Heaven and Hell

The idea of going to heaven or hell to experience an ‘afterlife’ is somewhat ubiquitous among Bible believers, not only among those who pursue God but also colloquially. That belief is an unquestioned presupposition and it is often met with surprise that an ‘afterlife’ in heaven or hell is not taught in the Bible. In Scripture, heaven is a temple where the Father is enthroned and the popular concept of hell is not detailed. The written Word tells us that the dead will be resurrected in one of two resurrections:

Revelation 20:4-6

4 And I saw thrones – and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them – and the lives of those who had been beheaded because of the witness they bore to ישוע and because of the Word of Elohim, and who did not worship the beast, nor his image, and did not receive his mark upon their foreheads or upon their hands. And they lived and reigned with Messiah for a thousand years

5 (and the rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended) – this is the first resurrection.

6 Blessed and holy/set-apart is the one having part in the first resurrection. The second death possesses no authority over these, but they shall be priests of Elohim and of Messiah, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.

After the thousand years, there is another resurrection of those who were not raised in the first:

Revelation 20:11-15

11 And I saw a great white throne and Him who was sitting on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and no place was found for them.

12 And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before the throne, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged from what was written in the books, according to their works.

13 And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works.

14 And the death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

15 And if anyone was not found written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

Those who have part in the first resurrection are not subject to the second death, which is being cast into the lake of fire. Ultimately, one either lives in God’s kingdom on the earth or one suffers the second death in the lake of fire (see Appendix – Eternal Suffering or Destruction).

Outside of the conventional, widely-understood concept of heaven and hell as permanent abodes of the dead, there are three schools of mainstream Christian thought that seem to be prevalent. One view holds that the moment one dies, though one’s body remains on earth, one either goes to heaven or one goes to hell until the resurrection. Another view simply holds that the moment that one dies, one enters into a spiritual sleep until the resurrection. The third view holds that one’s spirit returns to YHVH, yet the spirit has no consciousness. Ideas of an intermediate state can be seen in the Catholic doctrine of purgatory. None of these views accommodate all of Scripture’s teaching, and they are all, regrettably, based on misunderstandings of various sorts which I will consider in turn.

The Bible describes the resurrections of the dead and the establishment of a kingdom on the earth, ruled by Yeshũa:

Revelation 21:1-4

1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the former heavens and the former earth had passed away, and the sea is no more.

2 And I, Yoḥanan, saw the holy/set-apart city, new Yerushalayim, coming down out of the heaven from Elohim, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

3 And I heard a loud voice from the heaven saying, “See, the Tabernacle of Elohim is with men, and He shall dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and Elohim Himself shall be with them and be their Elohim.

4 “And Elohim shall wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, nor mourning, nor crying. And there shall be no more pain, for the former matters have passed away.”

This is entirely dissimilar from the common notion of going to heaven’, which is even believed among those who would say that they believe the Bible. Images of St. Peter at the pearly gates are of course not scriptural but in God’s kingdom there will indeed be ‘pearly gates’:

Revelation 21:21

21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls – each one of the gates was a single pearl. And the street of the city was clean gold, like transparent glass.

The confusion of pagan myths about a heavenly afterlife with the Bible’s descriptions of gaining eternal life in an earthly kingdom can account for the homogenised heaven myth that is popularly understood. One should be careful to untangle the two. We should, similarly, be careful to understand where our conceptions of ‘hell’ came from. Hell is a name that is found in Norse paganism; their version of the underworld is called ‘Hel’, which means ‘hidden’. In Norse mythology, ‘Hel’ was originally just the underworld but later came to also refer to a being (originally thought to have been called Halja) who presides over a realm of the same name where she receives a portion of the dead. ‘Hel’ is referred to as a daughter of Loki, and to ‘go to Hel’ is to die. In the Prose Edda book Gylfaginning, ‘Hel’ is described as having been appointed by the god Odin as ruler of this realm located in Niflheim. In Norse mythology, ‘Hel’ rules over vast mansions with many servants in her underworld realm and plays a key role in the attempted resurrection of the god Baldr. We can see in this, shades of other myths, like Satan ruling in hell. This pagan mythology has been misappropriated and, again, blended with God’s Word. The written Word never details anything of the sort. Even those familiar with the Bible have been inculcated into this falsity by virtue of its pervasiveness.

