard footnote says
they, Are omitted by the best ancient Authorities. If on the only occasion
Christ used "Unquenchable fire,"
if it was repeated two times or four times, what He was telling them was the
same, whatever was cast into Gehenna the city dump was completely consumed by
the fire, it was not tormented, They would not have understood what He was
saying if the fire in Gehenna was something that would not be unto after the
judgment day, both the fire and the place of the fire were a real place with
real fire at the time Christ said this, a real place that those hearing Christ
would have known about.
Shall never be quenched King James Version, these four words are
translated from only one word. The
translators have added, Shall never be, then they changed the city dump, Gehenna changed to Hell to make the
Bible teach the Hell that they believe in, but Hell is not in the Greek; the
translators were willing to make you think Christ said something He did not say
to make you believe in the pagan Roman Catholic Hell. In many translations
this one word is translated unquenchable;
an unquenchable fire is not a fire that shall never stop burning, it is a fire
that cannot be put out unto there is nothing more to burn; the unquenchable
fire in Isaiah 66:24 and Jeremiah 4:4 has long ago burned out. "Where their worm dies not, the fire is
not quenched" in Mark 9:43 is a quotation of Isaiah 66:24 with both
Jesus and Isaiah speaking of destroying by an earthly judgment on a nation; living
persons shall go forth and look on the
CORPSES of the men who have transgressed against Me. For their worm shall not
die, and their fire shall not be quenched (Isaiah 66:24; Mark 9:48). Even
those that believe there are souls do not believe that unbelieving souls have
corpses that were being eaten by worms so why are they using this passage?
Living persons on this earth were looking at lifeless corpses of dead persons
that were literally being burn by a literal fire and literally being eaten by
worms. DEAD earthly bodies that were being destroyed by fire and worm AFTER the
Lord had killed the Assyrian army; there was no life in the dead bodies and no
torment. Neither Isaiah, nor Christ did not say anything about these corpses,
dead bodies of the Assyrian army that were on this earth that had been slain by
the Lord being conscious and in torment, or about these bodies being alive; it
would make no sense to the Jews in the days of Isaiah, nor to those Christ was speaking
to say corpses, dead bodies of the Assyrian army could suffer any kind of
torment even though the literal dead bodies were literally being burn up and
were literally being eaten by worms. Whatever was cast into the Gehenna fire
was cast into it to be destroyed; should any flesh fall outside of the fire the
worms would eat it; no flesh of the dead bodies escaped complete destruction. If the fire and worms were after the
judgment, as some tell us they are, will there be dead bodies after the judgment
that the saved will go out from Heaven to look at? After the judgment will
these bodies and the worms be immortal, or will both past away when the earth
does? Both the chaff and trash are
utterly destroyed by burning to get rid of something unwanted; they were not
tormented. Without a double changing, (1) changing the valley of Gehenna, the
city dump to Hell, (2) and then changing dead persons to living souls, (3) then
adding endless torment by God to the double change; there is nothing in this
passage or in any passage about endless torment of living souls by God, there
is no way to find Hell in the Bible; it was real worms and real fire burning
real dead people on this earth; NOTHING is said about any burning that is not
on this earth. When dead bodies of Jews were cast into Gehenna, when thousands
of lifeless Jews were cast over the wall into the valley of Gehenna in A. D.
70, (1) there was nothing about anyone in Hell, (2) nothing about God endlessly
tormenting living souls anyplace or at anytime. The fire and worms of Gehenna
destroying all flesh that was cast into it is one of the strongest proofs in
the Bible to disprove the theory of an endless life in torment, nothing was
preserved alive and tormented by God in Gehenna. After A. D. 70 the material
were no longer supplied to keep the fire going and the fire of Gehenna went
out.
ADAM CLARKE, "He will burn up the chaff that is, the disobedient
and rebellious Jews, with unquenchable fire that cannot be extinguished by
man.
EDWARD WHITE, It is
difficult to believe that if John the Baptist had before his imagination the
thought of the indestructibleness of the wicked in the fires of hell, he would
have likened them to chaff which is proverbially the thing in creation least
fitted to withstand the action of the flames. This is an image, which no
orthodox preacher in modern times can be induced to employIt is a fire, which
thoroughly accomplishes its object and burns up the chaff. His book is free on
line at, http://www.robertwr.com/LifeInChrist.htm
THOMAS
BALDWIN THAYER, Now, if the Savior used the same phraseology used by the
prophets and the Jew, he would undoubtedly employ it in the same sense, if he
wished or expected them to understand him. The prophets had employed these
expressions, and the people were with the use of them, a symbol of terrible
judgments and punishment sent upon the guilty nations, falling on the
transgressors in this life. Their
Scriptures never use them in any other sense, and the significance of the
language was in regard to the severity, and not the duration of the
punishment. The Origin And History of Doctrine of Endless Punishment,
page 147, 1881.
You tell
someone that a building caught on fire. They ask, Was the fire put out? When
you reply, No we were unable to put it out; it is not understand that the
fire is still burning, but that it was unquenchable and did not cease to burn
unto the building was utterly consumed by the fire; though the fire was
unquenchable it was not an eternal fire. When a fire surpasses the ability of
fire fighters, and they cannot put out a burning building they say it is an
unquenchable fire, but it is not a fire that will burn forever; an unquenchable
fire is a fire that will not go out unto there is nothing more to burn. John
the Baptist is not saying that God is going to literally burn all the
rebellious Jews without an end, but that no one can stop Gods destruction of Israel
before the destruction is complete; this happened in A. D. 70.
The only
occasion Christ used "unquenchable
fire" is in Mark 9:43 and 9:48 where He was quoting from Isaiah 66:24;
and living persons looked upon the carcasses
of the men, King James Version, on the corpses of the men, New American
Standard Version. Carcasses or corpses are dead persons that living persons was
to look at; both fire and worms destroy dead bodies; they do not torment the
dead persons that was being burnt or eaten; there is not even a hint in Mark
9:43 of God endlessly tormenting souls that are in Hell. To understand His words, they must be understood in the way the Old
Testament used them, just as much of Revelation is to be understood by the
way the same symbols are used in the Old Testament. Unquenchable fire was a
well-known expression in the Old Testament, and those hearing Christ would
understand it. "And the strong
man will become tinder, his work also a spark, thus, they shall both burn together, and there will be none to quench them"
(Isaiah 1:31); it is both (1) the strong man that will burn (2) with his works
and not be quenched, there is nothing about a soul being in the strong men.
Jeremiah warned Jerusalem of the consequence of their sins, "But if YOU do not listen to Me to keep
the Sabbath day holy by not carrying a load and coming in through the gates of
Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof,
and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem and it shall not be quenched" (Jeremiah 17:27). Jeremiahs
warning was fulfilled in 2 Chronicles 36:19-21, and was the literal destruction
of Jerusalem by the Babylonians when
Jerusalem was destroyed when Gods judgment was as an "unquenchable fire" that no one could stop before Gods
destruction of them was complete. Gods judgment consumed all, and was not
quenched. Jerusalem is not literally burning today. The unquenchable fires in
the Old Testament were always judgments on a city or nation on this earth, a
judgment that no one could stop. Jerusalem was destroyed as a nation by a
judgment from God. In many of the uses of unquenchable fire in the Old
Testament it was not a literal fire, but it was symbol of destruction by God
that could not be stopped by man.
THOSE WHO BELIEVE IN HELL MAKE TWO CHANGES
1. Dead
bodies on this earth being burned up by the unquenchable fire in the Old
Testament changed to deathless souls, which they say are not on this earth and
cannot be burned up.
2.
Then changes "unquenchable"
into "eternal," then move the unquenchable fire that destroyed
Jerusalem from Jerusalem on this earth, and put this "eternal fire"
in their "Hell," which Roman Catholics and most Protestants did
believe it is inside of the earth, but now they have moved Hell to someplace
that is not on this earth, but no one knows where it is.
First, the fire
must be changed.
Second, after the
fire has been changed from a fire that burns up (1) is changed to a fire that
burns noting up, (2) then the fire that is not fire must be moved from
Jerusalem on this earth to Hell that they now have moved from the Catholic
under ground chamber to some place that is not on this earth.
Isaiah
says, "For behold, the Lord will
come in fire and His chariots like the whirlwind, to render His anger with
fury, and His rebuke with the flames of fire. For the Lord will execute
judgment by fire and by His sword on all flesh, and those slain by the Lord
will be many...Then they shall go forth and look on the corpses (dead bodies in American Standard
Version) of the men who have transgressed
against me. For their (the corpses, dead people killed by the sword of the
Lord) worm shall not die, and their (the corpses) fire shall not be
quenched; and they (the
corpses) shall be an abhorrence to all
mankind" (Isaiah 66:15-24); carcasses
in King James Version, dead bodies
New International Version. The worms consumed the corpses, dead bodies, and the
fires were not quenched unto there was no more flesh to consume or burn. It was
corpses, carcasses, dead bodies, which were on the earth that were being
consumed by the unquenchable fire and undying maggots, it was those slain by the Lord slain by His sword, dead bodies that were
being burn up by fire and were being eaten by maggots (Isaiah 66:16), not
deathless immortal souls in Hell that we are told cannot be slain, not
deathless souls that are screaming in anguish and pain because God is eternally
tormenting them. Isaiah 66:16 and 66:24 describes the aftermath of a battle
with the bodies of the dead unburied people; there is no suggestion of unending
torment by God, or of any torment of the dead bodies that were being eaten by
the worms. It takes a big change to make those people back in the time of
Isaiah be changed to souls looking from Heaven down into Hell, and see living
souls being eaten by maggots; it was real living people on this earth that went
out to the battle field, and living people saw real dead bodies on this earth
being eaten and burned, not immortal souls in Heaven that "shall go forth and look on
the corpses" and see dead corpse slain by a sword that has been
changed to living souls that are being tormented by God in Hell as immortal
worms and fire are consuming, but never consumes them; dose souls have corpses? How can fire or worms
eternally torment a dead body? Dead bodies cannot suffer, cannot be tormented.
After the resurrection there will be no dead bodies of flesh, no corpse in Hell to look down from
Heaven upon. This unquenchable fire was
a judgment on Babylon, on a nation being destroyed, not on souls that had been
in individuals being tormented. It is difficult to conceive how those that
believes a soul is an immaterial, no substance something, that it can be eat by
maggots, and made more difficult by the fact that maggots eat only dead flesh,
not anything that is alive. It is the fire that is unquenchable, and both
Isaiah and Christ speak only of the maggots being alive, not that the corpses
were alive while they were being burnt up or eaten, but todays theology
changes the dead bodies to living souls and says the souls are both alive and
are being forever tormented by fire that comes from God. There is not even a
hint that the corpses that were in the unquenchable fire were aware of
anything. For this to prove a soul is immortal they would have to be viewing
disembodied immortal souls that had been "slain
by the Lord" (Isaiah 66:16), but the slain were still living and being
tormented by the Lord after the Lord had killed these souls, and it must be
proved that living people were not viewing dead bodies that were on this earth,
but deathless souls that were in Heaven were viewing living souls in Hell. Without doubt, unquenchable fire was
burning dead bodies of those that had been slain by the Lord; it was a judgment
and punishment on this earth, a judgment on the nation of Babylon; both
Babylon and the judgment on it, the fire and the maggots ended long ago.
1. There is no mention
of torment. The ungodly had been killed; it says nothing about the Lord tormenting them after He killed them,
but many add to the Bible by adding torment where there is none, and making God
be a tormenter.
2. There is no mention
of living immortal souls that are being eaten by maggots, and being consumed by
fire. The witnesses are living people that see the result of this destruction (slaying); people see real corpses,
carcasses, dead bodies that are laying on this earth being consumed by real
fire and maggots; neither the worms or the fire causes any suffering to the
dead bodies, it was not a living, immaterial, invisible something that had been
in a person that was being eaten by maggots after the person it had been in was
dead.
3. They do not see
these dead bodies in pain and anguish, they do not see God endlessly
torturing souls in Hell that God will never let die and that God will never
stop tormenting them. To teach endless torment in Hell the dead bodies that
were being eaten by maggots on this earth must be changed to living souls
suffering endless torture by God in an endless Hell after the persons these
souls were in are dead. There is nothing about souls, nothing about endless
torment by God, or nothing about Hell in this passage, but all three are added.
4. Some believers in
Hell change the Bible by changing the worms into undying souls. Maggots being changed into souls in torment is nothing more
than a very desperate attempt to prove something that there is no proof of. If
the maggots were souls what are the dead
bodies these souls (the maggots) are
eating, are souls eating other souls?
5. Their worm are worms that are in dead
bodies. If their worm shall not die proves immortality then it would be
proving the immortality of the dead carcasses, and prove the immortality of the
worms that were eating the immortal carcasses. How can anyone find anything about a deathless soul in dead bodies
being eaten by maggots and worms?
6. When the fire and
maggots have done their work there is no body; could a better picture of the
complete destruction of the lost be found?
ALBERT BARNES, A
scene where a
people whose lands have been desolated by mighty armies, are permitted to go
forth after a decisive battle, and to walk over the field of the slain, and to
see the dead and putrefying bodies of their once formidable enemies.
CHANGES THAT
MUST BE MADE
TO MAKE THIS
PROVE THE DOCTRINE OF HELL
1. Dead bodies that
were lying on this earth, and were visible to living people must be changed to
living souls that are not visible; those that went out to see them could not
have seen immaterial, invisible souls, but were seeing them anyway.
2. Maggots and fire
that devour must be changed to immortal maggots that cannot devour souls, and to
a fire that cannot consume souls.
3. Fire is used
throughout the Old Testament as a symbol of complete destruction. Fire always
kills any living thing that is cast into it; it is never a preservative, but
the theology of today must change fire into something that preserves alive,
changed to a fire that cannot kill or destroy. Just as death must be changed to
endless life, fire must be changed into something that cannot destroy but keeps
alive being endlessly tormented by God.
4. The Gehenna of the
New Testament that is on this earth must be changed into Hell that those that
believe in Hell believe is not on this earth.
ONLY ONE OF
THE MANY NEW DOCTRINES
THAT HAD
THEIR BEGINNING IN THE DARK AGE
Adding a place where
God will forever torment souls is only one of the many changes of Gods word
that were made by the Dark Age Roman Catholic Church. The early writers were named
church fathers by the Roman Catholic Church; they were not called fathers in
their time. Worship of people, worshiping Mary as if she was a God, and
worshiping saints, Limbo, Purgatory, the pope declared to be God in the flesh,
worshiping images in the church, the crucifix-making the cross into an idol and
worshiped, crosses on building, the rosary, holy water, Nether World, sale of
indulgences, angels look like woman with wings, Satan has horns and a forked
tail, and many more additions and changes; in the Dark Age Gods word was replaced
with any teaching the Roman Church wished to teach.
(1). "Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah: Behold, mine anger and my wrath shall be poured out upon this place,
upon man and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of
the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched"
(Jeremiah 7:20). If this was the Lords anger being poured out in Hell, it
would make beasts, trees, fields, and the fruit of the ground be in
unquenchable fire in Hell. In Jeremiah 17:27 it is the palaces of Jerusalem that would be destroyed by an
unquenchable fire; are the palaces of
Jerusalem now burning in Hell or any other place?
(2). Ezekiel also speaks of the destruction of
Judah using the imagery of a forest burning. "And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, son of man, set
your face toward the south, and drop your word toward the south, and prophesy
against the forest to the field in the South; and say to the forest of the
South, Hear the word of Jehovah: Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I will
kindle a fire in you, and it shall consume every green tree in you, and it
shall devour ever green tree in you, and ever dry tree; the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces
from the south to the north shall be burnt thereby. And all flesh shall see
that I, Jehovah, have kindled it; it
shall not be quenched" (Ezekiel 20:47-48).
(3). Unquenchable
fire is used through out the Old Testament as a fire that could not be put out
unto the destruction was complete (Leviticus 6:12:13; Isaiah 34:9-10; Jeremiah
17:27; Ezekiel 20:47-48; many more).
ADAM CLARKE, "The
forest of the south field is the city of Jerusalem; which was as full of
inhabitants as the forest is of trees. I will kindle a fire, i. e., I will send war; and it shall devour ever green
tree, i. e., the most eminent and substantial of the
inhabitants; and every dry tree, i. e., the lowest
and meanest also; it shall not be quenched, i. e., till the land be utterly ruined."
(4).
This unquenchable
fire was God using Babylonian to destroy Israel (Ezekiel 21:19;
Nehemiah 1:3), not a literal fire. Gods judgment on Israel was unquenchable,
no one could stop it, but it ended when Israel was destroyed, and the Jews were
in captivity.
(5).
Isaiah describes the desolation of Edom,
"For my sword has drunk its fill in
heaven; behold, it shall come down upon Edom, and upon the people of my curse,
to judgment...For Jehovah has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the
cause of Zion. And the streams of Edom shall be turned into pitch, and the dust
thereof into brimstone, and the land there of shall become burning pitch. It shall not be quenched night or day; and
the smoke thereof shall go up forever; from generation to generation it shall
lay waste; none shall pass through it forever and ever. But the pelican and
the porcupine shall possess it; and the owl and the raven shall dwell
therein" (Isaiah 34:6-15). If this fire that, "Shall not be quenched night
nor day," is the Hell that is taught today, how is it that "None shall pass through it forever and
ever;" is there no one that shall be in Hell but pelican, porcupine,
owl, and ravens shall dwell therein? This is clearly an earthly judgment on
Edom that has long passed, not an unquenchable fire in Hell after the Judgment
Day. There was never a literal fire and smoke in Edom nor is it burning today;
the fire, smoke, streams turned into pitch and the earth into brimstone was
symbolical of Gods judgment and the total destruction of the nation of Edom
that could not be stopped unto the destruction was complete; many tourist now
go to the land that was Edom and there is no sign of fire; travelers tell us
that the land is mostly sand and no one dwells in it. After the destruction of Edom
the land that was Edom became a desert that is inhabited by pelicans,
porcupines, owls and ravens. After Edoms destruction Isaiah description of the
land that had been Edom is nothing like the Hell that is taught today, yet,
because there is nothing about Hell in the Bible this passage is changed from
the destruction of a nation on earth to God tormenting souls in Hell that will
never have an end of Gods tormenting them even though there is nothing about
torment, nothing about souls, or nothing about Hell in this passage. From
generation to generation it will be desolate; none will pass through it forever
and ever. But pelican and hedgehog will possess it, and owl and raven
will dwell in it; and He will stretch over it the line of desolation and the plumb
line of emptiness. Its nobles–there is
no one there whom they may
proclaim king–and all its princes will
be nothing. Thorns will come up in its fortified towers, nettles, and
thistles in its fortified cities; it will also be a haunt of jackals, and an abode of ostriches. The
desert creatures will meet with the wolves, the hairy goat also will cry to its
kind; yes, the night monster will settle there
and will find herself a
resting place. The tree snake will make its nest and lay eggs there, and it will hatch and
gather them under its protection.
Yes, the hawks will be gathered there, every one with its kind (Isaiah
34:10-15). If this were a description of Hell, would those that love deserts
find Hell to be a wonderful place? Edom did not literally burn up, the once
rich land became a desert; the land is now uninhabitable to mankind with no way
to grow food and very little water to drink; Edom is not a burning Hell that is
not on this earth, not a place where God torments souls. From generation to generation
it will be desolate; none will pass through it forever and ever. Dose anyone believe
there will be generations in the Hell they believe in, or no one will pass
through Hell?
(6).
Sodom was literally destroyed by fire, made them an example of what is going to
happen to the ungodly (2 Peter 2:6); there is no way that being
completely destroyed by fire, a destruction that ended when there was nothing
more to destroy could be an example of an endless life being tormented but
never destroyed; destroyed dose not
mean endless life.
(7).
For more examples of God's judgments in this world being spoken of as an
unquenchable fire see Isaiah 1:31; (8) Jeremiah 17:27; (9) Jeremiah 21:12; (10)
Amos 5:6; (11) 2 Kings 22:16-17; (12) 2 Chronicles 34:24-25. These passages and many others show that the
writers of the Old Testament used "unquenchable
fire" as a symbol of judgment by war and famine both on Israel and
wicked nations when they sinned even when there was no literal fire; a judgment
that no one could stop before Gods purpose was accomplished. When Jesus was
speaking of the fire and worms of Gehenna, he was giving a description of the
finality of the coming destruction of Israel that rejected Him. His audience would know the way unquenchable fire was used in the Old Testament even when there
was no literal fire, and they would understand His use of them. They would have
known the Gehenna that Christ was speaking of was a foul place of destruction
where worthless things were disposed of, and would have known He was saying the
destruction He was speaking of would be like the destruction of the garbage in
Gehenna, like the destruction of Jerusalem by unquenchable fire in the Old
Testament. They knew they were being threatened with complete destruction just
as the trash in the city dump was destroyed. Jerusalem was burnt and completely
destroyed in A. D. 70, and historian's say many dead bodies were burned and many
were left unburied for the maggots.
