We are going to continue to look at the subject of “hell” a concept that comes from the same source as all the other lies about God from the deceiver who originally fooled Adam. We will find that the traditional view of “hell” is the product of the false concept of God as angry and vengeful.
God is not angry with us He is always the same, loving, faithful and full of grace and mercy He has never changed and always wants relationship not separation. When we engage God intimately, He will reveal Himself in continually new, surprising and sometimes even shocking ways but we can trust Him.
Eph 3:16-18 I desire for you to become intimately acquainted with the love of Christ on the deepest possible level; far beyond the reach of a mere academic, intellectual grasp. So that you may be filled with all the fullness of God! Awaken to the consciousness of his closeness! Separation is an illusion! Oneness was God’s idea all along!
Last time we started looking at the parable of the sheep and the goats and saw its context was a warning to the religious leaders that the old covenant order was coming to an end and that the kingdom was going to be removed from them. This was similar to the warnings about outer darkness, weeping and gnashing of teeth from being outside God’s covenant.
Jesus often uses subversive language towards the common ideas of the Rabbis, Pharisees, Zealots, Essenes etc. “You have heard it said now I say unto you”. He uses parables to subvert the traditional thinking and understanding by using them to contrast kingdom values. When we read them we need the Holy Spirit to lead us to the truth relationally and experientially.
Matt 25:31 “But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; 33 and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left.
Matt 25:41 “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels 45 Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ 46 These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
“Eternal punishment” and into the eternal fire originally for the devil and his angels surely these must mean “hell” what else could it mean? The overall point of the parable is a warning that when Jesus is enthroned wrongly treating believers will result in the fire of Gehenna when Jerusalem is destroyed at the end of that age.
The destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in AD70 by fire was figuratively the fiery pit of literal Gehenna not “hell”. The words used in this parable have been used to validate the “hell” concept, so we need to know the true and literal meaning of the original words used.
Eternal, everlasting, forever, punishment, fire, torment, judgment, wrath. It is vitally important to understand the meaning of these words not just in this parable but in whole of the NT. These words can be translated differently depending on the paradigms used and if the root meanings are used rather than common idioms.
Using the direct meaning of the words we will see that they don’t mean eternal and they don’t have to mean retributive punishment. It is religious tradition that conditions us to believe in a “hell” that God uses to punish and torment His children forever.
We have been taught that there is eternal, everlasting, forever and ever judgment that results in God’s children being separated from Him in the fire of “hell” being punished as a result of the verdict of an angry unforgiving Judge. We will see that this deception is caused by the mistranslation and misinterpretation of the words eternal and punishment.
Heb 6:1 Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, 2 of instruction about baptisms and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.
Judgment – is often association with other words: justice, penal, penalty, punishment, condemnation, custodial sentence. Those words are man’s idea of judgment but do those words have to be associated with God’s judgment? If you have been before a judge or magistrate there will be a verdict given based on the evidence. You hope that verdict will be not guilty.
Judgment Greek krimatos, Krima, Krino means a decision, a verdict a discernment but not a punishment. The “Hell” concept assumes that God the judge’s verdict is everlasting damnation (torment) for the unredeemed lost and the eternal safety for the redeemed saved.
Krino – judge, decide, think good, to separate (distinguish), judge; come to a choice or decision by making a judgment. Judgement is to decide and select. There is no punishment indicated here contrary to religious opinion just a verdict.
Krisis decision declaration. Krima decision decree. Krino distinguish or decide. Judgment means to decide, determine, decree or declare. We are conditioned to assume that judgment must always bring punishment.
You must be found guilty to receive a negative judgment and be sentenced. Is there evidence against mankind that requires God to give us a custodial sentence? 2 Cor 5:19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
Col 1:13 When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, 14 having cancelled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
How can there be punishment if there is nothing held against us? If everyone has their transgressions taken out of the way and all debts are cancelled how can there be a negative judgement and eternal punishment. A sin behavioral focus came through the law but we are not under the law.
Rom 5:13 for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Rom 6:14 … for you are not under law but under grace. Heb 8:13 When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete.
When God as a righteous judge makes a verdict it does not come with condemnation it always comes with an opportunity to respond. God judges something wrong so we can choose something right. God’s judgment of our lives is always to bring life not death.
Dikaiokrisias just, righteous, impartial judgment is based on God’s love, mercy and grace. Justice is based on the finished work of the cross it does not excuse sin or mean there are no consequences for our behavior.
Age enduring judgment can therefore only be an opportunity for a continuing choice to except Jesus that never ends even by death. If anyone chooses death and not life, God respects their choice but never gives up on them.
Rom 2:5 But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God 6 who will render to each person according to his deeds. This seems to indicate an angry God.
