The Evangelical Universalist Forum

Heaven, Yes - Hell, No

Proverbs
At the end of Ecclesiastes (12:12), Solomon states “…of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.” Job was tiring, but these Proverbs add a whole new dimension, as Solomon seems to use every possible permutation of:

pursue wisdom, understanding, prudence, favor with God, that-which-is-good; work hard, be diligent;

avoid the wicked, fools, the unwise, the angry, strange women, evil, sloth, and strong drink.

For all the wisdom presented, I dare say that Solomon here makes Shakespeare’s Polonius seem taciturn. The other two writers of Proverbs, Agur and Lemuel, are happily much less verbose.

I note here a new wrinkle on “hell.” In two places, Proverbs 15:11 and 27:20, we see the phrase “Hell and destruction.” Harking back to the Hebrew, it would read sheol and abaddon. Looking up meanings, I see that abaddon is properly translated as “destruction,” but instead of a proper translation of sheol as “grave,” it is rendered as “Hell.” I suspect theological bias, so just think “The grave and destruction are never full,” and leave it at that.

Here’s a list of chapters and verses of Proverbs, with “sheol” mistranslated as “hell”: 1:12, 5:5, 7:27, 9:18, 15:11 & 24, 23:14, 27:20, and 30:16.

This writer could not find Hell in the Proverbs.

Ecclesiastes
Solomon has much to say here about life, death, and futility, but what touches our subject is in Chapter 9, verses 5-10: “…the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun…for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.”

Do you see? Do you grasp that there is no reward, good or ill – just non-existence? Conscious survival after death is here excluded. Further, Solomon tells us (12:6-7) “Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.” He is, through poetic language, describing the moment of death and the fate of body and Spirit, the soul already having ceased in its existence. That is why Solomon does not mention the soul here as such. As I wrote elsewhere, when the living person (soul) dies, the body returns to dust, and the breath/spirit (one of the seven Spirits of God) returns to God.

An honest translator cannot let this perishing in the grave (and it can be found in other places as well) go by, and at the same time, use the word “hell” with its implication of the dead living in conscious torment. To paraphrase Mark Twain, it’s “Lies, damned lies, and bad translation.”

Hell is not to be found, then, in Ecclesiastes.

Song of Solomon
We read of love, fruit, spices, fragrances, and so on, but not of Hell in this book.

That’s not saying much. “God” is not found there either.

Nineteenth-century Universalist leader Hosea Ballou was riding the circuit in New Hampshire hills with a Baptist preacher one afternoon. They argued theology as they travelled. At one point, the Baptist looked over and said, “Brother Ballou, if I were a Universalist and feared not the fires of hell, I could hit you over the head, steal your horse and saddle, and ride away, and I’d still go to heaven.”

Hosea Ballou looked over at him and said, “If you were a Universalist, the idea would never occur to you.”

—told by the Rev. Elizabeth Strong

Thank you for the responses, Paidion! I think I noted that God was absent from the book of Esther. I would not mind that book being missing from the Bible, and and reading it I can’t but think that it shows Purim to be a hate crime, that is, if you can criminalize an emotion.

I love that story about the Universalist and the Baptist ministers - a classic, and a classy comeback. :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Isaiah
The word “hell” first appears in this book in chapter 5, verse 14. My KJV dutifully notes “Or Sheol.” We see hell/sheol again in 14:9 & 15, 28:15 & 18, and 57:9.

In Chapter six we read of Isaiah’s vision of seeing God, where one of the Seraphim touches his lips with a live coal and declares “…thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.” (6:7) This is just another instance of fire serving as God’s instrument to refine men, not to punish them. We will see this theme again.

Chapter 14 is mostly about Israel, Babylon, Assyria, and God’s judgment on each. In the midst of all this are some verses about “Lucifer.” Now we met up with Satan in the book of Job, and my KJV noted there that the name means “the adversary,” which strikes me as a title, not a name. Yet here in Isaiah, most folks think it is the same person being referred to, but no this time it’s Lucifer, and my KJV states that it literally means “Day Star.” Going from the Adversary to the Day Star is quite a leap, and it’s not likely to be the same person. Note that the context for this passage begins in verse 4: “That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon…” Then in verse 13, “For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north.” Two verses later, however, judgment is given: “Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell [sheol], to the sides of the pit [grave].” In verse 16 the question is raised, “…is this the man…?” Now most of us have been taught that Satan is a spirit being, but this passage shows this person to be mortal. For this reason I believe the person referred to in this passage to be NOT Satan, but the king of Babylon. I don’t care to stretch every text I can find to promote my thesis, unlike some. By the end of this essay, I think we will have found that Satan is a fairly minor character in the story, as he should be.

