Gehenna
When one thinks of Gehenna or Lake
of Fire
it typically strikes fear and even terror into the hearts and minds
of many Christians. People associate these two words as having the
same meaning as the orthodox Christian teaching of Hell. As we saw
in the previous two articles in this series on Hell, Hell is not a
place of endless torment for the wicked. Rather it is simply the
grave (from the Greek word Hades meaning the unseen or
imperceptible). Interestingly
the words Hell, Gehenna and Lake
of Fire
are not describing the same thing. They are different and are not
interchangeable. Gehenna is not Hell and Hell is not Gehenna!
So why did Jesus talk about
Gehenna and what did He mean when He used the word in the gospels
(good news)? And why do most
Christians think Gehenna is a place of eternal torment in a literal
unquenchable fire?
While nearly all “orthodox” authorities of
eminence concede that Sheol and Hades do not denote a place of never
ending torment, most of those who accept the doctrine of endless
torment claim that Gehenna does convey that meaning.
But no
such capacity resides in the Word, nor is there a shred of evidence
that it ever conveyed such an idea until many years after Christ
walked the earth.
An examination of the Bible use of the term
will show that the popular view is obtained by injecting the word
with pagan superstition.
In this article we will look at this
word Gehenna and see that it has nothing to do with a place of fiery
torment for lost souls as is commonly believed.
The word Gehenna is not even
mentioned in the Old Testament and endless torment is nowhere to be
found in its pages.
In the King James Version the translators
decided to translate the word Greek word Gehenna as Hell or hell
fire. In this popular
version, as well as others, the
Greek word Gehenna which stands for the Hebrew word “GeHinnom" is
translated twelve times as hell or hell fire?”
Does Gehenna fit the
description of the Christian hell? NO!
Any seminary student knows that Gehenna, spelled GeHinnom or
GayHinnom according to Hebrew, is a historical and geographical
location just southwest of
Jerusalem’s
walls.
In the Greek New Testament text the Scriptures that
mention Gehenna are only found in the first three gospels and in the
epistle of James.
Jesus referred to it 11 times and James
once? Only Jesus and James
mentioned it. So why didn’t
the Apostles including Paul NOT mention Gehenna in their writings?
Did they miss something?
Amazingly, the word is nowhere used in the book of Acts. Luke
recorded thirty years of preaching by Paul and other Apostles in the
book of Acts, yet the word Gehenna is not used once. Not only does
Acts not record any of the teaching on Gehenna, it doesn’t even
mention the word! Paul said
he declared the whole counsel of God.
In this article we will
examine every scripture that refers to Gehenna or Gehenna fire.
It is true, Jesus did speak of Gehenna fire (but never “hell”
fire). Christ reintroduces the Old Testament
valley
of Hinnom
into His New Testament teaching, but His use of this Old Testament
symbol of evil, idol worship, and slaughter has nothing to do with
the definition of a Christian hell.
Whatever Jesus meant when
He spoke of Gehenna fire, it certainly was not what the pagans of
the past or the Christians of the last five centuries mean by the
doctrine of “hell.” His teaching on this has much to do with living
a Christian life and judgement. Each
time Jesus used the word Gehenna it was in the context of judgement.
The purpose of Jesus was to
show how exacting is Christianity and how narrow is the path.
God judges the motives of
the heart. Christianity is
so exacting, that if one is contemptuous towards another, he will be
judged by Gods principles of love, as “he who hates his brother has
already committed murder in his heart.”
When Jesus spoke was
everything He said to be taken literally?
Or was much of it figurative
or metaphorical? Take for
example the following parable of Jesus:
Mat 7:3 (KJV)
And why beholdest thou the
mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that
is in thine own eye?
Mat 7:4 (KJV) Or how wilt thou say to
thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold,
a beam is in thine own eye?
Mat 7:5 (KJV) Thou hypocrite,
first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou
see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.
The parables of Jesus are certainly true, but they are not literally
true. Example: one cannot possibly put a “beam” (a large wooden
plank) in or out of one’s eye. The
moral of this parable is certainly a great spiritual truth. The
symbols used to teach that truth is, of course, not literally true.
