A detail from Hieronymus Bosch's depiction of Hell (16th century)
In Christian theology, Hell is the place or state into which, by God's definitive judgment, unrepentantsinners pass in the general judgment, or, as some Christians believe, immediately after death (particular judgment).[1][2] Its character is inferred from teaching in the biblical texts, some of which, interpreted literally, have given rise to the popular idea of Hell.[1] Theologians today generally see Hell as the logical consequence of rejecting union with God and with God's justice and mercy.[1]
Different Hebrew and Greek words are translated as "Hell" in most English-language Bibles. These words include:
"Sheol" in the Hebrew Bible, and "Hades" in the New Testament. Many modern versions, such as the New International Version, translate Sheol as "grave" and simply transliterate "Hades". It is generally agreed that both sheol and hades do not typically refer to the place of eternal punishment, but to the grave, the temporary abode of the dead, the underworld.[3]
"Gehenna" in the New Testament, where it is described as a place where both soul and body could be destroyed (Matthew 10:28) in "unquenchable fire" (Mark 9:43). The word is translated as either "Hell" or "Hell fire" in many English versions.[4] Gehenna was a physical location outside the city walls of Jerusalem.
The Greek verb ταρταρῶ (tartarō, derived from Tartarus), which occurs once in the New Testament (in 2 Peter 2:4), is almost always translated by a phrase such as "thrown down to hell". A few translations render it as "Tartarus"; of this term, the Holman Christian Standard Bible states: "Tartarus is a Greek name for a subterranean place of divine punishment lower than Hades."[5]
In ancient Jewish belief, the dead were consigned to Sheol, a place to which all were sent indiscriminately (cf. Genesis 37:35; Numbers 16:30–33; Psalm 86:13; Ecclesiastes 9:10). Sheol was thought of as a place situated below the ground (cf. Ezek. 31:15), a place of darkness, silence and forgetfulness (cf. Job 10:21).[6] By the third to second century BC, the idea had grown to encompass separate divisions in sheol for the righteous and wicked (cf. the Book of Enoch).[7]
By at least the late or saboraic rabbinical period (500–640 AD), Gehinnom was viewed as the place of ultimate punishment, exemplified by the rabbinical statement "the best of physicians are destined to Gehinnom." (M. Kiddushin 4:14); also described in Assumption of Moses and 2 Esdras.[8]
New Testament
Three different New Testament words appear in most English translations as "Hell":
The New Testament also uses the Greek word hades, usually to refer to the abode of the dead (e.g., Acts 2:31; Revelation 20:13).[7] Only one passage describes hades as a place of torment, the parable of Lazarus and Dives (Luke 16:19–31). Jesus here depicts a wicked man suffering fiery torment in hades, which is contrasted with the bosom of Abraham, and explains that it is impossible to cross over from one to the other. Some scholars believe that this parable reflects the intertestamental Jewish view of hades (or sheol) as containing separate divisions for the wicked and righteous.[7]
Parables of Jesus concerning the hereafter
In the eschatological discourse of Matthew 25:31–46, Jesus says that, when the Son of Man comes in his glory, he will separate people from one another as a shepherd separates sheep from goats, and will consign to everlasting fire those who failed to aid "the least of his brothers". This separation is stark, with no explicit provision made for fine gradations of merit or guilt:[20]
Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me. ...whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.
Some Eastern Orthodox Christians believe that Heaven and Hell are relations to or experiences of God's just and loving presence.[21][22] There is no created place of divine absence, nor is hell an ontological separation from God.[23] One expression of the Eastern teaching is that hell and heaven are dimensions of God's intensifying presence, as this presence is experienced either as torment or as paradise depending on the spiritual state of a person dwelling with God.[21][24] For one who hates God and by extension hates himself as God's image-bearer, to be encompassed by the divine presence could only result in unspeakable anguish.[25][26][27] Aristotle Papanikolaou[28] and Elizabeth H. Prodromou[29] write in their book Thinking Through Faith: New Perspectives from Orthodox Christian Scholars that for the Eastern Orthodox: "Those theological symbols, heaven and hell, are not crudely understood as spatial destinations but rather refer to the experience of God's presence according to two different modes."[30] Several Eastern Orthodox theologians do describe hell as separation from God, in the sense of being out of fellowship or loving communion. Archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov) spoke of "the hell of separation from God".[31] Paul Evdokimov stated: "Hell is nothing else but separation of man from God, his autonomy excluding him from the place where God is present."[32] According to Theodore Stylianopoulos, "Hell is a spiritual state of separation from God and inability to experience the love of God, while being conscious of the ultimate deprivation of it as punishment."[33] Michel Quenot stated: "Hell is none other than the state of separation from God, a condition into which humanity was plunged for having preferred the creature to the Creator. It is the human creature, therefore, and not God, who engenders hell. Created free for the sake of love, man possesses the incredible power to reject this love, to say 'no' to God. By refusing communion with God, he becomes a predator, condemning himself to a spiritual death (hell) more dreadful than the physical death that derives from it."[34] Another writer declared: "The circumstances that rise before us, the problems we encounter, the relationships we form, the choices we make, all ultimately concern our eternal union with or separation from God."[35]
"A Monster from Hell". A 19th-century Russian hand-drawn lubok.
