Why was "Gehenna" changed to "Hell"?

[Mr E]

God isn't defining the lake of fire. Humans do.

They do it for their own aggrandizement and self-importance. The church does it.

In any other use except church-talk the words DEATH and FIRE have a clear and consistent meaning. When it comes to church types the meanings of those words are obfuscated and perverted so as to promote church membership and to keep it by fear mongering.

There is no such thing as eternal torment. In order to justify this perversion of spiritual and physical reality the words DEATH and FIRE must be twisted into something they do not normally mean.

DEATH isn't death, but some lingering form of existence EXCEPT that the true meaning of death is the absence of existence. If life is the experience of reality, then death is the absence of it.

For the grave cannot praise you, death cannot sing your praise; those who go down to the pit cannot hope for your faithfulness. (Isaiah 38:18)

Death - "a permanent cessation of all vital functions; the end of life." (Merriam-Webster dictionary)

Logically, if there is no function there is no life. If there is no awareness, there can be no appreciation of punishment or anything else.

FIRE doesn't destroy, according to church myth. It continually and constantly hurts those who are cast into it. In reality the true meaning of fire is that it destroys absolutely completely and for all time. That which is consumed by it never exists again in any form.

As Sodom and Gomorrah were overthrown, along with their neighboring towns,” says the LORD, “so no one will live there; no people will dwell in it. (Jeremiah 49:18)

In the above description we read that the five cities of the kingdom of Sodom were utterly destroyed without hope of rebirth parole or forgiveness - forever. Forever here means the condition of destruction will never be reversed, not that the act of destruction continues.

the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. (Luke 17:29)

Fire - "the oxidation of a combustable substance. A specific instance of change that destroys something." (online dictionary)

In order for the myth of eternal torment to be promoted as truth the very meaning of its basic description, fire and death, must be flipped into a lie of its original meaning.

Therefore the myth of hell is a lie of the church, inspired by financial aggrandizement and the continuation of church leadership.

There is no eternal torment, but there IS death. Death is common to all, meaning dogs cats plants and humans. Humans have NO advantage over animals or plants. It is the same for all.

Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless. (Ecclesiastes 3:19)

THIS IS WHY the Second Birth of the spirit of God is so adamantly insisted upon by Christ and the apostles. This is why they lived and died in the desire for this gift of God to be accepted by those who heard their speech and read their words.

There is no such thing as a human capacity to survive physical death, none whatsoever. When a human dies it dies just like any sick dog or cockroach. It is the spirit of God alone that give permanent life to those who accept it. '

Alas most humans will reject God's gracious offer. So be it. Let them die in their SINS.

that's me, hollering from the choir loft...

Yes, folks would do well to focus on the concept Jesus taught within the context he used it. He makes the association between this garbage dump, where in the past parents sacrifice their children in the tophet (fire) and the teachings of the religious leaders, which lead to this destruction. Do you see it? He's saying, what they are doing (teaching) is like what those parents were doing.... sacrificing the ones they were given charge of.

And the concept of the garbage dump, is much different than the orthodox Christian concept of hell. You can only really see it by comparison. It's like leaving Honolulu and waking up in Haiti.

 

[Davy]

Yes, folks would do well to focus on the concept Jesus taught within the context he used it. He makes the association between this garbage dump, where in the past parents sacrifice their children in the tophet (fire) and the teachings of the religious leaders, which lead to this destruction. Do you see it? He's saying, what they are doing (teaching) is like what those parents were doing.... sacrificing the ones they were given charge of.

And the concept of the garbage dump, is much different than the orthodox Christian concept of hell. You can only really see it by comparison. It's like leaving Honolulu and waking up in Haiti.

But the simple matter of what Lord Jesus taught about the "lake of fire", is that He simply used the perpetual burning garbage pit in the valley of Hinnom as a 'symbol' for the onetime future burning in the "lake of fire" at the end of His future "thousand years" reign. That valley just so happened to also be where Judah fell to paganism with sacrificing their children in the fire. So that doubles His use of that valley as a symbol for the future casting into the "lake of fire" that will destroy both body and soul.

