The Bible Truth about Hell

7 You’ve heard sermons at church, you’ve watched TV programs, maybe you’ve even read entire books about hell. But the Bible says, “To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isaiah 8:20). “This word” is the Word of God—the Bible, the most reliable document ever handed down through the centuries. If you want “light,” if you want the truth, then the Bible is your best source. Don’t take the preacher’s word just because he should know better. Don’t believe the movies just because they are popular. The Word of God is there for you to understand, for you to “[search] … to find out whether these things [are] so” (Acts 17:11). So, what does the Bible really say? What Is Hell? First, it’s important to clear up some widespread confusion about the use of the word “hell” in English translations of the Bible. Of course, the Scriptures were not originally written in English. They were written in the languages of their authors: The Old Testament was written mostly in Hebrew, the New Testament mostly in Greek. The word “hell” is most often used as a translation for the Hebrew word sheol and for the Greek word hades . Interestingly enough, however, these two terms, sheol and hades , weren’t always translated as “hell.”They were also often translated as “the grave.” Take, for instance, these two verses: • Genesis 37:35 says, “I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning” (KJV, emphasis added). • Proverbs 5:5 states, “Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell ” (KJV, emphasis added). The first is translated as “the grave,” the other as “hell”—yet both of these words are translations of the same Hebrew word sheol . What’s going on here? Looking up the original definitions of the two terms sheol and hades in a Bible concordance, you will discover that they both have the same meaning: the “grave” or “the place of the dead.” There is no mention whatsoever of a place of burning, of screams of agony and torturous pain. In fact, the Bible gives us even more of a description of sheol : “There is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave” (Ecclesiastes 9:10); there’s no feeling (v. 6); there’s nothing to see (Job 17:13). There is likewise no distinction that this “place of the dead” is reserved for the wicked alone. Everyone dies; everyone, saint or sinner, goes into the grave: What man can live and not see death? Can he deliver his life from the power of the grave? (Psalm 89:48). So, is that all that “hell”means? Is it just the grave, the place where we go when we die? Well, not quite. Let’s keep looking ...