The Eastern Orthodox Church rejects what is presented as the Roman Catholic doctrine of purgatory as a place where believers suffer as their "venial sins" are purged before gaining admittance to heaven.[36]
Images
Icon in Saint Catherine's Monastery, Sinai, showing monks falling from the Ladder to Heaven into the mouth of a dragon, representing Hell
John Chrysostom pictured Hell as associated with "unquenchable" fire and "various kinds of torments and torrents of punishment".[37]
Icons based on The Ladder of Divine Ascent, by John Climacus, show monks ascending a thirty-rung ladder to Heaven represented by Christ, or succumbing to the arrows of demons and falling from the ladder into Hell, sometimes represented by an open-jawed dragon.[38]
The Council of Trent taught, in the 5th canon of its 14th session, that damnation is eternal: "...the loss of eternal blessedness, and the eternal damnation which he has incurred..."[39] This teaching is based on Jesus' parable of the sheep and the goats: "Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire...And these will go off to eternal punishment,..."[40]
As self-exclusion or final impenitence
The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines hell as self-exclusion from Heaven, a freely chosen consequence of final impenitence, i.e., deliberately and willingly refusing to repent of mortal sin at death and accept divine mercy:
To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God's merciful love means remaining separated from him for ever by our own free choice. This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called "hell."[41]
[Perfect] contrition remits venial sins; it also obtains forgiveness of mortal sins if it includes the firm resolution to have recourse to sacramental confession as soon as possible.[42][43]
The prisoners of hell are the impenitent, such as Satan; Satan's fall from Heaven is irrevocable because he chooses not to repent.[44] No one is predestined to commit sin[45] or to go to hell.[46] Catholic doctrine holds that after death, repentance is impossible.[47]
As a place or a state
State
The Baltimore Catechism defined Hell by using the word "state" alone: "Hell is a state to which the wicked are condemned, and in which they are deprived of the sight of God for all eternity, and are in dreadful torments." However, suffering is characterized as both mental and physical: "The damned will suffer in both mind and body, because both mind and body had a share in their sins."[48]
Pope John Paul II stated on 28 July 1999, that, in speaking of Hell as a place, the Bible uses "a symbolic language", which "must be correctly interpreted […]. Rather than a place, hell indicates the state of those who freely and definitively separate themselves from God, the source of all life and joy."[49] Some have interpreted these words as a denial that Hell can be considered to be a place, or at least as providing an alternative picture of Hell.[50] Others have explicitly disagreed with the interpretation of what the Pope said as an actual denial that Hell can be considered a place and have said that the Pope was only directing attention away from what is secondary to the real essence of hell.[51]
Catholic theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905–1988) said that "we must see that hell is not an object that is 'full' or 'empty' of human individuals, but a possibility that is not 'created' by God but in any case by the free individuals who choose it".[52]
The Catholic Faith Handbook for Youth, with imprimatur of 2007, also says that "more accurately" heaven and hell are not places but states.[53]
Capuchin theologian Berard A. Marthaler also says that "hell is not 'a place'".[54]
Place
Hell (on the right) is portrayed in Paradise and Hell, a 16th-century Hieronymus Bosch (or Bosch workshop) painting.
Traditionally in the past Hell has been spoken of or considered as a place.[55] Some have rejected metaphorical interpretations of the biblical descriptions of hell,[56] and have attributed to Hell a location within the earth,[57] while others who uphold the opinion that hell is a definite place, say instead that its location is unknown.[58]
In a homily given on 25 March 2007, Pope Benedict XVI stated: "Jesus came to tell us that he wants us all in heaven and that hell, of which so little is said in our time, exists and is eternal for those who close their hearts to his love."[59][60] Journalist Richard Owen's interpretation of this remark as declaring that hell is an actual place was reported in many media.[61]
Writing in the 1910 Catholic Encyclopedia, Joseph Hontheim said that "theologians generally accept the opinion that hell is really within the earth. The Catholic Church has decided nothing on this subject; hence we may say hell is a definite place; but where it is, we do not know." He cited the view of Augustine of Hippo that Hell is under the earth and that of Gregory the Great that hell is either on the earth or under it.[62]
The posthumous supplement to Aquinas' Summa theologiciaesuppl. Q97 A4 flags discussion of the location of hell as speculation: As Augustine says (De Civ. Dei xv, 16), "I am of opinion that no one knows in what part of the world hell is situated, unless the Spirit of God has revealed this to some one."
