There are three words translated “Hell” in Scripture:
Gehenna (Greek): The place of punishment (Matthew 5:22,29; 10:28; and James 3:6)
Hades (Greek): The abode of the dead (Matthew 11:23; 16:18; Luke 16:23; Acts 2:27)
Sheol (Hebrew): The grave (Psalm 9:17; 16:10)
There are those who accept that Hell is a place of punishment, but believe that the punishment is to be annihilated—to cease conscious existence. They can’t conceive that the punishment of the wicked will be conscious and eternal. If they are correct, then a man like Adolph Hitler, who was responsible for the deaths of millions, is being “punished” merely with eternal sleep. His fate is simply to return to the non-existent state he was in before he was born, where he doesn’t even know that he is being punished.
However, Scripture paints a different story. The rich man who found himself in Hell (Luke 16:19-31) was conscious. He was able to feel pain, to thirst, and to experience remorse. He wasn’t asleep in the grave; he was in a place of “torment.” If Hell is a place of knowing nothing or a reference to the grave into which we go at death, Jesus’ statements about Hell make no sense. He said that if your hand, foot, or eye causes you to sin, it would be better to remove it than to “go into Hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: where their worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:43-48).
The Bible refers to the fate of the unsaved with such fearful words as the following:
- “Shame and everlasting contempt” (Daniel 12:2)
- “Everlasting punishment” (Matthew 25:46)
- “Weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 24:51)
- “Fire unquenchable” (Luke 3:17)
- “Indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish” (Romans 2:8,9)
- “Everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord” (2 Thessalonians 1:9)
- “Eternal fire...the blackness of darkness for ever” (Jude 7,13)
Revelation 14:10,11 tells us the final, eternal destiny of the sinner: “He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone...the smoke of their torment ascended up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day or night."
"How did Jesus describe hell?"
Just look at how Jesus described hell:
| WHAT JESUS CHRIST SAYS ABOUT HELL! | |
| "fire" | Matt 7:19, 13:40, 25:41 |
| "everlasting fire" | Matt 18:8, 25:41 |
| "eternal damnation" | Mark 3:29 |
| "hell fire" | Matt 5:22, 18:9, Mark 9:47 |
| "damnation" | Matt 23:14, Mark 12:40, Luke 20:47 |
| "damnation of hell" | Matt 23:33 |
| "resurrection of damnation" | John 5:29 |
| "furnace of fire" | Matt 13:42, 50 |
| "the fire that never shall be quenched" | Mark 9:43, 45 |
| "the fire is not quenched" | Mark 9:44, 46, 48 |
| "Where their worm dieth not" | Mark 9:44, 46, 48 |
| "wailing and gnashing of teeth" | Matt 13:42, 50 |
| "weeping and gnashing of teeth" | Matt 8:12, 22:13, 25:30 |
| "torments" | Luke 16:23 |
| "tormented in this flame" | Luke 16:24 |
| "place of torment" | Luke 16:28 |
| "outer darkness" | Matt 8:12, 22:13 |
| "everlasting punishment" | Matt 25:46 |
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