The beam represents a huge character flaw, not foreign matter in
one’s eye. It’s a figure of speech.
Of course, those who
contend that much of what is written in the Scriptures is figurative
rather than literal will be accused of “spiritualizing away” the
Scriptures. Not so.
Sure many people have said
that parables are to be taken literally. What they don’t realize is
that parables have a deeper spiritual meaning than just taking them
as literal. The very reason a parable is called a parable is so that
we will know for sure that whatever is contained in the parable is
not literal. Parables require spiritual understanding.
The words Jesus spoke are
spiritual.
John_6:63 (KJV)…
the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
The Twelve Gehenna Passages
The First Use of Gehenna
Mat 5:22 (KJV)
But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother
without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever
shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council:
but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire
(the Greek – Gehenna of fire).
Jesus did not use the term
“hell fire” in this verse, He used the Greek word Gehenna of fire
for the first occurrence in the gospels. Should we assume that if
someone calls a person a fool the result would be thrown into a
literal eternal hell fire of torment?
No it does not say that.?
Whosoever is angry without a cause shall be in danger of the
judgment
Whosoever says Raca ( Chaldee – worthless ) shall be
in danger of the council ( Sandheidren judgement).
Whosoever
says you a fool shall be in danger of Gehenna fire.
Please
notice that these three instances refer to a judgement situation.
Being angry with someone can result in judgement.
Calling
someone worthless can result in judgement.
Calling someone a
fool can result in judgement (in this case God’s chastising
judgement which is Gehenna judgement).
Mans judgement is not
the same as God’s judgement. God
judges and chastens by spiritual fire.
What is spiritual fire you
ask? We will look at that
more fully in another article. Gehenna
is NOT eternal damnation in a fabled hell fire.
Obviously
there is a problem with the Christian teaching of eternal hell fire?
Does not this statement by Jesus prove beyond any shadow of a doubt
that whatever Gehenna fire is, its judgement is not extraordinarily
worse than being in danger of a council of judges, or by a local
judicial court.
Being angry with anyone, calling a person
Raca, calling another a fool, are for all practical purposes almost
the same. They are all sins against others and they must be repented
of or they will all be brought into appropriate judgements.
This is one of the primary
lessons we learn when we understand the meaning of Christ’s use of
Gehenna of fire in the words He spoke.
Gehenna fire is a vital ingredient in the process of
acknowledging, repenting and overcoming sin, being chastened by God
and growing as a Christian. Also we need to realize that Jesus said
shall be in danger. He did
not say that those judgements would occur.
But if one is not mindful of
their tongue, they could experience Gehenna fire which is
figuratively the need to repent and avoid torment of the conscience.
What if Jesus called someone a fool?
Should Jesus be considered
as being in danger of Gehenna fire?
Well Jesus did call someone a fool. In fact He called the
Pharisees fools in 4 different verses.
It would be irrational for
us to even consider the thought that Jesus would be in danger of
Gehenna fire.
Fire purifies and burns up unwanted character
traits likened to “straw, hay, and stubble”. Every soul that sinned,
and all have sinned, will go through God’s chastening process, His
cleansing fire. It is part
of the salvation process.
This phrase, “For our God is a
consuming fire,” (Heb. 12:29 )
is not literal, so as to contradict the rest of Scripture, but
rather is a spiritual statement – the words are literal words, but
the statement, the declaration, is spirit. God, as invisible Spirit,
spiritually burns up the spiritual wood, hay, straw, and carnality
of the human heart, in a similar way that literal fire burns up
these physical materials.
This whole Sermon on the Mount
which begins in Mat. 5:1 and ends in Mat 7:29 is Christ’s teaching
on how to live an exceedingly higher level of morality and
righteousness than was taught prior to the new covenant
It
should be noted that Christ’s words concerning Gehenna or Gehenna
fire were for the ears of the disciples.
This further proves that His
admonitions were for His followers and not the general population.
His disciples were to learn
righteous living and not succumb to the trappings of sin and
subsequent Gehenna judgement.
