The Problem With Teaching Hellfire

Many of the teachings on hellfire in the Bible are on two different ideas (Hades and Sheol) or on
parable.

For example, Luke 16:19-31 is a parable about how once you're dead, your deeds and beliefs
cannot be changed. As in, one can't go from shame of unrepentant sin to the covenant with
Abraham, so it is better to make changes as soon as possible, which is not possible for the beggar
in the parable. Abraham, the beggar, and the rich man are awaiting the Resurrection, when they'll
be judged.

How do I know that this is a parable and not a teaching of hellfire?

1. Is there really a literal place called the "Bosom of Abraham"? As in, right after any one
individual dies, will they be sitting right next to Abraham waiting for the Resurrection and
talking to one another?

2. Is hell divided up and separated by a literal chasm?

3. What's Abraham doing in hell if the hellfire teaching says that only wicked people go to hell
and righteous people don't?

The passage talks about Hades, and Hades, as disclosed in greatest detail in Revelation 20, is
where everyone ends up when they die. It is the common grave. The sand and dirt beneath one's
feet. Nobody is alive in Hades.

Only at the Resurrection will everyone be raised up to life and judged accordingly. Then, t hey'll
either end up living forever or end up dead forever, and no, those who are dead at that point
probably aren't conscious of it all.

Also, I'm pretty sure that teachings about hell were incorporated and developed into Christianity
during it's time since Jews really don't believe in hell, let alone teach about the afterlife (at least
not as much as Christians and Muslims do).

I'd suspect that "Dante's Divine Comedy" isn't the actual source of it all, but probably
popularized the knowledge of a descriptive hell that has more of a basis in legend and myth of
the pre-Christian peoples than in scriptural facts. I don't know of any verse in the Bible that
teaches that there are 9 Circles of hell.

Same case with Purgatory, the teaching of which has little basis or coincidence with what's
taught in the Bible. As an idea, it's an explanation or characterization of concepts from the Bible,
like the Trinity, but it does not have a strong basis with teachings straight from the Bible (I don't
think the Trinity coincides with the Bible's teachings either).

The scriptures certainly do talk about death in some instances. However, it's not described so
much like hell is and doesn't seem to be an actual, separate place at all.
With Jesus' parable in Luke 16:19-31, the same kind of idea is reflected in Ecclesiastes 8:7-8; a
warning that one doesn't have much control over death and should be prepared to live in
righteousness.

Everyone ends up in the same place (Hades, a temporary grave before Resurrection; the ver y
ground beneath your feet) and nobody is alive or conscious there:

Ecclesiastes 9:2, 4-5

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ecclesiastes%209%20;&version=31;

2 All share a common destiny - the righteous and the wicked, the good and the bad, the clean and
the unclean, those who offer sacrifices and those who do not.
As it is with the good man,
so with the sinner;
as it is with those who take oaths,
so with those who are afraid to take them.
4 Anyone who is among the living has hope -even a live dog is better off than a dead lion!

5 For the living know that they will die,

but the dead know nothing;
they have no further reward,
and even the memory of them is forgotten.

Which is why Luke 16:19-31 is undoubtably a parable, because Abraham is in Hades, yet he is
having a discussion. It is a teaching, not a recollection of events or a memory. (Luke 16:19-31 is
a teaching that follows and precedes other parables and teachings. Consider Luke 15 and Luke
17; it's right in the middle of them.)

What is Hades like? The same thing that most any atheist believes happens to people when they
die in an atheist world view: death. Decomposing, other animals and organisms using the
nutrients, the cycle of life, etc. This is a fact that's reflected in the Bible. The only difference
between an atheist's belief in what happens to people when they die and what a theist believes is
that atheists don't believe in the Resurrection, let alone God.

This idea (of simply not being alive when you're dead) is further affirmed in the following
verses:

Ecclesiastes 9:10
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ecclesiastes%209%20;&version=31;

10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are
going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.
After one dies, it is more like an unconscious sleep rather than a conscious time of comfort or
torture.

Besides, why would righteous people be sent to hell and comforted alongside Abraham? It's
actually Hades (which can be seen as "the common grave ") and it's only temporary since
everyone will be Resurrected for judgment.

Here, it states that the wicked may live longer than the righteous in their lifetimes, but the
righteous will live longer than them overall. Why is this? Only the righteous will continue to live
after the Resurrection:

Ecclesiastes 8:12-13
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ecclesiastes%208%20;&version=31;

12 Although a wicked man commits a hundred crimes and still lives a long time, I know that it
will go better with God- fearing men, who are reverent before God. 13 Yet because the wicked do
not fear God, it will not go well with them, and their days will not lengthen like a shadow.

