Expert: Clifford H. Readout, Jr. - 2/19/2011

Question
I have done some Bible study on what the Bible teaches on the afterlife, especially Hell. Like most people I thought of the gospel as: "Jesus came to die for our sins so that we should go to heaven in stead of hell. And unless we follow the salvation plan we're all going to Hell." However, I have discovered that Hell (Hades) is hardly ever mentioned in the Bible.
Paul NEVER mentioned the word hell or any concept like it (conscious torment after death). Neither do any of the Apostles even mention Hell when the go around in the book of Acts laying the foundation for the christian faith among jews and gentiles!! If they believed people were in danger of going to Hell, they should certainly mention it. The only gospel that mentions Hell is Matthew, however the word used in the original languages is actually Gehenna which was a physical well known place on earth in the times of Jesus.
To me it doesn't seem like the concept of Hell as most of us think of it is introduced before the book of Revelations, where the second death and the lake of fire is described in vivid detail. So my question:
1. do you think Paul and other christian preacher who lived and died before the book of Revelation was written, believed in Hell?
2.If they did, why didn't they warn about Hell or torture and everlasting punishment after the resurrection like Revelations do?

I have read another really enlightening answer you had on Hell, and what it means to be "saved". You pointed out that many times "saved" did not necessarily refer to being saved from death or hell, but to be saved from sins and other situations in life that bind us from living in the kingdom of God.

Answer
Dear Autfire,

I have many friends in Norway.  Do you know someone there who knows me?

These questions sound very much like an assignment for a religion class, especially one being taught by someone not much inclined to accept the teachings of Christendom.  I usually choose not to respond to “school assignment” questions when I detect them, but will make an exception tonight.  While I also find much to disagree with in the popular doctrines of Christendom, I find even more to disagree with in the alternatives taught by the critics.

You ask two questions.  I will deal with each briefly and then in greater detail:
1. Do you think Paul and other Christian preacher who lived and died before the book of Revelation was written, believed in Hell?
- I am convinced every one of them did.  Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter and James surely did.

2.If they did, why didn't they warn about Hell or torture and everlasting punishment after the resurrection like Revelations do?
- (By the way, the book is titled The Revelation… – singular, not plural.)
- There isn’t even the slightest evidence that the ministers of the apostolic century did not warn people about hell and damnation.  If you read the New Testament carefully you will find many warnings about the alternative to salvation.  And you will also realize that the books of the New Testament were written to specific audiences and for specific reasons.  They do not contain everything said and done throughout the nearly seventy years of time their writing encompass.  Nevertheless, we must also consider that the primary message of the preachers was never to be warning of hell and damnation, but of the identity of Jesus Christ and the opportunity of deliverance from condemnation that Almighty God purchased by His sacrifice.  It was a message of “Good News” not a warning of damnation.

The fact that there is not an over-abundance of mention of the condemnation is a solid indication that the problem was well enough understood in the Jewish cultural context that it did not need much emphasis.  Too few people pay attention to what the Lord Jesus told Nicodemus, one of the Sanhedrim.  Look carefully at it:
John 3:14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 16 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. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 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. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
- Christ was given to prevent even believers from perishing (:15-16).
- Additional condemnation was not needed because there was enough already to affect all human beings.  What was needed was salvation from that condemnation. (:17-21)
- This was the foundation of the message Jesus Himself concerning the need of Salvation.  Do not accept any suggestion that His disciples and other people exposed to Him were ignorant of it.

Additionally, because deliverance from condemnation was only a secondary aspect of the mission of Jesus Christ, it took a secondary role in the ministry to the Gentiles.  They needed first to know that Jesus Christ was The Almighty God, the Creator of the Universe.  Only then would His salvation become a significant issue for them.  When the Gentiles recognize Jesus Christ as God manifest in flesh, then the context of His sacrifice becomes an issue, but not before.

