This word conjures up a variety of scenarios and has been used as a club wielded by the clergy for hundreds of years to keep funds coming in and in return, the clergy would attempt to keep the faithful from the clutches of hell.
Now, let's get down to it. The English word "Hell" does not have its origin in the Hebrew or Greek. It originates in an old anglo-saxon word with two variations in spelling: Helle and Helan Its original definition is a hidden place.
Translators took this word and substituted it in place of four other words in the original text, and these are as follows:
Sheol = Hebrew- meaning the grave.
Hades = Greek - meaning a hidden place
Gehenna = Greek - the garbage pit where fires consumed refuse tossed into it.
Tartarus = Homer, who used this word as the underground prison for the giants. This word is only found once where it was substituted for Hell. The early revisers changed the phrase "Thrown down to tartarus" and switched it to hell.
Each and every time the reader comes across the word hell it is one of these other terms.
Now, if one takes all these words and meanings and lumps them together you get a scene of a hidden place, where the dead go, an underground pit where fires burn unceasingly. Frightful picture is it not? That was their aim. I hate to think of how many church goers lived their whole lives in fear of going to a place which does not exist.
Hell is not the lake of fire, which will be a one time event at the end of the millennium.
Those who go into that will be utterly consumed - a final death. Satan will also go into this lake. He is the son of perdition. Perdition means to turn to ash from within and without - to perish.
Now I know that there are people that wish there was a hell, for we all want evil doers, murderers, rapists, kidnappers etc. to burn in hell for eternity as just reward for their evil.....I am with you. But since it is not real, then what?
The rich man could see Lazarus with Christ across a gulf that could not be crossed.
Being held in that state was torture of a kind and there are a great many metaphors and figures of speech and idioms one can sort through.....feeling as one's mouth and tongue are on fire and so forth. A self realization that the rich man as well as countless others are there until the millennium. Those from before were freed by Christ when he rose, but all the rest must remain for now. For the student interested in more information about the millennial period, read the last 8 or 9 chapters of the book of Ezekiel.
Now after the lake of fire event, it will be sealed over and done away with along with all and any memory of those who went into it.
Heaven is where God is and since the full Godhead defacto will be here on earth, you cannot have an open burning lake and thoughts of screaming tortured souls in it and have peace and no more tears. It would not be Heaven.
Now, let's get down to it. The English word "Hell" does not have its origin in the Hebrew or Greek. It originates in an old anglo-saxon word with two variations in spelling: Helle and Helan Its original definition is a hidden place.
Translators took this word and substituted it in place of four other words in the original text, and these are as follows:
Sheol = Hebrew- meaning the grave.
Hades = Greek - meaning a hidden place
Gehenna = Greek - the garbage pit where fires consumed refuse tossed into it.
Tartarus = Homer, who used this word as the underground prison for the giants. This word is only found once where it was substituted for Hell. The early revisers changed the phrase "Thrown down to tartarus" and switched it to hell.
Each and every time the reader comes across the word hell it is one of these other terms.
Now, if one takes all these words and meanings and lumps them together you get a scene of a hidden place, where the dead go, an underground pit where fires burn unceasingly. Frightful picture is it not? That was their aim. I hate to think of how many church goers lived their whole lives in fear of going to a place which does not exist.
Hell is not the lake of fire, which will be a one time event at the end of the millennium.
Those who go into that will be utterly consumed - a final death. Satan will also go into this lake. He is the son of perdition. Perdition means to turn to ash from within and without - to perish.
Now I know that there are people that wish there was a hell, for we all want evil doers, murderers, rapists, kidnappers etc. to burn in hell for eternity as just reward for their evil.....I am with you. But since it is not real, then what?
The rich man could see Lazarus with Christ across a gulf that could not be crossed.
Being held in that state was torture of a kind and there are a great many metaphors and figures of speech and idioms one can sort through.....feeling as one's mouth and tongue are on fire and so forth. A self realization that the rich man as well as countless others are there until the millennium. Those from before were freed by Christ when he rose, but all the rest must remain for now. For the student interested in more information about the millennial period, read the last 8 or 9 chapters of the book of Ezekiel.
Now after the lake of fire event, it will be sealed over and done away with along with all and any memory of those who went into it.
Heaven is where God is and since the full Godhead defacto will be here on earth, you cannot have an open burning lake and thoughts of screaming tortured souls in it and have peace and no more tears. It would not be Heaven.
