by Daniel H. King, Sr.
Synopsis: Heaven and hell are the ultimate spiritual realities, representing the reward promised to those who are faithful, and the punishment allotted to unrepentant sinners. Down through history, men have departed from the biblical depiction of both realms, exalting human speculation in the place of divine revelation.
The language of the New Testament is straightforward in its revelation of those truths regarding God's intention to reward his faithful saints and punish the wicked. The descriptive terminology has elicited considerable interest and some intensity of discussion since the NT documents were completed. However, it cannot be argued that there is much uncertainty or lack of clarity regarding what has been promised or warned about in that body of documents. From the beginning, the notion of eternal punishment has been the topic which has excited the most angst for the minds of certain readers and Bible students and has therefore evoked the most creative responses. In other words, eternal heaven has rarely ever been viewed as a major obstacle except with outright atheists. Rather, it is the notion that God might punish unbelievers and sinners eternally in a place of fire and torment. This has even given some who call themselves "Christians" pause for reflection and has led some to reject the idea altogether.
However, since Jesus Himself is the one who speaks most often and most frankly about the horrors of hell in the NT, it has proven difficult for detractors to criticize the doctrine while at the same time holding to Jesus as Lord and Savior. Of course, for modern theological liberals that does not offer a considerable challenge, since they view the Christ whom they hold out to the world to be a mere man. In their way of thinking Jesus was a great man, but nothing more than this. He was not God or even the Son of God in the way that the Bible sets him forth. So, anything that He said or taught is thought by them to be no more holy or true than that which any other mere mortal human being would be capable of saying. Thus, His words are susceptible, like yours or mine, to correction or refinement as the need may arise, or as the philosophical demands of the moment may call. We shall return to theological liberalism momentarily, but for now, let us discuss the earlier history of departures from the biblical depiction of "orthodox" divine reward and punishment.
Before we proceed to address the topic of departures from orthodoxy on these matters, let it first be noted that the NT view of these matters is quite consistent with the ideas believed commonly among the Jews. At the time and held to be perfectly in line with OT teaching as well. This quote from 2 Esdras, an apocalypse composed by an unknown Jew near the end of the first century AD, illustrates that point, being perfectly in line with the Lord's description of the rich man (sometimes called Dives) and Lazarus in Luke 15:
Then the pit of torment shall appear, and opposite it shall be the place of rest; and the furnace of hell shall be disclosed, and opposite it the paradise of delight. Then the Most High will say to the nations that have been raised from the dead, "Look now, and understand whom you have denied, whom you have not served, whose commandments you have despised! Look on this side and on that; here are delight and rest, and there are fire and torments!" Thus he will speak to them on the day of judgment (7:36–38, RSV).
It will be noted that in this text the places of bliss and of torment are visible the one from the other, and the other coincides as well. Moreover, this is not the only passage from that literature which illustrates this important point:
And you will look from on high and see your enemies in Gehenna, and you will recognize them and rejoice, and you will give thanks and confess your Creator (Assumption of Moses 10:10).
This was also consistent with the teaching of the Pharisees, whose doctrinal stance on this matter both Jesus and Paul embraced, and which stood in contrast with what was taught by the priestly sect of the Jews in NT times, the Sadducees. This is evident from the NT literature itself, as well as from the following quotation in the first century Jewish writer Josephus:
They also believe that souls have an immortal vigor in them, and under the earth there will be rewards or punishments, according as they have lived virtuously or viciously in this life; and the latter are to be detained in an everlasting prison, but that the former shall have power to revive and live again. (Antiquities of the Jews 18.1.3; and in the Wars of the Jews 2.8.14, he says that the Pharisees taught that "the souls of bad men are subject to eternal punishment").
Similar passages are found in the Book of the Secrets of Enoch:
Chapters 10:1 says, "And those two men led me up onto the Northern side, and showed me there a very terrible place, and there were all manner of tortures in that place: cruel darkness and unillumined gloom, and there is no light there, but murky fire constantly flaming aloft, and there is a fiery river coming forth, and that whole place is everywhere fire, and everywhere there is frost and ice, thirst and shivering, while the bonds are very cruel, and the angels fearful and merciless, bearing angry weapons, merciless torture…"
See also 40:10-11; 41:1-3, and especially 42:1, which says, "I saw the key-holders and guards of the gates of hell standing like great serpents, and their faces like extinguishing lamps, and their eyes of fire, their sharp teeth, and I saw all the Lord's works, how they are right, while the works of man are some (good), and others bad..."
Later still, in early Christian literature outside the NT, the so-called Apocalypse of Peter. This second century document confirms the basic teaching of the biblical corpus, having the following description of the place of eternal punishment, along with a remarkably vivid depiction of the tortures of Gehenna:
And I saw another place over against that, very dark; and it was the place of punishment. And those who were punished there and the punishing angels had a dark raiment like the air of the place. And some were there hanging by the tongue: these were those who blasphemed the way of righteousness, and under them was fire burning and punishing them. And there was a great lake, full of flaming mire, in which were certain men who had perverted righteousness, and tormenting angels afflicted them (20; cf. also 21-33 for the most striking imagery).
