Awesome Truths and Amazing Facts
Richard Vaughn

Today: “Hell. Are people there and is it burning now?” Part 3
In Parts 1 and 2 we learned that no one is in hellfire today and that the hell fire comes at the end of the world. Also that the wicked will be destroyed and be no more. 
Now let’s see what the Bible has to say about what form a person enters the hellfire. Matthew 5:30 “It is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.” And in Matthew 10:28 “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” So the Bible is clear that live people enter hell in bodily form and are destroyed both body and soul. They die the second death we have previously read in Revelation 21:8, and that scripture is supported by Ezekiel 18:20 “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.”  
So now we come to the question of the role Satan plays in the hellfire. Is he in charge? On the basis of God’s Holy Word we can say absolutely not! In fact he and all the evil angels that followed him in his rebellion against God will be cast into the fire and it will turn him into ashes and he will be no more. Revelation 20:10 “And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone.” And in Ezekiel 28:18,19 “I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee. All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more.”
Some have asked if the word hell always refers to a place of burning. The answer is NO. The word hell appears 54 times in the whole Bible and in only 12 cases does it refer to a place of burning. In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word for “hell” is “sheol” and it means the “grave” and is found 31 times. 
In the New Testament the Greek word for hell is 10 times “Hades” meaning the “grave;” 1 time Tartarus, which means “a place of darkness;” and 12 times “Gehenna” which means “the place of burning.” The Greek word Gehenna is a transliteration of the Hebrew “Ge-Hinnom” which means “Valley if Hinnom.” This valley lies immediately south and west of Jerusalem and was a place where garbage, dead animals and other refuse were dumped and burned. Fire burned there constantly as it does today at many sanitation dump sites. The Bible uses Gehenna as a symbol of fire that will destroy the lost at the end of time. The fire of Gehenna no longer burns southwest of Jerusalem today, just as the literal hellfire will end when it has accomplished its purpose.
What is the real purpose of the hellfire? The answers are in the following three scriptures: Matthew 25:41, “Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.”  Revelation 20:15 “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”
God’s purpose is that hell will destroy the devil, his angels, all sin and sinners so as to make the earth safe for eternity. And this is why God cannot save anyone in their sins, He saves us from our sins. If one sinner were left on this planet, it would be a deadly virus forever threatening the universe. 
The work of destroying sinners is foreign to the nature of God. We read in Ezekiel 33:11 “As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die?” And in Luke 9:56 “For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them.” And in Isaiah 28:21 “For the LORD shall rise up…that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act.”
The work of God has always been to save and not destroy. The work of destroying the wicked is so foreign to the nature of God that the Bible calls it His strange act. What more could heaven have done to save mankind?
Now let’s look at God’s post-hell plans for the earth and His people. Nahum 1:9 “What do ye imagine against the LORD? he will make an utter end: affliction shall not rise up the second time.” And in Isaiah 65:17 “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.” And finally Revelation 21:3,4 “And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.  
No one will be saved because they feared hell. No, they will be saved because of their loving obedience to their Savior. The real tragedy of hell is in missing heaven.
We will conclude this subject with answers to thought questions in our next article. 
Next Week: “Hell. Are people there and is it burning now?” Part 4