I recently had the opportunity to share the truth of God’s reconciliation with a fellow believer.  This person was very open to hear what I had to say, but she told me that she had gone home and searched the Scriptures to check out if what I was saying was true.  She couldn’t understand why I believed this way because he said that eternal punishment was found all throughout the Bible.

I’m going to say something that may shock you.  The many versions of the Bible we have today are not the inspired Word of God.  They are man’s interpretations of the Holy Scriptures.  The only inspired versions are the original languages that the Scriptures were written in.  God carefully chose Hebrew for the Old Testament and Greek for the New Testament.  These are the only inspired versions that we can rely on to truly give an accurate rendering of God’s intention.  While today’s versions do give a close rendering of the original (depending on what version you have) and are of tremendous value for devotions and general reading, good Bible study should always include the original languages to get the true meaning.  For example: God did not tell King James and his translators what to write.  But He did tell the prophets and apostles what to precisely write.

Unfortunately, our modern versions have inaccurately translated the Hebrew word olam, and the Greek words aion and aionios.  These words have always been used by both the Hebrews and the classic Greek writers to mean “age” and not “eternal.”  In other words, almost every time the word “everlasting”, “eternal”, or “forever and ever” is found in the Bible, it should be rendered “age.”  Jewish theologians almost universally agree that the Old Testament does not teach eternal punishment.  Olam and Aion were always used to mean “limited duration.”

There are some good versions of the Bible that do translate these words correctly:  Rotherham’s Emphasized Bible, Young’s Literal Translation, Weymouth’s New Testament, and the Concordant New Testament.  You can find the full text of these versions on the Internet or you can order them online. (My personal favorite is Rotherham’s Emphasized—I believe it is the most accurate Bible on the market today—and it is well respected.)

While certainly our God is eternal (Rom 1:20), we must be very careful when using a word that has always been used to designate time, and apply it to God’s punishment in an eternal sense.  Nowhere in the Scriptures should we ever apply “eternal” to God’s judgment.  This is not only inaccurate, but very dangerous.  It unfairly paints God as someone who cannot or will not forgive.  It maligns Him as a God who will “forever” torture most of His creation.

It is amazing how often we include eternal punishment in our preaching when the Bible does not speak of it.  It is equally amazing how often we use the word “hell” when it is nowhere to be found in either the original Hebrew or Greek.  And what is sad is that the “gospel” that most of the Church teaches today includes this awful lie that God will punish them forever in this fictional place called “hell.”

We will start with this idea of “eternal punishment.”  In the last section, I briefly described how the word “eternal” should be translated.  But where did the idea of eternal torment come from?  Did it originate from God?  Did Jesus speak of it?  Or did it come from some other source?

I will quote J.W. Hanson.  “That heathen invented this doctrine is undeniable.”

Says Cicero, “It was on this account that the ancients invented those infernal punishments of the dead, to keep the wicked under some awe in this life, who without them, would have no dread of death itself.”

Says Polbius, the Greek historian: “The multitude is ever fickle and capricious, full of lawless passions and irrational and violent resentments.  There is no way left to keep them in order but by the terrors of future punishment, and all the pompous circumstances that attend such fiction!”

Strabo, the Greek geographer and philosopher, says: “It is impossible to govern women and the gross body of the people, and to keep them pious, holy, and virtuous, by the precepts of philosophy.  This can only be done by the fear of the gods, which is raised and supported by ancient fictions and modern prodigies.”

To again quote J.W. Hanson, “This horrible heathen dogma sought entrance into the Christian Church in vain for the first three centuries after Christ, and though here and there a heathenized Christian announced it, it did not become an accredited Christian doctrine till after more than five centuries.”

To quote Edward Beecher:  “What, then, was the state of facts as to the leading theological schools of the Christian world in the age of Origen and some centuries after?  It was, in brief, this: There were at least six theological schools in the Church at large.  Of these six schools, one, and only one, was decidedly and earnestly in favor of the doctrine of future eternal punishment.  One was in favor of the annihilation of the wicked.  Two were in favor of the doctrine of universal restoration on the principles of Origen, and two in favor of universal restoration on the principles of Theodore of Mopsuestia.
That is to say, here were four times as many Universalist theological schools, where clergymen were educated, as there were schools in which endless punishment was taught, even as late as A.D. 300.  But from that time onward, as darkness increased, the heathen idea was more and more transferred to the sacred page, till it entirely overlaid and obscured the truth.”

The plain truth is that eternal punishment had its origins in the heathen world.  It was brought into the Church by heathen converts to Christianity.  A proper interpretation of the word “Aion” will clear up this confusion.

The original "Authorized Version" of the King James Bible contained the word "hell" only 54 times from Genesis to Revelation. The New King James Bible contained the word "hell" only 32 times and the American Standard and New American Standard (both revisions of the KJV) only 13 times.  There are literally scores of Bible translations which do NOT contain the word "hell" even ONCE!  What's going on?  The answer is really obvious, except to those who insist on hanging onto "traditions of men." (Matt. 15:6-9)  The scholarship of the Reformation period was just a few steps out of the Dark Ages.
So what about the clear teaching in the Bible about hell?  As I have previously mentioned, you cannot find the word “hell” in the original writings.  In the Bible there are four words that are translated “hell” in our modern versions: Sheol, Hades, Gehenna, and Tartarus.

