Eschatology and the Doctrine of Eternal Torment - Part Two - Looking for a Key

Siege of Jerusalem - 70 A.D.

I pointed out in my previous post how it is nearly impossible to come to full scriptural understanding of the final destiny of the unsaved without also framing that doctrine within a much wider prophetic framework.  The final destiny of mankind is by definition eschatological and prophetic.  Many of the verses dealing with the subject must be considered in their wider prophetic context.

This becomes especially important when dealing with the Greek word Gehenna, which is most often translated "hell" in our English Bibles.  When those who believe in eternal torment point out that Jesus spoke about "hell", it's most often those passages which contain this Greek word which are in view.  Therefore, the importance of having a full scriptural understanding of what Jesus meant when he used this word cannot be overstated.  If Jesus never used Gehenna to represent a place of eternal torment in the afterlife, then a case for the eternal torment of the wicked becomes tenuous at best.

The Greek word Gehenna does not mean "hell".  This is not a matter of opinion or controversy.  The word literally means "The Valley of the Sons of Hinnom".  In spite of the reading in our English Bibles, there is a burden of proof upon those who wish to use those passages which contain this word to buttress the doctrine of eternal torment.  How exactly did the name of a literal valley near Jerusalem come to represent a place of eternal torment in the afterlife?  This is a question the average Christian rarely takes time to explore.  I submit that no scriptural answer to this question is even possible.

The word Gehenna occurs twelve times in the New Testament, eleven of which are spoken by Jesus.  However, the Old Testament contains significantly more information concerning both the history, as well as the prophetic future of this notorious place.  Is it at all reasonable to suggest that Jesus' use of the word Gehenna could ever be fully understood without considering the Old Testament context surrounding this place?  For the sake of completeness, and for future reference in what will follow, I would first like the reader to consider the full Old Testament backdrop concerning Gehenna, something that is almost never considered by advocates for eternal torment.

גֵּיא בֶן־הִנֹּם | gei ven-hinnom (Valley of the Son of Hinnom)
Jos 15:8
And the border went up by the valley of the son of Hinnom unto the south side of the Jebusite; the same is Jerusalem: and the border went up to the top of the mountain that lieth before the valley of Hinnom westward, which is at the end of the valley of the giants northward: 

Jos 18:16
And the border came down to the end of the mountain that lieth before the valley of the son of Hinnom, and which is in the valley of the giants on the north, and descended to the valley of Hinnom, to the side of Jebusi on the south, and descended to En-rogel, 

2 Ki 23:10
And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech. 

Je 7:31
And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart. 

Je 7:32
Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter: for they shall bury in Tophet, till there be no place. 

Je 19:2
And go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the east gate, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee, 

Je 19:6
Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter. 

Je 32:35
And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin. 

2 Ch 28:3
Moreover he burnt incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burnt his children in the fire, after the abominations of the heathen whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel. 

2 Ch 33:6
And he caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom: also he observed times, and used enchantments, and used witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit, and with wizards: he wrought much evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger. 

תֹּ֫פֶת | topheth (Topheth

Je 19:11
And shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter’s vessel, that cannot be made whole again: and they shall bury them in Tophet, till there be no place to bury.
 
Je 19:12
Thus will I do unto this place, saith the Lord, and to the inhabitants thereof, and even make this city as Tophet: 

Je 19:13
And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, shall be defiled as the place of Tophet, because of all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink offerings unto other gods. 

Je 19:14
Then came Jeremiah from Tophet, whither the Lord had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the Lord’s house; and said to all the people, 

Is 30:33
For Tophet is ordained of old; Yea, for the king it is prepared; He hath made it deep and large: The pile thereof is fire and much wood; The breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it. 

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It seems almost impossible to conceive how Gehenna could ever have been simply translated "hell" - an English word which carries with it significant preconceived mental imagery and theological baggage - without considering what this place came to represent in the Old Testament.

Clearly Gehenna, or the Valley of Hinnom, was an accursed place.  Due to the idolatrous practices of the Jews it came to represent a defiled place of loathing.  One thing that should be noted in the passages above, although not directly related to my main point in this post, is that the only instances of anyone being burned alive or tormented in Gehenna are due to the wicked idolatrous practice of child sacrifice - something God detests and says "never came into His mind".

Advocates of eternal torment will tell us that because of the defiled and infamous nature of the place, it came to "represent hell".  Are they correct?