Now for the serious Bible student, I’d like to add a note of caution, to stay alert for the sleight-of-hand we so often find. First, as we saw above, is the bad translation: Adversary to Satan and Day Star to Lucifer. Then we get the bad interpretation, usually taken in a verse or two ripped from its proper context - in the present case, to point out the Devil wherever possible. Often, a look at the surrounding text will support the given interpretation, or not. If you understand the message and themes of the whole Word of God, you will tend to notice when “theo-illogical” tricks are being pulled.

After several chapters of the judgment of this nation or that, Isaiah tells us in 25:7 & 8, “And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away the tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it.” With death at that time swallowed up in victory, how can anyone be still dead, or for that matter, in Hell? Now if we can think of the “covering” and the “vail” above in terms of graveclothes, I think we can see what God is trying to tell us here. It all hinges on His intentions, and thus far He has not spoken of eternal torture in a fiery Hell.

Hope here, in 26:19, “Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.” I see here no distinction between the righteous and the wicked dead. On the other hand, in chapter 28, we see an early reference, if we read between the prophetic lines, to the first and second resurrections of the dead. Isaiah writes of the planting of cumin, which is then threshed with a simple rod or staff. It’s just like the twenty-third Psalm, in which David is comforted by God’s rod and staff. The wheat, barley, and rye get a rougher treatment in the threshing here, needing a cart, an ox (Deuteronomy 25:4), or various threshing instruments to separate the grain (good) from the chaff (bad). It may be a bit off topic, but it is worth mentioning, as long as we are covering other theories on Hell, to also offer another view of the parables God offers us concerning the afterlife and the resurrection. You see, most folks are taught that the wheat and tares are good and bad people, as are the wheat and chaff, or the sheep and goats. Others contend the good parts of the individual person are represented by wheat, barley, and rye grains; and also by the gold, silver, precious gems left by the refining fire of God. The bad parts of us are typified by the chaff, blown away by the wind; by the tares, gathered together and burned; by the goats, culled from the sheep; or by the wood, hay, and stubble burned up by the same fire of God.

We arrive at 33:14 - “The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?” Now, this looks like a picture of Hell, but hold on, for remember that up to this point God has NOT ever threatened anyone with Hellfire. Yes, we have seen some killed with fire from God, but it was always fire in the real world, not in an unknown Hell. We today have an advantage over Isaiah, for we know of the Lake of Fire in the Revelation. We also know that the wicked, including sinners and hypocrites, are thrown into it, and that it is the second death. As I’ve said before, that is not the end of the story, and it all hinges on whether “everlasting burnings” is correct. The YLT renders the Hebrew here as “of the age,” For reasons I will go into more detail later, “of the age” or “age-long” are more correct than “everlasting” simply because eternity does not begin for a very long time. The Lake of Fire itself takes place before the ages (as such) have expired, but that topic will have to wait until we cover the Revelation. A hint of what lies ahead is at the end of chapter 33 – “…the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity.” This is said of Zion, in a future time when no one is sick, and everyone in Zion, is given forgiveness, without conditions or exceptions. It does look like universal reconciliation…

Moving forward, among God’s complaints of His people, Israel, either being lax in their devotions to Him, or practicing idolatry, we find that He fails to threaten them with Hellfire for these things. Many religious folks would relegate the wicked to Hell, but God continues to speak of forgiveness: “I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.” (43:25) “I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee.” (44:22) “Drop down ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and [not swallow up the wicked, but] let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the Lord have created it.” (45:8)

God says of the House of Israel: “Behold, I have refined thee, but not … [as] … silver; I have … [tested] … thee in the furnace of affliction.” (48:10) There is no point in God saving and forgiving His people unless He refines them, for He would just have the same pack of sinners. He admits this much, “There is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked.” (48:22) No peace for them, yet no mention of Hell, either.