Rom 2:5 A calloused heart that resists change accumulates cause to self-destruction, while God’s righteous judgment is revealed in broad daylight. (The gospel openly declares that God declared mankind innocent.) 6 By resisting him you are on your own; your own deeds will judge you.
Wrath orge anger, wrath, passion from oregomai violent passion. God has passionate feelings against the sin that so easily entangles us but not against us as His children. God is a consuming fire He is passionate against anything that robs us of our sonship identity.
God’s wrath, His passion will consume the sin not the sinner who is not guilty. Why do we assume that God would make a judgment and then take away our ability to respond to it? Because God has been wrongly portrayed as being angry and wanting to punish us forever.
Judgment krimatos Krima Krino. Judgment here was the discernment that makes a judicial verdict based on God’s precepts, character and nature based in love. There is no punishment! God’s judgment is always for life and not death because the lamb died before the foundation of the world.
God the judge is our Father and the evidence used is what Jesus did for and as us on the cross the verdict is not guilty. Reconciliation not separation. Restoration not retribution. God does not count our sins against us therefore there is no punishment but there are consequences and the consuming fire of His presence.
Eternal in English it means lasting or existing forever; without end. everlasting, never-ending, endless, without end, perpetual, undying, immortal, deathless, indestructible, imperishable, immutable, abiding, permanent, enduring, infinite, boundless, timeless.
Eternal Greek aioniou aionios – eon or age but there is no concept of without end, infinite or timeless. No focus on the future, but rather on the age (aiṓn) it relates to. Believers live in “eternal (aiṓnios) life” right now, experiencing the quality of God’s life now as a present possession.
In Greek, an age could refer to a generation, lifetime, or a longer, finite length of time. It’s where we get our word “eon” it is not infinite or eternal. It also correlates with the Hebrew word Yom, which denotes anything from a 24-hour period to an epoch or season.
Greek translations use the present tense of having eternal life now in John 3:36, 5:24, 6:47; Rom 6:23.). Aiōnios actually refers to the length of an age, “from age to age” or age enduring. Life that can be experienced continually and continuously now not just in the future.
If it does not mean eternal does that not diminish the life, we have in God? If it does not mean everlasting does that mean it can end? No, it only enhances it by not putting it off to the future and makes the quality and abundance of the life we have now the focus not the length.
Aionion Aiōnios never means eternal, forever or everlasting in relation anything yet alone to “hell” punishment or torment. This is a wrong interpretation influenced by a wrong view of God and the nature of His judgment associating it with punishment.
Aionion aionios is not translated eternal everlasting or forever in a literal bible version YLT. 0 eternal NASB 75. 1 everlasting NASB 110. 0 forever NASB 323. True meaning is therefore age enduring.
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16 but may have life age during YLT. Perish does not mean be punished but being in a state of lost identity.
John 3:16 The entire cosmos is the object of God’s affection! And he is not about to abandon his creation – the gift of his son is for humanity to realize their origin in him who mirrors their authentic birth – begotten not of flesh but of the Father! In this persuasion the life of the ages echoes within the individual and announces that the days of regret and sense of lost-ness are over!
John 17:3 This is eternal (age enduring) life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. This life is not the quantity of life but the quality of knowing who God really is through knowing who Jesus really is and therefore knowing our sonship identity in a wonderful love relationship.
Punishment Epitima, Timoreo. Epitima translated punishment actually means “to turn a situation in the right direction” – the fitting (appropriate) response necessary to turn someone in the right direction. 1 use 2 Cor 2:6 but it is not used in relation to “hell”.
Timoreo authorized to administer recompense, punishment – punishment, meted out from the view of the offended party. Greek word timória for punishment, penalty vengeance is never used in connection with God and even that word can mean rendering help or assistance. 1 use in Heb 10:29 but not in relation to hell.
Strongs translates kolazo as punishment but adds condemnation, damnation to the correct meaning. It is not condemnation or damnation this is religious Christianese Greek and not its real original meaning. The root word for punishment is actually derived from a word kolos that means to correct by pruning or restricting.
Punishment – kolasin kolazo Kolos. NASB lexicon Definition to lop or prune, as trees and wings to curb, check, restrain to chastise, correct, punishment. Strongs says chastisement, punishment it then adds torment, perhaps with the idea of deprivation.
Penalty of a punishment which brings torment or being restrained for disciplinary correction? Which idea better reflects God’s character and nature? Do you think God wants to punish or correct?
Heb 12:7 It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 11 All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.
If there is any sense of a period of punishment or torment in the afterlife as a result of our choice who administers it? Torment as a result of God’s punishment or anguish of soul and regret as a result of recognizing the consequences of our past behavior and choices. I would be more likely be tormented by my own stupidity as by God.
