Heaven and Hell

"If you recall the parable [of the rich man and Lazarus] the lesson would be that if we are patient and humble and kind and loving, like Lazarus, we will end up in Heaven, in the bosom of Abraham. This signifies that we are in the realm of God; or better, in the presence of God. A presence full of life, full of love, full of joy. But there is, of course, a problem in having that perspective, of doing good things and going up to heaven: namely, that it is excessively individualistic. It presents the believer with the image of, 'it's just you and God'. It can be very selfish. If it's just you and God, then you don't care about others. But above all, it is a serious narrowing of what the Gospel is about. This is not to say that being good is not part of what the Gospel demands -- indeed, in the Bible, the Lord commands, 'Turn from evil and do good'. But the Gospel, in it's essential meaning, and content, has to do with what God has accomplished in the person and ministry of Christ. And what did he accomplish? God, in Christ and the Holy Spirit, unleashed the powers of his kingdom, defeating the forces of evil, and inaugurating a new creation. So God is conducting a rescue operation of humanity. It is not 'my soul' and 'your soul', God is trying to rescue his whole creation from the powers of evil." - Fr. Theodore Steropolous

Location vs Condition

• The idea that God is an angry Lord who sends those He condemns to a place called Hell, where they spend eternity being tortured, is an idea which is absent from the Bible. Heaven and Hell are real, but they are not physical places. They are states of being, and both conditions exist in the presence of God.

• • In Western Christianity, both Roman Catholicism and most of Protestantism, the afterlife is thought of as a location -- either Heaven or Hell. Hell is where God punishes the wicked and where they are cut off from the Kingdom of Heaven. However, this concept of Hell does not occur in the Bible, not does it exist in the original language of scripture.

• • Although the scripture describes "gnashing of teeth", that is torment for the wicked (Luke 13:28), it is not a separate destination. Everyone will be in the presence of God in the afterlife, and it is that presence which will bring about either eternal suffering or eternal happiness.

Afterlife in the Old Testament

• Sheol
  • Translated as "Hell" in many instances. This Hebrew word is a proper noun, and so it should never have been translated, but should have been transliterated as with other names. It's literal meaning is "subterranean retreat". It was not understood as a physical place, but as a spiritual state of being associated with those who have died. According to the ancient Hebrews, Sheol was where everyone went when they died, whether they were righteous or wicked.

• Bible scholars translated Sheol as "Hell" in places where it referred to the wicked, but translated it as "pit" or "grave" when not speaking of the wicked. This confuses anyone who is trying to understand the scripture.
  • In historic Jewish understanding the same "place", Sheol, is experienced by the righteous as a paradise (gen eiden), and experienced by the wicked as a punishment ("fires of gehennom"). According to the Jews, the thing that causes each person, whether righteous or wicked, to experience the same place as either paradise or punishment, is the presence of God, because God dwells everywhere and is in all things. There is nowhere apart from God. "The light of the final parousia of the Lord, which is delight to the righteous, is torture to the damned." - Gregory the Theologian

• Consider the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in Daniel 3. Nebuchadnezzar had them thrown into the fiery furnace heated "seven times more". The number seven is symbolic of the "furnace" of heaven, i.e., the dwelling place of God. Shadrach, Mechach and Abednego were unharmed by the fire while one "like the Son of God" was with them. Yet, those same flames of fire killed the king's mightiest soldiers. This is a typology of the afterlife, where the righteous experience God's presence as light and warmth, but the wicked experience it as pain and destruction.

See Also

Eschatology