In 65:17, God foretells His re-creation: “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.” As in Genesis there is no mention of a new Hell, so we see it is excluded in the future as well as the past. Again, in 66:22, He tells us: “…the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord…”

The very last verse of the book pulls us up short: “And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcases [sic] of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring to all flesh.” This sounds very much like Jesus’ warning to His listeners in the ninth chapter of the Gospel of Mark, where Jesus actually quoted Isaiah. I will treat this more fully later, but “Hell” in Mark 9 is footnoted as “Gehenna” in my KJV, and Gehenna is a place in the real world, so I question that Jesus could have been referring to Hell. Isaiah 66:24 also seems to be relating something to happen in the real world.

Isaiah writes much of the wicked, the ruin of the Israel/Judah of his day, but also much of the glorious future of God’s people, the city of Jerusalem, and the world in general. Therefore, I think I can say with some confidence that Hell cannot be found in the book of Isaiah.

Jeremiah
The word “hell” is not found at all in this book, so we can go directly to 7:31, as follows: “And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart.” Wow! God is not only saying that this action was outside what He had laid down as worship, but the burning alive of children was something that had never entered His own Mind. We now have more than a double witness that God did not create Hell, as we have read in Genesis 1:1, Deuteronomy 10:14, and Isaiah 65:17/66:22. We know from John 1:3 that no one else created Hell either. Now we know, too, that the concept of people suffering alive in a fire is foreign to Him. You just can not have, at the same time, a fiery, eternal Hell, and a God who never though of such a place. Given what we have so far, Hell is excluded, but we will keep looking, hopefully to be as exhaustive of this subject as a Strong’s or Young’s Concordance.

It’s a bit off-topic, but chapter 10 has a short, but interesting, account of a practice called “vain or futile” – “For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the ax. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.” (10:3-4) I think this an early reference to what we today call a Christmas Tree. God calls it vanity/futility. I call it idolatry.

In 15:2, God indicates that no one can escape their fate: “Thus saith the Lord; Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for captivity, to the captivity.” God does not lie, and He fails to say “Such as are for Hell, to Hell.” If Hell were so, He would have said so, just as Jesus stated in John 14:2 “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.” As His Father did not, Jesus did not mention the existence of Hell, or any risk of going there. If there were, He would have said so, but His silence is another witness to the non-existence of Hell, we will cover what Jesus says, and does not say, presently.

After many chapters of prophecy, personal troubles, and recording of God’s coming destruction on Israel, Judah, and the various nations in that part of the world, we find this gem in 51:5 – “…Israel hath not been forsaken, nor Judah of his God, of the Lord of Hosts; though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel.” Happily, we see here hope and a hint of forgiveness, not a hint of Hell. In fact, in all the threats and promises of destruction, there is no threat or punishment beyond death, as ever.

Thus ends our brief coverage of the long book of Jeremiah, where hell, in word or concept, is not found.

Lamentations
As in Jeremiah’s other book, the word “hell” is not to be found here. Now for those who subscribe to the “abandon all hope” version of Hell, I have chapter 3, verses 26-32. “It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord…For the Lord will not cast off for ever: But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.” Hear that! God will not cast us, you, me, anybody, off forever. Are you not saved? It is temporary.

At the end of the same chapter, Jeremiah calls out to God as to his personal enemies in verses 64-66 – “Render unto them a recompence, O Lord, according to the work of their hands. Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them. Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the Lord.” Hell or eternal torture/damnation are not asked for, so given that we have yet to find Hell up to this point, we MUST, if we are intellectually honest, restrict the meaning of “destroy…from under the heavens” to mean death at the worst.

The fate of Sodom & Gomorrah is often compared with Hell, but we have this word in 4:6 & 9 – “For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom…They that be slain with the sword are better [off] than they that be slain with hunger…” What happened to Sodom was fire of unknown origin, but it happened in the real world. The punishment of Judah and Jerusalem also played out in the real world, but Jeremiah notes that those killed by the sword were luckier than those who died of starvation, and these things played out in the real world as well. Those who believe the fate of Sodom was like Hell would have a hard time explaining how death by sword or starvation would be worse than an eternity in fire, but we have the witness of Jeremiah.

In chapter five, Jeremiah seems to contradict what he wrote earlier: “For the Lord will not cast off for ever…”
He says in verse 20, “Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time?” I cannot say with authority that Jeremiah meant forever as we think of it today, but note that it parallels the “long time” in the second phrase.