The only other time He
mentioned Gehenna was in regards to His rebuking the Pharisees for
their hypocrisy.
The word “fire” is used with reference to
judgement many times in Scripture: “Gehenna fire,” “salted with
fire,” “furnace of fire,” “unquenchable fire,” “everlasting fire,”
“burn by fire,” “baptism by fire,” “coals of fire,” “flaming fire,”
“eternal fire,” “consuming fire.” Not one of these occurrences ever
refer to an ever burning hell for wicked people!
The next
articles will deal with God’s spiritual fire and the
Lake
of Fire
and what they mean. We will
also look at the phrases “unquenchable fire ” and “the worm dieth
not”.
James 3:5-6
In James 3:5-6 James gives us
further insight to a meaning of Gehenna and is consistent with the
way Jesus Christ used it in
the gospel accounts. Just
like Jesus, James uses it as a figure of speech, a metaphor.
Nothing at all to do with
hell fire.
James 3:5 (KJV)
Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great
things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!
James 3:6 (KJV)
And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the
tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and
setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell
. (the Greek –Gehenna).
James is using the fire of Gehenna as
a metaphor for the destructiveness of sin. Fire burns up and
destroys things. And, James is using that metaphor in connection to
the body, how that a small part of the body, like the tongue, is
like a fire, which can create a larger fire.
Just like a small spark can
ignite a blazing forest fire.
He tells us that a tongue, a
small member of the body is like a fire which can contaminate more
of the members of the body A
small destructive fire ( the tongue) can ignite a larger fire
affecting the entire being — the heart and mind of a man resulting
in sin. Evil thoughts and
deeds contaminate and lead to sin.
James 3:8
(KJV)
But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of
deadly poison.
James 3:9 (KJV) Therewith bless we God, even
the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the
similitude of God.
James
3:10
(KJV) Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My
brethren, these things ought not so to be.
After all, one
moment you are verbally ridiculing someone, and soon after you could
be plotting his murder. It can happen that way.
The end result is sin unless
it is caught and repented of before it blossoms into a serious sin.
James
1:14
(KJV) But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own
lust, and enticed.
James 1:15
(KJV) Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin,
when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
Sin brings forth
death not hell fire. See the
first article on “What is Hell” for additional information.
Let’s notice other Gehenna passages to ascertain more about Jesus’
use of Gehenna. As we do so,
let’s analyze other passages to see whether the passages of an
unending fiery hell. We will
find they do not, but validate the admonition of Christ to repent of
sin, avoid Gehenna and thereby ultimately bring many sons to glory.
Mt. 5.29-30 , Mark
9:43
,
45, 47 and Mat. 18:9
The next passages are as follows:
Mat 5:29
(KJV) And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it
from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members
should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell
. (the Greek – Gehenna).
Mat 5:30
(KJV) And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it
from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members
should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell
. (the Greek – Gehenna)..
Essentially the same comments apply
here that were made regarding Mat 5:22 regarding Gehenna.
Gehenna or Gehenna fire
being a figure of speech referring to the chastising and corrective
process whereby our sins are burned out of us.
Nothing to do with an ever
burning hell fire! Also the
verses below from Mark refer to the same event as Matt. 5:29-30
quoted above.
Mark 9:43 (KJV) And if thy hand offend thee,
cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than
having two hands to go into hell (the Greek – Gehenna), into the
fire that never shall be quenched:
Mark 9:45 (KJV) And if thy
foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt
into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell (the Greek –
Gehenna), into the fire that never shall be quenched:
Mark
9:47 (KJV) And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better
for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having
two eyes to be cast into hell fire (the Greek – Gehenna fire):
Also:
Mat 18:8 (KJV) Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot
offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for
thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands
or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire (the Greek – Gehenna
fire).
Mat 18:9 (KJV) And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it
out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life
with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire
(the Greek – Gehennafire).
Again this cannot be regarded as
literal. Truly Jesus is not suggesting that we maim ourselves. He is
saying it is better to enter the Christian life destitute of some
great worldly advantage, comparable to a right hand, than to live in
sin, with all worldly privileges and accolades , and thereby
experience that moral death which is a Gehenna of the soul.