 

[Mr E]

But the simple matter of what Lord Jesus taught about the "lake of fire", is that He simply used the perpetual burning garbage pit in the valley of Hinnom as a 'symbol' for the onetime future burning in the "lake of fire" at the end of His future "thousand years" reign. That valley just so happened to also be where Judah fell to paganism with sacrificing their children in the fire. So that doubles His use of that valley as a symbol for the future casting into the "lake of fire" that will destroy both body and soul.

Jesus never taught about 'the lake of fire' at all. If you are talking about John's vision in the book of the revelation of Jesus Christ-- it's John who is describing what he is seeing in spirit. Jesus is talking about what he is seeing, to the East and South of the temple mount. Gehenna was quite literally the place where children were sacrificed and burned in past times, and where refuse was thrown and burned in his day.

It doesn't "just happen" to be where those sacrifices took place. The association Jesus makes is purposeful. The valley isn't "a symbol" for the lake of fire. The lake of fire (John sees) is symbolic of the second death. We know this, because scripture makes the association for us directly, with complete clarity. It's not something we have to surmise. It's part of the key (legend of symbols) given to us.

Rev 20:14
This is the second death—the lake of fire.


No where does scripture record anyone (including Jesus) say-- Gehenna is the lake of fire. Gehenna is/was a burning pit.

At the end of an age, after the harvest- the weeds and thorns and thistles that were left to grow alongside the good seed are gathered up and burned. The branches that are not productive are cut off-- the tree is pruned and the debris is gathered and destroyed in the fire. From a 'farming basics' point of view- it's like burning the field to destroy the crop residue left behind after the growing season and subsequent harvest. It's an effective way to get rid of all that worthless debris, and it's good for the field. Christians seem to love to put some sort of dastardly spin on the concept-- making God a hateful tyrant set on revenge, rather than a good father, who set his son up with the family farm to manage.

And the harvesters are angels.

 

[Davy]

Jesus never taught about 'the lake of fire' at all.

Jesus DID warn about the future "lake of fire". He used the Valley of Hinnom as a symbol for it...

Matt 10:28
28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear Him Which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
KJV

NT:1067
geena (gheh'-en-nah); of Hebrew origin [OT:1516 and OT:2011]; valley of (the son of) Hinnom; ge-henna (or Ge-Hinnom), a valley of Jerusalem, used (figuratively) as a name for the place (or state) of everlasting punishment:
KJV - hell.
(Biblesoft's New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright © 1994, 2003, 2006, 2010 Biblesoft, Inc. and International Bible Translators, Inc.)

That is why it's important to look up the meanings for "hell" because it is not always about the same place in the manuscripts.

 

[Mr E]

Jesus DID warn about the future "lake of fire". He used the Valley of Hinnom as a symbol for it...

Matt 10:28
28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear Him Which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
KJV

NT:1067
geena (gheh'-en-nah); of Hebrew origin [OT:1516 and OT:2011]; valley of (the son of) Hinnom; ge-henna (or Ge-Hinnom), a valley of Jerusalem, used (figuratively) as a name for the place (or state) of everlasting punishment:
KJV - hell.
(Biblesoft's New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright © 1994, 2003, 2006, 2010 Biblesoft, Inc. and International Bible Translators, Inc.)

That is why it's important to look up the meanings for "hell" because it is not always about the same place in the manuscripts.

That's a ridiculous assertion you are making based on your feelings about the matter. Facts don't care about your feelings.

Gehenna is and was a real place. Jesus never spoke about a lake of fire-- not recorded in scripture. That's why it's important to let scripture and Jesus do the speaking for themselves.

 

[Davy]

That's a ridiculous assertion you are making based on your feelings about the matter. Facts don't care about your feelings.

Gehenna is and was a real place. Jesus never spoke about a lake of fire-- not recorded in scripture. That's why it's important to let scripture and Jesus do the speaking for themselves.

You obviously need to do more Bible study. You can't even verify using a simple tool like a Strong's Exhaustive Concordance to discover the actual manuscript words translated to English.

Jesus was pointing directly to the Old Testament Valley of Hinnom as a 'symbol' for the future "lake of fire" event at the end of Revelation 20...

Rev 20:13-15
13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
KJV


Welcome to my IGNORE LIST, because you are so Anti-Bible.

 

[Mr E]

If you want to understand the meaning of the concept of Gehenna, you need to keep it in context. You can't ignore what Jesus says and try to tell people that he meant something else. As with his teachings in parable-- there are two meanings, one earthly and physical, and the other heavenly and spiritual. The earthly, physical, lower meaning is always the lessor understanding of a higher, greater, spiritual reality. The concept of hell is no different.

