I’ve been going to my local Baptist Church for about 8 months. At about the same time I started going, a lovely family also joined. The husband has done some lay preaching and we’ve started having some good ‘discussions’. He mentioned ‘hell’ in his last ‘talk’ (or sermon?) and I told him afterwards that I didn’t believe the bible teaches eternal conscious torment. I’ve put together this brief overview of what I believe, which I emailed him the other day, and he’s replied today to say he’s forming his rebuttal and that I almost persuaded him, but I’ve overlooked some points?? My position is one of annihilation, but most of it is still hopefully useable for the UR position. If you think you can persuade me that the Lake of Fire is not final, then I’d be happy to be persuaded of that. 
Here’s my brief overview:
When we spoke the other week, I put together this brief overview of what I believe the Bible teaches about Hell and eternal punishment.
Firstly though, I’d like to lay a few foundation stones so you can see where I’m coming from:
I believe in hell (the grave or place of the dead) and I believe in everlasting punishment. I also believe that God is going to have a final future judgment, affecting all creation which the Bible says will happen on ‘the last day’, or at the ‘end of the age/world’, that will involve fire ie the Great Lake of Fire - hence the numerous biblical references to flames and firey judgment. Indeed Sodom and Gomorrah are held up as examples of this fiery judgment. My main difference with your position is that I do not believe people will remain conscious in this fire. They may well be conscious when they are first ‘thrown in’ to this fire but once the fire burns them up and destroys them out of existence, then the fire will have accomplished it’s purpose ie ‘the second death’. The judgment will be everlasting as there is no end to the ‘second death’. The hyperbolic language of ‘everlasting torment’, ‘worms that don’t die’, ‘smoke of their torment going up for ever’ etc, are not literal but exagerrated judgmental language that was common in Jesus’ time. And so with that, here is what I believe the Bible teaches about hell:
Did Jesus Come to Save us from an eternity in a place of conscious torment or an eternity of death ie annihilation?
‘For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord’. Romans 6:23. The apostle Paul’s words surely echo the pronouncement by God to the first man who sinned :
''By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return." Genesis 3:19
Ecclesiastes 12:7 puts it this way:
‘’…and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.’’
Psalm 146:4 says:
‘‘His breath goes forth, he returns to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.’’
All these scriptures seem to be saying quite clearly that man returns to the same ‘state’ (when he dies) prior to his creation ie he no longer exists (lives). He wasn’t a spirit that took on a body (like the mormons teach). Man did not exist prior to being created by God. (It could be argued that man existed eternally in the mind of God, as God foreknew what He would create, and in that sense I would agree.) If we take Adam and Eve, prior to their creation, they did not exist or were conscious, and when they died, they went out of existence again, until a future time when they will be resurrected (recreated) back to life. They are remembered by God and hence are still ‘alive’ in that sense.
Jesus clarified this when he spoke to the Saduccees who didn’t believe in the resurrection. He wasn’t talking about people still being alive after they died. He was talking about people being brought back to life at the Resurrection.
Hell in the Old Testament
The word translated ‘hell’ in the OT is the Hebrew word ‘sheol’, which was the place where the dead went ie the grave or tomb:
‘‘Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave (sheol), where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.’’ Ecclesiastes 9:10
‘‘Oh that you would hide me in Sheol, that you would conceal me until your wrath be past, that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me!’’ Job 14;13
The Douay-Rheims translation of Job 14:13 reads:
‘‘Who will grant me this, that thou mayest protect me in hell, and hide me till thy wrath pass, and appoint me a. time when thou wilt remember me?’’
It is clear from these examples that ‘sheol’ is the grave. Other translations of Job 14:13 actually use ‘grave’ and not ‘hell’ or ‘sheol’. Check out the parallel texts in Biblos or Bible Gateway.
Another important point to note from Job 14:13, is that he has the hope of the resurrection, of being brought back to life at a future time.
Hell in the New Testament
When we get to the Greek Scriptures and in particular many of Jesus’ sayings, it seems that consciousness after death and suffering after death in ‘sheol’ ( ‘hades’ in the Greek) is being clearly taught- but is it?
Let us keep in mind these verses as we search out this matter-
John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.’’
2Pet 3:9: ‘‘The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.’’
Is it really the case that God gave His Son to prevent people spending an eternity in conscious suffering, or rather what the verses actually say: to prevent people from ‘perishing’?
Unlike in the Hebrew scriptures, where there was only one word ‘sheol’ that was translated ‘hell’, in the Greek, there are three words in the Greek Scriptures that all have different meanings but were (not so much now) all translated ‘hell’:
‘hades’ which is the Greek equivalent of ‘sheol’,
‘Gehenna’ which was a real place in Jesus’ day: the local rubbish dump,
‘tartarus’ or ‘tartaroo’ which is only used once, and is only in reference to angels and not humans: 2Pet 2:4.
