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Jesus as Torah – Love Wins

March 16, 2011 By Randy Olds Leave a Comment

While I await my copy of Rob Bell’s new book Love Wins: A Book about Heaven, Hell and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived to arrive later this week, I have been reading some of the blog posts and news articles about the book as well as engaging in a few discussions with other people concerning what Rob Bell’s views potentially are. I have also spent some time ruminating about how I feel about the topic of God’s love as it relates to Heaven and Hell.

Those who have read through my still unfinished series on Hell have no doubt picked up on the fact that I am highly doubtful of the existence of an eternal type of Hell where those who ultimately reject God will end up being eternally punished for a lifetime of sinful living. While I am not a Universalist and I do believe that salvation is through Christ alone, I am leaning toward more of an inclusivist theology. I would like to believe that my God is big enough to make a way to whatever afterlife there is, still through Christ, for those who may call upon Him in whatever context that they have been raised in, whether that be Allah or even the Great Spirit. With that said, I am still not excused from spreading the words of Christ whenever and wherever I can.

I am beginning to wonder if we as Christians are asking all of the wrong questions when it comes to Heaven and Hell. Many people claim that Jesus spoke more about Hell than anyone else in the Bible, and although I will admit that He did speak much about Judgment, I am beginning to realize that many of those “Hell passages” were more than likely speaking about “Hell on earth” than they were about Hell in the afterlife. I think that at least half of those passages where directly pointed at the judgment that was to befall Jerusalem in 70 CE. And even those passages where He was definitely speaking about the Final Judgment, I believe that from an epistemological standpoint it is impossible to determine what the fate of those who receive a “negative judgment” might end up being. I lean towards annihilationism but I have not ruled out rehabilitation for those who are willing…perhaps a purgatorial type of Hell much like Origen wrote about.

The overwhelming message that I find in the Gospels is that of love and grace, not one of judgment. A couple of passages come to mind here. The first is John 3:17 where Jesus states that “”God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him”. This is echoed later on in John 12:47 where Jesus states that ” If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.” When I read the Gospels, what I see is love, love, love, and grace, grace, grace.

“Okay”, you might say, “but what does that have to do with the Torah?”

I have read quite a few books and essays that essentially say that Jesus came into the world as Torah, hence His words, “I came not to destroy the law (Torah), but to fulfill the law.” If you read through the the first eighteen verses of John and substitute “Torah” for “Word” you can make some startling conclusions.

With “Jesus as Torah” in mind we might read the beginning of John as ; “In the beginning was the Torah, and the Torah was with God, and the Torah was God.” or “In the beginning was the Law, and the Law as with God, and the Law was God.” Again, of course, we need to read the entire chapter, especially those all-important verses: “And the Torah became flesh, and dwelt among us,” and the equivalency of Jesus as this Word, this Law; the equivalency of Jesus and God.

An interesting thing that I have discovered during my study on Hell was how ancient Israel related to the afterlife. It appears that they were not all that concerned about what happened after they died. Not that it was never thought about the afterlife, it’s just that by and large Israel focused on Torah. Later in their history, during and after the exile, there was more focus on the afterlife, but Torah was still primarily about the here and now. Torah was not so much just a bunch of rules, but a means by which one lived a life dedicated to God. Torah also created a means by which an observant Jew could be in relationship with Yahweh, and a right relationship with God meant that God’s Shekinah glory would dwell (or tabernacle) in the temple and be accessible for remission of sins much like Jesus now tabernacles among us and is available to all who call upon His name. Torah was primarily meant for this life, not the next one. The blessings that one received by being a Torah-observant Jew were to be received in this life, not the next one. “Love the Lord your God with all of your heart and your neighbor as yourself” was a way of bringing immediate blessings to you and all of those around you.

