Have you ever seen someone tortured? I hope not. Deliberate torture is sickening and abhorrent. What, though, of torture inflicted by God? Can you imagine such a thing? Yet, this is exactly what is implied by the teaching of hellfire, an official doctrine in many religions.

Imagine, for a moment, the following horrific scene: A person is being roasted on a hot iron plate. In his agony he screams for mercy, but nobody listens. The torture goes on and on, hour after hour, day after day- without pause!

Whatever crime the victim may have committed, would not your heart go out to him? What of the one who ordered the torture? Could he be a loving person? In no way! Love is merciful and shows pity. A loving father may punish his children, but he would never torture them!

Nevertheless, many religions teach that God tortures sinners in an eternal hellfire. This, it is claimed, is divine justice. If that is true, who created that terrible place of eternal torment? And who is responsible for the excruciating agonies inflicted there? The answers would seem obvious. If such a place really exists, then God would have to be the creator of it, and he would be responsible for what happens there.

Can you accept that? The Bible says: God is love. -1John 4v8- Would a God of love inflict torture that even humans with any measure of decency find revolting? Surely not!

ETERNAL TORMENT: AN UNREASONABLE TEACHING! How?- Many believe that the wicked will go to a fiery hell and be tormented forever. Is this teaching logical? The human life span is limited to 70 or 80 years. Even if someone perpetrated extreme wickedness for his whole lifetime, would EVERLASTING torment be a just punishment? No. It would be grossly unjust to torment a man forever for the limited number of sins that he can commit in a lifetime.

Who knows the truth about what happens after we die? Only God can reveal this information, and he has done so in his written Word, the Bible, referred to above. Here is what the Bible says: 'As the beast dies, so the man dies, and they all have but one spirit... All are going to one place. They have all come to be from dust, and they are all returning to the dust.'(Ecl 3:19,20) There is no mention here of a fiery hell. Humans return to dust- to nonexistence- when they die.

In order to be tormented, an individual has to be conscious. Are the dead conscious? No. 'The living are conscious that the will die: but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all' says Ecclesiastes 9:5. It is impossible for the dead, 'conscious of nothing at all,' to experience the agonies of hellfire.

In whatever way a reasonable person may look at the matter, he cannot accept the existence of a hell of torment. Logic rebels against it. Human nature is repelled by it. More importantly, God's Word does not say that such a place exists. When a person dies, 'he goes back to his ground; in that day his thoughts do perish'- Psalm 146:4

DOES THAT MEAN THAT WE ARE NOT PUNISHED FOR OUR SINS? No, that is not the case. Our holy God punishes sinners, but he does not torture them. And when sinners repent, he forgives them. What is the punishment for sin? The Bible gives a forthright answer: 'The wages sin pays is death.' (Romans 6:23) Life is a gift from God. When we sin we no longer deserve that gift, and we die. You may ask: How is that just? Why, everyone dies?... That is true because we are all sinners. In effect, no one deserves life. 'Through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because they had all sinned.'-Romans 5:12.

IT IS TRUE THAT THE WORD 'HELL' IS FOUND IN MANY BIBLE TRANSLATIONS. BUT WHAT DOES THE BIBLE REALLY TEACH ABOUT 'HELL'? There is confusion as to what the bible says about hell, why? Consider what The Encyclopedia Americana vol xiv p. 81 says:

''Much confusion and misunderstanding has been caused through the early translators of the Bible persistently rendering the Hebrew 'SHEOL' and the Greek 'HADES' and 'GEHENNA' by the word- HELL. The simple transliteration of these words has not sufficed to appreciably clear up this confusion and misconception.'

We clearly can see that the confusion as to what the bible teaches about hell is caused by the errors of the early bible translators. Translators have allowed their personal beliefs to color their work instead of being consistent in their rendering of the original-language words. The original words for their word 'hell' are the hebrew sheol, greek: haides and gehenna. Now, let's examine how KINGJAMES VERSION, the JERUSALEM BIBLE and TODAY'S ENGLISH VERSION translate these words. You will see some inconsistency.

The King James Version rendered 'SHE'OHL' as (1)HELL (2) the GRAVE (3) the PIT. The greek equivalent of sheohl which is HAIDES is rendered as 1)HELL (2) GRAVE. Also the greek GEHENNA is also rendered by KJV as HELL.

Take a closer look. The single word SHEOHL is translated in 3 different English terms which are hell, grave, or pit. It seems that they allowed their personal beliefs to affect their rendering. How is this so? Let's take one example.

In Ps 9:17 KJV we read: 'The wicked shall be turned into HELL(Heb. sheohl) and all the nations that forget God. -Here, we see that 'sheohl' is rendered as 'hell.' So, this supports the belief that wicked people go to HELL. How about the good people, the upright ones, will they go to HELL?

YES! Job was an upright man but he also went to HELL!. Job 14:13(Douay version) recorded his prayer: 'Who will grant me this, that thou mayst protect me in HELL(Heb. sheohl) and hide me till thy wrath pass, and appoint me a time when thou wilt remember me?' -Now, let's examine how the hebrew 'sheohl' is rendered. Douay version translates sheohl as 'hell' in Job 14:13 BUT KJV translates 'sheohl' as 'GRAVE.' See? In Ps 9:17, because it talks about the wicked, KJV translates 'sheohl' into 'hell.' However, in Job 14:13, because it talks about the blameless Job, 'sheohl' was translated as 'grave.'

JB and TEV do a similar thing. Some bible translations like the NWT transliterates 'sheohl' into sheol in English; 'haides' into hades; and 'ge'enna' into gehenna in all their occurrences to avoid confussion; and the exact meanings of the original-language words are not obscured. The exact meaning of the Hebrew word 'she'ohl,' and its Greek equivalent, 'hai'des' refers vo 'the common grave of mankind.' Thus, whether bad or good, when he dies- he goes to sheol/hades or hell. WHAT ABOUT THE 'FIERY GEHENNA' TO WHICH JESUS REFERRED? What is the exact meaning of gehenna? Did Jesus refer to it literally or symbolically? Let's find out!

I pray that we all will go to heaven and one must work towards it. That's all i have to say

So then by your logic the only pebalty for sin is physical death? then we all get to go and be at peace with God? Or just no longer exist?