What the Hell is Hell? Book Summary – Part Six
Today we’ll discuss the timing of when people would be judged, according to Jesus in the Gospels. Many of us have been taught and it is commonly believed that hell is a place you could go when you die. Whenever I teach a Bible study, invariably people are shocked to find out that Jesus never says that once in any of the Gospels. In fact, it never says anywhere in the entire Bible that you could be judged and sent to Gehenna when you die. That is an idea that developed a century or two after Jesus died.
Last time we discussed the famous Sheep and Goats parable in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 25. The parable tells us that how we treated others, for better or worse, is actually how you treated Jesus, and we will be judged accordingly. But the timing of the judgment Jesus speaks of happens at the end of the world as we know it.
The passage goes on to tell us it will happen at a time when a figure called the Son of Man, whom the Gospel tells us is Jesus, will come to judge all of humanity—not just the living but, as you will see, all the dead will also be resurrected to face judgment—he will fulfill a prophecy to that effect from the Old Testament. Jesus will end the world as we know it and transform it into a new world—the kingdom of heaven on earth—earth restored to an Eden-like place, and he will rule on the throne of this world forever more.
On the outskirts of the kingdom, in the valley of Gehenna, the evildoers and sinners will be thrown into God’s fire, but the righteous will inherit the kingdom in which there will be no more death, disease, pain, suffering, sin, and, of course, no more evildoers (sometimes the threat is just Gehenna with no fire mentioned, other times the threat is fire with no Gehennamentioned, and a few times Jesus says they will be “thrown into the outer darkness”[1]).
If we want to take his words literally, which we are doing if we say there is a real fire to be thrown into, Jesus did not preach about that happening in the afterlife, only at the end of the world as we know it. This is also corroborated by Revelation, which tells us that, after the judgment is done, the kingdom of God will be on earth:
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:3–4, emphases added)
The passage shows that if you are righteous at the time of judgment you will be made immortal—given eternal life. Jesus tells us in Matthew that at that time, “the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”
The teaching of the apocalypse in the New Testament was influenced by the book of Daniel in the Old Testament.
But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book. Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.
(Daniel 12:1–3)
Jesus did not refer to an afterlife place in another dimension where bodiless souls would go depending on how they were judged. It was a place on earth involving real, physical bodies. “Many of those who sleep in the dust shall awake” refers to the dead who will awaken at the resurrection (when all the dead are raised), at which time all will be judged—the judgment is not at the time when one dies a personal death.
Now, Jesus did speak about his followers having an afterlife in heaven. He mentions it twice. We see it in one verse in the Gospel of Luke, and there is a more lengthy passage about it in the Gospel of John, which will be discussed in a later blog. It comes at the end of Luke’s Gospel, when Jesus is on the cross and with two criminals being crucified. One of the criminals mocks him, but the other rebukes that criminal, and acknowledges the divine identity of Jesus by saying, “‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ Jesus answered him, ‘Today you will be with me in Paradise.’”[2] But that is all Jesus tells us there about heaven.
Stay tuned for Part Seven tomorrow, where we will continue to discuss Jesus’ fiery references that don’t mention Gehenna, and the timing of our judgment.
[1] Matthew 8:12, 22:13, 25:30.
[2] Luke 23:43.
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