Bible Studies

---

What Does The Bible Tell Us About Hell?

The word hell means different things to different people. Some dictionary definitions state hell is "a nether world in which the dead continue to exist" or "any place or state of torment or misery, (i.e. war is hell)." People that do not believe in God and heaven do not believe there is a place separated from God called hell. But I think everyone will agree that whatever hell is, it is not good.

This study is focused on what God told us about hell through His word. That is, from the Christian Bible. Various Christian denominations have published their views on this topic throughout the centuries. Those writings are not being addressed here. We will go to the source and attempt to determine what was written and what it means to us.

The original King James translation substituted hell for the Hebrew word she’ol. The Hebrew meaning of she’ol is actually “the grave”. The English word, from a Teutonic root meaning "to hide" or "cover".

The Old Testament

Here is Psalms 16:10 quoted from three different translations.

• KJV For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.


• NIV because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay.


• NASB For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol; Nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay.

From my parallel bible, here is how the various publishers typically translate Sheol.

• KJV, NKJ and MSG all use hell.


• NIV and NLT use grave.


• NET, NASB, ESV and NRSV use Sheol.

The King James translation was published in 1611 AD. Scholars have subsequently found numerous translation errors. A search on this subject will provide millions of hits discussing this in depth. How could this happen? I would only be speculating and my purpose is to present research based on His Word. Any easier question to answer would be, "Why have there been subsequent translations of the Bible into English?"

The reasoning and process behind some 33 different English versions can be found at the Bible Gateway site. Some concentrated on literal translations. Others were more interested in making the text easier to read. In all cases, scholars have much more information available than was available in 1611. Instead of just using a Latin translation as a source, the original Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek texts can now be researched. My personal observation is that translations are getting better over time. There probably is not a perfect translation and there may never be. The original language is the only infallible source, and to really know the original meaning of the writer of every verse would also require the reader to have some understanding of the cultures at the time of the writing. Recent study bibles are providing some of this context in their notes.

As shown in the example above, three different publishers have translated the original Hebrew word Sheol into three different English words. Several translations have decided to just show the original Hebrew word. Thus, hell has been completely removed from the Old Testament! Let's see why.

Changing Sheol's translation substantially changes the meaning of any verse. In the Psalms 16:10 example above, David is speaking to God stating he has comfort knowing death is not the end. David expects God to raise him from the dead and take him to heaven. The difference among the translations would have David saying he either expected to spend time in a) hell, or b) a grave or tomb. Knowing the context allows us to understand David was not destined for a place of eternal punishment.

Here is a list of every reference to Sheol in the Old Testament. For each, separately substitute hell and read it again, then substitute the grave and read it a third time. Read in context I believe you will see that Sheol is a place where every person goes.

• Genesis 37:35 Then all his sons and all his daughters arose to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. And he said, "Surely I will go down to Sheol in mourning for my son." So his father wept for him.


• Genesis 42:38 But Jacob said, "My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is dead, and he alone is left. If harm should befall him on the journey you are taking, then you will bring my gray hair down to Sheol in sorrow."


• Genesis 44:29 'If you take this one also from me, and harm befalls him, you will bring my gray hair down to Sheol in sorrow.'


• Genesis 44:31 when he sees that the lad is not with us, he will die. Thus your servants will bring the gray hair of your servant our father down to Sheol in sorrow.


• Numbers 16:30 "But if the LORD brings about an entirely new thing and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that is theirs, and they descend alive into Sheol, then you will understand that these men have spurned the LORD."


• Numbers 16:33 So they and all that belonged to them went down alive to Sheol; and the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly.


• 1 Samuel 2:6 "The LORD kills and makes alive; He brings down to Sheol and raises up.


• 2 Samuel 22:6 The cords of Sheol surrounded me; The snares of death confronted me.


• 1 Kings 2:6 "So act according to your wisdom, and do not let his gray hair go down to Sheol in peace.


• 1 Kings 2:9 "Now therefore, do not let him go unpunished, for you are a wise man; and you will know what you ought to do to him, and you will bring his gray hair down to Sheol with blood."