CURTIS DICKINSON, There are some
70 cases in scripture where fire is used as judgment upon wickednessnever was
it used for the purpose of torture. A Place Called Gehenna. Free on line
at, http://kenfortier.com/site/cdickinsonarticles
Summary
- The worm that dies not, and the unquenchable fire, as used in the Old
Testament and by Christ, proves utter
destruction, not everlasting torment. Gehenna is believed
by those who teach everlasting torment to be their strong hold, but maggots
eating dead bodies on this earth, and fire consuming everything that was
cast into it is a picture of complete destruction, not symbols of torment. Many
think this is the strongest proof of everlasting torment in the Bible, but it
is the other way around, it is a strong proof that the lost will be everlasting
destroyed. It does not prove that there is a sadistic God that will forever
torment anyone, or this tormenting God will forever torment whatever a soul is
believed to be.
If,
as most Protestants and Roman Catholics believe, that a soul is immaterial and has
no substance, it would not be possible for fire or worms to literally hurt or
torment a soul in any way.
THE
OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY
OF
THE VALLEY OF GEHENNA
Gehenna was
first mentioned in Joshua 15:8 and 18:16 although it was never called
"Gehenna" in the Old Testament. Ahaz "burnt incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burnt his children in the
fire" (2 Chronicles 28:3; 2 Kings 16:3). Manasseh also burnt his
children in the fire in this valley (2 Chronicles 33:6).
Jeremiah 7:31-32, Children of Judah burned their sons and daughters in
the fire in this valley, and Jehovah said, "And
they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son
of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command,
and it did not come into My mind. It shall no more be called Topheth, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter: for they shall bury in Topheth (Gehenna),
till there be no place to bury. And the dead bodies of this people shall be
food for the birds of the heavens, and for the beasts of the earth; and none
shall frighten them away." Those who teach "Hell fire" are
saying to God, "O yes it came into Your mind; You
have said You are going to burn most of Your children in an endless fire in
Hell much hotter than the fire in Gehenna in which they burnt their
children."
Jeremiah 19:1-15 "Thus says
the Lord, Go and buy a potter's earthenware jar, and take some to the elders of
the people and some of the senior priests. Then go out to the valley of Ben-hinnom (in the New
Testament the valley of Gehenna), which
is by the entrance of the potsherd gate; (A gate to Jerusalem) and proclaim there the words that I shall tell you, and say, Hear the word of
the Lord, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: thus says the Lord of
hosts, the God of Israel, Behold I am about to bring a calamity upon this place, at which the ears of
everyone that hears of it will tingle. Because they have forsaken Me and have made this an alien place and
have burned sacrifices in it to
other gods that neither they nor their forefathers nor the kings of Judah had
ever known, and because they have filled this
place with the blood of the innocent and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt
offerings to Baal, a thing which I never commanded nor spoke of, nor did it
enter My mind; therefore, behold, days are coming, declares the Lord, when this place will no longer be called
Topheth or the valley of Ben-hinnom, but rather the valley of Slaughter. And
I shall make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and I shall
cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hand of those
who seek their life; and I shall give over their carcasses as food for the
birds of the sky and the beast of the earth. I shall also make this city a desolation and an object of hissing; everyone who passes
by it will be astonished and hiss because of the disasters. And I shall make
them eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they
will eat one another's flesh in the siege and in the distress with which their
enemies and those who seek their life will distress them. Then you are to break
the jar in the sight of the men who accompany you and say to them, Thus says
the Lord of hosts, Just so shall I break this people and this city, even as one
breaks a potter's vessel, which cannot again be repaired; and they will bury in Topheth (Gehenna) because there is no other place for burial. This is how I shall treat this place and its inhabitants,
declares the Lord so as to make this
city like Topheth (Gehenna). And
the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be defiled like the place Topheth (Gehenna), because of all the houses on whose rooftops
they burned sacrifices to all the heavenly host and poured out libations to
other gods. Then Jeremiah came from
Topheth (Gehenna), where the Lord has sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the Lord's
house and said to all the people; thus says the Lord of host, the God of
Israel, Behold, I am about to bring on
this city and all its towns the entire calamity that I have declared against it,
because they have stiffened their necks so as not to heed My words." Jeremiah used the valley of Gehenna to warn Israel of their destruction
as a nation. Christ also used the valley of Gehenna to warn Israel of their
destruction as a nation. It was outside the gate of Jerusalem named the
potsherd gate in the time of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 19:1-15). Dead bodies were
buried in Gehenna, but deathless souls cannot be buried on this earth in the
valley of Gehenna. When Gehenna is changed to Hell it makes living people be
burying dead earthy bodies in Hell.
Many believe the angel of the Lord killed the 185,000 Assyrians in this
valley when they were laying siege to Jerusalem (Isaiah 37:36). They were
killed near Jerusalem, and it could have been in the valley of Gehenna, see
Isaiah 30:31-33. Anyone can see that a valley
of slaughter where the slaughtered are often not buried is not a place of
endless torment.
It
is also mentioned in Nehemiah 11:30; Jeremiah 19:2.
Because of their worshiping other gods in it, God made the valley of Gehenna a
place of destruction, not a place of torment. Topheth (Gehenna in the New
Testament) literally means a place of burning.
Josiah "defiled Topheth (a place that is in the
valley of Gehenna), which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his
daughter to pass through the fire to Molech" (2 Kings 23:10). When
Josiah defiled Gehenna maybe when it became the trash dump, became a place of
destruction that it was in the New Testament.
Every reference to
Gehenna in the Old Testament was to a valley that is on this earth; not one of them
says anything about endless torment by God after the judgment. Gehenna in
the Old Testament was not a place of endless torment, and it was not changed to
"Hell" in any Old Testament passage, not even in the King James Version,
which is sometimes called "Hell's Bible."
HENRY THAYER, "Gehenna, the name of a valley on the S. and E. of
Jerusalem The Jews so abolished the place after these horrible sacrifices had
been abolished by king Josiah (2 k.xxiii, 10) that
they cast into it not only all manner of refuses, but
even the dead bodies of animals and unburied criminals who had been executed.
And since fires were always needed to consume the dead bodies, that the air
might not become tainted by the putrefaction, it came to pass that the place
was called (Gehenna)." "A Greek–English Lexicon Of the New
Testament," page 111. He also said in "Theology," "Our
inquiry shows that it is employed in the Old Testament in its literal or
geographical sense only, as the name of the valley lying on the south of Jerusalem–that
the Septuagint proves it retained this meaning as late as B. C. 150–that
it is not found at all in the Apocrypha; neither of Philo, nor in Josephus,
whose writings cover the very times of the Savior and the New Testament, thus
leaving us without a single example of contemporary usage to determine its
meaning at this period–that from A. D. 150–159, we find in two
Greek authors, Justin and Clement of Alexandria, the first resident in Italy
and the last in Egypt that Gehenna began to be used to designate a place of
punishment after death, but not endless punishment since Clement was a believer
in universal restoration–that the first time we find Gehenna used in this
sense in any Jewish writing is near the beginning of the third century, in the Targum of Jonathan Ben Uzziel,
two hundred years too late to be of any service in the argumentit was also
employed in the time of Christas a
figure of terrible judgments of God on the rebellious and sinful nation of the
Jews." Henry Thayer, "Theology," author of A
Greek–English Lexicon Of the New Testament.
CANON FARRAR, "In the Old Testament it is merely the pleasant
valley of Hinnom (GeHinnom), subsequently desecrated
by idolatry, and especially by Moloch worship, and defiled by Josiah on this
account. (See 1 Kings 11:7; 2 Kings 23:10; Jer. 7:31; 19:10-14; Isa. 30:33;
Tophet). Used according to Jewish tradition, as the common sewage of the city,
the corpses of the worst criminals were flung into it unburied, and fires were
lit to purify the contaminated air. It then became a word, which secondarily
implied (1) the severest judgment, which a Jewish court could pass upon a
criminal–the casting forth of his unburied corpse amid the fire and worms
of this polluted valley; and (2) a punishment – which to the Jews as a
body never meant an end-less punishment beyond the grave. Whatever may be the meaning of the entire passages in which the word
occurs, Hell must be a complete mistranslation, since it attributes to the
term used by Christ a sense entirely differently from that in which it was
understood by our Lord's hearers, and therefore, entirely different from the
sense in which He could have used it." From the preface to
"Eternal Hope." "Gehenna, the Greek word translated hell in the
common version, occurs twelve times. It is the Grecian mode of spelling the
Hebrew words, which are translated, 'The Valley of Hinnom.' This valley was
also called Tophet, a detestation, and an abomination.
Into this place were cast all kinds of filth, with the carcasses of beasts and
unburied bodies of criminals, who had been executed. Continual fires were kept
to consume these. Sennacherib's army of 185,000 men was slain there in one
night. Here, children were burnt to death in sacrifice to Moloch. Gehenna, then, as occurring in the New
Testament, symbolizes death and utter destruction, but in no place symbolizes a
place of eternal torment." From the Emphatic Diaglot.
GEORGE LEMASTERS said Gehenna is said to have been a receptacle of
bones, bodies of beasts and criminals, and all unclean things. Florida College
Annual Lectures, page 265, 1975.
RON
HALBROOK said Gehenna became a common refuse dump for the dead bodies of
criminals, animal carcasses, and other kind of filth. Florida College Annual
Lectures, page 123, 1986.
Hell From Iron Chariots Wiki, The accurate use of the word Hell as
a translation of Gehenna is open to interpretation. The subjects about which Jesus speaks, when referring to Gehenna, have no less
significance when referring to that literal valley of the damned (as opposed to
the eternal concept of punishment and torture interpreted after the fact).
There is no suggestion that Gehenna need to be translated to Hell any more
than any other proper noun for a place or region. Similarly there is no reason
to believe that Hell as a concept even occurred to the Jewish prophet or his
followers. At http://wiki.ironchariots.org/index.php?title=Hell.
Whatever was cast into the valley of Gehenna (the city dump), if it
were trash or the bodies of criminals that were cast into the trash dump to be
destroyed, both the trash and the dead bodies were destroyed in the same way by
the fire, not tormented; trash or dead bodies cannot be tormented. The fire
and worms soon consumed whatever was cast into Gehenna, nothing was cast into Gehenna to be preserved, and no Jew hearing Jesus
could not have understand it in any way but a place of total destruction.
Gehenna was a real place they could walk out and look at, and literally see the
smoke ascending out of it just as Abraham saw the smoke of Sodom. If Christ
had used their trash dump in a way that was different from what would have been
understood by those hearing Him without any explanation of the new way He used
it, they could not have known what Christ was saying to them. The fate of Israel is compared to trash
and many of their dead bodies were cast into the city dump.
We
are often told Christ used the name Hell eleven times, which is wrong two
ways; (1) Christ never used Hell not even one time. (2) He used Gehenna,
but not eleven times. The same use of Gehenna is quoted in two of the Gospels,
as in Matthew 10:28 and Luke 12:5, and they count it
as two times when it is only one time. Both Christ and James used the name of
the city dump--Gehenna. Although the translators have changed Gehenna to Hell
in most translations and have James using the word Hell, but when James wrote there
was not a Greek word with the meaning that "Hell" has today. Christ never used the word Hell, He used
Gehenna, and He never said one thing about Hell.
(a). The name Hell did not
exist in the time of Christ.
(b). Todays concept of a
place where God will forever torment souls that had been in the lost persons
did not exist unto the Dark Age.
THE USE OF GEHENNA BY CHRIST
Gehenna, not
Hell, was used on four occasions by Christ, and was used one time by James, the
brother of the Lord (James 3:6). The name Gehenna is in three of the gospels
eleven times, but as the three gospels repeat the same discourses, Jesus really
used it in only four occasions (in four sermons). None of the four occasions mentions
the duration of Gehenna; none mentions endless torment. Ever time Gehenna was
used by Christ or James (1) they were speaking to the Jews, (2) about a real
place that is on this earth, speaking about a real place most Jews would have
known about.
(1).
First occasion
In
the Sermon on the Mount
"Shall be in danger of Gehenna...your whole body
be cast into Gehenna...and not your whole body go into Gehenna" (Matthew 5:22; 5:29; 5:30). Not your whole body
cast into Hell.
(2). Second occasion
In a lesson to the twelve disciples
Matthew 10
is a lesson to the twelve (Matthew 10:1; 10:5; 10:16; 11:1). "Fear him, who after he has killed has power to cast into Gehenna" (Luke 12:5); had the power to cast what he has
killed, to cast what is dead into the trash dump. Also in the parallel account, "Fear
him who is able to destroy both soul
(psukee-life) and body in Gehenna" (Matthew 10:28); able to
kill you and cast your dead body into Gehenna. IT WAS DEAD (killed) PERSONS THAT WERE DESTROYED IN
GEHENNA, NOT LIVING SOULS.
(3). Third occasion
In another lesson to his disciples
"Rather than having two eyes to be cast
into Gehenna" (Matthew
18:9). Also three times in the parallel account in Mark 9:43; 9:45; 9:47. Footnote in New American Standard Version says, 44
and 46, which are identical with versus 48, are not found in the best ancient
miss.
(4). Fourth occasion
To the Scribes and Pharisees
"You make him twofold more a son of Gehenna than yourselves " (Matthew
23:15; 23:33).
And one time by James
To the twelve tribes
"The tongue, which
defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the wheel of nature, and is set on
fire by Gehenna" (James 3:6).
(1).
THE FIRST OCCASION
IN
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT
Gehenna is used 3 times in
Christs sermon in Matthew 5. Christ is teaching his own disciples who at that
time were under the Law. Judgments the
disciples had heard that the Law said. Judgments of the Old Testament Law (Matthew
5:21-26), "And when He had set down, His
disciples came unto Him: and He opened His mouth and taught them, saying YOU have
heard that the ancients were told,
(a). 'You shall not commit murder,' and 'whoever
commits murder shall be liable to the court.'
But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court;
(b). And whoever shall say to his brother,
'Raca,' shall be guilty before the
Supreme Court;
(c). And whoever shall say, 'You fool,' shall be guilty enough to go into the
fiery hell (Greek–Gehenna
of fire changed to Hell), New
American Standard Bible; guilty enough to go into the fiery Gehenna, the city
dump of Jerusalem that was always burning, day and night, burning 24/7.
Three crimes under the Law
The above three
crimes that were judged by the courts under the Old Testament Law. All three have to do with
the way a person felt toward his or her brother, all three crimes were living
persons, not souls, that was being judged according to the Old Testament Law by
an earthly court; the Sermon on the
Mount is not information about the fate of the unrighteous after death. "Murder shall be liable to the court," the murder was a living person that could
be judged and punished according to the Law by other living persons.
The first of the three
You have
heard
Everyone who is "Angry
with his brother" guilty before
THE COURT (New American Standard Version), an earthly judgment by man under
the Old Testament Law. You have heard that the ancients were told, what death sentence had those (you) hearing
Christ been told would be given to a murder? A judgment for death passed
by an earthly court according to the Old Testament Law, not a judgment after
the resurrection.
J.
W. McGARVEY, Not the final judgment of the world, but the tribunal established
by the Law of Moses in each city for the trial of murders and other criminals.
(See Deut. xvi. 18.) Every man slayer was tried before this tribunal, and
either put to death or confined in the city of refuge. The
New Testament Commentary. page 53, Standard Publishing Company, 1875.
The second of the three
You have
heard
Whoever "Shall say to
his brother, 'Raca'" guilty
before the SUPREME COURT, New American Standard Version. A judgment
made by man according to the Old Testament Law. Shall be in danger of the judgment, American Standard Version,
shall be in danger of being taken before the court and judged just as we are if
we run a red light are in danger of judgment only if seen by a police. Being in danger of judgment is not a
certainly of judgment, but all, every person standing before the judgment of
God after the resurrection judgment is a certainly, not just be in danger of
being judged.
B. W. JOHNSON, "An epithet of contempt; 'empty head'"
The People's New Testament, Gospel Light Publishing, 1889.
J.
W. McGARVEY, The council mentioned is the Supreme Court provided for by the
Law of Moses (Deut. xvii. 8-13), and represented in the days of Jesus by the
Sanhedrim." The New Testament Commentary, page 54, Standard Publishing
Company, 1875.
The third of the three
You have
heard
Whoever "Shall say, 'You fool'" guilty enough to go into the fiery Gehenna.
Like the first two, this is a Jewish judgment, then after a judgment of death,
the bodies of criminals that were thought to be unworthy of a burial were cast
into the city dump to be burned or eaten by worms.
1.
To whom will they say, "You
fool"? Could it be anyone other than "His brother," just as the first two were? Could the
difference in the sinfulness of saying to your brother "raca" (empty headed), and saying to him, "You fool" be enough
difference to jump from a judgment of the Jewish court to the judgment of God after
the second coming of Christ?
2.
How could anyone know if Christ changed from judgments of some individuals
under the Law to a judgment of all after the resurrection when there is no
indication that He changed? According to the teaching of some, a person can be
angry with his brother and have contempt for him and not go to Hell, but if you
say, "You fool" to your
brother, them you will go to Hell.
3. Only one, the last
of these sins, is said to be judged and cast into the fire of Gehenna, the city
trash dump, which if it were to be understood as some would have it, it will
follow that the others of these sins did not deserve endless torment by God in
Hell, and they shall not be punished in Hell, God will not torment them in Hell
for the first two sins, which is contrary to those that teach that the least
unforgiven sin deserves endless torment in Hell; it is taught by most that
believe in Hell that any sin no matter how big a sin it was or how many sins
can be forgiven, even to say, you fool,
can be forgiven, and all these sins if forgiven will not send a soul to Hell
that had been in the dead person that had sinned, but any unforgiven sin, even
just one small sin, even to say to your brother raca will send whatever a soul that is in you to Hell after you
are dead. If this were not judgments by the Jews, not judgments under the Law,
if this were saying that only this third sin, only this one sin would send a
soul to Hell (it is the only one of the three that Jesus said is judged worthy
of Gehenna) then the teaching of today makes this teaching of Christ be
compliantly wrong.
4. All three of these
judgments are judgments according to the Old Testament Law, and are each a judgments on living persons by other living persons. It is
not one soul that will say to another soul you
fool, it is a living person that will say to another living person, you fool and the dead body of a person
that that was put to death for saying you
fool that will be cast into the fire and worms of Gehenna, the city dump.
Not one soul that "shall
say to his brother, 'Raca.' In any of
these three judgments" nothing,
not one thing is said about a soul being judged by God, not before or after the
death of the person. Nothing is said about the second coming of Christ, and
nothing said about the one judgment of everyone at His second coming. To the Jews
having their corpse cast into Gehenna, into the trash dump unburied was a
dishonorable thing. Those that were buried were thought to be honorably; those
that were judged not fit to be buried and were thrown into Gehenna to be burned
were considered to be disgraceful.
DR.
R. F. WEYMOUTH, Gehenna of Fire Or Hell, the severest punishment inflicted
by the Jews upon any criminal. The corpse (after the man had been stoned to
death) was thrown out into the Valley of Hennom (Ge
Hinnom) and was devoured by the worm or the flame. New Testament in Modern
Speech, Mark 3:29, page 10.
ALEXANDER CAMPBELL, The fact is,
that the allusions in this verse are all to human institutions or customs among
the Jews; and the Judges, the Sanhedrim, and the hell-fire here introduced, and
all human punishments. The Campbell Skinner Debate On
Everlasting Punishment, page 123, College Press, 1840.
THOMAS WHITTEMORE,
Fourthly, because the last, only, of the three sins is said to be judged to
the fire of Gehenna, which if it
were to be understood as some would have it, it will follow that some sins
deserve not hell eternal, and shall not be punished there, which is contrary to
themselves, who teach that the least sin deserves hell eternal. Fifthly,
Mat. 5:22 shows the severity of the Jews and Pharisees in punishing anger
without a cause. Racha is a word of
disgrace, which signifies a crafty fellow, or wicked wretch. To apply it to any
one was as great a fault as to say fool,
if not greater, yet it was punished less, thus,
1. He
who was guilty of rash anger was in danger of the judgment;
2. He
who contemptuously said racha,
was in danger of the council;
3. But
if he said fool, he was in danger of hell–fire, i. e. in the true sense,
to burn in the valley of the son of Hinmom. Page 16, The
Doctrine Of Eternal Hell Torments Overthrown, 1833.
J. M. DENNISTON, Thus
we have in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. v. 21,22), a striking view of divine
judgment in regard to transgressions against the sixth commandment. This
matter, as our Lord intimates, the scribes were in the habit of settling with
great ease. For, according to them, the whole amounted to this, that the
outward act of murder entailed the punishment of natural death by the
sentence of the court called the judgment. Starting from this circumstance,
He states three forms of anger–each more guilty than the preceding one–but all of
which He represents as virtually murder,
in the sight of God, and punishable as such by His judgment. Then, as answering
to these three degrees of guilt, He mentions as many degrees of punishment. Now
here is the important circumstance. All these are figuratively stated in
language borrowed from the three modes of capital punishment in use among the
Jews. Thus the Judgment employed one mode; the Council (Sanhedrim) a
severer; while the sentence might be further aggravated by consigning the
carcass to the fire in the valley of the Son of Hinnom. The most important
thing to keep in mind is that there is no distinction of kind between these punishments, only of degree. In the thing compared the
judgment inflicted death by the sword, the (council) death by stoning, and the
disgrace of the Gehenna of fire (hell–fire, K.J.V.) followed as an intensification of the
horrors of death; but the punishment is one and the same–death. Alford
on the passage. Pages 126–127, The Perishing Soul According
To Scripture, Longmans, Green, And Co., 1874.
