(8). Some believe Hell is dark.
(9). Some believe Hell is Metaphorical, it is not literally hot, cold or dark; we cannot understand what it is really like, and are given pictures to tell us how bad it is.
(10). Some believe Hell is only mental anguish.
(11). Some believe Hell is a place of separation from God without any torment from God.
(12). Some believe Hell is under the earth.
(13). Some believe Hell is who knows where. Most, but not all, now realize there is not a place of torment under the earth, and have moved it. Now who knows where they think Hell is, maybe somewhere out in space.
(14). Some believe Hell exists now, and the lost dead are now being tormented in it.
(15). Some believe Hell will not exist unto after the judgment.
(16). Some believe Hell now exists with the angels that sinned in it, but no person will be in Hell unto after the judgment.
(17). Some believe that although God is omnipresent (present in all places at the same time), nevertheless God is not present in Hell. They believe those in Hell are separated from God, they believe death is separation from God, and the second death is an eternal Hell, and at the same time they believe God is there tormenting them and gives them life. All life comes from God. He would have to be present and not present at the same time. The lost would be separated from God, and not separated from God simultaneously, for God would be wherever they were separated from Him if He were doing the tormenting.
(18). If you go back in time 50 or 100 years, most all preachers were teaching "Hell" to be a place of "fire and brimstone." Today "fire and brimstone" is almost never used by preachers or in today's theology. Do you believe in the "Hell" of today or the "Hell" of 100 years ago?
There is no majority view of Hell today as there was in the Dark Age; no matter what view of Hell a person has that view is only a small part of those that believe in Hell, If a person believes one of the many versions of Hell, they must disbelieve all the other versions; therefore, every one that believes in Hell disagrees with the vast majority that believe in Hell. Everyone that believes in Hell is in conflict with most others that also believe in Hell. Believes in Hell are becoming more divided as time goes by; it is not possible for more that one version of Hell to be the truth; therefore, all the other versions, the majority that believe in Hell, are vain worship (Matthew 15:9).
DIVISIONS OVER WHAT WILL BE IN HELL?
What part of a person will be in Hell? It has been believed by most that it is a bodiless soul that will be in Heaven or Hell, but now many are saying no it is not the soul but a bodiless spirit that is the immortal part of a person, that the soul is not immortal; therefore, (1) some say it is a soul that is now in a person that will be in Heaven or Hell, (2) but others now say, not so, it is a spirit that will be in Heaven or Hell. Not only are there many divisions on what Hell is, there are also divisions on which immaterial, bodiless being will be in it. One of the many examples of those that have switched from believing the soul is immortal to the spirit being the immortal something in a person is Robert L. Kramer in ‘Present Truth,” volume 10, page 12.
DIVISIONS OVER WHEN A SOUL OR A SPIRIT WILL BE IN HELL?
When will a soul or a spirit be in Hell? At death, or not unto after the resurrection and judgment? Many say Hell begins at death; many say no soul or spirit will be in Hell unto after the judgment; the strange thing is that there are many that say a soul at one time, then the same person will say a spirit at another time.
HELL HAS BEEN MOVED
Pagan philosophers mostly believed the soul was somewhere underground unto it was reincarnated. The first time Hell is used in the King James Version, it is on this earth, and is the punishment and scattering of the nation of Israel (Deuteronomy 32:22-26). "Though they dig into Hell" (Amos 9:27 King James Version). Most of the "church fathers," and the Church in the Dark Age, believed Hell was underground. In the Middle Age Hell was inside of the earth as it is in, “The Divine Comedy ” by Dante Alighieri. Both the Catholic Church and the "Apostle's creed," which is used by many Protestants says Christ descended into Hell at His death; and preached to the souls in prison. Many encyclopedias and lexicons still say this.
The New Oxford American Dictionary says, “hell ‘hel’ a place regarded in various religions as a spiritual realm of evil and suffering, often traditionally depicted as a place of perpetual fire beneath the earth where the wicked are punished after death.”
