Click here for Part 2
Click here for Part 3
I looked up the definition of hell and here are the first two definitions I found. The top one is from Oxford Dictionaries and the one below is from dictionary.com:
HELL: A place regarded in various religions as a spiritual realm of evil and suffering, often traditionally depicted as a place of perpetual fire beneath the earth where the wicked are punished after death.
HELL: The place or state of punishment of the wicked after death; the abode of evil and condemned spirits.
Growing up I had always pictured hell as a fiery subterranean underworld where evil people burned in agony for all eternity while the devil oversaw the proceedings. That's the myth the world is taught but it isn't true. First of all as far as burning forever goes, forever in the bible means for life or for an appointed period of time not for all future time as most perceive. Truth is, nobody will burn in hell for all time, not even Satan.
At the end of my post titled "Is Forever Really Forever?" I said I was going to do a post where I showed that the word hell really means grave in the bible. Those 2 dictionary definitions I posted are what Christians usually think of when they sell hell in the bible but it's a misconception. All of society is taught the typical notion of hell as "The place or state of punishment of the wicked after death; the abode of evil and condemned spirits." As a child I wasn't a Christian but I knew about hell because it is even depicted in children's cartoons...
... so I get the whole indoctrination aspect, where it becomes difficult to let go of a preconceived notion. But no matter how much it has been tattooed onto your brain, that definition of hell isn't biblical. It is just so ingrained in our minds we can't help but conjure up that type of imagery when we see the word hell written in scripture.
It's hard to shake off those images isn't it?
In the King James Bible there are four different words which were translated into English as hell; sheol in Hebrew and hades, tartarus, and gehenna in Greek. Over the course of time Christians were deceived into believing in the false idea that hell is a subterranean underworld where souls burn for all future time.
Hebrew sheol and its Greek equivalent hades both mean the grave or the pit, the final resting place of the dead. By grave it doesn't necessarily mean somebody got a proper burial; if one died in the wilderness then where the body lies is his grave. In Jonah chapter 2 even the belly of the fish where Jonah was trapped was called hell because Jonah thought it would be his final resting place, his grave.
Jonah 2:1 Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly,
Jonah 2:2 And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell [sheol] cried I, and thou heardest my voice.
Sheol is translated pit 3 times, grave 31 times and hell 31 times as well. Besides Jonah 2:2 Here are a couple of examples of sheol being translated as hell. When you read these verses you could easily substitute the word grave for hell and it would make sense.
Proverbs 7:27 Her house is the way to hell [sheol], going down to the chambers of death.
Psalms 86:13 For great is thy mercy toward me: and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell [sheol].
Now I'm going to show you some examples where sheol was translated as grave. In these instances, if you substituted the word hell instead of grave, hell meaning the burning realm of the damned, these verses would then make no sense.
In this first example Jacob had been mislead into believing his beloved son Joseph had been killed by a wild animal. He says he will go to his grave mourning for Joseph. Remember the original word for grave, sheol, is also translated as hell in 31 other places.
Gen 37:35 And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted; and he said, For I will go down into the grave [sheol] unto my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him.
If sheol really means hell then Jacob would have been saying he was going to hell.
Now let's look at another verse where sheol was translated as grave. Like the previous example, if you translated sheol as hell instead of grave it wouldn't make any sense. In this one Job's life had become so miserable he wishes God would let him die until the resurrection when the Messiah will bring an end to suffering.
Job 14:13 O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, [sheol] that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me!
Again if hell is a place where your eternal soul burned in agony 24/7 as myth proclaims then Job would have been saying he wishes God would end his suffering in this life so he can suffer much, much worse in hell. Of course that isn't the case. But Job knew that "the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished" (Ecclesiastes 9:5-6) and "there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest" (Ecclesiastes 9:10). He knew the truth that most Christians don't know - because they blindly follow their pastors rather than believing the bible - and that truth is this; people DO NOT go to heaven or hell at the moment of death. Just as those verses I just quoted from Ecclesiastes say, the dead have no conscious thoughts whatsoever. They are not in heaven worshipping the Lord and they are not in hell burning in agony. See also Psalm 115:17 & Isaiah 38:18-19.