The five judgments
All five are judgments
of the Law
(a). These five judgments are all judgments
of the Law.
(b). They all have sentences that are carried
out in this lifetime.
(c). They are all judgment that are made by
living people on other living people while both are living on this earth, or by
living people casting a dead body unburied into the dump of Gehenna after the
person is dead.
(d). Not one of the five judgments are on a
soul that some believe to be in a person while the person is living, and not on
a soul after the person it had been in is dead. THERE IS NOTHING SAID ABOUT
A SOUL IN THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. It is a lesson to living people that are
under the Old Testament Law.
The first of five judgments
Under
the Law Matthew 5:23-26
A
lesson to those Christ was speaking to. "Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are with
him in the way; lest haply the adversary
deliver you to the judge, and the judge deliver you to the officer, and you are
cast into prison. Verily I say unto you, you shall by no means come out till you have paid the last
farthing" (Matthew 5:25-26). "Make friends quickly with your
opponent at law" New American Standard Version. If you do not agree with him and you are cast into prison, when the
debt is paid, then the person in prison shall come out. This is speaking of
a judgment and punishment on living person by living persons under the Law, not
punishment of a soul by God at the resurrection.
1. Who is to agree with whom? It is the
person charged who is to "Make
friends quickly with your opponent at law," with the person that
charged him, "While you are with him
in the way," while you are on the way to the judge.
2. What will happen if there is not an
agreement? "Lest haply the
adversary (your opponent at law) deliver
you to the judge, and the judge delivers you to the officer, and you are cast
into prison." Does this sound to you like the judgment at the last day
and being cast into "Hell," or does this sound like an earthly
opponent at law, judge, officer, and prison? When this is changed to be after
the resurrection, who would the adversary be that will
deliver a soul to God to be judged?
3. How long will the
person who is cast into prison be in the prison? "You shall by
no means come out thence, till you
have paid the last farthing. When
the debt for which the person that was cast into prison is paid, then he will come out of prison. Those
who believe in Hell tell us no soul will ever come out of Hell, that the debt
can never be paid, that any sins not forgiven in this lifetime can never be
forgiven after death. If this were speaking of punishment in Hell after the
judgment, then it would teach a limited punishment, which would end when the
soul in Hell paid the last farthing (a corn of little worth) was paid.
4. That this use of "Gehenna" is taken completely
out of the context of an earthly courts and law by today's theology is beyond
any doubt. This is speaking of a judgment and punishment on a living person by
a living person under the Old Testament Law, not at the resurrection.
5. To teach "Hell' from this passage, Christ must be made
to jump from judgments and punishments under the Law of Moses in verse 21-22,
to the judgment and punishment at His coming in the last part of verse 22 and
then back to judgment and punishment under the Law in verse 25-26 without
anything to show He was speaking of a different judgment and punishments. First, a part of one verse must be
taken out of context. Second, then
it must be changed from Gehenna that is a valley on this earth, changed to Hell
that we are now told is not on this earth. Third,
whatever this place is at that is not in the Bible must be given the name
Hell that also is not in the Bible.
The second of five judgments
Under the Law Matthew
5:27-30
"You have
heard that it was
said, 'You shall not commit adultery'" (Matthew 5:27-30). "And
if your right eye makes you stumble,
tear it out, and throw it from you; for it is better for you that one of the parts of your body perish, than
for your whole body to go into Hell (Greek–Gehenna was
changed to the Hell of the Dark Age). And
if your right hand makes you
stumble, cut it off, and throw it from you: for it is better for you that one of the parts of your body perish, then
for your whole body go into Hell
(Greek–Gehenna, changed
from Gehenna to Hell by the translators)." Jesus is saying to them
that they had heard that it was said (in the Law), YOU shall not commit adultery
FOR WHICH LIVING PERSONS WOULD BE PUT TO
DEATH UNDER THE LAW OF MOSES (Leviticus 20:10), AND THEIR EARTHLY BODIES LITERALLY THROWN INTO THE DUMP IN THE VALLEY
OF GEHENNA. Eye, hand, one of the
parts of your whole body, or your
whole body to be thrown into Gehenna, into the same place, the same Gehenna that a cut off part of a the whole body, both the hand and the whole body would have been literally
thrown into and destroyed in the same place that is on this earth, both destroyed
in Gehenna, into the dump to get them out of the city, the whole body thrown into a real valley is changed to, your soul
will be thrown into Hell even though nothing is said about a soul or Hell in
this passage; how could the hand of a immaterial, no substance,
thoughts only soul be cut off and be thrown into Hell? Who can cut the hand of
a soul off? Who can cast the cut off hand of a soul into Hell (Gehenna)? THERE
IS NO WAY TO MAKE THE CUT OFF HAND BE A REAL PHYSICAL HAND CAST INTO AND
DESTROYED IN THE REAL PHYSICAL VALLEY OF GEHENNA, AND THE WHOLE BODY FROM WHICH THE REAL PHYSICAL HAND WAS CUT OF BE AN
IMMATERIAL SOUL CAST INTO HELL; TO MAKE THE WHOLE BODY NEVER BE DESTORYED IN
HELL, BUT ITS HAND IS DESTORYED IN GEHENNA. There is not one word about a soul
in this passage, not about a soul or about a hand of a soul being destroyed in
the valley of Gehenna; only by mistranslating can both a soul and the cut of
hand of a soul be tormented in Hell, most that believe there is a soul and it
can be tormented in Hell do not believe that a soul will have a cut of hand
that has been destroyed, or the hand is being tormented at the same time and in
the same place that the soul that does not have a hand is.
Body parts cast into Gehenna
Not a soul cast into Gehenna
1. Eye-throw it
from you is better than the whole body
to be cast into Gehenna (Matthew 5:29). Nothing about a soul being cast
into Hell.
2. Right
hand-cut it off is better than the whole body to be cast into Gehenna (Matthew
5:30).
3. Do not fear
those that can only kill the body but fear him who after he has killed can cast
the body that he has killed into Gehenna (Matthew 10:28).
4. Better to
cut of your hand or foot than have your whole body cast into the Gehenna fire (Matthew
18:8).
5. Cut off your
hand if it causes you to stumble to keep you (your whole body) from being cast
into unquenchable fire of the dump (Mark 9:43).
6. Better to
cut off your foot to keep you (your whole dead body) from being cast into
Gehenna, the dump of Jerusalem (Mark 9:45).
7. Better to
cast your eye out so that you can enter the Kingdom of God and not be cast into
Gehenna, into the city dump (Mark 9:47).
Have
you ever seen just one person in church without a hand or foot because they cut
them off to keep from sinning? Cut them off to keep a soul out of Hell? If this
were literal no one is obeying it. If this were literal all Christians do not
have just one eye would be sinning.
IN THE HELL THAT IS
TAUGHT TODAY GOD DOSE NOT KILL A SOUL BEFORE IT IS CAST INTO HELL. Fear him
who AFTER
HE HAS KILLED has the power to cast the dead YOU that he has killed into
Gehenna (Luke 12:5; Matthew 10:28)
destroy your dead body in Gehenna
after he has killed you; it is the same dead YOU that he had killed
that is cast into Gehenna by the same him
that killed you, not casting a killed (dead) soul into Hell, a soul that we
are told cannot be killed, or destroyed, but some believe the killed soul will be alive and tormented
in Hell by God for they believe a soul cannot be killed or destroyed. A
dead body of the person that was killed
is what was cast into and destroyed in Gehenna by the same person that did the
killing; not one word is said about a killed soul being cast into Hell. Gehenna
is a place on this earth that dead bodies were literality cast into it to be
destroyed by literal fire.
Ever time
Christ used Gehenna He was speaking only to Jews; those that Christ was
speaking to would understand Gehenna just as it was used in the Old Testament,
a real valley on this earth that had real dead human bodies being thrown into
Gehenna to be destroyed; they would not have understood it as it has now been
changed by theology (by the Dark Age church) to be a living soul that cannot be
killed being thrown alive into Hell
to be tormented by God after the death of the whole body a soul had been in; they would not have understood it
to be a bodiless living souls thrown into Hell to be tormented by God neither
before nor after the resurrection. Do
you believe God will kill a soul before He cast the killed soul into Hell?
The
lesson to them, based on what they knew of the use of Gehenna from the Old
Testament, was that if there is a danger that they may look on a woman to lust
after her, if their eye causes them to stumble, pluck it out and cast it away.
If taken literal a disfigurement of their body would have been unlawful by the
Old Testament Law they were under. The lesson to them was not that they were
literally to cut their hand off, but that they were to remove anything from
their lives that would cause them to be judged unworthy to be buried, and cause
their bodies to be cast into Gehenna and left unburied. Under the Law adultery
had a death penalty, and could cause their whole bodies after they were put to
death to be cast into the fire and maggots in Gehenna (Leviticus 20:10-16). Those that use this to prove Hell do not
believe that to "cut off"
any part of the body of a living person will keep a soul that they believe to
be in that person out of Hell after the person is dead; to them the hand and
the eye are a literal hand or eye, but according to their teaching "the whole body" is not a body
at all, but a formless, no substance, invisible, deathless something in a
person that has no body, no hand to cut off.
The loss of
a hand or eye is contrasted with the lost of the whole body, of which the hand or
eye was a part, by either the hand or the whole body being cast into the same
place, both the hand and the body being cast into Gehenna, not the loss of a
hand being contrasted with a soul, of which the hand was not a part of, the hand that was cut of a person and cast into Gehenna
was not the hand of a soul being cast into Hell. The "eye" and
the "right hand" are a part
of the "whole body." No one can cut off the hand of a soul,
which they say has no substance, a soul that no one can see or touch, and
Christ does not change from parts of the earthly body to something that most
who believe in "it" says "it" has no body. No one that I
know of that believes Hell is an endless place of torment believes the human
body or any part of a human body will ever be cast into Hell, do not believe
God will literally eternally torment a cut off hand. In the same sentence did
Christ change from a literal cut off physical hand to a hand of a soul that
no one can cut off?
In Matthew 5:21-47
Christ is giving a lesson on how those He was speaking to, living persons that
were living under the Law were to live in their lifetime.
(a).
You shall not kill
(Matthew 5:21) is one living person killing another living person, not one soul
killing another soul.
(b). Being
angry with your brother (Matthew 5:22); a lesson on three levels of anger
of a living person toward another living person; one living person being judged
and punished by other living persons, not one soul angry at anther soul, or not
one soul being judged by another soul.
(c). Committing
adultery (Matthew 5:27) is a living person committing adultery. Can souls
commit adultery, either before or after the death of the person a soul had been
in?
(d). Putting
away your wife (Matthew 5:31) is also done only by a living person. Do
souls have wives that they can put
away?
(e). Swearing
(Matthew 5:34) is a living person swearing.
(f). An
eye for an eye (Matthew 5:38) is by living persons only in this lifetime.
(g). Love
your neighbor (Matthew 5:43); one living person is to love another living
persons. If there were a soul in Heaven would that soul need to be told to love
a soul that is its neighbor in Heaven?
If the "whole body" were a formless
no substance soul, then the "hand,"
which was cut off this body is a part of the "whole body," and would also be a formless no substance
something that we could not cut off, and if we could cut the hand of a soul
off, then the cut off hand of an immortal soul would be as immortal as the rest
of the no substance, formless, thoughts only soul from which it was cut off. In
today's theology no one believes a soul has a hand that can be cut off and cast
it into Hell so that the rest of that soul will not go to Hell. No one that I
know of believes the "soul" shall "enter
into life," which he or she says is Heaven with a cut off hand in
Hell. The "soul" in Heaven, but its "hand" in Hell! They don't
believe that a disfigurement of the earthly body, whether it is a self
inflicted disfigurement, or any other disfigurement, will be passed unto a
immaterial, invisible soul, which they believe is to be something that is now
in a person and that only whatever this it is will be disfigured in Heaven. Neither do they believe any person has the
power to cut of any part of a immaterial soul.
Gehenna must be changed to Hell and be literal, but the cut off the hand that
is cast into Hell cannot be literal. A
hand of a person cannot be cut off and then cast into Hell, or a hand of a soul
could not be cut off of a soul if there was a soul; THERE IS NO WAY TO MAKE
THIS CUT OFF HAND BE A HAND OF A SOUL THAT IS IN HELL BEING TORMENTED BY GOD.
"Perish" must be changed to mean, "preserve."
God's word says He will destroy a psukee (soul), but many change this and make
it say God will not let a psukee perish, but will preserve it forever. There
seems to be no end to the changes some are willing to make. "Destroy
the body and soul" (psukee) must be changed to preserve a soul after
the body (person) is destroyed.
A DEAD BODY PART, OR A
WHOLE DEAD PERSON BEING CAST INTO THE CITY DUMP (GEHENNA) TO BE DESTROYED BY
FIRE OR WORMS IS NOT A PICTURE OF A LIVING IMMORTAL SOUL BEING TORMENTED
FOREVER IN SOME PLACE OTHER THEN THE VALLEY OF GEHENNA. There is no suggestion of endless torment by
God in this passage; there is
nothing, not one word about an immortal soul (psukee) or an immortal spirit,
not one word about Hell in this passage. It was their "whole body," the whole killed body of flesh that would
be literally cast into and burned up in the literal valley of Gehenna. Instead of saying that immortal souls will
burn forever in the valley of Gehenna, IT SAYS THE KILLED BODY OF A PERSON
WILL BE CAST INTO GEHENNA, AND THE DEAD BODY WILL BE DESTROYED, NOT TORMENTED BY THE FIRE THAT IS IN GEHENNA. Do you
believe the Bible or man? Nothing is said about an immaterial something
that is in a person in Matthew 5:22; 5:29; 5:30.
"Soul" is not in Matthew 5; it has been added, and is preached today
that the "soul" will be cast into "Hell;" changed from the hand, foot, eye, or the whole body being be cast into the dump
of Gehenna, a place that those hearing Christ would know about, changed to a place that was unknown of unto
the Dark Age. Christs disciples would have been very familiar with the
valley of Gehenna where the garbage of the city and dead bodies was cast, but
they knew nothing of the Hell that did not come into being unto the Dark Age
Roman Catholic Church. This passage is one of the most used passages to prove a
person has an immaterial something in them that has no body, and whatever this
bodiless something is, it will be in an endless place of torment after the
person is dead that it had been in. Neither (1) an immaterial, deathless
something that is now in a person, but leaves the dead person at their death,
(2) or a place where God will endlessly torment is not in Matthew 18:8-9.
Everything that Christ said is changed, and that by those that say they do not
change the Bible. (1) Whole body
must be changed to a bodiless soul, (2) Gehenna, a place on this earth where
there was no torment changed into Hell, a place that we are told is not on this
earth (3) then is added an evil god
that endlessly will be tormenting many millions of bodiless souls without ever
a drop of mercy.
In Matthew 18:8-9,
(a). Being
Cast into the everlasting (aionios–age lasting) fire (18:8) and
(b). Being Cast into the Gehenna fire are used interchangeable (18:9).
It is the fire that is
said to be age lasting, not one thing is said about how long a person or about
how long a soul that had been in a person unto the death of the person would or
would not last in the fire although it is repeatedly changed and used to teach
that a soul that is now in you will be tormented in Hell after you are dead if
you do not save it, whatever it is. The aionios (age lasting) fire of
Gehenna went out in A. D. 70; today there is no fire in Gehenna and no dead
bodies are being cast into it; the valley of Gehenna is now a place for
tourist.
The third of the five
judgments under the Law
"You have heard you
shall not forswear yourselfbut I say unto YOU" (Matthew 5:33).
The fourth of the five
judgments under the Law
"You have heardan eye for an eyebut I say
unto YOU (Matthew 5:38).
The fifth of the five judgments
under the Law
"You have
heardlove your neighborbut I say unto YOU (Matthew 5:43).
Summary - All five of the "you have heard" are about judgments of the Old Testament
Law that were punishment for persons that were under the Law only in their lifetime,
not anything about any punishment of souls before or after the resurrection and
judgment. Being cast into Gehenna is an earthly judgment that is in the same
context with other earthly judgments. This is the first occasion Christ
used the term Gehenna; if He had used it to teach endless torment, He said
nothing that the Jews that He was speaking to, or those who read His words
today could know that He was speaking of any judgment other than the judgments of
the Law given through Moses; there is absolutely no indication He was speaking
of God endless tormenting a soul as many now teach that God now is tormenting
whatever a soul is, and many others teach that God will be tormenting souls after
the judgment, but not the persons that sinned.
(2).
THE SECOND OCCASION
A LESSON TO THE TWELVE DISCIPLES
Two views on who is
doing the casting into Gehenna.
View one. The valley
of Gehenna is a real place on this earth where dead killed bodies were cast into it, and the dead bodies were burned up
or were eaten up by worms.
View two. This view
is speaking of a place not on this earth, not Gehenna, a place that has been
given the name Hell where immortal deathless souls that had been in the lost
persons before the death of the persons, that in this place living souls will
forever be tormented by God.
GEHENNA IS A
REAL PLACE
A WELL KNOWN
PLACE
THAT IS ON
THIS EARTH
This was
spoken to the twelve apostles when they were sent forth to preach, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand"
(Matthew 10:1-28). Christ was persecuted, and the apostles would be, but they
were to "Fear THEM not." "But I will warn YOU whom YOU shall
fear: fear HIM,
who after HE HAS KILLED YOU, (after HE
has KILLED YOU, after he has killed the apostles Christ sent out) has power to cast YOU INTO GEHENNA" (cast the
killed, dead apostles after he had killed the apostles -- Luke 12:4-5); most
of the apostles that Christ was
speaking to were killed by men, none of the twelve were killed and cast into
Gehenna by God. God was not the one the apostles were being told to fear being
killed by. Has the authority to cast into Gehenna,
New American Standard Version. Those who kill the body (12:4), and after
he has killed the body (12:5) are both speaking of killing the body, the
dead body. Fear him who is able TO DESTROY (Apollumi) BOTH
soul (psukee–life) and
body IN GEHENNA. Matthew 10:28 says, Be not afraid of them that kill the body,
and after that have no more that they can do. But I will warn you whom you shall fear: Fear him, who after he had killed (killed you,
killed the apostles that Christ was speaking to) has the power to cast (you
the killed apostles) into Gehenna
(Luke 12:4-5). The same person that will kill the apostles is the same person
that will cast the dead apostles that he has killed into dump in the valley of
Gehenna. The destroying is the body
after it has been killed, destroyed the dead body by being cast
into Gehenna by the same person that killed it; the killing of a
person comes before their dead body being cast into and destroyed in the valley
of Gehenna; this killing of the apostles
is double changed to be (1) KILLING OF A DEATHLESS SOUL THAT CANNOT BE KILLED,
(2) THEN THE KILLED SOUL THAT CANNOT
BE KILLED IS CHANGED FROM BEING THE BODY OF THE KILLED APOSTLES CAST INTO THE
VALLEY OF GEHENNA; CHANGED FROM A KILLED PERSON CAST INTO GEHENNA CHANGED TO
BEING A LIVING UNKILLED SOUL CAST INTO HELL. Fear him who has the authority
to cast your killed earthly bodies
(of the apostles) into Gehenna, the trash dump where the bodies of those
who were not thought to be worthy to be buried were cast into the valley of
Gehenna to be destroyed by fire. DESTROY bothin Gehenna in Matthew 10:28, and KILLED and then cast the
killed apostles into Gehenna in the parallel account in Luke 12:4-5 does not
mean a soul that is killed and then the killed dead soul is cast into Hell;
dose not mean that a soul cannot be killed
or destroyed and will always be
alive and torment in a completely difference place than Gehenna, a difference
place called Hell; the fate of a person being cast into Gehenna is
destruction, able to destroy,
nothing is said about any kind of torment of a living soul or a living person
at any time, not before or after the resurrection.
The same word (psuche)
that is translated soul in Matthew 10:28 is used four times in the same
lesson to the twelve in a only a few seconds specking time (Matthew10:5), but the translators changed it to soul only two of
the four times in Matthew 10:39 making psuche, the same word in the same
passage be something that could be destroyed
two times, and something that could not be destroyed
two times. Able to destroy both soul (psuche-life) and body in Gehenna He that finds his life (psuche) shall lose it; and he that lose his life (psuche)
for my sake shall find it. It has to
be obvious to all that the same word cannot mean a soul that is destroyed
in Matthew10:28, and it is Killed in Luke 12:4-5, and in the same lesson only a few seconds
later it means life two times in
Matthew 10:39. It is obvious that neither of the four times Christ used
psuche within a few seconds of each other that it dose not mean a deathless
soul that cannot be killed. The King James Version makes Christ be telling the
Apostles to fear the persons that will kill souls that cannot be killed.
If being cast into
Gehenna means endless torment there is no way to say BOTH body and soul will
not be endless tormented in Hell, BOTH are killed,
BOTH are destroyed by the same person
and BOTH are cast into the same place, BOTH are cast into Gehenna that is on
this earth.