When I was a child, I heard repeatedly that the Devil (a name used by many to be a name of Satan) lived under the ground, and he would get you if you were bad. Now almost no one believes Hell is under ground; it has been moved to some dark place on the backside of some far away no one knows where place. Most who believed Hell to be under the earth also believed the earth will end at the coming of Christ; I have never heard them explain how the earth will be destroyed, but the Hell that is under ground (inside of the earth) will last forever. O-well, one is as good as another and one place is as good as any other for there is no Bible teaching for any of them, they are all man made and believing any of them is to believe a lie. "But in vain do they worship me, teaching as their doctrines the precepts of men" (Matthew 15:9). The only sure thing is that what men believe about Hell is that Hell is always changing to suit the times and the denominations.
BELIEVERS IN HELL MUST
Must do away with death. If death is real, if when God said death, God meant what He said, then Hell cannot be.
Must prove that men are now immortal. Must prove that there is an immaterial, invisible something in a person that has no substance, and this something that no one knows what it is, is now just as immortal as it will be after the judgment; and this who know what this “soul” is that Christ will save; and it, not the person, will be in Heaven. If a person is now mortal, he cannot now be immortal.
Must make words like destroy, perish, die, death, lost be used only with a theological sense. If they are used, "In the fair, stipulated, and well-established meaning of the terms," then Hell cannot be.
Must prove that Hell is in the Bible, both the name and the particular place they call Hell. If they do not prove there is a Hell, but teach it, they have added to the Bible.
Must prove that the "nehphesh" animals have in Genesis 1:20; 1:21; 1:24; 1:30; 2:19 is mortal, but the same "nehphesh" men have in Genesis 2:7 is immortal.
FROM WHERE DID HELL COME?
It came from pagan philosophers, and was brought into the church along with Purgatory, the sale of indulgences, Limbo, worship of Mary and saints, Nether World, Holy Water, the rosary, forbidding Priests to marry, the crucifix, forbidding eating of meat on Friday, candle-burning, and many other teachings; and was opposed by such men as Luther, Tyndale, Moses Lord, E. D. Slough, Ashley Sidney Johnson, Elias Smith, and many others. It came into the church in the Dark Age from Pagan Greek philosophers and writers like Dante Aligheri (1265-1321), "The Divine Comedy,” and Milton's "Paradise Lost." They added things like Satan has a red suit, horns, and pitchfork and is forever tormenting the damned. Aligheri was a pagan who believed the teaching of Plato on the soul being immortal, and his book "The Divine Comedy" is basically Plato's view of the soul. This view of Hell was adopted in the Middle Age Church to create fear of leaving the church. The church in the Dark Age, and the translators of the King James Bible were more influenced by this Pagan philosophy and writers of that time then they were from the teaching of God.
(1). Hell and other pagan teaching were brought into the Bible by reinterpreting four words fifty-seven times in the King James Version, but much fewer times in later translations, and none at all in many translations. The American Standard Version, which many say is the most accurate translation ("This honored version of 1901, long held to be the most accurate translation in the English language" Star Bible catalog, page 3, 1996), uses it 13 times; and even then has a footnote that says, "Gr. Gehenna" or "Gr. Tartarus."
Growler 1995 Encyclopedia ASPS: "In Greek Mythology, Hades is the underworld ruled by the god of that name, who is also known as Pluto; in Nurse Mythology, Hel is a cold and shadowy subterranean realm." Both Hel and Hell are from the same root word- "Kel."
The American Heritage Dictionary, page 2108 says, "KEL-1. O-grade from kal 1. A Hell, from Old English Hell, Hell; B HEL, from Old Nurse Hel, the underworld, goddess of death."
Compton's 1995 Encyclopedia, "Hell and Hades." "There is no fully developed teaching about Hell in the New Testament, though there are frequent mentions of it. Only in the course of later church history was it elaborated into official church doctrine."
Encyclopedia Britannica, Volume 2, page 402, "Old English. Hel, a Teutonic word from a root meaning 'to cover.'"
Encyclopedia Americana, Volume 14, page 81, "Much confusion and misunderstanding has been caused through the early translators of the Bible persistently rendering the Hebrew Sheol and the Greek Hades and Gehenna by the word hell. The simple transliteration of these words by the translators of the revised editions of the Bible has not sufficed to appreciably clear up this confusion and misconception."
Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia: “The modern English word Hell is derived from Old English hel, helle (about 725 AD to refer to a nether world of the dead) reaching into the Anglo-Saxon pagan period, and ultimately from Proto-Germanic *halja, meaning "one who covers up or hides something". (3) The word has cognates in related Germanic languages such as Old Frisian helle, hille, Old Saxon hellja, Middle Dutch helle (modern Dutch hel), Old High German helle (Modern German Hölle), and Gothic halja. (3) Subsequently, the word was used to transfer a pagan concept to Christian theology and its vocabulary.” From the article “Hell.”
“We assume that the word ‘Hell’ is a Bible word chosen by God to reveal his will. It is neither an O. T. nor N. t. word, but rather the word chosen by Bible translators to translate, Sheol (Grave), Hades (Unseen world), Gehenna (Valley of Hinnom) and Tartarus (The abode of angels that sinned). Thus one word is chosen to translate four different places and ideas. The word ‘Hell’ therefore came to have a meaning beyond the concept involved in each word, but borrowing certain aspects from each and adding the idea of everlasting conscious torment for a soul which cannot die.” Dyrel Collins, “Immortality: Only In Christ,” Star Bible Publications, church of Christ
Csonka said, "Every good Bible student know Hades is not Hell" Truth Magazine, 1995, page 17. Then why do so many in the Lord's church teach it is?
The Dictionary of New Testament Theology: "The word Gehenna does not occur in the LXX or Greek literature...In contrast with later Christian writings and ideas, the torments of hell are not described in the NT...Neither does the NT contain the idea that Satan is the prince of Gehenna, to whom sinners are handed over for punishment." Volume 2, page 208-209.
Clinton D. Hamilton, who believed in Hell, said, "The New Testament is loaded with metaphors that describe Hell," and then he says Gehenna is one of the metaphors. On the page before he said that Gehenna is not used in secular Greek literature, not used in the Septuagint, and not by Josephus in the last part of the first century in any of his writings. When he said they did not use Gehenna, he is using it to mean Hell; therefore, he is saying Hell was not used by any of the above, neither is it in any of the Apocryphal books.
(2). Not in vocabulary: Heaven and Earth are named together about 30 times, and each is named separately 100's of times, but not one time is Hell named in the Bible, or even spoken of. Why? No doubt, it would have been if Hell was real and there is such a place. We are told not to swear by Heaven or Earth (Matthew 5:34), but today men swear by Hell more than both Heaven and Earth together. Why were they not told not to swear by Hell? It was because Hell is a word that was not in their vocabulary? No word with the meaning of today's English Hell was used in the ancient writing as a swear word, or any other way; no such word was in their vocabulary, and they knew of no such place. The concept of the place called Hell, or the name Hell is not in the Bible, and does not occur in any writing of either the Hebrews or the Greeks unto long after the Bible. The Old Testament Hebrew, or the New Testament Greek has no word that is even close to today's English word "Hell." It did not exist unto long after the last book of the Bible was written.
How do we know about this place called Hell? Where did Hell come from? Not by faith that comes by hearing God's word. It is from the doctrines and precepts of men (Matthew 15:9). It was not used in the first century because it was a place they knew nothing about. The word "Hell" is of Saxon origin about the 3rd to 5th century A. D. and originally was any covered over place such a roof or a grave. The nearest thing I can find to the English word Hell is in Greek Mythology and Nurse Mythology (According to Socrates, Plato and other Greek philosopher), was a shadowy subterranean realm somewhere under the earth where souls went unto they could be reincarnated; but this shadowy place was far from being as terrible or as dreadful a place as today's Hell is, and "souls" would only be in it unto they were reincarnated into a new earthly bring. This underground place did not have the name Hell, and is nothing like the Hell that grew out of it in the Dark Age.
"Three hundred years or so ago the word 'Hell' was commonly used to refer to any dark or foreboding place. A grave could be referred to by that term without readers or hearers automatically envisioning 'the lake of fire, which is the second death' (Rev. 20:15). The hole dug in the ground to receive the body of a deceased loved one is certainly a foreboding place. A prison, dungeon, lunatic asylum, or a valley such as the valley of Hinnom outside of Jerusalem with equal propriety could be spoken of as 'Hell' three or four hundred years ago. That is no longer so...in our time 'Hell' has a fairly settled meaning...its use conjures up visions of the awesome lake of fire judgment reserved for sinners" Russell Boatman, Dean at Saint Louis Christian College, Christian Church, "What The Bible Says, The End Time," College Press, page 305.