At any rate, hell and Hell are not to be found in the book of Lamentations, though many would guess that Judah and Jerusalem were experiencing “Hell on Earth” after the Babylonian conquest. Bad times, no matter how bad, are not Hell, however.

I am reviewing the entire KJV, to demonstrate that Hell is a 404 (not found). I have posted this essay on another UR site, but in earlier drafts. It is ongoing, so what I’m posting here is more up-to-date.

Good posts, there is no real mention of hell in the OT, just sheol which means grave. The KJV starts translating sheol into “hell” late in the OT but
with no basis. In fact there may be no basis for the word “hell” in the NT. the greek word “hades” which is simply the greek word for “sheol” is translated into hell, but like “sheol” simply means grave. “Gehenna” another so called “hell” word is the valley of hinnon from Jeremiah and without the hell pre-supposition has no basis for a hell translation. There also is “tarturus” , but again no basis to translate it into hell.
But in Revelation 20 we have the Lake of Fire and the 64K question is whether it’s figurative or literal and what it’s purpose is.

Freakin Ya :smiley: :laughing:

I have considered that 64K question and I note that Death and Hell (grave) are cast into it. If not then, the Bible states that the last enemy to be overcome and abolished is Death. The fire-forever crowd cannot answer how anyone can still be dead and/or in Hell after that. To believe in Hell, you must cling to a limited set of “proof texts” and ignore the whole, overall message of the Word of God.

As to the LoF, I don’t know if it is literal or figurative, and maybe it makes no difference. God describes Himself over and over in His Word as a Refining Fire, and sometimes even as Soap. Second Death or not, the LoF experience must be to accomplish the refining in those cast into it that a life in the here-and-now was unable to do.

Ezekiel
“Hell” is found four times in the book of Ezekiel:
31:16
31:17
32:21
32:27
As usual, it is translated from the same word, “sheol” the KJV renders as “grave,” “pit,” or “hell”. This inconsistency can be found even in consecutive verses, such as 31:15-17. I don’t care to delve into the whys and wherefores, but just note that it is so.

In Chapter 16, God describes Jerusalem as a cast-off foundling He saved. He goes on to recount all the good things He did for her, and compares her to her “sisters,” Samaria and Sodom. God seems to say that Jerusalem became the worst of the lot, but then says in verse 55, “When thy sister, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate, then thou and thy daughters shall return to your former estate.” This is an amazing statement, for the people of Jerusalem were alive, the people of Samaria were in exile, but the people of Sodom were very much dead. Many would relegate them to Hell, but God Himself is saying that they will someday go back to their inheritance. How can this be, unless all are saved in the end?

In Chapter 18, we find God declaring that iniquity is individual, as is righteousness. Verse 20 states that, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” Verse 23 goes on to say, “Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord God: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?” Then His advice in verse 31, “Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel?” Note that there is no mention of Hell, but a broad hint that God overcomes sin and wickedness by giving humans a new heart, a new spirit. In other places God states that He will take out the stony heart from men and give them a heart of flesh instead. Man cannot do this – it must be done by God, as He spoke through Ezekiel, in 11:19: “And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh.”
Now here we are at Chapter 28, and I know that a lot of people insist that the subject of the chapter, the prince of Tyrus (Tyre) is actually Satan. No, sorry, for these reasons:

The previous two chapters were all about the literal city of Tyre and the bad fate God had in store for it. Chapter 28 is about the prince of the same literal city, and there is no subject break until toward the end of that chapter.

God says, “…thou art a man and not God…” (verse 2)
But if this prince was really Satan, don’t you think God would have said so? No, literal city, literal prince, and a man at that.

Verse 8: “They shall bring thee down to the pit, and thou shalt die…” The previous verse speaks of terrible strangers who draw the sword against this prince, but Satan cannot be taken down with literal swords, being a spirit being.

Verse 13: “Thou hast been in Eden…” This does not mean that the prince of Tyre was in the garden of Eden with Adam and Eve – as ever, it’s all in the context. See 27:23: “Haran, and Canneh, and Eden, the merchants of Sheba, Asshur, and Chilmad were thy merchants.” Eden is treated as a literal country like any other literal country of the time. For more on this subject, see the books of David Rohl especially Legend.

