THE HELL DEBATE

Tommy Lee Camden II

THEO 350-D05 LUO
DECEMBER 14, 2012
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Hell

Are we serving a just God or a tyrannical God? In my paper I will explain the

differences in eternal punishment, annihilationism and universalism. I will show the

differences if any in Sheol, Hades and Gehenna. I will use the Bible as evidence as well

as other sources.

To understand the justification of the wrath of God as the Creator of all life we

must first understand what is at stake: whether it is life eternal or everlasting punishment.

These words were used by Jesus Himself in Matthew 25:46, "And they will go away into

eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." We see that the righteous are

promised life eternal for their dedication to Christ and obeying His laws. When we see

the word eternal our minds go crazy to try to understand exactly how long that is. It is

pretty plain to understand it means forever, but we still can’t comprehend it, because we

cannot fathom how long forever actually is. In everlasting or eternal punishment we may

think there is no transgression that is worth that, but sin is sin and we cannot expect to be

able to have that eternal relationship with Chris as long as we have that sin in our lives.

Elmer Towns stated that we are responsible as humans for the death of our Savior, Jesus

Christ and accepting Him is the difference between eternal life and condemnation

(Towns, Elmer. The Gospel of John: Believe and Live. Twenty-First Century Biblical

Commentary Series. Nashville: AMG, 2002). So if the choice is to live a good and holy

life before God and accept His Son as the Savior of the world or to live for ones self and

face eternal damnation, then the choice is pretty easy. The Bible is clear that sin will be

punished as seen in Daniel 12:2, “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth will

awake, some to eternal life, and some to shame and eternal contempt” and John 5:28-29,
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“Do not be amazed at this, because a time is coming when all who are in the graves will

hear His voice and come out--those who have done good things, to the resurrection of

life, but those who have done wicked things, to the resurrection of judgment.” But what

about the ones that never got to hear the message of the gospels?

We can clearly see in Matthew 24:14, which says, “This good news of the

kingdom will be proclaimed in all the world as a testimony to all nations. And then the

end will come,” that the message of salvation will be for everyone and they will all have a

chance to be saved. Jesus made it clear that He is the way, the truth and the life and as

much people want to believe that there are many ways to get to heaven, He is the only

way to be saved from hell. If we choose to not be washed in His blood then we choose to

live only to die and suffer forever.

There are three common views to the punishment of non-believers and sinners.

The one I tend to believe is eternal punishment. This is where sin and disbelief get

punished forever. As stated above the Bible is clear that sin will be punished and Jesus

made it clear in Matthew 25:46 that it is an everlasting punishment. In 2 Thessalonians

1:9 Paul says, “These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction from the Lord's presence

and from His glorious strength.” In just the simplest logic of it, why would it be such a

big deal to go to hell for a little while and then get the chance to enter heaven later or

even just die into nothing? If those were the consequences of our actions then the life we

live on earth is meaningless and without purpose.

The second view is annihilationism, which basically says mankind will just cease

to be because of their wickedness with the exception of the righteous, which God has

granted eternal life. John 10:28, which says, “I give them eternal life, and they will never
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perish--ever! No one will snatch them out of My hand.” and 1 Timothy 6:16, which says,

“the only One who has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light; no one has seen or

can see Him, to Him be honor and eternal might. Amen,” are just two of the scriptures

used to back the beliefs of annihilationism, but unlike eternal damnation there are no

scriptures that are cut and dry that have this teaching. Why would God allow the writers

of the Bible to use phrases like, eternal damnation, as Paul did in 2 Thessalonians 1:9, if

that was not to be the punishment of the unbelievers?

The third and last view I will speak on is universalism, which is the belief that

scriptures such as 1 John 2:2, which says, “He Himself is the propitiation for our sins,

and not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world,” and 2 Peter 3:9, which says,

“The Lord does not delay His promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you,

not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance,” are saying that all unrighteous

will be punished, but given another chance to enter into the Kingdom of God, but only

after their punishment has atoned for their sins. An example of universalism is found in a

well known and valuable piece of literary art is Dante’s Devine Comedy, but most people

know it as Dante’s Inferno. This epic poem by Dante Alighieri was written between the

years of 1308 and 1321, when he died and it tells the story of the descent to a station

based hell, where you were punished based on the severity and amount of wrong doing

that you had performed throughout your life. In this trilogy, he tells the story of how a

man descended to the lower parts of hell and as he atoned for his sins, he worked his way

out of hell, into purgatory and eventually heaven. This too is a nice idea, but it is not a

biblical or even rational one. Some say it would be cruel of God to leave sinners and

unbelievers in hell for eternity, but that’s not the case since each one of them would have
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had at least one chance to accept Christ as their savior. It would be cruel of God not to

give us a chance in the first place, but since He did we must act on it and accept His gift.

If one is to understand eternal punishment or damnation they must also be able to

understand where the punished will face the consequences of their actions. Many have

heard of Sheol, Hades and Gehenna, but do they really know anything about them or is it

just a thought that is repressed and neglected out of fear or avoidance?

Sheol and Hades are synonymous, so to define one is to define the other as well.

These two are used in a few different ways to be things as a grave, a pit, death or even a

place of judgment after death which is where the righteous are separated from the

wicked. A vast majority of the time these words, especially Sheol, are used poetically,

which means one must be cautious on how to interpret their use. Too often people take a

Psalm where David is singing to the Lord and call it a doctrine defining sermon, which

was never the intention of the Psalms in the first place. They were meant to worship God

and sing of His greatness, but this is not to say they cannot also provide encouragement

to the one singing the psalm as well.

Gehenna, on the other hand, is what people have come to think of when they

imagine hell. Gehenna’s name was derived from a real place known as The Valley of

Hinnom or Valley of the Son(s) of Hinnom. This place was the grounds of idolatrous

worship, which led to fire sacrifices of children. This fiery place of damnation is

described in Jeremiah 7:31-32, and we see references of it in the Qumran and Josephus

talks of the fires that were kept burning in that land for disposal of trash and dead bodies

of criminals (Josephus, Flavius. The Works of Josephus. Faithpoint Press, Crescent City,

California 2006). This has provided an intimate look at what would be considered a fiery
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place of torment for evildoers, but also has led scholars to believe that it is just

descriptive of this physical place and not a place of torment after death.

Jesus is a just God and will ensure that everyone has a chance to hear the message

of salvation as we know from Matthew 24:14. By giving everyone a chance to choose

between Him and a life of sin, His mercy is ever present and His love is abundant. The

Bible shows in Romans 6:23 “The wages of sin is death” and in the same verse we have

our answer “but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”. The risk of

eternal punishment in a fiery hell compels Christians to spread the gospel and evangelize

in hopes that none will perish, but live eternally with Jesus Christ our Savior.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Alighieri, Dante. The Devin Comedy: The Vision of Paradise, Purgatory and Hell. A
Public Domain Book

Boyd, Gregory A. and Paul R. Eddy. Across the Spectrum: Understanding Issues in
Evangelical Theology. Baker Academic. Grand Rapids, Michigan 2009

Cabal, Ted Gen. Edt. Apologetics Study Bible, Holman Christian Standard Bible. Holman
Bible Publishers: Nashville Tennessee. 2007

Elwell, Walter A. Editor. Evangelical Dictionary of Theology. Baker Academic. Grand

Rapids, Michigan 2001

Josephus, Flavius. The Works of Josephus. Faithpoint Press, Crescent City, California
2006

The Holy Bible: King James Version. Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville Tennessee
1989