Hell or hell no?

What if hell was never an afterlife location…

But something we experience right here?

What the Original Bible Words Say

There is no word in Hebrew or Greek that literally means “hell” as taught in most churches today. Here’s what actually appears in Scripture:

 1. Sheol (שְׁאוֹל) – Hebrew

 • The grave, the place of the dead—neutral, not punitive

 • Everyone went there, righteous and unrighteous alike

 2. Hades (ᾅδης) – Greek

 • The unseen realm of the dead; similar to Sheol

 • Not inherently a place of suffering—more like a holding place

 3. Gehenna (γέεννα) – Greek

 • A literal valley outside Jerusalem where children were once sacrificed

 • In Jesus’ time, it symbolized judgment and societal ruin—not eternal torture

 • When Jesus warned of Gehenna, he was invoking prophetic earthly consequences, not postmortem fire

 4. Tartarus (Τάρταρος) – Used once, only for rebellious angels

 • Not a doctrine for human souls

So where did the fire-and-brimstone version come from?

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How the Doctrine of Eternal Hell Entered the Church

 • Early Church Fathers like Origen and Gregory of Nyssa believed in apokatastasis—the restoration of all things.

 • They saw God’s fire as refining, not punishing.

 • Hell was understood as a state of separation from love—not a permanent place.

 • The shift happened later. Augustine, influenced by imperial Rome and his own guilt-soaked theology, hardened the idea.

 • By the 4th–5th centuries, the church became a state institution. Fear was politically useful.

 • Latin translations like the Vulgate lumped multiple words into one: infernus—hell.

 • When the King James Bible was translated, terms like Sheol, Hades, and Gehenna were all rendered as hell, erasing their nuance and multiplying fear.

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But Then There’s This: The Life Review in Near-Death Experiences

Across countless documented NDEs—regardless of culture or religion—people report a life review:

A panoramic reliving of their entire life.

But not from their own eyes.

From the eyes of everyone they ever impacted.

They feel the pain they caused, the love they gave, and the consequences of their choices—instantly, vividly, undeniably.

And some describe parts of this experience as “hell.” But not because God sent them there.

🔥 They experienced the suffering they inflicted on others

🔥 They felt the weight of their choices

🔥 And they were not judged by God, but by their own soul’s capacity to love and grow

No eternal torture. No angry deity.

Just truth, clarity, and a sacred invitation to change.

What if that’s what Jesus meant when he warned about fire?

Not retribution. But refinement.

Not punishment. But purification.

Not separation from love—but the revelation of it.❤️