If these Scriptures are to be taken literally, and if the
consequences are eternal torment, then the church should be full of
one-eyed, one-armed, one-footed members who have problems with
lustful eyes and hearts, and greed. Extending this thought to the
“after-life”, we don’t think in terms of some people being in heaven
with missing eyes and limbs, and some in hell with all of theirs.
Compare James 3:6 to Matthew 5:29-30 which were quoted earlier,
we see that they are saying same thing, with slightly different
words. Jesus is warning of DANGER, just like James did.
It is telling us why is it
needful to cut out a body part (metaphorically) than to venture into
sin.
If a body part is on fire, what do you do? You cut it
off before the fire spreads. Then, you throw it out into Gehenna
(metaphorically) to burn away until it’s gone, then you enter life
thus avoiding that sin.
Doing this is much more profitable
than if the tongue fire spreads to the whole body, and you find your
whole body aflame in sin, from your feet to your hands and so forth.
It’s better to stop the offending limb from guiding you into a
bigger problem with sin.
Prov.
6:27
-
28 (KJV) Can a man take fire
in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? Can one go upon hot
coals, and his feet not be burned?
Mt. 10.28 and Luke 12:4-5
Another occasion Jesus used Gehenna was when he said:
Mat
10:28
(KJV) And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to
kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both
soul and body in hell (the Greek – Gehenna).
Luke 12:4 (KJV)
And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the
body, and after that have no more that they can do.
Luke 12:5
(KJV) But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which
after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell (the Greek –
Gehenna).; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.
A person can kill a
another. But after that
there is nothing else that person can do to the one killed.
But God can destroy the soul
and body. So, if God
destroys the soul, what happens to the soul that He destroyed?
Does it end up in Heaven or
the pagan Hell. Neither.
We already proved in the
first article on Hell that man does not have an immortal soul. So
what happens to a destroyed soul? Is
it destroyed and obliterated, gone for good?
Is being destroyed a
condition from which there is no salvation?
The biggest
problem in understanding these verses, is to understand who this is
addressed to. The orthodox
Church will tell you that it is talking about those who will suffer
loss of salvation in the eternal fires of hell. Yet nothing could be
further from the truth. This verse was addressed directly to and
about the 12 disciples, and is applied to all Christ’s followers
throughout all generations.
We already saw on the two
previous occasions in the gospels that when Christ spoke about
Gehenna, He was not referring to an ever burning hell fire for the
wicked but rather He used it in a figurative sense for dealing with
sin in our lives as a necessary step in the salvation process.
Gehenna or Gehenna fire is JUDGEMENT.
Yes Jesus said
He can destroy the soul.
Just a brief comment on the meaning
of the word “destroy or “destroyed”.
We need to look at the Greek word which was translated
“destroyed” in English. This
is a real eye-opener. The
Greek word is apollumi.
There is no need to spend a lot of
time on this critical word apollumi since it will be written about
it in a future article on what the Greek means. Let it suffice to
point out the following.
The Greek word “appolumi” has three
basic meanings: “lose, perish, or destroy.”
See Strong’s Concordance
G622. Context can tell which
of these three is most appropriate.
Here are a few examples:
LOSE/LOST from “appolumi“ –
The salt in Matt. 5:13 ,
“lost” ( appolumi) its flavour. The “lost”( appolumi) sheep in the
wilderness that wandered from the 99 sheep was “found” (Luke 15:6).
The prodigal Son of Luke 16:24, “…was dead, and is alive again; he
was lost ( appolumi) and is found.”
PERISH from “appolumi” –
The Apostles were afraid they would “perish” (
appolumi)
in the sea (Matt. 8:25 ).
DESTROY/DESTRUCTION from “appolumi” – In Matt. 2:13
Joseph is warned to take Jesus to Egypt,
because Herod wanted to “destroy” (
appolumi) Him.
Luke
9:56
(KJV) For the Son of man is not come to destroy (Gk:
appolumi–destroy, lose, perish) men’s lives, but to save them. And
they went to another village.
