There is an assumption about God that has become so deeply embedded in religious thought that many people no longer recognize it as an assumption. It is treated as self-evident that God is first and foremost a judge, that humanity stands before him as defendants, and that righteousness requires him to decide who deserves mercy and who deserves condemnation.

In this blog, we will examine the key terms translated as “hell” in many English Bibles and reveal how this modern doctrine departs from the heart of the gospel and the language of Jesus Himself. Our journey will take us through the words Gehenna, Hades, and Tartarus, and expose how later tradition gave rise to the distorted concept we now call “hell.”