In view of all the above I must confess that I find verse 14, which is the crux of the whole Satan argument, a puzzle, but I’m not going to set one verse against the context of three chapters of text.

Not only was the prince of Tyre in Eden, but God, in Chapter 31 personifies Assyria as a great tree, “…so that all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied him.” (verse 9) Eden again, but it is more difficult to make a whole nation out to be Satan, so this gets ignored as a proof.

Chapter 31 goes on to speak of the death of the great tree of Assyria, and we have the usual words so often associated with “hell,” such as “delivered unto death,” “nether parts of the earth,” “the pit,” “the grave” and “the deep.” In verse 15, “the grave” is footnoted as “Or sheol, hell.” Then in verse 16 we do see “hell,” but it is footnoted as “Or sheol.” This inconsistency hides a dishonest translation and theological sleight of hand.

“Hell” is mentioned in Chapter 32 (18-32), but the language of the section makes it clear that the grave and death are being spoken of. The clincher is God stating that, “…I have caused my terror in the land of the living…” (verse 32) Nothing is said about any terror in the realm of the dead, Sheol.

Chapter 37 presents us with the valley of dry bones, the promise of the resurrection. Just as in Genesis, we see men re-created from dry bones as God puts flesh on them. Notice that the finished bodies do not have life until the breath/wind/spirit enters them – then they become “the whole house of Israel.” This is a second witness to the creation of man in Genesis.

Chapters 38 and 39 cover the war of Gog and Magog - notice that of the 5/6ths of Gog’s army which are killed, there is no mention of their fate beyond, death, just as ever, simple death.

So, that’s it for the book of Ezekiel, where neither a fiery Hell, nor eternal torment can be found.

Daniel
First off, the word “hell” is not found in the book. We do find a few fires, such as the furnace into which Daniel’s three friends were thrown. However hot it was, it was in the literal world of here-and-now (or there-and-then), so it was not Hell. Also, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego went in alive, were alive in the fire (as attested by the king), and came out alive, so it was not Hell, since you must be dead to go to Hell. Further, One “like the Son of God” was in there with them, so again it could not have been Hell. This must have been YHVH, or the pre-incarnate Jesus, who dwelt in the heavens. Since we know by now that He did not create Hell, nor did anyone else, He could not have been there. For all these reasons, the furnace of Nebuchadnezzar was not Hell.

Next, Daniel sees fire in a vision. He writes of the Ancient of Days: “…his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth before him…” (7:9-10). We know this was taking place in the Heavenlies, because in verse 13, “…one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days…” For all the fire, this cannot be Hell, either.

Hell, then is not to be found in the book of Daniel.

Hosea
As Daniel, Hosea did not get “sheol” rendered as “hell,” just as “grave,” which is not too far off the mark. Besides the story of Hosea and his family, most of the book is devoted to God’s usual denunciation of the sins, backsliding, and wickedness of the people of Israel. Yet, in the midst of all that, is a statement, almost parenthetical: “I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction…” (13:14) The apostle Paul echoes this in I Corinthians 15:54. So, for all the evil of His people, God promises to ransom and redeem them from death and the grave – not to send them on to Hell, or any such place. In fact, He states that He will destroy death and the grave, as we shall see in the Revelation.

Thus, Hell is not to be found in the book of Hosea.

Joel
There is nothing in this book relating to our thesis, just a few mentions of fire, always in the real world.

Hell is nowhere to be found in the book of Joel.

Amos
Amos was the first prophet to write a surviving book, and through him God says against this or that group of people, that for three transgressions and for four, He would not turn away their punishment. It is vital to realize that what God sets as punishment for all these groups, takes place in the real world, not in the afterlife. In Chapter 3, verse 7, He says, “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.” He has yet to reveal the secret of Hell, if indeed there is such a place, just as the incarnate Christ told His disciples, “…if it were not so, I would have told you.” (John 14:2) I know both texts revolve around other subjects, but I take it as a general principle that God will tell the truth about what is and what He will do. Keep this in mind when reading a Bible which, properly translated and interpreted, speaks not of Hell.

We see fire imagery in 4:11: “…ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning…” This is in connection to Sodom and Gomorrah, the fiery destruction of which, as we know, happened in the real world, so it cannot refer to Hell. Anyway, if the burning referred to is in fact Hell, the fire-forever doctrine forbids anyone ever leaving, forbidding even God from plucking anyone out. It is all too easy to formulate a doctrine or dogma, post a few proof texts, and not realize that you are proposing to dictate to God.

