Unveiling the Myth of Hell and Eternal Torment, Part 5

Part 5– Gehenna: Its Purpose in the Past and Future

Prior parts to this series about hell are as follows:

Part 1: A BriefBackdrop of My Journey

Part 2: The Hebrew WordSheol

Part 3: The Greek WordHades

Part 4: Gehenna: The Place Jesus Mentioned

In this part of the series, I will cover the following points:

--In the past, Gehenna was a place of death and burial
--What did the apostle Paul say about Gehenna?
--Was Gehenna ever a garbage dump?
--In the future, Gehenna will be a place of death and burial
--What does Gehenna look like today?

What did God’s chosen people, the Israelites, understand about Gehenna that seems totally neglected in Christian teachings today?  Let’s look at the Israeli prophets for answers and their revelation to us that Gehenna has been a place of swift judgment in the past and will also be again the future.

In the past, Gehenna (hell?) was a place of death and burial

Jeremiah, a prophet of Israel, was the son of the priest Hilkiah, the same priest who found the scrolls of the law and gave them to King Josiah.  (Hilkiah and King Josiah were mentioned in Part 4 of this “Myth of Hell” series.)  Through the prophet Jeremiah, God warned of the impending destruction to come upon Jerusalem and of the impending death and/or captivity and dispersion of the people for all the evils they had committed and for their unfaithfulness.   

Unveiling the Myth of Hell and Eternal Torment, Part 4

Part 4 – Gehenna: The Place Jesus Mentioned

Prior parts to this series about hell are as follows:

Part 1: A BriefBackdrop of My Journey

Part 2: The Hebrew WordSheol

Part 3:The Greek Word Hades

If you’ve read the prior three parts on the myth of hell, you may be asking:  “Didn’t Jesus teach about hell?  Didn’t he make himself clear when he spoke of hell and its torment?”

Jesus warned the Israelites about a place of burning, but it wasn’t hell by today’s modern definition.  Jesus referred to a literal geographical location in Jerusalem called Valley of Hinnom (Gai Hinnom in Hebrew language).  Its name was transliterated with Greek letters into the word Geenna.    

The name Gehenna (as written in English) is derived from the Hebrew words “gai”(valley, deep gorge, or ravine) and “Hinnom”.   The Hebrew name Hinnom literally means “lamentation”.  The Valley of Hinnom can also be referred to as the Valley of Lamentation.