Following on from the previous article ‘Is There Marriage in Heaven?’ we said we’d explore the broader question of ‘what happens when we die?’  Many people believe in heaven, some believe in hell, but where do these ideas come from?  It may come as a surprise that many of our cultural notions about heaven and hell don’t come from the Bible at all.  Over the next few months, we’re going to dip into some of these topics, do a bit of myth busting and see what the Bible actually teaches.  This month we’re starting with the controversial topic of hell.    

The mention of hell can make people very uncomfortable, particularly when hell has been used as a tool of abuse or manipulation. Whilst there is such a thing as healthy discomfort, we first need to untangle the truth and remove the cultural additions that have accumulated over the years.

The English word ‘hell’ translates several Greek words, each word referring to something different, so we need to begin by defining which ‘hell’ we are referring to.  In this article we’re looking at the Greek word ‘Gehenna’, used twelve times in the New Testament, eleven of which are found on the lips of Jesus.  One of the urban myths is that Gehenna was Jerusalem’s rubbish dump, a place where fires were perpetually burning, but the first recorded mention of this is over a thousand years after Jesus, in the 13^th century AD.  Clearly this wasn’t the image Jesus was referring to, so what did Jesus mean when he warned of the fires of hell (Gehenna)?

Gehenna is another name for the valley of Ben Hinnom.  It is referred to by the prophet Jeremiah, around 600 years before Jesus.  In Jeremiah chapter 7 we learn that the valley of Ben Hinnom was where people were sacrificing their children by burning them in the fire.  God warned the people that He would bring justice against this evil – the nation of Babylon would attack the city, and their bodies would be thrown into the valley of Ben Hinnom.  Ben Hinnom became the place where the violence committed against children came back on the perpetrators, so when Jesus warned about the fires of Gehenna, He was echoing this event from Israel’s history.  Jesus warned of a future day of judgement, when the perpetrators of evil would be consumed by the fires of their own making.  Hell is not a place of disproportionate cruel torture, but of perfectly measured divine justice – something that many people expect, even demand, of God. 

We may have debunked some of the myths, but we’re still left with a measure of ‘healthy’ discomfort. If hell is a place of divine justice, why does Jesus warn against it?  Because despite what we may think, the world is not ready for the day of God’s justice. The Bible teaches that all of us, left to ourselves, stand as the guilty party, that we’ve all participated in the rebellion against the Author of all life and goodness. If that is the case, what hope is there for anyone?  Well, that’s where the good news of Jesus Christ comes in, which we’ll explore a little more next time.