Hell—Literal Or Figurative?

Biblegems #177

Question: Is hell literal or figurative? If it is literal, is it really eternal?

Our word “hell” comes from the New Testament Greek ge÷enna (pronounced “gehenna”). Jesus taught about hell as a very real place:

         Matt. 10:28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

To be “destroyed” in hell does not mean the person ceases to exist. “Destroyed” in the New Testament Greek means “ruined” or “lost.” God created human beings for eternal existence both physically and spiritually. “Death” is the temporary separation of the body from the soul caused by sin:

         Rom. 5:12  …sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men…

But eventually every human being will be physically and spiritually raised from death:

         John 5:28-29  Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out—those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.        

Hell is the final destination of those who die without having been rescued (saved) by Jesus Christ (Lk. 19:10). Jesus described this fearful place of physical as well as spiritual torment:

Matt. 5:30 …It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

         Mark 9:43 …It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out.

Unfortunately, translators have sometimes supplied the word “hell” in our English Bibles inappropriately. When Peter writes about certain angels already in “hell” (2Pet. 2:4), he’s actually referring to a place called “Tartarus” (tartarw¿saß) where these angels are imprisoned until the Final Judgment.

The same is true of Jesus’ story of Lazarus and the rich man, where “hell” should be translated “hades” (Gk. aˆ‚dhØ), referring to the realm of the dead who are awaiting the Final Judgment (Lk. 16:23).

Hell was designed for Satan and the angels who rebelled with Him against God (Matt. 25:41). Nevertheless, through Adam and Eve humanity fell into that same rebellion. Sin has contaminated the human race ever since, locking all of us into both the contamination of sin and sinful behavior:

         Ps. 51:5 Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

God—because He is just, holy and all-powerful—cannot abide sinfulness and rebellion in His creation forever. Evil will be purged one day at the Final Judgment, and all sin and unrepentant sinners rendered powerless in hell. As sinful human beings then, our condition is hopeless, except for the way out provided by God alone:

         John 11:25-26  Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

The Rapture and the Unsaved Dead

Biblegems #175

Question: If the dead in Christ rise first and those believers living at the time are caught up to join them in the sky (1 Thess. 4:16-17), what happens to the unsaved dead?  Do they stay buried, or join ones left behind on earth?

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 is the classic New Testament passage describing the return of Jesus Christ and the rapture of the church. It is in these two verses where we learn that those who already died as believers in Jesus will receive their resurrection bodies at the moment of Christ’s physical return to earth, immediately followed by believers still living on the earth who likewise receive their resurrection bodies—people who will never experience death. This is what the church has called the “rapture.”

This climactic event in God’s timetable of the redemption of mankind triggers four more critical events that conclude God’s grand plan:

1) The outpouring of God’s Wrath, where Satan and the Antichrist

are defeated and the earth is laid waste (Rev. 11:18; Rev. 19:19-20).

2) The reign of Jesus Christ from Jerusalem for one thousand years (the Millennium), during which the earth is restored and its survivors live in peace, health and under the righteous judgment of Christ:

Rev. 20:4-5 I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection.

3) The temporary release of Satan, who instigates mankind’s final rebellion against God in a massive attack against Jesus’ seat of government in Jerusalem. Satan is defeated forever (Rev. 20:3, 10).

4) The Final Judgment (also called the Great White Throne Judgment), where all who have lived and died without Christ are bodily resurrected and condemned to an eternity in Hell (Rev. 20:11-15).

The Bible teaches that the souls of those who die without Christ spend their existence in Hades (Old Testament: Sheol) until the Final Judgment. Their bodies, of course, as with believers, decay until they are resurrected. For believers, the resurrection occurs at Christ’s return. For nonbelievers, their resurrection occurs at the Final Judgment following the millennial reign of Christ. Then, at last, death and Hades are both destroyed in Hell, “the Lake of fire” (Rev. 20:14) and God creates “a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away…” (Rev. 21:1).

