The idea held in many people’s brain about what hell is, is frankly quite misguided. So what are the common perceptions?

1. You go to hell when you die (if you don’t have your faith in Jesus).
2. Hell is a place where you go to be eternally tortured.
3. Hell is full of fire.
4. You are falling into a bottomless pit while worms eat your flesh eternally.

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Do People go to Hell? Point #1

These seem pretty cut and dry, however you could make that case against Matthew 10:28 & Luke 12:5 with the argument being “it’s not that He will throw you into hell, he just could. And you should fear (respect) Him for that”. Ok, so how about:

In these three sections we see that you could get thrown into hell.

The counter point would be:

“The encouragement to self-harm in the start of each verse leads us to conclude that the verses aren’t being literal. So then we must take this frame into the latter part of the sentence. Therefor: the ‘whole body being thrown into hell’ is still metaphorical.”

However, I would say that this rebuttal is actually in err. These verses are Jesus upping the anty on the Old Testament law (at least Matthew 5 is). This is where we get the “hate is murder” verse. As well as the idea of “you are liable to the court” (Matt 5:21) is persisted. And if you are guilty (liable to the court) you will be thrown into “fiery hell” (Matt 5:22).

Relevant verses:

However, the previous rebuttal isn’t entirely wrong. It is good to note how some things in the Bible are just teaching tools, and not meant literally.

So don’t go and gouge your eye out.

But on the other hand, these verses do tell us that hell is a real place! (Even if we are not sure what hell is.) And if gouging your eye out is what it would take to not go to hell, then get to poking! It would be worth it!

However, we know that:

So taking out your eye won’t help you. Only Jesus can.

But to answer the question - yes hell is a place you can go.

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Hell is a place where you go to be eternally tortured. Point #2

As I will explain here in the next point I don’t really like taking Revelation verses very literally. Considering the whole book is a vision of the future (most likely using metaphors) I think this is an acceptable stance to take.

However, even if we do take these verses literally, it’s only the devil, the beast, and the false prophet who will be tormented.

That being said, we do get a lot of talk about “weeping and gnashing of teeth” in the “outer darkness”, which we will take a look at when talking about the darkness in point 4.3 specifically.

Conclusion?

Yes you can go to hell, but as for what happens there we don’t have anything better to go off of than just imagery. See the point 3 for more details.

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Hell is full of fire. Point #3

3.1 Lake of Fire

We agree that the verses from point #1 aren’t to be taken word-for-word literally, so is “fiery hell”, “eternal fire”, “unquenchable fire”, and “where THEIR WORM DOES NOT DIE, AND THE FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED.” literal?

I think the point could be made that these are just being imagery tools similar to how “cutting off your hand” wasn’t being literal. So it’s time to pull in some more verses! Lots of our ideas of “lake of fire” and such come from Revelation:

Revelation 19:20, 20:10, 20:14 are talking about the beast, the devil, death, and Hades. It’s not until 20:15 that we get “anyone’s name … thrown into the lake of fire”. But if we start pulling from Revelation big warning bells should go off in your head, warning you that we are now in speculation land. This is because the future hasn’t happened yet and Revelation is drenched in metaphors. Because of the metaphors I think using Revelation 20:15 as a verse to claim that hell is a lake of fire is weak, because if we were taking that much liberty we could have just used Luke 16:19-31 (Parable of Lazarus). So let’s back up a book and take a look at Jude - another common book when talking about hell.

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3.2 Sodom and Gomorrah

Verse 6 is only talking about fallen angels. However verse 7 however could be saying the following; (edits made for clarity)

Sodom and Gomorrah & cities arround them are currently exhibited as an example in undergoing (currently) the punishment of eternal fire. eternal meaning unending

However this is possible as well:

Sodom and Gomorrah & cities arround them are currently exhibited as an example in read: of - meaning past undergoing the punishment of eternal fire. not literally eternal or that's just the name of God's fire

Similar to how we might say:

U.S. Navy Seals are exhibited as an example in undergoing the best training.

Where it doesn’t mean that the Navy Seals are currently undergoing the best training, but that they did undergo the best training. How we read “in” in that verses is very important!

Here are some edits of the verse to show this point.

[Normal - NASB] … are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.

[Edit 1 - Past tense] … are exhibited as an example of undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.

[Edit 2 - Present tense] … are exhibited as an example, undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.

Context verses:

I personally would think that it is intentioned to be the “Edit 1” version on past tense. This means that the “eternal fire” that Sodom and Gomorrah experienced was just the fire and brimstone during their destruction. One of the reasons I think this is because:

”… will be … ” - Does this mean that judgment day hasn’t yet arrived? (Yes)¹

Then how could Sodom and Gomorrah be an example of burning in hell without being judged yet?

This makes me think that Sodom and Gomorrah received some judgment and were burnt to a crisp (with eternal fire). But they haven’t been judged yet (and sent to hell). Meaning that in this verse they are just burning with non-hell eternal fire.

However the case for “Edit 2” would to bring in verse 6. If we do some chopping as to not get distracted, you end up with this:

6: And angels who did not keep their own domain <…> He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day,

7: just as Sodom and Gomorrah <…> are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.

So therefor if the angels are still in bonds, then Sodom and Gomorrah are still undergoing the punishment of eternal fire. If this doesn’t make sense yet here’s the basic syntax of the verses:

{group 1} {status 1} just as {group 2} {status 2}

Where

Group 1 = Fallen Angels
Status 1 = In eternal bonds under darkness

Group 2 = Sodom and Gomorrah
Status 2 = Undergoing the punishment of eternal fire

We would assume that status 1 and status 2 are the same duration.

