What the Hell is Hell? Book Summary – Part Seven
Today we’ll discuss the last major component of what Jesus said about hell in the Gospels. We started with defining what hell is to Jesus (“hell” is an translation of an actual valley just outside Jerusalem called Gehenna in the original Greek of the New Testament), next we discussed why you might go there (for being a sinner or evildoer), then when we might go there (at the end of the world as we know it when Jesus returns to judge all humanity). Now we must discuss what Jesus said would happen to anyone sent to Gehenna (or in the other ways where he mentions judgment resulting in fire).
You will see in looking back on some of the verses already cited that Jesus spoke of the wicked as being destroyed in the fire, not burning forever. He specifically uses the term “destroyed” three times in verses where he mentions the final judgment, and in several other places he refers to the destruction in other ways.
“Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna” (Matthew 10:28, emphasis added).
In what version of our hell are souls destroyed? If our soul were destroyed, how could we suffer for all eternity? And what hell have we heard of that has physical bodies thrown into it?
“They were eating and drinking, and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed all of them. Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot: they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but on the day that Lot left Sodom, it rained fire and sulfur from heaven and destroyedall of them—it will be like that on the day that the Son of Man is revealed” (Luke 17:27–30, emphases added).
God is going to destroy the people who did evil; not sentence them to eternal torment. Now, the word destruction might have a metaphorical meaning. In modern terms, one basketball fan might say to another, “Our team is going to destroy yours.” But we can at least say that the most common definition of the term “destroy” (to put an end to; kill; annihilate), as stated in scripture, seems to have been overlooked by a great many of us. Here, however, we are concerned with what the Bible actually says, versus the belief taught for ages that you will suffer for all eternity if you are sentenced to hell on the day of judgment.
Jesus repeats what he means by destruction a few different ways: “at harvest time I will tell the reapers, ‘Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn’” (Matthew 13:30). In modern terms, let’s say you have a fire going in your backyard and you pull up the weeds and throw them into the flames. What happens? They burn up and are destroyed; they don’t burn forever. When Jesus goes on to explain these metaphors to his disciples, he says, “the weeds are the children of the evil one … the reapers are angels … and just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age” (Matthew 13:38–40).
The wicked will be burnt up in fire—to exist no more; forever separated from God by virtue of being destroyed. They will not continue to exist, burning in gruesome agony in eternal fire while simultaneously suffering the misery of being aware that they are permanently separated from God. That idea came long after the Gospels were written. You will not find it in the Bible.
You will find more support for everything written in these summaries in my book What Did Jesus Say About Hell? This covers the few chapters in it that cover everything pertaining to “hell,” and the second half of the book delves into the higher theological and spiritual messages of Jesus, as well as the intricacies of walking your own unique spiritual path.
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