Hell is a Christian Hoax
L. Ray Smith debunks the Christian doctrine of an eternal hell while giving a Scriptural critique and commentary on New York Times best selling book:
"23 Minutes in Hell" By Bill Wiese
Bill Wiese says the grotesque monster pictured above is exactly like one he saw in his recent visit to hell. Bill says that millions of demons in hell torture billions of people for all eternity. Thank God that such creatures nowhere exist but in the troubled minds of some Christian opportunists who prey on people's fears.
The Scriptures know nothing of any such hideous monsters assigned to torture most of humanity for all eternity. The Apostle Peter warned that in the last days "false teachers" would bring into the Church, what he called "damnable heresies" (II Pet. 2:1).
There is no doctrine on earth that is more false or more damnable than the Christianized pagan doctrine of endless torture for which there is no redeeming value or purpose whatsoever.
I couldn't count the number of times I have been sent a link or an admonition to view or read "23 Minutes in Hell" authored by Bill Wiese. I have been warned that because I utterly reject their teaching that God will torture most of humanity in such an hell, that one day I will end up in this very hell that Bill describes in his book. They have assured me that I will then believe in their God-forsaken hell-hole of Satanic terrorism.
I am not alone, however, in condemning this godless, insane concept of God's Judgment.
What my detractors fail to understand or at least fail to teach, is that there are literally hundreds of divinely inspired Scriptures that teach the ultimate salvation of all humanity, which will leave no one to be subjected to an eternity of insane torture. The only source that can be used to know whether there is a God Who will impart a future life of immortality to all of His creatures is the Holy Scriptures.
The Church teaches that God's "desire" to save all (I Tim. 2:4) is but a weak and unattainable wish. Man's supposed "free will," is what prevents most of humanity from choosing God as his Saviour, and so most cannot be saved. This, however, is utter unscriptural nonsense, which we will examine throughout this paper.
And so, with great enthusiasm, I am told that soon it will be too late for me (there is apparently a strict timeline in which one must either be saved or lost forever). I have been warned that I (and ultimately most of humanity) will soon have my eternal destiny irrevocably sealed and sentenced to the fire pits of hell, with zero chance of any future redemption.
My teaching of the Scriptures that Jesus not only is "the Saviour of the world" (I John 4:14), but that He will ultimately save the world, is reason enough for Christian theologians to condemn me to hell.
IS THERE A LITERAL PLACE OF PUNISHMENT CALLED HELL? IS THE PUNISHMENT OF THIS HELL EVERLASTING-ETERNAL?
Many Christians have a very strong opinion of things that they know virtually nothing about. Hundreds of times I have been told that "hell" is a literal place of literal fire which is everlasting or eternal. They have no proof of any such thing. Time and again I am told: "The Bible is LITERAL, Ray. You have to take it literally." Oh really, and do they even believe their own words?
Let's see if you believe the Bible teaches a literal hell of literal fire that lasts literally for eternity.
If there are Scriptures that clearly show that "hell fire" is not literal nor eternal, then how can there also be contradicting Scriptures which would suggest that "hell fire" is literal and is eternal? Hell fire cannot be both literal and eternal at one place in the Scriptures, but then it is also figurative and temporary at another place in the Scriptures. It is either one or the other, it cannot be both.
Let's look at a few examples from no less an authority on this subject than Jesus Christ Himself (Note: All quotations of Jesus in this paper will appear in red type).
"You have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shall not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looks on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart.
And if your right eye offend you, pluck it out, and cast it from you: for it is profitable for you that one of your members should perish, and not that your whole body should be cast into hell.
And if your right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from you: for it is profitable for you that one of your members should perish, and not that your whole body should be cast into hell" (Matt. 5:27-30).
Mark's account adds these words:
"...into hell fire...where their worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched. For EVERY ONE shall be salted with fire..." (Mark 9:48-49).
And this includes you and me, (Matt. 3:11 & I Pet. 4:12).
From just this one teaching of Jesus we can know absolutely whether "hell fire" is literal and whether it is everlasting or eternal.
Let's pay close attention to just one statement from Jesus that should help everyone to see that this is figurative language that teaches us a great spiritual truth. Jesus did not say what most Christians think He said.