Since Job said he hoped God would remember him while he was in the grave that proves he knew he wasn't going to heaven as a spirit either because the saved won't go until the resurrection at Christ's return. After all, why would God not remember Job if he was already in heaven worshipping God since the time he died. Job was saying he wanted to go to sheol/the grave until the resurrection of the dead when the Messiah redeemed His people. Job knew about Jesus. Job didn't know Jesus by that name but knew his Redeemer would come for him "at the latter day upon the earth." Look what was said in Job chapter 19.
Job 19:25 For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:
Job 19:26 And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:
Job 19:27 Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.
Verse 25 says the Messiah lives and He will come to claim full dominion over the earth in the last day.
Verse 26 begins by saying our physical bodies will rot after death. Another way to put it is our corpses will see corruption in the grave as Psalm 16:10 and Acts 2:31 put it. In Acts 2:31 when speaking of the resurrection of Christ when it says "His soul was not left in hell, neither His flesh did see corruption" it means His dead body was not left in the grave long enough to decompose. It doesn't mean Jesus burned in hell briefly as many people believe. Verse 26 ends with Job saying when he sees God he will be in a resurrected physical body. It is commonly believed we go to heaven as disembodied souls but the bible doesn't say we have souls, it says with our living bodies are souls. A lot of people get confused by 1 Corinthians 15:44 saying we will be raised with spiritual bodies thinking it means our bodies will no longer be flesh and blood. Physically our bodies will be flesh; skin, bone, blood, etc. But it will be spiritual in the sense that we will no longer crave the sinful desires of the flesh we suffer from now.
In verse 27 Job is saying after the ressurecteion he will get see God with his own eyes. Job wanted his pain to end that's why in Job 14:13 he wished to be kept in "secret" in sheol.
If you've read my other posts you know I'm guilty of repeating myself over and over. Between this and the other studies I've done about hell you might think I'm kicking the dead horse way too much. But Satan uses deception to fool Christians and the closer we get to Jesus returning the more this deception will be ramped up! This belief that we have conscious immortal spirits will continue to be used against hundreds of millions of Christians worldwide in the coming days (as it has been for millennia) and that breaks my heart. Paul said the reason most people will lose their salvation is "because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved" (2 Thessalonians 2:10). With these studies I'm sharing I'm trying to show you the truth but also praying you will cultivate a love for it as never before. Regarding those who are deceived because they reject the truth, I can only imagine how many people in the coming days will think they are being visited by the familiar spirits of their dead relatives who will claim to be sent from heaven. These spirits of loved ones will really be demons but because Christians fall for the pagan lie of disembodied souls, these familiar spirits will easily lead them astray. And frankly it's disgusting that so many Christians even think it's okay to communicate with the dead when the bible explicitly condemns it over and over again. See Leviticus 19:31, Leviticus 20:6, Leviticus 20:27, Deuteronomy 18:11, 1 Samuel 28:3, 2 Kings 21:6, 2 Kings 23:24, 1 Chronicles 10:13, 2 Chronicles 33:6, Isaiah 8:19, Isaiah 19:3, and Isaiah 29:4 for some examples.
Communicating with the dead angers God tremendously. King Saul, the first king of Israel was killed by God for it as you can see here:
1 Chronicles 10:13 So Saul died for his transgression which he committed against the Lord, even against the word of the Lord, which he kept not, and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to enquire of it;
1 Chronicles 10:14 And enquired not of the LORD: therefore he slew him, and turned the kingdom unto David the son of Jesse.
What makes today's Christians think they can believe or do whatever they want and God won't care? Satan's lies make them think so. And one of Satan's most successful lies ever is the false doctrine of hell. Trying to get people to let go of their indoctrinated beliefs, their preconceived notions, is the reason why I repeat the same information so much in my studies. I also hope that by using the Isaiah 28:10 principle of studying scripture "precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little" I hope to instill a love of searching scripture throughout Genesis to Revelation to find the whole truth on doctrine. You can't just look at one or two verses and decide it means whatever creed you've been told. Unfortunately doing just that is an epidemic in the church today.
I will conclude Part 1 with this summary; the only Hebrew word in the Old Testament which was translated as hell is sheol and even though it is not always translated as "the grave", that is still what it always means.
Part 2 will be about the "the pit" because it is widely believed "the pit" in the bible means hell too.
Related Links:
"Is Forever Really Forever?"
"Do People Burn In Hell For All Time?"