As with any of God’s Word, it is wholly enriching to divest oneself of misconceptions and to embrace scriptural accuracy, supplanting fallaciousness with veracity. Detaching oneself from notions with which one may be accustomed allows for cognition of YHVH’s name. Such an approach is necessary if one wishes to come to a knowledge of what happens to one after one’s death. An appreciation of these realities is necessary to truly lay hold of YHVH’s perspective regarding justice, which is an important detail to reckon with. It is important to know whether YHVH punishes finite transgressions with an eternity of suffering in a realm which He specifically created to this end. Such information tells one much about God’s character.

There are four words that are commonly rendered as ‘hell’ in English. ‘Sheōl’ is one such word that is translated as either ‘the grave’ or ‘hell’, depending on the context:

Psalm 49:14

14 Like sheep they shall be laid in the grave (Sheōl); Death shall shepherd them; And the upright rule over them in the morning; And their form is consumed in hell (Sheōl), Far from their dwelling.

This is an example of when the translator’s doctrinal knowledge limits their translational scope. One must understand exactly what ‘Sheōl’ is (see Appendix – Sheōl) before one can understand what is being described here. If one wishes to refer to an actual grave, where one might be buried, one would use the word ‘qever’:

Numbers 19:16

16 Anyone in the open field who touches someone slain by a sword or who has died, or a bone of a man, or a grave (qever), is unclean for seven days.

1 Kings 13:31

31 And it came to be, after he had buried him, that he spoke to his sons, saying, “When I am dead, then you shall bury me in the grave (qever) where the man of Elohim is buried. Lay my bones beside his bones.

We see these two words used in conjunction with each other in the book of Ezekiel:

Ezekiel 32:26-27

26 “There are Mesheḵ and Tuḇal and all her crowd, with all their graves (qever) around it, all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword, because they instilled fear in the land of the living.

27 “And they shall not lie with the mighty who are fallen of the uncircumcised, who have gone down to hell (Sheōl) with their battle gear, and whose swords were laid under their heads. But their iniquities are on their bones because of the fear of the mighty in the land of the living.

One is buried in the ‘qever’ and is said to have ‘gone down to’ ‘Sheōl’. This is because one’s body is buried whilst one’s soul goes down to ‘Sheōl’ to await the resurrection. This truth has been lost to the man-made religion of Christianity, where it has been replaced by an amalgamation of pagan beliefs and misinterpretation.

The redemption of which we hope to be beneficiaries involves a ransom, salvation/deliverance or rescue afforded to us by Yeshũa’s blood, and Scripture reveals this to be a liberation from the power that death has over us:

Psalm 6:4

4 Return, O יהוה, rescue my soul! Oh, save/deliver me for Your kindness’ sake!

As those who anticipate resurrection, we are trusting in the One who raised Yeshũa from the dead to raise us in like manner:

1 Samuel 2:6

6 “יהוה puts to death and makes alive, He brings down to the grave (Sheōl) and raises up.”

This ‘raising up’ is the promised ‘salvation/deliverance’ of one’s soul. The word commonly translated as ‘salvation’ in the new covenant writings is ‘sotĕria’ and perhaps should be rendered more accurately as ‘deliverance’. This is how the ISR translates the word, and not only is it more accurate, it also distinguishes it from the doctrinal implications of the word ‘salvation’, which have become very misunderstood, having been interpreted from a presumed context, as if the concept is new and appears newly in the new covenant writings. Of course, to understand the ‘salvation/deliverance’ of one’s soul, one must learn of it from the teaching of the entirety of the Word:

Psalm 86:13

13 For Your kindness is great toward me, And You have saved/delivered my soul from the depths of hell (Sheōl).

The new covenant writings do not use the Hebrew word ‘Sheōl’, being written in Greek. When reference is made to the underworld, the Greek word ‘hades’ is used. ‘Hades’ is the Greek correlate to ‘Sheōl’ and we see this word used when the Hebrew Tanakh is quoted in the new covenant writings:

Acts 2:27

27 because You shall not leave my soul in hell (Hades), nor shall You give Your Holy/Set-apart One to see corruption.

