Those who argue for a traditional concept of hell as eternal conscious punishment begin by pointing out that the word group which includes “destroy” and its synonyms is used in a variety of ways, some of which do not require or even imply the cessation of existence. That from which they have “no rest” is, presumably, the torment caused by the fire and brimstone. In Revelation 4:8 the same terminology occurs with regard to the duration of worship on the part of the four living creatures. Second, “they have no rest, day or night” (the latter phrase being parallel to “forever and ever”).

This terminology occurs 13x in Revelation: 3x with reference to the duration of praise, glory, and dominion given to God (1:6 5:13 7:12) 5x with reference to the length of life of God or Christ (1:18 4:9,10 10:6 15:7) once referring to the length of God’s reign in Christ (11:15) once referring to the length of the saints’ reign (22:5) once referring to the ascension of the smoke of destroyed Babylon (19:3) once referring to the duration of torment of the devil, beast, and false prophet (20:10) and, of course, once here in 14:11. The duration of this phenomenon is said to be, literally, “unto the ages of the ages”. It is almost as if there is a smoldering testimony to the consequences of sin and the justice of God’s wrath. First, the “smoke” of their torment, i.e., the smoke of the fire and sulfur (v. John goes on to describe the duration of this punishment in two statements in v. Croteau, Urban Legends of the New Testament: 40 Common Misconceptions (B & H, 2015), pp. Against the notion that Gehenna was, in the days of Jesus, a garbage dump, see the excellent discussion in Francis Chan & Preston Sprinkle, Erasing Hell: what God said about eternity, and the things we made up(Colorado Springs: David C. That it should be used as a way of referring to the place of eternal torment is therefore understandable. But no one denies that this area was at one time the locale for pagan child sacrifice. The evidence strikes me as inconclusive and thus we should avoid being dogmatic on the point. There is an on-going debate among scholars as to whether the Valley of Hinnom actually served as the “city dump” or “garbage heap” of Jerusalem. At one time it was there that human sacrifices were made to the pagan deity Moloch ( 2 Kings 23:10 2 Chron. This valley is immediately southwest of Jerusalem, still visible from the Mt. The word most often translated “ hell” in the NT is Gehenna, the Greek equivalent for “the valley of Hinnom”. Here are 10 truths about hell that we must understand and accept. The only important question is, “Does the Bible teach it?” And if the Bible does teach it (and Revelation 14 together with numerous other texts would indicate it does), our responsibility is to believe it and fervently and faithfully proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ as the only hope sinners have for now and eternity. What we “want” or “hope” or “desire” has no relevance at all in this debate.

The fact that we may not enjoy the thought of eternal conscious punishment doesn’t make it go away! The fact that you “feel” the existence of hell is inconsistent with your concept of God doesn’t mean there isn’t one. The fact that we have an intuitive sense for what strikes us as “fair” or “just” plays no part whatsoever in coming to a conclusion on whether or not there is an eternal hell.

What does or does not make us “feel comfortable” has no bearing on the truth or falsity of this issue. What we might “hope” to be true simply doesn’t matter. God doesn’t set his eternal agenda based on what we “prefer”. What you and I “like” is utterly and absolutely irrelevant. So let’s look closely at what the Bible has to say about it as well as the on-going debate over whether hell is eternal conscious punishment. But hell is real and people are going there. I take no special delight in writing this article.

How to you pronounce hell in greek