John
2:19
(KJV) Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy (Gk:
appolumi–destroy, lose, perish) this temple, and in three days I
will raise it up. Joh 2:21
But he spake of the temple
of his body.
Later they did destroy Jesus Christ and sure
enough, three days later God raised (saved) Jesus from that
destruction. Being
“destroyed” is not permanent. Destroyed, perish and lost are
virtually synonymous in the Scriptures.
Mt. 23.15 and Mt.
23.33
The final time Jesus used Gehenna was when He addressed
the hypocritical scribes and Pharisees.
He said:
Mat
23:15
(KJV) Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye
compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye
make him twofold more the child of hell (the Greek – Gehenna).than
yourselves.
This one might seem more severe on the surface
than the others, but it’s not. In verse 15 Jesus says that they turn
their proselytes into children of hell or Gehenna.
Think about that.
Did
the Pharisees encompass land and sea to make one proselyte and then
turn that convert in a “child of Gehenna?”
Yes, they did, Jesus said
they did. But will that “child of Gehenna” loose salvation and be
tortured eternally in some Christian eternal hell of fire because
they were brainwashed by these evil men? Of course not.
A child of Gehenna is a
condition and not a place.
Mat
23:33
(KJV) Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the
damnation (Strong’s G2920 Greek -krisis meaning judgement) of hell
(the Greek – Gehenna).
Verse 33 tells us how they will be
saved. They will be saved by
“the damnation of Gehenna.” What is this damnation? Damnation is an
incorrect word. It means judgement. They will be saved through
judgement which leads to salvation.
The word translated “damnation” in the KJV is from the Greek
word, krisis, and it means “tribunal, justice, accusation,
condemnation, damnation, judgement.”
What specific judgment is Jesus talking about? Why the
damnation of judgement of gehenna. This
“judgment” is not an evil thing. It
is a righteous thing! It’s
just that the old English word “damnation” sounds so terrible and
awful, when it is not., and would have been better translated as
judgement.
It can be a stern word, but remember that Jesus is
coming to judge the world in “righteousness”.
Acts
17:31
(KJV) Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge
(Greek -krisis meaning judgement ) the world in righteousness by
that man whom he hath ordained; …
The word judge in this
verse is from the same Greek word krisis, and it is not an evil
word. We just looked at Matt.
23:23 and saw exactly how fair and good this word krisis/judge is:
Mat
23:23
(KJV) Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay
tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier
matters of the law, judgment (Greek -krisis meaning judgement ),
mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the
other undone.
Many theologians have perverted the simple and
righteous words of God. Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for not
exercising proper krisis/judgment with Israel.
To judge, is to set things right. Men can only make feeble
attempts at doing this properly, but when God Almighty sets His hand
to “set things right,” they will be set right! Just as God has
brought many of us to our knees for the sins we have committed, so
will God bring this whole world to repentance. It will be
emotionally traumatic and painful, but it will be a good thing.
And so Gehenna fire is clearly seen as a way in which Jesus
judges sinners, and specifically, the sins of the eyes, hands, and
feet. Gehenna fire IS JUDGEMENT. God’s judgement is righteous
judgement.
Another Valid Opinion:
Some bible scholars have
commented that the reference by Jesus to Gehenna was addressed only
to the nation of Israel
in His day. When Jesus spoke
the words about Gehenna in Mark
9: 42
to 48 He also said “Where
their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched”.
This is the only place in
the New Testament that this phrase is found.
This may suggest to some
that the Gehenna that Christ spoke about was literal.
Perhaps, but I think not.
It refers to the verse in
Isa. 66 which mentions the worm and fire.
Isa 66:23 (KJV)
And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another,
and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship
before me, saith the LORD. 24 And
they shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that have
transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall
their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all
flesh.
This verse in Isa 66 does not mention Gehenna.
Earlier in this article we
saw that Gehenna never meant an ever burning hell fire.