So, if Torah was primarily meant for this life, and Jesus is Torah, then perhaps living a life for Jesus should not be so focused on the next life, but more so for right now. Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever, and if Torah was meant primarily for this life, then what changed after Christ fulfilled Torah and essentially became Torah? If God really intended us to focus on loving Him and doing as much for His Son as possible in this life, then why are we so concerned about the next one? The next one will come soon enough…perhaps too soon for many of us.

Maybe we are spending too much time worrying about “who’s in” and who’s out” and missing out on spreading the Gospel that Jesus preached. It was a Gospel that essentially meant that “Love Wins” as the title of Bell’s book suggests. And instead of waiting for Heaven or worrying about Hell, maybe we should be spending that time getting to know Jesus a little better and asking ourselves what He was really saying about His Kingdom , one that I believe was inaugurated on Easter morning when he overcame the world, ripped the temple veil and made God’s Shekinah glory available to every man and woman who would ever live.

While I do believe that we will all stand at the Judgment Seat of Christ one day, perhaps all of the focus on Heaven, Hell (and when Christ is returning) takes our eyes off of what Jesus wants for us to be doing in the here and now, which is spreading His love and His message wherever and whenever possible. Sure, I look forward to Heaven, and there are scores of New Testament verses that repeatedly underscore the hope that we have for resurrection bodies living forever with God in a New Heaven and a New Earth. However, the only time or place that we have any control over is here and now.

With the recent devastation in Japan following the earthquake and tsunami, I am reminded of just how fragile our lives are. Any one of us can be gone in an instant. Perhaps a more concentrated focus on what I can be doing right now for Jesus is much more important that anything else. And I think that sharing the love of Jesus is much more appealing and Biblically correct than warning everyone about burning in Hell. A Hell that we can’t even prove exists (at least not in the traditional Jonathan Edwards sense) to begin with.

I don’t know what I will find in Rob Bell’s book, but I doubt that it will be anything that I will strongly disagree with. I doubt that he is a universalist (although he might have some inclusivist leanings) and I doubt that he is going to chunk Hell out of the Bible altogether. I kind of suspect that he is going to be saying something of the sort of what I’m thinking here in this post. “Stop worrying so much about Heaven and Hell and get busy for Christ, for the Kingdom of God is among us right now.” Whatever he has to say, I will be writing a review on his book in a couple of weeks (fingers crossed).

Note: I will be resuming my series on Hell in a few weeks. Right now I am tied up with other projects and simply don’t have the time.

Filed Under: Heaven, Hell, Jesus Christ, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , ,

Hades in The Gospels – Part 2 of 2 (Lazarus and The Rich Man)

November 10, 2010 By Randy Olds 18 Comments

"The Rich Man Going to Hell" by David Teniers the Younger (c. 1647)

We come at last to what many who hold to view of hell as eternal conscious torment will hold up as ironclad proof of their claims. Eventually any discussion on hell will come around to  the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man found in Luke 16:19-31. “How can you possibly refute such hard evidence for hell”, they will say. “The Rich Man is clearly in hell, Jesus even describes the flames he is tormented by.” Traditionalists eyes will light up as they whip out their Bible and turn to the middle of the third gospel to prove their point. The image above of a demon leading the Rich Man to Hell is what many envision in this parable.

Using Luke 16 to prove hell, however descriptive the language therein, is very problematic. First, even if this parable did prove hell, all it would prove is that rich people go to hell and beggars go to Paradise. Secondly, the place in question here is Hades, which is the intermediate state, and has no bearing on the final eschatological disposition of the damned. Third, the place described in this parable much more closely resembles the Greek Hades and some of the places described in apocalyptic pseudepigrapha than anything found in the Old or New Testaments. My final objection is that focusing on Lazarus and the Rich Man as Jesus’ “Lesson about Hell” entirely misses out on the point that Jesus was making in this parable.

So what is this parable about? Well, first I want to unpack this story a little bit.

