HELL – NOT THE DESTINATION OF CHOICE
If life is a journey, we should know where we are headed, right? Well that’s not exactly what we are going to talk about today. Let’s talk first about where we don’t want to go, HELL.
Why should we talk about hell other than it’s the destination that we want to avoid?
1. I like to talk about the tough topics without giving the “Sunday School” answers.
2. Talking about hell gives us a chance to discuss the nature of God. The nature of God, believe it or not, determines how you relate to God and your love for God.
How many people believe in hell in the US? Polls in 1952 show that 58% believed in hell. 1965 – 54% 1981 – 53% 1991 – 60% Awesome, it’s increasing. People must be coming to God! 2000 – 64% By 2008 it’s 73%, almost ¾ of the US population believed in hell. How would that explain the steady decline in church attendance in the US? If we really believed eternal punishment (burning forever and ever) was our destination, don’t you think we would do everything to avoid it? Maybe people don’t think going to church is the answer. Or, maybe, deep down we know that coming to God is much more about relationship with Him and other people. Maybe scaring us to Heaven just doesn’t work.
In the Old Testament, the word hell comes from the Hebrew word “sheol” which means a place of the dead. It’s usually not positive or negative. In fact, the afterlife in the Old Testament is not clearly described. Can you think of a time, in the Old Testament, when anyone spoke of trying to make it to heaven or preaching to people to keep them from going to “sheol”?
In the New Testament there are three words used for hell. “Hades” is used several times and “tartarus” is used once. Both are similar to “sheol”, a place of the dead. So, it helps our understanding to know which is being used when we read. Neither of those places seem like a bad place to go. We just don’t want to go today.
“Gehenna” is the most used word translated to hell in the New Testament. It was used 12 times. It’s the word Jesus used the most and it is the most interesting, because it was an actual place. “Gehenna” means the valley of Hinnom which was a garbage dump southwest of Jerusalem. It burned 24/7 and it was a place where criminals were buried (cremated).
It’s good to know when we read the bible what word is being used, because we can get a better picture of what the person is trying to say and how the audience is receiving it.
There are four major views of hell (the eternal destination of non-believers) and each may have some overlap. Here are the views and some bullet points about each.
Traditional View – a place of fire where people will burn and suffer forever as a punishment for not following Jesus.
Modified Traditional View – a place of eternal suffering, not actual fire or burning. Eternally separated from God.
Universalist View – temporary and remedial. Eventually hell will be empty. Everyone will one day decide to follow Jesus and be saved.
Annihilationist View – hell is eternal, but people won’t exist there forever. In fact, those who experience this hell, will ultimately cease to exist. There is suffering, but not forever.
Which one do you like the best so far? Each of these views exist in some form in the church today. We must be very careful of how our view of hell affects our perception of our loving God. When we are lost in the woods or lost driving in a new city, we either don’t know where we are or where we are going or both. When we are saved (not lost anymore) we should know where we came from, where we are going, and how to get there. Remember, Jesus came to save everyone that is lost. But, we must choose whether to accept salvation and then, we need to seek the kingdom (destination
Next time we will discuss each of these views in depth with scripture references. Be prepared wrestle with your own beliefs about hell. It’s ok, God loves for us to dig deep for understanding.
Join me next time as we continue to seek the kingdom – From Egypt to the Promised Land
Bill
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