Gehenna, the word hell is given for in the New Testament, is
rooted in an Old Testament location. It is generally regarded as
derived from a valley nearby
Jerusalem
that originally belonged to a man named Hinnom. Scholars say the
word is a transliteration of the Valley of the Sons of Hinnom, a
valley that had a long history in the Old Testament, all of it bad.
Into it they cast not only
all manner of refuse, but even the dead bodies of animals and of
unburied criminals who had been executed. And since fires were
always needed to consume the dead bodies, that the air might not
become tainted by the putrefaction, it came to pass that the place
was called Gehenna. The
literal Gehenna has long since vanished.
The worms are dead and gone
and the fire no longer burns.
So the words of Jesus
concerning Gehenna were spiritual and not literal.
This idea of a national
judgment is not correct when one examines the context of Jesus’
comments and that He was addressing His disciples in all instances
except when He addressed the Pharisees and scribes in Mat. 23. Some
have suggested that in the millennium the
Valley
of Hinnom
will again exist into which criminals and evil doers will be cast
into. Maybe so.
Wrap up.:
Gehenna under Christ’s new
covenant is judgment. It is not torture in literal fire.
The word should never have
been translated “hell,” for as we saw, the two words have nothing in
common. The literal Gehenna of the Old Testament has long since
disappeared. Under the New
Covenant It should be recognized as judgement upon God’s people to
purify them; to make them holy and blameless; and to make them
spiritually mature. Jesus
addressed His “Sermon on the Mount” to His disciples.
This “Gehenna fire” is not
for the world of unbelieving sinners, but for His own disciples, and
that includes all who are followers of Christ.
That truly is good news.
About the word Tartarus
The word Tartarus is found only
once in the entire bible. It
is found in second Peter chapter two and verse four.
It has been translated by
the word hell in the King James Version of the bible.
Let it be clear that it
should not be translated by the word hell although some versions
render it that way. It has
nothing to do with hell., just as the Greek words Hades and, Gehenna
have nothing to do with the orthodox Christian teaching about hell.
2 Pet 2:4 KJV)
For if God spared not the
angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell (Tartarus) and
delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto
judgment;
2 Pet 2:4 (CLV)
For if God spares not
sinning messengers, but thrusting them into the gloomy caverns of
Tartarus, gives them up to be kept for chastening judging;”
It is unfortunate that this word, Tartarus, is translated “hell” in
many versions.
The gloomy caverns of Tartarus (KJV - chains
of darkness) are not the same as Hades (the unseen), as Gehenna, or
the
Lake
of Fire .
Tartarus refers to the
temporary dungeons of sinning spirits. Jude says:
Jude 1:6
(KJV)
And the angels which kept
not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath
reserved in everlasting (perpetual)
chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.,
Jude 1:6 (CLV)
Besides, messengers who keep
not their own sovereignty, but leave their own habitation, He has
kept in imperceptible bonds under gloom for the judging of the great
day.”
Jude 1:6 (Diaglott)
messengers and those not
having kept their principality, but having left the own habitation,
for a judgment of a great day, with chains perpetual under thick
darkness have been kept;
Notice that these passages speak of
messengers, or angels, and not men; and that they do not refer to a
final state, but to a place where they are kept in imperceptible
(invisible) bonds under gloom for the judgment of the great day.
There is not the faintest
indication of any torment in Tartarus, but simply a temporary
dungeon where sinning messengers are kept for chastening judgment at
the Great White Throne.
In Matthew 8 there is the account of
the evil spirits (demons) who possessed two men from the country of
the Gergesenes which Jesus exorcised.
Mat
8:29
(KJV) And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with
thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us
before the time?
These sinning spirits know there is coming a
time when they will be judged at the White Throne and their
judgement will be a time of torment.
Not torture but torment. This
is discussed under the topic of “Fire”.
There is not the
faintest suggestion in text or context of the Scriptures that
Tartarus carries the horrible conception which hell brings to the
minds of people in general, and there is, not the slightest
justification for so translating it as “hell”. It is simply forcing
ideas into God’s word which He never intended to be there.
Next few articles will be on the meaning of God’s fire and the
Lake of
Fire .
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