How many hells are there

In general, it would appear that "Sheol" and "Hades," as well as "Abaddon," "the pit" and "Abyss," and perhaps even "Tartarus," largely cover the same semantic ground. They are perhaps nuanced differently, but we probably ought not to make hard and fast theological distinctions between them. These terms do not give us a clear picture of what happens to people when they die, or of what happens to them after the judgment.

On the other hand, there seems to be sufficient data to indicate that Gehenna is the Lake of Fire, and that it is exclusively a place of punishment. By contrast, "heaven" and "new earth" are exclusively places of blessing. The error we ought to seek to avoid is creating a system of theology based on limited uses of these various words.

Each use of each word contains only a little bit of the picture. We ought not to infer from the various uses of the words that words that are not used in precisely the same manner actually refer to different things.

Consider, for example, that I describe my car to a variety of people who later compare notes: I tell Joe that I have a silver two-door. I tell Bob that I have a small import. I tell Pete that my car has lots of black trim. All these reports are correct, all contain different data, none of the data overlaps, but all the descriptions refer to the same vehicle.

I might also have many names for my vehicle, such as "my car," "the Nissan," and "Old Faithful. Now, imagine I want to describe Gehenna. I explain that it is a place where: Unbelievers are disembodied.

Unbelievers are not disembodied. Unbelievers are tormented. There is fire. Unbelievers are in darkness. All these reports are correct, all contain different data, none of the data overlaps, but all the descriptions refer to the same place, albeit at different times regarding "1" and "2. If each name indicated a different place, we would have to say that as Christians we worship a whole host of Gods, for God has many, many names and titles in Scripture.

In summary, we do not need to imagine that each word or description we encounter refers to a different place. Theological Implications We can make a number of theological assertions with an extremely high degree of certainty: Demons are currently imprisoned until the judgment 2 Pet.

When believers die, their disembodied souls go to heaven until the resurrection and judgment 2 Cor. When unbelievers die, their disembodied souls are imprisoned and tormented until the judgment Luke 16; cf. The other option here is to see them in a shadowy, limited, restricted, hopeless existence like that sometimes associated with Sheol in the Old Testament.

Or perhaps these two ideas are actually different perspectives on the same thing. After the resurrection and judgment, believers live perpetually on the new earth in their resurrected bodies 1 Cor. After the resurrection and judgment, unbelievers and demons dwell perpetually in Gehenna, a. In light of assertion "1" above, I should add at this point that the Bible completely refutes the idea that any believer may ever be considered wicked or be subjected to punishment of any sort in the afterlife.

All believers are counted as perfectly righteous in Christ e. There is no such thing as a "believer's hell," temporary or otherwise that idea is basically the Protestant version of the Roman Catholic doctrine of purgatory cf. Along these lines, the "sons of the kingdom" Matt. A "son of the kingdom" is one who is in covenant with God, not one who is saved.

All who are part of the visible people of God are in covenant with him. In our day, the covenant people are the visible church. In Jesus' day, the covenant community was the nation of Israel. All the covenant people are children of the kingdom, regardless of whether or not they are saved. Those who are believers receive the covenant blessings; those who are unbelievers fall under the covenant curses. In Matthew , the "sons of the kingdom" were the Jews.

Jesus' point was that many Jews would not believe, and therefore would fall under the covenant curses, whereas many Gentiles would come to faith and receive the covenant blessings that had originally been offered to these same Jews. Similarly, in Matthew 22, being invited to the dinner is not equivalent to being saved.

Rather, it is equivalent to being offered the gospel. The man who was cast out responded to the gospel, but not in a saving manner.

When the master of the feast saw that the man's faith was not genuine, he cast him out. The explanation was that the man was not "chosen" or "elected," that is, he was not predestined to salvation, and he never came to faith. And again, in Matthew 25, we see the same thing. The servant is not a believer, but simply one who is obligated to do what the master says.

The application Jesus makes of this parable is that during the judgment Jesus will punish the wicked and reward the faithful. Clearly the servant was one of the wicked and not one of the faithful. The parallel to Jesus' audience was that some of the Jews who heard him speak obeyed him and came to faith, while others rejected him. They were all servants in his house, but only some were good servants.

Likewise, in Mark Jesus was not talking exclusively to believers Judas was there, but he was never a believer. In any event, it is true that if believers fall away, they will perish. What is not true is that the Holy Spirit will allow such a thing to take place. Nevertheless, remaining faithful takes effort. This is why in Reformed circles we deny the doctrine of eternal security, but affirm the doctrine of perseverance of the saints see Losing Your Salvation.

Believers must be encouraged to remain faithful, and must pursue fidelity with energy. I should also add that there is actually no such thing as an "apostate believer. An apostate is one who falsely professes faith, but then abandons that profession. Because the Holy Spirit preserves all believers, no believer may ever fall from grace in this way. The idea of rewards does not pertain to punishment cf. A reward is a good thing; punishment is a bad thing.

The name of this valley became a word used in the New Testament, including by the Lord Jesus, to refer to a place of torment and fire. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell.

And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. Jesus spoke briefly about why hell was created, and its origins. Speaking to those He is sending away from His presence, Jesus acknowledges they will go to an eternal life, referred to in prophetic texts as the lake of fire. He states the purpose of hell was to punish the devil and his fallen angels. It was not created to be a place of punishment for people. However, once sin entered the world, those who chose their sin over a relationship with God could not spend eternity with God, with hell becoming the only place for them.

The Book of Revelation speaks about it as the eternal destination of souls. After the millennial reign, the Lord will finally deal with Satan, putting an end to his deceit. A few verses later, the Apostle John wrote about the final judgment of the dead. This is the second death, the lake of fire. The book of life contains all the names of the redeemed, those who put their faith in God.

Other books that will be opened on that day include all the deeds a person committed. None of those deeds change the destiny of a soul that is not in the book of life, according to this passage. Dante grouped people by a defining sin in his portrayal, and their punishment was appropriate to their great fault.

Instead, all sin is punishable by death and destruction in the face of a holy God. It is hard to conceive of, but Isaiah gives a glimpse into what it is like for a sinner to stand before the Lord of Hosts in all His glory, in a state of sinful uncleanliness.

And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!

Here, Isaiah sees the extent of his sin compared to the perfection of a holy God, and despairs, because in his own power, he cannot make himself worthy. All sin, no matter how minor it may seem by worldly standards, is an offense against God. Jesus spoke frequently about the coming judgment, warning about the consequences of rejecting the salvation He would give His life to provide. In the Olivet discourse, Jesus speaks in parables about what it will look like when He returns.

This famous sermon includes the parable of the ten virgins and the ten talents. The Lord expresses that He does not want anyone to be separated from Him; He created humanity to have a unique relationship with them.

It is because of this wish and this love that God sent Jesus Christ to die, to pay the price for the sins of mankind. Those who accept this and repent and believe in Jesus are saved from their sins. It is to provide everyone this chance at salvation that Jesus instituted the Great Commission.

He called those who received the blessing of salvation to go out and share this good news to the whole world. As believers, the calling is to let everyone know that freedom in Christ, and eternity with God, is available. Christians should care about the lost because their Savior does, and He wants those who were lost to come to Him. It is the mission of the church, and part of the purpose of the Christian life. Without hope in Christ, eternity is dark, but in Christ, there is eternal rejoicing.

Jeremiah, David. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, Moevs, Christian. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Four Views on Hell. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, Related: Heaven - What is it Like and Where is it? How Do I Get to Heaven? Do Dogs go to Heaven? Is Hell Real?