Expert: Thurman C. Petty, Jr. - 6/15/2004

Question
Is there fire in hell?  Also, does God have a body?  And is he a man (Exodus 15:3)?  What about the seven spirits of God?  Doesn't that conflict with the Trinitarian doctrine?

Answer
Dear Jesse,

Is there fire in hell? Also, does God have a body? And is he a man
(Exodus 15:3)? What about the seven spirits of God? Doesn't that
conflict with the Trinitarian doctrine?


Question #1—Fire in hell. I suppose it all depends on what you mean by the word “hell.” The word “hell” as used in the Bible means “the grave,” the place where people are buried. So in that case there is no fire—unless, of course the dead are cremated. But even here, the fire takes place before the person is buried.

Occasionally you will find references to hell as a place of burning, or a place of punishment.

But what about the fire. The Bible teaches that there is no consciousness in death.

  Eccl 9:5, 6  For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no further reward, and even the memory of them is forgotten. Their love, their hate and their jealousy have long since vanished; never again will they have a part in anything that happens under the sun.

If a dead person knows nothing, the presence of fire would have no affect upon him because he would be unaware that he is in the fire. The state of unawareness lasts until Jesus comes the second time. Then He will raise to life again all those who have accepted Him as their Savior. Those who have not accepted Him will not live until after the 1000 years of the devil's solitary confinement (Rev. 20.1-3).

The concept of death being a sleep is found throughout the Bible. (Cf. 2 Sam. 7:12; 1 Kings 1:21; Job 7:21; Ps. 13:3; John 11:11-14; Acts 13:36; 1 Cor. 15:51; 1 Thess 4:14, 15; 1 Thess. 5: 10)

After they come to life, they will face the judgment which will show them why they are not saved. Rev. 20:7-15. Then they will be cast into the lake of fire, which is the second death. The lake of fire isn't called “hell.” The fire comes down from God out of heaven and burns up the wicked. Remember that in death, people don't know anything. So if this is the second death, then the people who are burned up, don't know anything either. And will never come to life again. So the real punishment for sin is death—yes, caused by fire—but eternal separation from God.

So there is no “hell” burning now. It will not burn until a 1000 years after Jesus comes the second time. And it will not burn forever: it will burn only as long as there is something to burn—and then it will go out.

Rev. 21 pictures God re-creating the earth into a paradise again, and living with us here. If you miss out on that, you've missed everything. So that's the real punishment—the wicked die and miss out on the eternal life of the saints who have all that time to get to know God and enjoy what He has done for us.

Question # 2: Does God have a body?
  Gen 1:26, 27  Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

We have a body, and we are created in the image of God. So God must have a body too.

Isaiah saw God siting on a throne, high and lifted up. He described Him:

  Isa 6:1  In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple.

Paul tells us that when the saints of God are raised from their graves they will have bodies like that which Jesus has—and according to John 1, Jesus is God.

  Phil 3:20, 21  But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

Question # 3: Is God a man.

No. God is the Creator of man and of all that is (Read Genesis 1, 2.) Of course Jesus—the Son of God, and equal to God in every sense (John 1:1-4, 10, 14)—became a man and He will forever retain His human form. But in no way can we say that God is a man, just like we cannot say that a potter is the clay pot that he has made. God made us, and we resemble Him a great deal. He created us like that. But we can never be God, and God, even though in Jesus He took the form of a man, will always be God. God is God, and we are human. It's just that simple.

In Exodus 15:3, Moses is trying to explain that God is a powerful defender of His people. The NIV translates it “God is a warrior.” Many times, in the Bible, the writer uses human terms to describe the things that God does, in order for the people who listen to the writer and will know what he is talking about. It's a method of humanizing the subject—called anthropomorphism.

Question #4. The “seven spirits of God” is a description of the work of the Holy Spirit—not the number of persons who carry out the work of His office. The Holy Spirit, as God, has the ability to be everywhere all at the same time, and to be aware of everything at once. The number 7 in this case represents the completeness, or the perfection of His work.

Question #5 deals with the relationship of question 4 to the doctrine of the Trinity. As you can see, it really doesn't cause any problem at all. The Father and the Son also work in their spheres just as does the Holy Spirit. As to the doctrine of the Trinity, Jesus said it best:

  Mat 28:19  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

There is a lot about these subjects that we do not know about. How can man understand God? We will spend all eternity getting to know God better. In fact Jesus said:

  John 17:3  Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

The very essence of our reward for being faithful to Christ, is to get to know Him better. Yes there will be a lot of side benefits—a city of gold and precious stones; the tree of life;  joy and happiness; the ability to advance in our interests as far as we want to go. But the real reward is to be able to sit at the feet of Jesus and the Father, watching them at work as they run the universe, listening to them teach us truths that we have always wanted to know—and this will last forever.

If you have other questions, feel free to write.

Thurman C. Petty, Jr.
Thurman@PettyPress.com
You can find much more information about hell and the 1000 years of Satan's solitary confinement in my book When the Devil Goes to Jail. The entire text of the book is found on my website www.PettyPress.com. There are also 13 other books as well as Bible studies, other Bible questions people have read, and scores of other things I've written for the past 40 years. Enjoy.