WEDNESDAY What Jesus Said About Hell Jesus used two Greek terms, hades and gehenna , to speak about death and the punishment of the unrighteous. Given the popular belief in the meaning hell, we need to consider it carefully. Hades is equivalent to the Hebrew she’ôl , the most common Old Testament term for the realm of the dead. These names simply represent the grave or the place to which all descend at death, with no connotation of punishment or reward. There is one text, however, where hades appears to be connected with punishment. It is in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. Read Luke 16:19-31 . What is the basic lesson that this parable sets forth (see especially Luke 16:27-31 ) ? What’s wrong with using this parable to teach that human beings go to paradise or hell immediately after death? This parable is not focused on the state of man in death. A popular but unbiblical belief that many of Jesus’ contemporaries held provided the background for this parable, which teaches an important lesson: our future destiny is determined by the decisions we make daily in this life. If we reject the light God grants us here, there is no opportunity after death. Any attempt to interpret this parable literally leads to many insoluble problems. Actually, the details of the picture seem purposely awkward in order to show us that Jesus did not intend His words to be taken literally, but figuratively. What warnings did Jesus pronounce regarding hell? See Matt. 5:22 , 29-30 ; 23:33 . In many Bible translations, the word hell appears eleven times on Jesus’ lips. He actually used the Greek term gehenna , from the Hebrew name Gê Hinnom , Valley of Hinnom. According to the Old Testament, in this gorge south of Jerusalem, kings Ahaz and Manasseh conducted the horrendous pagan rite of burning children to Molech ( 2 Chron. 28:3 , 33:6 ) . Later, godly king Josiah brought the practice to a halt (2 Kings 23:10 ) . Because of the sins perpetrated in it, Jeremiah prophesied that God would make the place a valley of slaughter (Jer. 7:32-33 ; 19:6 ) . Hence, for the Jews, the valley became a symbol of the last judgment and the punishment of the impenitent. Jesus used the name figuratively, without explaining any details regarding the time and place of the punishment, which we find in other biblical passages. Hell, though, is not a place of eternal punishment.
Posted on: Tue, 16 Sep 2014 19:03:24 +0000
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