Dr Paul Allen

In everyday Christian language, terms like "hell," "outer darkness," and "the lake of fire" are often used interchangeably to describe the final destiny of those who reject Christ. But while all of these expressions point to the same ultimate reality (eternal separation from God), Scripture itself teaches an important distinction between Hades and the lake of fire. The word "hell" is an older English term used in the King James Version as a broad translation for several different biblical words, including the Greek "Hades," the Hebrew "Sheol," "Gehenna," and the verb "tartarōō" (Tartarus). This broad usage has contributed to a widespread misunderstanding of the nature of biblical punishment in the afterlife. As a result, "hell" has come to represent the final place of eternal punishment, even though biblically speaking, hell (Hades) is not the same as the eternal lake of fire. Because of this, man...

Image via Wikipedia We have often heard statements such as “War is hell” or “I went through hell.” These expressions are, of course, not taken literally.  Rather, they reflect our tendency to use the word  hell  as a descriptive term for the most ghastly human experience possible.  Yet no human experience in this world is actually comparable to hell.  If we try to imagine the worst of all possible suffering in the here and now we have not yet stretched our imaginations to reach the dreadful reality of hell. Hell is trivialized when it is used as a common curse word . To use the word lightly may be a halfhearted human attempt to take the concept lightly or to treat it in an amusing way. We tend to joke about things most frightening to us in a futile effort to declaw and defang them, reducing their threatening power. There is no biblical concept more grim or terror-invoking than the idea of hell. It is so unpopular with us that few would give cred...