• Job 7:9 "When a cloud vanishes, it is gone, So he who goes down to Sheol does not come up.


• Job 11:8 "They are high as the heavens, what can you do? Deeper than Sheol, what can you know?


• Job 17:13 "If I look for Sheol as my home, I make my bed in the darkness;


• Job 21:13 "They spend their days in prosperity, And suddenly they go down to Sheol.


• Job 24:19 "Drought and heat consume the snow waters, So does Sheol those who have sinned.


• Job 26:6 "Naked is Sheol before Him, And Abaddon has no covering.


• Psalms 6:5 For there is no mention of You in death; In Sheol who will give You thanks?


• Psalms 9:17 The wicked are turned back and sent to Sheol; this is the destiny of all the nations that ignore God,


• Psalms 16:10 For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol; Nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay.


• Psalms 18:5 The cords of Sheol surrounded me; The snares of death confronted me.


• Psalms 30:3 O LORD, You have brought up my soul from Sheol; You have kept me alive, that I would not go down to the pit.


• Psalms 31:17 Let me not be put to shame, O LORD, for I call upon You; Let the wicked be put to shame, let them be silent in Sheol.


• Psalms 49:14 They will travel to Sheol like sheep, with death as their shepherd. The godly will rule over them when the day of vindication dawns; Sheol will consume their bodies and they will no longer live in impressive houses.


• Psalms 49:15 But God will rescue my life from the power of Sheol; certainly he will pull me to safety. (Selah)


• Psalms 55:15 May death destroy them! May they go down alive into Sheol! For evil is in their dwelling place and in their midst.


• Psalms 86:13 For you will extend your great loyal love to me, and will deliver my life from the depths of Sheol.


• Psalms 88:3 For my life is filled with troubles and I am ready to enter Sheol.


• Psalms 89:48 No man can live on without experiencing death, or deliver his life from the power of Sheol. (Selah)


• Psalms 116:3 The ropes of death tightened around me, the snares of Sheol confronted me. I was confronted with trouble and sorrow.


• Psalms 139:8 If I were to ascend to heaven, you would be there. If I were to sprawl out in Sheol, there you would be.


• Proverbs 1:12 We will swallow them alive like Sheol, those full of vigor like those going down to the Pit.


• Proverbs 5:5 Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to Sheol.


• Proverbs 7:27 Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death.


• Proverbs 9:18 But they do not realize that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.


• Proverbs 15:24 The path of life is upward for the wise person, to keep him from going downward to Sheol.


• Proverbs 23:14 If you strike him with the rod, you will deliver him Sheol.


• Proverbs 30:16 Sheol, the barren womb, land that is not satisfied with water, and fire that never says, “Enough!”


• Ecclesiastes 9:10 Whatever you find to do with your hands, do it with all your might, because there is neither work nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom in Sheol, the place where you will eventually go.


• Song of Songs 8:6 The Beloved to Her Lover: Set me like a cylinder seal over your heart, like a signet on your arm. For love is as strong as death, passion is as unrelenting as Sheol. Its flames burst forth, it is a blazing flame.


• Isaiah 5:14 So Sheol will open up its throat, and open wide its mouth; Zion’s dignitaries and masses will descend into it, including those who revel and celebrate within her.


• Isaiah 14:9 Sheol below is stirred up about you, ready to meet you when you arrive. It rouses the spirits of the dead for you, all the former leaders of the earth; it makes all the former kings of the nations rise from their thrones.


• Isaiah 14:11 Your splendor has been brought down to Sheol, as well as the sound of your stringed instruments. You lie on a bed of maggots, with a blanket of worms over you.


• Isaiah 14:15 But you were brought down to Sheol, to the remote slopes of the pit.


• Isaiah 28:15 For you say, “We have made a treaty with death, with Sheol we have made an agreement. When the overwhelming judgment sweeps by it will not reach us. For we have made a lie our refuge, we have hidden ourselves in a deceitful word.”