The "Do We Go To Heaven Or Hell At The Moment Of Death?" Series Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4
Click here for Part 3
I looked up the definition of hell and here are the first two definitions I found. The top one is from Oxford Dictionaries and the one below is from dictionary.com:
HELL: A place regarded in various religions as a spiritual realm of evil and suffering, often traditionally depicted as a place of perpetual fire beneath the earth where the wicked are punished after death.
HELL: The place or state of punishment of the wicked after death; the abode of evil and condemned spirits.
Growing up I had always pictured hell as a fiery subterranean underworld where evil people burned in agony for all eternity while the devil oversaw the proceedings. That's the myth the world is taught but it isn't true. First of all as far as burning forever goes, forever in the bible means for life or for an appointed period of time not for all future time as most perceive. Truth is, nobody will burn in hell for all time, not even Satan.
At the end of my post titled "Is Forever Really Forever?" I said I was going to do a post where I showed that the word hell really means grave in the bible. Those 2 dictionary definitions I posted are what Christians usually think of when they sell hell in the bible but it's a misconception. All of society is taught the typical notion of hell as "The place or state of punishment of the wicked after death; the abode of evil and condemned spirits." As a child I wasn't a Christian but I knew about hell because it is even depicted in children's cartoons...
... so I get the whole indoctrination aspect, where it becomes difficult to let go of a preconceived notion. But no matter how much it has been tattooed onto your brain, that definition of hell isn't biblical. It is just so ingrained in our minds we can't help but conjure up that type of imagery when we see the word hell written in scripture.
It's hard to shake off those images isn't it?
In the King James Bible there are four different words which were translated into English as hell; sheol in Hebrew and hades, tartarus, and gehenna in Greek. Over the course of time Christians were deceived into believing in the false idea that hell is a subterranean underworld where souls burn for all future time.
Hebrew sheol and its Greek equivalent hades both mean the grave or the pit, the final resting place of the dead. By grave it doesn't necessarily mean somebody got a proper burial; if one died in the wilderness then where the body lies is his grave. In Jonah chapter 2 even the belly of the fish where Jonah was trapped was called hell because Jonah thought it would be his final resting place, his grave.
Jonah 2:1 Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly,
Jonah 2:2 And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell [sheol] cried I, and thou heardest my voice.
Sheol is translated pit 3 times, grave 31 times and hell 31 times as well. Besides Jonah 2:2 Here are a couple of examples of sheol being translated as hell. When you read these verses you could easily substitute the word grave for hell and it would make sense.
Proverbs 7:27 Her house is the way to hell [sheol], going down to the chambers of death.
Psalms 86:13 For great is thy mercy toward me: and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell [sheol].
Now I'm going to show you some examples where sheol was translated as grave. In these instances, if you substituted the word hell instead of grave, hell meaning the burning realm of the damned, these verses would then make no sense.
In this first example Jacob had been mislead into believing his beloved son Joseph had been killed by a wild animal. He says he will go to his grave mourning for Joseph. Remember the original word for grave, sheol, is also translated as hell in 31 other places.
Gen 37:35 And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted; and he said, For I will go down into the grave [sheol] unto my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him.
If sheol really means hell then Jacob would have been saying he was going to hell.
Now let's look at another verse where sheol was translated as grave. Like the previous example, if you translated sheol as hell instead of grave it wouldn't make any sense. In this one Job's life had become so miserable he wishes God would let him die until the resurrection when the Messiah will bring an end to suffering.
Job 14:13 O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, [sheol] that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me!
Again if hell is a place where your eternal soul burned in agony 24/7 as myth proclaims then Job would have been saying he wishes God would end his suffering in this life so he can suffer much, much worse in hell. Of course that isn't the case. But Job knew that "the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished" (Ecclesiastes 9:5-6) and "there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest" (Ecclesiastes 9:10). He knew the truth that most Christians don't know - because they blindly follow their pastors rather than believing the bible - and that truth is this; people DO NOT go to heaven or hell at the moment of death. Just as those verses I just quoted from Ecclesiastes say, the dead have no conscious thoughts whatsoever. They are not in heaven worshipping the Lord and they are not in hell burning in agony. See also Psalm 115:17 & Isaiah 38:18-19.
