Faithbase

Hello and welcome back to thinking about the Bible and today we're going to be thinking about and talking about a word that kind of like sin we don't really want to talk about and that is the word hell and I'll say right up front that the older I get the less I like and I'll explain what I mean by this but the less I like the doctrine of hell and eternal punishment I did it's very troubling however it's in the scripture I accept it's what the Bible says it's just that I know I have friends who I've shared the gospel with who have not received Christ as Savior and the thought of them spending eternity in hell is deeply troubling to me in the Bible there's a number of words that in some translations they're all translated as hell Sheol Hades Jehennah in the New Testament Jehennah is that's that's the term that's translated as hell and it's this place of future punishment Jehennah of fire Jesus talks about it and throughout the New Testament there's no question that hell is a place of punishment for those who reject Jesus Christ those who turn their back on God now let me back up a little bit in the Old Testament there's a the term Sheol it's the underworld it's grave or the pit and it it was a place of an abode for righteous and unrighteous alike who died and it was not a lot said about Sheol other than it's a place where there's no praise of God the wicked sent there for punishment the righteous are there but they're not abandoned there and it can be called a place of exile that'd be more of a figurative thing that someone's sent to Sheol now in the New Testament the Old Testament scriptures that use the term Sheol in most translations that's translated as Hades and Hades is not hell it is actually Sheol there's some place previous to hell in fact the Revelation says death and Hades are tossed into the lake of fire and so this Hades was a temporary situation apparently and the name Hades comes from the Greek God of the lower regions and we all we know as Pluto but hell is this place of burning a place of separation from God a place of complete isolation it seems and it's not it's not there's nothing pleasant about it some people make jokes and say well all my friends will be there and and you won't be able to fellowship with them there's nothing nothing in the scripture that says it hell is a place of any pleasure whatsoever and I should also mention that the parable that Jesus tells about the rich man and Lazarus and how they communicate but that's in Hades that's not hell and that's a whole that's a teaching and maybe I should provide a longer format or something to talk about but Hades and hell aren't the same thing and until the completed work of Jesus Christ Hades continued to be the place of the dead but again according to the book of Revelation Hades and death have been thrown into the lake of fire so hell is not what anyone would ever want to be part of it is the place of punishment for those who reject Jesus Christ as Savior and it is something that we should do everything that we can to keep our friends and relatives from ever experiencing that and do so by preaching to them speaking to them the gospel of Jesus Christ