"Hell has entirely changed its old harmless sense of dim under-world: and that meaning, as it now does, to myriads of readers...it conveys meanings which are not to be found in any of the New or Old Testament words for which it is presented as an equivalent" Canon Farrar, Excursus II, "Eternal Hope."
A doctrine as terrible as Hell must not be assumed, but demonstrated by unquestionable proof. Such proof is not in the Bible. Heaven is in the Bible over 600 times, but Hell not one time. Why? The Bible is full of warnings. Paul warned that many "shall not inherit the kingdom of God" (1 Corinthians 5:9), but he never said anyone would "go to Hell." Paul said he declared the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27); yet not one time (even in the King James Version) did he use the word Hell. Why?
T. L. Andrews said our English word Hell has come to mean the eternal abode of the sinner where this tormenting punishment takes place? Florida College Lectures, 1997, page 168.
When? The English word Hell did not exist in Paul's time; it therefore come to mean the eternal abode of sinners long after the New Testament; and came from man, not God. Therefore, Paul or the Bible could not, and did not use it.
If Hell had been a real place, which was known about in the time of Christ, others of that time would have known about it and used its name, but none did. Gehenna was the name of a real place near Jerusalem (the city dump), which the people near Jerusalem would know about, and they have would understand what Christ was saying when He used its name as a place of destruction. The rest of the world would not know about Jerusalem's trash dump, or know what its name was, and would not have understood. If Paul had used the name Gehenna in Rome or in writing to Gentiles, it is unlikely that any would have known what or where Gehenna was. When the Greek philosophy about the underworld was brought into the church by the "church fathers," what Christ had said about Gehenna was made to order for them to misuse, which they did by changing “Gehenna” into “Hell.” Gehenna was soon mistranslated into Hell. Whatever is not taught in the Bible cannot be a Bible doctrine. If it is the doctrine of man, is it not sinful to teach it as God's word?
Hell is not a Bible word. It is a word chosen by Bible Translators to translate four Bible words, sheol, hades, Gehenna, and Tartarus. Not one of the four has the meaning of Hell as it is used today. Not only is there no Hebrew or Greek word for Hell, but also at first even the English word Hell did not mean a place of torment after death as it does today; like many English words it has had a radical change of meaning. In Old English it was a covered place. A farmer would say, "I helled my potatoes" meaning he put them in a hole and covered them to keep them from the cold. Helling a house meant to cover it with a roof. Helmet, a covering for the head is derived from the same word. Hell was never the best translations of hades, but formerly it would have been acceptable in Old English. It is not an acceptable translation of hades in modern English, and has been abandoned by many of the newer translations. When the King James Version was made, the doctrine of Hell was completely developed, and the translation of sheol and hades into Hell were a mistranslation. Most likely a deliberate mistranslation for in 1611 it had taken on the modern meaning of a place of torment after death.
Those who believe in Hell use the word as if both the place and the name are used repeatedly in the Bible. Their proof texts are metaphors, parables, and symbolical language as is found in the book of Revelation. If there were a place as terrible as Hell, why is it never spoken of in clear words that the common person could not misunderstand? If Hell were real, it would be strange if a doctrine as important as Hell would have been would have to depend on an interpretation of a parable or symbolical language.
(3). Not in early creeds, the two earliest creeds, The Apostles Creed, traditionally ascribed to the 12 Apostles, and the Nicean Creed, 325 A. D., were both doctrinal statements saying what those that used them believed, but neither one contained the concept of Hell.
(4). Today's preaching – versus – first century preaching. Heaven is taught throughout the Bible (used about 635 times in the New American Standard Bible), but there is nothing about today's Hell. Adam was warned that he would die if he ate, but not that he would go to Hell. Moses warned about death to those who did not keep the law, but he said nothing about Hell. The Bible is as silent as a tomb on it. It is beyond belief that there would not be many clear and unmistakable warning about Hell if there were such a place. There are many clear and unmistakable warning that the wages of sin is death, but not a one about Hell or an eternal life of torment.