Psalm 16:10

10 For You do not leave my soul in hell (Sheōl), Neither let Your Holy/Set-Apart One see corruption.

Matthew 16:18

18 “And I also say to you that you are Kĕpha, and on this rock I shall build My assembly, and the gates of hell (Hades) shall not overcome it.

Isaiah 38:10

10 I said in the middle of my days, “I must depart, I am consigned to the gates of hell (Sheōl) for the rest of my years?”

The doctrine of ‘salvation/deliverance’ from death is seen referred to with mention of Hades, whereas in the Tanakh it is ‘Sheōl’:

1 Corinthians 15:55

55 “O Death, where is your sting? O hell (Hades), where is your overcoming?”

Hosea 13:14

14 “From the power of hell (Sheōl) I ransom them, from death I redeem them. Where is your plague, O Death? Where is your destruction, O hell (Sheōl)? Repentance is hidden from My eyes.

The use of the English word ‘hell’ brings with it connotations of the popularly misconceived notion of a realm of suffering where the dead abide. Such connotations make ‘hell’ a, perhaps, unwise choice given how it is perceived, although ‘hell’ is the closest English approximation of ‘Sheōl’. ‘Hades’ is also not precisely equivalent to ‘Sheōl’, having its own mythology in Greek folklore, but it is again the closest word, there being no Greek conception of ‘Sheōl’. I prefer to just say ‘Sheōl’ for this reason.

Another word for which we have no English equivalent and which, consequently, is clumsily represented as ‘hell’ in English Bibles is Gehenna:

Matthew 5:29-30

29 “And if your right eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it away from you. For it is better for you that one of your members perish, than for your entire body to be thrown into hell (Gĕhenna).

30 “And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away from you. For it is better for you that one of your members perish, than for your entire body to be thrown into hell (Gĕhenna).

‘Gĕhenna’ is a reference to a place that was outside of the city of Jerusalem where the bodies of the dead were cast. It became a place where refuse was burnt and destroyed. Jeremiah speaks of this place:

Jeremiah 31:40

40 “And all the valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields as far as the wadi Qiḏron, to the corner of the Horse Gate toward the east, is to be holy/set-apart to יהוה. It shall not be plucked up or thrown down any more forever.”

The Septuagint uses ‘Gĕhenna’ where the Hebrew Tanakh refers to the Hebrew ‘gĕy ben hinom’

Joshua 18:16

16 And the border came down to the end of the mountain that faces the Valley of the Son of Hinnom (gĕy ben hinom), which is in the Valley of the Repha’im on the north, and went down to the Valley of Hinnom, to the side of the Yeḇusite city on the south, and went down to Ěn Roḡĕl.

Where ‘gay ben hinom’ is used in Hebrew the Greek word ‘Gĕhenna’ is used in the Greek translation:

Joshua 18:16 (Brenton’s LXX)

16  And the borders shall extend down on one side, this is in front of the forest of Sonnam, which is on the side of Emec Raphain northward, and it shall come down to Gaeenna behind Jebusai southward: it shall come down to the fountain of Rogel. 

This Greek word is derived from the Hebrew and is a reference to this specific place. It is certainly not a reference to what one might conceive of ‘hell’ to be. ‘Gĕhenna’ was also the place where children were killed being ‘made to pass through the fire’:

2 Chronicles 28:3

3 And he himself burned incense in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom (gĕy ben hinom), and burned his children in the fire, according to the abominations of the nations whom יהוה dispossessed from before the children of Yisra’ĕl,

2 Chronicles 33:6

6 And he made his sons pass through the fire in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom (gĕy ben hinom), and practised magic, and used divination and witchcraft, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the eyes of יהוה, to provoke Him.

Jeremiah 7:32

32 “Therefore see, the days are coming,” declares יהוה, “when it shall no longer be called Topheth, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom (gĕy ben hinom), but the Valley of Slaughter, for they shall bury in Topheth until no room is left.”

2 Kings 23:10

10 And he defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom (gĕy ben hinom), so that no man could make his son or his daughter pass through the fire to Moleḵ.

When Yeshũa uses this word, He is referring to a place of burning and destruction, i.e., the destruction of the soul in the lake of fire or the second death (see Appendix – Eternal Suffering or Destruction?):

Revelation 20:14

14 And the death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

Yeshũa explains as much and employs this term in this context, and the use of ‘hell’ obscures His meaning:

Matthew 10:28

28 “And do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell (Gĕhenna).

