WHY I STILL BELIEVE IN HELL by Eddie L. Hyatt
1. It is Biblical
2. It is reasonable and just
3. It is a necessary expression of God’s love
4. It has been confirmed again and again by the Holy Spirit
I recently received an email from a person in another state asking my thoughts on “hell.” She went on to explain that many of her Christian friends have dispensed with the idea of hell and have chided her for being “stuck in religion” for believing in such an old fashioned doctrine. Indeed, many evangelicals are giving up the doctrine of hell as a place of eternal punishment, arguing that such a belief is not consistent with a God whose chief characteristic is unconditional love. In my own city of Tulsa, Oklahoma one of the most popular Pentecostal-Charismatic preachers in America, Carlton Pearson, has publicly renounced his belief in hell and now preaches that everyone will go to heaven, an old heresy known as universalism. In this essay I will argue, to the contrary, that eternal punishment is a necessary expression of God’s love; that it is Biblical; that it is reasonable and just; and that the Holy Spirit has confirmed this doctrine throughout the history of the Church.
Reason #1
It is Biblical
Jesus talked about hell and warned His hearers to make every effort to avoid the place. Paul and other Biblical writers also warn their readers of the reality of hell as a place of punishment. In the KJV there are two Greek words that are both translated as “hell,” hades and ghenna. The NKJV correctly makes the distinction by translating hades as “Hades” and ghenna as “hell.” Whereas hades seems to be the location of the departed spirits of the dead, ghenna is the final condemnation and punishment of the unrepentant who persist in their rebellion against God.
Hades, as the place of the departed spirits of those who have died, corresponds to Sheol in the Old Testament. It is the word that is used by Jesus in Luke 16:19-31 in the story of the rich man and Lazarus. This story is probably not a mere parable since personal names are attached to the different individuals. One thing the story teaches is that both the rich man and Lazarus were conscious in the after life, one in Paradise and the other in torment in Hades. Another thing we see is that the rich man could see Abraham and Lazarus in Paradise, but could not cross over to them. This, no doubt, added to his torment. Hades is also the word used in Matt. 16:18 where Jesus said He would build His church and the gates of Hades would not prevail against it. In Rev. 20:14, at the end of the millennium, death and Hades are thrown into the lake of fire, or ghenna.
The ghenna (hell) was a garbage dump south of Jerusalem where fires were continually burning. In the New Testament, ghenna is used metaphorically of the place of condemnation or punishment in the next life. It is the word used by Jesus in Matt. 5:30 where, to emphasize the horror of final condemnation, He exhorts His hearers that if their right hand causes them to stumble (or sin) to cut it off since it would be better to have only one hand in this life than to have two hands and be thrown into ghenna. This word is also used by Jesus in Matt. 10:28 where He exhorts His listeners to not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul, but to fear Him who has the authority to cast both soul and body into ghenna. Bauer’s Greek-English Lexicon, the lexicon of choice by students of New Testament Greek, defines ghenna as “the place of punishment in the next life.”
Some have questioned whether this punishment is eternal by arguing that the Greek word aionios, translated “eternal” and “everlasting,” actually refers to a long, but finite period of time. While it is true that the noun, aion, is sometimes translated “age” in reference to a period of long duration, the adjective, aionios, almost always refers to that which is eternal or without end. This is borne out by the fact that it is used throughout the New Testament to describe the gift of “eternal” (aionios) life to those who believe in Christ. In Rom. 16:26 Paul uses it in referring to God Himself as the everlasting (aionios) God. The same word is used throughout the New Testament to describe the state of the wicked, i.e., eternal punishment.
It is thus used in Matt. 25:46 where Jesus tells of the final judgment where a separation is made of the wicked to His left hand and the righteous to His right. Referring to the final state of both groups, Jesus says, And these [the wicked] will go away into eternal (aionios) punishment, but the righteous into eternal (aionios) life. If aionios means “everlasting” in regards to the life that comes from God, then it must carry the same meaning when used of the punishment of the wicked for they are obvious parallel expressions. Paul uses the same adjective, aionios, in II Thessalonians 1:9 where he describes the dire state of the wicked when Christ returns,
In flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These will be punished with everlasting (aionios) destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.
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