FREEDOM FROM FEAR OF HELL

I shared with my friend, the late Gary Amirault at Tentmaker Ministries, who advocates eliminating the word “hell” from English translations, that even if you eliminate the word “hell” from all English translations that still does not solve the problem of fiery language in the Bible in regard to judgment and punishment, literalists will interpret as literal fire lasting forever. Sheol is the Hebrew word the King James Version translated as hell as well as indiscriminately translating the Greek words “Hades,” Gehenna,” and “Tartarus” as hell. Most modern translations transliterate them or translate them as hell but indicate the Hebrew or Greek word in a footnote.

All a person needs to know about these Biblical words in order to be fear free is that God is omnipresent everywhere in the universe, even including Sheol (Ps. 139:7-8), therefore, it is IMPOSSIBLE to be eternally separated from God for even a moment, much less for eternity; the church is going to destroy Hades [Tartarus, the lowest level] (Mt. 16:18); and all those in Gehenna are going to be “salted [purified, per “The Good News Bible”] with fire,” according to Jesus (Mark 9:49). Thereby, Jesus shall draw all people to Himself (John 12:32), all will live in Christ and God shall become all in all (I Cor. 15:22, 28), and every created being in the universe shall worship God and the Lamb [Christ] forever and ever (Rev. 5:13)! This is hell in a nutshell that completely eliminates fear of hell, but creates a healthy respect for the Biblical truth of afterlife 100% accountability for how people have treated others in this life on earth! 

Did Jesus Say More About Hell Than Heaven?

There is a huge misunderstanding about the claim often expounded by believers in the insanely false doctrine of eternal conscious torment in hell that Jesus said more about hell than about heaven, which is a big lie. There is, however, one good thing about this big lie in that it is demonstrably false. How so? All one must do to disprove this lie is to use an exhaustive concordance, such as Strong’s [based on the King James Version], and do a word count.

In the KJV in the Gospel of Matthew there are eight references to hell. In Mark and Luke there are only three each for a total of six; the grand total of all three Gospels is a whopping 14. This count will vary but be less or even zero in modern translations that transliterate the word “Hades” and/or “Gehenna” the KJV indiscriminately translated as hell. The Roman Catholic version of this big lie is that Jesus spoke about hell “often.” By no stretch is 14 times often, especially in relation to how many times Jesus spoke about heaven. John wrote his whole Gospel without mentioning any word for a hell: Hades, Gehenna, or Tartarus even once!

In all four Gospels there is a total of 140 references to heaven almost all spoken by our loving Lord Jesus Christ [a few in reference to Him]. Every time He told a parable and introduced it by saying, “The Kingdom of heaven is like unto…” He was talking about heaven and what it is like. So, No! Jesus absolutely did not say more about hell than He did about heaven! THE OPPOSITE IS TRUE by a 10 to 1 ratio!