The Gospel of Matthew, continued:
Jesus concludes His talk at 13:48-50, speaking of fishermen keeping the good fish from their nets and casting away the bad fish. Further, “the angels shall…sever the wicked from among the just. And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” Again, an unnamed furnace of fire is not Hell, and the wailing and gnashing do not make it so, either. Even so, we see that the judgments of God are severe at the end of this world age. There will be wailing and gnashing, but these last only until the second death takes the wailers and gnashers in the Lake of Fire, and that death, like any death is a state of sheol/non-existence.
Jesus quoted Isaiah 29:13, in Matthew 15:9 – “…in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” Given what we have thus far, I think I can state with some confidence that the doctrine of Hell falls into this category. Why? We see the doctrine of Hell taught, preached, and codified in most churches (not all), yet we cannot find it yet in the Bible, even the KJV. That being so, we must state that the doctrine of Hell is a commandment of men, and therefore to subscribe to the doctrine of Hell is to worship Him in vain. Don’t get mad at me – I’m just running with what He said. Jesus says it can be so. We see it in 17:12, concerning the doctrines of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
Answering Peter about the small stone of Peter and the large stone upon which He would build His church, Jesus states, “…the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (16:18) The word rendered as “hell” is “hades” again, already dealt with at length, so I do not think I am too far out of line to say that Jesus was looking forward to the deaths of all the Christian martyrs over the centuries, and still dying for their Lord today. Now if sheol/hades has gates, figuratively speaking, this indicates the entry to death, and Jesus knew that for all those who have died for their faith in Christ, estimated at about seventy million, His church still thrives. With over two billion adherents, it is the most numerous religion in the world. However, most churches incorporate the Hell doctrine in their creeds or foundational documents, so Hell is made a part of that “large stone” upon which Christ’s Church is built. It is a mixed metaphor at best, and at worst, it is the house Jesus spoke of, built mostly on the Rock, but also partly built over the gap of the Hell we have yet to find in the Bible. Because of that gap in the foundation of the house, when the rain, floods, and winds come “and beat upon that house,” it will be in danger of falling.
In the next verse (19), Jesus grants Peter, or will grant Peter, the keys of the kingdom of heaven, telling him of binding and/or loosing on earth and in heaven. I confess I don’t know the full meaning of this grant, and perhaps it simply meant that the disciples’ works were going to have eternal results, but I note that Hell had no part in Jesus’ grant.
A lot is made of Jesus’ statement, “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (16:26) Here, we just need to go back to the creation of Adam in Genesis. Body + Spirit = Soul, that is to say, a living, breathing, thinking person. The “soul” is not some ineffable thing we have inside us which is coveted by both God and the Devil. Jesus is merely asking rhetorically - what is of more value to a man than his life? To lose your own soul is not to be sent to Hell, but to simply die, as I have pointed out many times.
Jesus says that He “…shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.” (16:27) Some will read into this that Jesus will give good rewards to those with good works and punishment to those with bad works. Compare with I Corinthians 3:14-15 – “If any man’s work abide [endures] which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.” I had quoted verse 15 before, but adding verse 14 completes the picture. Paul implies that all are saved, but some are saved “as by fire,” and whether that is the Lake of Fire is yet to be seen, but it probably is.
Jesus condemns those who entice to sin, saying, “…it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea…Woe unto the world…woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!” (18:6-7) No reason is given to assume the woes lie anywhere else than in the real world. He then returns to the theme of cutting off a hand, foot, or eye in order to “enter into life” instead of being cast into “everlasting fire” (18:8) or “hell fire.” (18:9) The “everlasting fire” is footnoted “gehenna,” thus death and burning in the garbage dump, and by association and parallelism, “everlasting fire” must mean the same. Anyway, no one enters life, the afterlife in the Kingdom, minus a hand, a foot, or an eye – that would be absurd. It must mean, in my humble opinion, simply getting on with your earthly life. As I said before, Jesus is simply saying it is better to live without a body part which leads you to sin, crime, prison, execution, and having your body burned in the dump instead of being given a decent burial.
