Although the preaching and the teaching of hell have often been extensive in the history of the visible church, what the Bible says concerning hell is it is rarely mentioned by the early followers of Jesus. Of the twenty-three times the word hell is cited in the New Testament, Paul, the author of almost half of the New Testament, never makes a reference to it. In the gospel of John, which many call the most spiritual of the gospels, the term hell is also not found. James referred to hell only once. Peter also used the term only one time, although in quoting David he used it two additional times. What the Bible says concerning hell is that apart from the gospels and the quoting of David, hell is cited only six times. In all the letters written by the early followers of Jesus that have come down to us, it is mentioned only two times.

What the Bible says concerning hell is recorded in the first message of a follower of Jesus.

The first clue to what the Bible says concerning hell, according to the early followers of Jesus, is found in the first recorded message of the early believers. Peter, explaining what had just occurred on the first Feast of Pentecost after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, quoted David to illustrate the power of the Holy Spirit they had just experienced:

For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved: Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope: Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance. (Acts 2:25-28)

Peter said (quoting Psalm 16), “Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope” (Acts 2:26). The one speaking these words, according to David, is in hell (Acts 2:27). In the midst of hell, it seems he is not experiencing the effects of hell but experiencing the heart rejoicing, the tongue glad, and the flesh resting in hope. Only the power of the Holy Spirit can produce that witness in the apprehensions of hell.

What the Bible says concerning hell reveals my faulty concept.

Of course, according to the concept of hell that I was taught, this just did not make sense. How could he be in hell when hell was only in the next life? Could I have been taught wrong? Did I actually have a faulty concept of what I understood hell to be? I needed to know what the Bible says concerning hell.

I must admit I was shocked, based upon my fundamental, conservative background, to learn that the actual English word hell is not a literal translation of the original word nor a transliteration (the original Greek word carried over into the English). To the best of my understanding now, the actually English word hell was supplied as an interpretation by the church of the middle ages.

We need to explore the words of David a little deeper to see what the Bible says concerning hell. David said, “I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved” (Acts 2:25). David, as with Jesus and all who believe on his name, would not waver, be agitated, or disturbed when the circumstances of life were such that the external world around him was crumbling. Because the Lord was always before him and was his source of strength, the believer would not waver even though he was experiencing hell.

With his life in hell, David said the heart would rejoice (Acts 2:26,27). With the word rejoice meaning “to put in a good frame of mind,” the power of the Holy Spirit can be seen at work in a believer. A new way of speaking, a new way of seeing, and a new way of thinking would enable the believer to know what is transpiring in life. The ways of life, the mystery of experiencing life when everything around him including his flesh is experiencing death, is being revealed. The gates of hell are faced everyday in the circumstances of life but these circumstances do not have to control the believer’s life.

Each of these events, of which there will be many in the course of life, is a baptism of the Holy Spirit. According to Jesus (Acts 1:8), the Holy Spirit would be given to the believers to enable them to navigate these experiences of life successfully. These events are “the seedtime and the harvest” that continually occur in the human species. Being a created entity, they join with the rest of the created world in experiencing how God refreshes his presence in the created world. In other words, you cannot get the bloom of the flower without the planting of the seed. It is in the planting of the seeds of our life that the possibility of hell exists.

In hell, the speech of the believer is glad (literally, “to jump for joy”). Not that he is rejoicing in the pains of death, but knowing that his “light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for [him] a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (2 Cor. 4:17). What the Bible says concerning hell is that the power of the Spirit can turn pain into gain. Although he is in hell, the believer’s “flesh rest[ed] in hope.” Understanding the ways of life, the believer knows that he will soon experience the unadulterated life of God. He will stand again. He will stand in the power of being raised to newness of life by the power of this baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Again, David said this would happen because the Lord of glory, the Lord of life, had “made known to [him] the ways of life; [the Lord] shalt make [him] full of joy with [the Lord’s] countenance” (Acts 2:28). Beholding the face of the Lord, the believer will be changed to a new way of speaking, a new way of seeing, and a new way of thinking by the power of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 2:18). Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is always freedom from the pains of death and hell.

Recorded Scriptures reveal the reality of what the Bible says concerning hell.

It is Jesus that does most of the teaching about hell. Of the twenty-three times the English word hell is found in the New Testament, sixteen of those twenty-three are cited by Jesus. In the three gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus made a reference to hell fifteen times. There are three distinct Greek words that are translated twenty-three times by the one English word hell: Haides (ten times, which means, “properly, unseen, i.e. Hades“), Tartaros (one time, which means, “the deepest abyss of Hades), and Gehenna (twelve time, meaning, “valley of [the son of] Hinnom; a valley south of Jerusalem). Jesus used Gehenna eleven out of the sixteen times he made references to hell.

Gehenna is a Greek word that is of Hebrew origin and it has reference to a valley south of Jerusalem. In the time of the kings, Ahaz and Manasseh, of Judah, children were sacrificed as burnt offering to the pagan god Molech in this valley. Jeremiah prophesied that God would judge this practice and “the Valley of the Son of Hinnom” would become known as “the Valley of Slaughter.”

By the time of Jesus, the Valley of Hinnom was used as a garbage dump for Jerusalem. Refuse, waste materials, and the carcasses of dead animals were taken there to be burned. Fires continually blazed or smoldered. Smoke from the burning trash rose day and night. The Valley of Slaughter, the Valley of Hinnom (Gehenna in the Greek), became a graphic symbol of woe and judgment where the fire is never quenched and the worm (maggot) never dies.

What the Bible says concerning hell is that it is real.

Although Jesus used the term hell more than all the other New Testament writers put together, it is James, the Lord’s brother, that gave the most graphic description of hell (James 3). According to James, it is the tongue of man being controlled by his mind, dwelling as in the garbage dump of the Valley of Hinnom (Gehenna), that is “an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.” The tongue out of control will always defile the basic relationships between people. It is, also, destructive to an individual’s body. As James would later say the weeping and the miseries of this hell would “eat your flesh as it were fire.” To the question, “Is hell real,” James would say an astounding “Yes.”

James took his description of hell even further. He implied that as the rider turns the horse by the bridle and as the captain turns the ship by the rudder, the mind turns social interactions by the tongue. The bridle is controlled by the rider, the rudder is controlled by the helmsman, and the tongue is controlled by the mind. Therefore, out of a mind burning with the fires of the trash bins the mouth speaks destructive words that offend and maim.

It is also these raging fires of “bitter envying and strife” (James 3:14) that speaks death to the body of man. The piercing heat of jealousy and the burning anger of strife produce the stress that eventually kills the body. Man’s mind living in the garbage dump of envy and strife, the fires of hell, are deadly poison. This is what the Bible says concerning hell!

What the Bible says concerning hell is that you can escape from it.

Jesus said,

And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell [the Valley of Hinnom (literal translation)]. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy member should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell [the Valley of Hinnom (again, literal translation)] (Matt. 5:29,30).

Jesus is simply saying that it is better to go through life without an eye or a hand and live in the heavenly realm of the kingdom of God, than, even though you have all of your faculties, to spend the days of your life dwelling in a garbage dump. The thinking which never gets out of the continual fires of heated conflict and away from the continual gnawing maggots of bitter envy will never experience the abundant life of peace, joy, and righteousness in the kingdom of God. Hell is real and Jesus is the only means to escape hell.

Escape from hell can occur by keeping Jesus always before your face and by letting him be your source of strength:

I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved: Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope: Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance.

Why We Experience Hell in this Life