There is fire again in 5:6, and once again it is fire in the real world. A few verses later (5:8) we read the implied promise: “Seek him that maketh…the shadow of death into the morning.” Is this not a promise of God’s coming salvation? Note that no conditions are placed on it, just as the morning is for all who see it.

Fire again in 7:4, and the wording seems obscure, but this writer sees no reason to think it refers to Hellfire.

8:11-12 “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord: and they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.” People are still not finding it, while they read what they think are Bibles, but are paraphrases. They are not finding it while sitting under the preaching of those who are constrained by doctrines and dogma which are contrary to God’s Word. Dear reader, my thesis is only a small part of a whole, for the basic message of God’s Word is to believe only in Him, do what is right, and avoid evil & wickedness. Most folks who stop and think will admit this, but men seem to corrupt all that they can, and corruption must be burned away from time to time. In the fullness of time, God will burn it away entirely, but that’s not Hellfire either.

Finally, we do see “hell” in 9:2, “Though they dig into hell…,” but as ever it is footnoted as “Sheol.” Now since Hell is supposed to be a destination in the afterlife, how are living men to dig their way into it? Hoary church dogma places Hell at the center of the earth, but it’s just simpler to think of hell/sheol/grave, and it is so much closer to the original meaning, and you can dig into it too. Can you dig it?

Obadiah
There is little to mention in this book, except fire in verse 18, where Jacob = fire, Joseph = flame and Esau = stubble. As usual, this works out in the real world.

Hell is not to be found, then, in the book of Obadiah.

Jonah
The word “hell” shows up in 2:2, when Jonah prays to God from deliverance from the “belly of hell,” uh, fish. The word, of course, is footnoted “Sheol.” Jesus referred back to Jonah in the sense of His coming three-day sojourn in a tomb, as Jonah was in the fish for the same length of time, but neither was Hell if we are talking about eternal conscious torment in fire.

Jonah must have expected God to smite Nineveh after forty days, and was unhappy to see it spared, given all he had been through. Is this not exactly how people today feel about their personal enemies? That after all they have had to suffer, their enemies should just go to Hell. They forget that they are surely the enemy of some other person, who just might want them to go to Hell as well. Jesus taught us to forgive our enemies because we all come before the same judge, and must pass the same test before the White Throne. We must put up with them forever as well, if there is no Hell – a sobering thought.

After Jonah moved east of the city, a direction away from God, He gave Jonah a gourd, and showed him how things are alive one day, and dead the next, just as the grass Jesus mentioned that grows today and is tomorrow thrown into the fire. Jonah was upset by the death of his worthless gourd, but God showed him that the people of Nineveh were of much more worth. Now if God spared the pagan Ninevites, we should not be the Jonahs of the present age and relegate any person or group to Hell.

We can find the salvation of all in Jonah, but not Hell.

Micah
Lots of folks look to Chapter 4 as telling of a future time when swords are made into plowshares, spears to pruninghooks, and the nations not learning war anymore. Two verses later, we see what is less quoted: “For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever.” (verse 5) Note the use of “all,” and the lack of conditions and exceptions to those walking with God. Micah goes on to say that God will gather the lame, the outcast, and those He has afflicted.

In Chapter 6, God pleads, “O my people, what have I done unto thee? and wherein have I wearied thee? testify against me…what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” (3-8) As we wind up the OT and the minor prophets, I think it is important once again to remind the reader that nowhere does God promise or threaten anyone, for any reason, with eternal torment in fire. He does give them dire warnings of oppression, destruction, and captivity, but those are things worked out in the real world, and are the consequences of His people’s own actions and choices. He talks like an aggrieved parent, hoping for better things from His children, and promising them a better future, not a hopeless future in Hell.

Micah gives us another clue about our personal enemies: “Then she that is mine enemy…shame shall cover her which said unto me, Where is the Lord thy God? mine eyes shall behold her: now shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets.” (7:10) She is not sent to Hell, just “trodden down.”

Micah concludes: “Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities ; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.” Ask yourself, reader, if this sounds like a God who sends sinners to Hell, or a God who corrects and redeems them?

Hell is surely not found in the book of Micah