• Isaiah 28:18 Your treaty with death will be dissolved; your agreement with Sheol will not last. When the overwhelming judgment sweeps by, you will be overrun by it.


• Isaiah 38:10 “I thought, ‘In the middle of my life I must walk through the gates of Sheol, I am deprived of the rest of my years.’


• Isaiah 38:18 Indeed Sheol does not give you thanks; death does not praise you. Those who descend into the pit do not anticipate your faithfulness.


• Isaiah 57:9 You take olive oil as tribute to your king, along with many perfumes. You send your messengers to a distant place; you go all the way to Sheol.


• Ezekiel 31:15 “‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: On the day it went down to Sheol I caused observers to lament. I covered it with the deep and held back its rivers; its plentiful water was restrained. I clothed Lebanon in black for it, and all the trees of the field wilted because of it.


• Ezekiel 31:16 I made the nations shake at the sound of its fall, when I threw it down to Sheol, along with those who descend to the pit. Then all the trees of Eden, the choicest and the best of Lebanon, all that were well-watered, were comforted in the earth below.


• Ezekiel 31:17 Those who lived in its shade, its allies among the nations, also went down with it to Sheol, to those killed by the sword.


• Ezekiel 32:21 The bravest of the warriors will speak to him from the midst of Sheol along with his allies, saying: ‘The uncircumcised have come down; they lie still, killed by the sword.’


• Ezekiel 32:27 They do not lie with the fallen warriors of ancient times, who went down to Sheol with their weapons of war, having their swords placed under their heads and their shields on their bones, when the terror of these warriors was in the land of the living.


• Hosanna 13:14 Will I deliver them from the power of Sheol? No, I will not! Will I redeem them from death? No, I will not! O Death, bring on your plagues! O Sheol, bring on your destruction! My eyes will not show any compassion!


• Amos 9:2 Even if they could dig down into Sheol, my hand would pull them up from there. Even if they could climb up to heaven, I would drag them down from there.


• Jonah 2:2 and said, “I called out to the Lord from my distress, and he answered me; from the belly of Sheol I cried out for help, and you heard my prayer.


• Habakkuk 2:5 Indeed, wine will betray the proud, restless man! His appetite is as big as Sheol’s; like death, he is never satisfied. He gathers all the nations; he seizes all peoples.

The New Testament

Translators have rendered three different Greek words as "hell" in the New Testament: Gehenna, Hades, and tartaroo. Unfortunately for King James readers, they have different meanings. Study bibles might also show the original word, which will assist the reader in understanding the meaning of the verse.

Gehenna, from Easton’s:

(originally Ge bene Hinnom; i.e., "the valley of the sons of Hinnom"), a deep, narrow glen to the south of Jerusalem, where the idolatrous Jews offered their children in sacrifice to Molech (2 Chr. 28:3; 33:6; Jer. 7:31; 19:2-6). This valley afterwards became the common receptacle for all the refuse of the city. Here the dead bodies of animals and of criminals, and all kinds of filth, were cast and consumed by fire kept always burning.

Here is every New Testament verse where hell was substituted for the Greek Gehenna. In the King James, each of these would read hell.

• Matthew 5:22 But I say to you that anyone who is angry with a brother will be subjected to judgment. And whoever insults a brother will be brought before the council, and whoever says ‘Fool’ will be sent to fiery Gehenna.


• Matthew 5:29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away! It is better to lose one of your members than to have your whole body thrown into Gehenna.


• Matthew 5:30 If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away! It is better to lose one of your members than to have your whole body go into Gehenna.


• Matthew 10:28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Instead, fear the one who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.


• Matthew 18:9 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into fiery Gehenna.


• Matthew 23:15 “Woe to you, experts in the law and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You cross land and sea to make one convert, and when you get one, you make him twice as much a child of Gehenna as yourselves!


• Matthew 23:33 You snakes, you offspring of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to Gehenna?


• Mark 9:43 If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off! It is better for you to enter into life crippled than to have two hands and go into Gehenna, to the unquenchable fire.