IF THERE WERE A SOUL THAT CAN BE KILLED (Luke 12:4-5) THE KILLED SOUL CANNOT BE IMMORTAL.
1. Fear him, WHO AFTER HE HAS
KILLED has power to cast into Gehenna (Luke 12:4). After he has killed
you (not killed a soul that we are told cannot be killed) has the power to cast
what he has killed (the dead apostles Christ was speaking to) into the city
dump; WHAT EVER WAS CAST INTO GEHENNA WAS
KILLED BEFORE IT WAS CAST INTO
GEHENNA, BUT I KNOW OF NO ONE THAT BELIEVES A SOUL WAS KILLED BEFORE IT WAS
CAST INTO HELL, BUT THEY SEEM TO HAVE NO TROUBLE CHANGING IT TO WHATEVER WAS KILLED AND CAST INTO HELL IS ALIVE AND
CANNOT BE KILLED. The (1) killing and (2) the casting into Gehenna
are BOTH did by the same person. The killing
of the person is done before the dead (killed) body is cast into the valley of Gehenna;
it is the same thing that was killed
that is cast into Gehenna after it is dead
(killed). How could whatever he has killed and cast into Gehenna be
alive in Hell after it has been killed and the dead whatever it was that he has killed was cast in Gehenna? How did the killed body get moved from Gehenna to Hell?
2. WHO
IS ABLE TO DESTROY BOTH SOUL (psukee-life) AND BODY IN GEHENNA (Matthew
10:28). What ever happens to the earthly body also happens to the
psukee, (psukee is part of the time translated life and soul in King
James Version), both the earthly body and psukee (life) are destroyed, not one is destroyed and one is alive undestroyed in Hell. Dose anyone
believe a deathless soul that is taught by todays theology can be killed and then destroyed in Gehenna, or killed
and destroyed in Hell? Both are destroyed in Gehenna; who believes a killed body will be destroyed in Hell? When Gehenna is changed to Hell it is undeniable that it is saying that
the killed flesh and blood body will be destroyed in Hell; undeniable that,
according to the King James Version, both the earthly body and a soul will both
be destroyed, not tormented in
Hell.
3. Whatever you believe psukee to be (translated soul in the King
James Version), it can be destroyed
in the valley of Gehenna just as a earthly body can be destroyed in Gehenna after the body has been killed. If the body is one thing and the soul is another
thing, both body and soul (psukee-life) are to be destroyed together in the
valley of Gehenna OR both are to be together undestroyed in Hell. Both are killed together; but it is changed
to be one killed in one place by man and the other one not killed but is
tormented by God in another place. If the psukee is an immortal soul then it
cannot be killed, if a soul can be killed as the King James Version says it can
be, then the killed soul cannot be immortal.
Destroy in Matthew 10:28 and killed in the parallel passage in Luke
12:4-5, and then cast into Gehenna after the destroying, after being killed -
killing is not Platos pagan soul that is alive in Hell and is being
tormented by God. Christ was speaking to the twelve apostles, He was not
telling His apostles to fear for souls that had been in them being killed or
destroyed in Hell by God after God had killed their bodies in Hell; He was
telling the apostles to fear him, fear the person who after he has killed their
bodies has the power to destroy their
dead bodies in Gehenna.
Whatever happens to one
happens to the other
(a). Both body and soul (psukee) are
destroyed, killed, Luke 12:4-5.
(b). Or both body and soul (psukee) are
tormented in Hell.
(c). Wherever the body is DESTROYED, the soul
(psukee) will be DESTROYED in the same place, not tormented. There is no way to
make Matthew 10:28 say (1) the body is destroyed in one place, in Gehenna by
man (2) and a undestroyed soul is endlessly tormented by God in another place,
in Hell.
(d). All the destroying in Matthew 10:28 is in the valley of Gehenna, not in a
place called Hell that did not exist at the time Christ said this, Hell did not
exist before the Dark Age.
(e). Even if Gehenna is changed to Hell, it
would only change the place where the killed
or destroyed takes place; then
another change has to be made to make Hell be a place where the killed or destroyed soul is in it is a place where the killed soul is not killed.
If this were changed
to a soul being tormented in Hell, them it would also make the body be
tormented in Hell. (1) First being killed (2) and then the killed person cast
into the valley of Gehenna is not being alive and tormented in Hell. THIS PASSAGE SPEAKS ONLY OF PERSONS THAT
HAVE ALREADY BEEN KILLED, PERSONS
THAT ARE ALREADY DEAD HAVING THEIR DEAD BODIES CAST INTO GEHENNA ONLY AFTER
THEY WERE DEAD.
THE ONLY
PLACE SPOKEN OF
IN THIS
PASSAGE IS GEHENNA
1. Nothing is said about a place called
Hell.
2. Nothing is said about torment after
death, not in Gehenna or Hell.
3. Nothing is said about any kind of life
after death in this passage, nothing about life in Gehenna, nothing about life
in Hell, and nothing about life in Heaven, nothing about life in Abrahams
bosom.
4. Nothing is said about any torment in
Gehenna, nothing about anyone being cast into Gehenna before being killed. Only dead bodies, no living
person were cast into Gehenna.
But when Gehenna is
changed to Hell, then Hell is made to be a place of endless torment for a
living soul that cannot be killed or destroyed.
Explain this change! (1). The killing is done BEFORE the killed body is cast into Gehenna. Fear him, who AFTER HE HAS KILLED has power
to cast into Gehenna (Luke 12:5). ONLY KILLED DEAD BODIES WERE CAST INTO GEHENNA, INTO THE CITY DUMP. (2). When Gehenna is
changed to Hell and the killed (Luke
12:4-5) is changed to an endless life of torment for a killed soul that cannot be killed,
this passage would then makes the torment (killing) of a soul be before the killed soul is cast into Hell, not
torment that is after whatever is killed, whatever is dead is then cast into
Hell. But this seems to be no problem for those that change, after they have
changed the killed person to endless life in torment for souls
that cannot be killed, and changed Gehenna to Hell, they just make a third
change, and CHANGE THE TIME OF THE TORMENT FROM BEFORE BEING CAST INTO HELL (Gehenna)
TO AFTER BEING CAST INTO HELL (Gehenna).
Christ speaks of being destroyed in Gehenna, but never says anything
about Gehenna being endless, or about torment in Gehenna, but those who change
Gehenna into Hell add both endless life and torment to Gehenna.
Many
Premillennialists, the Church Of God, and many others believe Christ is going
to come back and set up His kingdom on this earth, use this passage about
killed bodies being literally destroyed in Gehenna to teach that at the second coming
of Christ Gehenna will be restored and all the unbelievers will be killed and
then cast into Gehenna for their dead bodies to literally be destroyed by the
fire in the restored Gehenna.
CHANGES THAT MUST BE MADE
TO CHANGE A KILLED
PERSON INTO A LIVING SOUL
TO CHANGE GEHENNA INTO THE "HELL"
THAT IS TAUGHT TODAY
1.
Gehenna must be changed from a place of desertion that is on this earth to a
place of torment with no desertion that is not on this earth, changed to a
place that did not exist before the Dark Age Roman Catholic Church.
2.
Then the changed place must be moved.
3.
Them after the place that did not exist at that time has been changed and
moved, it must then be given a new name (Hell), a name that is not in the
Hebrew Old Testament or the Greek New Testament; there is no revelation that
there is such a place or such a name exist; both the place called Hell and its
name did not exist unto long after the last word of the New Testament was
written.
4.
The YOU (the twelve disciples) being killed
(Luke 12:4-5) and cast into Gehenna must be changed into it being cast alive
into Hell, whatever it is, it cannot be killed. It cannot fear
Him who is able to destroy it for we are told it cannot be destroyed.
5. The killed YOU, then cast the killed
YOU into Gehenna. Who believe God is going to cast killed dead bodies into Gehenna?
There is no ground for the traditional view of
an immortal soul that cannot be killed or destroyed in this passage, or any
other passage. Jesus used both kill
and destroy, but said nothing about torment. Theology
must be used to change killed and destroy into life in torment, for if
the words killed and destroy are not changed to mean life, there would be no
living "souls" to be tormented in Hell; therefore, no Hell.
A DOUBLE
CHANGE
To make Matthew 10:28
teach an immortal soul that will go to Hell the translators had to make two
major changes.
ONE CHANGE. Psukee in
the New Testament, nehphesh in Old Testament that is applied to all living being,
to both persons and animals, both all living and dead being must be changed to
be an immaterial, deathless, invisible, no substance, thoughts only something
that lives after the death of the person it had been in, but this deathless
soul is killed before it is cast
into the nonexistent Hell. Neither psukee nor nehphesh means a deathless
immortal soul.
SECOND CHANGE. Gehenna, a
real place on this earth changed to Hell, changed from a place that for
hundreds of years was believed by most Roman Catholics and Protestants to be
inside of the earth, changed to a place that is now believed that it is not on
this earth, changed to a place that does not exist inside of the earth, or out
in space, or where ever. The name Gehenna changed to a name that did not exist
when the Old or New Testament was written, changed to a name that is not in the
Bible, but was put in the Bible by man by mistranslating.
By translating (1)
life into soul (2) and destroy into lose, what Christ said was changed from the
person that loves the world will destroy his or her life, changed to be the
person that loves the world will lose a soul that is in them, but not destroy that
soul for it is deathless, and when the person that lost it is dead that soul
will go on living without the dead person that lost it. Would your God
endlessly torment a soul because of the sins of a dead person?
In the parallel
passage Luke makes it clear that it is the person that will be destroyed, not
an immortal something in a person, For
what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses (apollumi–destroys)
or forfeits himself (Luke
9:25)? The translators were not able to change the parallel passage in Luke
9:25 from the person being lost to an immortal something being lost that no
person knows what that something really is. If whatever a soul is, if it
were being tormented in Hell it would know where it was, only the dead person
that lost it would not know where it was, or would not know anything that
was happening to whatever it is.
If a soul is something
in a person that will be alive after the person is dead, would that not make it
be a soul that had lost the person it had been in, not as it is taught that a
person that sins loses a soul that is in them? This shows how completely
foolish they made Christ by trying to put Platos immortal soul into the mouth
of Christ.
Apollumi (destroy) is used 95 times in the New Testament. Matthew 10:28 and 10:39 (with the
parallel accounts in Luke, Mark, and John)
is the only time it is used with psukee–life, and it says fear him who is able to destroy (apollumi) a soul (psukee–life).
(a). What ever happens
to a soul (psukee–life) also happens to the body.
(b). What ever happens
to the body also happens to a soul (psukee–life).
If
one is destroyed in Gehenna, both
are destroyed in Gehenna. If one is never destroyed, but it is tormented in Hell by
God than both are never destroyed and both are tormented in Hell by God. Those who believe this psukee is a deathless soul that
cannot die must deny this plain statement made by Christ that this
psukee–life (not a deathless soul) could be destroyed by man in the
valley of Gehenna, which is on this earth.
1. And be not afraid of THEM that KILL the body,
but are not able to kill the soul (psukee-life). There was more then one THEM
that did the killing, more then one THEM that the apostles were being
told not to fear; they were not being told not to fear the ONE God. The valley of Gehenna, the city dump was a place where
things were cast to be destroyed, not a place of endless torment by God. The
psukee, some times translated soul can be lost or destroyed (Matthew 16:24; Mark 8:35; Luke 9:56 and many other
passages), it is not an immortal soul that that many believe it cannot be destroyed, that it cannot be killed, that it cannot be dead.
2.
Both are killed (destroyed) in the valley of Gehenna, The word Hell was not
used for it did not exist at that time. Many THEM (more than one) could
and did kill many of the disciples, and a killed person that was thought to be
unworthy of a burial, that dead person would be cast unburied into the valley
of Gehenna to be destroyed by fire and worms.
3. THE
SECOND DEATH AFTER THE RESURRECTION AND JUDGMENT (Revelation 21:8) WILL
NOT BE ETERNAL LIFE IN THE VALLLEY OF GEHENNA; DEATH IS DEATH, DEATH IS NOT
LIFE. The world, including the Valley of Gehenna, will be destroyed at the
coming of Christ (2 Peter 3:11-12). See The Day of the Lord in chapter 12.
Men (THEM more than one man)
did kill many disciples, and Christ warned His disciples that they would be
killed, but this has no effect on their ultimate existence. Death is but a
brief sleep for a person, which will be as if it were only a moment from death
unto the resurrection when the sleeping
person will wake up. (Deuteronomy 31:16; 2 Samuel 7:12; 1 Kings 1:21; Job 7:21;
14:12; Psalm 13:31; Jeremiah 51:39; 51:57; 1 Kings 2:10; 11:21; 11:43; 14:20;
14:31; 15:8; 15:24; 16:6; 16:28; 22:40; 22:50; 2 Kings 8:24; 10:35; 13:9; 13:13;
14:16, 22, 29; 15:7, 22, 38; 16:20; 20:21; 21:18; 24:6; 2 Chronicles 9:31;
12:16; 14:1; 16:13; 21:1; 26:2; 26:23; 27:9; 28:27; 32:33; 33:20; Job 3:13;
Isaiah 26:19; Matthew 9:24; 25:5; 27:52; Mark 5:39; Luke 8:52; John 11:11-14;
Acts 7:60; 13:36; 1 Corinthians 15:6; 15:18; 15:20; 15:51; 1 Thessalonians
4:13-15; 5:10; 2 Peter 3:4). If death does not indicate unconsciousness,
then the analogy of sleep, which is used throughout the Bible, is meaningless if
the dead are not asleep. It is more than just meaningless, saying the dead are
asleep if they are awake in Heaven, Hell, or Abrahams bosom, them being asleep
would be an outright lie that is repeated frequently in the Bible. The second death is never called a
sleep because there will be no waking up or resurrection from it.
If the words
"immortal soul" were substituted for "soul" and
"life," it would be absurd. "But are not able to kill the immortal soul (life–psukee): but
fear him who is able to destroy both the
immortal soul (life–psukee) and body in Hell (Gehenna)...He that
finds his immortal soul (life–psukee)
shall lose his immortal soul (life–psukee);
and he that loses his immortal soul (life–psukee) for my sake shall find his immortal soul (life–psukee)"
(Matthew 10:28-39).
At
the resurrection there will be life that God
can destroy, not that there is an immortal soul that God cannot destroy. This passage says nothing about an "immaterial, invisible part of
man" that is alive before the resurrection, and
that it cannot be destroyed. It does not say there will be any life from
death unto the resurrection. That there will be a resurrection is taught
throughout the New Testament, but if there were souls alive when Christ comes,
there could not be a resurrection of souls that are not dead.
Would prove more than
the advocate's of an immortal soul want to prove. If Matthew 10:28 were changed to be speaking of
torment in Hell it would prove more than they believe and more than they want
to prove for most that believe God will endless torment souls do not believe
that God will endless torment this earthly body in "Hell," or that
the "immaterial, invisible part of
man" will be destroyed. But, to prove Hell, they change destroy to be
just a loss of well being, but still alive, changed to undestroyed and being
tormented by God in Hell. If the immaterial, invisible part of a person is not
destroyed, but just lost its well-being, then the
earthly body is not destroyed, but has just lost its well-being. If there were
an immaterial, invisible part of a
person, the same thing would happen to both it and the body; therefore, if
destroy means one is tormented by God, not destroyed, then destroy means the
earthly body will be tormented in Hell just as we are told that there is a soul
that will be tormented in Hell. Most who believes in Hell do not believe the
flesh and blood "body" will be tormented, but it is clear that this
passage says that whatever happens to the "body" also happens to the
"soul" (psukee–life), both are destroyed at the same place. If
one is killed, both are killed, if one is tormented by God,
both are tormented by God. If the body
and soul (psukee–life) can be killed, neither one could not be immortal.
Psukee as it is translated in Luke 12
New International Version
Fear him who after
the killing of the body, has power to throw YOU (psukee) into hell Greek–Gehenna,
throw your body into Gehenna (Luke 12:5) after he has killed it.
And Ill say to MYSELF (psukee), YOU
(psukee) have plenty of good
things lain up for many years(Luke 12:18).
But God said to him,
You fool! This very night your LIFE (psukee) will be demanded
from you (Luke 12:20).
LIFE (psukee) is more than food,
and the body more than clothes (Luke 12:23).
In summary - There is absolutely nothing in this passage
about an immortal deathless soul that cannot be killed being endlessly
tormented in Hell by God. Those that believe there is an immortal soul do
not believe that a deathless soul can be killed. The name Gehenna designates
a known location that is on this earth, a location that is known even to this
day; every use of Gehenna in the Bible is to a real place that is on this
earth, not once is the name Gehenna applied to any place of torment after
death, not once did God say anything about a place called Hell; only by a
mistranslation and changing can Gehenna be changed to Hell. Hell is 100% a man
made up place, a place that does not exist in the Bible.
(3).
THE THIRD OCCASION
IN
ANOTHER LESSON TO HIS DISCIPLES
This was a
different discourse than Matthew 5:29-30 above, but Jesus was teaching the same
thing. See the notes on the first occasion above.
"And if YOUR right eye
makes YOU stumble, tear it out, and
throw it from YOU; for it is better
for YOU that one of the parts of YOUR BODY perish, than for YOUR WHOLE BODY to be thrown into Hell (Greek–Gehenna) (Matthew 18:9). Whole bodies were cast into Gehenna,
but I know of no one that believes in Hell that believes the whole body (the whole earthly body)
will be cast into Hell, most believe
that only a soul that had been in a dead whole
body will be cast into Hell without the whole body, only after that immaterial, bodiless soul leaves the
dead whole body it had been in. Mark
9:43; 9:45; 9:47, "And if YOUR hand cause YOU to stumble, cut it off: it is good for YOU to enter into LIFE
maimed, rather then having YOUR two
hands to go into Hell (Greek–Gehenna), into the unquenchable fire. And if YOUR foot cause YOU to stumble, cut it off; it is good for YOU to enter into LIFE halt,
(enter into life on earth crippled without a hand or foot, not a crippled soul
with a cut off hand in Heaven) rather
then having YOUR two feet to be cast
into Hell (Greek–Gehenna–YOU cast into Gehenna, not a soul with a
cut off foot in Hell). And if YOUR eye cause YOU to stumble, cast it out; (what person can literally or
figuratively cast out an eye of a no substance, immaterial soul) it is good for YOU to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, rather than
having two eyes to be cast into Hell (Greek–Gehenna) where their worm dies
not, the fire is not quenched;" where they-persons with two eyes are
cast? Into Gehenna, which is a real
valley on this earth that in the time of Christ that had both literal fire and
worms and literally had dead bodies cast into it. "Where their worm dies not, the fire is not quenched in Mark
9:44 is a direct quotation of Isaiah 66:24 which is speaking of literal fire burning
and worms eating literal carcasses, dead bodies of persons, and living persons
literally going out to look at the dead carcasses. Mark 9:46 and 9:48 are in
some translations but not in others because they are not in many of the Greek
manuscripts, but all three are a direct quotation of Isaiah 66:24.
NOT MANY BELIEVES THE HUMAN BODY your
whole body IS GOING TO BE CAST IN HELL AND BE TORMENTED BY GOD, YET THIS
PASSAGE ABOUT A HUMAN BODY, ABOUT A DEAD BODY OF A PERSON BEING CAST INTO THE
VALLEY OF GEHENNA, BUT IT IS OFTEN CHANGED AND USED TO PROVE AN IMMATERIAL
SOUL THAT WAS KILLED BUT
IS NOT DEAD WILL ENDLESSLY BE TORMENTED BY GOD, NOT IN THE VALLEY OF GEHENNA,
BUT IN HELL; the hand, eye, and body are parts of a live person, not
parts of an immaterial soul that has no earthy parts; the your whole body that is cast into Gehenna is the same body that
the eye it is to be pluck out of;
the foot is a part of the earthy
body that is literally cut off and cast into the same place as the whole body,
both are cast into the same Gehenna, not a foot of a soul that is somehow cut
off of a soul and then cast into Hell to keep the rest of a soul from being
cast into Hell. Bodies and parts of bodies were cast into Gehenna; no one
can cast a body or any part of a body into the Hell that is taught today. The foot that is cut off and cast into
Gehenna is a part of your whole body
that is alive on earth at the time the foot is cut off; it was a living person
that were to cut off their foot and cast their foot into the earthly Gehenna.
If there were a Hell no person would be able to cast his or her foot into Hell.
(a). It would be better for HIM ifHE had been CAST INTO THE
SEA (Mark 9:42). Can whatever a soul is be cast into the sea?
(b).
It is better for YOU to
enter life crippledthen having two
hands, to be CAST INTO GEHENNA
(Mark 9:43).
(c).
It is better for YOU to
enter life lame then having two
feet, to be CAST INTO GEHENNA
(Mark 9:45).
(d).
It is better for YOU to
enter the kingdom of Godthan having
two eyes, to be CAST INTO GEHENNA, (Mark
9:47).
Throughout Mark the kingdom of God is always the earthly kingdom; it is
not saying it is better for a soul to enter Heaven with only one eye. Will a
soul in Heaven be maimed or have only one eye? If this was either a soul while
it is still in a person, or a soul after the resurrection, what could
possibility have the meaning of cutting off a hand of a soul that we are told
that a soul is thoughts only and does not have a hand?
