Is there a hell?

According to Christianity, unbelievers will be punished by being thrown into a lake of eternal fire, known as hell.

Let us examine an exhaustive list of passages which talk about what happens when you die:

• [a] (1) […] But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book.
• [b] 2 And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, […]
• [c] (2) […] some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt“

[a] states that there are a number of people, who have already died, whose name has already been written in the book of life. These people are referred to as “your people”, which is shown to refer to the nation of Israel (ex. “you shall be a peculiar treasure…”).

[b] states that people who are dead do not immediately go to heaven or hell, but sleep until some future time of judgement, at which time they shall awake.

[c] states that all of the people who die will essentially live forever, since even those who do not get “life” will experience “everlasting (shame and) contempt”. Thus the dichotomy here is not eternal life vs. death or non-existance, but eternal life vs. eternal existance in a “not life” state. This would be thought of in the sense of “I urge you to choose life that you and your children may live” ex. in the land, and “the wages of sin are death” (but does the Lord take any pleasure in the death of a wicked man)

• [d] 7 and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

This is an oft-misunderstood statement. In context from v. 5 and 6 it is clear; this is not a statement about what happens at death, but about the process of mourning for death:

• [… ] because man is going to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets before the silver cord is snapped, […]

• For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten.

This comports with Daniel 12:2.

The dead do not praise the Lord, nor do any who go down into silence. But we will bless the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. Praise the Lord!

This comports with previous passages; the dead 'go down into silence' and wait.

The world to come; This is a physical reward for the “whole house” of Israel (for example).

• 11 Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off.’
• 12 Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel.
• 13 And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people.
• 14 And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord.”

This shows the resurrection will be physical.

The bible teaches physical reward; see, for example, Lev. 26:3-9 and Deut. 11:13-15.

• 3 “If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them,
• 4 then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.
• 5 Your threshing shall last to the time of the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall last to the time for sowing. And you shall eat your bread to the full and dwell in your land securely.
• 6 I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid. And I will remove harmful beasts from the land, and the sword shall not go through your land.
• 7 You shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.
• 8 Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand, and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.
• 9 I will turn to you and make you fruitful and multiply you and will confirm my covenant with you. 10 You shall eat old store long kept, and you shall clear out the old to make way for the new. 11 I will make my dwelling[a] among you, and my soul shall not abhor you. 12 And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people.

Given this, the idea that God has “set before you life and death,” and urges you to “choose life, such that you and your children may live…”, it appears that the nature of this reward and punishment system was intended to be physical as well as spiritual; one must first be preserved (live) in the physical world, in order to be justified for resurrection into the world to come.

Deu. 11:13-17 comports with this reading; the reward and punishment is eminently physical and immediate; the reward and punishment after death is a separate issue known as 'olam haba' (the kingdom of God; i.e. the world to come).

• 13 “And if you will indeed obey my commandments that I command you today, to love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul,
• 14 he[c] will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil.
• 15 And he will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you shall eat and be full.
• 16 Take care lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them;
• 17 then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and he will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain, and the land will yield no fruit, and you will perish quickly off the good land that the Lord is giving you.

The Christian position of re-statement is interesting because it is an essential re-characterization of the word of God in the old testament, with the addition of the requirement of Jesus. For example,

• Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, (John 11:25 ESV)

So the first essential problem with Christianity is that it claims you need Jesus (to be written in the book of life, ex. Daniel 12:2) when in fact this is explicitly denied by the Hebrew scriptures (Dan 12:2).

It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

This shows that Christians deny the physical resurrection shown in ex. Ezekiel 37.

Yet another example is found nearby in Corinthians;

• 1 Corinthians 15:51 ESV
• Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

(in stark contrast to Daniel 12:2, Ecclesiastes, et al.)

• 42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. ”
• 43 Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
• Luke 23:42

This passage is strange; is Jesus saying he will take him up? Once he dies, he would theoretically sleep until judgement day. If Jesus said this, it is at odds with the Hebrew scriptures; it is an essential re-statement and re-characterization of death and punishment in the Hebrew.

The Hebrew scriptures never mention an eternal lake of fire. Interestingly enough neither do the Christian Greek scriptures;

• Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age.
• The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers,
• and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
• (Matthew 13:40-42)

This insinuates the fire will be temporary.

• 43 And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. (Mark 9:43)

This passage does not state you will be placed into the fire for eternity, only that the fire itself is unquenchable.

• 41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. (Matt. 25:41)

This passage states that the eternal nature of hell was designed “for the devil and his angels,” and not that they were designed to punish man on an eternal basis as well.

• 9 And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand,
• 10 he also will drink the wine of God's wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.
• 11 And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.”
• Reveleation 14:9-11

This states that there is an eternal punishment, but that it is a special punishment reserved only for those who a) worship the beast, and b) receive the “mark of the beast” on their forehead and/or hand. It is clear that this is a punishment for “these worshippers of the beast and its image, and those who receive the mark of its name.”

This passage therefore does not really say that “hell” per-se is an eternal punishment.

Hell is not Eternal; further, the Christian scriptures appear confused over the process we undergo after death; and are in fact not even self-consistent within themselves.