Doctrine of Hell

In the Bible, three specific terms are used for hell.  Hades/ Sheol and Gehenna.  Studying the words will help us compile a Biblical Doctrine of Hell.  Even though many don’t believe in hell… in fact a recent survey showed that only 65% of Americans who believe in God believe in Hell also. (staggering)

The first term: Hades/ Sheol is the Hebrew equivalent.

Hades is a Greek word.  Hades is the Greek word for Hell. Sheol is the Hebrew word and it means the unseen world.  Unknown world.  The place where disembodied souls reside.  It is used 10 times in the New Testament.  Four of those times it is used specifically from Jesus and 4 times in Revelation which is Christ speaking through John and then it is used twice in Acts.

It is always used to refer to the dwelling place of the dead and a place of torment.

There are a couple of ways that Hades/ Sheol and Gehenna are viewed Some scholars say that they are two separate places.  Hades is the place you go when you die in your sins and you await the Final Judgment there and after that you are thrown into Gehenna.

Others hold that they are the same place completely.  This view says that if you die in your sins you go to Hades/Gehenna where you remain apart from your body until the Final Judgment at which point you will be reunited with your body and both will be cast into Hades/Gehenna together.

I hold that second view personally.  That they are one in the same and that right now just the souls of the damned are there and after the Final Judgment of the entire world they will be reunited with their physical bodies and they will be both thrown into Hell once for eternity together suffering God’s wrath.

The other word used is Gehenna.  Used twelve times in the New Testament, it was used by Christ 11 of the 12 times in describing Hell.  Unlike the words Hades or Sheol, Gehenna is a more descriptive and more terrifying word for Hell than any other.

Turn over to Matthew 5 I want to specifically call your attention to verses 22;29;30.  Gehenna is the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew word gehinnam.  It means “The Valley of Hinnom”. 

In the times of Jesus, the Valley of Hinnom was used as the garbage dump of Jerusalem.  Into it were thrown all filth and garbage of the city including dead animal carcasses and the bodies of executed criminals.

To consume all of this, fires were burned in this place constantly.  Maggots worked in the filth and when the wind blew across it in the direction of the city, it was AWFUL.  At night you could even hear wild dogs howling and fighting over the waste.

Jesus used this awful scene as a symbol of Hell.  In effect He said, “Do you want to know what hell is like?  Look at Gehenna.”  So you could say that hell is similar to this place only the fires in hell will burn but never consume their fuels fully.

Mark 9:47-48 - “If your eye causes you to stumble, throw it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than, having two eyes, to be cast into hell,  48 where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.

Essentially saying that life without one eye or hand would be better lived than going with both eyes or hands into a place worse than the Valley of Hinnom.   All that is unfit for heaven, which is anyone who has not been washed by the Blood of His Son, all without Christ are thrown into Hell.

So they would have understood very well what he meant by those words.

2 Thessalonians 1:7b-9 - when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire,  8 dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.  9 These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power,

Away from the presence of the Lord.  Presence of the Lord, there, also translates to face of the Lord.  Hell is where God’s face is turned away from those there.  Which is always a way of saying that God’s favorable presence is not on you. 


Luke 13:24-28 - “Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.  25 “Once the head of the house gets up and shuts the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock on the door, saying, ‘Lord, open up to us!’ then He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know where you are from.’  26 “Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets’;  27 and He will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you are from; depart from Me, all you evildoers.’  28 “In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but yourselves being thrown out.

It says there that they will be able to see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob but they will not be let in to them. 


Revelation 14:9-10 - Then another angel, a third one, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, 10 he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger; and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.

Who is clearly doing the tormenting there?  God.


2.) Indescribable Suffering

Clearly taught in the Bible is the suffering, the horrible sufferings, of the wicked in Hell.  It isn’t that they are tormented out of God’s cruelty, because God is not cruel.  They are tormented justly for their sin.  He does not gleefully torture them.  In fact God’s chief pleasure is not in their demise.


Ezekiel 18:23;32 - Do I have any pleasure in the death of the wicked,” declares the Lord God, “rather than that he should turn from his ways and live?; 32 “For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies,” declares the Lord God. “Therefore, repent and live.”