• Mark 9:45 If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off! It is better to enter life lame than to have two feet and be thrown into Gehenna.


• Mark 9:47 If your eye causes you to sin, tear it out! It is better to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into Gehenna, where their worm never dies and the fire is never quenched.


• Luke 12:5 But I will warn you whom you should fear: Fear the one who, after the killing, has authority to throw you into Gehenna. Yes, I tell you, fear him!


• James 3:6 And the tongue is a fire! The tongue represents the world of wrongdoing among the parts of our bodies. It pollutes the entire body and sets fire to the course of human existence – and is set on fire by Gehenna.

The word Gehenna is used four times in the Old Testament. Although it is the same word found in the New Testament, it was correctly translated as the location “Valley of Ben-Hinnom” or “Hinnom Valley”, rather than “hell”.

• 2 Chronicles 28:3 He offered sacrifices in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom and passed his sons through the fire, a horrible sin practiced by the nations whom the Lord drove out before the Israelites.


• 2 Chronicles 33:6 He passed his sons through the fire in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom and practiced divination, omen reading, and sorcery. He set up a ritual pit to conjure up underworld spirits and appointed magicians to supervise it. He did a great amount of evil in the sight of the Lord and angered him.


• Jeremiah 7:31 They have also built places of worship in a place called Topheth in the Valley of Ben Hinnom so that they can sacrifice their sons and daughters by fire. That is something I never commanded them to do! Indeed, it never even entered my mind to command such a thing!


• Jeremiah 19:2 Go out to the part of the Hinnom Valley which is near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. Announce there what I tell you. 3 Say, ‘Listen to what the Lord says, you kings of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem! The Lord God of Israel who rules over all says, “I will bring a disaster on this place that will make the ears of everyone who hears about it ring! 4 I will do so because these people have rejected me and have defiled this place. They have offered sacrifices in it to other gods which neither they nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah knew anything about. They have filled it with the blood of innocent children. 5 They have built places here for worship of the god Baal so that they could sacrifice their children as burnt offerings to him in the fire. Such sacrifices are something I never commanded them to make! They are something I never told them to do! Indeed, such a thing never even entered my mind! 6 So I, the Lord, say: “The time will soon come that people will no longer call this place Topheth or the Hinnom Valley. But they will call this valley the Valley of Slaughter!

Their Worm Does Not Die...

• Mark 9:47 "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, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.

I used the NASB translation here, which translates Gehenna to hell. The KJV translates it as hell fire. This scripture is used (incorrectly I believe) to teach that a sinful life will lead one to the eternal punishment of hell. This was always confusing to me as that interpretation seems to say the only way to not go to hell is to not sin. In other words, we are saved by what we do (or do not do) rather than by God's grace.

In the day of Jesus, Gehenna was a garbage dump. It is the valley just over the south wall of Old Jerusalem. Trash, refuse, animal carcasses, and even the dead bodies of criminals were thrown there to be destroyed by the fires that burned perpetually on the valley floor. City planners in Jerusalem failed to install a sewage system since that wasn't invented yet. Thus, human excrement was also dumped there. And what happens to organic matter not burned or buried? Flies instantly appear. Which pupate into maggots.

Jesus is not calling the wicked people described in Mark, “worms.” He says “their worm.” The original Greek word for worm means “grub” or “maggot.” I can imagine the constantly smoldering fires in a city dump. But to really burn and consume everything, the refuse would need to be constantly turned to aerate it. Since that would require a considerable amount of manpower from the city, I expect they left what was unburned to the maggots. Thus, the “worm does not die” in the city dump of Gehenna and the fire is never quenched.

In other words, Jesus was describing the local method of garbage and sewage disposal to emphasize the permanent consequences of unrepented sins. Gehenna was a place everyone knew about and one no one would want to go. Everything unclean goes there. Thus, it would be better to pluck out an eye, cut off a hand and be lame than be thrown into the city garbage dump.

There is another mention in scripture of worms that won’t die and fires that will not die out where the Lord states what will happen to all those that do not follow Him.