Luke 12:5

5 “But I shall show you whom you should fear: Fear the One who, after killing, possesses authority to cast into hell (Gĕhenna). Yes, I say to you, fear Him!

There is one more word, a Greek word that is used only once in Scripture, that is ‘tartaoo’. This is a verb which means ‘send to Tartaros’:

2 Peter 2:4

4 For if Elohim did not spare the angels who sinned, but sent them to hell (tartaroō), and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be kept for judgment,

At the time of writing, Wikipedia has the following entry for this place:

‘In Greek mythology, Tartarus (/ˈtɑːrtərəs/; Ancient Greek: Τάρταρος, Tártaros) is the deep abyss that is used as a dungeon of torment and suffering for the wicked and as the prison for the Titans. Tartarus is the place where, according to Plato’s Gorgias (c. 400 BC), souls are judged after death and where the wicked received divine punishment. Tartarus is also considered to be a primordial force or deity alongside entities such as the Earth, Night, and Time.’

Just as ‘Hades’ is a Greek concept with its own mythology which only approximates ‘Sheōl’, I would suggest that ‘Tartaros’ only approximates the reality of the place where God has delivered the angels who sinned, into chains of darkness. Wikipedia also says the following:

‘While according to Greek mythology the realm of Hades is the place of the dead, Tartarus also has a number of inhabitants. When Cronus came to power as the King of the Titans, he imprisoned the one-eyed Cyclopes and the hundred-armed Hecatonchires in Tartarus and set the monster Campe as its guard. Zeus killed Campe and released these imprisoned giants to aid in his conflict with the Titans. The gods of Olympus eventually triumphed. Cronus and many of the other Titans were banished to Tartarus, though Prometheus, Epimetheus, and female Titans such as Metis were spared. Other gods could be sentenced to Tartarus as well. Apollo is a prime example, although Zeus freed him. The Hecatonchires became guards of Tartarus’ prisoners. Later, when Zeus overcame the monster Typhon, he threw him into “wide Tartarus”’

While Greek mythology cannot furnish us with truth regarding the underlying realities referenced by ‘hades’ or ‘tartarus’, the themes of the divine judgement of heavenly beings may grant us a glimpse of them. It suffices for our purposes here to note that all uses of the word ‘hell’ are not references to the concept with which one may be familiar.

To understand from what one is ‘saved/delivered’, one must depart the realm of the mythological, and interrogate the Scriptures, which speak of the end of the wicked as ‘being destroyed in the pit’ (see Appendix – Eternal Suffering or Destruction?):

Psalm 28:1

1 I cry to You, O יהוה my Rock: Do not be deaf to me! For if You are silent to me, I shall be like those who go down to the pit.

The pit is spoken of as being situated with ‘Sheōl’ ‘at its sides’:

Isaiah 14:15

15 “But you are brought down to Sheol, to the sides of the pit.

Our redemption is a ‘salvation/deliverance’ from going down into it:

Psalm 30:3

3 יהוה, You brought me up from Sheol; You have kept me alive, from going down into the pit.

Psalm 1:10-12

10 My son, if sinners entice you, do not give in.

11 If they say, “Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood, Let us ambush the innocent without cause.

12 “Let us swallow them alive like Sheol, And entirely, like those going down to the pit.

When one dies, one’s soul is described as abiding in ‘Sheōl’ where one’s hope is that YHVH will spare it from the pit:

Psalm 143:7

7 Hasten, answer me, O יהוה; My spirit fails! Do not hide Your face from me, Lest I be like those going down into the pit.

Job speaks of the end of the wicked and of the hope of resurrection for those ‘saved/delivered’ from this fate:

Job 33:18-30

18 He keeps back his soul from the pit, and his life from passing away by the sword.

19 And he is reproved with pain on his bed, and with unceasing distress in his bones,

20 so that his life loathes bread, and his soul desirable food.

21 His flesh wastes away, and his bones which were not seen stick out.

22 And his soul draws near the pit, and his life to the destroyers.

23 If there is a messenger for him, a mediator, one among a thousand, to show man His straightness,

24 then He shows grace/favour to him, and says, ‘Release him from going down to the pit, I have found an atonement.