God is a God of justice and Hell is the place where that justice is dispensed.  The wicked receives no less or no more punishment than they deserve.


In Luke 16:28 the rich man begs Abraham to send Lazarus or anyone to his living brothers to warn them not to die in their sins so that what?  They don’t end up in that place of torment.


Matthew 8:12, says it is a place where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Indescribable pain is there.  Not the least of which is the full understanding of our sin.  Just as the believer will rejoice in that day because he will see the fullness of the sin he was saved from and what it cost Christ to redeem him, so the unbeliever will feel the fullness of the weight of their sins.


3.) Unending Punishment

Hell is eternal.  It is not a purgatory that purges us from our sin and then sends us on to Heaven.  By the way, have you considered this… that those religions who teach purgatory as a true doctrine, not only are they teaching a false doctrine but they are also implying that there are two ways to be saved.  One, through Jesus and two through purgatory.

So it is more than a small doctrine we can differ on, it’s heresy.  If it’s heresy, it isn’t Christianity.


Revelation 20:10 - And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

Matthew 25:46 - “These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

The wicked go to eternal punishment; the righteous go away into eternal life.  It would be inconsistent to give two contradictory meanings to the same word in the same sentence.  If “eternal” punishment doesn’t mean punishment forever then it would make sense that “eternal” life doesn’t mean that the righteous will enjoy heaven forever either.   So it is either that they are both eternal or both temporary.  The Bible insists that they are both eternal.

We are warned to avoid Hell at all costs and believers are told to warn others of hell at all costs.

Matthew 10:28 - Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

What is man’s only hope?


Scripture is clear that hell is the fate that awaits all mankind.  All of us stand condemned by default before God.  All of us are capable of all sorts of sin and perversion and all of us have violated God’s perfect standard of the righteousness needed to enter into Heaven.

We are in a great deal of trouble on our own, BUT there is a hope!  A singular hope!


Galatians 3:22-24 - But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.  23 But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed.  24 Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.

Jesus Christ is our Great High Priest, our Living Hope.  He has said that if you will turn from your sin and trust Him for forgiveness then He will forgive you and you will be able to enter into Heaven through that narrow gate.

The greatness of God!

There is only One God and He alone is worthy, He alone is great.  Why?  Well, for one; because all other things, beings, and creations are completely and totally dependent on Him for all things.  Dependent on His goodness and His strength.

A comparison should never be made between God and any other creature.  You need to affirm that God, as the infinite and self-existent Creator, He is infinitely above His finite creation.

Psalm 95:3-5 (NASB) - For the Lord is a great God And a great King above all gods,  4 In whose hand are the depths of the earth, The peaks of the mountains are His also.  5 The sea is His, for it was He who made it, And His hands formed the dry land.

God is a great God and a great King.  God proves the infinite greatness of His might and the pre-eminence of His Kingship in that He is the Creator of the whole universe.  It is mentioned in this Psalm that God reigns over all the earth.  His influence is exerted over the highest mountains and the depths of the sea.

This came at a time when people believed that their gods (little g) dwelled on mountain tops and that the underworld was below the waters.  This Psalm deliberately destroys this belief.  God’s power knows no limitations – this is the unshakable foundation of His Salvation for man and the cause for all praise, honor, and glory.

Daniel 9:4-5 (NASB) - I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed and said, “Alas, O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and loving-kindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments,  5 we have sinned, committed iniquity, acted wickedly and rebelled, even turning aside from Your commandments and ordinances.

The Lord is Great and Awesome!  The word awesome comes from the Hebrew word yare’ (yaw-ray) which means ‘to fear, revere, or be afraid’.  Even the tiniest revelation of God’s greatness and holiness would strike even the most splendid of His creatures with astonishment, reverence, and even terror.  God is awesome, and therefore He is worthy of the greatest reverence.

Psalm 104:1 (NASB) - Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord my God, You are very great; You are clothed with splendor and majesty,

The Lord is very Great; He is clothed with Splendor and Majesty.  His splendor and majesty are not something external that He puts on, but are a part of His very being.  Unlike men, God has no need to add something to Himself to enhance the greatness of His beauty.  God is so much greater than any other thing that to add anything to Him would be to diminish Him.

