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Every once in a while, in a period of a few weeks, I will receive the same question at different times from several different people. I have learned that this usually means that it is time to teach on a topic thoroughly. In the last few weeks, I have had no less than five individuals ask me about "hell." My intention in this lesson is not to preach "hell fire and brimstone" in a conviction type sermon, but to logically look at some of the claims being made by preachers today and see if they are true as to the existence of hell. I'm not going to turn the heater on as I preach as an effort to get you to repent, but rather talk to you about what the scriptures really teach and don't teach about the concept of "hell."

I bought one of my birthday presents already, a full set of sermons from the esteemed preacher, Charles Spurgeon, a fantastic preacher in the early 1800s. The set is a fifteen volume set of his printed notes and they are categorized according to topic. Knowing that I would be teaching on this subject, one of the first things that I did was grab the "h" volume and see what Mr. Spurgeon had to say on the subject. I was shocked to find that there is not one mention of hell in his works. Either in a lifetime of preaching, Spurgeon avoided the subject, or those that compiled and published his works felt like those sermons were not needed.

Hell is not preached much any more in America. In fact, most people refuse to go to a church where the subject is mentioned much. "Let's focus on the love of God and His mercy" is the trend, and I agree that those are much more enticing subjects when choosing a sermon. Hell is one of those things that we would rather not be reminded of and would like for it to be "out of sight and out of mind." The idea of hell makes us uncomfortable and nervous. The devil has done his part to make it a common byword for "trouble" when in actuality, if the place called "hell" is real, then your little, rough time at work cannot compare!

The traditional concept of hell is under attack in main-line protestant churches today. And yet most preachers and people choose to respond by not mentioning it at all. I believe that this is the absolutely wrong approach to have. Hear what I am saying. If hell is not real and is not a place of everlasting torment, then we ought to be proclaiming the good news and getting the word out! Likewise, if hell is real, and is a place of everlasting torment, then we should be getting the word out so that people can do what it takes to save themselves from such a place! Whether real or not, we need to talk about hell and are doing people an injustice by its omission.

When we question "is hell for real?" then what we are really asking "is it a place of everlasting fiery torment as traditionally believed?" Let's turn to the scriptures and try to answer this question.

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The King James Version has many strengths and has served the English world well, but one of it's weaknesses is using one word for several different words in the original languages. This often causes confusion for the reader, and there is no greater example of this than the KJV usage of the word "hell." In the King James translation, the rich man is in hell, righteous dead people descend into "hell," and Jesus descended to "hell." Understandably, such usage gives rise to some questions.

These questions are answered only by going to the original languages. There are three foreign words that you need to learn to keep the "hell stuff" straight, one Hebrew and two Greek. We'll take them one by one.

This is the Hebrew word translated most often as "hell" in the Old Testament KJV. Unfortunately, it is sometimes -- especially in more modern translations -- translated as "grave." Neither accurately convey the meaning of the Hebrew word. A better translation might be "the place of the dead" or "the state of being in the place of the dead." The translation "grave" is not accurate because it brings to mind a tomb or cemetery. The translation "hell" is not accurate because of the KJVs other uses of the word "hell" brings to mind a place of torment only. Some modern translations have avoided this problem and simply put the Hebrew sheol in the English text.

Let me save you a lot of time and study and tell you that sheol is a generic word and can refer to the state of someone who died lost, or who died saved. We must use context to determine which is meant. Most of the time this is not hard to do.

From these scriptures it is fairly obvious that a "bad" or "lost" sheol is meant:

David, who was living for God, said:

From others, the term is used generically for the "state and place of the dead" and can refer to either saved or lost:

And then in some places it is obviously referring to the waiting place of the righteous dead:

Despite what the average person believes, the scriptures do not teach that a person dies and goes directly to heaven in a glorified body with angel's wings. First of all, nowhere does it say that we will be angels in any way and we never find in scripture humans being turned into angels. Second of all, the scriptures teach that at death, the body is separated from the person's soul (mind) and spirit. The physical body decays but the soul and spirit of a person live for forever. This soul and spirit goes to sheol, the place of the dead, until they are resurrected in a new, glorified body either at the Rapture of the church, or at the Great White Throne judgment. The holding place until this resurrection is in Hebrew "sheol." The scripture teach that in the end:

If a person is lost, then they will be given a glorified body which can burn forever and still live. Likewise, if a person is saved, they will be given a glorified body which can live forever with Jesus. Either way, the dead person's soul and spirit eventually get a glorified body. But the "holding place" where their soul and spirit rests until this happens is in the Hebrew called sheol. And so therefore it can be a saved resting place, a lost resting place, or just the place of the dead in general, depending on the context.