In 18:11-14, Jesus states that His mission is to save that which was lost, and relates the parable of the shepherd, 99 kept sheep, and 1 stray sheep. He says that the shepherd is happier with the 1 than with the 99, and don’t you think that Jesus has a whole lot better chance of finding that lost sheep than the average shepherd? Of course He does, and “…it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.” Little ones – that’s you and me, brother, and is our puny human will going to prevail against the Wills of Jesus and His Father? I think not. Theology has a term for it: Irresistible Grace. Combine that with God’s will for none of us to perish, and it means Eternal Security to me. How about you?
Chapter 18 concludes with the parable of the king who was settling accounts with his servants. This reminds me of the splinter in another’s eye versus the beam in your own, and the small forgiveness you need to extend to others to merit the great forgiveness from God. In the parable, the evil, non-forgiving servant is sent to the king’s torturers, and “So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.” (18:35) Some read Hell into that, even though it is not mentioned, but I think it is more important to remember the principle mentioned by Matthew, Mark, and Luke: With what measure you use, your own reward will be measured – at least that is how I understand it. What Jesus says above reminds me of something I heard on the radio not too long ago: To refuse to forgive is to burn a bridge, not behind you, but one which you yourself must cross.
At 19:23-24, Jesus makes His famous rich-man-camel-needle’s-eye comment, but note that the direction is always up, not down: Earth to the Kingdom of Heaven/God (as difficult as that may be), never Earth to Hell. When His disciples ask in the next verse, “Who then can be saved?,” Jesus answers, “With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.” This is a moment in the story of the Bible when one just might get to thinking, the rich can be saved, so anybody can be saved, so everybody can be saved? Is such a thing possible? Jesus hints that it is, but He cautions in verse 30, “But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first.” He goes on to illustrate with the parable of the man who paid all his help the same, no matter how many or how few hours they had worked, and finishes with, “…for many be called, but few chosen.” (20:16) The topic continues, as Jesus speaks to the priests and elders in 21:31. He tells them that not only are the elders and priests, who are in a high position in this world, going to enter the Kingdom after the tax-collectors and harlots, but He fails to indicate any destination besides the Kingdom of Heaven. Is it too much to believe that your worst outcome is merely a late entry to the Kingdom?
Winding up this theme, Jesus relates the parable of the wedding in 22:1-14. The invited guests prove unworthy, so the King’s servants “…gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good…” Is this a picture of all men in Heaven, both those who were bad and good on Earth? One man was there for whatever reason without proper garments – he was bound and cast into outer darkness. This is just a bum’s rush out the door, a precipitous loss of status, but this outer darkness will only be identified with Hell by those already subscribing to Hell. I see it as an illustration of what Jesus said elsewhere, that those who have little will have what little they have taken away.
In contrast to all the pagan religions with their gods of the dead, Jesus affirms in 22:32 that His Father is not a god of the dead, but the God of the living. Never is Satan given parity with God, by being named or considered a god of the dead, the damned, or of the underworld. As I mentioned many pages ago, we have Heaven and Earth, a hierarchy, not a dualistic struggle between Heaven and Hell with the Earth and its humans as a prey between them. God has stated clearly that He owns this Earth, and as its creator, He should. As He says in Psalm 50:12, “…the world is mine, and the fullness thereof.” We have seen how Satan offered Jesus all the kingdoms of this same Earth, yet we must remember that Satan obtained his title to it by fraud in the Garden of Eden. His fraud will be overturned and his rule brought to an end. In this sense, yes, the Earth and us are a prize, but it is a temporary situation, not the grand, eternal standoff depicted in medieval art, and only slightly downplayed by the modern church.
“Hell” shows again, in Chapter 23. First in verse 15, footnoted as “gehenna,” as we have seen, a place in the real world. Second, in verse 33, not footnoted, but other sources indicate that it too, should be rendered as “gehenna.” Jesus is hurling insults, truth to be sure, but offensive to those He directed it to. He is saying that some deserve, not a decent burial, but to be burned in the city dump with other criminals. No Hell does not need to be inserted here, but was anyway by translators who could have translated more honestly. In this regard, I must quote Jesus in 24:4, “Take heed that no man deceive you.”
