The article “A Case Against Hell” reveals that the entire
concept of Hell is absent from the Old Testament. The Hebrew word that is translated as “Hell”
in most Bibles today is sheol, which
means “grave.” The word sheol appears only thirty-one times in the
entire Old Testament. Sheol, the grave,
is where everyone must go regardless of how they lived their lives. God doesn’t warn Adam and Eve about there
being a Hell if they eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil- only that
this action would cause death. Cain is
not warned about Hell. Nor are the
cities of Sodom Gomorrah
In the New Testament, Jesus occasionally used the Greek word
Gehenna to describe what will happen to us if we engage in negative,
self-serving behaviors. The same word
root for Gehenna is not translated as “Hell” when it appears in the Old
Testament Hebrew as ga ben Hinnom- the valley of the son of Hinnom.
This valley was a horrible place; it started out as a
location where children were sacrificed to the owl-god Moloch. Over time the ritual murders stopped and
Gehenna became the main garbage dump for the entire city. Dead bodies were routinely burned there. Gehenna was therefore a necessary place for
cleansing and purifying the land through fire.
This appears to be the deepest meaning of the metaphor Jesus was using.
In the World English Dictionary the word Gehenna is “a place
or state of pain and torment.” Therefore
Jesus was teaching the law of Karma.
Causing pain and torment to others would cause similar pain and torment
in your own life as a form of purification.
The concept of karma was expressed in Galations 6:7 “As you sow, so
shall you reap.” The spiritual teachings
of Jesus can deliver us from the danger of Gehenna- from the fires of karma
that burn out our impurities- by revealing what life on earth is here to teach
us.
Reference~ The Synchronicity Key by David Wilcock