Both
Other Catholics neither affirm nor deny that Hell is a place, and speak of it as "a place or state". Ludwig Ott's work "The Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma" said: "Hell is a place or state of eternal punishment inhabited by those rejected by God".[63]Robert J. Fox wrote: "Hell is a place or state of eternal punishment inhabited by those rejected by God because such souls have rejected God's saving grace."[64] Evangelicals Norman L. Geisler and Ralph E. MacKenzie interpret official Roman Catholic teaching as: "Hell is a place or state of eternal punishment inhabited by those rejected by God."[65]
Nature of suffering
It is agreed that Hell is a place of suffering.[66][67][68]
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states:
Jesus often speaks of "Gehenna" of "the unquenchable fire" reserved for those who to the end of their lives refuse to believe and be converted, where both soul and body can be lost. Jesus solemnly proclaims that he "will send his angels, and they will gather. . . all evil doers, and throw them into the furnace of fire", and that he will pronounce the condemnation: "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire!" The teaching of the Church affirms the existence of hell and its eternity. Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into hell, where they suffer the punishments of hell, "eternal fire". The chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God, in whom alone man can possess the life and happiness for which he was created and for which he longs.[69]
Although the Catechism explicitly speaks of the punishments of hell in the plural, calling them "eternal fire", and speaks of eternal separation from God as the "chief" of those punishments, one commentator claims that it is non-committal on the existence of forms of punishment other than that of separation of God: after all, God, being above all a merciful and loving entity, takes no pleasure in the death of the living, and does not will or predestine anyone to go there (the Catholic stance is that God does not will suffering, and that the only entities known to be in hell beyond a doubt are Satan and his evil angels, and that the only suffering in hell is not fire or torture, but the freely-chosen, irrevocable and inescapable eternal separation from God and his freely given love, and the righteous, who are in heaven; thus the church and the popes have placed emphasis on the potential irreversibility of a mortally sinful life that goes un-absolved before one's death, and the dogma and reality of the place or state of hell).[70] Another interpretation is that the Catechism by no means denies other forms of suffering, but stresses that the pain of loss is central to the Catholic understanding of hell.[71]
Augustine of Hippo said that the suffering of hell is compounded because God continues to love the sinner who is not able to return the love.[72] According to the church, whatever is the nature of the sufferings, "they are not imposed by a vindictive judge"[72][73]
"Concerning the detailed specific nature of hell ... the Catholic Church has defined nothing. ... It is useless to speculate about its true nature, and more sensible to confess our ignorance in a question that evidently exceeds human understanding."[74]
In his book, Inventing Hell, Catholic writer and historian Jon M. Sweeney is critical of the ways that Christians have appropriated Dante's vision and images of hell. In its review, Publishers Weekly called the book "persuasively argued."[75] An article on the same subject by Sweeney that was published on the Huffington Post's religion page was liked by more than 19,000 people, including Anne Rice.[76]
Visions
A number of Catholic mystics and saints have claimed to have received visions of Hell or other revelations concerning Hell. During various Marian apparitions, such as those at Fatima or at Kibeho, the visionaries claimed that the Virgin Mary during the course of the visions showed them a view of Hell where sinners were suffering.[77]
Columba of Iona is alleged to have on several occasions even been able to name particular individuals who he said were going to end life in hellfire for their sins and accurately predicted the way they would die before the event had even happened.[80]
A story recorded by Cluniac monks in the Middle Ages claimed that Benedict of Nursia appeared to a monk on one occasion and told the monk that there had just been (at that point in time) a monk who had fled the monastic life to go back into the world, and the ex-monk then died and he went to hell.[81]
Call to responsibility
The Catholic Church teaches that no one is predestined to Hell, and that the church's teaching on Hell is not meant to frighten but is a call for people to use their freedom wisely. It is first and foremost a call to conversion, and to show that Humanity's true destiny lies with God in heaven.[82]
The Catholic Church, and the Catechism, repudiates the view commonly known as "double predestination" which claims that God not only chooses who will be saved, but that he also creates some people who will be doomed to damnation.[83] This view is often associated with the Protestant reformer John Calvin.[84]
In historic Protestant traditions, hell is the place created by God for the punishment of the devil and fallen angels (cf. Matthew 25:41), and those whose names are not written in the book of life (cf. Revelation 20:15). It is the final destiny of every person who does not receive salvation, where they will be punished for their sins. People will be consigned to hell after the last judgment.[85]
The nuances in the views of "hell" held by different Protestant denominations, both in relation to Hades (i.e., the abode of the dead) and Gehenna (i.e., the destination of the wicked), are largely a function of the varying Protestant views on the intermediate state between death and resurrection; and different views on the immortality of the soul or the alternative, the conditional immortality. For example, John Calvin, who believed in conscious existence after death,[86] had a very different concept of hell (Hades and Gehenna) to Martin Luther who held that death was sleep.[87]
"but the wicked, who know not God, and obey not the gospel of Jesus Christ, shall be cast into eternal torments, and punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power." (Chapter XXXIII, Of the Last Judgment)
While the saint goes from the judgment to enjoy eternal bliss, the impenitent sinner is turned away into everlasting condemnation, punishment and misery. As heaven is described in the Bible as a place of everlasting happiness, so hell is described as a place of endless torment, where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. Matt. 25:41, 46; Mark 9:44-48; Luke 13:3; John 8:21, 23 —Evangelical Methodist Church Discipline (¶25)[88]
This is known as the eternal conscious torment (ECT) view.[89] This view is the traditional position of Anabaptist (Mennonite, Hutterite, Bruderhof, Amish, Schwarzenau Brethren, River Brethren and Apostolic Christian churches), Anglican, Baptist, Charismatics, Lutheran, Methodist, Moravian, Pentecostals, Plymouth Brethren, Reformed (Congregationalist, Continental Reformed and Presbyterian churches), and Conservative Quaker denominations.[90][91][88][92]
Some recent writers such as Anglican layman C. S. Lewis[93] and J.P. Moreland[94] have cast hell in terms of "eternal separation" from God. Certain biblical texts have led some theologians[who?] to the conclusion that punishment in hell, though eternal and irrevocable, will be proportional to the deeds of each soul (e.g., Matthew 10:15, Luke 12:46–48).[95]
Another area of debate is the fate of the unevangelized (i.e., those who have never had an opportunity to hear the Christian gospel).
