The Myths of Hell
by Mark Sanguinetti
Next we have another New Testament Greek word that is translated as “hell”. This is the Greek word “gehenna” with Strong’s # 1067 with twelve usages.
Gehenna: the name of a valley on the south and east of Jerusalem
(from Thayer's Greek Lexicon, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 2000 by Biblesoft)
This Greek word “gehenna” was translated into Greek and named after the Hebrew, Valley of Hinnom. This is land in the Old Testament times that was narrow ravine south east of Jerusalem. Crazy and insane evil occurred there. At the places of worship in the Valley of Hinnom, parents sacrificed their children with torturous fire as burnt offering to the pagan god Molech (2 Kings 23:10). This was the pagan worship murder of children. Ahaz and Manasseh, kings of Judah, were both guilty of promoting the worship of the pagan god Molech. 2 Chronicles 28:1-4 explains the evil insane wickedness of Ahaz and 2 Chronicles 33:1-6 shows the insane wickedness of Manasseh who first became king of the tribe of Judah as a 12 year old.
Later a new and not insane good King Josiah had the pagan altars that promoted the crazy sacrifice of children destroyed as recorded in 2 Chronicles 34:3-7 This helped remove this temptation from the Hebrew people. He had this place of human torture with death and sacrifice changed into a garbage dump for the capital city of Jerusalem. After this no torture and sacrifice leading to the death of people was allowed there. Instead it was used as a burning garbage dump where refuse, waste materials, and dead animals were placed there to be burned. Fires smoldered and smoke from the burning debris rose day and night. This has some similarity to the needed garbage dumps that we have today with less machinery and technology. Any animals or humans placed there were already dead with no added torture. Perhaps only the dead bodies of some vile death penalty criminals that were denied an honorable burial were placed there. Hinnom became a symbol of removing the bad. And today we also have garbage dumps. They are used to get rid of the garbage that we don’t want because they will waste our useful space of living and working when the garbage is in other areas.
Today with the belief by some that hell existing today is a place of fire and torment. With regard to the ancient Valley of Hinnom being linked by Greek word usages, this is in harmony with the pagan god Molech and the torture through the burning of children by fire. And with eternal punishment in hell this means even more torture by fire than even under the belief and worship of the pagan god Molech. Should the people of ancient times kept believing in this pagan god? Or should they have changed their mindset while turning the ancient Valley of Hinnom into a needed garbage dump? And should people today have a mindset of the Valley of Hinnom as a place of torment with hell fire? Or should they see it as a needed garbage dump to help remove man’s sin nature? Today for humanity we need to get rid of a lot of garbage. As an example, people sit down perhaps daily on a toilet and experience the flow out of their bodies of feces and urine. Or should we as people today burn our feces with fire inside of our bodies in order to dispose of it? Only if we are fans of the ancient pagan god Molech and the by fire sacrifice of human children. I am not one of his fans. Instead of the by fire sacrifice of children, I would rather send Molech to a garbage dump. And 1 Corinthians 6:3 says in the future as followers of Jesus Christ, “we will judge angels”. This especially refers to the fallen angels under Satan, the ruler of the fallen angels or deceiving demons of this world.
Also as a reminder according to Genesis 1:27, “God created mankind in his own image”. Since our physical bodies have a physical ability and method for the removal of feces and urine with the use of two kidneys to filter or remove waste. Will God have a method with the ability to remove mankind’s sin nature in the future after being as read in Revelation 20:14-15, “thrown into the lake of fire”? This word for fire is the Koine Greek word “puros”, which is Strong' #4442 and according to Greek lexicons is stated figuratively as “fire”. Stated in a more literal way it means “purification”. The Koine Greek related words puros, pur, and puri depend on which part of speech is used, noun, verb or adjective. From this Greek word "puros" is where we get our English word "purification". Many New Testament verses use this Greek word “puros” including when people originally received the gift of holy spirit on what is called the day of Pentecost. This is scene in Acts 2:3. “They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire (puros) that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirt…”
When the Holy Spirit was originally seen with tongues of fire (puros) resting on people followed by people filled with the Holy Spirit. Were people then tortured or did this help with their purification? This answer is scene in 1 Corinthians 3:13-15 with one of each related Koine Greek words “pur”, “puri" and “puros”. In these verses the purifying fire tests the quality of each person’s work. If the work or what has been built survives, the human builder will receive a reward. If any human's work shall be burned, he or she shall suffer loss, but the human shall be saved, yet so as by fire. Or by the removal of the sin nature from mankind through the Lord Jesus Christ.