• Isaiah 66:24 “They will go out and observe the corpses of those who rebelled against me, for the maggots that eat them will not die, and the fire that consumes them will not die out. All people will find the sight abhorrent.”

In summary, Jesus is stating the choice is either eternal life or death. Following Jesus leads to eternal life. Rebelling against Him means certain death. As seen in the study, Where Do Christians Go When They Die?, scripture tells us that when the body dies, it is just that...dead.

The dead cannot remember, they cannot thank anyone, they cannot praise God, they cannot think, there is no knowledge or wisdom, they cannot even dream because the verse says, "his thoughts perish." All their abilities have perished, "the dead know not any thing." But just as a person awakens in the morning after a night's sleep, Christians will awaken from their death as our Lord and Savior has conquered death.

Hades, from Easton’s:

that which is out of sight, a Greek word used to denote the state or place of the dead. All the dead alike go into this place. To be buried, to go down to the grave, to descend into hades, are equivalent expressions. In the LXX. this word is the usual rendering of the Hebrew Sheol, the common receptacle of the departed (Gen. 42:38; Ps. 139:8; Hos. 13:14; Isa. 14:9). This term is of comparatively rare occurrence in the Greek New Testament. Our Lord speaks of Capernaum as being "brought down to hell" (hades), i.e., simply to the lowest debasement, (Matt. 11:23). It is contemplated as a kind of kingdom which could never overturn the foundation of Christ's kingdom (16:18), i.e., Christ's church can never die.

Here are the New Testament verses where hell was substituted for the Greek Hades.

• Matthew 11:23 And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? No, you will be thrown down to Hades! For if the miracles done among you had been done in Sodom, it would have continued to this day.


• Matthew 16:18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.


• Luke 10:15 And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? No, you will be thrown down to Hades!


• Luke 16:23 And in Hades, as he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far off with Lazarus at his side.


• Acts 2:27 because you will not leave my soul in Hades, nor permit your Holy One to experience decay.


• Acts 2:31 David by foreseeing this spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was neither abandoned to Hades, nor did his body experience decay.


• 1 Corinthians 15:55 “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”


• Revelation 1:18 and the one who lives! I was dead, but look, now I am alive – forever and ever – and I hold the keys of death and of Hades!


• Revelation 5:3 But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or look into it.


• Revelation 5:13 Then I heard every creature – in heaven, on earth, under the earth, in the sea, and all that is in them – singing: “To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb be praise, honor, glory, and ruling power forever and ever!”


• Revelation 6:8 So I looked and here came a pale green horse! The name of the one who rode it was Death, and Hades followed right behind. They were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill its population with the sword, famine, and disease, and by the wild


• Revelation 20:13 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and Death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each one was judged according to his deeds.


• Revelation 20:14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death – the lake of fire.

Tartarus:

Greek “casting them into Tartarus” or “holding them captive in Tartarus.” This verb, ταρταρόω (tartarow), occurs only here in the NT, but its meaning is clearly established in both Hellenistic and Jewish literature. “Tartarus [was] thought of by the Greeks as a subterranean place lower than Hades where divine punishment was meted out, and so regarded in Israelite apocalyptic as well”

Only one verse in the Bible references Tartarus:

• 2 Peter 2:4 For if God messengers who sinned did not spare, but with chains of thick gloom, having cast [them] down to Tartarus, did deliver [them] to judgment, having been reserved,

The NASB translation reads this way:

• 2 Peter 2:4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment;

Conclusions




The lake of fire is the permanent destruction for all of eternity. "Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire" tells us that there will be no more death and no need for graves after this point in time. Those people that are thrown into the lake of fire will no longer exist.

This concept is restated in the next chapter.

• Revelation 21:4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will not exist any more – or mourning, or crying, or pain, for the former things have ceased to exist.”

Does the Bible speak of eternal torment in a place where there is fire? Yes.

• Matthew 25:41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire that has been prepared for the devil and his angels!