View of conditional immortality and annihilationism
A minority of Protestants believe in the doctrine of conditional immortality,[96] which teaches that those sent to hell will not experience eternal conscious punishment, but instead will be extinguished or annihilated after a period of "limited conscious punishment".[19]
The Seventh-day Adventist Church holds annihilationism. Seventh-day Adventists believe that death is a state of unconscious sleep until the resurrection. They base this belief on biblical texts such as Ecclesiastes 9:5 which states "the dead know nothing", and 1 Thessalonians 4:13 which contains a description of the dead being raised from the grave at the second coming. These verses, Adventists say, indicate that death is only a period or form of slumber.[98]
Christian Science defines "hell" as follows: "Mortal belief; error; lust; remorse; hatred; revenge; sin; sickness; death; suffering and self-destruction; self-imposed agony; effects of sin; that which 'worketh abomination or maketh a lie.' " (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures)
Christian Universalism teaches that an eternal Hell does not exist and is a later creation of the church with no biblical support. Reasoning by Christian Universalists includes that an eternal Hell is against the nature, character and attributes of a loving God, human nature, sin's nature of destruction rather than perpetual misery, the nature of holiness and happiness and the nature and object of punishment.[100]
Thomas Talbott, a prominent Trinitarian Universalist, illustrates this viewpoint by delineating three propositions which are biblically based, but which he asserts to be mutually exclusive:
God is omnipotent and exercises sovereign control over all aspects of human life and history.
God is omni-benevolent, is ontologically Love, and desires the salvation of all people.
Some (many) persons will experience everlasting, conscious torment in a place of (either literal or metaphorical) fire.[101]
Traditional theology clarifies omnipotence or omni-benevolence to resolve the contradiction. Calvinism resolves it by positing a doctrine of limited atonement, which claims that God's love is restricted. Only a select number of people are elected to be saved, which includes redemption and purification. This demonstrates a special love, and most people (the 'eternally reprobate' or non-elect) are given only common grace and tolerance. This bifurcation of grace intends to retain a doctrine of God's omnibenevolence and a doctrine of hell. In comparison, Arminianism resolves the contradiction by rejecting divine omnipotence with respect to human will. This is commonly referred to as synergism. It posits that human beings have an inviolable free will, which allows the choice of accepting or rejecting God's grace. Universalists disagree with the third claim, and argue that all people receive salvation. [102]
Many gnostic Christians, such as the Cathars, interpreted hell as a metaphor for this flawed, material world in which human souls have become entrapped. Later writers influenced by the gnostic worldview, such as Milton and Blake, interpreted it differently. In The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, William Blake is read by certain scholars as implying that hell is similar to heaven, or even preferable to it in terms of being a state in which creative impulses are allowed free rein outside the domination of society, which prefers the limitations of heaven.[103][104]
Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses do not believe in an immortal soul that survives after physical death. They believe the Bible presents "hell", as translated from "Sheol" and "Hades", to be the common grave for both the good and the bad. They reject the idea of a place of literal eternal pain or torment as being inconsistent with God's love and justice. They define "Gehenna" as eternal destruction or the "second death", which is reserved for those with no opportunity of a resurrection such as those who will be destroyed at Armageddon.[105] Jehovah's Witnesses believe that others who have died before Armageddon will be resurrected bodily on earth and then judged during the 1,000-year rule of Christ; the judgement will be based on their obedience to God's laws after their resurrection.[106]
The Christadelphian view is broadly similar to the Jehovah's Witness view, except for the fact that it teaches the belief that the resurrected will be judged for how they lived their lives before the resurrection.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) teaches that the word "hell" is used scripturally in at least two senses.[107] The first is a place commonly called Spirit Prison which is a state of punishment for those who reject Christ and his Atonement. This is understood to be a temporary state in which the spirits of deceased persons will be taught the gospel and have an opportunity to repent and accept ordinances of salvation.[108] Latter-day Saints teach that it was for this purpose that Christ visited the Spirit World after his crucifixion (1 Peter 3:19–20, 1 Peter 4:5–6). Modern-day revelation clarifies that while there, Christ began the work of salvation for the dead by commissioning spirits of the righteous to teach the gospel to those who didn't have the opportunity to receive it while on earth.[108]
Latter-day Saints also believe that righteous people will rise in a "first resurrection" and live with Christ on earth after his return.[109] After the 1000 years known as the Millennium, the individuals in spirit prison who chose not to accept the gospel and repent[110] will also be resurrected (1 Corinthians 15:20-22) and receive an immortal physical body, which is referred to as the "second resurrection".[111] At these appointed times of resurrection, "death and hell" will deliver up the dead that are in them to be judged according to their works (Revelations 20:13), at which point all but the sons of perdition will receive a degree of glory, which Paul compared to the glory of the sun, moon, and stars (1 Corinthians 15:41). The Church explains biblical descriptions of hell being "eternal" or "endless" punishment as being descriptive of their infliction by God rather than an unending temporal period. Latter-day Saint scripture quotes God as saying "I am endless, and the punishment which is given from my hand is endless punishment, for Endless is my name. Wherefore—Eternal punishment is God's punishment. Endless punishment is God's punishment."[112] Latter-day Saints also believe in a more permanent concept of hell, commonly referred to as outer darkness. It is said that very few people who have lived on the earth will be consigned to this hell, but Latter-day Saint scripture suggests that at least Cain will be present.[113] Other mortals who during their lifetime become sons of perdition, those who commit the unpardonable sin or sin "against the Holy Ghost", will be consigned to outer darkness.[109] Near the end of his life, in a discourse called the King Follett Sermon, Joseph Smith taught that, "After a man has sinned against the Holy Ghost, there is no repentance for him. He has got to say that the sun does not shine while he sees it; he has got to deny Jesus Christ when the heavens have been opened unto him, and to deny the plan of salvation with his eyes open to the truth of it; and from that time he begins to be an enemy."[114] In other words, the unpardonable sin is committed by those who "den[y] the Son after the Father has revealed him".[115] However, according to the Latter-day Saint understanding, since most humans lack such an extent of religious enlightenment, they cannot commit the Eternal sin,[116] and the vast majority of residents of outer darkness will be the "devil and his angels...the third part of the hosts of heaven" who in the premortal existence followed Lucifer and never received a mortal body.[117] The residents of outer darkness are the only children of God that will not receive one of three kingdoms of glory at the Last Judgment.