Sheol and its New Testament equivalent Hades, simply means, “to hide.”  Neither of these two words signify anything other than the “sepulcher”, the “grave” or the “state of the dead”—all of these being unseen.
Gehenna is used 12 times in the NT.  This "Gehenna" is the valley in the Old Testament called "ga ben Hinnom" or "the valley of the son of Hinnom," also called "Tophet," a valley in which Israel burned their own children. (Note that it was God's own people who did the burning, NOT God Himself, who thought such a deed was utterly detestable! Jer. 32:35)

While Jesus did refer to the “fires of Gehenna,” it is a very long leap to apply this ancient geographical place to a future place of torment.  Fire is very significant in the Bible.  It is a purifier, not a destroyer.  1 Cor 3 says believers will be saved, “yet as by fire.”  Hebrews says that “our God is a consuming fire.”

There is no doubt in Scripture that fire will be the agent that will be used to bring about God’s purpose.  However, to say that “Gehenna” is a future place of eternal torment is saying something that Jesus did not say.  I’ll say more on fire in a chapter 11.

The last word sometimes translated “hell” is the Greek word Tartarus.  The Apostle Peter uses this word once.  The Greeks held Tartarus, says Anthon, in his Classical Dictionary to be "the fabled place of punishment in the lower world."

I will quote from J.W. Hanson:

Why did Peter quote from it?  Just as men now quote from the classics not sanctioning the truth of the quotation but to illustrate and enforce a proposition.  Nothing is more common than for writers to quote fables: "As the tortoise said to the hare," in Aesop, "As the sun said to the wind," etc.  Peter alludes to this ancient legend to illustrate the certainty of retribution without any intention of sanctioning the then prevalent notions concerning the heathen Tartarus.  There is this alternative only: either the pagan doctrine is true and the heathen got ahead of inspiration by ascertaining the facts before the authors of the Bible learned it-for it was currently accepted centuries before Christ and is certainly not taught in the Old Testament - or Peter quotes it as Jesus refers to Mammon rhetorically to illustrate the great fact of retribution he was instilling.  If true, how can anyone account for the fact that it is never referred to in the Bible, before or after this once? Besides, these angels are not to be detained always in Tartarus, they are to be released.  The language is, "delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment."  When their judgment comes, they emerge from duress.  They only remain in Tartarus "unto judgment."  Their imprisonment is not endless so that the language gives no proof of endless punishment even if it be a literal description.

What is truly amazing to me is that the Apostle Paul, who shunned not to “preach the whole counsel of God,” never once uses the word Gehenna or Tartarus.  And he uses the word hades only once in 1 Cor 15 when he says, “Oh death where is your victory?  Oh hades where is your sting?”  This is referring to Jesus conquering death and the grave.  Where is Paul’s teaching on eternal hell-fire?  Guess what?  He doesn’t teach it.  If eternal torment were true, don’t you think the Apostle Paul would have proclaimed this dreaded truth?  The fact is, hell cannot be found in the Bible.  Neither can we find eternal torment.

As I have already mentioned, the Bible does speak of a second death.  It does speak of God’s judgment.  It certainly speaks of the Lake of Fire.  But nowhere can we find anywhere that God will inflict pain and suffering on millions of people for all of eternity.  This is a fairy tale.

It is interesting to note that the Greek word used for our English word torment actual means “a touchstone.”  A touchstone was used to test the quality of a precious stone.  The Bible says that our God is a consuming fire.  God will use Himself to torment men at the judgment (Rev 14:10).  Judgment is not designed to torture forever, but to test the quality of and to purge away the dross (more on this later).  Remember, 1 Cor. 3:15 says that we will be delivered, yet so as by fire.

One more interesting point:  the same Greek word used for torment found in Rev 20:10 (…tormented day and night forever and ever…) is also used to refer to both the disciples and the boat they were in during the storm on the sea of Galilee (Mk 6:48, Mt 14:24).  Both the disciples and the boat were tormented.  The same Greek word is used for the Beast, False Prophet, and the disciples.

I think we need to get our heads out of horror movies and see that God’s judgments are always for a purpose.  The sufferings and torments he brings our way are for our good—to bring forth the life of Christ in and through us.  It doesn’t matter whether we are believers or non-believers.  God will use fire to burn away all the dross and prepare us for His presence.  Praise His name that He is not through with any of us yet!!

I will leave you with a quote from Hannah Whitall Smith who wrote the Christian classic “The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life.”

Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered; let them also that hate Him flee before Him. As smoke is driven away, so drive them away: as wax melted before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God." God's wrath is against the sin not against the sinner, and when His enemies are scattered, ours are also.  His sword is the righteousness that puts to death sin in order to save the sinner.  The fire of His anger is the "refiner's fire", and He sits, not as the destroyer of the human soul, but as its purifier, to purge it as gold and silver are purged.

The Psalmist says, "Thou wast a God that forgavest them, though thou takest vengeance of their inventions;" and with this key to interpret it, all the denunciations of God's wrath, which had once seemed so cruel and so unjust, were transformed into declarations of His loving determination to make us good enough to live in Heaven with Himself.  I began at last to understand what the Apostle Paul meant when he said that he had been made the minister of the New Testament, not of the letter but of the Spirit, for "the letter killeth but the Spirit giveth life".  Things I had read in the letter, and had shuddered at, now, read in the spirit, filled me with joy.