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Originally Posted by Light

Hell 101

In the OT,the word Hell, is a translation of the Hebrew word Sheol which means The place or state of the dead, not torment after death as in Psalm 139.8 proves “If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in Hell, you are there.”(NKJV)

In the New Testament, 3 words are translated as Hell. Hades and Tartarus, which are Greek, and Gehenna, which is the Greek form of the Hebrew words Gee and Hinnom, meaning "the valley of Hinnom

HADES is put for the grave, or the state of the dead. After his death, was the soul of Christ ever in hell, in the orthodox sense of the word, as a place of endless torment? No. He was in Hades.

TARTARUS. This word occurs only once. in 2 Peter ii 4. "If God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, & Tartarosas. Tartarus here is derived from the Jewish mythology. The word "Hell" here furnishes no proof of their endless punishment

GEHENNA. This word occurs twelve times in the New Testament, and is always translated "Hell”. The Lord says to the prophet, "Go forth into the valley of the Son of Hinnom (Gehenna, hell); and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee...I will even make this city as Tophet (or Gehenna); and the houses of Jerusalem and the kings of Judah shall be defiled as the place of Tophet”.

These and other passages show that Gehenna was a well-known valley near Jerusalem in which the Jews in their idolatrous days had sacrificed their children to the idol Moloch in consequence of which it was condemned to receive the refuse and sewage of the city and into which the bodies of criminals were cast. Gehenna, was "a word in common use to describe any severe punishment, especially an infamous kind of death.

In your example above when Christ said: whosoever shall say, "Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell-fire," or of a punishment equal in severity to the fire of Gehenna, he used the term as the Jews were familiar with it, and used it constantly to symbolize any great punishment or judgment coming on the Earth. Jesus did not give it a signification of endless punishment after death.

Jesus and James are the only persons in all the New Testament who use the word. John Baptist, who preached to the most wicked of men, did not use it once. Paul wrote fourteen epistles, and yet never once mentions it. Peter does not name it, nor Jude; and John, who wrote the gospel, three epistles, and the Book of Revelations, never employs it in a single instance.

Now if Gehenna or hell really reveals the terrible fact of endless woe, how can we account for this strange silence? How is it possible, if they knew its meaning, and believed it a part of Christ's teaching, that they should not have used it a hundred or a thousand times, instead of never using it at all; especially when we consider the infinite interests involved?

The Book of Acts contains the record of the apostolic preaching, and the history of the first planting of the Church among the Jews and Gentiles, and embraces a period of thirty years from the ascension of Christ. In all this history, in all this preaching of the disciples and apostles of Jesus, there is no mention of Gehenna. In thirty years of missionary effort, these men of God, addressing people of all characters and nations, never, under any circumstances, threaten them with the torments of Gehenna, or allude to it in the most distant manner! In the face of such a fact as this, can any man believe that Gehenna signifies endless punishment, and that this is a part of divine revelation, a part of the Gospel message to the world?

All the facts are against the supposition that the term was used by Christ or His disciples in the sense of future endless punishment.
But in process of time Gehenna came to be an emblem of the consequences of sin and to be employed figuratively by the Jews to denote those consequences. But always in this world. The Jews never used it to mean torment after death until long after Christ.

"All the facts" indeed! You wouldn't know the truth if it poked its finger in your eye! How incredibly ignorant of God's Word you are! It comes really naturally to you, too, doesn't it?

Not only that but your entire post is a non sequitur for it does not address the issue of Jesus' apparent lack of love (which you accused me of having) for teaching about the coming judgment of all men and eternal condemnation and punishment of all those who refuse to obey the gospel.

Now read and weep, for the truth will be as bitter herbs on your palate and bitter acrid gall in your stomach.

Revelation 14:11
11 "And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever; and they have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.

Revelation 20:10
And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

2 Thessalonians 1:9
These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power

Matthew Verse 25:41
"Then He will also say to those on His left, 'Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels;

Hebrews 6:2
...of instruction about washings and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.

Matthew 25:46
"These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

Mark 9:44-48
[where THEIR WORM DOES NOT DIE, AND THE FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED.] "If your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame, than, having your two feet, to be cast into hell, "If your eye causes you to stumble, throw it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than, having two eyes, to be cast into hell

John 5:29
and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.

Jude 6
6 And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day.

Jude 12, 13
12 These men are those who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted; 13 wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever.

Daniel 12:2
"Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.

Isaiah 66:24
24 "Then they shall go forth and look
On the corpses of the men
Who have transgressed against Me.
For their worm shall not die,
And their fire shall not be quenched;
And they shall be an abhorrence to all mankind."

Jeremiah 20:11
11 But the Lord is with me like a dread champion;
Therefore my persecutors will stumble and not prevail.
They will be utterly ashamed, because they have failed,
With an everlasting disgrace that will not be forgotten.