Is hell literally a place of fire and brimstone?

Response

By unleashing fire and brimstone upon the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, God not only revealed His stance against blatant sin but also introduced a lasting symbol. Following the events of Genesis 19:24, the mere mention of fire, brimstone, Sodom, or Gomorrah immediately immerses a reader in the context of God’s judgment. However, this powerful symbol sometimes hinders rather than promotes its intended message. A symbol should draw a parallel between two dissimilar entities. While fire and brimstone depict aspects of hell, they do not encompass its entirety.

The term the Bible uses to portray a fiery hell—Gehenna—originates from a real burning location, the valley of Gehenna near Jerusalem to the south. Gehenna is an English rendition of the Greek version of an Aramaic term, which is derived from the Hebrew expression “the Valley of (the son[s] of) Hinnom.” During a period of great apostasy, the Jews (particularly under kings Ahaz and Manasseh) sacrificed their children in the fires to the god Molech in that very valley (2 Kings 16:3;2 Chronicles 33:6;Jeremiah 32:35). Eventually, the Jews deemed that place ceremonially impure «And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech. », (2 Kings 23:10), and further desecrated it by disposing of criminals’ bodies in its burning piles. In Jesus’ era, this was a site of perpetual fire, but more significantly, it served as a garbage dump, the final destination for all items deemed worthless by men. When Jesus referred to Gehenna as hell, He was describing the eternal city dump.Yes, fire was part of it, but the purposeful casting away—the separation and loss—was all of it.

In Mark 9:43, Jesus used another powerful image to illustrate the seriousness of hell. “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out.” For most readers, this image does escape its own gravity—in spite of the goriness! Few believe that Jesus wants us literally to cut off our own hand. He would rather that we do whatever is necessary to avoid going to hell, and that is the purpose of such language—to polarize, to set up an either/or dynamic, to compare. Since the first part of the passage uses imagery, the second part does also, and therefore should not be understood as an encyclopedic description of hell.

In addition to fire, the New Testament describes hell as a bottomless pit (abyss) «and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season. », (Revelation 20:3), a lake «And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. », (Revelation 20:14), darkness «And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. », (Matthew 25:30), death «He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death. », (Revelation 2:11), destruction «who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from thThe glory of His power; », (2 Thessalonians 1:9), everlasting torment «And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever. », (Revelation 20:10), a place of wailing and gnashing of teeth «And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. », (Matthew 25:30), and a place of gradated punishment (Matthew 11:20-24;Luke 12:47-48;Revelation 20:12-13). The very variety of hell’s descriptors argues against applying a literal interpretation of any particular one. For instance, hell’s literal fire could emit no light, since hell would be literally dark. Its fire could not consume its literal fuel (persons!) since their torment is non-ending. Additionally, the gradation of punishments within hell also confounds literalness. Does hell’s fire burn Hitler more fiercely than an honest pagan? Does he fall more rapidly into the abyss than another? Is it darker for Hitler? Does he wail and gnash more loudly or more continually than the other? The variety and symbolic nature of descriptors do not lessen hell; however, just the opposite, in fact. Their combined effect describes a hell that is worse than death, darker than darkness, and deeper than any abyss. Hell is a place with more wailing and gnashing of teeth than any single descriptor could ever portray. Its symbolic descriptors bring us to a place beyond the limits of our language—to a place far worse than we could ever imagine.