Since Job said he hoped God would remember him while he was in the grave that proves he knew he wasn't going to heaven as a spirit either because the saved won't go until the resurrection at Christ's return. After all, why would God not remember Job if he was already in heaven worshipping God since the time he died. Job was saying he wanted to go to sheol/the grave until the resurrection of the dead when the Messiah redeemed His people. Job knew about Jesus. Job didn't know Jesus by that name but knew his Redeemer would come for him "at the latter day upon the earth." Look what was said in Job chapter 19.
Job 19:25 For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:
Job 19:26 And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:
Job 19:27 Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.
Verse 25 says the Messiah lives and He will come to claim full dominion over the earth in the last day.
Verse 26 begins by saying our physical bodies will rot after death. Another way to put it is our corpses will see corruption in the grave as Psalm 16:10 and Acts 2:31 put it. In Acts 2:31 when speaking of the resurrection of Christ when it says "His soul was not left in hell, neither His flesh did see corruption" it means His dead body was not left in the grave long enough to decompose. It doesn't mean Jesus burned in hell briefly as many people believe. Verse 26 ends with Job saying when he sees God he will be in a resurrected physical body. It is commonly believed we go to heaven as disembodied souls but the bible doesn't say we have souls, it says with our living bodies are souls. A lot of people get confused by 1 Corinthians 15:44 saying we will be raised with spiritual bodies thinking it means our bodies will no longer be flesh and blood. Physically our bodies will be flesh; skin, bone, blood, etc. But it will be spiritual in the sense that we will no longer crave the sinful desires of the flesh we suffer from now.
In verse 27 Job is saying after the ressurecteion he will get see God with his own eyes. Job wanted his pain to end that's why in Job 14:13 he wished to be kept in "secret" in sheol.
If you've read my other posts you know I'm guilty of repeating myself over and over. Between this and the other studies I've done about hell you might think I'm kicking the dead horse way too much. But Satan uses deception to fool Christians and the closer we get to Jesus returning the more this deception will be ramped up! This belief that we have conscious immortal spirits will continue to be used against hundreds of millions of Christians worldwide in the coming days (as it has been for millennia) and that breaks my heart. Paul said the reason most people will lose their salvation is "because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved" (2 Thessalonians 2:10). With these studies I'm sharing I'm trying to show you the truth but also praying you will cultivate a love for it as never before. Regarding those who are deceived because they reject the truth, I can only imagine how many people in the coming days will think they are being visited by the familiar spirits of their dead relatives who will claim to be sent from heaven. These spirits of loved ones will really be demons but because Christians fall for the pagan lie of disembodied souls, these familiar spirits will easily lead them astray. And frankly it's disgusting that so many Christians even think it's okay to communicate with the dead when the bible explicitly condemns it over and over again. See Leviticus 19:31, Leviticus 20:6, Leviticus 20:27, Deuteronomy 18:11, 1 Samuel 28:3, 2 Kings 21:6, 2 Kings 23:24, 1 Chronicles 10:13, 2 Chronicles 33:6, Isaiah 8:19, Isaiah 19:3, and Isaiah 29:4 for some examples.
Communicating with the dead angers God tremendously. King Saul, the first king of Israel was killed by God for it as you can see here:
1 Chronicles 10:13 So Saul died for his transgression which he committed against the Lord, even against the word of the Lord, which he kept not, and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to enquire of it;
1 Chronicles 10:14 And enquired not of the LORD: therefore he slew him, and turned the kingdom unto David the son of Jesse.
What makes today's Christians think they can believe or do whatever they want and God won't care? Satan's lies make them think so. And one of Satan's most successful lies ever is the false doctrine of hell. Trying to get people to let go of their indoctrinated beliefs, their preconceived notions, is the reason why I repeat the same information so much in my studies. I also hope that by using the Isaiah 28:10 principle of studying scripture "precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little" I hope to instill a love of searching scripture throughout Genesis to Revelation to find the whole truth on doctrine. You can't just look at one or two verses and decide it means whatever creed you've been told. Unfortunately doing just that is an epidemic in the church today.
I will conclude Part 1 with this summary; the only Hebrew word in the Old Testament which was translated as hell is sheol and even though it is not always translated as "the grave", that is still what it always means.
Part 2 will be about the "the pit" because it is widely believed "the pit" in the bible means hell too.
Related Links:
"Is Forever Really Forever?"
"Do People Burn In Hell For All Time?"
The "Do We Go To Heaven Or Hell At The Moment Of Death?" Series Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4
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