Sin is the loss of our identity and original image it does have its own consequences mostly now. Matt 18 parable unforgiveness brings torment or even torture now not in the future and not by God. God does hand a person over to the consequences of their own choices (Rom 1) but He does not torment.
Jewish thought viewed sin as self-inflicted judgment. In other words, when you sin, you inflict judgment upon yourself. Sin has its own reward living with no identity in anonymity without relationship with God is really “hell” on earth but not in the afterlife. Sin isn’t meaningless; it’s literally inviting “hell” into your life now living less than.
Any time we see the term “eternal life” in the New Testament, it should actually be translated as “life of the age”. It means that this phrase “eternal punishment” could more accurately be viewed as “discipline or correction for the length of the age“.
Matt 25:46 These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” A literal translation of could be. Matt 25:46 And these shall go away to age-during correcting discipline, but the righteous to age-during life.
This paints a very different picture than the one we are use to seeing. There is a huge difference between restorative punishment and retributive punishment. In the Western world judicial system, we operate based on retributive justice. An eye for an eye.
You commit a crime you are punished by going to jail or are fined. You murdered someone you are put to death or sent to jail for life. These punishments are not delivered positively they are not intended to rehabilitate or restore. An eye for an eye was to limit vengeance by people not to express God’s heart.
Punishments are society’s retribution upon the perpetrator, intended to punish and perhaps discourage others from wrongdoing for fear of punishment. Does this reflect the character and nature of God whose love is stronger than death? God desires reconciliation and restoration through what Jesus did on the cross not separation and punishment.
Eternal fire – Lake of fire of Revelation? In context of the parable this was fulfilled at the end the old age or covenant which goes into the fire figuratively to be transformed by fire into the new covenant. In its overall meaning it is the consumming fire of God’s passionate love which is stronger than death which now has no sting for mankind.
Fire Greek pyr or pur means fire, trials burning, fiery. Fire does not destroy it transforms or changes the objects form e.g. wood into smoke and ash. Pur is where we get our word purify purity. God is Himself described as a consumming fire that consumes the negative to reveal the positive refining by fire.
Heb 12:29 for our God is a consuming fire. Mal 3:2 “But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. 3 He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the Lord offerings in righteousness.
Matt 3:11 He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. To be baptized in fire would make no sense if it was to destroy us but to purify by refining is the more obvious meaning. We will all go through the of fires purification to restore us to our original design and identity as sons by removing anything that distorts that image.
1 Cor 3:12 Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. 14 If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. 15 If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.
1 Corinthians 3:13 Everyone’s work shall be tested in the scrutiny of real life; it shall be made apparent as in broad daylight just as gold is tested in fire: what you teach will either burn like stubble or shine like gold. (The revelation of mankind’s co-crucifixion and co-resurrection with Christ is the gold of the gospel!)
1 Corinthians 3:16-17 Realize that your life is God’s building; his sanctuary, designed for his permanent abode. His Spirit inhabits you! (He designed every cell in your body to accommodate and express him.) Just like fire would burn away the dross, any defilement of God’s temple would be destroyed in order to preserve human life as his permanent sanctuary.
The parable of the sheep and goats is not referring to “hell” as eternal punishment. It refers to the end of the old covenant age and this fire is limited until the old age is over. There is a fire which refers to the after life but it is for purifying and correcting and even those who rejected Jesus whilst alive still get to choose after death.
Fire of God’s consuming love. Experience the passion of God’s love that is stronger than death. A love that will not relent will not give up and will never let go of His children. Expressed in a river of fire, the judgment seat of fire, the fire stones, the fire of the altars, the passionate fire of God’s presence, your personal burning bush.
The wrong concept of “hell” has made fire something to be feared and to be avoided. We can embrace the consuming purifying correcting fire of God’s presence where we are all tested today. I have engaged all those places of fire in my personal experiences in the heavenly realms.
The fire consumes selfish motives and burns up our deepest regrets. There is fire in His eyes that penetrates deep into the very core of our beings with the most piercing passionate love. Let’s embrace the fire of God’s presence to consume everything that robs us from our identity and relationship
Close your eyes and begin to think of Jesus ask Him to take you into the fire of His presence. Let the passionate fire of His love consume you. Let the fire of love in His eyes penetrate deep into your soul.
Let the passionate fire of His love surround you baptise you in fire. Let the fire of His love consume everything that robs you hinders you or afflicts you. Let the fire of God’s love consume every bondage, chain or addiction. All guilt, shame, condemnation or fear .
Ask Jesus to take you to the river of fire. Ask Him to take you to the Judgment seat or the altar to engage the Seraphim.