Maybe the concept that a saved person does not directly go to heaven and are not immediately "shouting on the streets of gold" seems foreign to you because of what you have heard, but it is a very Biblical concept. In I Corinthians chapter 15, Paul describes the resurrection of believers that will take place at the "Rapture of the church" when Jesus Christ comes back in the clouds at the last trumpet:

If the saved dead are already in heaven and shouting on streets of glory, then why does Jesus Christ have to come back to get them, and why does Paul speak of them receiving their "imperishable body" as a future event? The Bible does not teach that the moment a saved person dies that they are "in heaven, looking down over us" but rather that they go to a sheol, a place of waiting, awaiting the resurrection of their body.

The New Testament was originally written in Koine Greek, and there are two distinct words that are translated in the KJV as "hell." The first is hades. Hades is the Greek counterpart to the Hebrew sheol and can be a general term referring to the place of the dead, and can also refer to the place of the lost and the place of the saved depending on context. When Old Testament scripture is quoted in the New Testament, they used hades to replace the Hebrew sheol. The two terms are equivalent.

This explains many difficult passages such as Act 2:31 where the KJV says that Jesus went "to hell" but was not left there. The word for "hell" is hades and so Peter was basically saying that Jesus died, but did not stay dead. He was using the word in the most general sense. Jesus did not go to a place of fiery torment, but rather to the "state of being dead." And He did not stay long! Here we find the word does not necessarily imply the meaning of a "place of the lost." Likewise in Revelation 1:18, when Jesus says "I have the keys of hell and of death" He is referring to the fact that he overcame and escaped from hades, and therefore conquered it!

In our text, we read about the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. Jesus said that the rich man died and "in hell, lifted up his eyes, being in torments" (KJV). You might be shocked to know that the word for "hell" here in the Greek is also hades! Here it is definitely being used in the sense of eternal torment in fire and the waiting place of the lost.

The story of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke chapter 16 is important to our study because it teaches us that there are two sides to the waiting place of the dead, a "good side" or "saved side" and a "bad side" or "lost side." The rich man was in hades but was in torment with fire. By contrast the beggar Lazarus had died, but was in "Abraham's bosom" and not in torment with fire. In this story "Abraham's bosom" is used to denote the non-torment, saved side of hades, where as the rich man is obviously on the lost side. Understanding this basic principle, reinforces the point that when we talk of a scriptural "holding place" or "waiting place" of the dead, we are not teaching a concept of purgatory as the Catholic church teaches. A purgatory means a place between heaven and hell where people can earn their way out of hell by their works after death. Purgatory is not a scriptural principle but an invention made of man and does not exist. A sheol or hades that is a waiting place until the resurrection and final judgment is a scriptural term, but nothing that a person does after death can change their final destination for that was determined in their life on earth.

There is another term given in the New Testament for the good side or "saved side" of hades. Jesus told the thief on the cross "today you will be with me in paradise." Not heaven, but "paradise." The word for "paradise" in the Greek literally means "a park, or a place of happiness." What Jesus was saying to the thief was that "you are going to die, but you will be going to the happy side of hades, rather than the place of torment." So "paradise" is synonymous with "Abraham's bosom" in referring to the "saved side" of hades. Obviously, if the Bible makes the distinction to refer to the "good side" then there must also be in actual existence a "bad side."

In the story of the rich man and Lazarus, we find the rich man begging for Lazarus to come to where he is and bring a drop of water to touch his tongue and relieve him from the "torment of the flames." Abraham responds that there is a "great gulf fixed" so that individuals cannot pass from one side to another. Jesus was teaching us the principle that when you die, you go to one side or another, and once on one side, you cannot change to the other side. That is comforting to those who die saved, that once you die, you've made it! But it is discomforting to those who die lost, because although they can see the other side, they can never ever cross out of the torment to the "paradise side" of hades. And so we find that the New Testament expands our understanding of the waiting place of the dead.

Those who would choose to not believe in a literal hell of torment must deal with this teaching of Jesus in Luke 16, and most "non-believers in a fiery hell" will say that this was just a parable and not a real account. Let me respond to that argument a moment.

Jesus did use parables -- everyday stories used to illustrate an spiritual point -- in His teachings. To teach about the importance of the Word of God and how it grows into fruitfulness in our life, Jesus told a story about a man sowing or planting seeds and some of the seeds fell on good ground, but others fell on other ground that was not conducive to grow seed. Jesus then used the elements of the story, to explain that the seed represented the Word of God and the ground was men and women's lives. He taught by parables.

The story of the rich man and Lazarus does not show any sign of being a parable. Jesus never interprets the symbols for the listeners. He does not begin with "hear this parable" as He did so many other times. He begins with there was "a certain rich man" which seems to indicate that this is not a generic story about the fate of all rich men, but that this is a story about a particular one. Jesus gives the name of the beggar as to indicate that this is not a parable about all beggars but about a certain one. Jesus was not teaching that all rich people are lost and all beggars are saved, because that is not necessarily true. All the clues point to the fact that Jesus was telling a real story, and was withholding the name of the rich man, lest someone know him.