It is unclear whether those in outer darkness will ultimately be redeemed. Of outer darkness and the sons of perdition, Latter-day Saint scripture states that "the end thereof, neither the place thereof, nor their torment, no man knows; Neither was it revealed, neither is, neither will be revealed unto man, except to them who are made partakers thereof".[118] The scripture asserts that those who are consigned to this state will be aware of its duration and limitations.
Seventh-day Adventist Church
The Seventh-day Adventist Church believes that the concept of eternal suffering is incompatible with God's character and that he cannot torture His children.[119][120] They instead believe that Hell is not a place of eternal suffering, but of eternal death and that death is a state of unconscious sleep until the resurrection. They base this belief on biblical texts such as Ecclesiastes 9:5 which states "the dead know nothing", and 1 Thessalonians 4:13 which contains a description of the dead being raised from the grave at the second coming. These verses, it is argued, indicate that death is only a period or form of slumber.[98] Based on verses like Matthew 16:27 and Romans 6:23 they believe the unsaved do not go to any place of punishment as soon as they die, but are reserved in the grave until the day of judgment after the Second coming of Jesus to be judged, either for eternal life or eternal death. This interpretation is called annihilationism.
They also hold that Hell is not an eternal place and that the descriptions of it as "eternal" or "unquenchable" does not mean that the fire will never go out. They base this idea in other biblical cases such as the "eternal fire" (e.g. Jude 1:7) that was sent as punishment to the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, that later extinguished.[120]
In the King James Bible, the Old Testament term Sheol is translated as "Hell" 31 times,[122] and it is translated as "the grave" 31 times.[123]Sheol is also translated as "the pit" three times.[124]
Modern Bible translations typically render Sheol as "the grave", "the pit", or "death".
Abaddon
The Hebrew word abaddon, meaning "destruction", is sometimes interpreted as being a synonym for "Hell".[125]
Hades is the Greek word which is traditionally used in place of the Hebrew word Sheol in works such as the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. Like other first-century Jews who were literate in Greek, Christian writers of the New Testament employed this usage. While earlier translations most often translated Hades as "Hell", as does the King James Version, modern translations use the transliteration "Hades",[127] or render the word as allusions "to the grave",[128] "among the dead",[129] "place of the dead"[130] or they contain similar statements. In Latin, Hades were translated as Purgatorium (Purgatory) after about 1200 AD,[131] but no modern English translations render Hades as Purgatory.
Tartarus
Only appears in 2Peter 2:4 in the New Testament; both early and modern Bible translations usually translate Tartarus as "Hell", though a few render it as "Tartarus".
↑ The King James Version translates "ᾅδης" 9 times as "Hell" and once as "grave" (in 1Cor.15:55)
↑ The 2010 New International Version translates "ᾅδης" seven times as "Hades", and two times as "realm of the dead"; the 1984 NIV translates it four times as "Hades", twice as "depths", twice as "grave", and once as "hell".
↑ The Contemporary English Version translates "ᾅδης" twice as "Hell", once as "death", twice as "grave", once as "world of the dead", three times as "death's kingdom".
↑ The New Living Translation renders "ᾅδης" once as "place of the dead", twice as "the dead" and six times as "the grave".
1 2 3 New Dictionary of Biblical Theology; IVP Leicester 2000, "Hell"
↑ "hell." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 4 March 2013.
1 2 God himself is both heaven and hell, reward and punishment. All men have been created to see God unceasingly in his uncreated glory. Whether God will be for each man heaven or hell, reward or punishment, depends on man's response to God's love and on man's transformation from the state of selfish and self-centered love, to Godlike love which does not seek its own ends. "Empirical Theology Versus Speculative Theology" by John S. Romanides part 2
↑ Thus it is the Church's spiritual teaching that God does not punish man by some material fire or physical torment. God simply reveals Himself in the risen Lord Jesus in such a glorious way that no man can fail to behold His glory. It is the presence of God's splendid glory and love that is the scourge of those who reject its radiant power and light. ... those who find themselves in hell will be chastised by the scourge of love. How cruel and bitter this torment of love will be! For those who understand that they have sinned against love, undergo no greater suffering than those produced by the most fearful tortures. The sorrow which takes hold of the heart, which has sinned against love, is more piercing than any other pain. It is not right to say that the sinners in hell are deprived of the love of God ... But love acts in two ways, as suffering of the reproved, and as joy in the blessed! (St. Isaac of Syria, Mystic Treatises) The Orthodox Church of America websiteArchived 4 July 2007 at the Wayback Machine