To get to the truth of this issue you ought to take the time to define the terms used in the Word of God.  For example, examine the significance of the words perish, destruction, damnation, condemnation, “the judgment”,  and others, as used throughout the Bible in the same metaphorical context as Jesus used it when speaking to Nicodemus. The questions about hell will then seem much more like objections to the Biblical facts rather than a seeking for the facts.

You also need to view your questions in the larger context of the lives and times specified in the question.  For example, Paul was a Pharisee well educated in the Hebrew Scriptures and was fully cognizant of the Biblical doctrine of hell as the abode of the unrighteous dead.  A complete and accurate answer to your question may not be easily found within the limits of documents written for specific purposes decades after the beginning of the ministries of the Apostles.  You must consider both their past and the doctrines prevalent among the peoples to whom they wrote and during the time of their ministries.

The New Testament reveals to us that Sheol and Hades are the same place.  (Psalms 16:10; Acts 2:27, 31.)  While there are some who would like to equate the word sheol with the grave, it just is not so.  There are events mentioned as happening in Sheol that do not and cannot happen in the grave.  Additionally, there are other words which specifically mean the grave.  Here are a very few of the verses in which Sheol cannot possibly refer to the grave:
Deuteronomy 32:22; Job 26:6; Psalms 9:17; Psalms 86:13; Psalms 139:8; Proverbs 15:11; Proverbs 23:14; Isaiah 5:14; Isaiah 28:18; Ezekiel 31:16; Ezekiel 32:21;

In Luke 16 the Lord’s comments about beggar Lazarus and the rich man make it plain that Hades is a physical location of conscious torment.

Gehenna is the place where the destruction (a word that means “bring to ruin”) of the soul takes place. That it is not the grave is manifest by even a cursory study of the relevant texts.
In Luke 12 the Lord Jesus makes it plain that Gehenna is a place to be avoided at all costs.  Of course, practically anyone has the ability to cast a dead body into the physical valley of Hinnom, so these words cannot be twisted to make that place the one the Lord warned about.
James 3 makes it plain that James considered Gehenna to be a location of spiritual existence and influence.

2 Peter 2 makes it very plain that Peter was very aware of a place where the sentence of damnation would be fulfilled.

Matthew, Mark, Luke and James specifically mention Gehenna, and not one of the texts can be made to refer to the physical valley of Hinnom, nor of the grave:
Matthew 5:22; Matthew 5:29; Matthew 5:30; Matthew 10:28; Matthew 18:9; Matthew 23:15; Matthew 23:33; Mark 9:43; Mark 9:45; Mark 9:47; Luke 12:5; James 3:6.
- It is not reasonable to suggest that the Lord Jesus was suggesting that Capernaum was going to be transported to the physical valley of Hinnom.
- The physical valley of Hinnom had no gates, and was not the place the Lord had in mind when He spoke to Peter about the triumph of His Church.

My study causes me to define the locations this way:
- Sheol / Hades = a temporary place of torment, which shall eventually be cast into Gehenna.
- Tartaros = the deepest recess of Hades into which the angels which sinned were cast, to be reserved unto judgment.  This is probably the same place mentioned in the Book of Revelation as the Abyss (Bottomless Pit).
- Gehenna is the place of final damnation and is probably the name of the lake of fire (limne tou puros) described in the Book of Revelation.

Finally, when one knows that the Apostles all knew Jesus Christ to be God manifest in the flesh, God with us, the bodily incarnation of all the fulness of the Godhead, it seems a bit foolish to imagine that they would agree that the price He paid was merely to assist men in living righteously.

If you email me directly, I will send you two documents compiling answers I wrote concerning other questions related to this subject:  “The Doctrine of Heaven” and “The Doctrine of Hell”.

If asking me these questions is part of your “research” for a school assignment, please avoid the condemnation due one who claims the work of another as their own.  Simply give proper attribution of me as your source, and the teacher can accept it as the results of your “research”.  (It has happened before.)

I hope this helps you determine the truth of the subject.

CR