But let's suppose that it was just a parable; that the story of the rich man and Lazarus was just a fictional teaching of Jesus Christ to illustrate a point. What then was the point? That there is a literal place of torment and an "Abraham's bosom" and you definitely want to live your life so that you go one place and not the other. He chose a "rich man" to represent the lost individual because the Pharisees -- which in context is who He was talking to at this point -- believed wrongly that great wealth was a sign of the blessings of God and that God was pleased with your life. By presenting the rich man as the one who was lost and the beggar as the one who was saved, Jesus was driving home the point that our actions cause us to be saved or lost and our salvation is not necessarily based upon our bank account size. If Jesus did not believe in a literal fiery place of torment, then it would seem strange that He would choose such an example to such a point! Whether or not the story of the rich man and Lazarus ever really happened, Jesus was using it to teach us important concepts about hades that are truth.

The last word in the Greek used for "hell" in the KJV is a very specific one of which there can be no doubt to it's meaning. Gehenna refers only to a fiery place of torment of the lost and never refers to the "paradise" or "saved" side of the resting place of the dead.

It was Jesus Himself that introduced the word in reference to everlasting torment, and every Jew that heard Him grasped the significance of what He was saying. Gehenna means "valley of the son of Hinnom" and referred to a deep valley just south of the city of Jerusalem. In Old Testament times, this valley was the site of the worshippers of the idol, Molech, that horrible metal idol who was worshipped by rolling infants down slanted arms to be devoured by a fire built in the belly of the idol. When the good king Josiah stamped out idolatry across Israel, he destroyed the place of worship and turned it into the country's "dump" where the bodies of killed criminals and dead animals and the waste and refuse of the cities were thrown and burned. He did this to make sure that the followers of Molech would never be able to go back there and worship. By the time of Jesus' ministry, Gehenna was established as the primary trash depository of Jerusalem and Judah, and so much waste was fed into it that the fire never went out but continually burned day and night.

Here are some of the scriptures where Jesus used Gehenna to refer to a place of torment for the lost:

By using such a vivid term as Gehenna for fiery punishment, Jesus invoked the strongest possible image in the mind of those who were listening to Him. Not one time did anyone ever ask in confusion what He meant. Not one time did they think that He was referring to their bodies being literally taken outside of the city and thrown on the trash pile. Every one of Jesus' listeners realized that He was using the valley of fire to represent and teach about another destination of lost souls. Jesus was describing a "fiery hell" and was doing so in the most graphic of terms.

Besides these three words, there are many other phrases that refer to the existence of a traditional hell. Surprisingly, our greatest source for teachings on a fiery hell of torment, comes not from some Old Testament prophet, but from Jesus Christ! In scripture we have 1,870 verses that are the recorded, spoken words of Christ. Thirteen percent of them have to do with hell and a fiery eternal punishment. 13%! That's a higher percentage than the number of verses where Jesus spoke of heaven, love, or any other subject! Over half of the Lord's parables mention judgment or eternal punishment. The strongest word for hell, gehenna, that we have just studied is found twelve times in scripture and all but one of those times are from the mouth of Jesus Christ with the one other usage being His half-brother, James. The point is that if hell is not a real place, then Jesus Christ did not know it and He wasted quite a bit of time mentioning it and teaching about it! The very amount of time that Jesus spoke about it points to the very real existence of a place of fiery torment.

Let's look at some of the other phrases that Jesus used to refer to the resting place of the lost. For the sake of time, let's glance only at the quotes from one Gospel, the book of Matthew:

John the Baptist also warned strongly of a fiery torment for the wicked when he prophesied about Jesus' coming:

At the end of the book of Matthew, in what is known as the Great Commission, Jesus told his disciples and followers:

"All that I commanded" would include Jesus' many teachings on the subject of hellfire and eternal judgment. If a preacher never teaches or talks or warns about such a place, can he really be said to have obeyed the commandment of Jesus Christ in this scripture? If hell as a place of torment is not real, then why would Jesus instruct His followers to preach about it?

So is hell really a place of fiery torment as traditionally believed? The Jews believed that it was. Matthew taught that it was. Mark taught that it was. Luke taught that it was. John both in his gospel and in the book of Revelation taught that it existed with humans going into it. We did not have time to get there in this lesson, but the Apostle Paul taught that fiery punishment for the wicked was real (2 Thessalonians 1:6-9). Both Peter and Jude warned of fiery punishment and a holding place for the wicked (2 Peter 2:4; Jude 6-23). In fact, the main purpose of the entire book of Jude is to warn the church of the coming judgment of sin.

And most importantly Jesus taught that it really existed, and it's existence moved Him so much that He came down from glory to die on a cross in a horrible sacrificial death so that you and I could have the opportunity to escape such a place! If there is no place of torment or eternal judgment, then why did Jesus bother to come and die? To save us? To save us from what?

We've answered our first question: hell is for real; you can take Jesus' words for it!