Belief in hell and Ephisians 4 9.

[Sammy-San]

A Christian who didnt believe in hell argued that the earth wont exist forever and hell is inside of the earth.

 

[hedrick]

He's right that earth won't exist forever. Geologists know pretty well what's inside the earth. Hell isn't there. If it exists (and I'm not convinced) it's almost certainly not in normal space-time. The NT descriptions are symbolic.

 

[PROPHECYKID]

A Christian who didnt believe in hell argued that the earth wont exist forever and hell is inside of the earth.

Well the problem is hell is an English word and the bible wasn't written in English. The idea of hell is a place where the wicked are burned. Some believe its a place inside the earth where the wicked go to burn after death. But when the bible mentions hell one of the words used means the grave. Now look at the text you provided and compare with another text making a similar reference to "hell"

Eph 4:9 (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?

Act 2:27 Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
Act 2:31 He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption.

So Peter in Acts 2, when explaining that Jesus' soul was not left in hell, he meant that he was resurrected. So Jesus, being dead was in "hell" before he was resurrected. Lets look at another verse which mentioned hell.

Rev 20:13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
Rev 20:14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

So hell is a place that contains dead people. The word used for hell in all these instances is the Greek word Hades which means Grave, Place of the Dead. Notice this word Hades is also used here for grave:

1Co 15:55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

So Death and Hades are going to be both destroyed in the Lake of fire. The Lake of fire is actually closer to our idea of hell than the word used for hell in the bible. I do not believe Hell to be a place where wicked dead people go and are being tortured right now, because if the wicked dead are already being punished once they die then what is the point of having a judgement where the wicked will be destroyed. Also, the bible says that the wages of sin is death and eternal life is the gift of God. Some people believe in eternal life for the wicked. Can you imagine you were born in 4000BC, you die a wicked man, you are being tortured for lets say 7000 years, then God brings you back to throw you back into eternal torment to resume burning for all eternity for 20 years of life as a wicked man?