Both the sea and Gehenna are places on this earth. It is a person, not a
soul that is cast into the sea, and
a person, not a soul, that is cast into
Gehenna. To enter into life, or
into the kingdom of God is
contrasted with being cast in Gehenna. It is a living person that enters into
life with one eye, or enters into the kingdom or church. Nothing is said about there
being a soul that will enter into Heaven after the death of the person it had
been in, absolutely nothing is said about a soul or Hell in this passage.
"Where their worm dies not, the fire is not quenched" is
a direct quotation from Isaiah 66:23-24 where it is speaking of dead bodies on
this earth being literally burned with fire and dead bodies being literally
eaten by worms just as anything that was cast into Gehenna was literally burned
with fire, or was literally eaten by worms; if, as we are repeatedly told, an
immaterial soul has no body then how could it or any part of it be eaten by
worms? Gehenna, a real place on this earth where there were worms, has
been changed to Hell, a place that is not on this earth where there are no
worms, a place that there is not one word about it in the Bible that says such
a place exist, and bodies has been changed to souls that have no bodies and
these bodiless souls are tormented in a place that not one Bible passage tells
of. It is better for YOU to enter life crippled (Mark 9:43), what life is Christ
speaking of, this life crippled, or
a crippled life in Heaven? If
Christ were speaking of Heaven, unless it is possible to be crippled with only
one foot and one eye in Heaven, this passage would make no sense. Do
unconditional immoralists believe Christ is saying it is better for an immortal
soul to enter life in Heaven a crippled
soul; it is good for YOU to enter into life halt, rather
then having YOUR two feet to be cast
into Hell (Greek–Gehenna)? If Christ were speaking of immortal souls
entering life in Heaven or being cast into Hell, would there be any way to say
there will not be crippled souls in Heaven? This is teaching that if there is anything in our lives that would be
in the way of us entering into the kingdom of Heaven we need to remove whatever
it is from our life, not literally cut off a hand; a person who uses drugs
needs to repent, a person who is a thief needs to repent–to remove (cut
off) the things from their lives that would prevent them from entering into the
kingdom. The kingdom spoken of is probably the church.
(4).
THE FOURTH OCCASION
IN
A SERMON TO THE SCRIBES AND PHARISEES
Gehenna is
used two times in a sermon to the Scribes and Pharisees warning them of God's
rejection of Israel. In Matthew 23 and 24 Christ speaks of the destruction of
Israel. "All these things shall come
upon this generation" (Matthew 23:36). The context of these two uses of Gehenna are clearly an in time
judgment of Israel, a judgment that came in A. D. 70 and has now passed, it is not
of anything that will be after the judgment at the coming of Christ. THERE IS
NO REFERENCE TO "HELL." The judgment and destruction of Israel did
come on that "generation," but "damnation of Hell" as it is
mistranslated and preached today did not come on that "generation." Damnation" is from krisis which
means judgment, it does not mean damnation as it is mistranslated in the King
James Version, the Greek says, "judgment of Gehenna," not the
"damnation of Hell;" both damnation and Hell in the King James
Version are a change, both are mistranslated. These two uses of Gehenna are in a context of a rebuke toward the
Pharisees and religious leaders of that time, and not about anything after the
Judgment Day, or not anything about souls or spirits. Added to this is that
it is fallowed by the lamentation of Jesus over the doomed city of Jerusalem, Truly
I say to you, all these things shall come upon this generation. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem that kills the
prophets and stones them that are sent unto her! How often would I have
gathered your children together even as a hen gathers her chickens under her
wings, and you would not! Behold, your
house is left unto you desolate (Matthew 23:37-38). Matthew 23 and 24
are about the coming judgment and destruction of Jerusalem.
ISRAEL THE WICKED HUSBANDMEN
Matthew
21:33-46
Before looking at this use of Gehenna it may help understand it to first
look at the parable of the wicked husbandman that comes just before it, and it
is a part of the same sermon spoken to the Scribes and Pharisees. "When; therefore, the lord of the
vineyard shall come, what will he do unto these husbandman? They say unto him, He will miserably DESTROY these miserable
men, and will let out the vineyard unto other husbandmen, who will render
him the fruits in their seasons. Jesus said unto them, did you never read in
the scriptures, the stone, which the builders rejected, the same was made the
head of the corner; this was from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes? Therefore say I unto YOU, the kingdom of God shall be taken away from
YOU, and shall be given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. And
he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls,
it will scatter him like dust. And when
the chief priests and Pharisees heard HIS PARABLES, they understood that He was
speaking ABOUT THEM." How is it that today most do not understand these
parables to be about Israel, do not understand that He was speaking about them?
Many parables deal with the rejection of Christ by Israel and Israels destruction.
See chapter 8, part 1 and part 2.
SON OF GEHENNA, Matthew
23:15
"Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you compass sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he is
become so, you make him twofold more
a son of Hell (Greek–Gehenna) then yourselves."
In speaking to the Pharisees, Christ said, "For
you are like unto whitewashed tombs,
which outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead man's bones,
and of all uncleanness" (Matthew
23:27). The Scribes and Pharisees
made their proselytes twofold more a son
of Gehenna than themselves (Matthew 23:15). A place cannot give birth to a
person. No one, not even those who believe in Hell believe Hell is literally
the father or mother of anyone. To call a person a son of a place is not to say
that place is literally the persons mother, but is to say a part of his or her
character is similar to that place. Gehenna
was a place of filth and uncleanness. To use the metaphors "son of Gehenna" is to say
they were unclean like the filthy
city dump. To be a "son of
Gehenna" means to be like Gehenna and the things in it, to be filthy
and contemptible, fit only to be destroyed. The proselytes were made twofold
more unclean then the Pharisees, this is speaking of them being sons of
Gehenna while they were alive, unclean while they were living persons, it
says nothing about souls that had been in the proselytes after the proselytes
are dead being twofold more unclean in Hell than the souls that had been in the
Scribes and Pharisees. When Gehenna is
mistranslated Hell, does twofold more
mean they will have double the torment in Hell that the Pharisees will have?
No. It means they are double as unclean, double as wrong in what they believed
while they were living as were the Pharisees. Because
Gehenna does not literally have sons, this is a figure of speech, and it is not intended to be taken literally, not in this life, or
not after death. James and John are called "sons
of thunder" (Mark 3:17). Thunder did not give birth to them; a part of
their character is loud and noisy like thunder, "And if a son of peace be there" (Luke 10:6), "Son of exhortation" (Acts
4:36), "Sons of disobedience"
(Ephesians 2:2), "The son of
destruction" (2 Thessalonians 2:3). These sons of Gehenna, were living people that were living on this
earth at the time Christ said they were sons
of Gehenna; Christ said people that are living on this earth, not souls in
Hell are sons of Gehenna.
J. W. McGARVEY, Matthew 8:11, "The child of anything in Hebrew
phraseology expressed the idea of special property which one has in the thing
specified, as, for instance, children of disobedience (Eph. ii. 2)." The
Fourfold Gospel, Standard Publishing Company, 1914.
ROBERT W. YARBROUGH, In biblical usage son of normally means physical
descendent. But it also has a metaphorical use. It can mean to share the
characteristics of someone or something. Sons of thunder are boisterous and
impulsive young men (Mark 3:17; cf. Luke 9:54). Sons of light and sons of the
day (1 Thess. 5:5) are people whose lives reflect Gods moral brilliance.
Hell Under Fire, page 73, Zondervan printers, 2004.
This metaphor is taken from the filth and uncleanness of Gehenna.
Although this passage is repeatedly used to prove eternal torment of a soul by
God after the death of the person that soul had been in, (1) there is nothing,
not one word about souls in it, (2) there is nothing about any torment of
souls in it, not torment in this lifetime, not torment of souls after death,
not torment of souls after the judgment, (3) nothing, not one word about Hell,
or about torment by God in Hell.
In
the same address to the Scribes and Pharisees, Christ adds more examples of
their uncleanness.
1.
Sons of Gehenna, they were then filth and unclean like Gehenna while they were
living persons, while they were living on this earth.
2.
The Pharisees washed the outside of the cup to make it clean, "For you clean the outside of the cup
and of the dish, but inside they are full or robbery and self-indulgence. You
blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup and of the platter, that
the outside thereof may become clean also" (Matthew 23:25-26).
3.
The Pharisees were then like whitewashed graves, "Which appear beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead man's
bones, and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous unto
men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity" (Matthew
23:27-28).
Matthew 23:13-39 is a list of seven woes to the Scribes and Pharisees. "Twofold more a son of Gehenna." Matthew
23:15 is the second of the seven woes on the Scribes
and Pharisees (Matthew 23:13-39). All seven of the woes were on them while they
were living, not on souls after their death.
1. The Pharisees shut the kingdom of Heaven
against men, and enter not in (Matthew 23:13-14).
2. The Pharisees made their
proselytes twofold more a son of Gehenna than them selves (Matthew 23:15).
Does anyone that believes in Hell believe anyone can be twofold more a son of
Hell as the mistranslated King James Version says they are?
3. The Pharisees said to swear by the
temple is nothing (Matthew 23:16-22).
4. The Pharisees left
undone the weightier matters (Matthew 23:23-24).
5. The Pharisees were
full of hypocrisy and iniquity; they cleaned only the outside of the cup
(Matthew 23:25-26).
6. The Pharisees are like whitewashed
tombs, full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness (Matthew 23:17-28).
7. The Pharisees are sons and
partakers with their fathers that slew the prophets. "How shall YOU escape the judgment of Gehenna"? (Matthew 23:29-39).
JUDGMENT OF GEHENNA
Matthew
23:33-39
"Fill you up then the measure of YOUR fathers. YOU serpents, YOU offspring
of vipers, how shall YOU escape the
judgment of Gehenna (deliberately
mistranslated to damnation of Hell in King James Version when damnation or
Hell is not in the Greek)? Therefore,
behold, I send unto YOU prophets,
and wise men, and Scribes: some of them shall YOU kill and crucify; and some of them shall YOU scourge in YOUR
synagogues, and persecute from city to city: that upon YOU may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the
blood of Abel the righteous unto the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, whom YOU
slew between the sanctuary and the altar. Verily I say unto YOU, all these things shall come UPON THIS GENERATION." Christ
was speaking the Scribes and Pharisees when He said, How shall YOU escape the
judgment of Gehenna, All the YOU in the above passage are the
living persons that Christ was speaking to; Christ had just told the Scribes
and Pharisees they made their proselytes more a "SON of Gehenna, more
unclean than themselves; then He calls them "offspring (SONS) of vipers," and "all these things (all the
righteous blood from Abel to Zechariah) shall come UPON THIS GENERATION." Matthew 23 is a discourse to the
Scribes and the Pharisees, and they knew that Jesus was speaking to them; the
you is the Pharisees that Christ was speaking to, a judgment that shall come upon
THIS GENERATION, a judgment that did come in A. D. 70 on that generation,
it is not about things that are happening today, or about things that will
happen after the Judgment Day; many take one word of this discourse out of it
context, and then changed this one noun (Gehenna) to another noun (Hell) that
is not in the Bible, changing the Bible is the only way they can get Hell
into the Bible.
The
Scribes and Pharisees knew the law, but did not keep it. Outwardly they were as
beautiful as white sepulchers, but inwardly were full of dead man's bones. They
(not souls) would not escape the judgment to come. "Verily I say unto you, all
these things shall come upon this generation" (Matthew 23:36).
Matthew 24 is a discourse to His disciples about the destruction of Israel of
which He had just spoken of to the Pharisees in chapter twenty-three. That
generation did not escape the judgment of Gehenna. The judgment of Gehenna occurs only when Christ was speaking to
the Jews about the coming destruction of Jerusalem; it came in A. D. 70 when
historians say Gehenna had many dead bodies of Jews from the destruction of
Jerusalem (See Jeremiah 19). To the Jews, to be
judged as not being fit to be buried was the worse of
all insult. It was the most severe judgment of contempt upon a criminal known
to the Jews. In the judgment soon to come upon them
Josephus said six hundred thousand dead bodies of the Jews were carried out of
Jerusalem and lift unburied.
CONDEMNATION,
DAMNATION, AND DAMNED
Of
The King James Version
In
Matthew 23 the seventh woe of the warning to the Scribes and Pharisees and
Matthew 24 are about the judgment coming to them and on Israel. Why did the King James translators
change, The judgment (krisis) of
Gehenna into, The damnation of Hell
(Matthew 23:33)?
Judgment of Gehenna for Israel
that shall come upon this generation
(Matthew 23:36) is changed to, Damnation
of Hell. It took a double change to make it say what the translators
wanted, (1st change) judgment
(krisis) changed to damnation, (2 st
change) then Gehenna
is changed to Hell. That generation is long pasted and there has been no damnation of Hell, but the judgment of
Gehenna did come on that generation in A. D. 70 when Israel was destroyed. How
did the translators think they had the right to change this warning to the
Scribes and Pharisees about a judgment of Gehenna that was coming on that
generation to the Hell they believed in, especially when neither the word damnation nor Hell is in the Greek from which they
translated it; they deliberately changed the words of Christ and put their
pagan Hell into the mouth of Christ, deliberately changed Christs teaching of
the judgment coming to Israel changed and God made to be an endlessly tormenter
of souls.
Krisis is used in the New Testament 48 times and in the King James
Version it is translated judgment
41 times, damnation 3 times, condemnation 2 times, accusation 2 times. The translators
must have thought that if they put damnation with Hell that it would make the
threat of Hell stronger? Krisis should have never been translated damnation or
condemnation. In the American Standard Version Krisis is translated
"judgment" 47 times, and "sin" 1 time in Mark
3:29. In Matthew 23:33 American Standard Version it is, judgment of Hell with the footnote saying the Greek Christ used says
Judgment of Gehenna, not Hell.
THE RESURRECTION OF DAMNATION
(krisis) (KJV), JUDGMENT
(krisis) (ASV), "The resurrection of
judgment (krisis)" (John 5:29) says nothing about an endless life of
torment in Hell after the second coming of Christ although this passage is
continually used to prove God is a tormenter. The verdict of the judgment, if it were death, or endless life being
tormented by God is not in this passage.
In an attempt to put Hell in the Bible, the translators of the King James
Version (1) changed the judgment and made it be the verdict of the judgment,
(2) and then made the verdict be what they needed it to be, namely souls being endlessly
tormented by God. This probably deliberate double mistranslation is based on
the translators belief of the doctrine of an endless life of a soul in Hell
being tormented by God.
Krisis
is in the Greek forty-eight time and is translated judgment forty-one of the
forty-eight times in the King James Version. When it is applied only to the
lost the King James translators translated "krisis" condemnation or
damnation, but when it is applied to all (Hebrews 9:27) they translated
"krisis" judgment; they could not have damnation of all. Just one
more example of how they were willing to mistranslate to put "Hell"
into the Bible even if they had to make God be an endless tormenter of many
billions. The New American Standard Version and most other translations do not
mistranslate "krisis" into condemnation or damnation. Two words had to be changed in Matthew
23:33 to put today's Hell in the Bible. "Judgment" had to be changed
to "damnation," and "Gehenna" had to be changed to
"Hell."
John 3:17-18, condemned or judged?
1. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn (krino) the world; but that the world through him
might be save. He that believeth on him is not condemned (krino):
but he that believeth not is condemned (krino) already King James Version.
2.
For God sent not the Son into the world
to judge (krino) the
world: but that the world should be saved through him. He that believeth on him
is not judged (krino): he that believeth not has been judged (krino) already American
Standard Version.
Romans 14:22
1. Happy is he that condemneth (krino) not himself King James Version.
2. Happy is he that judgeth (krino) not himself American Standard Version.
2
Thessalonians 2:12
1. That they all might be damned (krino) King James Version.
2. That they all might be judged (krino) American Standard Version.
John 5:29
1. "Unto the
resurrection of damnation
(krisis)" King James Version.
2. "Unto the
resurrection of judgment
(krisis)" American Standard Version.
John 5:24
1. "Shall not come into condemnation (krisis)"
King James Version.
2. "Shall not come into judgment (krisis)" New King
James Version, American Standard Version.
Matthew
23:33
1. "Escape the damnation (krisis)"
King James Version.
2. "Escape the judgment (krisis)" American
Standard Version.
John 3:19
1. "And this is the condemnation (krisis)" King James Version.
2. "And this is the judgment (krisis)" American Standard Version.
If
"krisis" means "damnation," then we are all in trouble for.
"It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this comes damnation judgment (krisis)"
(Hebrews 9:27), judgment will come to all men, to both the saved and the
lost, but not damnation.
Krino,
another Greek word is used 112 times and translated judge, judged, 86 times in
the King James Version. There is a vast different in damned and judged,
both cannot be a true translation of the same word. Krino changed to condemnation,
damnation, and damned were all taken out of American Standard and many other
translations. How many millions have
been made to believe a lie by this deliberate changing of the Bible?
FOY E. WALLACE Jr., NO ROOT, NO
BRANCH, NO HOPE OF LIFE FOR ISRAEL. "The prophet declares that
'the day shall burn as an oven' and 'it shall burn them up'–a
pronouncement against the Jewish nation and governments that rejected and
condemned the Christ, and persecuted his saints." "God's Prophetic
Word," page 545.
The
Jews would have been acquainted with the language of judgment on nations in the
Old Testament. Malachi's pronouncement is against the Jewish nation. "For behold, the day is coming, burning
like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the
day that is coming will set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it
will leave them neither root not branch" (Malachi 4:1). Malachi likens
the wicked to stubble that is burnt up and reduced to ashes. Old Testament
illustrations are not consistent with todays doctrine of endless torment; they
depict the death of both nations and persons. In the last chapter in the Old
Testament of our English Bible Malachi says Israel will not be left a root to
sprout a branch or a branch to sprout roots; therefore, with no root there will
be no hope for Israel.
Summary - Just as every
reference to Gehenna in the Old Testament are to a place on this earth, to the
valley south of Jerusalem, and it is never translated "Hell," every
reference to Gehenna by Christ is also to the same place on this earth, to the
same valley. In the four occasions that Jesus used Gehenna, (1) not in a one is
Gehenna said to be endless or everlasting, (2) not once is there any torment of
living persons in Gehenna, (3) and not once is Gehenna used in connection with
the resurrection, but today preachers most always add everlasting and change Gehenna
to Hell, then many say God will never stop tormenting souls that had been in
persons. How do they know this? None of
the apostles never preach anything about Gehenna; if
it were a place of torment where God torments all souls that had been in the
lost, why did they never say anything about endless torment? They used death,
destroy, destroyed, perish, die, and end; but never "Hell."
(5).
AND ONE TIME BY JAMES
TO
THE TWELVE TRIBES OF ISRAEL
The
tongue is SET ON FIRE BY GEHENNA
"And the tongue
is a fire; the world of iniquity among our members is the tongue, which defiles
the whole body, and sets on fire the wheel of nature, and is set on fire by Hell (Greek–Gehenna)" (James
3:6). James used the same proper noun, the name of a particular place that is
on this earth that Christ used in Matthew 23:15 as a metaphor of uncleanness.
The tongue is a fire and is set on fire by Gehenna, the filthy, contemptible
garbage dump. Most who are given to gossip look for some filthy rotten garbage
on someone, and then cannot wait to tell it. James did
not use Gehenna to teach the Jews about what was going to happen to them after
death or to souls if they rejected Christ; those that believe in Hell do not
believe what James said, he used Gehenna, not Hell, to tell them that the
tongue, a part of the earthly body, is now while the person is living is set on
fire. To say, "The tongue of a living person is set on fire by the place
of endless torment after the judgment," which is what many teach, makes no
sense. This metaphor is not taken from
the destruction by the fire and maggots in Gehenna, but is a metaphor taken from the filth and
uncleanness that was in the Valley of Gehenna just as Christ used the filth and
uncleanness of Gehenna, not the fire and maggots of Gehenna in the fourth
occasion that He used Gehenna in Matthew 23. The tongue that is set on fire
is in living people before their death; it speaks of what is happening to
people in this lifetime, THERE IS NOTHING ABOUT THERE BEING GOSSIP IN HELL,
there is not one word in it about what will happen to persons after death, or
to souls after the judgment. There is nothing about being killed and then cast
into Gehenna in James, nothing about torment or destruction in James, and
nothing about anything after death. The tongue is a fire now in this lifetime.
When Gehenna is changed to Hell that is believed to be a literal place that is
not on this earth and this Hell sets on fire a literal tongue that is in a
living person on this earth it would somehow make that person's tongue while
the person was alive be in contact with and controlled by a place that is not
on this earth. James used Gehenna as a place of uncleanness, which he
figuratively applied to a vile unclean tongue of a living person. This passage
says nothing about any kind of punishment before or after death, nothing about
the fate of the unrighteous after death, or nothing about a soul or a spirit
although it is often used to prove them.
DOSE
A PLACE TORMENT?
