The Bible’s Viewpoint Will Bad People Burn in Hell? GERTRUDE, a Pentecostal preacher, held firmly to her belief in a fiery hell. The very suggestion that there might not be any such place offended her sense of justice. She reasoned that without the fires of hell, all sorts of horrible crimes would go unpunished. Gertrude remained adamant in her position. As she put it, “I don’t think that I’d want to worship God if there were no hellfire for the wicked.” Will bad people burn in hell, as many religions teach? If not, what punishment will they receive? The First Act of Divine Punishment According to the Bible, God created the first human pair perfect. (Genesis 1:27; Deuteronomy 32:4) He placed them in a paradise garden and gave them the opportunity to live forever. However, the first humans, Adam and Eve, had one restriction. God warned them: “From every tree of the garden you may eat to satisfaction. But as for the tree of the knowledge of good and bad you must not eat from it, for in the day you eat from it you will positively die.”—Genesis 2:16, 17. Sadly, our first parents failed that simple test of loyalty and obedience. The Creator was obliged to sentence them to death. “In the sweat of your face you will eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For dust you are and to dust you will return.”—Genesis 3:19. Had Adam and Eve been in danger of burning in hell, would not God have warned them about such a punishment? The fact is that he mentioned nothing about suffering after death. How could they suffer? They did not have immortal souls that would survive after death. The Bible makes this very clear: “The soul that is sinning—it itself will die.”—Ezekiel 18:4. As the Giver of life, our Creator knows all there is to know about life and death. He tells us in his Word that “the dead . . . are conscious of nothing at all.” (Ecclesiastes 9:5) That is why Adam and Eve could not suffer in a fiery hell after their death. They simply returned to the dust and ceased to exist. They were “conscious of nothing at all.” Continue Reading: wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/102009321?q=hell&p=par
Posted on: Fri, 04 Jul 2014 11:34:12 +0000