The Testament of Abraham (often said to be from the second century AD but may be of somewhat earlier provenance) heralds from a Jewish source somewhere in Egypt. Some have argued it is a piece of Christian apocrypha, but without good evidence for their hypothesis. It is a document which takes on some elements of Egyptian theology, especially regarding the "weighing of souls." Otherwise, it is thoroughly Jewish. The weighing of souls is an idea that is frequently pictured on ancient Egyptian pagan monuments. The trial of souls here is threefold, once before Abel, later by the twelve tribes of Israel, and finally by the Lord Himself. Abraham is permitted to witness the procedure of judgment, and he finds two angels seated at a table. The one on the right hand records the good deeds, and the one on the left the evil deeds of the soul to be tested. In front of the table stands an angel with a balance on which the souls are tried. Paganism had clearly influenced this Jewish writer in his view of the afterlife.
A Valentinian Gnostic document, discovered in 1773 and known as Pistis Sophia, shows a much more radical departure from orthodoxy, especially regarding the place of punishment. Gnostics were heretics who claimed celestial knowledge and boasted themselves superior to their fellow Christian brethren. This work was likely written in Egypt in the period between the 3rd and 4th centuries AD. It is contained in a solitary Coptic manuscript in the British Museum. It purports to record instructions given by Jesus to certain disciples at the end of a twelve-year sojourn upon the earth after the resurrection. Described as "outer darkness," in this unusual document hell is presented in the form of a huge dragon with its tail in its mouth, the circle thus formed engirdling the whole earth. Within the monster are the regions of punishment, for "in it are twelve dungeons of horrible torment." Each dungeon is governed by a monster-like ruler, and in these are punished the worst of sinners. To express the awfulness of the torture, it is said that the fire of the underworld is nine times hotter than that of earthly furnaces; the fire of the great chaos is nine times hotter than the underworld; the fire of the "rulers" is nine times hotter than that of the great chaos; but the fire of the dragon is seventy times more intense than that of the "rulers."
Interestingly, in 3 Baruch (4 and 5) there is also mention of a great dragon in close connection with Hades, and in the latter of the two chapters, Hades is said to be his belly. It is supposed by many scholars that this notion of a dragon, such as is described in these documents, may be derived from an ancient Semitic myth and that such a myth existed is not a matter of dispute, but in terms of context it is not necessary to go beyond the embellishment of John's description of Satan as "the dragon, the old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan" (Rev. 20:2; cf. Martin, 546).
A pretender to prophetic gifts named Mani was born into a Jewish Christian community in Persia around AD 216 and lived until about 276. His doctrinal system came to be called Manichaeism. It spread widely in the Roman Empire and into Asia. This sect survived in eastern Turkestan (Xinjiang) until the 13th century. Rejecting Christian orthodoxy, he preached a new religion which he regarded as the only true Christianity. It incorporated many beliefs of general paganism, Zoroastrianism, and Buddhism.
Mani taught that there were two deities (dualism): the God of Light and Satan. His advocates said that by avoiding sensual and sexual activity, and by following the teachings of Mani, the elect (called perfecti) could gather sufficient spiritual credits so that they would eventually ascend directly to the Kingdom of Light at death. The rest of mankind would be reincarnated; they would be forced to live through several lives until they could become part of the elect. Unrepentant sinners, however, would be consumed by the flames which would burn for 1,468 years after the return of Jesus. Thus, few aspects of orthodox religion were retained in their view of the afterlife.
The word "purgatory" (Latin purgatorium) did not enter the lexicon of Christian doctrinal discussion until AD 1160-1180. In other words, for the first one thousand years of Christian history, the idea did not exist in the form that it eventually took in the Middle Ages. The First Council of Lyon in 1245 became the first of several church councils to mention the doctrine.
According to Roman Catholic teaching, purgatory is defined as the place or state of temporal punishment, where those who have died in the grace of God expiate their unforgiven venial sins and undergo such punishment as is still due to forgiven sins, before being admitted to the Beatific Vision (Cross, 1144). Catholic theologians make a case for this idea from a single passage in an apocryphal work, 2 Maccabees 12:39-45. They also support the argument with passages like Matthew 12:31ff and 1 Corinthians 3:11-15 where they allege that a state beyond the grave exists in which expiation is still possible. Early churchmen are also quoted as authority for this notion, such as Clement of Alexandria, Origin, Cyril of Jerusalem, Chrysostom, Ambrose, and Augustine.
Likewise, in Latin theology there is the notion of Limbo (limbus partum and limbus infantium), in which the saints of the Old Covenant remained until Christ's coming, and the everlasting state of those who die unregenerate, e.g. unbaptized infants, and hence in original sin, but innocent of personal guilt (Cross, 823-824). The Roman church has never made a formal declaration of this doctrine, but suggestive statements by Augustine and Thomas Aquinas are cited as authority on the matter.