Set on fire (James 3:6). According to
those that believe in Hell, they believe Hell is a PLACE where God will be
doing the tormenting. Both when Gehenna is not changed to Hell, and when
Gehenna is changed to Hell, if there were any tormenting in James 3:6 it would
be undeniable that it is a PLACE on this earth, changed by the translaters to a PLACE that is not on this earth that does
the setting on fire of an earthly tongue, even though a PLACE has no thoughts. In
this passage it is not God, but a PLACE that will be doing the setting on fire
(tormenting). When this passage is made literal as most that believe in Hell
do, then a PLACE that is on this earth, Gehenna, is changed to a PLACE that is
not on this earth changed to Hell, and this PLACE that is not on this earth goes
far beyond its own border to literally set on fire a tongue that is still in a
living person that is on earth, not set on fire (torment) a soul that had been
in a living person on earth before the death of the person it was in. Why would
James use the name of a real PLACE that is on this earth if he was speaking of
a PLACE that is not on this earth? Gehenna was a very unclean place; to use
Gehenna as a metaphor of uncleanness makes sense, but to change the name to a
PLACE where many believe God torments souls, and then say that this PLACE that
most that believe in Hell now believe it to be a very far distance from this
earth, but this place of torment sets the tongues of living people on fire
makes no sense.
Gehenna was not used
in the rest of the New Testament, and neither is unquenchable fire. Most that believes in Hell make the maggots they say will be in Hell
figurative maggots, not real maggots in Hell, but make the fire they say will
be in Hell be real fire. If this was true, how could they know which one was real
and which one was figurative? Are they saying real worms cannot eat a soul that
is immaterial, invisible, and has no earthly substance that real worms can
eat, but real fire can burn the immaterial soul that has no earthly substance
that real worms could not eat? If the "unquenchable
fire" and "their worm dies
not" of Valley of Gehenna is a description of
the endless punishment of the wicked in "Hell," the silence of the
New Testament writers would be unexplainable. (1) Acts, a history of the
preaching and church for about thirty years does not mention Gehenna,
unquenchable fire, or immortal maggots. (2) In none of Paul's fourteen letters,
he never mentioned them. (3) Peter, John, and Jude are also as silent as Paul.
(4) Neither can they be found in the Book of Revelation.
TOURS OF HELL
Today many
travelers to Israel are offered a tour of Hell; they are taken to the Valley
of Gehenna, but they find no fire there. After A. D. 70 the fire went out and
all signs of the fire has now disappeared.
BEFORE ANY PLACE NAMED
HELL COULD BE KNOWN ABOUT BY ANYONE, SUCH A PLACE MUST BE
MADE KNOWN BY A REVELATION FROM GOD. THERE IS NO SUCH REVELATION.
THE MISTRANSLATION OF GEHENNA
| KJV | ASV NASV RSV NRSV*
| Others**
Matthew 5:22, 29, 30_| Hell | Hell Footnote-Greek Gehenna|
Gehenna
Matthew 10:28 |
Hell | Hell Footnote-Greek Gehenna| Gehenna
Mt 18:9 Mk 9:43,44,45| Hell | Hell Footnote-Greek Gehenna|
Gehenna
Matthew 23:15, 33 | Hell | Hell Footnote-Greek
Gehenna| Gehenna
Luke 12:5
| Hell | Hell Footnote-Greek Gehenna| Gehenna
James 3:6
| Hell | Hell Footnote-Greek Gehenna| Gehenna
The
American Standard Version, Revised Standard Version, New Revised Standard
Version, and others have a footnote "Gr. Gehenna."
**New American Bible, World English Bible, Young's Literal New Testament
(author of "Young's Analytical Concordance"), Wesley's New Testament
(founder of Methodist Church), Christian Bible 1991, and many more translations
have "Gehenna" in the text as it should be as it is a Proper Noun
(the name of a particular place). The Amplified Bible has it as an insert in
the text, "Hell (Gehenna) of
fire."
THE TRANSLATION OF GEHENNA
IN SEVEN TRANSLATIONS
1. Young's
Literal Bible (1891) Author of "Young's Analytical Concordance To The
Bible."
First occasion, in the Sermon on the Mount.
Matthew 5:22, Gehenna Of The Fire, Matthew 5:29 and
Matthew 5:30 Gehenna.
Second occasion, in a lesson to the twelve
disciples.
Matthew 10:28–Destroy in Gehenna, Luke 12:5 Gehenna.
Third occasion, in another lesson to his
disciples.
Matthew 18:9, Gehenna of the fire; Mark 9:43, Mark
9:44, and Mark 9:45 Gehenna.
Fourth occasion, to the Scribes and Pharisees.
Matthew 23:15 Son of Gehenna, Matthew 23:33
Gehenna.
And one time by James, to the Twelve Tribes, James 3:6 Set of fire by the Gehenna.
2. Wesley's
New Testament (1755) the original edition by Wesley, the founder of Methodist
Church, not the updated editions that have been changed by others.
First occasion, in the Sermon on the Mount.
Matthew 5:22, Matthew 5:29, and Matthew
5:30–Gehenna
Second occasion, in a lesson to the twelve
disciples.
Matthew 10:28, and Luke 12:5 Gehenna.
Third occasion, in another lesson to his
disciples.
Matthew 18:9, Mark 9:43, Mark 9:44 and Mark
9:45–Gehenna.
Fourth occasion, to the Scribes and Pharisees.
Matthew 23:15, and Matthew 23:3–Gehenna.
And one time by James, to the Twelve Tribes, James 3:6–Gehenna.
3. Weymouth New Testament (1903)
First occasion, in the Sermon on the Mount.
Matthew 5:22 Gehenna of Fire;
Matthew 5:29 and Matthew 5:30 Gehenna.
Second occasion, in a lesson to the twelve
disciples.
Matthew 10:28 and Luke 12:5 Gehenna.
Third occasion, in another lesson to his
disciples.
Matthew 18:9 Gehenna of fire;
Mark 9:43, Mark 9:44 and Mark 9:45 Gehenna.
Fourth occasion, to the Scribes and Pharisees.
Matthew 23:15–Son of Gehenna; Matthew 23:33 Gehenna.
And one time by James, to the Twelve Tribes, James 3:6 Set of fire by Gehenna.
4. The New
American Bible (1991)
First occasion, in the Sermon on the Mount.
Matthew 5:22, Whoever says, 'You fool,' will be liable to fiery Gehenna.
Matthew 5:29, Better to lose part of you body than have it all cast into Gehenna.
Matthew 5:30, Better to lose part of you body than have it all cast into Gehenna.
Second occasion, in a lesson to the twelve
disciples.
Matthew 10:28 Gehenna.
Luke 12:5, Fear
him who has power to cast into Gehenna after he has killed.
Third occasion, in another lesson to his
disciples.
Matthew 18:9, Better to enter life with one eye than be thrown with both into fiery
Gehenna.
Mark 9:43, Better
for you to enter life maimed than to keep both hands and enter Gehenna with its
unquenchable fire.
Mark 9:44, Better
for you to enter life crippled than to be thrown into Gehenna with both feet.
Mark 9:45, Better
for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to be thrown with both
eyes into Gehenna.
Fourth occasion, to the Scribes and Pharisees.
Matthew 23:15 Gehenna; Matthew 23:33 Gehenna.
And one time by James, to the Twelve Tribes, James 3:6 And its fire is kindled by hell.
5. The
Christian Bible (1991)
First occasion, in the Sermon on the Mount.
Matthew 5:22 The Gehenna of Fire;
Matthew 5:29 Your
whole body should be thrown into Gehenna; Matthew
5:30 Your whole body should pass away
into Gehenna.
Second occasion, in a lesson to the twelve
disciples.
Matthew 10:28 And the body in Gehenna;
Luke 12:5 Gehenna.
Third occasion, in another lesson to his
disciples.
Matthew 18:9 Then to have two eyes and to be thrown into the Gehenna of fire.
Mark 9:43 Gehenna; Mark 9:44 and
Mark 9:45 Thrown
into Gehenna.
Fourth occasion, to the Scribes and Pharisees.
Matthew 23:15 A son of Gehenna; Matthew 23:33
Gehenna.
And one time by James, to the Twelve Tribes, James 3:6 The tongue...is set of fire by Gehenna.
6. World English Bible
First occasion, in the Sermon on the Mount.
Matthew 5:22, Shall be in danger of the fire of Gehenna.
Matthew 5:29, Than for your whole body to be cast into Gehenna.
Matthew 5:30, And not your whole body be
cast into Gehenna.
Second occasion, in a lesson to the twelve
disciples.
Matthew 10:28, Able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna; Luke 12:5 Gehenna.
Third occasion, in another lesson to his
disciples.
Matthew 18:9, Than having two eyes to be cast into the
Gehenna of fire.
Mark 9:43, Gehenna; Mark 9:45 Gehenna;
Mark 9:47 Gehenna
of fire.
Fourth occasion, to the Scribes and Pharisees.
Matthew 23:15, You make him twice as much of a son of
Gehenna as yourselves.
Matthew 23:33, How will you escape the judgment of
Gehenna?
And one time by James, to the Twelve Tribes James 3:6 Set on fire by Gehenna.
7. Phillips
New Testament in Modern English (1952)
First occasion, in the Sermon on the Mount.
Matthew 5:22, Fire of destruction;
Matthew 5:29 Rubbish-heap; Matthew
5:30–Rubbish-heap.
Second occasion, in a lesson to the twelve
disciples.
Matthew 10:28, Fire of destruction;
Luke 12:5 Throw
you into destruction.
Third occasion, in another lesson to his
disciples.
Matthew 18:9, Fire of the rubbish–heap; Mark 9:43 Go to the rubbish-heap.
Mark 9:44, Thrown
on to the rubbish-heap; Mark 9:45 Thrown on to the rubbish-heap.
Fourth occasion, to the Scribes and Pharisees.
Matthew 23:15, Ripe for destruction;
Matthew 23:33 Fire
of destruction.
And one time by James, to the Twelve Tribes James 3:6, Can set the
whole of life ablaze, fed with the fires of hell.
Phillips says
"And go to the rubbish-heap where the fire never dies"
(Mark 9:43).
Thrown on the rubbish-heap, where decay never stops and the fire never goes out"
(Mark 9:49, Also Matthew 5:29, 18:9, Mark 9:47). "Fire of destruction" (Matthew 5:22, 10:28, 32:33, Luke 12:5).
Phillips leaves out "Gehenna," a name of a
particular place; and puts what Jerusalem's Gehenna was to the people of that
time to make it where people today will understand the same thing the Jews that
Christ was speaking to would have understand. Many today would not know that
Gehenna was the Rubbish-heap of Jerusalem. This is not a translation of the
Greek, but it is a good commentary. He translated "Gehenna" into Hell only one time (James 3:6). This is
the only time Hell is in his translation, and shows that he believed in Hell,
but knows the Greek manuscripts did not have it.
8. There are also many other translations that do not have
"Hell" in them.
DID JESUS
SAY MORE ABOUT HELL THAN HEAVEN?
It has been said often
by many preachers that Jesus said more about Hell than He did about Heaven. Is
this the truth or is it a lie that has been told so many times by preachers
that many believe it without questioning it? The truth is that without
mistranslating to make Jesus say something He or any New Testament writers did
not say, Jesus said nothing about Hell,
not one word. Although the New Testament writers said nothing about Hell,
they did say much about Heaven. Although Hell is not in the Bible, Heaven is
hundreds of times referring (1) to the kingdom of Heaven–the church, (2) and to the universe–the heavens, (3) to Heaven its self,.
The claim that Christ said more about Hell than He did about Heaven is not
true; it is only a desperate attempt to prove Hell.
(a). A place in Heaven "In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so,
I would have told you; for I go to
prepare a place for you. If I go and
prepare a place for you, I will come
again and receive you to Myself,
that where I am, there you may be
also (John 14:12).
(b).
OUR treasures are in Heaven (Matthew 6:20; 10:21; 19:21; Luke 18:22).
(c).
OUR citizenship is in Heaven (Philippians 3:20-21).
(d). Reserved
in Heaven for US (1 Peter 1:4; Matthew 6:20; 19:21; Mark 12:25; Luke 6:23).
THE QUESTIONS IS,
WHERE DID JESUS SAY ANYTHING ABOUT HELL EVEN ONE TIME? WHERE DID HE USE THE NAME
HELL? Jesus never said anything about Hell. When those that know Jesus
used Gehenna and know that Jesus never used Hell, and most preachers do
know this, but they use a mistranslated English Bible that they know is
mistranslated to teach those that do not know very much about what Jesus did
say and tell them that Jesus said much about Hell, what do you think these
teachers will say to Jesus at the Judgment?
THE VANISHING HELL
TRANSLATIONS ARE GETTING AWAY FROM HELL
The King James Version and the New King James Version are the only two of the major translations
that have Hell in the Old Testament; the newer and better translations dose not
use it because sheol or no other word in the Old Testament dose not have the
same meaning that Hell now has today; therefore, most other translations have
rejected it as a bad mistranslation. The mistranslation is rapidly vanishing
from the Bible. It has vanished from the Old Testament in most conservative
translations. Moses or Abraham did not know about it. Hell has all but vanished
from the New Testament in the conservative translations, and has vanished
altogether in many. Even in the 31 times Hell is in the Old Testament in the
King James Version, in 12 of these the New King James Version changed Hell in the
King James Version to sheol (from 31 times to 19
times). Were the translators trying to ease away but were afraid to go to far?
THE VANISHING HELL
Why is the number of times Hell is used
decreasing?
Translators cannot
agree on how many times to mistranslate it.
Number of times Hell is
used in - - - The Bible | The O.T. | The N. T.
The Latin Vulgate
(A. D. 405?)111 times | 87 times | 24 times
The Wycliffe Bible (A.
D. 1395) 83 times | 57 times | 26 times
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535) 70 times |
50 times | 23 times
The Bishop's Bible
(1568) 59 times | 35 times | 24 times
The Geneva Bible
(1587) 36 times | 16 times | 20 times
Westster Bible
(1611) 49 times | 26 times | 23 times
The Original King James Version (1611) 52 times | 30 times
| 22 times
King James Version (1769
update) 54 times | 31 times | 23 times
New King James Version
(1982) 32 times | 19 times | 13 times
The King James Version has had several reversions and the one that
is
used today (1769) is not the original 1611
version; it is the last of
several revisions.
Young's Literal Bible
(1891) 0
times | 0 times | 0 times
American Standard Version (1901) 13
times | 0
times | 13 times
New American Standard Version (1960) 13 times | 0 times | 13 times
Revised Standard Version
(1946) 13 times |
0 times | 13 times
Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition
(1966)| 0 times | 13 times
New Revised Standard Version (1989) 12 times | 0 times | 12
times
New International Version (1987) 14
times | 0
times | 14 times
New International Version (2010-11) 13 times | 0 times | 13
times
New International Version – UK (1984) 14 times | 0 times | 14 times
Todays New International Version(2005)13
times | 0 times | 13 times
Amplified Bible
(1987) 15 times |
0 times | 15 times*
New Century Version
(1987) 12 times |
0 times | 12 times
Revised English Bible
(1989) 28 times | 15 times | 13 times
Contemporary English Version (1995) 20 times | 0 times | 20
times
New Living Translation
(1996) 19 times |
3 times | 16 times
English Standard Version
(2001) 14 times |
0 times | 14 times
Holman Christian Standard Bible (2003) 11 times | 0 times | 11
times
Update Bible Version 1 9
(2003) 12 times |
0 times | 12 times
Peshitta - Lamsa
translation
12 times |
1 time | 11 times
Common English
Bible
(2011) 13 times |
0 times | 13 times
Derby Translation (Catholic) (1890) 12 times | 0 times | 12
times
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized
(Catholic Edition)
(1995) 14 times |
0 times | 14 times
New American Bible
(Catholic) (1991) 0
times | 0
times | 0 times
New American Bible Revised Edition
(Catholic Edition)
(2011) 0 times |
0 times | 0 times
World English Bible
0 times |
0 times | 0 times
Rotherham Emphasized
(1902) 0 times |
0 times | 0 times
Fenton's Bible in Modern English (1903) 0 times | 0 times | 0 times
Hebrew Names Version of WEB
0 times |
0 times | 0 times
New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures 1980| 0 times | 0 times
Daniel Mace New Testament
(1729) 3
times
Wesley' N. T (The original, not some updated editions)
(1755) 0 times
Scarlett's New Testament
(1798) 0 times
New Covenant, New Testament
(1884) 0 times
Scrivenre New Testament
(1884) 0 times
Hanson's New Covenant
(1884) 0 times
Twentieth Century New Testament
(1900) 0 times
Rotherham's Emphasized Bible
(reprinted)
(1902) 0 times
Weymouths New Testament in Modern Speech
(1903) 0 times
Panin's Numeric English New
Testament
(1914) 0 times
The People's New Covenant (Overbury)
(1925) 0 times
Western New Testament, 1926
(1926)
0 times
Western New Testament, updated in 1959
(1959)
0 times
The New Testament, A Translation (Clementson)
(1938) 0 times
J. B. Phillips New Testament in Modern English
(1947) 1 times
New Testament of our Lord and Savior Anointed (Tomanek)(1958) 0 times
Restoration of Original Sacred Name Bible
(1976) 0 times
The New Testament, A New Translation (Greber)
(1980) 0 times
Concordance Literal New Testament
(1983) 0
times
Christian Bible, New Testament
(1991) 0 times
Recovery Version, New Testament
(1991) 0 times
New Testament of Our Lord and Savor Jesus Anointed
0 times
The Original Bible Project (Dr. Tabor)
0 times
The New Testament in Greek and English (Kneeland) (1823) 0 times
Interlinear Greek-English New Testament (Berry)(Note
A)(1897) 0 times
Emphatic Diaglott, Greek/English
Interlinear (Wilson)(1942) 0
times
Zondervan Parallel N. T. in Greek and English (Note A)(1975) 0 times
NASB-NIV Parallel N. T. in Greek and English
(Marshall)(1986) 0 times
Interlinear NASB-NIV Parallel NT Greek-English (Note
A)(1993) 0 times
Jewish Publication Society Bible Old Testament (Note
B)(1917) 0 times
Orthodox Jewish Brit Chadasha New Testament only
0 times
Tanakh, The Holy Scriptures,
Old Testament
(Note B)(1985) 0 times
The Complete Jewish Bible
(Note B) 0
times
The Septuagint-translation of Hebrew to Greek 3rd century BC 0 times
*12 times the Amplified Bible has "Hell (Gehenna)" in the text, not in a footnote.
Note A, the word–for–word translations beneath the Greek,
not the translations that are in the margin.
Note B, none of the Jewish translations I found of the
Old Testament do not have "Hell" in them. It is not in the
Septuagint, a translation of the Old Testament from Hebrew to Greek that was in
used in the time of Christ.
I
find it strange that the Roman Catholic Church believes in Hell yet they
removed Hell from two translations they made. There are many other translations
in other languages, for Gehenna, like all other proper nouns are not changed to
other proper nouns in the translations to other languages.
ONE EXAMPLE OF THE VANISHING HELL, Psalm 116:3
1. King
James Version "The sorrows of
death compassed me, and the pains of
HELL gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow."
2. New
King James Version "The pains of
death encompassed me, and the pangs of SHEOL
laid hold of me."
3. American
Standard Version "The cord of
death compassed me, and the pains of SHEOL
gat hold upon me."
4. Revised Standard
Version The snares of death
encompassed me; the pangs of SHEOL
laid hold on me."
5. New
International Version The cords of
death entangled me, the anguish of the GRAVE
came upon me".
6. New Living
Translation "Death had its hands
around my throat; the terrors of the GRAVE
overtook me."
7. Revised English
Bible "The cords of death bound
me, SHEOL held me in its grip."
8. Amplified Bible
"The cords and sorrows of death were
around me, and the terrors of SHEOL
(the place of the dead) had laid hold of me."
9. New Century Bible "The ropes of death bound me, and the
fear of the GRAVE took hold of
me."
Why did the King James
translators use the Old English word Hell that did not exist unto long after
the New Testament was written? Was it not to force their pagan beliefs into the
teaching of the Bible?
WHEN WAS THE
LAST TIME
YOU HEARD A
SERMON ON HELL?
There was a time when
most every revival had one or more sermons on the horrors of Hell, and that
most souls were going to be endlessly tormented by God. Most every sermon ended
with a warning that all that did not repent, when they were dead the souls that
had been in them were going to be endlessly tormented in Hell by God. Jonathan
Edward was well known for his Hellfire sermons. These "Hellfire"
preachers are not as poplar as they once were, and their
audience is much smaller. Today in most churches a sermon on Hell is never
preached, and no one is told there is a soul in them that that God will torment
in Hell because of their sins if they do not repent. That there are many who do
not believe in Hell, and other that are no longer sure that there is a Hell maybe
the reason they say nothing about it in their sermons and Bible lessons? Why do
many say nothing if they do not believe in Hell; a preacher may think he would
not be allowed to preach if he preached, The
wages of sin is death, and most would not. Many churches would brand him a
heretic if he preached there is no Hell, and he would not be able to preach in
most churches. Elders and Deacons would not be allowed to continue as Elders
and Deacons. Bible teachers would not be permitted to teach if they taught that
there is nothing in the Bible about a place called Hell. Members would not be
permitted to lead singing, lead prayer, or do anything in the worship service.
