Erasing Hell: What God Said about Eternity, and the Things We Made Up

by Francis Chan

the first reference we have to the Hinnom Valley, or gehenna, as a town dump is made by a rabbi named David Kimhi in a commentary, which was written in AD 1200.

There’s no evidence in the piles and piles of Jewish and Christian writings preceding the time of Kimhi that the word gehenna was derived from the burning garbage in the Hinnom Valley.

even the first writer to connect gehenna with the garbage dump saw it as an analogy for the place where the wicked will be judged.

It was here, in fact, where they sacrificed their children to these gods (2 Kings 16:3; 21:6) making them “pass through the fire” (Ezek. 16:20–21 NASB).

“Behold, the days are coming … when it will no more be called … the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter” (Jer. 7:32). Jews living between the Testaments picked up on this metaphor and ran with it. The word gehenna was widely used by Jews during the time of Jesus to refer to the fiery place of judgment for the wicked in the end times, as we have seen.29

Because Jesus lived and taught in this setting, His unqualified references to gehenna would have been taken to mean the same thing, unless He specified that He had something else in mind—a question that we will explore in the next chapter.

Now, in passing, Bell does say “there is hell later” along with a hell now (p. 79). And when he wrestles with the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16), he mentions that the rich man is in “profound torment” (p. 77)—though he defines this torment as “living with the realities of not dying to” the unjust socioeconomic system in his previous life.

Jesus grew up in the world of beliefs described in the last chapter. He would be expected to believe the same stuff about hell that most Jews did. And if He didn’t—if Jesus rejected the widespread Jewish belief in hell—then He would certainly need to be clear about this.

Remember that Jesus certainly wasn’t afraid of going against some commonly held Jewish ideas, such as their view of divorce (Matt. 5:32; 19:9), forgiveness (Matt. 18:21–22), wealth (Luke 18—19), and laws about the Sabbath (Mark 3:1–6). So we can be sure that if Jesus didn’t challenge the Jewish view of hell, it wasn’t because He was afraid to.

The clearest example is Matthew 25:31–46, the longest and most detailed account of judgment day in the four gospels. Jesus begins by saying: “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.” (vv. 31–32)

But Jesus goes on to say that God’s courtroom will be much worse, for here the Judge has the power to sentence you to the “hell [gehenna] of fire” (Matt. 5:22). This is not a vague reference to hell and certainly not a reference to a garbage dump. The legal context of this statement ensures that Jesus is referring to the consequences of judgment day.

“You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell [gehenna]?” (Matt. 23:33)

“Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.” (v. 30)

“Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” (vv. 40–43)3

if Jesus and His early followers spoke boldly about hell, then shouldn’t we do the same?

Paul never in all of his thirteen letters used the word hell.

And yet, Paul referred to the fate of the wicked more than any other New Testament writer did. Though he never used the actual word hell, he did speak of “death” as the result of sin, whereby the wicked would “perish” or “be destroyed” by the “wrath” of God.

Paul described the fate of the wicked with words such as “perish, destroy, wrath, punish,” and others more than eighty times in his thirteen letters.1 To put this in perspective, Paul made reference to the fate of the wicked more times in his letters than he mentioned God’s forgiveness, mercy, or heaven combined.2

While much of our church culture believes that talk of wrath and judgment is toxic and unloving, Paul didn’t seem to have a problem with these things.

Paul believed that warning people of the wrath to come was actually loving. If my two-year-old son runs out into the street, is it unloving to warn him of the destruction coming in the form of a Chevy 4x4? Does anyone criticize the fireman for waking up a family to rescue them from a burning house? Does anyone blame a doctor for telling a person that he has cancer that must be treated if he is going to live?

First, the wrath of Jesus here is retributive and not corrective.

Second, in light of this last phrase, Paul doesn’t have a select group of people in view.

I didn’t think about writing; I didn’t try to figure out all the nitty-gritty details of the text. I just let the New Testament speak in its power and simplicity, and here are some of the shocking things that God hit me with.

“What if?” is a probing question that forces us to face our inflated view of our own logic. It’s another way of asking: Just how high is my view of God?

Notice that Paul does not explicitly say that God destroys sinners for the purpose of showing the world just how powerful He is. Rather, Paul simply raises it as a legitimate possibility.1 In other words, God may want to display His wrath and power by punishing sinners, or He may have some other purpose in mind. Either way, we must come to a place where we can let God be God.

In my arrogance, I believed I could make Him more attractive or palatable if I covered up some of His actions. So I neglected speaking on certain passages, or I would rush through certain statements God made in order to get to the ones I was comfortable with. The ones I knew others would like.

We serve a God whose ways are incomprehensible, whose thoughts are not like our thoughts. Ultimately, thoughts of God should lead to joy, because those same thoughts designed the cross—the place where righteousness and wrath kiss.

It’s incredibly arrogant to pick and choose which incomprehensible truths we embrace.

No one wants to ditch God’s plan of redemption, even though it doesn’t make sense to us. Neither should we erase God’s revealed plan of punishment because it doesn’t sit well with us. As soon as we do this, we are putting God’s actions in submission to our own reasoning, which is a ridiculous thing for clay to do.

It’s not about figuring out all of the mysteries of God, but embracing Him and cherishing Him—even when He doesn’t make perfect sense to us.

God wasn’t embarrassed to have Jeremiah write that; it’s time I stop being embarrassed by God’s actions.

A sense of urgency over the reality of hell should recharge our passion for the gospel as it did for Paul, who, “knowing the fear of the Lord,” persuaded people to believe (2 Cor. 5:11).

“Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness?” (2 Peter 3:11).

I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. (vv. 2–3)

But given the widespread use of fire as a metaphor in Scripture, I find it best to take these images nonliterally.

With such images, I find it best to view them all as powerful ways of conveying the inexplicable notions of punishment that will occur in hell. Fire and the gnashing of teeth depict intense pain and suffering; darkness conveys separation from God; worms that don’t die (see Isa. 66:24) probably emphasize the shame of eternal death, if not its never-ending duration.

The Bible suggests that there will be degrees of punishment in hell. Jesus said in Matthew 11:24, “It will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you”—the “you” being those who witnessed the works of Christ. In Luke 12, Jesus tells a parable about some disobedient slaves who receive punishment for their misdeeds. One slave is cut into pieces, another collects many lashes, while the last one gets a “light beating” (vv. 46–48). If this parable applies to punishment in hell, then it affirms that there will be degrees of suffering. Paul also suggests this when he says that unbelievers are “storing up

wrath” for themselves on judgment day (Rom. 2:5). Though Scripture is not crystal clear on the issue, there is support for the view that there will be degrees of punishment in hell.

there is nothing in the Bible that clearly locates hell at the center of the earth.