↑ For those who love the Lord, his Presence will be infinite joy, paradise and eternal life. For those who hate the Lord, the same Presence will be infinite torture, hell and eternal death. The reality for both the saved and the damned will be exactly the same when Christ "comes in glory, and all angels with Him, " so that "God may be all in all." (I Corinthians 15-28) Those who have God as their "all" within this life will finally have divine fulfillment and life. For those whose "all" is themselves and this world, the "all" of God will be their torture, their punishment and their death. And theirs will be "weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matthew 8:21, et al.) The Son of Man will send His angels and they will gather out of His kingdom all causes of sin and all evil doers, and throw them into the furnace of fire; there men will weep and gnash their teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. (Matthew 13:41-43) According to the saints, the "fire" that will consume sinners at the coming of the Kingdom of God is the same "fire" that will shine with splendor in the saints. It is the "fire" of God's love; the "fire" of God himself who is love. "For our God is a consuming fire" (Hebrews 12:29) who "dwells in unapproachable light." (I Timothy 6:16) For those who love God and who love all creation in him, the "consuming fire" of God will be radiant bliss and unspeakable delight. For those who do not love God, and who do not love at all, this same "consuming fire" will be the cause of their "weeping" and their "gnashing of teeth." Thus it is the Catholic Church's spiritual teaching that God does not punish man by some material fire or physical torment. God simply reveals himself in the risen Lord Jesus in such a glorious way that no man can fail to behold his glory. It is the presence of God's splendid glory and love that is the scourge of those who reject its radiant power and light. ... those who find themselves in hell will be chastised by the scourge of love. How cruel and bitter this torment of love will be! For those who understand that they have sinned against love, undergo no greater suffering than those produced by the most fearful tortures. The sorrow which takes hold of the heart, which has sinned against love, is more piercing than any other pain. It is not right to say that the sinners in hell are deprived of the love of God ... But love acts in two ways, as suffering of the reproved, and as joy in the blessed! (St. Isaac of Syria, Mystic Treatises) The Orthodox Church of America website Archived 4 July 2007 at the Wayback Machine
↑ "Paradise and Hell exist not in the form of a threat and a punishment on the part of God but in the form of an illness and a cure. Those who are cured and those who are purified experience the illuminating energy of divine grace, while the uncured and ill experience the caustic energy of God." Archived 27 December 2011 at the Wayback Machine
↑ Man has a malfunctioning or non-functioning noetic faculty in the heart, and it is the task especially of the clergy to apply the cure of unceasing memory of God, otherwise called unceasing prayer or illumination. "Those who have selfless love and are friends of God see God in light—Divine light, while the selfish and impure see God the judge as fire—darkness". Archived 27 December 2011 at the Wayback Machine
↑ "Those who have selfless love and are friends of God see God in light—divine light, while the selfish and impure see God the judge as fire—darkness". Archived 27 December 2011 at the Wayback Machine
↑ Proper preparation for vision of God takes place in two stages: purification, and illumination of the noetic faculty. Without this, it is impossible for man's selfish love to be transformed into selfless love. This transformation takes place during the higher level of the stage of illumination called theoria, literally meaning vision-in this case vision by means of unceasing and uninterrupted memory of God. Those who remain selfish and self-centered with a hardened heart, closed to God's love, will not see the glory of God in this life. However, they will see God's glory eventually, but as an eternal and consuming fire and outer darkness. From FRANKS, ROMANS, FEUDALISM, AND DOCTRINE/Diagnosis and Therapy Father John S. Romanides Diagnosis and Therapy
↑ Regarding specific conditions of after-life existence and eschatology, Orthodox thinkers are generally reticent; yet two basic shared teachings can be singled out. First, they widely hold that immediately following a human being's physical death, his or her surviving spiritual dimension experiences a foretaste of either heaven or hell. (Those theological symbols, heaven and hell, are not crudely understood as spatial destinations but rather refer to the experience of God's presence according to two different modes.) Thinking Through Faith: New Perspectives from Orthodox Christian Scholars page 195 By Aristotle Papanikolaou, Elizabeth H. Prodromou
↑ Vatican News: Act of Contrition and Sacrament of Reconciliation Should we be in need of forgiveness of mortal sin, and cannot for some reason go to confession, a perfect Act of Contrition is needed along with the intention of going to confession as soon as possible.
↑ "Hell is traditionally considered a literal place of eternal torture, but the Pope has also described hell as the condition of pain that results from alienation from God, a thing of one's own doing, not an actual place.", Burke, Chauvin, & Miranti, Religious and spiritual issues in counseling, p. 236 (2003).
↑ "In the common sense of the word 'place', if you were to say 'Hell is not a place', you would be denying that Hell exists. Some thought that the Pope, in the statement quoted above, was denying that Hell is a place in this sense. He was, of course, doing nothing of the sort. Thus, to return to the Pope's words again, John Paul II must not be misinterpreted when he said 'Rather than [or more than] a place, hell indicates [a] state….' He certainly was not denying that it is a place, but instead was shifting our focus to the real essence of hell—what the term 'hell' truly indicates—the self-chosen separation from God. The 'place' or 'location' of hell is secondary, and considerations of where it is should not deflect us from our most important concerns: what it is, and how to avoid it" (https://web.archive.org/web/20110928085437/http://www.cuf.org/faithfacts/details_view.asp?ffID=69%29.
↑ "No cogent reason has been advanced for accepting a metaphorical interpretation in preference to the most natural meaning of the words of Scripture" (Hontheim in Catholic Encyclopedia 1910).
↑ "Theologians generally accept the opinion that hell is really within the earth" (Hontheim 1910)
↑ "It is certain from Scripture and tradition that the torments of hell are inflicted in a definite place. But it is uncertain where the place is" Addis & Arnold (eds), A Catholic Dictionary Containing Some Account of the Doctrine, Discipline, Rites, Ceremonies, Councils, and Religious Orders of the Catholic Church: Part One, p. 404 (1903).
↑ Geisler & MacKenzie, "Roman Catholics and Evangelicals: agreements and differences", p. 143 (1995).