The modern Seventh-day Adventist churches derive from the "second advent movement" which swept the US in the 1840's. William Miller, an apostate Baptist minister from New York in 1818 had confidently taught that Christ would return in 1843. After that failure, he moved the date to 1844 with the same result. This became known as "The Great Disappointment" in Adventist theology. The Seventh-day Adventist church formally achieved denominational stature in 1860 at a conference held in Battle Creek, Michigan. Observance of the seventh day Sabbath was a key component of their religious ritual.
Among the signal doctrines of this organization is the idea of "soul-extinction" and of the annihilation of the wicked. In their view there is no soul which survives after the body dies; at death, a person becomes completely nonexistent. Although they do teach that all men will be raised from the dead, the condition of man between death and the resurrection is, for them, not one of consciousness but nonexistence. Hence their view, in distinction from the view usually called "soul-sleep" can better be characterized as "soul-extinction" (Hoekema, 345; W. Martin, 131). Adventists also proclaim the final annihilation of the wicked, denying that there is a place of eternal torment called hell. Before annihilation, however, the wicked will be subjected to gradations of suffering, depending on the guilt of the persons or demons involved. Satan himself is to suffer the longest and will, therefore, be the final one to perish in the flames of extinction. At the end of this period of suffering, though, all those who have rebelled against God will be wiped out of existence.
Growing out of the identical "second advent movement" of the middle of the nineteenth century, C. T. Russell urged upon his followers virtually the same views of death, resurrection, "soul-extinction" and annihilation of the wicked. Therefore, to the present day, Jehovah's Witnesses mostly teach the identical doctrines. JWs do depart from the Adventists on a couple of minor points: whereas Adventists affirm that all those who have died will be raised again, Witnesses assert that certain individuals will not be raised but will remain in the nonexistence into which they were plunged when they died. Too, in distinction from Seventh-day Adventists, JWs do not teach a gradation of suffering before the annihilation of the wicked.
Those who have come to believe the liberal line on Scripture have little trust in the basic teachings of the NT, viewing the Bible as the words of fallible men rather than as the Word of the Infallible God who inspired their writing. Since they do not trust the teachings of Scripture, they do not believe in hell or the concept of eternal punishment. Some may not even believe in heaven, the eternal reward of the righteous. As a result, most of those who hold to this theological perspective are universalists: they believe everyone will ultimately be saved and enjoy heaven, or else they are agnostic about either reward or punishment. In no biblical sense of the word could liberals of this variety be described as "believers." With them, the trust factor is lost entirely—they simply do not trust the Bible.
Evangelicals, on the other hand, are supposedly believers in the text of Scripture. Therefore, we expect that they will be trusting when it comes to the biblical narratives and the teachings that derive from them. Eternal punishment, the historic view of the church and the very clear teaching of the Bible, holds that hell is a place of eternal, conscious, and final punishment, banishment, and death. But in our time a person's perspective on hell is more often the corollary to other more central doctrines for him: the love of God, the justice of God, the holiness of deity, the nature of God's victory at the cross, the guilt, and corruption in Adam and all humanity.
At any rate, the contemporary culture also plays a major role in this issue. It should not, but it does. The historic doctrine of hell stands for everything the present day culture rejects: that God's love is not sentimental but interconnected to His holiness and justice, that humans are universally guilty and pervasively corrupt, that Jesus is the one and only substitute and sacrifice for human sin, that obedient faith in Christ is the only means to receive the benefits of His saving work, and that God's ultimate victory does not mean only the elimination of all sin from the universe, but also the appropriate, and final punishment of it. None of these concepts are comfortably at home in the present environment in the Western world. This is the source of the contemporary problem.
In their book, Erasing Hell, Preston Sprinkle and Francis Chan predict: "...even within conservative evangelical circles, the annihilation view of hell will be the dominant view in 10 or 15 years. I base that on how many well-known pastors secretly hold that view…" The problem is that our culture is strongly against the idea of eternal punishment. Many important philosophers and theologians, even of the so-called "conservative" or "evangelical" sort, oppose the idea. In advertising the work, Hell Under Fire: Modern Scholarship Reinvents Eternal Punishment, edited by C. W. Morgan and R. A. Peterson, it is noted that: "Of all the teachings of Christianity, the doctrine of hell is easily the most troubling, so much so that in recent years the church has been quietly tucking it away. Rarely mentioned anymore in the pulpit, it has faded through disuse among evangelicals and has been attacked by liberal theologians." So, the future does not look bright for the biblical doctrine of hell, even among professed religious conservatives.
Cross, F. L., ed. Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2nd Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1974.
Hoekema, Anthony. The Four Major Cults. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1963.
Martin, G. Currie. "Hell." Dictionary of the Apostolic Church. Edited by James Hastings. New York: Scribner's, 1915. Volume 1, 544-547.
Martin, Walter. The Truth About Seventh-day Adventism. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1960.
Morgan, Christopher W., and Peterson, Robert A. Hell Under Fire. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2007.
Sprinkle, Preston, and Francis Chan. Erasing Hell. Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, 2011.
Author Bio: Daniel H. King, Sr. preaches for the Locust St. church of Christ in Mt. Pleasant, TN. Their website is lscoc.com. He can be reached at danielhking@hotmail.com.