25 Let his flesh become fresher than a child’s, let him return to the days of his youth.’

26 He prays to Eloah, and He accepts him. And he sees His face with joy, and He restores to man his righteousness.

27 He sings to men and says, ‘I have sinned, and I have perverted what was right, and it did not profit me.

28 He has redeemed my soul from going down to the pit, and my life sees the light.’

29 See, Ěl does all these – twice, three times with a man,

30 to bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light of the living.

The use of the word ‘hell’ has caused many to miss this truth which is taught throughout Scripture:

Isaiah 24:21-22

21 And in that day it shall be that יהוה punishes on high the host of exalted ones, and on the earth the kings of the earth.

22 And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and be punished after many days.

Ezekiel 31:14-18

14 so that none of the trees by the waters would exalt themselves because of their height, nor set their tops among the thick foliage, and that no tree which drinks water would ever be high enough to reach up to them. ‘For all of them shall be given up to death, to the depths of the earth, among the children of men who go down to the pit.’

15 “Thus said the Master יהוה, ‘In the day when it is brought down to hell (Sheōl) I shall cause mourning. I shall cover the deep because of it and hold back its streams, and many waters shall be confined. And I shall make Leḇanon mourn for it, and all the trees of the field shall wither away because of it.

16 I shall make the nations shake at the sound of its fall, when I bring it down to hell (Sheōl) together with those who descend into the pit. And all the trees of Ěḏen, the choice and best of Leḇanon, all that drink water, shall be comforted in the depths of the earth.

17 They too shall go down to hell (Sheōl) with it, with those slain by the sword. And those who were its strength shall dwell in its shadows among the nations.

18 To whom are you to be compared in esteem and greatness among the trees in Ěḏen? But you shall be brought down with the trees of Ěḏen to the depths of the earth, lie in the midst of the uncircumcised, with those slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his crowd,’ declares the Master יהוה.”

This redemption, bought by the costly blood of Yeshũa, is written of in the Tanakh:

Psalm 49:6-15

6 Those who are trusting in their riches And who are boasting in their great wealth?

7 A brother does not redeem anyone at all, Neither give to Elohim a ransom for him;

8 For the redemption of their lives is costly, And it shall cease forever;

9 That he should still live forever, And not see the pit.

10 For he sees wise men die, The foolish and the ignorant both perish, And shall leave their wealth to others.

11 Their graves are their houses, forever; Their dwelling places, to all generations; They call their lands after their own names.

12 But man does not remain in glory, He is like the beasts that perish.

13 This way of theirs is folly to them, Yet their followers are pleased with their words. Selah.

14 Like sheep they shall be laid in the grave (Sheōl); Death shall shepherd them; And the upright rule over them in the morning; And their form is consumed in hell (Sheōl), Far from their dwelling.

15 But Elohim does redeem my being From the power of Sheol, For He does receive me. Selah.

Yeshũa, the Word made flesh, was without sin and as such death had no dominion over Him:

Hebrews 2:14

14 Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself similarly shared in the same, so that by means of His death He might destroy him having the power of death, that is, the devil,

His body was killed but He was resurrected, His soul not remaining in ‘Sheōl’ to see destruction:

Psalm 16:10

10 For You do not leave my soul in hell (Sheōl), Neither let Your Holy/Set-Apart One see corruption (shaḥath).

Psalm 55:23

23 For You, O Elohim, do bring them down to the pit of destruction (shaḥath); Men of blood and deceit do not reach half their days; But I, I trust in You.

‘Shaḥath’ or ‘destruction’ is the end of the soul who sins; the second death. Since all have sinned, all are headed for ‘destruction’, but through Yeshũa’s sinless life death has been overcome and his blood is a ransom to ‘save/deliver’ those believing on Him from the pit:

1 Peter 1:17-21

17 And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, pass the time of your sojourning in fear,

18 knowing that you were redeemed from your futile way of life inherited from your fathers, not with what is corruptible, silver or gold,

19 but with the precious blood of Messiah, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless,

20 foreknown, indeed, before the foundation of the world, but manifested in these last times for your sakes,

21 who through Him believe in Elohim who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith/belief and expectation are in Elohim.