By Gerald Cowan
First, HADES is not
hell; heaven and hell are not included in hades. Hades means literally the
unseen. It is the immediate condition of the spirit when separated from the
body at death, unseen and unseeable for living persons still in the body. Hades
accommodates both saved and unsaved, righteous and unrighteous: paradise and
blessing (but not heaven) for the saved who died in the faith; torment and
punishment (but not hell) for all others. Heaven is the certain irrevocable
final destiny for the righteous after hades. Hell is the certain irrevocable
final destiny for the unrighteous after
Hades.
The English word hell,
an ambiguous, non-specific, inaccurate and incorrect term used to translate
Hades, Gehenna, and Tartarus in both Old and New Testaments of the Bible. We
have emphasized before that death is the final separation of the soul-spirit
from the body. The dead body is of no
use after death – the physical body will not be resurrected but replaced by a
spiritual one (1 Corinthians 15:35-38). Hades is the condition of the soul-spirit, separated
from the body. The body, subject to decay and dissolution, is reabsorbed into
the common elements of the earth but the soul-spirit is invisible, unseeable to
the eyes of those still alive in the body. Soul-spirits in Hades are segregated
and compartmentalized according to the relationship to God: (1) those saved, righteous, and destined to
be in heaven eventually, (2) those unsaved, unrighteous, and destined to
be in hell eventually. Hades is
temporary; heaven and hell are permanent and eternal – and unchangeable. Paradise (Abraham’s bosom, fellowship of
Christ) contains all the saved; Tartarus (torment) contains all the unsaved
(there is no purgatory, no limbo or neutral condition for those with
undetermined destiny). The eternal destiny for everyone is set irrevocably at
death. Prayers, service, gifts,
promises, or quid pro quo trades, in behalf of the dead are not possible. God will not negotiate any point about the
condition or destiny of the dead whether good or bad.
What about Gehenna
(GEÉNNA), how is it related to hell? There was and is a geographical location
called GAIA-BEN-HINNOM (the valley of the son of Hinnom) mentioned frequently
in the Old Testament scriptures. It became a place devoted to the pagan god
Molech where children were burned as a sacrifice in worship and petition to the
idol god. The name was shortened to
GE-HINNOM and transliterated into Greek as GEÉNNA, Gehenna. The place and the
practice of child-burning was ended under the reforms of King Josiah (2 Kings
23:10-14). It later served as a garbage dump and cesspool for Jerusalem, not
only usual trash and excrement but also dead animals and carcasses of dead
criminals to be consumed by a fire kept burning perpetually with
sulphur/brimstone. Gehenna meshes perfectly with everything else God’s Word
says about the fire of final judgment. John the Baptist warned that Jesus “will
burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (Matt. 3:12b). Jesus Himself warned
often of the “furnace of fire” (Matt. 13:42), the “eternal fire” (Matt. 18:8),
the “unquenchable fire” (Mk. 9:43), and the “fiery Hell” (Matt. 5:22). He
likened that fire to Gehenna, where “their worm does not die, the fire is not
quenched and never goes out. It was a place especially hated by God because of
the people’s evil sinfulness that they practiced there. In His wrath, God
promised that Tophet, or the Valley of Hinnom, would be renamed the Valley of
Groaning and Slaughter because people would consume their dead in it until
there was no further space (Jeremiah 7:31-32 KJV). Eventually, according to the
Jewish Encyclopedia, the Jews began referring to Gehenna as a place where sins
are punished.
When Jesus spoke about
hell, he usually used the word Gehenna. For example, when talking to people
about avoiding sin, he tells them: “If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck
it out and cast it away from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of
your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell [Gehenna].
And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for
it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish than for your
whole body to be cast into hell [Gehenna]” (Matthew 5:29-30 NKJV). Jesus also
uses Gehenna to refer to the final place of punishment, as seen in Matthew
10:28. Do not fear those who might persecute and kill the body yet have no
power over the soul, but rather fear Him (God) who can destroy both body and
soul in hell [Gehenna]. In Matthew 25:46
Jesus, speaking to his disciples, helps them understand that the unrighteous
would go to a place of great suffering while the righteous would go to an
everlasting home where they will enjoy eternal life in joy and happiness. In
Revelation 21:8 Jesus speaks to the apostle John in a vision and says that all
wrongdoers will end up in the lake of fire from which there will be no escape.
Why would Jesus Use
Gehenna to let the People know of the Horrors of Hell? Gehenna is not hell but is a metaphor of
hell. Jesus used Gehenna to strengthen His arguments about hell. The constant
never-extinguished (unquenchable?) fire of the garbage dump of Gehenna is a
sign and symbol of unquenchable fire of hell. Molech can stand as a symbol for
Satan. The unquenched fire that used to burn in Gehenna while infants were sacrificed
was like no other. Hell is a place where the fire burns and will not cease
(Matthew 13:50, Matthew 25:41, and Mark 9:48). No doubt Jesus wanted people to
know of hell’s horrors and the importance of living a life holy to God to
escape it. The Lord’s message would strike terror and dread into his audience
who knew Gehenna’s history and symbolism and the many sacrifices by fire done
there. Gehenna-like hell represented a place of torment where the fire would
continue burning and where there would be no mercy and no comfort given to the
lost who entered that condition. Not only will those in hell be unable to save
or protect themselves but nobody else on earth or in the spirit world be able
to help either.
We repeat:
between Hades and Gehenna there is no alternative and no hope – no purgatory,
no limbo, no exit and no end. Over the entrance to Inferno/Hellfire in Dante’s
monumental but misleading poem are the words Abandon hope, all you who enter
here. Dante separates hell into many rings or layers, a downward spiral of
ever-increasing horror. Much of what certain religions teach and what many
bemused and befuddled religious people think about heaven and heel and what
lies between them is learned from Dante, not the Word of God.
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