Jesus only mentions ‘hades’ three times: Matt 11;23 (Luke 10:15 same reference); Matt 16:18 and Luke 16;23- the parable of the Richman and Lazarus. ‘Hades’ occurs ten times in the NT and all ten occurences can be found here:
concordances.org/greek/strongs_86.htm
The other ‘hell’ texts (12 occureneces) of Jesus are all referring to ‘Gehenna’, a real place in Jesus’ day where bodies of criminals and animals and rubbish were thrown and were worms feasted on the rotting flesh of the carcusses thrown there,and where fires were constantly burning, to consume all the rubbish. All 12 occurrences of Gehenna in the NT can be found here:
concordances.org/g/gehenna.htm
If you told a pious Jew in Jesus’ day, that he would be ‘buried’ or rather thrown into the local rubbish dump (dead or alive) and would not have a proper ‘kosher’ burial, then this would have been a terrible ‘ending’ to have had. Incidentally, some of the very men that Jesus spoke to about this terrible fate, may well have ended up being literally thrown into Gehenna, when the Romans invaded Jerusalem in the final years leading up to 70 AD. Many bodies were thrown into Gehenna by the Romans. Jesus used the imagery of Gehenna to describe the Lake of Fire, or fiery judgment that the Bible clearly teaches is going to come upon the world in the future:
Matt 13:39-42 shows the judgment is at ‘the end of the world’ and uses the imagery of ‘burned up in the fire’.
2Pet 3: 7 shows a future fiery judgment.
And so I maintain that the fire is in the future as men have to be judged first and then thrown into the Lake of Fire which is after the 1000 years and after they are resurrected.
Even if we accept that the majority of Jesus’ ‘hell’ texts were actually not about hell we still have the startling story of the Richman and Lazarus in Luke 16:23. Jesus isn’t talking about the local rubbish dump here. He is clearly and undeniably talking about sheol (hades in the Greek). If we look at the story of the Richman and Lazarus as being literal, is it really the case that a person who goes to hades still has a tongue? Can they really ‘see’ up into another realm where the lucky ones are being comforted? I believe this story is about the pious Jewish leaders and priests (the Richman) and the outcasts and downtrodden (Lazarus) and how the kingdom and privileges were taken from the ruling class and favour was shown to the poor in spirit. The Jews were going to reap torments ( which some of them did in 70 AD) whereas the humble and lowly were going to reap rewards. It might even be the case that Jesus was playing them at their own game, so to speak. Greek ideas about the after life had influenced Judaism by Jesus’ time, and so some Jews believed in the idea of life after death with the good going to a nice part of the underworld, and the bad going to a Dante’s inferno type place. Maybe Jesus, thought, well if you believe in that, then the very fate you think awaits the ‘sinners’ ie the poor and downtrodden, actually awaits you. There is much to say about this story which we can explore in more detail later.
’‘Look, I make ALL things new.’'
As I near the end of this short overview of ‘hell’ it’s worth noting that the Bible teaches it is a temporary place which will be destroyed at the end of the thousand year reign of Christ. Revelation 20:14:
‘‘Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death’’.
Anything or anyone who is not going to be part of the New Creation, is thrown into the lake of fire to be destroyed. ‘Death will be no more’ Rev 21:4 because it has been thrown into the lake of fire ie done away with. If there is no more dying, then there will be no more graves ie sheol or hades. Do we really believe the Bible when it says ‘…the former things have passed away’. Rev 21:4. Have they really PASSED AWAY or are they preserved in all their corruption for all eternity? Does the potter keep the malformed pots on a shelf gathering dust or does he smash them up and get rid of them?
A final thought:
If God knows the end from the beginning, He knows that the majority of His human creation will not accept His provision for eternal life and will suffer the second death. If the second death is a state of everlasting conscious torment, then God knew that this would be the fate of the majority of His creation. The reality of that would be that the majority of God’s creation would be destined to suffer for ever. Does that sound like good news to you? Is it good news to know that your family member will forever be writhing in agony watching you (if we take the parable of Lazarus and the Richman literally) while you enjoy paradise? Forunately, I don’t have to rely on these understandable human reasonings, but the overview of the bible teaches that: death is the opposite of life, and that Jesus came to save us from remaining dead. He did not come to save us from a fate worse than death. The serpent told the first humans that they wouldn’t really die, but die they did, and their only hope (like Job’s) was to be remembered at a future time and be brought back to life. Surely that is the hope we have in Christ.
Best wishes
Catherine
(Hey! Maybe she thinks Brian Doerksen wrote those lines?? I’d better check that out next time…)
