The Misunderstood Hell

Chapter 6 - Translating Judgment

Oh, but there are definite consequences. I won't drudge up the roots of where the escapism teaching came from in Christianity right now, but rest assured, what you do here matters. While Jesus saved you from having to endure judgment in the unseen realm (Hell), He did not die so they you could do whatever you like. He died to help you kill the root of your sin so that you could be a more kind person, living in His ways and spreading His love to others. God would be an unloving Father if He hadn't built in consequences for sin in this life to discourage it. We know this from studies on kids who aren't punished growing up. As adults, there hell on wheels, and they often end up in prison. This is not an uncommon trend among children who don't have a father or have an absentee father.

“Sing unto Him a new song. ...He loveth righteousness and judgment (justice): the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.” (Ps 33:3-5 KJV)

Eternal judgment is how the Bible describes Hell. But if judgment is correctional, how can it be eternal? Well, as we saw in the previous chapter, eternal isn't a duration but rather a location and a time period. Eternal Judgment isn't eternal because it is correctional, and it takes place after we die. Regular judgment takes place while we're alive.

PUNISHMENT

Now that we see judgment is a good thing, and something to be desired, let's take a look at the other word used to describe Hell.

Punishment.

This is another word that people recoil at when they hear it in regard to their self. No one wants to be punished. It's not a fun experience. It means they did something "wrong." Some people heap shame on their self when they break a rule or get punished. And more shame means more control by the enemy.

So did the Ancient Hebrews actually write the word punishment? Or is it a slightly different concept in their language?

Hebrew words are centered around their root. The root of the word we translate as "punishment" is "to prune." So, just like judgment, the word punishment means pruning, not vengeful punishment.

Pruning is a wonderful part of life that's helpful and often hurts.

As humans, we inherit the roots of our parents' issues. We are shaped by our society and the events that occur in our life, as well as the way our parents raise us.

The deck is stacked against us from the beginning, and none of that is our fault or our choice. We are thrust into it seemingly against our will. We'll deal with that issue later, but for now, it's important to understand that pruning is something virtually every parent does to their child because they love them and they want to help them grow and mature into a happy, healthy, well-adjusted adult.

It's time we stop looking at "punishment" in the Bible as a fearful, shameful thing and start seeing it as a loving action from a loving Father.

Again, if God had not built consequences into life for our harmful actions in order to deter us from them and push us toward loving behaviors, He wouldn't be a good Father and we would turn out as horrible adults who cause a lot of pain to ourselves and those around us.

A CORRECTIONAL HELL

Now that we see what judgment and punishment mean to the Ancient Hebrews, what did those words mean in the Koine Greek in which the New Testament was written? Exactly the same thing: pruning; correction.

The Greek word for punishment is kolasis. William Barclay, a renowned 19th Century scholar, says of kolasis:

"I think it is true to say that in all Greek secular liturature, kolasis is never used of anything but remedial punishment."

Strong's Concordance on BibleHub.com defines kolasis the following way:

Strong's 2851 - kolasis: correction
Original Word: κόλασις, εως, ἡ
Definition: correction
Usage: chastisement, punishment, torment, perhaps with the idea of deprivation.

Don't forget that Strong's lists the different meanings of words by what translators have translated them as in the past. So while the first definition is often the Koine Greek or Hebrew definition of the word, the definitions following that one are often variations of how the word has been used by translators. As we've seen, translators are not always correct when they use certain definitions for words from another language, especially a language so old as Koine Greek or Ancient Hebrew. One must understand the culture and beliefs very well back then in order to translate properly and there is much we still don't know about the Ancient Greek culture.

But regardless of that, we see here that the meaning of kolasis is correction.

Two phrases were used in Jesus' time to describe an eternal Hell. Jesus used neither of those phrases. He used a very specific description of Hell that defined it as both temporary and correctional.

If Jesus wanted to convey an eternal Hell, why didn't He use the most common terminology of His day to describe it? Why use terms distinctly denoting temporary and correctional?

And again, how can correction last forever? It simply can't or it's not correction, it's vengeful punishment, which is a different word altogether in Koine Greek. Correction has to reach completion at some point or it's not really correction.

Annihilationists say that the unsaved will go to Hell and suffer an amount equal to the sin they committed on Earth, then blink out of existence. But why would God correct someone in Hell, rehabilitating them into someone who will not sin again, and then just annihilate them from existence? What's the point in that, and how is that fair or just?

CHURCH FATHERS

Another interesting fact to take note of is that many of the Greek Church Fathers believed Hell was temporary and was for the purpose of "purifying" (correcting) people. They were native Greek speakers. If the phrase Jesus used couldn't mean temporary correction, they would not have believed that Hell was temporary or for correctional purposes.

The Latin Church Fathers, on the other hand, didn't speak Greek as their native language. In fact, Augustine said he didn't like Greek and didn't understand it very well, yet he was the main reason for eternal conscious torment in Hell becoming accepted by most Christians (excluding Nestorians). It's safe to say I'm not fond of what Augustine did. He is responsible for misleading billions of Christians over the years and heaping all kinds of fear and shame on them, the components with which the enemy controls us. That's a big problem. Had Augustine underetood Greek well, he would have likely understood that Hell was not eternal.

God knows what He's doing, though, so there is a very good reason the world was and still is convinced of the lie of an eternal Hell. We'll save that for a later chapter, though.

In the next chapter, we'll look at a curious law in the Old Testament and it's relation to God's character and who's to blame for sin on Earth.

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