Did you know there are actually three hells?

Unfortunately in most of our bibles three different concepts are translated with one word hell. This is confusing and leads to misunderstanding and wrong ideas. What are these things?

1. Sheol (hebrew) or Hades (Greek) or 'the grave' or the realm of the dead.
2. Gehenna or the lake of fire.
3. Tartarus or the Abyss or bottomless pit.

The Greek word tartarus is used in 2 Peter 2:4 where it says that fallen angels are kept there until their Final Judgment. In Revelation this is often referred to as the abyss or bottomless pit. 

Sheol is the 'place' where the spirits of people who died without God go. People who's names are written in the Book of Life resurrect out of Sheol to be with God (according to Revelation 20:5-6).

The name Gehenna comes from the valley Ben-Hinnom and is the location where child sacrifices were performed. Jeremiah 19 says that all those people committing crimes against God will be buried in that cursed place, because there is no other decent place for them. As such Gehenna has become a metaphor of the judgment that falls upon all people that disobey God.

In the book of Revelation 20 Gehenna is referred to as 'the lake of fire' and is called the second death. In the lake of fire spiritual things are destroyed, such as the Roman Empire, Sheol and death itself. 

Revelation 20:14 (KJV) And death and hell (Sheol) were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

If people are 'cast into the lake of fire' it means they will die spiritually and thus cease to exist.
This is according to what Jesus says in Matthew 10:28

Matthew 10:28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

It means that after people are judged according to the things they have done and received either payment or punishment, those who are not written in the Book of Life will not receive eternal life and will die the second spiritual death and thus cease to exist.



There is only one text that talks about 'people being tortured forever'.

Revelation 14:11 And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.

This a parallel to Isaiah 34:9-10 where the judgment on the land of Edom is being announced:

Isaiah 34:9 And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch.
10 It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever.

This judgment over Edom has already been executed. The dramatic demonstration of this is the abandoned city of Petra in Jordan. Now tell me: where is the smoke of Edom that goes up for ever and ever? There is no smoke. This is a figure of speech to make clear that there is no turning back from this judgment. It means that it is final.

Since Revelation 14 is using exactly the same kind of language and since we can understand from other texts that the lake of fire is the spiritual death, we have to conclude that this 'eternal torment' is not to be taken literal. It is a more often used expression to demonstrate the definite and final character of that judgment.

Also take this into account:

Ezekiel 33:11 ESV As I live, declares the Lord God , I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?