Hell



Hell is generally considered a place where sinners who are not saved by faith in Christ are burned, tormented, tortured, and harmed by fire for eternity. It is also considered as a place ruled by Satan, or the absence of God. However, some sects of Christianity, such as Jehovah's Witness, believe that Hell is simply a place where unrighteous people go to be unconscious forever, i.e. die.

The English word corresponds to the Biblical concept of Gehenna, although Sheol (the world of the dead) is sometimes described as a region of Hell in certain contexts.

The Christian idea of Hell is arguably different from the Sheol of Judaism, though it is generally acknowladged as being the same as the place created by God to punish Satan. (Insert the quote from I think Samuel or a prophet that talks about that.) The nature of Hell is described in the New Testament on several occasions. In the following chapters and verses, Hell is mentioned (see also the issues with the word "Hell" rendered in the original languages)


 * Book of Matthew,  {{B_Cite|book=Matthew|chap=22|verse=13 and {{B_Cite|book=Matthew|chap=33}}{{B_Cite|book=Matthew|chap=25|verse=30}} and {{B_Cite|book=Matthew|chap=41|verse=1}}41-46,


 * Gospel of Luke {{B_Cite|book=Luke|chap=3|verse=9}},{{B_Cite|book=Luke|chap=12|verse=5}},{{B_Cite|book=Luke|chap=13|verse=28}}, {{B_Cite|book=Luke|chap=16|verse=19-28}}


 * and the Book of Revelation 12:9, 14:9-11, 19:20, 20:10 and 14-15, 21:8; in the Book of Revelation Hell is also mentioned as the "abyss" and "the Earth".

Issues with the word "Hell"
When Bible was translated into English, serveral words are rendered as "Hell".

Jeff Priddy, writing in The Idle Babbler Illustrated (Volume 4, Issue 2), expresses the problem:

"The religious and secular man's nightmarish ideas of HELL (that is, of a Christ-managed hothouse where sinners get burned forever) come to them compliments of ... careless translating ... the practice of ignoring separate Greek words. In 2 Pet. 2:4, God chose the Greek word 'Tartaros' (&#964;&#945;&#961;&#964;&#945;&#961;&#959;&#969;; English transliteration, 'Tartarus') to identify the temporary abode of sinning angels. Tartarus holds spirit beings, not humans, and there is not a flame on the premises. The KJV and NIV translators (neither of whose versions have any influence in the expression of Eastern Orthodox doctrine) gave this specific Greek word the English equivalent, 'hell'. In Matthew 5:22 (and in several other places), God chose a different Greek word, 'Geenna,' (English transliteration: 'Gehenna') to name a valley on the southwest corner of Jerusalem where the corpses of criminals will be disposed of during the thousand-year kingdom. There are flames here, yes, but the flames cremate the dead (Is. 66:24), they don't torture the living. Most of humanity is not even alive to see Gehenna (Rev. 20:5), let alone be tormented there. The KJV and NIV translators gave this specific Greek word the English equivalent, 'hell'. In Luke 16:23 (and in other places), God chose the Greek word, 'hades', to describe the state of invisibility; in Greek, the word means 'unseen'. God uses this word often to describe a person's nonexistence in death: unless spoken of figuratively, a dead person doesn't see anything, hear anything, feel anything, know anything, do anything: hades. Flames, screams, pointy tails and pitchforks are conspicuously absent. All the dead 'go' here, not just the wicked. The KJV and NIV translators gave this specific Greek word the English equivalent, 'hell'."

Priddy goes on to point out that if a (Western) Christian says that someone is in "Hell", that "is a terrible lack of information", because many versions of the Bible indiscriminately use the word "Hell" to describe three different places. If you press the point, and the Christian says that person is in Gehenna, then you could take a plane to Jerusalem and look for the person there. If the claim is that the person is in Tartarus, you can point out that they were never a stubborn, sinning angel who surrendered their sovereignty during the days of Noah (1 Pet. 3:19-20. 2 Pet. 2:4, Jude 6). And if in Hades, you could rejoice that, like Christ (Acts 2:3 l), David (Ps. 16: 10), and Jacob (Gn. 37:35) before him, the person has ceased from their troubles and sufferings (Jb. 3:11-19), and now rests, as if asleep (Jn. 11:11,14). However, given the perfectly natural evolution of concepts over a long period of time, examples such as Sheol, provide us with a good example of how ideas can begin with a simple meaning - "the grave" - and morph into a far larger concept - a place of eternal torment.

Roman Catholic view on Hell
Dante Alighieri, in The Divine Comedy described seven circles of Hell, each with its own category of sinner. Dante's portrayal of Hell, and the afterlife in general, reflect Medieval Catholic beliefs.

Protestant view on Hell
Protestantism generally rejects views on Hell that imply that Hell is an unclear doctrine based on differing translations of Hebrew or Greek words. (Sheol, Tartarus, Hades, etc.) It is generally opposed to the teacings of Universalism, and generally views Hell as a permanent institution of punishment for all those who die and are not born again, due to man's inherintly sinful nature and God's infinitly just nature. Without faith in Jesus to save one from the consequences of Sin, most Protestants feel that God must send a sinner to Hell because He is infinitly just and cannot abide by sin. (There's a ton of Bible verses that can be put here for citations)

Other sects' views on Hell
Mormons:

Jehovah's Witnesses:

Jehovah's Witnesses believe that Hell is a place where the unrighteous people go. It is simply where they "rest", or die. They cannot taste, smell or sense anything, and they cannot harm anyone.

Universalism

Universalists believe in the doctrine of apocatastasis, in which Hell is merely a place where some people go to be punished for only a little while before every single person in the world goes to heaven, similar to the catholic idea of purgatory, except everybody eventually goes to heaven. Many universalists bring up objections to Hell based on arguments around the word "Sheol" and "Ghenna", and often object to words like "eternal" which Jesus used to describe Hell. This often brings up problems, since the very same word for "eternal" is often used to describe God, and there is no context which supports a temporary Hell in the Bible. Apocatastasis was formally pronounced anathema by the Synod of Constantinople in 543 AD.