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Hell - Sheol - Hades - Gehenna - Tartaroo - Lake Of Fire - Outer Darkness ... Gehenna is the Greek form of two Hebrew words ge hinnom meaning Valley of the Son of Hinnom (Hebrew: גֵיא בֶן־הִנֹּם or גיא בן-הינום); one of the two principal valleys surrounding the Old City.

In the Hebrew Bible, the site was initially where apostate Israelites and followers of various Ba'als and Caananite gods, including Moloch, sacrificed their children by fire (2 Chr. 28:3, 33:6; Jer. 7:31, 19:2-6).

In both Jewish and Christian writing, Gehenna was a destination of the wicked... The King James version of the Bible translates both with the Anglo-Saxon word Hell.

I think you are really stretching the meaning of Hell when you refer to it as a present and future place of eternal torment. By the above definition, if you don’t put on your preconcieved notion and are honest to the text; “hell” simply means the outer darkness and the site of the ancient burial ground in Israel.

It literally means – the grave.

By this definition, how do you read into the text eternal suffering through fire?

The Greek words used in Jude 1:7 – to describe the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah, which suffered the “Eternal Fire” you are referring to have been misconstrued by Romish ideaologies that gave birth to this notion of a God of passionate Mercy is also a God of passionate punishment.

I think that is distorting God’s true character and making out to be somewhat bipolar… and it is all owed thanks to distorted Romish, heretical non-christian philosophies of immortal existence outside of God and ancient pagan and death cult ideas about the afterlife.

The word – aiōnios is the greek word for “eternal” in your sense… but by definition it is: Definition : without beginning and end, that which always has been and always will be without beginning without end, never to cease, everlasting…

Notice eternal means without beginning and without end. Is Sodom and Gomorrah still burning? Has it been burning since all eternity before judgement was cast as recorded in Genesis? You can't pick and choose and call something ETERNAL if it hasn't been occurring forever, see my point?

If you read the text correctly, in Jude 1:7, it is simply saying the consequences are ETERNAL, just as the consequences of FIRE, are ETERNAL. This is the same verbiage used in Revelation when referring to the Lake of Fire and its consequences.

People believe what they choose to read into the Word of God. I would rather err on the side of what the text is saying, than what so-called Bible-thumping “fire and brimstone” preachers preach, not knowing the true source of their errant teachings.

I believed like you for many years, but discovered the error of my ways. So you are telling me that for a life of constant sinning for 70 or 80 years, if you are robust, according to Psalms, you will be punished by God for ever, and ever, and ever and ever? …And on the same breath you preach a God of Love? I find your doctrine to be found wanting and chockful of irreconcilable differences.

Shalom.

Baruch Hashem Adonai for His Enduring ETERNAL Mercy

Hi, thanks for taking the time to respond. What you have to say provokes one to rethink things. And that's good.

I'd like to reply to a few of your points.

First, the use of various words - they have root meanings as you noted, and they have actual reference to real places. The New Testament makes use of them to describe something else, using familiar terms.

You ask how one reads into the text eternal suffering through fire. I'd say one doesn't. The text itself presents that meaning. I referenced a number of texts that indicated, by the use of some of those words you mentioned, a never ending suffering. Isaiah 66 for instance, or the words of Jesus in Matthew where 3 times He repeated the idea of never ending suffering.

Hell is an interesting word used by the English translators, after all they had to find an English word. But because the original meaning is limited that doesn't mean that they couldn't extend the meaning. That's pretty common. And not just for translators, but users of language in general - meanings get extended all the time, it's a fact of language.

I'd say that when Gehenna was mentioned, the idea was that by talking about something everybody in Jerusalem was familiar with they could be told, what's going to happen at the final judgment is a never ending Gehenna for the wicked.

It's the common place technique of using familiar things to explain things not so familiar. A Metaphor as it were.

About Sodom and Gomorrah, the names of those cities are used to stand as a refernce to the people of those cities. It's another common figure of speach where one thing is used to indicate another thing because of some relationship. Of course the actual cities aren't buring anymore. But the condemnation of the people, that's a different thing altogether.

As to God's character. It is impossible to read either the Old or New Testaments without noticing that God describes Himself over and over again as jealous, angry, vengeful, a consuming fire, fearsome among other things - all of which most people would say are pretty negative. But the simple fact is that they're present, and not just a few instances, but many are found in Scriptures. Many instances of Scriptures passages where God declares that He will punish His enemies are found as well.

And the fact that God also is self described as "love" doesn't require that there be none of the so called negative. There is no "bi-polarity" involved here. God does offer a free gift of salvation through His Son, Jesus. And God also says that any who reject His Son will face His wrath. And there is no conflict of any kind that God is both loving and also ready to exact vengence, which He has called His - and not ours.

That cartoon figure of an old time preacher you present doesn't change the language of the Bible. And no doubt there are those who've not preached anything but anger. But there you have a case of abuse not negating right use.

Perhaps the most striking thing that establishes God's hatred of sin is that Jesus, God in the flesh, being made a little lower than the angels, suffered torment and death and being forsaken on the cross. When I think about that it is no surprise to me that God speaks in terms of eternal punishment.

And that is exactly the reason for condemnation, rejection of the free gift of salvation bought by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. John chapter three says this plainly. Jesus is talking and says,

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." (John 3:16-19)

This tells us plainly that the condemnation is not for the sins but for rejecting Jesus. It's not our sins that we're condemned for, it's for rejecting the salvation freely offered by the passion of Jesus, His shed blood, and death on the cross. We are condemned for rejecting Jesus.

Just a word of thanks for the benediction of peace that you give when you say Shalom. And thank you for challenging comonplace ideas, too much is taken for granted. I find in myself and in others that for years we just assume something, and it's not until someone challenges it that we really think about it.