What's important to notice in these passages is that they not only contain the historical context of Gehenna, but also its prophetic and eschatological significance; a significance which relates directly to the topic at hand.  Notice that the curses pronounced upon the unbelieving Jews by both Isaiah and Jeremiah (Jeremiah 7:31, Ch. 19,  Isaiah 30:33) are warnings of future punishment*.  Furthermore, it's important to notice that while the warned of future punishment is most definitely severe, there is nothing in any of these passages that would lead a reader to believe that those judgments are anything other than earthly.

*That is, future as to the time the prophecy was given, not necessarily future to our time.

Both Jeremiah and Isaiah used Gehenna, or the valley of Hinnom, to represent future punishment.  Jesus used Gehenna to represent future punishment.  What would ever lead a Christian reader to conclude that Jesus used this place to represent something completely foreign to the Old Testament prophets, i.e. a place of eternal torment in the afterlife?  Omitting the Old Testament, there is simply no other scriptural backdrop from which we can glean understanding.  However, as I've attempted to show in my former post, it's not enough to show the earthly nature of those judgments as represented by Gehenna in the Old Testament. What we must endeavor to do if we ever hope to present a comprehensive picture of what the Bible has to say about future punishment, is show how those Old Testament passages are to be understood in light Jesus' teaching, or vice versa.

Believers in eternal torment often resort to logic in which they justify reinterpreting all of the Old Testament warnings concerning Gehenna  in light of what they assume to be Jesus' teaching about eternal torment.  Thus, a verse such as Isa 66:24 "They shall go forth and look upon the carcasses... their worm shall not die, etc.", is reinterpreted in a way that makes "carcasses" into "immortal souls burning in hell"!  The circular nature of such logic is rarely contemplated.

On the other hand, those who reject the doctrine of eternal torment resort to the inverse; namely that since the Old Testament prophets used Gehenna to represent strictly earthly judgments, then whatever it may be that Jesus meant by his use of this word, surely he meant no more than that.

For the purpose of this study, our question must be: Can we know what Jesus meant when he spoke of Gehenna. If we can then we will have succeeded in laying a firm foundation on which to build a fully scriptural prophetic framework in which to understand the ultimate fate of wicked.  On the other hand, if we cannot discern in any sure way what Jesus meant by his use of the word, then we should resign ourselves that this doctrine will always remain a field for doubt and speculation.  Fortunately I believe the former is well within our grasp.
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Jesus - The Infallible Interpreter

It should go without saying that Jesus is the infallible interpreter of scripture and prophecy.  If Jesus expounds an Old Testament passage, then we must hear him.  Undoubtedly most Christians would enthusiastically agree with this sentiment.  However, when it comes to Jesus' use of Gehenna, and indeed many passages in which believers feel that Jesus warned of unending punishment, they have refused to hear him.

I know that many things which I am about to present are going to be met with fierce resistance,  They are so foreign to what many believers have been taught, or to what they assume to be true, that they will trigger an  automatic reflex to reject them.  The studies of prophecy, and of future punishment in particular are not easy subjects.  These are topics to which many are very emotionally attached.  For this reason, all I ask of my readers is a fair hearing, a willingness to contemplate what lies ahead, and for patience.  It's my strong conviction that the payoff will be great for those willing to stay the course.

With that in mind, hear the words of Jesus:

​Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell (Lit. The judgment of Gehenna)? (Matthew 23:31–33)

To whom did Jesus utter this fearful warning?  This passage appears in the twenty-third chapter Matthew in which we read Jesus' pronouncements of "woe" upon the scribes, Pharisees, and unbelieving Jews.  In spite of the reflexive reaction of the reader's mind to automatically assume that Jesus is here warning the scribes and Pharisees that they would not escape  "hell", I can't help but think that such a conclusion could only be arrived at by blinding our eyes and minds to the context in which this was spoken.  Jesus proceeds:

Wherefore behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. (Matthew 23:34–35)

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not? Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. (Matthew 23:37–38)

How is it that our minds have become so blinded that most fail to see any connection between Jesus' warning of "the judgment of Gehenna" with what follows in the immediate context?  It is those to whom Jesus is speaking that the blood of all the prophets would be required.  It is to the unbelieving Jews that Jesus would leave their house "desolate".