When a person died physically, he likened it to 'going to sleep' --just a temporary condition that they would again awaken from. And God's power over physical death was demonstrated through him, just as it had been through prophets of old, like Elijah and the widow's son, or Elisha and the Shunammite's son.

The revelation of the risen Jesus Christ as recorded by John gives us greater context. John describes in detail what he sees and hears and what he is told in spirit, by the spirit of Jesus, and it's through this account that we are given understanding of a second death that doesn't relate to that first, physical, temporary condition. This second death, we are told is like a lake of fire, where souls judged and found lacking are consumed on the basis determined by how one lived their life. If you want to make the comparison-- this is the spiritual equivalent of Gehenna. In other words, Gehenna is that lessor, lower, physical representation of this spiritual lake of fire concept.

The concept is of fire-- which always represents and relates to judgment. Further the concept is one of being consumed like waste. Jesus makes this point clearly in scripture, like in Luke 3 where he says:

Even now the ax is laid at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”

And directly addressing the experts in the law and those hypocritical Pharisees he said-

By saying this you testify against yourselves that you are descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up then the measure of your ancestors! You snakes, you offspring of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to Gehenna?

 

[Ronald David Bruno]

Gehenna is an actual place in or by Jerusalem, right? So why was the proper name abandoned and replaced with "Hell"? Or am I misunderstanding - again? View attachment 32094

Hades, Hell ... not the same place!

Unbelieving souls go to Hades (the underworld, but separate from Tarturus, where the demons are) and await their final judgment. The second resurrection will involve the inhabitabts of Hades and they will be thrown into the Lake of Fire, which is Hell. Hades isn't Hell and that is a...

www.christianityboard.com

 

[quietthinker]

Why was "Gehenna" changed to "Hell"?​

Because KFC closed shop.

 

[ElieG12]

The image of the garbage dump in Jerusalem to illustrate the destruction of the wicked is appropriate for the simple reason that the Jews believed in a future kingdom where the dead would receive their pay. Due to this belief, they buried their dead in family tombs, where supposedly they would all be until the time of that kingdom. If a dead person did not receive a decent burial, it would be like casting that person into oblivion and depriving them of the right to receive any inheritance in the future "messianic" kingdom.

A dead person thrown into the dump is a dead person who is symbolically deprived of all hope.

Mat. 5:29,30 (...) it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to land in Gehenna.
... 10:28 (...) fear him who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.

 

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I can hear perfectly, so no need for your acting STUCK UP.

But it's OTHERS HERE that have no need for one to try to appear as a scholar, because they need to hear the SIMPLE truth, like I was saying.

So now, can you hear what I said?? The word 'lucifer' is NOT in the Hebrew, but from Latin.

Likewise the usage of 'hell' and 'hades' are references to Greek and Northern European myths. They were substituted in translations of the early Bible by Vatican sources so as to promote church membership. They remain in modern translations to this day for the same reason.

Hell comes from the root word 'hel', which is the name of a Nordic demigod. She was a mythical guardian of the gate to the underworld - the grave. In other words, the original reference to the word was of a PERSON, not a place.

Similarly, the word 'hades' is a reference to the Greek demigod who was also guardian of the underworld. He too is a pagan myth and a PERSON, not a place.

Google it.

Gehenna comes from Hebrew references to the city dump outside Jerusalem as well as the place of Molech, the pro-choice god of ancient abortionists. The fires of Molech and the city dump burned unabated. Babies tossed into the flames died an agonizing death, but they died nonetheless. None who were cast into the flames ever survived more than a few seconds. Modern abortionists have no god but their own hedonistic desire for convenience and sexual immorality. Meanwhile the post-modern church remains aloof to the issues both scriptural and political.

So which is it? Is the dogma of eternal torment based on pagan myth or church propaganda?

IS JESUS CHRIST REALLY THE MANAGER OF A SUBTERRANEAN TORTURE CHAMBER?
IS THE TRUE NATURE OF THE CHRISTIAN GOD THAT OF A SADIST?

It would seem so, since the people who claim to worship Him desire brutality and lies rather than mercy and truth.

that's me, hollering from the choir loft...