It is important to remember that all of mankind is condemned. It is not Jesus who condemns us but our own sinful condition. God wants no human being to suffer the torment of Hell (2Pet. 3:9).

         John 3:16-17 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Resurrection And Reincarnation

Biblegems #129

Question: How does the biblical idea of resurrection differ from the concept of reincarnation taught in other religions, or are they the same thing?

For those who grew up in a conservative Christian tradition it might be surprising that there is any question on this matter. However, the distinction between resurrection and reincarnation has become increasingly blurred in western culture, at least since the 1960’s.

Belief in reincarnation in western culture has been born largely out of a confusion of ideas from eastern religions and the occult. Consequently, those who believe in some form of reincarnation do not necessarily hold to any particular religious beliefs from which either reincarnation or resurrection stems.

Definitions:

Reincarnation is the belief that a soul departs a body at death and enters another body (either human, animal, ghost, demon, etc., depending on the religion). Buddhism, originally, taught that the “soul” did not exist but that a person who has not achieved enlightenment at the time of death will be reborn. In eastern religions, karma (unavoidable reward & punishment) determines the body one is given.

Resurrection is a biblical teaching. Scripture states that there will be a bodily resurrection of all mankind. Those who belong to Jesus Christ will be resurrected at His second coming to live eternally with Jesus in heaven:

         1Cor. 15:20-23  But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.

        

For those who die without acknowledging Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord there will be a resurrection at the Final Judgment. Because they had not been set free from sin by Jesus Christ in their earthly life they will be resurrected (reunited with their bodies) for eternal existence in hell. As Jesus taught in the Gospel of John:

         John 5:28-29  Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out—those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.

        

Reincarnation and resurrection are dramatically different and incompatible concepts. According to the Bible, people live one earthly life, after which they are resurrected to eternal life or eternal damnation:

         Heb. 9:27 Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment…

Reincarnation has no place in a biblical worldview. In fact, the only thing standing between every person and eternal life is sin; and Jesus came that we might be saved from sin and its eternal consequences:

         John 3:17-18 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

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Is Sheol Purgatory?

Biblegems #106

What is the difference, if any, between Sheol and purgatory?

The doctrine of purgatory is a predominantly Catholic church doctrine:

“Purgatory (Lat., "purgare", to make clean, to purify) in accordance with Catholic teaching is a place or condition of temporal punishment for those who, departing this life in God's grace, are, not entirely free from venial faults, or have not fully paid the satisfaction due to their transgressions.”¹

According to Catholicism, punishment for sins still awaits deceased believers:

“That temporal punishment is due to sin, even after the sin itself has been pardoned by God, is clearly the teaching of Scripture.”²

Purgatory is seen as purifying a person of any uncleanness to make them acceptable for eternal life in God’s holy presence.

This is NOT the same as the realm of the dead (Hebrew: Sheol; Greek: Hades), which is reserved for those awaiting God’s Final Judgment, whose names are not written in the Lamb’s Book of Life:

         Rev. 20:11-15 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it …and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

There are two principal Scripture references used to defend the teaching of purgatory:

         Matt. 12:32 Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.

         Nothing is said here concerning sin being purged or paid for in purgatory. Finding purgatory in these words is eisogesis (reading into the text what is not already there), rather than exegesis (explaining the meaning of the text).

         1 Cor. 3:11-13 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work.

         The “fire” spoken of here has nothing to do with punishment, but only of separating out those “works” that have eternal value from those that do not.

When a person dies who has in this life truly surrendered his life to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, that person’s sins are already paid for on the cross and that person has been made holy and acceptable to God. There is no purgatory:

         1 Pet. 3:18 For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.

Heb. 10:10 …we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all (see Rom. 6:10; Heb. 7:27; 9:12, 26).

References:

1. The Catholic Encyclopedia (online edition)

2. Ibid.