These warnings do not stand in a vacuum.  Only sheer ignorance of the Old Testament prophecies concerning the "valley of Himmon" could explain the failure to see it.  The Old Testament passages concerning Gehenna, or the valley of the sons of Hinnom, are the KEY ro understanding Jesus' use of the word.  Notice the words of Jeremiah:

And go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the east gate, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee, (Jeremiah 19:2)

Therefore behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter. And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place; and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hands of them that seek their lives: and their carcases will I give to be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth. And I will make this city desolate, and a hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues thereof. (Jeremiah 19:6–8)

And shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter’s vessel, that cannot be made whole again: and they shall bury them in Tophet, till there be no place to bury. (Jeremiah 19:11)

The "judgment of Gehenna" Jesus spoke about - a judgment the Jewish nation would not escape - a judgment which would leave the nation "desolate",  just IS precisely that same type of judgment warned of by Jeremiah in that very place - the valley of the sons of Hinnom.  Consider how totally irrational it is to think that in warning the scribes and Pharisees of the destruction of their nation and the desolation which would follow, that Jesus inserted a reference to some other-worldly realm of eternal torment.  How could that possibly be when the very same curse, in the very place named - Gehenna, the valley of the sons of Hinnom - was warned of by one of those very prophets these unbelieving Jews rejected?  Same place.  Same words.  Same curse.  Same coming desolation.  That IS the "damnation of hell" or "judgment of Gehenna" the Jewish nation would not escape.

If Jesus used Gehenna in this way - to represent the national destruction and desolation of the Jewish nation, and used it in precisely the same way the Old Testament prophets had by pronouncing upon the unbelieving Jews that very same desolation, then surely those who would use Gehenna to represent a place of eternal torment in the afterlife have erred greatly.  There can be no question about how Jesus used Gehenna in Matthew 23 once one compares it with the parallel in Jeremiah 19.

Someone might say: "But Jeremiah is warning of the coming desolation of Jerusalem by the Babylonians, Jesus is pointing to a greater fulfillment."  But this only serves to strengthen my point.  What then is that greater fulfillment of Jeremiah's Gehenna judgment?  The Babylonian captivity lasted seventy years.  Jesus is here pointing to a desolation from which the nation would not recover.  A greater fulfillment certainly, but not one of such a different character that one represents a national and earthly fulfillment, while the other an individual's punishment in the afterlife.  To make such a claim is to ignore the Old Testament context altogether.

Before considering just how this curse upon the Jews was precisely fulfilled as Jesus warned, we need to consider a point which is commonly expressed by those who believe that Gehenna just is "hell".  Consider the following from christiananswers.net.  To the question, "Is anyone in hell today?", they answer:

​"I think it is safe to say that there is no one in Hell today. Nobody is there because Hell is the final place for those who have rejected Christ and is the place to which they are assigned after the Great White Throne Judgment. After the day of final judgment, then Hell receives its population." (Emphasis mine)

While I can't here go into a detailed discussion, this is a fairly common answer from Christians.  Many believe that the unsaved go immediately upon death to temporary punishment in "hades", but that none have yet gone to the "final hell".  They believe that Gehenna represents that final hell.  Therefore, according to the belief of many Christians, no one has yet experienced the "judgment of Gehenna", or "Damnation of hell".

Will Christians hear Jesus?  Have not the scribes and Pharisees experienced that "judgment of Gehenna" which swept away the whole old Jewish order?  Did they not experience the desolation of their city, temple and nation?  Was not the blood of the prophets required at their hand?  What refuge is left for the advocates of eternal torment in this context?  Will they really try to assert that the "judgment of Gehenna" has nothing to do with the national destruction being warned of?  Was Jesus, or for that matter the scribes or Pharisees, ignorant of Jeremiah's words?  Did Jesus insert a totally foreign meaning of Gehenna into his warning of national desolation?  Did he use the word here in one way, while elsewhere using it in a completely different way?  If Gehenna is "hell", and no one is currently in hell, then there must be some explanation, no?

The Jewish nation was destroyed by the Roman armies in 70 A.D..  Can we be certain that this desolation was the warned of "judgment of Gehenna" ("damnation of hell") Jesus spoke of in Matthew 23?  A comparison of Jesus' warning with that of Jeremiah 19 makes the answer plain.

But there is much more.  Jesus not only warns of this national desolation, but goes on to explain exactly how and when that desolation would come.  In considering those passages we will be met with significant challenges, but by the time we are finished I believe we we also find a greater hope for the lost than many ever thought possible.

I will take up some of those points in my next installment.

"Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? ...Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation. (Matthew 23:31–33, 36)