The Psalmist expresses wonder at the greatness and glory of God.  It sums up that whole Psalm.  Here a man sees himself standing before God, to whom he confesses in this prayer the thoughts that fill his soul.  What he sees around him, what he perceives in nature is what he knows about his own origins tell him of the One Mighty God.

Psalm 145:3 (NASB) - Great is the Lord, and highly to be praised, And His greatness is unsearchable.

His greatness is unsearchable.  The word refers to that which is beyond investigation.  A thing that cannot be searched out or measured.  It would be far easier to count the sand on all the shores and deserts of the world, or to number all the stars in space than to measure the greatness of God.

The theme of the whole Psalm is that the everlasting praise of the name of God, who has revealed Himself in all His majesty and unsearchable qualities.

Psalm 77:13 (NASB) - Your way, O God, is holy; What god is great like our God?

God is Holy – unlike all others!

Asaph, the writer of this Psalm, made a conscious decision to turn from his pain and focus his thoughts on the person, works, and wonders of God.  God cannot be compared to any other god or power.  This wondrous God demonstrated His power in a variety of ways, but especially in the redemption of Israel from the bondage of Egypt.

Psalm 86:10 (NASB) - For You are great and do wondrous deeds; You alone are God.

God is great and does wondrous deeds.  He alone is God.

Worship of God is not rooted in our personal circumstances or experiences.  It is founded on His incomparable nature!  We worship Him for who He is!  Not what we want Him to be.  God is incomparably superior to all other gods and He is greater on account of His wondrous deeds.  The only One to whom the name of God can even be applied! 

The oneness, eternal nature, and sovereignty of God

Deuteronomy 6:4 (NASB) - “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!

The Jews refer to this as the Shema.  It’s the first thing that they teach their children.  And it is a right thing to teach.  It’s the implications about what that truly means that the Jews miss.  Because this statement points towards not only the One true God’s existence.  But also that the One True God is unified as God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Properly translated out this verse in Hebrew says Hear, O Israel ‘Jehovah our Judge is One Jehovah.  This is one of the most important declarations in all of Scripture.

1.) The God whom we serve is Jehovah, a Being Who is infinitely and eternally perfect, self-existent, and self-sufficient.

2.) That He is the One and only living God; HE only is God, and He is One.

This firm belief armed Israel against all idolatry.  As it should us as well.  Does everything we do, everything we stand for, etc… Does it reflect that the Lord is OUR God!  Our ONLY God!

The word used here for ‘one’ means unified.  While Scripture clearly teaches that there is only ONE God, what’s being taught here is that God is unified in His persons.  Trinity God.  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit… perfectly One and perfectly unified.  God in three persons.  So it is a clear indication of the unity of all members of the Trinity.  Jesus said in John 10:30 that He and God are One!  They are one, they are unified!

The word ‘one’ comes from the Hebrew word echad.  So this statement would have signified to them that God is unified in His persons and His judgments.  Only one God in three distinct persons who are working together as a unit to accomplish all that is righteous.

Deuteronomy 4:39 (NASB) - “Know therefore today, and take it to your heart, that the Lord, He is God in heaven above and on the earth below; there is no other.

The Lord, that is Jehovah, which means ‘the existing One’, is God, Jehovah is judge, He is Sovereign in heaven above and on earth.  He is over all things and there is NO OTHER.

It makes total sense then why God goes on in verse 40 to say that because only He is Sovereign… then we should keep His commandments and His statutes.  (His Law)

So God is ONE, He’s unified, and also He is the only True God.

God is also eternal.  He has always existed.  Genesis 1:1 establishes that ‘In the beginning’ there was ‘God’.  This is confirmed in and more of the unity of God is seen John 1:1-3.  John 1:1-3 (NASB) - In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  2 He was in the beginning with God.  3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.

The eternal existence of God is self-explanatory. 

