June 5, 2026
Most people talk about hell like it is a cartoon: red guy with a pitchfork, fire everywhere, endless torture. The Bible does not give us that picture...
If we want to be honest, we have to ask: what does Scripture actually say? Not church tradition, not shitposts, not fear tactics. The text itself.
Sheol, Hades, and Gehenna
First problem: we mash three different words into one idea.
- Sheol: Hebrew word for the grave, the place of the dead.
- Hades: Greek word for the unseen world of the dead.
- Gehenna: a valley outside Jerusalem, used as an image of judgment.
When Jesus talks about "hell," He often uses Gehenna, not some "cosmic torture chamber", a real place with a history of idolatry and child sacrifice. It is a symbol of what happens when people reject God and cling to evil.
Jesus and the language of judgment
Jesus uses strong images: fire, darkness, weeping, grinding of teeth. These are not literal descriptions. They are warnings. They tell us that rejecting God is not neutral or harmless.
" 'Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.' " Matthew 25:46
In context, this is about people who refuse mercy and justice. They ignore the hungry, the stranger, the sick, the prisoner. It is tied to how we treat people made in God's image. Jesus ties judgment to how people treat others, not to whether they followed the Law perfectly.
Justice
God is not a sadist. Scripture shows God as patient, slow to anger, and rich in mercy. Judgment comes after warning, after calls to repent, after grace is offered and refused.
"The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." 2 Peter 3:9
Hell is not about God enjoying pain. It is about God taking evil seriously. If God never judged anything, He would not be good. A world where abuse, cruelty, and oppression are never condemned is not a holy world.
Symbolism in Revelation
Revelation talks about a lake of fire, second death, and final judgment. It is highly symbolic. Beasts, dragons, cities, numbers.
"Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death." Revelation 20:14
Death and Hades are not people. They are powers. The point is that death itself is destroyed. Evil does not get the last word. God does. Revelation uses imagery the way the prophets did: symbols, not literal geography of the afterlife.
So what should we say about hell?
We should say that hell is real, but we should also say that our pop culture version is lazy. The Bible presents judgment as this:
- Rejecting God has consequences.
- God judging evil, not random people or "nonbelievers".
- God will end evil, not coexist with it forever.
- Judgment is God healing the world, not torturing it.