Jesus, in answering His disciples about the end of the world, and that word in 24:3 should have been “age,” not “world,” says “…he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.” A few verses later, He tells us what kind of salvation: “And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved…” (24:22) God’s salvation extends then to both the dead and the living.
In 24:51, an evil servant is cut in two and classed with the hypocrites, with weeping and gnashing of teeth, but Hell is not mentioned. So also for the foolish virgins of 25:11-12 who are simply left outside. Again, the servant of the one talent was cast into outer darkness with weeping and gnashing of teeth, but Hell is not mentioned (25:30). We keep running up against this phrase, and I think it does not mean Hell, because it is darkness, and Hell is supposed to be a fiery place. Fire involves some light. Put it in the context of the place and time – if you were thrown out the door into the darkness outside, you were alone, possibly cold, and facing fending for yourself, at least until morning. You were cut off from the pleasant food, drink, and company inside, and little wonder if you wept or gnashed your teeth! Hell is just not needed as an explanation for these turns of phrase.
In 25:32-46, Jesus separates “sheep” people from “goat” people. The right-hand sheep are promised “life eternal,” and the left-hand goats are given “everlasting punishment.” In particular, Jesus says, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” (25:41) Now, the Hell-roaring crowd will think they have me. Nope. First, let’s look at what fire is prepared. It is most certainly NOT the classic Hell of Dante, Milton, and Baxter, as Satan presides over that, at least in their theological fantasies, and he is most certainly not in charge here. Sometimes we must look ahead, and this is one of those times. We find a fire prepared, or at least, the devil is cast into it – the Lake of Fire, as we see in the Revelation, 20:10. Now that we know the fire is God’s fire, the reader should recall that His fire is redemptive in nature, cleansing and purifying, not destroying and punishing. It burns up the chaff, the tares, the wood, hay, and stubble; what it leaves is gold, silver, the precious things which endure fire. The goat people will suffer loss, as we read earlier, but they will be saved, but as through fire. The last point may be the most difficult: how long will they be in the fire? Forever? That would make no sense – why purify and cleanse them with fire forever? That would just get back to punishment and destruction. Do you see how the time factor is so important to the Hell theory? Now the KJV uses terms like “eternal,” “everlasting,” “for ever,” and the like. The YLT uses the term “age-during,” a clumsy term, and it refers to a long span of time, but not an infinite one.
So, we must stop here and look at a few Greek and Hebrew words. My own research finds only two times in the New Testament where “eternal” comes from an equivalent Greek word – “aidios.” No, it’s not “goodbye” in Spanish. The fact is that in the ancient world, concepts like “eternal,” “zero” and “infinity” were slow to develop. The ancient Egyptians expressed eternity as “millions of years,” which gives us the feel, but that is not really eternity, as millions of years still have an end and a beginning. The Greek word all-too-often mistranslated as “eternity” is “aion,” which was transliterated into the Latin “aeon,” and that came down to us as the English “aeon” and “eon.” In the Hebrew, we find the same meaning in “olam,” mistranslated in the Old Testament, also too often, as “eternity.” In the early sense that Homer used, “aion” meant a lifetime. Today, “eon” is often used to refer to forever, everlasting and eternal, but in the Biblical sense we should keep in mind that it is best used to mean any long but finite period of time. To put it in perspective, if we are speaking of God, Who is uncreated, we can speak of eternity. If the subject is the created cosmos, then we must speak of aeons or eons, as the cosmos has a beginning, and is therefore, not eternal.
Back to Matthew 25:32-46, we should now know that Jesus is sending His right-hand sheep, not to “life eternal,” but to the life of the aeon, or “aeonian life.” In the same way, His left-hand goats are sent, not to eternal punishment, but to an aeon or eon (beginning and end, remember) of punishment, chastisement, correction, and purification. Having dealt now with the eternal part of eternal torture (aka, Hell), the torture part must wait until we reach the Lake of Fire in the Revelation. Stay tuned.
Having worked through the Gospel of Matthew the Publican, this writer cannot find any support for Hell or eternal torture In it.