↑ "The Green Catechism" (1939–62) said: Hell is a place of torments. God made hell to punish the devils or bad angels, and all who die in mortal sin. No one can come out of Hell, for out of Hell there is no redemption" (Crawford & Rossiter, "Reasons for Living: Education and Young People's Search for Meaning" (2006). p. 192).
↑ "Hell is the place and state of eternal punishment for the fallen angels and human beings who die deliberately estranged from the love of God" (work by Fr. Kenneth Baker published by Ignatius Press ).
↑ "What do we mean by "hell"? Hell is the place and state of eternal punishment for the fallen angels and human beings who die deliberately estranged from the love of God. The existence of hell, as the everlasting abode of the devils and those human beings who have died in the state of mortal sin, is a defined dogma of the Catholic Church" (Baker, "Fundamentals of Catholicism" (1983), volume 3, p. 371).
↑ "The recent Catechism is ambiguous, neither denying nor confirming the existence of physical torments" – Charles Steven Seymour, "A Theodicy of Hell', p. 82 (2000).
↑ "Hell is the natural consequence of a life lived apart from God. The terrible suffering of hell consists in the realization that, over the course of a lifetime, one has come, not to love, but to hate one's true good, and thus to be radically unfit to enjoy that Good. It is this pain of loss that is central to the Catholic understanding of hell. Imagine the predicament of one who both knows that God is the great love of his life, and that he has turned irreversably away from this love. This is what hell is" (J. A. DiNoia, Gabriel O'Donnell, Romanus Cessario, Peter J. Cameron (editors), The Love That Never Ends: A Key to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, p. 45).
↑ James, Frank A. III (1998). Peter Martyr Vermigli and Predestination: The Augustinian Inheritance of an Italian Reformer. Oxford: Clarendon. pp.30, 69.
↑ Bruce Milne (1998). Know the Truth, 2nd ed. IVP. p.335.
↑ Luecke, George (1920). The Distinctive Characteristics of the Lutheran Church: With Special Reference to the Luthern Church of America. Concordia Publishing House. p.39.
↑ Schweinitz, Edmund De (1859). The Moravian Manual: Containing an Account of the Protestant Church of the Moravian United Brethren, Or Unitas Fratrum. Lindsay & Blakiston. p.118.
↑ Hart, David Bentley (2019). That all shall be saved: heaven, hell, and universal salvation. New Haven [Connecticut]. ISBN978-0-300-24622-3. OCLC1089571251.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
↑ Smith, Joseph; President, Jr First; Saints, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day. "The King Follett Sermon". churchofjesuschrist.org. Retrieved 24 November 2021.
↑ "The word Hell is not translated with clearness sufficient to represent the various meanings of the word in the original language. There are three words from which "Hell" is derived: Sheol, "the unseen state"; Hades, "the unseen world"; and Gehenna, "Valley of Hinnom." These are used in various relations, nearly all of them allegorical. In a sermon Archdeacon Farrar said: "There would be the proper teaching about Hell if we calmly and deliberately erased from our English Bibles the three words, 'damnation, ' 'Hell, ' and 'everlasting. ' I say—unhesitatingly I say, claiming the fullest right to speak with the authority of knowledge—that not one of those words ought to stand any longer in our English Bible, for, in our present acceptation of them, they are simply mistranslations." This corroborates the metaphysical interpretation of Scripture, and sustains the truth that Hell is a figure of speech that represents a corrective state of mind. When error has reached its limit, the retroactive law asserts itself, and judgment, being part of that law, brings the penalty upon the transgressor. This penalty is not punishment, but discipline, and if the transgressor is truly repentant and obedient, he is forgiven in Truth. —Charles Fillmore, Christian Healing, Lesson 11, item eleven."
↑ Deut. 32:22, Deut. 32:36a & 39, II Sam. 22:6, Job 11:8, Job 26:6, Psalm 9:17, Psalm 16:10, Psalm 18:5, Psalm 55:15, Psalm 86:13, Ps. 116:3, Psalm 139:8, Prov. 5:5, Prov. 7:27, Prov. 9:18, Prov. 15:11, Prov. 15:24, Prov. 23:14, Prov. 27:20, Isa. 5:14, Isa. 14:9, Isa. 14:15, Isa. 28:15, Isa. 28:18, Isa. 57:9, Ezek. 31:16, Ezek. 31:17, Ezek. 32:21, Ezk. 32:27, Amos 9:2, Jonah 2:2, Hab. 2:5
↑ Gen. 37:35, Gen. 42:38, Gen. 44:29, Gen. 44:31, I Sam. 2:6, I Kings 2:6, I Kings 2:9, Job 7:9, Job 14:13, Job 17:13, Job 21:13, Job 24:19, Psalm 6:5, Psalm 30:3, Psalm 31:17, Psalm 49:14, Psalm 49:14, Psalm 49:15, Psalm 88:3, Psalm 89:48, Prov. 1:12, Prov. 30:16, Ecc. 9:10, Song 8:6, Isa. 14:11, Isa. 38:10, Isa. 38:18, Ezek. 31:15, Hosea 13:14, Hosea 13:14, Psalm 141:7
The afterlife or life after death is a purported existence in which the essential part of an individual's stream of consciousness or identity continues to exist after the death of their physical body. The surviving essential aspect varies between belief systems; it may be some partial element, or the entire soul or spirit, which carries with it one's personal identity.