About all that anyone who does not believe in Hell is permitted to do in most churches is come and sit
and give their money; you will be shut out and not be permitted to lead prayer,
or take part in the worship in any way, but no matter what you believe you will
be permitted and even expected to give your money. Along with many others, I
can tell you for a fact that this is sure to happen in most congregations of
the church.
THE ORIGIN OF HELL
Unconditional
immortality is an updated version of the pagan transmigration of souls.
Augustine and a few of the other partly converted "church fathers"
that knew more of the teaching of Plato than they did of Christ, and they
rewrote reincarnation to fit Christianity; their doctrine of an
immortal soul that cannot be dead replaced the resurrection, and made the
resurrection both useless and impossible.
(1) Transmigration of souls. If there were
souls they would have to live somewhere after the death of the body. Where it
is believed that a soul goes to after it leaves the person that it was in varies
from country to country and century to century. A soul is believed to lives in
a person only for a short time unto the person it was in is dead them it moves
on to live in another body; it never returns to the body of a person it had
been in; it is not dead and does not die when the person dies; therefore, it
can never be resurrected.
(2) Reincarnation, all most the same as
transmigration of souls. A soul that that had been living in the body of a
person that is dead lives somewhere and then sooner or later come back to an
earthly body of another person, or in the body of an animal, or even in a
plaint. The body dies but a soul that had lived in the dead person lives on,
and without a resurrection comes back many times to live in many other bodies
unto they die. Ancient Egyptian belief was that a soul had a gloomy existence
in the underworld (transmigration). The Greeks and Romans believed about the
same with some changes. Oriental and Pythagorean philosophy, Buddhists, Hindus,
and Grand Lama all believed in some form of reincarnation; they all believed there
is a "soul," and if that soul had been in a evil person it may have
some punishment, but not all believed a soul had the same punishment. With most the punishment of a soul after it
had left the dead person it had been in was only some kind of gloomy existence
in the underworld that would end when that soul was reincarnated, not
endless torment in Hell as it is taught today. With most, the more evil a
person was the lower that soul would have the capability to reincarnate. Some
souls would come back as a person; the more evil would come back as a plant or
insect; this gloomy existence was believed to be under or down in the earth by
most, but it was not believed to be a place of endless torment. This gloomy
existence of souls under the earth is what was believed in the Dark Age church,
was believed by most Roman Catholics and Protestants in the past and is still
believed by some. This is the nearest thing to today's Hell in heathen
philosophy, and in any writing unto long after the New Testament, A few of the
"church fathers" borrowed from the heathens, mostly Greek and Romans,
and invented unto in the Dark Age the Roman Catholic Church had invented Hell,
Limbo, Purgatory, worship of Mary and saints, the Pope declared to be God in
the flesh, worship of the cross, angles look like a woman with wings, and much
more, and made their god into a cruel and sadistic tormenter. Unconditional
immortality of souls is 100% pagan in it origin.
(3) Back to the god it came from. Before
Christ most that believed in any kind of life after the death of the person believed
that it was a gloomy existence that had only a shallow, misty, dreamy existence
that many believed to have been in the underworld between the times it was in a
body, between reincarnations; some believed that after being reincarnation many
times a soul would came to an end by being absorbed back again into the god it
had come out of; Plato believe, at least part of the time, that whatever the living
being that was reincarnated through many bodies was a part of that gods divine
nature, and after being reincarnated through many bodies that living being
would finally be reabsorbed back into whatever god that it was a part of.
(4) Unconditional immortality.
Transmigration of souls and reincarnation rewrote by the Dark Age Roman Catholic
Church. The pagan doctrine that there are souls that
cannot die have to live somewhere after the death of the persons they had been
in is the foundation on which they built the doctrine of Hell, if there were a deathless
soul that could not live in Heaven that deathless soul has to live someplace.
Without souls that can never die there could not be a Hell. The place where
they say a soul will go after it leaves the body of the dead person varies from
one group to another, to a chamber inside of the earth, to Heaven, to Hell, to
Purgatory, to Abraham's bosom, etc.; but wherever a soul is believed to go,
those that believe in unconditional immortality believe this Pagan gloomy
existing living being became a deathless soul in the Dark Age and it is now as
alive as it will ever be; a lost soul that cannot stop existing must have a
place to exist in; therefore, the Dark Age Hell was invented by the Roman
Catholic Church.
That unconditional
immortality came into the church from only partly converted pagan philosophers centuries
after Christ and after the New Testament was written is so well documented that
any person that believes history cannot deny it. One of the many books that
document this: A History Of The Doctrine Of The Soul by D. M. Canright at: http://www.robertwr.com/soul.pdf. And there
is much, much more proof. Some of the pagan
philosophers believe souls were in an unground chamber unto they were reincarnated,
but God was not made to be a eternal tormenter unto after the immortal soul
philosophy was in the church.
(5) Resurrection. As
taught in the New Testament. All dead persons, not deathless souls, will
be raised from their graves at the second coming of Christ for the judgment.
ROBERT M. JOHNSTON, The
typical person throughout most of the world and most of history has adopted a
second option. It is some variation of the ghost idea, a vague and gloomy haft
existence continuing on immediately after death. For this reason most people
have not looked forward with relish to death. The earliest Greek conception of
the existence beyond was that of a life so thin and gloomy that it was thought
better to serve as a hireling upon earth than to reign in HadesOne can hardly call it a cheerful hope. After Death:
Resurrection or Immortality? At: www.ministrymagazen.org/archive/1983/after-death:-resurrection-or-immortality
Millions
that did not believe all the Roman Catholic Church taught in the Dark Age were
tormented and many put to death by the Roman Catholic Church as heretics;
William Tyndale was burned to death by the Roman Catholic Church in 1536 for
translating the Bible into English, and Roman Catholics burned many to death
and tormented many more to death for having the Bible in their own language,
not in Latin; whole villages were slaughtered by the Roman Catholic Church; the
Dark Age was one of the bloodiest times of history. Some of the cruelest ways
of torment the world has ever known were invented and used by the Dark Age
Roman Catholic Church, and all in the name of the Roman Catholic Church. Now
the Roman Catholic Church has many translations in English and in many other
translations in many other languages that are not Latin; who is going to burn
to death those that now have these translations in their homes; how did what
the Roman Catholic Church thought was a sin worthy of torment and death change
and become a good thing? Those who believed the world was round, or in any way
did not believe all the Roman Catholic Church taught were tormented and put to
death as heretics; they say the Pope is Lord God in the flesh; did the Lord
God in the flesh not know the world was round?
POPE PIUS xi, You know that I am the Holy Father, the representative of
God on earth, the Vicar of Christ, which means that I am God on earth. From
Four Views, page 288, April 30, 1922. History estimates that over one
hundred million people lost their lives during that time of Roman tyrannyFor
the unbiased researcher, history reeks of the butchery of Romanism, where whole
cities and populations were unmercifully wiped out, just because they
worshipped God in a manner that was different from Roman Catholicism, John
Daniel, The Grand Design Exposed, pages 27-28, CHI Publishing, 1999. From
pages 129-130 Immortality Death And The Hereafter by Shefflorn
Balantyne, 2016.
The slaughtering by
the Roman Catholic Church was continued by some in the Protestant Reformation, the Crusades, bloody Mary, witch hunts, and much more.
After Calvin burned Servetus to death he wrote a book with a long title, A
Faithful Account Of The Errors Of Servetus, In Which It Is Proved That Heretics
Ought To Be Restrained By The Sword. It would take many books to tell of all
the bloody deeds of the Dark Age by the so-called "church." The
reasons for the killing of millions maybe summed up in the words of bloody
Mary. "As the souls of heretics are hereafter to be eternally burning in
Hell, there can be nothing more proper than for me to imitate the divine
vengeance by burning them on earth." Although there was much killing in
the early Protestant churches because of what was believed or not believed, it
did not come close to the killing by the Dark Age Roman Catholic Church. In the
Dark Age the "church" was a mixture of Christianity, Judaism,
Paganism, and their own inventions, but mostly the last two. Before the
Protestant Reformation there was more heathen philosophy in the Dark Age Roman Church
than true Christian teaching. It had apostatized into a satanic cult with an
evil God that took delight in tormenting souls in Hell.
THE
CHANGING HELL - THE VANISHING HELL
Why
are there many conflicting Hells? In Four Views of
Hell edited by William Grocket four Protestant scholars
give four different and conflicting views of Hell that are now being taught in
the Protestant churches. In Two Views Of Hell Robert A. Peterson and William
Fudge give two competing views. These two books and others like them show that
there are very different competing views about Hell in the Protestant churches,
but in truth there are many more than four conflicting views in both Protestant
and Roman Catholic churches, each division has a large number of believers, and
there are many other views of Hell in other churches that are not Roman
Catholic or Protestants. None of the
many different divisions about Hell that are in the Protestants churches now have
a majority of Protestants that believe in Hell, all that believe any one of the
divisions of Hell are in a small group when compared with all other Protestants
groups that are in all the other divisions on what Hell is; those that believe any
one of the many views of Hell are saying all but that one view that they are in
cannot be true, that only they believe in the right Hell; THEY ARE SAYING THAT
THE HELLS THAT MOST BELIEVE IN ARE MAN MADE HELLS THAT ARE NOT IN THE BIBLE.
Not one of the many different divisions on Hell now has more than a small part
of all those that claim to be Protestants. The many divisions on what Hell
is and who will be in it is unbelievable, and most who say they believe in Hell
have no idea of the vast number of the totally difference visions of Hell, or
the unbelievable differences in what Hell is believed to be, or how long Hell
will last, or who will be in Hell, or where Hell will be.
THIRTY-ONE PLUS VERSIONS OF HELL
Where is Hell? What is
Hell? There are over 31 different versions of what Hell is that are commonly
believed in Christianity and many more versions of what Hell is in
non-Christian religion of the world. While some of the divisions have some
features that are similar, they are all difference, and each division has sharp
disagreements with all the other divisions. Those that believe any one of the
thirty-one plus divisions of Hell are in conflict with all those that believe
any of the other thirty plus divisions.
It would not be possible for more than one of the many versions of Hell to be
true. In the thousands of denominations around the world professing to be
Christian there are countless man made divisions on what Hell is, where Hell
is, who is over Hell, how long will Hell last, many others, with many others divisions
of what Hell is in the non–Christian
religions of the world; below is only thirty one of many very different, very
conflating Hells.
THREE
ROMAN CATHOLIC VERSIONS OF HELL
(1).
The Dark Age Roman Catholic version of Hell.
(2).
The New Roman Catholic version of Hell.
(3).
The Roman Catholic Nether World.
SOME
OF THE MANY DIVISIONS
OF
THE PROTESTANT VERSIONS OF HELL
(4).
The underground chamber Hell of yesterday.
(5).
The newer who knows where the Hell of today is at.
(6).
The Calvin version of Hell.
(7).
The Jonathan Edward version.
(8).
The revisionist version of Hell.
(9).
The Graphic view of Hell.
(10).
The literal Hell.
(11).
Satan doing the tormenting.
(12).
God doing the tormenting.
(13).
The Metaphorical view of both Heaven and Hell.
(14).
Mental anguish only Hell–Billy Graham.
(15).
The eternal sinning version of Hell.
(16).
C. S Lewis–the almost pleasant Hell.
(17).
Protestant Traditionalist.
(18).
Many Protestant Premillennial versions.
(19).
Realized Eschatology–A. D. 70 version.
(20).
Dantes cold Hell with nine levels of torment.
(21). The
Sudden Realization version of Hell.
(22).
Protestant Rephaim version.
EIGHT
OTHER VERSIONS OF HELL
(23).
Abrahams bosom after Judgment Hell, A newer version, Church of Christ,
Christian Church.
(24).
Edward Fudge version, the short Hell.
(25).
Christadelphians version.
(26).
Church of God and others.
(27).
Universalist version of Hell.
(28).
Seventh-Day Advent version.
(29).
Latter-day Saints version (Mormons).
(30).
Grave is Hell version (Jehovah's Witnesses).
(31).
Christian Science Version of Hell.
NO BIBLE HELL
There is nothing about Hell in the Bible.
Hell was invented in the Dark Age by the Roman Catholic
Church.
Which Hell do you believe
in?
From where did Hell come?
THREE ROMAN CATHOLIC
DIVISIONS OF HELL
(1). The
Medieval Dark Age
Roman
Catholic version of Hell
The
beginning of the belief in Hell was the Hell that was a chamber inside of the
earth, but was changed in the eighteenth and nineteenth century to the Hell of
today. A soul being immortal came from Greek philosophy, from the belief
that souls had some kind of shadowy existents in the underworld unto they were
reincarnated, and was brought into the church by a few of the church fathers,
by Augustine more then most others. The doctrine of Hell being an under ground
chamber came soon after the immortal soul doctrine, and was fully developed by
the Roman Catholic Church in the Dark Age before the Protestant Reformation. It
seems to be that in the past they believed that only a very few, the very bad
will go to Hell at their death with no judgment, which the Roman Catholics had
made into a real place, but most souls that had been in Roman Catholics will go
to Purgatory at death. Later they made a few of the souls that had been in the
very good will go to Heaven at their death with no judgment (an instant
rapture). At death most Catholic now believe souls that were in Catholics will
go immediately to Purgatory, which seems to be a limited version of Hell, unto
they have suffered enough to pay for their sins, or unto their love ones have
paid all they can, then the souls that had been in them will go to Heaven. How
long a soul will be in Purgatory is sometimes taught to be a short time, and
sometimes a very long time to those who have no one to win indulgences for
them, no one to pay. It has brought enormous wealth to the rich Roman Catholic
Church from the poor who paid what little they had, and even did without food
to help a loved one out of Purgatory. The Roman Catholic Purgatory gives no
hope for heathens, heretics, or those not baptized; they went to the
underground chamber Hell. The Roman Catholic Doctrine of Purgatory (1) makes
some go to Heaven or Hell at death, (2) makes other Catholics get to Heaven as
soon as they (not Christ) have suffered enough to pay for their own sins, (3)
leaves no souls that had been in dead Catholics that will not already be in
Heaven to be resurrected at the second coming of Christ. They, not Christ, will
have suffered unto they have paid in full for their own sins, or others have
paid enough money to free their souls from Purgatory. An example of the
Catholic teaching on the selling of indulgences that was common before the time
of Martin Luther as given by John Tetzel, a Dominican monk who said as soon as
the money is given, The soul escapes from purgatory, and flies liberated to
heaven, and The Lord no longer reignsHe has given all power to the pope. As
quoted by F. LaGard Smith of Lipscomb University in After Life, pages
223-224.
Connelly – Field
debate, Tetzel had the presumption to say, that he had saved more souls out of
purgatory by the sale of indulgences than Pater saved by his preaching, page
254. If a soul in purgatory paid for the sins of the person, the sins are not
forgiven by the death of Christ; the suffering of a soul in purgatory pays for
the sins of the dead person that soul had been in.
S.
M. BROWN, Medieval Europe, pages 348-259, 1932. Hell is wide without
measure, and deep and bottomless; full of incomparable fire, for no earthly
fire may be compared therewith; full of stench intolerable for no living thing
on earth might endure it; full of unutterable sorrow for no mouth may, on
account of the wretchedness or the woe thereof, give an account not tell of it.
Yea, the darkness therein is so thick that one may grasp it, for the fire there
gives no light, but blinds the eyes of them that are there with a smothering
smoke, the worst of smokes. And nevertheless in that same black darkness they
see black things as devils, that ever maul them and afflict and harass them
with all kinds of tortures; and tailed drakes, horrible as devils, that devour
them whole and spew them out afterwards before and behind. At other times they
rent them in pieces and chew each gobbet of them, and they afterwards become
whole again, such as they previously were, to under go again such bale with
recovery, and full well they see themselves very horrible and dreadful; and to
increase their pains the loathsome hell-worms, toads, and frogs that eat out
their eyes and nostrils, and adders and water-frogs, not like those here, but
hundred times more horrible, sneak in and out of the mouth, ears, eyes, navel
ever yet thickest. There is shrieking in the flame and chattering of teeth in
the snowy waters. Suddenly they flit upon the heat into the cold, nor ever do
they know of there two which is worst for them, for each is intolerableAnd
this same wan hope is their greatest torment, that none have any hope of any
recovery, but are sure of ever ill, to continue in woe, world without end, even
in eternity. Each chokes the other, and each in anothers torment, and each
hates another and him self as the black devil; and as they loved them the more
in this world, so the more shall they hate them there. And each curses another,
and gnaws off the others arms, ears, and nose also. As quoted by Robert L. Whitelaw
in The Last Resurrection, pages 61-62.
This is the Hell that was taught by the Roman Catholic Church, but
there is nothing like it in the Bible. It came from pagan teaching, and from
made up torments by the Roman Catholic Church.
(2). The new Roman Catholic version of Hell.
POPE JOHN PAUL II, "Hell is not a punishment imposed externally by
God, but the condition resulting from attitudes and actions which people adopt
in this life...So eternal damnation is not God's work but is actually our own
doing...More than a physical place, Hell is the state of those who freely and
definitively separate themselves from God, the source of all life and
joy." In a statement made to his general audience, July 28, 1999. - The soul in the OT means not a part of
man, but the whole man as a living being. Similarly in the NT, it signifies
human life: the life of an individual conscious object (Matt 2:20; 6:25; Luke
12:22-23; 14:26; John 10:11,15, 17; John 13:37; Acts 27:10, 22; Phil 2:30; 1
Thess 2:8). Recent exegeteshave maintained that the NT dose not teach the
immortality of the soul in the Hellenistic sense of survival of an immortal
principle after death. The New Catholic Encyclopedia, article Soul, Human,
Immortality of, In The Bible.
There are other high up Catholics who have made statements like this,
but I see no use in adding more when you have this from the Pope who is the top
person in the Roman Catholic Church whos word is law, who Catholics say is
Lord God in the flesh. Maybe this is why two of their English Bible
translations do not have the word "Hell" in them, and who knows how
many other Catholics translations in other languages do not; however, because
it has been the official doctrine for centuries, and the decrees of councils
and Popes, the Roman Catholic Church cannot officially not teach Hell is a
place of endless torment without giving up completely their claim of
infallibility. Protestantism has not made this claim of infallibility and many
are giving Hell up.
(3). The Nether
World
Is this a new, a third
Roman Catholic division of what Hell is. More and more
in today's writing, the Nether World is being used as if it is a Bible place
that is clearly taught in the Bible; but I have yet to read where anyone told
where it is in the Bible. Do both the Nether World and Abraham's bosom now
exists at the same time? If so, how are they different? Are some souls now in Abraham's
bosom and other soul are now in the Nether world both at the same time? The
American Heritage Dictionary says, NETHER, located beneath or below; lower or
under: the nether regions of the earth. Where
did this world that is located
beneath or under this world come from? It is not in the Bible; therefore,
how could anyone know about it? It came from the Roman Catholic Church. Like
Hell, they mistranslated it from hades to get it into the Bible. Both Hell and Nether World were mistranslated
from the same word, both from hades, and both from the same passage in
difference translations, see Acts 2:27. Is this an attempt to make Hell be
in a chamber inside of the earth, as Catholics believed it was for centuries?
Psalm 16:10
in two Roman Catholic translations
1. SHEOL CHANGED TO HELL, Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell"
Douay–Rheims (Psalm 16:10, 1890).
2. SHEOL CHANGED TO NETHER WORLD, For you will not
abandon my soul to the Nether World" New American Bible (Psalm 16:10, 1991).
Both are Roman
Catholic translations. THERE IS NO WAY
THE SAME WORD IN THE SAME PASSAGE COULD MEAN BOTH HELL AND NETHER
WORLD. They are two completely difference places.
(a). For
Thou wilt not abandon my soul to Sheol
(Psalm 16:10 New American Standard). Sheol (grave) was not translated Hell or
Nether World in this translations.
(b). You
will not abandon me to the realm of the
dead (Psalm 16:10 New International Version). Sheol changed to realm of the dead, which is not in the
Hebrew.
The Nether World is a
new name being put into the Bible by the same people (the Roman Catholic Church)
who put Hell into the Bible, and it is being put into the Bible in the same
way, by mistranslating the same word that was mistranslated to put in Hell.
1. First, hades was mistranslated Hell in
Catholic translations that in the Dark Age they believed Hell was in a chamber
in the earth.
2. Second, the same word, hades, in the
same passage that was mistranslated Hell is now mistranslated Nether World in
some Catholic translations. Nether World – a place that is beneath or in
the earth.
SOME OF THE
MANY DIVISIONS
OF THE EVER
CHANGING AND GROWING
PROTESTANT VERSIONS OF HELL
As in any teaching of man there are divisions, thirty-one difference
Hells that I know of and there are many divisions that I do not know of.
After much
conflict among the reformers, most Protestants accepted souls going to Heaven
or Hell one by one at the death of the persons the souls had been in without
the Resurrection at the coming of Christ, going to Heaven or Hell before and
without the judgment.
Many,
Martin Luther, William Tyndale, and many others of the early Protestants did
not believe there is an immortal soul.
Unconditional immortality, which is the foundation on
which Hell stands, was accepted by most Protestants mostly due to Calvin and
those that followed him winning out over Martin Luther and his followers.