HOW HELL WAS PUT INTO THE BIBLE
AND IS BEING KEPT IN THE BIBLE
"Jesus said it (Hell) was a place where 'the fire...never shall be quenched...Hell is further described as a place where" Whitlock, Seibles Road Church of Christ bulletin, August 9, 1998.
Christ did not say anything about Hell, but was using Gehenna as a metaphor of destruction; but Whitlock changed the name Gehenna that Christ used to another name - Hell, and in the same sentence he quotes only a part of a sentence used by Christ, adds to it, and makes it all one sentence. In doing so he has put the word Hell into the mouth of Christ, but when he make Hell be a real place he must deny that Gehenna is a metaphor.
1. He changes one proper noun into another proper noun, but does not tell us from where he got the proper noun "Hell."
2. He makes Christ say something He did not say.
3. He says, "Hell is further described as a place where," but he did not say where it is described as a place. Hell is not described as a place, or is not described in any other way in the Bible.
This is the very way the words of Christ were first misused by some of the so called church fathers in about the third century and after, long before it was mistranslated into any Bible translation. Unto after the end of the second century only a few of the "church fathers" taught that men have an immaterial, invisible part of a person that is immortal, and it was not unto later that Hell came into being. The so called “church fathers” learned just as we do, from the Bible or from the teaching of men, neither they nor their writing were not inspired; the half converted "church fathers" looking for a way to put their philosophy learned from men into Christianity used the words of Christ in the same way Whitlock did. The church fathers had to have a place to put their immortal soul, which had come from the Greek philosophy. Very often statements like the one John Benton made in "How Can a God of Love Send People to Hell?" page 44, 1985, that the same word aionios, (eternal) is used to describe both Heaven and Hell when nothing is said about Hell or Gehenna in the Matthew 25:46. Dr. Bert Thompson said both Heaven and Hell are described with the exact same terminology in the Bible. “Reason and Revelation,” July 2000. The sad thing is that many will believe such a statements without question. How could anyone make a statement like this, “Both Heaven and Hell are described with the exact same terminology in the Bible.” There is no way he could not know “Heaven” is used hundreds of times, but “Hell” is not used even one time in the Greek. The truth is that aionios, (eternal) is not used in any passage with sheol, hades or Gehenna, not in any passage that any of the three words that are translated Hell in the King James Version. Dr. Thompson did not give one passage where Hell is described with the same terminology as Heaven. There is not one.
Summary: In Pagan and Greek philosophy (Plato, Socrates and others), souls went to a place underground to "a cold and shadowy subterranean realm" unto they could be reincarnated. They believed in the soul being immortal and would be reincarnated, but they did not believe in Hell, a place of everlasting torment before or after the judgment was unknown to them; and they had no word for it. The doctrine of Hell, as is believed today, became fully developed in the medieval Dark Age. Tyndale and many others in the Protestant reformation fought the Catholic Church teaching that most go to Purgatory to be purified on their way to Heaven, but "Hell" was accepted without Purgatory by most Protestant churches. It was preached in all its terror by the Jonathan Edwards type of Hell fire preacher and many Gospel preachers a few years back, with Satan tormenting the lost from the time of their death. Today it is almost never preached or written about by Gospel preachers; but when it is, it is almost always toned down from the Jonathan Edwards type of Hell fire preaching; it is now God, not Satan, who will be doing the tormenting.
Another change: In the same way the King James Version changed Gehenna into Hell, it also changed the proper noun "Passover (Pasha in Greek)" into "Easter." "Pasha" is in the New Testament twenty-nine times. Twenty-eight times the King James Version translates it Passover. Only one time (Acts 12:4) is it translated Easter, which according to Webster’s New World Dictionary came from “Eastre” which is the Anglos Saxon goddess of the dawn. There is no way the King James translators could not have known Pasha is not Easter; this is another deliberate change where a Proper Noun was changed into another Proper Noun, which they know had a completely different meaning; one more time th