Isaiah 43:10-11 (NASB) - “You are My witnesses,” declares the Lord, “And My servant whom I have chosen, So that you may know and believe Me And understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, And there will be none after Me.  11 “I, even I, am the Lord, And there is no savior besides Me.

Whose witnesses are we?  God’s witnesses.  Whose servants are we?  God’s servants.  Why?  So that you may KNOW and BELIEVE Him.  And understand that He is.  He says of Himself ‘I AM He.’ 

Isaiah 41:4 (NASB) - “Who has performed and accomplished it, Calling forth the generations from the beginning? ‘I, the Lord, am the first, and with the last. I am He.’ ”

v11 – There is NO Savior besides Me!  So who is the Savior?  God!  Who was Christ?  God in the flesh.

What God is establishing about Himself here though is that He is eternal.  Before Him, no gods, after Him, no gods.  Who has always existed?  God.

Isaiah 43:12-14 (NASB) - “It is I who have declared and saved and proclaimed, And there was no strange god among you; So you are My witnesses,” declares the Lord, “And I am God.  13 “Even from eternity I am He, And there is none who can deliver out of My hand; I act and who can reverse it?”

From eternity, I AM HE!  No one can deliver from MY hand.

Lastly, God is the Sovereign Creator of all!

Isaiah 45:18 (NASB) - For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited),“I am the Lord, and there is none else.

He is the God who formed the earth and made it.  HE established it and did not create it a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited.

So, God created, formed, and established the earth.  So that He could populate it with us and that through even just creation alone He demonstrates His Sovereignty over all things.

Psalm 19:1 (NASB) - The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.

The gods of the pagans did not create the world.  All these pagan gods swirling around Israel.  They aren’t real and did not create anything.

- He formed the world.  It’s not an unfashioned chaos resulting from a big bang.

- He established it, which is to say He fixed it.

Job 26:7 (NASB) - “He stretches out the north over empty space And hangs the earth on nothing.

He hangs the world on nothing.  In other words, He set the earth’s orbit in space.  Keep in mind that in the case of Job 26:7 that at the time that was written, it was believed that the earth sat on a large animal or a giant.  Around 1500 BC.  Science didn’t discover that the Bible was accurate until 1650.  So, 3100 years later!

He fitted it for use by man to be His witnesses!  Created it merely to demonstrate that He could.  He didn’t need it or us, but we certainly need and rely on Him.  We were created solely to bring Him Glory!

The Westminster Catechism wisely states it this way, 1. What is the chief end of man?
A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God,[1] and to enjoy him forever.[2]

[1] Psalm 86. Bow down thine ear, O LORD, hear me: for I am poor and needy. Preserve my soul; for I am holy: O thou my God, save thy servant that trusteth in thee. Be merciful unto me, O Lord: for I cry unto thee daily. Rejoice the soul of thy servant: for unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee. Give ear, O LORD, unto my prayer; and attend to the voice of my supplications. In the day of my trouble I will call upon thee: for thou wilt answer me. Among the gods there is none like unto thee, O Lord; neither are there any works like unto thy works. All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord; and shall glorify thy name. For thou art great, and doest wondrous things: thou art God alone. Teach me thy way, O LORD; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name. I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart: and I will glorify thy name for evermore. For great is thy mercy toward me: and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell. O God, the proud are risen against me, and the assemblies of violent men have sought after my soul; and have not set thee before them. But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth. O turn unto me, and have mercy upon me; give thy strength unto thy servant, and save the son of thine handmaid. Show me a token for good; that they which hate me may see it, and be ashamed: because thou, LORD, hast holpen me, and comforted me. Isaiah 60:21. Thy people also shall be all righteous: they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified. Romans 11:36. For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen. 1 Corinthians 6:20; 10:31. For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.... Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. Revelation 4:11. Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.
 
[2] Psalm 16:5-11. The LORD is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot. The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage. I will bless the LORD, who hath given me counsel: my reins also instruct me in the night seasons. I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt show me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. Psalm 144:15. Happy is that people, that is in such a case: yea, happy is that people, whose God is the LORD. Isaiah 12:2. Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation. Luke 2:10. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. Philippians 4:4. Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. Revelation 21:3-4. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.