Hell

"But just what does the Bible say about torment after death? If you have read earlier chapters of this book, you know that many common beliefs about the dead are false. You know, according to the Bible, that no soul or spirit separates from the body at death and continues conscious existence. Hence, there is no Scriptural foundation for the doctrine of eternal torment after death, for nothing survives that can be subjected to literal torment."

" The immediate future for a person after death is in the grave. The languages in which the Bible was written had words for the place of the dead, mankind's common grave. In Hebrew it was termed Sheol. It was called Hades in Greek. These words have been translated in some Bibles by terms such as 'grave,' 'pit' or 'hell.' Regardless of how they are rendered, the meaning of the original-language terms is not a hot place of suffering but is the grave of the unconscious dead."

" Yes, good people go to the Bible hell. For example, the good man Job, who was suffering a great deal, prayed to God: 'O that in Sheol [grave, King James Version; hell, Douay Version] you would conceal me, . . . that you would set a time limit for me and remember me!' (Job 14:13) Now think: If Sheol means a place of fire and torment, would Job wish to go and spend his time there until God remembered him? Clearly, Job wanted to die and go to the grave that his sufferings might end."

"Definition: The word 'hell' is found in many Bible translations. In the same verses other translations read 'the grave,' 'the world of the dead,' and so forth. Other Bibles simply transliterate the original-language words that are sometimes rendered 'hell'; that is, they express them with the letters of our alphabet but leave the words untranslated. What are those words? The Hebrew she'ohl' and its Greek equivalent hai'des, which refer, not to an individual burial place, but to the common grave of dead mankind; also the Greek ge'en·na, which is used as a symbol of eternal destruction. However, both in Christendom and in many non-Christian religions it is taught that hell is a place inhabited by demons and where the wicked, after death, are punished (and some believe that this is with torment)."