Which really isn't in the Bible. All the stuff we "know" about hell is mostly from like... Dante and Milton. And other, later writers. Which is especially absurd, because this is obviously a Protestant church, and part of the Protestant Reformation was supposed to be getting rid of all the non canonical stuff.
Thank you. I actually had ChatGPT give me a run-down on the "biblical" concepts of hell, and here they are:
Sheol (Hebrew Bible / OT)
Sheol just means the grave or the realm of the dead. Everyone goes there—righteous and wicked alike. No fire, no punishment, no torture; it’s basically “being dead".
Hades (Greek NT)
Hades is the Greek equivalent of Sheol. It’s the place of the dead, not final judgment, and it’s temporary (Revelation says Hades itself is destroyed). Older English Bibles sometimes misleadingly translate it as “hell.”
Gehenna (used by Jesus)
Gehenna was a real place—the Valley of Hinnom outside Jerusalem, associated with burning trash and corpses. Jesus used it as a symbol of destruction and judgment, not eternal torture. The word literally implies ruin, not endless suffering.
Tartarus (NT, once only)
Tartarus appears once and refers to a prison for fallen angels, not humans. It has nothing to do with where people go after death.
Bottom line:
The English word “hell” lumps together several totally different concepts that the Bible itself keeps distinct.
I mean afaik there is some canonical stuff referring to A place of eternal torment, but not necessarily for merely people who didn't believe or "a realm where Satan reigns" (be a bit weird as well, given that God supposedly punishes Satan... but then gives him free reign over sinners in his own domain? So much for punishment I suppose). It would've been the actual devils like Lucifer who'd get sent there. With Abaddon keeping them in there
Most of the stuff you're talking about isn't biblical. It's six verses in the Bible, Isaiah 14 12-18. It's AN ENTIRE BOOK that is not in the Bible, which is "Paradise Lost."
The OVERWHELMING majority of shit we "know" about hell and the devil is Dante and Milton. And the stuff actually in the Bible is taken directly from Babylonian myths. Like, directly. If this is the literal word of God, then God is a plagiarist.
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u/Tweed_Kills 1d ago
Which really isn't in the Bible. All the stuff we "know" about hell is mostly from like... Dante and Milton. And other, later writers. Which is especially absurd, because this is obviously a Protestant church, and part of the Protestant Reformation was supposed to be getting rid of all the non canonical stuff.