Jesus did not say: "And if your eye offends you, repent of your lust or God will cast you into an hell of immortal worms and everlasting fire which will never stop burning."
But that is what most Christians think Jesus meant even if He didn't actually say it. Nonsense.
"And if your eye offend you..."
This word "offend" means: "to entice you to sin" (Strong's Greek Dictionary).
Now then, is it even "literally" possible for a physical organ of the body to be the cause of a moral or spiritual sin? No, it is not possible. Lusting after a woman does not have its origin in the eyes but rather in the heart.
"...whosoever looks ( with the eyes) on a woman to lust ( in his heart, not in his eyes) after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart."
The lust of the eyes is itself a "figure of speech." We "look" with our eyes, but we "lust" with our heart. And the "heart" in Scripture virtually never means the organ of the body which pumps blood. The "heart" in Scripture is the inner most man, the seat of emotions and passions, conscience, and moral character. No physical organ of the body has even one of these spiritual attributes. More proof:
"For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders" (Mark 7:21).
Did you notice that "looking on a woman to lust after her" IS adultery, and it comes not from the eyes, but from the heart. So then, is this teaching in Matt. 5:27-30, literal, or figurative? It is figurative. More proof...
Here's what Jesus said to do if one finds himself looking at a woman to lust after her:
"...if your right eye offend you ( entices you to sin) pluck it out ... if your right hand offend you cut it off..."
What? "Pluck it out ... cut it off?"
And lying two-faced hypocritical theologians tell us that the Bible must be taken "literally?" That both hell and hell fire are "literal?" That we are to pluck out our eyes and cut off our hands and feet, literally? Are they crazy?
If this teaching on hell by Jesus Christ is to be taken literally, how come you don't see millions and millions of Christians around the world having NO EYES, AND NO FEET, AND NO HANDS? Is there even one Christian in a billion that takes these Scriptures literally when it comes to putting their money where their mouth is? No, their failure to "literally" follow Jesus' command belies their assertion that virtually all of the Bible and the teachings of Jesus are "literal."
But what about the "worms that don't die," and the "fire never quenched?" Simple: Jesus never used the words "hell fire."
Two things we should never find in a Bible: ( 1) The old Anglo Saxon word "hell," and ( 2) any word denoting "endless time," as in "for ever AND ever," "everlasting," or "eternal." There is no such equivalent in any Hebrew or Greek manuscripts of the Holy Scriptures.
Furthermore, if "for ever" means an eternity, what pray tell does "for ever AND EVER" mean? Multiple eternities? How many eternities are there?
The first place that "hell fire" appears in the Greek New Testament is in Matt. 5:22. Virtually all Bibles with a center reference will refer you to the marginal note on "hell" where it says, "Greek: Gehenna." And Gehenna is Greek for the Hebrew word "Hinnom" or "Valley of Hinnom," which is found outside the city walls of Jerusalem on the south side.
You can, if you wish, take a stroll through hell in Jerusalem - it is now part of a city park. In the time of Christ's ministry this valley was the Jerusalem city garbage dump, and for centuries, as long as garbage was thrown into it, the fires kept burning and the worms which ate the garbage didn't die out - they kept reproducing, year after year after year.
The only way ... the ONLY WAY, that any Christian can claim that hell, hell fire, immortal worms, never-ending fire, eternal torture, etc., can be literal is if we take everything literally that Jesus said regarding hell (Gehenna fire). You cannot separate what Jesus says MUST be done to avoid having, "...your whole body cast into hell ( Gehenna) , from what Christians say hell is. In other words, you cannot avoid a LITERAL HELL by performing a FIGURATIVE action.
Jesus did not say: "If your right literal eye literally offends you, FIGURATIVELY pluck your literal eye out..." But that's the kind of insane theological poppycock that is peddled from the pulpits.
How is it possible to "figuratively" pluck out one's eyes, and cut off one's hands and feet to avoid a "literal" eternal hell fire, and then insist that the words of Jesus and most of the Bible must be taken literally?
Why do you stand for such utter and unscriptural nonsense? Why would you want to continue defending such illogical ignorant enemies of God's Word? You would never stand for such a travesty, such a miscarriage, such a violation of sound scholarship in any other area of your life, save when it comes to religion.