I have read a number of articles that link the Rich Man with Caiaphas, the High Priest. These articles normally claim that the Lazarus in this parable is the same Lazarus whom Jesus raised from the dead in John 12. After carefully considering all of the evidence I am convinced that this is a valid claim. A decent article with all of the scriptural references as well as references to the proper locations in Josephus’ Antiquities can be found here. I do not agree with all of the conclusions reached in the article, but the points made about Caiaphas being the Rich Man and Lazarus being Lazarus are solid. The descriptions of the clothing of the High Priest (purple and fine linen) can clearly go back to the descriptions in Exodus 28 and the five brothers from his fathers house clearly seem to echo the five brothers-in-law of Caiaphas. Add to that the fact that Caiaphas was a Sadducee and the entire point of the story revolves around Lazarus’ resurrection, something that the Sadducees denied, and I would think that the Pharisees would know precisely who Jesus was fingering in this parable.

In the parable, Jesus was obviously still addressing the Pharisees and He was telling them a story to make a point.  The point of course is found in verse 31 and is that even if a person were to come back from the dead as Lazarus had they would still not be convinced of what He was telling them. Much like many other parables Jesus was using imagery  from the culture and beliefs of His audience so that His audience would remember the story. In this case, He used popular Jewish myths that had arisen concerning the Underworld to center His story around.

As I pointed out in Hell and Hellenization, during the post-exilic period Greek ideas had penetrated into the Jewish mindset.  And as I brought out here and here, Intertestamental writings like 1 Enoch and the Apocalypse of Zephaniah more closely resembled the Greek Hades than anything in the Bible. Jewish writings from throughout the first century continued to show that the Pharisees and other Jewish sects pretty much believed in an Underworld precisely as Jesus is describing in this parable.

But was Jesus accurately describing what He perceived to be a true depiction of the Underworld? I don’t think that Jesus intended to validate the myths that the Pharisees believed in any more than Paul intended to validate the deity of Zeus at Mars Mill in Acts 17. Throughout the Gospels Jesus always taught about the judgment at the resurrection and never taught about anything having to do with the intermediate state. In fact, throughout the previous parables in Luke 15 it is the resurrection that is clearly in view. Jesus consistently taught about the Kingdom of God and the resurrection, and I see no reason we He would have felt the need to dispel the Jewish myths at this time. I believe that Jesus was using the vivid images from 1 Enoch to drive home the point that continued resistance to the Kingdom of God could mean missing out on the resurrection of the dead at the eschaton. In fact, provided that Lazarus is in fact Lazarus, then resurrection is in the background of this parable all along!

As we saw in my posts concerning Gehenna (I will get into more of this as we move through the New Testament), it is at the final Judgment where the dead are thrown into “Hell”. The fact that Luke uses the language of Gehenna elsewhere is a clear indicator that Gehenna and Hades are not the same place, as I pointed out in my Introduction to Hades.  And although the Catholics have teachings on “Particular Judgment”, what sense does it make to be thrown into Hell to be resurrected and judged a couple of thousand years later, only to be thrown into an altogether different “Hell”? Additionally, nowhere else in the Bible is there a teaching anything like this concerning a place of punishment immediately after death. From Daniel 12:2 to Revelation 20:15, judgment is consistently placed at the eschaton, not at death.

It is amazing to me how people look for “history” in this parable rather than “story”. In none of Jesus’ other parables do we do this. For instance, there have never been any archeological digs attempting to find the vineyard found in the Parable of the Landowner of Matthew 21. Nor do we try and locate on a map the location of the estate found in the Parable of the Prodigal Son. We automatically recognize these parables as “Story”  and do do not attach any historical or geographic significance to them, and instead look for the underlying elements and lessons. But with the Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man, people seem to get all bumfuzzled, miss the entire point of the parable and simply regard this as proof of Hell. And what is even of more puzzlement to me is how people associate this “Story” with the disposition of souls in eternal hell, when the language used clearly points toward the intermediate state rather than at the eschaton, and a mythological one to boot!

