It is one of the great ironies that 2000-3200 years ago, roughly the span that the books in the Old and New Testaments were written, they wrote in language rich with metaphors, symbols, and sublime poetic expression where the meaning was found anywhere but the literal words themselves, but now, these thousands of years later, it is common for religious people, whose religion is based on those texts, to take all the language literally.
Oftentimes this comes as result of the belief that God wrote every word of the Bible. It’s believed that if God is the author, surely he literally meant everything he said. Does God speak in poetry? If you believe God wrote the Bible, would it be so hard to imagine “he” spoke poetically? Who invented poetry? Poetry can often communicate ideas too sublime for literal terms. Even if one believes God is responsible for the writing of the Bible and its content, one would still have to concede that human beings physically wrote the words on the page (and of course then translated it from language to language). Let’s settle for the moment on saying the writers were inspired.
Wrapped up in all this, it must be acknowledged that fear can really impede the search for truth and understanding when it comes to interpreting the language in the Bible. The fear of hell is so palpable, for many, that alone prevents the subject of hell from being examined. When we look at Jesus’ words that have been for ages used to justify the belief in hell, we see a language that speaks about one being thrown into hell, or the fires of hell, or just into fire for being a sinner. Let’s look at that.
The Gospel of Matthew is where we find the most graphic imagery related to fires and hell. For example, “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. Even those who take the Bible literally tend to concede that the weeds are not literal, nor is tying them in bundles, nor is the wheat or the barn literal…but the fire, of course that’s the literal fire of hell. What’s important to note here is that Jesus gives an explanation of these verse shortly thereafter. He himself tells us these things are metaphorical.
The good seed (that grows into the wheat) are the “children of the kingdom.” The weeds are the “children of the evil one.” That, by definition, shows us that he was not speaking literally. But even more worth noting, he says, “Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so it will be at the end of the age” (Matthew 13:40). He speaks about the day of judgment at the end of the world as we know it —the end of the age, he is not talking about an afterlife hell. In fact, Jesus never talks about an afterlife hell in any of the Gospels, only this final judgment of humanity.
Later in Matthew, Jesus says that evildoers will be thrown into a furnace of fire. Is that meant to be taken literally? If it is a furnace, how can it also be hell? And how can one furnace handle all the evildoers of humanity? That would have to be one giant furnace! None of this is a problem unless you want to insist things are meant to be taken literally. He speaks in another place about an eternal fire. In Revelation we see talk of a lake of fire. Now here’s the kicker: three times in Matthew he says that sinners will be thrown into “the outer darkness.” Here is a question too seldom asked by those who want to take the Bible literally: If evildoers or sinners are thrown into fire, how can it be dark there? How can you be in darkness and the light of fire at the same time? The answer is you can’t. Jesus is speaking metaphorically. When we look with metaphorical eyes for the deeper meanings, it can all make sense and be in harmony.
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