If they had accepted Luther's views on immortality there would be no foundation
for Hell. Many Protestants now believe souls that are in all who do not accept
Christ will instantly be transported to Hell at the death of the person a soul had
been in, transported to Hell before the resurrection and before the Judgment
Day; that God has deliberately chooses to make these souls suffer and feel the
pain forever without any letup; and that the souls that had been in the saved
will go to their endless home in Heaven at the death of the persons that the
souls had been in. The Westminster Confession says, "The souls of the
righteous ...are received unto the highest heavens...the soul of the wicked are
cast into Hell." Does God judge them at death, them maybe thousands of
years later, takes souls out of Heaven and Hell to judge them a second time at
the resurrection to see whether He made a mistake in His first judgment at
their death? This version is still believed by many today.
Both (1) an opposition to belief in Hell, and (2) the many divisions on what
Hell is are both rapidly growing in the Protestant
churches. From the Protestant Reformation unto now there have been
many changes in both what and where Hell is, and many new Protestant versions
of Hell.
(4). YESTERDAYS HELL
THE UNDERGROUND CHAMBER HELL
Many Pagan philosophers believed souls were somewhere
underground where a souls had some kind of existent unto they were reincarnated
was believed in by most of the world that was not Christian. The Roman Catholic
Dark Age Pagan Catholic Hell where souls were kept someplace inside of the
earth came from Pagan philosophers. That all Souls being in this underground chamber has been believed for centuries by Catholics, and by many
Protestants unto the eighteenth and nineteen centuries. Now it has been
moved and the souls that were together in this chamber have been divided and
some put in Heaven but most souls put in Hell.
(5). THE WHO
KNOWS WHERE TODAYS HELL IS
Many Protestants and
even many Catholics have moved the dead from a chamber inside of the earth
where they had believed it to be for many centuries (as it was believed by most
unto about the eighteenth and first part of the nineteenth century) moved to a
new made up place that who knows where it is, maybe some place out in space,
but Hell has been moved from on or inside of the earth. When the dead goes to
Heaven or Hell is believed by many Protestants (1) to be at the death of the person,
(2) and by many other Protestants to be after the second coming of Christ, not
unto after they are judged at the judgment. (3) Others now have all souls in
Abrahams bosom where they believe all deathless souls will be unto the
Judgment, and the souls that were in the lost dead persons will have some kind
of torment unto the resurrection; then they believe the souls will be moved
from where ever Abrahams bosom is to Heaven or Hell. See chapter eight-part
one The Rich Man And Lazarus.
(6). THE CALVIN VERSION OF HELL
The given no
chance Hell. An early Protestant Version with a God that made most of mankind
knowing that after their death He is going to torment souls that had been in
them in Hell forever, and there is nothing a person can do to keep a soul that many
believe is in them from going to Hell after they are dead, a God that made the
conditions of salvation that most could not meet, but He is going to endless torment
a soul because the Calvin God made the person where he or she would not be able
to meet His conditions. This God made most of mankind just so He could torment
souls that He put in them forever as their creed says, "To his good
pleasure;" if it were to his good pleasure to torment for eternity there
would be no way to escape the conclusion that tormenting is just what such a God
wants to do and He takes pleasure (enjoyment) in doing it; predestinated endless
torment could serve only one purpose, an infinite desire to torment; a torment by
this evil Calvin God that will never end.
No amount of
preaching or teaching can change the number of souls that shall be in Calvins
Hell not even by one soul. The Westminster Confession says, "By the decree
of God, for the Manifestation of his glory, some men and angels are predestinated
unto Everlasting Life, and others foreordained unto everlasting death;"
this view believes God loves a few and saves the souls that are in them, but
that He hates most, that He could save the souls that are in all persons but He
want to torment them; Calvinist believe Gods anger will be visited upon on the
souls that had been in the dead rebels whose rebellion was preordained by God,
predetermined by God that they would be sinners; how could anyone say God is
love when they believe He dose not want most of mankind saved, that He made
them just so He could torment souls? Some Protestants still believe this
version of Hell that their God made most of mankind just so He could torment
souls for eternity, but this version of Hell is not near as poplar as it was a
few years ago and is losing believers even in the churches that teach it. Those
who say they are orthodox Protestants but do not believe the Calvin Version of
Hell now for out number those who still believe it.
JOHN CALVIN said of those in Hell that they are, Forever harassed with
a dreadful tempest; that shall feel themselves torn asunder by an angry God,
and transfixed and penetrated by mortal stings, terrified by the thunderbolts
of God, and broken by the weight of his hand, so that to sink into any gulf
would be more tolerable than to stand for a moment in these terrors. There is
nothing like this in the Bible, he made it up, it is pure slander of God.
In
the Dark Age the Catholics invented Limbo to soften the doctrine on Hell by
keeping infants out of Hell. The Protestant Reformation repudiated Limbo, but
Calvin invented the age of accountable to do the same thing. Both are the
inventions of man and there is nothing like them is in the Bible.
(7). THE JONATHAN EDWARD VERSION OF HELL
Also an
early Protestant Version; this traditionalist version
of Hell is an eternal concentration camp that is maintained by God with most
souls in it. There was a time when most Protestants believed this version of
Hell, but now only a few believe it. There
are countless variations of the Jonathan Edward version of Hell, both major and
minor variations, about as many as there are preachers who preach it with each
preacher trying to out do the others in telling of the horrors of Hell; each
one trying to make the God of Hell more evil then the others have made Him be.
Most taught God had given Hell over to Satan with God making sure that Satan
will roast most souls forever, and torment them however Satan wishes to. Some
have demons peeling off the burning flash of those in Hell with God making sure
they keep it up forever. Some now have changed from Satan to God doing the
tormenting of Satan, the demons, and tormenting souls that had been in the
lost, with God forever pouring in fire and brimstone, and thousands of other
ways of tormenting. In the past it was taught in books and painting, (see 6 below) Satan will be
doing the tormenting version of Hell. Now most that did believe this version
of Hell have now changed it to being God not Satan that is doing the
tormenting. Jonathan Edward said God "will crush
their blood out and make it fly, so that it will sprinkle his garment and stain
all his raiment." They never tell how they know such details. Put all
their horrors together and it would take many books to tell all the horrors
that are pure fiction with nothing that is even remotely kin in the Bible to
the countless horrors they tell of, or of the evil God they worship, yet they
falsely preach these made up falsehoods and teach them as if they were the word
of God; many of these preachers get very specific with the details of the
torment. Edwards God is like a person that puts cats in a microwave oven for
pleasure, and Heaven take delight in seeing the other souls squirming in agony.
Jonathan Edward in Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God said, The smoke of
their burning flesh shall be a sweet smelling savor in the nostrils of the
Almighty.
These
"Hellfire" preachers are not as poplar as they once were, and their audience is much smaller and still getting smaller. It
is unimportant to them if they have no Bible for their Hell or its horrors; the
badly mistranslated King James Version is all they need to make their Hell
believable to many with whatever kind of torments their imagination wanted to put
in it. Some believers of the Calvin version also believe much of this version
and mix the two version of Hell together. There is not much unity of belief
among the Protestants of today. In almost any church if the preacher started
preached sermons about Hell that are like the one's Edward preached he would be
out of work very soon. The God Edward believed in would have no problem with
tormenting souls that had been in the lost; his God would take great pleasure
in tormenting, and according to Edward, the saints in Heaven will watch with
pleasure and satisfaction. The worst torment any man can or ever has given to
another man is nothing to what Jonathan Edward described his God is doing in
his sermon, Sinner in the Hands of an Angry God.
The Protestant
doctrines of Hell as taught by Calvin and Edward are as hideous and evil as
anything that was taught in the Dark Age by the Roman Catholic Church; God is
made to use His power to keep souls that had been in sinners alive even while they
are being burned with a fire that would kill in seconds just so his God can
torment souls without end. When Jesus was in this world He loved sinners and
give His life for them, but both Calvin and Edward makes neither God nor Christ
not to have any compassion and no love for the souls that they say were not in the
few that He has chosen to save before they were born.
In the not too
distance past the Calvin and the Edward Hell was taught and most Protestants believed
one or the other one, but what is believed about Hell is ever changing and now most
Protestants do not
believed in either one, now both of these
two views of Hell have been given up by many orthodox Protestant churches, and
many others have toned down the Hell they teach unto todays Hell is noting like
the older views of Hell.
(8). THE REVISIONIST VERSION OF
HELL
Is a
reaction to the traditional versions of Hell, an attempt to take the monster
out of God that the Catholic, Calvin, Edward, and other divisions make Him to
be by taking the Hell out of Hell. This version of
Hell takes the suffering out of Hell and makes it into a place for those to
live that have chosen to live separate from God. There will be no joy in this
Hell as there will be in Heaven with God, but there will be no pain or
torment by God, just bare existence.
(9). THE
GRAPHIC VERSION OF HELL
The sinners
will be tormented in the parts of their bodies that sinned.
WILLIAM CROCKETT, "In short, whatever member of the body sinned,
that member would be punished more than any other in hell...In Christian
literature we find blasphemers hanging by their tongues. Adulterous women who
plaited their hair to entice men dangle over boiling mire by
their...hair." page 46, Four Views on Hell," 1997.
There is no way that
this version of Hell could be harmonized with Vines teaching that a soul is,
The immaterial, invisible part of man; his souls do not have tongues or hair.
(10).
TWO HELLS, THE LITERAL FIRE HELL
Augustine said, That
hell, which also is called a lake of fire and brimstone, will be material fire
and will torment the bodies of the damned. This literal version of Hell is
where the earthly bodies of the lost, not souls, are literally burning for all
eternality but this fire can never burn them up; while the body is tormented in
Hell, the soul will also be being tormented, body and soul are both tormented,
but both are tormented separately; the body or person in one Hell, and a soul
that had been in the person in another Hell.
SPURGEON, one of the best known of Baptist preachers, said, "When
thou driest, thy soul will be tormented alone; that will be a hell for it; but
at the day of judgment thy body will join thy soul and then thou wilt have twin hells, thy soul sweating drops of blood, and
thy body suffused with agony. In fire exactly like that which we have on earth,
thy body will lie, asbestos like, forever unconsumed, all thy veins roads for
the feet of pain to travel on, every nerve a string on which the devil shall
forever play his diabolical tune of hell's unutterable lament." From his
sermon "The Resurrection of the Dead." Like most who believe God will
forever torment many billions, he must have some revelation that is not in the
Bible to tell him about their suffering. In his day most orthodox Protestants
believed the Devil would be doing the tormenting, but today most orthodox
Protestants think he was wrong, that God is the one who will be doing the
tormenting. The man made "Hell" is forever changing. What was
orthodox in his day is no longer orthodox. For many Baptists his truth is no
longer truth.
(11). SATAN
WILL BE DOING THE TORMENTING
VERSION OF HELL
Satan and
his angels will be doing the tormenting, but they could only be executing the
will of God that the lost be tormented for they could not torment souls that
had been in the lost without God letting them. This view was believed by most
in the Dark Age, and by most Jonathan Edward preachers who often speak of the
devil Hell as though Hell was a place that belonged to Satan. Most Protestants
have now abandon the view of Satan and his demons doing the tormenting, but I
remember that this was believed by most when I was a child, and was what most
Protestants believed at that time. Many painting in museums and churches show
Satan and his demons roasting those in Hell, and tormenting them in every way
the painters could think up.
HENRY WARD BEECHES
speaking of Michael Angelo's painting, The Last Judgment said, "Let anyone
see the enormous gigantic coils of fiends and man; let anyone look at the
defiant Christ that stands like a superb athlete at the front, hurling his
enemies from him and calling his friends toward him as Hercules might have
done; let anyone look upon that hideous wriggling mass that goes plunging down
through the air-serpents and man and beasts of every nauseous kind, mixed together;
let him look at the lower parts of the picture, where with the pitchforks men
are by devils being cast into cauldrons and into burning fires, where hateful
fiends are gnawing the skulls of suffering sinners, and where there is hellish
cannibalism going on–let a man look at that picture and scenes which it
depicts, and he sees what were the ideas which man once had of Hell and of
divine justice. It was a night-mare as hideous as was ever begotten by the
hellish brood it-self; and it was an atrocious slander on God...I do not wonder
that men have reacted from these horrors."
There are hundreds or thousands of this kind of paintings in museums and
Catholic Churches around the world, especially in Italy, that were painted in
the Dark Age, and they show what was believed about who would torment the lost.
These painting show a God that is bringing millions into existence ever year
and then casting them to demons for the demons to torment.
Satan and his demons are never punished in this version of Hell. Satan and evil spirits are
forever over "Hell," and will forever be able to torment most souls
that had been in mankind. Instead of being punished, they will have forever
triumphed over God, and they will forever have a kingdom of their own where they
will work their evil on souls as they please to, and as it gives them pleasure.
This version of Hell makes there be something like two kingdoms or two
universes after the judgment, one with Satan over it with most souls that had
been in the lost before the death of the persons, but these souls are now in
Satans kingdom, and God over a much smaller number of souls in His kingdom.
Both God and Satan would each have endless power in their kingdom in this
division between Heaven and Hell; this Hell would mean God would not ever have
a victory over evil.
(12). GOD WILL BE DOING THE TORMENTING
VERSION OF HELL
Many
Protestants have changed and now believe Satan and his angels will be tormented
by God just as all souls that had been in the lost of mankind. There has been a
major change by many Protestants from Satan doing the tormenting to God forever
being in Hell and God Himself doing the tormenting of Satan, demons, and all
the souls that had been in all lost persons. Not long ago most Protestants
believe Satan would be doing the tormenting in Hell, now most Protestants say
they were all wrong, that it will be God doing the
tormenting.
(13). THE METAPHORICAL VIEW
OF BOTH HEAVEN AND HELL
This view
tells us we are not told what Heaven and Hell will literally be like. In this
view we are told in pictures that tell us Heaven will be a place of beauty more
than anything on this earth, and most that believe in Hell tell us that Hell
will be worse than anything on this earth. Because we cannot understand what
Heaven will really be like, we are given the picture of a city with gold
streets and pearl gates to picture for us its great beauty and value, but Heaven
will not literally be made of gold, pearls, or of anything that we have on this
earth. The metaphorical view of Hell says Hell is pictured as a place of fire;
being burned in fire is one of the worst pains we know of, but those that believes this version do not believe it will be
literally fire, as we know it, or literal darkness as we know it. In this view
none of the literal torments of the Calvin and Jonathan Edward Versions are
possible for their torments are all things of this earth that will not be in the
Metaphorical version of "Hell." This Hell that is taught by William
Crockett in Four Views On Hell in 1997 seems to be growing rapidly, for it is
looked on as a way to make God less evil, but in fact it does not for whatever
would be symbolized by being tormented by endless fire would be just as bad if
not worse than souls being endlessly tormented in a literal fire that cannot
kill, and God would still be the one doing the endless tormenting and it would
make Him just as evil.
(14). MENTAL ANGUISH VERSION OF HELL
Billy Graham and many others. This version of Hell changes Hell from being a real place that
had been believed in by most Protestants; Billy Grahams Hell is changed to
being a state of mind, not a real place.
BILLY GRAHAM, "Could
it be that the fire Jesus talked about is an eternal search for God that is
never quenched? That, indeed, would be hell. To be away from God forever,
separated from His Presence." Page 75, The Challenge: Sermons from Madison Square Garden, 1969. He
makes Hell be only a state of mind.
ISAAC WATTS in "The World To Come," page 300, makes the worm
be the conscience of a person eating on himself for all eternally. A survey by
US News, January 2000, page 47, says 53 percent of Americans believe Hell to be
only mental anguish.
This
is an attempt by some to lessen the negative effect of Hell making God cruel
and sadistic, but the attempt is a complete failure. Replacing physical torment
with mental anguish does nothing to change Hell by making the torment be less.
Mental anguish can be worse than physical pain, and it would still be unbearable
torment by God without end. Billy Graham, who is an orthodox Protestant, would
in no way been called orthodox by Calvin or Jonathan Edward, nor would many
others that now believe Hell is only mental anguish as he does. The old
orthodox is some times the very opposite of the new orthodox. In the mental anguish version of Hell for
sins after death, HELL IS NOT A PLACE BUT A STATE OF MIND, OF ANGUISH CAUSED BY
SEPARATION FROM GOD, the souls that had been in sinners punishes themself; it
is not God that punishes them, but where are all the souls that are punishing
themselves? IF THEY ARE NOT IN HEAVEN OR HELL, WHERE ARE THEY?
ALEXANDER CAMPBELL, "The sinner's suffering by mental agony,
produced by sin, greater than could be caused by material fire,"
"Five discourses on Hell," 1848. This version of Hell that is
believed by Billy Graham, Alexander Campbell, and over 53 percent of Americans (A
survey by US News, January 2000, page 47) is a totally difference Hell than the
orthodox Hell of Calvin; the real material fire preached by Edward and Calvin
has been replaced with, for lack of a better name, a spiritual fire that
mentally torments, but this fire never burns up anything.
(15). THE ETERNAL SINNING VERSION OF HELL
Sin is
self-perpetuating and the souls that had been in sinner cannot stop sinning
even when tormented in Hell for it; therefore souls that keep sinning without
end makes God have to keep tormenting them without end. This version makes evil
be just as endless as God, and makes God never able to destroy evil.
DR.
CRAIG, Now, of course, nobody commits an infinite number of sins in the
earthly life. But what about in the afterlife? Insofar
as the inhabitants of hell continue to hate god and reject Him, they continue
to sin and so accrue to themselves more guilt and more punishment. In a real
sense then, hell is self-perpetuating. In such a case, every sin has a finite
punishment, but because sinning goes on forever, so does the punishment. Graig
Bradley Debate.
This version
of Hell is just another attempt to justify God for tormenting souls for all
eternity for the sins that the persons commented in their lifetime. Some
Protestants believe that the sins of a dead person in their lifetime was not
enough for a soul to be tormented for all eternity, but they believe all souls
that had been in the lost dead persons that sins in their lifetime, these souls
will keep on sinning after they are in Hell, and they do not believe that one
soul will ever stop sinning; therefore, the tormenting of these souls by God
will never stop. If all souls in Hell grows worse and worse as time goes on,
after millions of ages have passed the evil of these in Hell will be to
terrible, to revolting to even think upon; who can believe the revolting evil
that will exit, countless times more evil than when a soul is first put in Hell
if evil will be growing without end, if the endless sinning version of Hell
were true?
Sin is the transgression of the law,
therefore, if there were sin after the Judgment Day there would have to be
given a law to transgress. There is not one word about there beings a new law
given to the souls that had been in the dead persons after the judgment; or not
one word that there will be a law and sin after the judgment, and souls that
had been in the lost will continue to sin is a one-hundred present made up
adding to Gods word to try to justify endless torment by God. If it were true
that the souls that had been in sinner could never stop sinning after death
then would it not be true that the sinner cannot stop sinning in this lifetime;
therefore, no one could ever be saved?
ALEXANDER CAMPBELL, "We do not maintain that men are punished
eternally for sins committed in this life only. The analysis of the sufferings
of a future retribution, which we have just given, is itself sufficient
evidence of this fact; for the indulgence of voluntary depravity is itself both
sin and punishment. As a consequence of past sins, the sinner has formed the
habit of sinning. It is a law of man's nature, that habit creates both a
tendency to certain acts, and a facility in their performance. As the result of
the habit of sinning, formed in this life, a tendency to repeat acts of sin is
carried on by the sinner into a future world; and every such act repeated in that
world not only perpetuates, but increases the tendency to further acts of the
same kind: and thus, as by every repeated act the tendency to sin is increased,
and as every act also brings with it its own punishment, so, by the laws of
man's mental and moral nature, the sinner's progress in both sin and suffering
in a future world, is like that of a falling body, which increases its velocity
as the square of the distance increase through which it falls. There is,
therefore, just as little probability that a sinner, left to himself in a
future world, should repent and turn to God, as that a falling body should
arrest itself in its downward course, and ascend to the elevation from which it
fell...surely the assumption that our
doctrine supposes that God punishes sinners eternally for sins committed in
this brief and frail life is wholly gratuitous." "Five Discourses
On Hell," page 65, April 9, 1848, Daniel Davies Publisher.
Is he not saying that
the person that steals in this life time will steal in the next, the person
that commits adultery in this life time will commits adultery in the next life,
or will there be a whole new and different kind of sins in the next life that
souls will have to learn to be able to go on sinning? Is he saying the millions
that live and die without ever hearing about God are harden sinners and that
not a one would ever repent? Human nature is such that it can change; even the
very bad sometimes do change in this lifetime. Is he saying God will change
human nature in such a way that no soul will be able to change, not one of the
many millions of souls will never be able to repent? Will God deliberately
change all so that they cannot stop sinning so He can torment them for all
eternally? This version of Hell makes even the worse sinners able to repent and
change in this lifetime, but after death the souls that had been in all dead
sinners will go on sinning with not one soul will ever be able to stop sinning.
It makes there be no end to sin.
Not
many members of the Christian Church or the Church of Christ any longer believe
as Alexander Campbell, but it is now being taught by many
Protestants.
(16). C. S.
LEWISS THE ALMOST PLEASANT HELL