Resurrectio n and Life

Heaven and Hell

Final destination
In George Bernard Shaws play, Man and Superman, there is a scene called Don Juan in Hell, where we see Don Juan having a conversation with the Devil and Don Juans traditional love interest, Donna Ana. One of the things that comes up their discussion is if it is better to be in hell, which is not nice to be in but has the right kind of company or if it is better to be in heaven which is nice, but the people youre there with a dreadfully boring goody-two-shoe types. It all begs the question of who we think is going to be with us in heaven.

Read Matthew 25:31-46 Who goes to heaven? Who goes to hell?

Hell
The Bible uses 2 concepts that often get lumped into the same English category of Hell. The first of those is the Hebrew word Sheol, translated into Greek as Hades. The second is the Hebrew word Ghinom, translated into Greek as Gehenna. Surprisingly, neither of these words are as clear as some of the other language in the Bible that doesnt get translated into the English word hell, such as the second death. (read Rev. 20:614)

The Hebrew concept Sheol is really more like the place of the dead. It is not value specific, everyone ends up there it seems from David to Jonah to evil people. When translated into Greek in the New Testament, it seems to take on the characteristic of being the place of Gods enemy (Matt 16:18, throughout Revelation). The other word for hell, Ghinom is actually a place outside of Jerusalem. Its a garbage dump where trash is burned and is Jesus favorite use of hell. It is with this word where we get the picture of hell being a fiery place and lasting forever. (read Matthew 5:22-30) Revelation never uses the word Ghinom, but replaces it with the concept of the second death which is a sort of blending or combination of Sheols place of the dead concept and Ghinoms place of everlasting torment. Use of sheol in Hebrew OT over 60 times. Use of Hades in Greek NT 10 times. Use of Ghinom in Hebrew OT 13. Use of Gehenna in Greek NT 11 times. Use of second death in Revelation (only used in Revelation) 4 times. To make things even more confusing, a well meaning poet from Italy named Dante Alighieri confused us even more with his book The Divine Comedy where he blended Christian, Jewish, and Roman ideas about Hell together in two of that books volumes, Inferno and Purgatorio. Unfortunately, when people think about hell, they think about it more in terms of Dante than they do of even what Jesus has to say about the place. What are the common ideas that you see in our culture about hell and where do you think they come from?

Heaven
Our word heaven is the translation of the Hebrew word for sky, Shamaim. It is mentioned as a partner to earth in Genesis 1:1, and is one of the first things to get created and named by God (Genesis 1:8).

Matthew records Jesus interesting use of this word throughout His Gospel as Jesus consistently says that His Kingdom is the Kingdom of Heaven and that this Kingdom of Heaven is experienced by human beings who are living right now. The concept of heaven being a place where the dead in Christ currently reside comes from four places: The Hebrew and Greek terms for sons of God are often translated heavenly in English. (read Psalm 8:5) Jesus location of the Father in the heavens, especially in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, as well as the events of His Baptism and Ascension. (read Matthew 6:26-34) The Epistle writers usage of heaven as the location of Jesus AND the Father and the Holy Spirit after Jesus Ascension (read I Peter 3:18-22) Most directly, Johns usage of heaven as the setting for his Revelation. (read Rev. 4:1-11) Similar to what we see with the concept of hell, heaven is not so much a physical location, but a matter of closeness to God. Since God is omnipresent, this is probably not a space/time relationship per se, but the closeness is found in what we can describe as spiritual closeness. We acknowledge, then, that Christ has brought the spiritual closeness of heaven to us by breaking into human history with His death and Resurrection. Now we wait for the completion of our closeness with His final return and if we die before that completion, we are promised we will be with Christ (read Philippians 1:21-24) whom we know is in the heavens (read Hebrews 9:24). How does what youve learned about heaven confirm or challenge what you have already thought about heaven?

Please dont throw this away. If youre not going to use it, leave it for someone else to use.