But if we look at Strong’s concordance we get some support for “Edit 1”. “Are exhibited” is Strong’s: 4295 which says:

Set forth.

From pro and keimai; to lie before the view, i.e. (figuratively) to be present (to the mind), to stand forth (as an example or reward) — be first, set before (forth).

Then “in undergoing” which is Strong’s 5254.

suffer.

From hupo and echo; to hold oneself under, i.e. Endure with patience — suffer.

Word 5254 appears to have some sense of “present tense” but not enough to change my argument where the “present tense” nature is referring to the tense of the example.

All this to say; it is an example that is used currently, of an event that happened in the past.

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3.3 Snatched out of the fire

I would call this metaphorical fire as well.

I say this considering that it’s not us (or the people who Jude is writing to)‘s job to do the “snatching” in “snatching them out of the fire”. That’s God’s job. We can just participate in His plan.² Therefor if the “snatching” is more of an image for us - the reader - as a call to action, that would imply that the “fire” could just be imagery as well.

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3.4 Other Verses

Other verse which the same logic can be applied to. These don’t really go against my previous points but I figured it would be good to be through.

There are also several verses in 1 Enoch that talk about fire in hell. I’m not observing the Book of Enoch as cannon so I’m not including them here. But it’s was worth mentioning that they exist.

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Maggots & Eternal Pits of Darkness. Point #4

4.1 Maggots / Worms

I’m not too sure what to do with these verses. Isaiah is probably just imagery, considering this is a prophesy of the ends times.³ And in Mark it would seem that he’s just driving home the idea of hell = bad.

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4.2 (Outer) Darkness

This is how I read verses 12-13:

These are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves;

[ They are like: ]

Thing	That Is
clouds without water	carried along by winds
autumn trees without fruit	doubly dead, uprooted
wild waves of the sea	casting up their own shame like foam
wandering stars	for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever

And since angels (and Jesus? it gets confusing) are sometimes referred to as stars (Numbers 24:17, Job 38:7, Isaiah 14:12, Revelation 8:10-11, Revelation 9:1, Revelation 22:16), and with the context of Jude 1:6 (same chapter)(angels kept in darkness) and 2 Peter 2:4 (angels kept in darkness), I would say that verse 13 is about fallen angels.

So it would appear that these verse are just about angels, and we can discard them for our purposes.

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Jesus talking to the centurion:

Parable of the wedding feast:

The ending of the parable of the talents ends the same:

It would appear that “outer darkness” and “weeping and gnashing of teeth” are very closely related. As such, we will look at them together in the following point.

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4.3 Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth

Jesus is talking to the centurion, then seemingly randomly drops this:

Then, After explaining how the “reapers” will gather the people, separate the “wheat” from the “tares”, and cast the “tares” into the furnace.

Then for the next few verses He sextuples-down on the point, ending with:

Parable of the wedding feast:

Here the weeping and gnashing of teeth seems like an odd juxtaposition to the wedding feast. Almost making it feel like the “weeding and gnashing of teeth” is a interruption from the story into the real world.

Jesus starts by saying:

Then the wedding guest that wasn’t prepared, which would appear to convey the same message as the following:

The wedding guest was not on the alert. The day of the Lord came (the wedding), he was not prepared (dressed), and was thrown into the outer darkness.

Here again Jesus is talking about slaves who’s master is away for a while:

Here we see again: unprepared ➞ thrown into the place of weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Parable of the 10 virgins ends nearly the same, but just doesn’t mention “weeping and gnashing of teeth”.

The ending of the parable of the talents ends the same:

Then our only non-Matthew mention of it:

All of these verses remind me of:

but that would probably be a paper for another time. Relating the Old Testament to the New.

I don’t think that I nor anyone else will be able to decipher exactly what “weeping and gnashing of teeth” literally is, but we do know that “weeping and gnashing of teeth” more or less just means “extreme anguish”. So while this isn’t “torture” like point #2 was about, it sounds like it would be torturous.

And the avoidance of this torturous end is being ready, “for you do not know the day nor the hour” (Matthew 25:13).

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4.4 Bottomless Pits

These ideas of a “bottomless” pit probably come from the Book of Enoch⁴, as I don’t see this idea in the Bible anywhere. I don’t personally see the Book(s) of Enoch as cannon, thus why I don’t have references in the other points to it. However, since this is the only place I see this particular idea mentioned, we will take a look at Enoch for this point.

Then, the following verse sound similar to Jude 1:6:

So it would seem 1 Enoch lines up with Jude 1 and 2 Peter 2.

So does that mean we can use it as a source?

I’m not going to (even though it is interesting!), but you would have to decide for yourself.

It’s worth noting that even if we are using the book of 1 Enoch as a source, 1 Enoch 7:19-20 says this:

So people wouldn’t (or at least aren’t yet) thrown into pits. Just angels.

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Conclusions / TL;DR

We started with these questions:

1. You go to hell when you die (if you don’t have your faith in Jesus).
2. Hell is a place where you go to be eternally tortured.
3. Hell is full of fire.
4. You are falling into a bottomless pit while worms eat your flesh eternally.

And ended with these answers

1. Yes.
2. Not really tortured by an entity, but rather everything sucks.
3. Probably not, still possible though.
4. No.

Footnotes

1. 2 Peter 2:4 says fallen angels are “reserved for judgment”. Matthew 10:15 says “it will be … in the day of judgment”. ↩

2. From the point of pseudo-free will. Explaining this will require a whole other paper. ↩

3. Perhaps worth noting that 2 Enoch 2:11 mentions worms similarly to how Isaiah 14:11 does. Also worth noting that chapter 2’s title is “The Second Parable”. And parables are just teaching tools, imagery. ↩

4. I’m using this version of the Book of Enoch. ↩

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