In Catholic theology, Limbo is the afterlife condition of those who die in original sin without being assigned to the Hell of the Damned. However, it has become the general term to refer to nothing between time and space in general. Medieval theologians of Western Europe described the underworld as divided into three distinct parts: Hell of the Damned, Limbo of the Fathers or Patriarchs, and Limbo of the Infants. The Limbo of the Fathers is an official doctrine of the Catholic Church, but the Limbo of the Infants is not. The concept of Limbo comes from the idea that, in the case of Limbo of the Fathers, good people were not able to achieve heaven just because they were born before the birth of Jesus Christ. This is also true for Limbo of the Infants in that simply because a child died before baptism, does not mean they deserve punishment, though they cannot achieve salvation.
Damnation is the concept of divine punishment and torment in an afterlife for sins that were committed, or in some cases, good actions not done on Earth.
The Last Judgment is a concept found across the Abrahamic religions and the Frashokereti of Zoroastrianism.
In Christian theology, the Harrowing of Hell is the period of time between the Crucifixion of Jesus and his resurrection. In triumphant descent, Christ brought salvation to the souls held captive there since the beginning of the world.
The problem of Hell is an ethical problem in the Abrahamic religions of Christianity and Islam, in which the existence of Hell or Jahannam for the punishment of souls in the afterlife is regarded as inconsistent with the notion of a just, moral, and omnipotent, omnibenevolent, omniscient supreme being. Also regarded as inconsistent with such a just being is the combination of human free will, and the divine qualities of omniscience and omnipotence, as this would mean God would determine everything that has happened and will happen in the universe—including sinful human behavior.
In Christian hamartiology, eternal sin, the unforgivable sin, unpardonable sin, or ultimate sin is the sin which will not be forgiven by God. One eternal or unforgivable sin, also known as the sin unto death, is specified in several passages of the Synoptic Gospels, including Mark 3:28–29, Matthew 12:31–32, and Luke 12:10, as well as other New Testament passages including Hebrews 6:4–6, Hebrews 10:26–31, and 1 John 5:16.
Trinitarian universalism is a variant of belief in universal salvation, the belief that every person will be saved, that also held the Christian belief in Trinitarianism. It was particularly associated with an ex-Methodist New England minister, John Murray, and after his death in 1815 the only clergy known to be preaching Trinitarian Universalism were Paul Dean of Boston and Edward Mitchell in New York.
In religion and folklore, hell is a location or state in the afterlife in which souls are subjected to punitive suffering, most often through torture, as punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as eternal destinations, the biggest examples of which are Christianity and Islam, whereas religions with reincarnation usually depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations, as is the case in the Indian religions. Religions typically locate hell in another dimension or under Earth's surface. Other afterlife destinations include heaven, paradise, purgatory, limbo, and the underworld.
Particular judgment, according to Christian eschatology, is the divine judgment that a departed (dead) person undergoes immediately after death, in contradistinction to the general judgment of all people at the end of the world.
Hades, according to various Christian denominations, is "the place or state of departed spirits", borrowing the name of Hades, the name of the underworld in Greek mythology. It is often associated with the Jewish concept of Sheol. In Christian theology, Hades is seen as an intermediate state between Heaven and Hell in which the dead enter and will remain until the Last Judgment.
In some forms of Christianity, the intermediate state or interim state is a person's existence between death and the universal resurrection. In addition, there are beliefs in a particular judgment right after death and a general judgment or last judgment after the resurrection. It bears resemblance to the Barzakh in Islam.
The lake of fire is a concept that appears in both the ancient Egyptian and Christian religions. In ancient Egypt, it appears as an obstacle on the journey through the underworld which can destroy or refresh the deceased. In Christianity, it is as a place of after-death punishment of the wicked. The phrase is used in five verses of the Book of Revelation. In the biblical context, the concept seems analogous to the Jewish Gehenna, or the more common concept of Hell. The image of the lake of fire was taken up by the early Christian Hippolytus of Rome in about the year 230 and has continued to be used by modern Christians.
The Valley of Hinnom, Gehinnom or Gehenna, also known as Wadi el-Rababa, is a historic valley surrounding Jerusalem from the west and southwest that has acquired various theological connotations, including as a place of divine punishment, in Jewish eschatology.
In Christianity, annihilationism is the belief that after the Last Judgment, all damned humans and fallen angels including Satan will be totally destroyed and their consciousness extinguished rather than suffering forever in Hell. Annihilationism stands in contrast to both the belief in eternal torment and to the universalist belief that everyone will be saved. However, it is also possible to hold to a partial annihilationism, believing unsaved humans to be obliterated, but demonic beings to suffer forever.
Purgatory is a passing intermediate state after physical death for purifying or purging a soul. A common analogy is dross being removed from gold in a furnace.
Christian theology is the theology – the systematic study of the divine and religion – of Christian belief and practice. It concentrates primarily upon the texts of the Old Testament and of the New Testament, as well as on Christian tradition. Christian theologians use biblical exegesis, rational analysis and argument. Theologians may undertake the study of Christian theology for a variety of reasons, such as in order to:
Judgement in an afterlife, in which one's deeds and characteristics in life determine either punishment or reward, is a central theme of many religions. Almost all religions are greatly devoted to the afterlife, emphasizing that what you do in your current life affects what happens to you after death.
In Christianity, heaven is traditionally the location of the throne of God and the angels of God, and in most forms of Christianity it is the abode of the righteous dead in the afterlife. In some Christian denominations it is understood as a temporary stage before the resurrection of the dead and the saints' return to the New Earth.
Hell in Catholicism is the "state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed" which occurs by the refusal to repent of mortal sin before one's death, since mortal sin deprives one of sanctifying grace.
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