458 Clothman Goes to Hell Part 3
I used to believe in Santa Claus, but not any more.
Despite the alleged fact that he annually enters every home in the world, I’ve seen fewer pictures of Santa then I have UFO’s. Satellites surround the globe yet they’ve never spotted him or his home in the North Pole. But what clinched it for me was when my older brother placed the tag on Santa’s present next to a note my mother had written. The hand writing was an exact match.
I used to believe in a literal, eternal hell, but not any more.
Some years ago I started to look for hell in earnest because things weren’t adding up. Much of scripture seemed to contradict a literal hell. Hell caused Christianity to be based upon fear more than faith. And I never could reconcile how a loving God could send most humans to an eternal torment. Talk about putting a damper on Christmas. It’s hard to celebrate when most people are still doomed.
Imagine my shock and indeed delight when I found that hell isn’t any more real than Santa Claus. It is impossible to distill years of study into a couple of paragraphs but here are some highlights.
My first discovery was that the English word hell is used 54 times in the King James Version (KJV) Bible but only 14 in the New International Version (NIV). Get this, in the Old Testament hell appears 31 times in the KJV, but not even once in the NIV. “Where in the hell is hell,” I barked out loud.
For centuries English Bibles mistranslated the Hebrew word Sheol as hell when it simply meant the grave or place of the dead – a place where everyone goes. New translations like the NIV have corrected this awful blunder. And after exploring the verses related to God’s wrath and anger I found that hell is nowhere in the Old Testament. Hello, that’s like three fourths of the Christian Bible!
Of the 14 places where hell is used in the NIV, 12 are translating the New Testament word Gehenna. Gehenna is the Greek name for the Valley of Hinnom just outside the southwest gate of Jerusalem. It has an evil history. There, under King Ahaz, Israelites worshiped the god Molech and burned little children as sacrifices to him. King Josiah ended this evil and cursed the place. From then on, including in the days of Jesus, it became an ever-burning garbage dump for the city of Jerusalem.
All but one of the uses of Gehenna are when Jesus is referring to this nasty dump to shock his listeners into paying attention. For example when he said (tongue in cheek), “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell (Gehenna), where the fire never goes out” (Mark 9:43-44).
So when Jesus said Gehenna (or Hinnom) his listeners instantly visualized this burning valley with its constant haze of dank smoke lingering over it. Our concept of hell would never have occurred to them.
If hell didn’t occur to them, then why does it occur to us? Like Sheol, English Bibles have wrongly changed Gehenna to Hell - a concept from Greek mythology. I predict that future translations will correct this too and not contain any use of the word hell. Why? Because hell is not in the Bible. Yes, I’ve studied the other New Testament passages that speak about judgment, wrath, weeping and gnashing of teeth, etc.; yet I still didn’t find hell. I’ve concluded that hell is a terrible, terrible myth.
For many of you this comes as a huge relief and confirmation. For others this has made you stare at my words in total shock. And for still others, this has really made you mad. As one who believed in and taught hell for over two decades, I been in all three places. I suggest you study hell for yourself.
The Santa Claus myth is basically harmless, despite retailers shamelessly using him to hawk their wares. Hell is not. It creates fear, doubt, exclusion, anger and a false view of God. It wasn’t until I realized hell was a myth that the dark cloud that hung over Christmas was finally removed. Now Christmas is about Jesus being born to save all people. Joy to the world, the Lord has come.
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