I don’t think that this parable was meant by Jesus to teach us anything about hell or even about the intermediate state in Sheol/Hades. It was simply a parable much like all of His other parables with a hidden lesson that He wanted for us to dig out. Unfortunately, later theologians took this parable along with other Jewish mythologies and crafted a doctrine of Hell around it, something I rather doubt that Jesus ever intended. If there is to be a Hell at the Judgment for the wicked, I believe that we are going to have to look elsewhere for descriptions of it.

In my next post on Hell, I am going to look at a doctrine known as Conditional Mortality, something necessary if the annihilationists are to make their claim. I’m then going to examine a little word known as aion that we will be finding in the Gospels as well as terms such as “unquenchable fire” “outer darkness” and “weeping and gnashing of teeth”.  I figure it will take me three or four more posts to examine the rest of the allusions to Hell in the Gospels. I can then run swiftly through the rest of the New Testament looking for Hell (there is not much there) and finish up with Revelation. I’ll then move on to Christian apocrypha and then to the Patristics.

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Filed Under: eschatology, Hades, Hell, Jesus Christ, The Bible, theology

Gehenna in The Gospels : Part 1 of 5

October 16, 2010 By Randy Olds 2 Comments

Continued from a previous post.

The first time that we find the mention of Hell in the Gospels is early on during Matthews rendition of the Sermon on the Mount. Here, Jesus is primarily addressing the disciples but the crowds are obviously listening in. Jesus has just finished telling His audience that in order for them to enter the Kingdom of Heaven their righteousness will have to surpass that of the Scribes and Pharisees. It should be noted that Kingdom of Heaven in Matthew’s Gospel is synonymous with the Kingdom of God in the other Gospels, and would appear to mean both the inbreaking of God’s Kingdom that Jesus came to proclaim as well as the final consummation of God’s Kingdom in Heaven and on earth at the eschaton. Throughout the Sermon on the Mount, it seems to me that Jesus is speaking more about how to be “Kingdom people” in the here and now than He is at the eschaton, although He is obviously speaking of both at times.

Jesus begins the passage that we are concerned with here in Matthew 5:21 where  He says: “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’” Jesus then contrasts this with the ‘new righteousness’ in which the intent of the heart is examined. In Matthew 5:22, Jesus gives three examples of anger that will lead to judgment, and by the use of the word ‘”brother” here, Jesus is obviously referring to an in-house dispute. Those angry with their brother will be subject to judgment (the court), calling someone a fool will land you in Israel’s version of the Supreme Court(the Sanhedrin), and calling someone a moron will cause you to be subject to the Gehenna of fire. This is one of two times that Gehenna of fire is used in the Gospels, all of the others simply use Gehenna.

Theologians have long grappled with the incongruity of these three similar ‘crimes’ and the disparity of the punishment. Lexical studies have shown that there is very little difference between the word raka (fool), which is a derivative of an Aramaic word of an uncomplimentary nature, and more ( moron), which is a Greek term of similar nuance.  Those who favor a more literal interpretation, such as the burning of one’s corpse in the Valley of Hinnom claim that this literal translation alleviates this incongruity.  Additionally, some of those who favor the literal translation instead of one indicating final eschatological judgment will point out that the hatred that developed in-house was a large part of the reason that Jerusalem fell in 70 C.E. (see here), and would seem to make Jesus’ warnings here more likely to mean a literal destruction in the Valley of Hinnom.

Interestingly, most of the commentaries that I’ve read don’t seem to want to comment much on Matthew 5:23-26 which is obviously part of the same discourse as indicated by the use of connector  “so” in verse 23. These verses tell those who may have fallen into a dispute and may therefore have endangered themselves of this judgment to quickly make a resolution with their brother or else risk being thrown into prison. Obviously, even the infraction that involves the strongest admonition does not mean an automatic sentence. And those receiving the sentence of Matthew 5:25 does not seem to indicate an eternal sentence, as Matthew 5:26 indicates one could possibly get out after every penny owed has been paid. Verses 23-26 as well as the passage following this one would seem to indicate that a later judgment is indicated for verse 22 rather than a more literal one in 70 C.E., however vv. 23-26 would seem to indicate an end to the judgment, especially if we are able to associate Gehenna in v. 22 with prison in v. 26. I like what Matthew Henry has to say about Matthew 5:23-26:

This text has been considered a proper foundation on which to build not only the doctrine of a purgatory, but also that of universal restoration. But the most unwarrantable violence must be used before it can be pressed into the service of either of the above antiscriptural doctrines.

“Unwarrantable violence?”  Wow! It would seem that most Protestants don’t like this little portion of Matthew very much. Go figure. It would seem to do a serious injustice to the doctrine of eternal conscious torment in Hell, at least for some of those so judged. But we’ll leave this alone for the moment and move on to the rest of what Jesus had to say about Gehenna in the Sermon on the Mount.

As we continue on to Matthew 5:27-30 we find a passage similar in nature to the first, where Jesus is this time contrasting the literal observance of the seventh commandment concerning adultery with the righteousness desired for those who are to take part in the Kingdom of God, where  once again the intent of the heart is examined. Here we see that it is better to lose an eye than to be cast into Gehenna (verse 29), or lose a hand than to be cast into Gehenna (verse 30).  In this passage, I find that it is much more difficult to find a purely literal translation than it is earlier in verse 22. Although it could still be argued whether or not this is speaking to Kingdom people now or in the eschaton, the idea that a continued life lived in lust will result in being cast into something other than the literal Valley of Hinnom  seems to make more sense here than in verse 22. But what this judgment is really can’t be fleshed out from Matthew 5 alone.

If we were to look at these passages only, it would be nearly impossible to find anything like eternal conscious torment in Hell from them. In fact, either the literal translation of the preterists or the metaphorical translation of the annihilationists would make more sense to me. And if you were to include the verses in the middle of these two passages into consideration, Gehenna here in Matthew 5 could easily be looked at as a purgatory of sorts or even some sort of universal restoration, where after one has served their time in Gehenna, they might possibly be redeemed.

Of course, I imagine that most would agree with me that we simply cannot get Hell out of this one passage alone. We have to interpret Matthew 5 in light of the rest of scripture. But does the rest of what Jesus has to say about Final Judgment and Hell lean towards eternal conscious torment or perhaps something else? We will try and determine that as we move through the rest of the Gospels.

In my next post on Hell, I’m going to look at Matthew 18:8-9 and it’s parallel in Mark 9:43-48. In these two passages, Gehenna begins to take on more substance, but once again there are several ways of looking at it. After that, I am going to write a post on Matthew 10:28 and it’s parallel in Luke 12:5 and finish up with a post on Matthew 23:15 and 23:33. I’ll then summarize Gehenna in the Gospels before moving on to Hades.

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Filed Under: Gehenna, Hell, Jesus Christ, The Bible

Yoga and Christians: Slipperly Slope or Harmless Exercise?

October 11, 2010 By Randy Olds 4 Comments

When I first heard about Albert Mohler’s recent strong stance that Christians should not practice yoga, I rolled my eyes and thought, “Oh boy, more fundamentalist sanctions against a harmless practice…what a crock!”  After reflecting on it for for the last week or so and engaging in a couple of conversations with other Christian bloggers on the subject, I have subtly reconsidered my initial reaction.

Now I want to say that I believe that the vast majority of Christians who participate in yoga do so simply as a form of relaxation and exercise and never cross over to the “Dark Side” of yoga, which is of course the Hindu religious aspects of yoga or the syncretism which can lead to New Age spiritualism. However, as someone who at one time investigated some of the components of New Age spiritualism, I can see how some might slip down the slippery slope and attempt to  incorporate aspects of yoga into their Christian life.

Some readers might be surprised that I would make such a statement, as I am normally pretty liberal and open-minded. Not only that, but I normally react harshly against anything that I think sounds remotely like fundamentalism. But please give me a minute to explain myself.

When I was in my teens I was very involved in Tae Kwon Do under the instruction of a fifth-degree black-belt who was a born-again Christian, but was also involved in some aspects of New Age spiritualism. As I progressed in my studies, I eventually got to a point where I was encouraged to participate in contemplation and mental concentration exercises much like those to be found in some of the more advanced forms of yoga. The fact is that Tae Kwon Do, like many other martial arts, is simply an extension of Korean religion, which is rooted in Buddhism. The goal of more advanced martial arts is to be able to perform acts beyond normal human control, much the same as yoga. In Tae Kwon Do, as with many other martial arts, this is to be achieved through unity with the divine through perfect self-effacement and impassivity.

While I didn’t become a Buddhist or Taoist as the result of my involvement in martial arts, in later years I recognized some of those same elements in the New Age movement. Many years later, and before I became a Christian, I did some investigation into Gnosticism, which in reality the New Age movement is a form of. More recently, I had to spend a large amount of time and energy convincing my teen-aged daughter that Buddhism and Christianity were not compatible. This was after one of her High School teachers, who is a New Age advocate, told her that Buddhism was in fact not a religion and that the two could be practiced together.

While I believe that most Christians who participate in yoga or martial arts will never slide into the syncretism that is prevalent in the New Age movement, I can see where the young and naive, or possibly those who have not studied the scriptures sufficiently to be able to recognize Gnosticism when they see it might be tempted to add the spiritual elements of eastern mysticism into their Christianity. I like to think of this as “spiritual steroid” abuse. There are many Christians who are not pleased with the pace of their spiritual growth and seek to add “something more” to speed the process up. For some, the seduction of looking for the “divine spark” within by means of the contemplative elements of yoga or other forms of eastern religion seems very appealing.

So what is wrong with this? First is the fact that this denies the power of the Cross, and instead of seeking spiritual growth through Christian principles and the leading of the Holy Spirit, one seeks to unlock the secret power of mystical inner knowledge. The ultimate goal of some forms of yoga is to unite with the divine, which in pantheism would mean the entire universe. This is very similar to the gnostic goal of achieving gnosis, which is a distinct category of mystical experience beyond the physical or psychic levels of being. Christians who attempt to syncretize their faith in this way are much like those warned about in 2 Timothy 3:5 and are often holding to a form of religion but denying its power.

I think that the biggest danger is the fact that the vast majority of Christians are simply ignorant of the dualism that is so strongly warned about in epistles like 1 John, and really have no idea what gnosticism is. The fact is that John goes so far as to say that the Gnostics of his day were antichrist (1 John 4:2-3) For those who do not know what the Bible teaches about this danger, and do not realize that many elements of New Age thought are are simply a form of New Gnosticism, it might very difficult to discern when they have in fact crossed over the grey area into syncretism.

With that said, I think that for most Christians, yoga and martial arts is a completely reasonable form of exercise and relaxation, and I personally would have no problem participating in either.  My advice for those who are involved in yoga would be to become educated about gnosticism and New Age religion and read what the Bible has to say about these forms of false teachings, so that you are able to discern where the line lays between harmless exercise and eastern religion. I think that proper education, discernment and moderation in all things is the key when it comes to yoga.

So, I suppose that I have to say that although I agree with Mohler in principle, I think that a blanket prohibition is far too reactionary. For most Christians, practicing yoga is simply a form of exercise and is in all actuality quite benign. For a small minority, however, I can see how yoga might lead to an interest in elements of eastern religious practices that could indeed become a slippery slope.

Filed Under: Christian Living, Gnosticism, Jesus Christ, Uncategorized Tagged With: , ,

An Introduction to Hell in The Gospels, The Words of Jesus

September 30, 2010 By Randy Olds Leave a Comment

“There is no doctrine which I would more willingly remove from Christianity than this [Hell], if it lay in my power. But it has the full support of Scripture and, specially, of Our Lord’s own words; it has always been held by Christendom; and it has the support of reason.” C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain

Continued from a previous post.

After several weeks of laying the groundwork, we at last come to what I believe is the most critical part of our study on the Christian doctrine of Hell. Because of Jesus’ unique relationship with the Father, not to mention the fact that He was indeed God in the flesh, we simply cannot dismiss His words about Judgment and the final disposition of those who ultimately reject God.

In thumbing through the Gospels, especially in some translations, it might appear that Jesus taught a great deal about Hell, and in fact many expositors of the Bible have asserted exactly that. Depending on the church that you may have been attending, the odds are that you have probably heard “Hellfire and Brimstone” sermons where proof-texts from the Gospels are peppered throughout the homily. It would appear that Jesus had a great deal to say about Hell.

Or did He?

In my own research, I have identified only 22 verses in the Gospels where Jesus appears to be talking about Hell. A number of those verses are in passages that are repeated by one of the other Evangelists, and a in a couple of those passages the term used is repeated several times in quick succession (i.e Matthew 5:22,29,30 and Mark 9:43,45,47). Several others appear to be a case of Jesus telling the same story, but in a different fashion, so we can similarly group those together.

In short, those 22 verses where Jesus is seemingly talking about “hell” can be grouped into 11 separate passages, with some of the material in those passages overlapping between accounts in different passages within the Synoptics (Matthew, Mark and Luke) .

There is another fascinating anomaly to be found in the Gospels when Jesus is talking about “hell”. Instead of sticking to the use of just one word for hell as we commonly do, there are four different word uses that we find in these passages.

The first, and most commonly used (11 times) is Gehenna. We have encountered Gehenna before, back in Isaiah when we were looking for Hell in the Old Testament. Gehenna was (and is) a physical location outside of Jerusalem where there was a bit of Old Testament prophecy concerning some bad things that were going to occur and was considered a “really bad place” by the Jews of Jesus’ day. Gehenna is used in the Gospel in Matthew 5:22, 29, 30, 18:9, 10:28 23:28 and 23:33, Mark 9:43, 45, 47 and Luke 12:5. As I have alluded to previously, I don’t think that these verses have anything at all to do with “Hell”.

The next word used by Jesus in the Gospels is our old friend Hades. Surprisingly, it is only found 4 times in the Gospels, and in all but one of those instances seems to be simply referring to the Hebrew Sheol. The one exception is the ever popular parable of “Lazarus and The Rich Man”, a favorite proof text for many who assert that Hell is real and Jesus proved it right here. I will be writing at least one entire post on this parable and what I think Jesus was presenting here (you might be very surprised), and I might indeed have to break it down into two posts. The verses in the Gospels where Jesus uses the term Hades are found in Matthew 11:23, 16:18 (the aforementioned parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man) and in Luke 10:15, 16:23.

Another term that Jesus used and is commonly interpreted as a reference to Hell is “outer darkness”.  Jesus uses this term after the healing of the Centurions servant in Matthew 8:12, and again in Matthew 22:13 (the parable of the wedding banquet) and Matthew 25:30 in the Parable of the Talents. Notably this last usage is immediately prior to one of the strongest verses in the Gospels describing Hell as a place of eternal fire and torment.

That verse is of course Matthew 25:41, and is the final example of the different terminology used by Jesus that has been interpreted as Hellfire. That terminology is “fire”. There are three other times in the Gospels that we find Jesus referring to Judgment as “fire”. Two of them appear to be very related and are found in Matthew 7:19 and John 15:6 (incidentally, this is the only solid mention of hell in John’s Gospel). The other instance is the passage found in Matthew 13:39-42 and is found immediately after the Parable of the Wheat and Tares and the Parable of the Mustard seed.

So why did Jesus use four different words in describing the same Hell? Wouldn’t it have been much easier to stick with just one?  Why couldn’t He have just called it “The Lake of Fire” as John did in the Revelation. Could He have possibly been referring to four different concepts instead of one?

I am convinced that all of the references to Gehenna have nothing to do with Hell as the place for the final disposition of lost souls after the Final Judgment, and I will cover that when I get to the passages in question. Likewise, I do not believe that in the instances where Jesus uses the term Hades that He is referring to Hell as we know it, including the Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man.

With regards to the “outer darkness” passages I must admit that I am still not entirely sure, but I will also examine these passages in depth.

I do however believe that the passages where fire and burning are used in the passages that I previously mentioned more than likely deal with what we typically call Hell, most especially the passage in Matthew 25:41. With that said, I’m do not believe that the evidence will show that Hell to be a place of eternal conscious torment.  Examining the wording used in these passages, especially some of the key terms in the original Greek, leaves quite a bit of latitude in the interpretation of what Jesus actually did and did not say.

As I said in my last post, this may take a while to work through all of these passages. If the reader is aware of any crucial passages in the Gospels that I am leaving out, please alert me to them, although I think that I have covered them all. Once I am done with the Gospels, I will move forward with the rest of the New Testament (where amazingly little is said about Hell), and eventually get to the Revelation. From there, I will begin to move through the Patristics.

Filed Under: Hell, Jesus Christ, The Bible, Uncategorized Tagged With: ,

Hell, The Story Up ‘Til Now

September 28, 2010 By Randy Olds 2 Comments

Continued from a previous post.

In my last post, I mentioned that I was going to look a little more at the influences on the Intertestamental writings, but upon further reflection, I think that I have covered the subject material sufficiently, and am anxious to move on to what Jesus had to say on the matter.

Over the last few weeks I have attempted to illuminate the evolution of hell in Jewish thought, beginning with the Old Testament views of Sheol and moving through some of the mythologies that developed during the Intertestamental period. The point of the exercise has been to try and gain an understanding of what the “Jew on the Street” might have thought about Heaven, Hell and the afterlife at the time of Christ.

Some might say that the inclusion of the material found in 1 Enoch and the Apocalypse of Zephaniah, as well as the exploration of Greek Mythology was unnecessary. After all, wasn’t Jesus crystal clear about Judgment and Hell? Jesus did indeed have quite a bit to say about those things and we will begin to explore them next. However, it seems to me that when Jesus used words like “Gehenna”, “Hades”, “Outer Darkness” as well as “the eternal fire reserved for the Devil and his angels”, it behooves us to understand what those terms would have meant to His audience, as well as what He was communicating to us.

The apocalypses and mythologies are important not because Jesus believed them, but because many of those in His audience did. Not only that, but later theologians apparently read a lot of those mythologies back into Jesus’ own words in an attempt to harmonize Jesus’ words about Judgment and Hell with these Jewish Apocalyptic writings. Tertullian, Clement and others apparently considered works like 1 Enoch as valid as the Gospels themselves and some of the conclusions that they came up with in their attempted harmonization, at least in relation to the doctrine of Hell, seems to me to have resulted in what ended up as Catholic dogma that the Reformation unfortunately never quite shook off.

Therefore, I want to now go to the Gospels and see exactly what Jesus did and did not say about Hell. I have identified 21 verses contained in 11 passages where Jesus uses the terms that I identified above. Some Bible translations use the word “Hell” for nearly all of them, although the better translations will use Gehenna, Hades and so forth.

In my next post, I will identify these passages and verses and try to break them down into categories. I will then look at all 11 passages and see how different theologians have interpreted them. I am hoping not to have to write 11 posts, one on each passage, but that may well end up being the case. I have already written a great deal more on the subject than I originally thought that I would when I began this series. However, I am committed now, so I plan to see this little (or perhaps not so little) series on Hell all the way to the end. The few weeks that I intended for this series may indeed stretch out to a couple of months.

With that said, I still do not intend to blog exclusively on the subject of Hell during this period. I need to stretch my legs occasionally, and will therefore intersperse the remaining posts as I see fit with other material.

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