The Watchtower Society teaches that when a person dies they simply cease to exist. There is not a part of man that separates from the body at death and goes to another place. This means there is no fiery hell of torment but simply the common grave of mankind.
WATCH TOWER TEACHING
‘The Hebrew sheohl’ and its Greek equivalent haides, which refer, not to an individual burial place, but to the common grave of dead mankind; also the Greek geenna, which is used as a symbol of eternal destruction.’ - Reasoning from the Scriptures, WBTS, 1985, p.169.
Matthew 25:46 - This verse, they insist, simply means the righteous go to life, the wicked to the cutting off from life, or death.
Revelation 14:9-11; 20:10 - These verses, they say, cannot refer to conscious torment after death because ‘the dead know not any thing.’ (Ecclesiastes 9:5). It is the proclamation by God's servants that worshippers of the "beast and his image" will experience second death that causes them to experience such torment while they are still alive. The Devil being "tormented" forever means that there will be no relief for him; he will be held under restraint forever, actually in eternal death.
Matthew 10:28 - Notice that there is no mention here of torment in the fires of Gehenna; rather, Jesus says to "fear him that can destroy in Gehenna." By referring to the 'soul' separately, Jesus emphasises that God can destroy all of a person's life prospects; thus, there is no hope of resurrection for him.
BIBLE TEACHING
Scriptural Words
The Hebrew sheol appears 66 times in the Old Testament. The Greek hades appears 10 times in the New Testament and the Greek word gehenna appears 12 times. The Greek tartarus only appears once in the New Testament, at 2 Peter 2:4. This word need not concern us, as it is a special abode for disobedient angels.
Greek scholar W.E.Vine sums up the use of sheol, hades and gehenna, in the Scriptures, as follows:
“Hades ...the region of departed spirits and the lost (but including the blessed dead in periods preceding the Ascension of Christ). It corresponds to 'Sheol' in the OT. In the AV of the OT and NT, it has been unhappily rendered 'Hell,' ...or 'the grave,' ...or 'the pit' ... It never denotes the grave, nor is it the permanent region of the lost; in point of time it is for such, intermediate between decease and the doom of Gehenna.” - Vine's Dictionary of New Testament Words, Vol.2, pp.187/8.
“Hell ...Geenna represents the Hebrew Ge-Hinnom (the valley of Tophet) ...'the eternal fire' is mentioned as the doom, the character of the region standing for the region itself.” - Vine's Dictionary of New Testament Words, Vol.2, p.212.
The Hebrew sheol and the Greek hades refer to the same place but the Greek gehenna refers to a different place.
Gehenna represents the valley of the Son of Hinnom south-east of Jerusalem. Here during Old Testament times children were offered to the false god Moloch. Later, Jews used the valley to dispose of their rubbish, dead animals and unburied criminals. To consume all this a fire burned continuously and gnawing worms abounded. It was a vile place.
Matthew 25:46, Acts 4:21, 2 Peter 2:9, 1 John 4:18 - These four Scriptures all talk of punishment. In each case the Greek word is kolasis. This, in most Bibles, is always rendered as 'punish' or 'punishment,' but to hide the truth of eternal punishment at Matthew 25:46 the NWT renders it as 'cutting off.'
While the word does mean, 'to curtail, prune, dock,' and then 'check, restrain, punish,' when one prunes a tree or bush it does not die. The Watchtower Society are not consistent in their translating, using different renderings in the 4 texts above, 'cutting off,' 'punish,' 'cut off' and 'restraint.'
Consciousness in Sheol and Hades
Isaiah 14:9-11 – Here is excitement and discussion in sheol.
Ezekiel 32:21 – Here speech is heard in sheol.
Revelation 20:13 - Hades gives up those in it for judgement.
Acts 2:14-32 - Jesus went to hades, indicating it was a place to pass through.
There is a distinction in these last verses between the soul 'abandoned' in hades but the flesh 'suffering decay.' The body is in the grave decaying but the soul is either abandoned to hades or with the Lord [see Luke 23:43].
Bible references to sheol and hades do not mention a terrifying 'hell' full of torment for those within. On the other hand the references to gehenna reveal such a place and condition not to be recommended.
If, as the Watchtower teaches, gehenna is simply the eternal annihilation of the unworthy, unconscious and non-existent, there would be no point in using the word at all. The Jews of Jesus' day certainly had a vivid picture of what being thrown alive into gehenna would be like for them. They knew all about the valley of the Son of Hinnom. [See Mark 9:42-48.]
Matthew 5:29,30 - It is better to lose part of one's body than end up in hell. If hell is only the common grave of the non-existent this Scripture does not make sense.
Matthew 23:33 - Why try to escape from the common grave?
Matthew 26:24 - It is better not to have been born. This is nonsense if hell is non-existence because his end would have been the same as his beginning.
Torment
The Greek word for torment is basanizo. Vine says of this word:
“. primarily, to rub on the touchstone, to put to the test, then, to examine by torture ...hence denotes to torture, torment, distress.” - Vine's Dictionary of New Testament Words, Vol.4, p.141.
This root Greek word is used in Scripture to describe a number of different uncomfortable situations, as the following demonstrates:
Matthew 8:6 - A paralysed manservant, suffering great pain.
Matthew 14:24 - Battered by the waves.
Mark 6:48 - Straining at the oars, literally harassed in rowing.
Revelation 14:10 - tormented with fire and brimstone.
This last verse should be compared with the Watchtower Society's earlier explanation. To get it to mean what they want they have taken the Greek words and given them completely different meanings.
Matthew 10:28 - The Watchtower Society appears to have mistranslated this verse to their own ends.
Revelation 19:20 - The Watchtower Society rightly say that only dead bodies were thrown into the valley of Hinnom. However, into this fire living persons were also cast.
Revelation 20:10 - The torment goes on day and night forever.
Matthew 13:42,50. Jesus tells us that the angels cast the wicked, 'into the furnace of fire' and that there 'shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' Jesus did not invent a lie to explain the parable, He taught the truth about hell.
Knowing that we are in God's will brings an awareness of hell and a right dread of it. However, we are to fear God and trust Him because He does not want to cast us into hell, rather He wants to save us from it.
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