Is hell for eternity?

The Bible does not teach this. The friend is either misinformed or a false teacher.

Joseph Botwinick

 

Completely ridiculous. A period of time? Sounds like a Catholic purgatory teaching, which is false. I would ask them to show you from the bible where that is.

You can look up the greek for things, search the net, there are lots of great sites.

 

Hell, "hades", is the place of the departed dead in OT times. "Sheol" It means the grave.

Jesus spoke of both the rich man and Lazarus being in Hades, and describe it as a place where some of the departed were comforted (paradise or Abraham's bosom) and some were in torment suffering intense heat. In between was a great gulf that neither side could cross.

When Christ died, he entered the paradise side of Hades. I believe when he rose from the dead he took the souls of those in paradise with him to "heaven." Paul said to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

Today, the nonbeliever goes to Hades (hell)when he dies to suffer and the believer goes to heaven.

At the end of the millenium, death and hades will be cast into the lake of fire (gehenna) where the fire is not quenched and the worm dieth not. This is a place of eternal conscious punishment.

Your friend is right about one thing. Hades is temporary. But Hades is cast into the lake of fire which is forever.

Departed nonbelievers who are suffering the torment of Hades today, will one day be judged at the Great White Throne judgment, and then forever suffer in the lake of fire.

 

people do not go to hell for not believing in Jesus, they go to hell for sinning

 

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16

If you don't believe in Jesus, you perish.

 

John 3:18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

 

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 6:23

Obviously, we go to hell because we reject Jesus Christ and because we are sinners who can't help but sin.

The answer is? We go to hell because we are sinners and because we reject Jesus Christ.

 

Eternal punishment was the number one teaching Charles Taze Russell (founder, J.W.'s) rejected, so he went about reading into the Bible what he wanted to read into it; about this doctrine, and a lot of others. Grave danger folks in not taking God's Word for what it says.
Those that reject God's provision suffer eternally.

 

Modern evangelicals who have rejected eternal punishment:

Clark Pinnock (who is also an Open Theist)
John Stott
Edward Fudge

The articles below are good defenses of the biblical view of hell and answers some of the arguments against hell.
http://www.rationalchristianity.net/hell.html

A 2-part article by Alan Gomes:
http://www.biblicist.org/bible/hell.shtml

http://www.biblicist.org/bible/hell2.shtml

 

Nah ! don't believe a word of it, the friend is misinformed. That is lie from satan straight from the pits of hell.

Remember time is short for satan and he knows it, he's going to take as many as he can, Luke 21:8, And He said, "Take heed that you be not misled; for many will come in my name, saying I'am He, and, The time is at hand; do not go after them. NASB

1 Peter 5:8, Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. NASB

Keep your eyes on Jesus.
God Bless

 

Nah ! don't believe a word of it, the friend is misinformed. That is a lie from satan, straight from the pits of hell.

Remember time is short for satan and he knows it, he's going to take as many as he can, Luke 21:8, And He said, "Take heed that you be not misled; for many will come in my name, saying I'am He, and, The time is at hand; do not go after them. NASB

1 Peter 5:8, Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. NASB

Keep your eyes on Jesus.
God Bless

 

Matthew 25:46 --
Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.

However long eternal life is, that is how long eternal punishment is....

 

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, and this is so, for this is what Christ Jesus from heaven revealed to Paul in Acts 16:31. Get your Bible and check it out. That is it in any language, and if anything is added to that for you to do for salvation will be false, for He offers us the “free gift” of salvation by just believing on His name, and that name is Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God the Father. It is He that emptied out His blood, and [b[any one[/b] that believes on His name will be saved. John 3:18, ”He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

Ask you husband to have the friend tell him what Acts 16:31 says in the Greek Bible. It will say the same thing in Greek, or it is not the Word of God. I am sure the friend will agree with what is written in Acts 16:31, however he will have some “buts” that must be linked with the message of salvation.

After salvation we can have a “but”, but that will only be to join a church where your family and friends go, or to a church you like to attend. But the saved in the Body of Christ need no “buts” for they already belong to the Body of Christ Church that all Christians belong to. But we like to congregate to see and be seen, so we join churches.

However, never join because you feel you must do something to be accepted by Christ Jesus. The people in a church may wish you to do something, but that will only be for you to associate with them as a group, and not your Savior Jesus Christ. It is good to be in a group, so long as the group does not believe they are the only one's not going to hell.

We must make our choice while we live, for the dead (whether saved or lost) have already made their choice. It is up to us as individual's whether alone, or in households to accept or reject.

The Bible is the only thing that God has left us today for He is not talking to His people, those Hebrews that came through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Today God has no favorites, so His people, His nation is back from where they came, i.e. the human race from Adam, all being Gentiles, and no longer separated from the heathen. Today He saves all the same, and that is by believing on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we are saved by the Grace of God that comes through Jesus Christ. Christian faith, ituttut Galatians 1:11-12

 

The KJV does not say that hell is eternal. The lake of fire is the final destination of those not found written in the book of life. Rev 20:15

 

Becky most confuse Hell and the lake of fire. It works like this .

Hell is a place that all lost souls go.

On the day of damnation they will be thrown into the lake of fire. In Revalation it speaks of this many times. Hell is not purgatory either.

I hope this helps.

 

Elsewhere you claimed that the KJV was the only doctrinally pure version. Here is a very good illustration of how it is not the best version for discerning biblical doctrine on hell and hades and how blind trust in the translation choices of 17th century Anglicans can create problems.

The NT uses 3 words for "hell" in the KJV: gehenna, tartarus, and hades. The KJV translators apparently thought there was no difference between the three. As Paul33 pointed out, there is a difference.

Hades will one day be tossed into the Lake of Fire the way executed criminals, dead animals, etc were tossed into gehenna.

 

How do you know there is a difference, and you are merely speculating that Gehenna is the lake of fire.