Of course, this could be referring to their lifetime alive before dying, since, if the wicked are not
God-fearing, they may end up overlooked by God's wrath before the Resurrection (and therefore,
in that sense, "their days will not lengthen like a shadow").

Furthermore, all living things, including animals, end up in the same place:

Ecclesiastes 3:17-18
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ecclesiastes%203%20;&version=31;

17 I thought in my heart,
"God will bring to judgment
both the righteous and the wicked,
for there will be a time for every activity,
a time for every deed."

18 I also thought, "As for men, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the
animals. 19 Man's fate is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits the m both: As one
dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; man has no advantage over the animal.
Everything is meaningless. 20 All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all
return. 21 Who knows if the spirit of man rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down
into the earth?"

Human beings' blessing of having knowledge of morality does not equally bind them to
punishment. God does not give the gift of life and morality to human beings only to also set a
punishment for not accepting. Otherwise, life is no gift, but a job; "live a righteous life or else."

Other animals will end up dead forever. Are they supposed to be tortured and punished forever
because they don't live righteous lives? Are they supposed to continue living after they die in a
kind of afterlife?

Verse 21 may refer to the idea of a Resurrection, but the book of Ecclesiastes doesn't talk about
that as much as it talks about death itself. Essentially, there is no afterlife, at least not in the
contemporary sense of the term. Righteous people will be resurrected to continue living on earth
(or in heaven), but there is no "other life" or some other reality where people get a second life to
continue on living. There is just the universe and life on earth that we have today and have
always had.

Also, as verse 20 states, humans originate from dust and end up as dust (like materials and
nutrients), which is reflected in God's statement to Adam in Genesis:

Genesis 3:19
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%203;&version=31;

19 By the sweat of your brow

you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return."

They end up as dust, and dust is incapable of thinking, especially if it does not have the breath of
life (spirit) in it:

Ecclesiastes 12:7
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ecclesiastes%2012%20;&version=31;

7 and the dust returns to the ground it came from,

and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

The problem with teaching hellfire is not about whether it exists or not, but the fact that the Bible
hardly teaches anything about it in enough detail.

In fact, it teaches something else, making it seem that hellfire (eternal torture and punishment)
does not exist.

The other problem with teaching hellfire, and this is an important one, is that it detracts one's fear
from God. In teachings of hellfire, it's said that Jesus died for your sins so that you won't end up
in hell. As in, that everybody is going to go to hell anyway, so people should believe in God so
that they won't end up there.

Essentially, it treats God and Jesus as a savior for people fro m hell, hell being the big thing that
people should be afraid of.

If one believes in God, they should fear God more so than death shouldn't they?
Consider this teaching of Jesus:

Matthew 10:28
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2010;&version=31;

28Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the
One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Who is Jesus referring to? Some teachings of hellfire state that Satan resides in hell and is in
charge of everything done over there. Is Jesus saying we should have the utmost fear of Satan?

No. Satan will eventually be no more and never exist again. Jesus says to fear God and God does
not reside in hell, but God is certainly able to have any soul destroyed forever.

This is a matter of logic:

If a soul is destroyed forever in hell, why would the soul be suffering eternal torment and
torture? How would that be possible? What is left of the individual that would actually suffer if it
is incapable of suffering, let alone perceiving anything?

The body is destroyed in hell. The soul is destroyed in hell.

What is it that's suffering eternal torture in hellfire?

In Revelation 20:10, it says that Satan the devil will end up in "the lake of burning sulfur" and be
tormented in much the same way as happened in the teaching of Luke 16. Nevertheless, in
Revelation 20:12-15, Satan the devil, along with everyone else, will be resurrected for judgment
and will either live forever or end up dead forever.

The dead are not alive unless resurrected. The teaching of hellfire has little scriptural basis if
some verses support the idea while other contradict it.

However, that doesn't mean that hellfire therefore doesn't exist, for it could be the underlying
truth (that we may lake sufficient knowledge in, like so much else in the universe).

It's just that the Bible teaches about salvation in great detail and with great emphasis far more
than it teaches about death. It is much better to teach what's certain, and that is the teaching of
righteousness and salvation, not wickedness and death. The best approach for any teaching from
the Bible is to say what you know.