Here we are told the "eternal fire" was not prepared for mankind. Rather, for angelic beings. That makes sense as angels do not die. Being eternal, what is to happen to the fallen angels that followed Satan? They will suffer in the eternal fire.

Revelation confirms the lake of fire will be used for its intended purpose.

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

Have the incorrect translations of the original biblical text contributed to the misconception of hell? Absolutely.


Let's look at some obvious examples.

In Genesis 37:35 Jacob is in mourning for his beloved son Joseph when he says,

• "Surely I will go down to Sheol in mourning for my son." So his father wept for him.

Both Jacob and his son Joseph were not ones that would be "damned to hell". Jacob later became the namesake of Israel. He would not believe his Joseph was in hell and that he would meet him there one day.

---

• Psalms 139:8 If I were to ascend to heaven, you would be there. If I were to sprawl out in Sheol, there you would be.

King David is not expecting for God to comfort him in hell. Rather, he is saying that God would be with him if he died and was in his grave.

---

• Job 17:13 "If I look for Sheol as my home, I make my bed in the darkness;

Job was saying death would relieve him of his suffering on earth. If he knew of a place created by God for eternal suffering, he would not want to even consider going there after what he had been through on earth. The grave would relieve him of his suffering and would allow him to lie in darkness.

---

• Psalms 88:3 For my life is filled with troubles and I am ready to enter Sheol.

David strikes a similar theme to Job during his period of woes. David would not be condemned to hell and if he believed he was, he would not be anxious to go there no matter how bad his life seemed at the time.

---

Is there a hell where people go for eternal punishment? No.


There are two other Bible studies that will help you understand what God has revealed through His word regarding death and eternal life. The research within Where Do Christians Go When They Die? looks at death, the soul and resurrection. I am currently working on a study of The 1000 Year Reign of Jesus Christ that includes scripture about the resurrections of the dead and eternity. (I will include a link here when that is finished.) In summary, I do not believe there is a place of hell where man-kind is sent for punishment. However, scripture does make it clear that those people that do not believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior will not go to heaven.

In summary, there are two resurrections of the dead. The first is of the believers in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. 1000 years later the unbelievers are brought back to life who are later judged by God. Scripture then describes that they are burned up. Devoured completely.

• Psalm 37:20 But evil men will die; the Lord’s enemies will be incinerated – they will go up in smoke.

• Obadiah 1:15 ...they will be as though they had never been.

They go up in smoke. As though they had never been. Peter describes this as the “destruction of the ungodly”. This is further described in scripture as "the second death."

Scripture (Rev 20:4-5) specifically states there are two resurrections. Not three. Nowhere does scripture say unbelievers are again resurrected after they are destroyed in the second death. Nor does it say unbelievers will be immortal with an eternal life. It actually says just the opposite.

• Malachi 3:18 Then once more you will see that I make a distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between the one who serves God and the one who does not.


• Malachi 4:1 “For indeed the day is coming, burning like a furnace, and all the arrogant evildoers will be chaff. The coming day will burn them up,” says the Lord who rules over all. “It will not leave even a root or branch.


• Ezekiel 18:4 For every living soul belongs to me, the father as well as the son—both alike belong to me. The soul who sins is the one who will die.

After the second death, the soul is dead. He leaves nothing after the fire. And this description is repeated over and over again through scripture.

• Revelation 20:14-15 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death – the lake of fire. If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, that person was thrown into the lake of fire.

• 2 Thessalonians 1:8-10 With flaming fire he will mete out punishment on those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will undergo the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his strength, when he comes to be glorified among his saints and admired on that day among all who have believed – and you did in fact believe our testimony.

This second death is an eternal punishment. But unlike Satan and the other heavenly beings that are thrown into the lake of fire, the ungodly will not remain alive, suffering for eternity.


I do not receive private messages through FaithWriters.com. Please post a public comment, or contact me through my blog.

Other Bible studies by Bob Roenigk may be found at bobroenigk.wordpress.com

---

PLEASE ENCOURAGE AUTHOR BELOW LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE