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GEHENNA
If we have been raised as
christians, will have been taught a number of unscriptural doctrines
that have been introduced through pagan religions, mistranslations or
deliberately twisted Scripture... The everlasting punishment of Hell
(Gehenna) is NOT one of these.
Unlike
the theory of the “Trinity” or 'Rapture”, which are
not found
in Scripture, the Hebrew words Sheol and Gehenna and the Greek word
Hades (all synonymous of Hell) are found numerous times in Scripture.
As with the majority of articles on this site we keep our own words
to a minimum and let the Scriptures speak for themselves.
EVERLASTING
FIRE
Let's examine a number of the Scriptures referring
to the final destination of the lawless:
Daniel
12:2 “And many of those who
sleep
in the dust of the earth wake up, some to everlasting life, and some
to reproaches, everlasting
abhorrence.”
Note:
The Hebrew word for “everlasting”
is “owlam” and literally means: forever, everlasting,
perpetual
or unending future. Obviously, if the righteous rise to everlasting
(owlam) life, then the abhorrence is also the same...
Yeshayah
33:12-14 “And
peoples shall be like the burnings
of lime,
like thorns cut up they are burned
in the fire.
13
“You who are afar off, hear what I shall do; and you who are
near,
know My might.” 14
Sinners in Tsiyon shall be afraid; trembling shall grip the defiled
ones, “Who of us shall dwell
with the devouring fire?
Who of us shall dwell
with everlasting burnings?”
Note:
Again we encounter the word owlam. This time is mentioned the “fire”
and “burnings”...
Matthew
3:12 “His winnowing fork is in
His
hand, and He shall thoroughly cleanse His threshing-floor, and gather
His wheat into the storehouse, but the chaff He shall burn
with unquenchable fire.”
Note:
Here we rely on the Greek manuscripts and the “unquenchable”
burnings reveal a familiar word
“asbestos”, the
Greek word not surprisingly meaning “unquenchable”. Take
note,
these are the words of the Messiah...
Matthew
25:41 “He shall then also say to
those on the left hand, ‘Go away from Me, accursed ones, into the
everlasting fire
prepared for the devil and his messengers.”
Note: Now
we encounter the Greek word for “everlasting”
which is: “Aionios”; again meaning:
perpetual,
eternal, without beginning or end...
2
Thessalonians 1:9 “Shall be
punished
with everlasting destruction
from the presence of the Master and from the esteem of His
strength”
Note: Again we see the familiar
“everlasting”
(Aionios), and also a warning that this is a punishment.
So far it is without question that the fire of
the punisment is forever, and few people disagree; but that doesn't
mean that the punishment of the burning lasts
forever... or does it?
Yudah
1:7 “Even as Sedom and Amorah
and
the cities around them in a similar way to these, having given
themselves over to whoring and gone after strange flesh, are set
forth as an example, undergoing judicial
punishment of everlasting fire.”
Note:
Some may see this as evidence that “everlasting” is not
everlasting if this is referring to the punishment of Sodom and
Gomorrah, but notice that the punishment the cities (inhabitants) are
“undergiong”
(Greek “hupecho”) is a present tense
article; not past tense. Therefore this verse is speaking of their
“everlasting” (Aionios) punishment of the eternal judgement.
Mark
9:43 “And if your hand makes you stumble, cut it off. It is
better for you to enter into life crippled, than having two hands, to
go into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire,
“where
their worm does not die and the fire is not
quenched.”
Mark
9:44, Mark 9:46, Mark 9:48 “where
their worm does not die
and the fire is not
quenched.”
Three
times Yahushua warns of “unquenchable fire”, but
notice “their
worm”!
This
“worm” is the Greek word “skolex”
“G#4663: of uncertain
derivation: A worm, specifically that kind which
preys upon dead
bodies.” (Strong's)
How could the worm that
feeds on rotting flesh not die if the punished are totally consumed
by fire?
Matthew
25:41 “He shall then also say to
those on the left hand, ‘Go away from Me, accursed ones,
into the everlasting fire
prepared for the devil and his messengers.46
“And these shall go away into everlasting
punishment, but the righteous
into everlasting life.”
Note: Yahushua had a lot to
say about the eternal punishment of the unrighteous. Here in this
parable He describes “everlasting
fire” and
“everlasting
punishment”.
How can this punishment be everlasting if it's just a quick sizzle
into ashes?
Matthew
25:46 “And these shall go away
into everlasting punishment,
but the righteous into everlasting life.”
Note: This
is getting clearer. Like Daniel 12:2,
the “everlasting
punishment”
is eqauted with the “everlasting
life”. If
the
life for the righteous lasts forever then so does the punishment! No?
Luke
16:23-28 “And while suffering
tortures in the grave, having
lifted up his eyes, he saw Abraham far away, and Elʽazar in his
bosom. 24
“And crying out he said, ‘Father Abraham, have compassion
on me,
and send Elʽazar to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my
tongue, for I am suffering in this
flame.’ 25
“But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your life you
received
your good, and likewise Elʽazar the evil, but now he is comforted
and you are suffering.
26
‘And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been
set, so that those who wish to pass from here to you are unable, nor
do those from there pass to us.’ 27
“And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, that you would send
him to
my father’s house, 28
for I have five brothers, let him warn them, lest they also come to
this place of torture.’
”
Note: Here the Messiah Himself uses the terms:
“torture”
and “suffering”!
Why would Yahushua use graphic terminology in this parable if there
is no eternal suffering? Was He trying to trick the listeners into
believing of the existence of eternal torture, or did they already
know from Scripture? Although this is a parable, a number of
Yahushua's spiritual comparisons have the words “is
like...”,
whereas this is a literal description of the punishment of the
lawless. In fact when Yahushua explained the parable of the
“wheat
and darnel” to His disciples, He used exactly the same
descriptions:
Matthew 13:41-42
“The Son of Adam shall send out His messengers, and they shall
gather out of His reign all the stumbling-blocks, and those doing
lawlessness, 42
and shall throw them into the
furnace of fire – there
shall
be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”
FIRE,
SMOKE AND TORTURE
A question should be asked: what
words and descriptions should Yahushua have use if He was not warning
of a place of eternal fire, torture and punishment? How could He have
made it clearer?
If
Yahushua's words aren't enough to convince those who claim to believe
His Words; there's the Book of Revelation which was given to reveal
to us the end days and the future of the obedient and the
disobedient:
Revelation 14:10
“he also shall drink of the wine of the wrath of Elohim, which is
poured out undiluted into the cup of His wrath. And he shall be
tortured with fire
and sulphur before the set-apart messengers and before the Lamb.”
11
“And the smoke of their
torture
goes up forever and ever.
And they have no rest day or
night, those worshipping the
beast and his image, also if anyone receives the mark of his
name.”
Note: Again we encounter the “torture”
of the wicked. Everyone knows that a torture is not something that is
quick and painless, and in this case is “forever
and ever”!
Some will claim it is only “the
smoke” that
lasts forever. This is an unfounded statement considering the fact
that the very same verse describes having “no
rest day or night.”
Revelation
20:10 “And the devil, who led
them
astray, was thrown into the lake
of fire and sulphur where the
beast and the false prophet are. And they shall be tortured
day and night forever and ever.”
Note:
Some would again claim that ,“tortured
day and night forever and ever”
only
applies
to the devil, beast and false prophet, but it's not
only Satan and his workers who are thrown in this lake:
Revelation
20:15 “And if anyone
was not found written in the Book of Life, he was thrown
into the lake of fire.”
Revelation
21:8 “But as for the cowardly, and untrustworthy, and
abominable, and murderers, and those who whore, and drug sorcerers,
and idolaters, and all the false, their part is in the lake
which burns with fire and sulphur, which is the second
death.”
Some
hypothesize that “sheol”; translated as “the
grave”, is not
the same as “hell fire”, and that “death” and
“the grave”
are used synonomously, which accurately speaking is true, but in
context the meaning of the eternal punishment is obviously the same.
Here's a few examples:
Proverbs
23:14 “Beat him with a rod And
deliver his being from the
grave.”
Note:
Everyone is going to the grave, but the context of this verse is
clear. You can't deliver someone from dying, but through teaching you
can deliver ones soul from eternal death.
Psalm
9:17
“The
wrong return to the grave,
All the gentiles that forget Elohim.”
Notice
that the wrong “return”
to the grave, which makes complete sense in light of what happens at
the “second
death”
Revelation
20:14 “And the death
and the grave were thrown into
the lake of fire.
This is the second death.”
Note: Strictly speaking,
the “lake of fire” is where the
eternal
“torture” us exacted on the lawless as
we
have seen is Rev 20:10.
ETERNAL
TORTURE OR A QUICK SIZZLE?
One
particular verse used to support the notion that the eternal
punishment spoken of is a complete destruction by fire of the wicked,
rather than a torturous eternal burning is:
Malachi
4:1-3 “For
look, the day shall come, burning
like a furnace,
and all the proud, and every wrongdoer shall be stubble.
And the day that shall come shall burn
them up,”
said YHWH
of
hosts, “which leaves
to them neither root nor branch...3
“And you shall trample the wrongdoers, for they
shall be ashes
under the soles of your feet on the day that I do this,” said YHWH
of
hosts.”
In
all honesty, this verse sounds exactly like a permanent end, yet in
light of the weight of Scripture warning otherwise, it would be more
likely that this description is a parable. How can the wrongdoers be
ashes under our feet when Yeshayah prophesies the culmination of all
things in terms like this?
Yeshayah
66:23-24
“And
it shall be that from New Moon to New Moon, and from Sabbath to
Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before Me,” declares YHWH.
24
“And
they shall go forth and look
upon the corpses
of the men who have transgressed against Me. For their worm
shall not die,
and their fire
not be quenched.
And they shall be repulsive
to all flesh!”
Note:
Again the familiar terminology of “fire”
and “worm”,
but notice the righteous will “look
upon the corpses”.
Ashes are not corpses.
Again
in the Psalms Dawid writes about those who hate Yahweh...
Psalm
81:15
“Those who hate יהוה
would
cringe before Him; And their time of
punishment
be forever.”
Note:
Even though "of punishment" is added text, the message is
clear.
IS
IT IN YAHWEH”S NATURE?
This
is by far the most difficult question to answer, but none of us can
really comprehend the love or the justice of Yahweh. It is without a
doubt that, from Scripture, there is a “lake of fire”,
though for
some there is question as to whether the punishment itself lasts
forever. Again the question arises; how should Yahweh or Yahushua
have described the punishment of the lawless if it was not a place of
eternal torture by fire?
One
thing is clear that Yahweh gives us a free will and that by our
choice of obedience or disobedience, we condemn ourselves to the
punishment. Scripture reveals that the “lake
of fire” was actually “prepared
for
the devil and his messengers.” (Matt
25:41)
CONCLUSION
The
Scriptures warn of the “Anger”, “Wrath”
and
“Vengeance” of Yahweh hundreds of times and we know
that
“The fear of YHWH is the beginning of
wisdom”
(Psalm 111:10)
Luke
12:5 “But I shall show you whom you should fear: Fear the One
who, after killing, possesses authority to cast into Gehenna.
Yea, I say to you, fear Him!”
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