This is one of the phrases and sayings that were circulating in the jewish traditions and communities at that time that Jesus used. The phrase is quoted from the book of Isaiah, chapter sixty-six, verse twenty-four, “And they shall go forth and look upon the corpses of the men, who have transgressed against Me. For their worm does not die, and their fire is not quenched.” But if He meant the fire of barbecue, it would not possible for the worms to live in the fire, but they would die. Also, if He meant the fire of barbecue, He would not have called it the outer darkness in the Gospel of Mathew, chapter twenty-five, verse thirty, “And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness.” because the fire is glowing with light and not dark. All these phrases are not intended for the fire of barbecue known to us, but they are a metaphor for the state of eternal misery outside the life of God.

As I explained before that the word translated in English for hell is originally in Greek ( GEHNNA - γέενναν ) and in Hebrew it is (GEHINNOM - THE VALLEY OF GEHINNOM). The Valley of Gehinnom is an actual valley mentioned in the Old Testament several times, including the book of Nehemiah, chapter eleven, verse thirty. In the days of Christ, they used to throw into this valley which is outside the city, the garbage and the dead animals. And to avoid the smell of rotting and pollution that comes out of the withers, they burn it with fire and they do this every day, so the fire is renewed and not extinguished. So the valley of Gehinnom or hell is a metaphorical and pictorial expression, not the fire as they told us, was a place prepared by God to torture the wicked. Also, no single text in the New Testament says that God throws sinners into hell. As for this verse in the Gospel of Luke, which preachers used to explain wrongly and attribute it to God, it is the enlightened and careful reading of it that will prove their explanation wrong and answer the question of who is the one who throws sinners in hell. The text says,” Fear Him who, after he has killed, has the power to cast into hell;” And the simple question is, who is the one who kills? Is it God?! Or the murderer of people from the beginning as Jesus called him in the Gospel of John, chapter eight, verse forty-four “He was a murderer from the beginning and did not stand in the truth.” Jesus said in the Gospel of John, Chapter ten, verses ten and eleven, that He is the Good Shepherd who gives His life to the sheep, but the thief, I.e., the devil, does not come except to kill, steal, and destroy, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.” Also, we read in the epistle to the Hebrews, chapter two, verse fourteen, that the devil is the one who has the power of death and that Jesus came to abolish his power of death over us,“ Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,” It has become clear now that the Gospel teaches that the killer is the devil, as Christ Himself said, and that after he kills, he is the one who throws people into hell. Hell is the devil’s place, and he pulls down people under his influence to share with him his misery, his feeling of the gnashing of teeth of regret, and the burning fire of despair. Christians must hold fast to the truth revealed in the New Testament and not to the Jewish heritage and old teachings.

First, while the New Testament emphasizes human freedom, as we read in the epistle to the Galatians, chapter five, verse one, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free,” and in verse thirteen, ”For you, brethren, have been called to liberty”. We also read in the Gospel of John, “Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” We do not read the expression of “human freedom” not once in the Old Testament. On the contrary, we see that man’s will is governed and constrained by the law’s commands and so he is threatened with punishment if he disobeys the law, which is Judaism and the Old Testament. Second, Christ’s definition of judgment in the Gospel is very different from the Old Testament’s law of punishment, which people grew up hearing from the Christian preachers, who preach the Old Testament and not the Gospel of Christ. While in the New Testament, In the Gospel of John, chapter three, verse nineteen, we read the definition of condemnation,”And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”  The difference between the Old Testament, I.e., Judaism and the Gospel of Christ is that freedom of will is available to man and that judgment is the spontaneous consequence and the fruit of the confrontation between the light and the life of darkness chosen by man. The intense light of the sun is the cause of the life cycle, the blooming of the flowers and the ripening of fruits, and at the same time, the light of this sun itself causes a serious threat to the sick eyes that are used to darkness. It is not the sun that causes harm to anyone, but the nature of its bright light reveals to the blind their blindness. We cannot stop the bright sunlight that is the cause of life, joy, and fruitfulness so that the blind do not see that they are in the dark.  Christians must learn from the Gospel which is the word of life and the revelation of the New covenant between God and His people.

First, the book of Revelation has a lot of symbols regarding its expressions of numbers, colors, perceptions, and metaphors. The lake of fire is one of these metaphors. Again we can ask the same question, how do we find in the clear teaching words of Christ the expression (hell of fire)? By reviewing all the texts in which the Gospel used the word “fire” to express the physical fire, we found that the characteristics of fire that we know do not apply to the fire that Christ spoke of in the Gospel, such as in the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus in the Gospel of Luke, chapter sixteen, verse twenty-four, “send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.” It is clear that the story tells the state of man beyond death, that is, in the spiritual state, a spirit without a body. Does the fire we know ignite the world of spirits? Or is the expression of fire here a metaphorical expression? Second, the word translated in English for hell is originally in Greek ( GEHENNA - γέενναν ), and in Hebrew, it is (GEHINNOM - THE VALLEY OF GEHINNOM). The Valley of Gehinnom is an actual valley mentioned in the Old Testament several times, including in the book of Nehemiah, chapter eleven, verse thirty. In the days of Christ, they used to throw into this valley which is outside the city, the garbage, and the dead animals. And to avoid the smell of rotting and pollution from the withers, they burn it with fire every day, so the fire is renewed and not extinguished. Jesus did not use the word (HELL) in a sense conveyed by the Jewish tradition that it was a punitive fire that God ignited to torture man, but He used the term ( HELL or GEHINNOM) in which they burned the garbage outside the city, as a symbolic image of the environment that depicts the state of man when he goes out of the circle of the divine life and its joy. Third, Jesus did not say once in the Gospel that God is the one who will throw man into this valley of fire. When reviewing the original texts and the fundamental translations, we will find that the act of throwing into the valley of fire is not attributed to God but the unknown. Fourth, the transformation of the symbolic image of (the Valley of Gehinnom, i.e., Hell) into the meaning that the preachers circulated in their explanation of the Gospels is the circulation of the Jewish heritage, not Christianity at all, and has nothing to do with the fundamental and original studies of the New Testament.

As I explained before that the word translated in English for hell is originally in Greek ( GEHNNA - γέενναν ) and in Hebrew it is (GEHINNOM - THE VALLEY OF GEHINNOM). The Valley of Gehinnom is an actual valley mentioned in the Old Testament several times, including the book of Nehemiah, chapter eleven, verse thirty. In the days of Christ, they used to throw into this valley which is outside the city, the garbage and the dead animals. And to avoid the smell of rotting and pollution that comes out of the withers, they burn it with fire and they do this every day, so the fire is renewed and not extinguished. So the valley of Gehinnom or hell is a metaphorical and pictorial expression, not the fire as they told us, was a place prepared by God to torture the wicked. Also, no single text in the New Testament says that God throws sinners into hell. As for this verse in the Gospel of Luke, which preachers used to explain wrongly and attribute it to God, it is the enlightened and careful reading of it that will prove their explanation wrong and answer the question of who is the one who throws sinners in hell. The text says,” Fear Him who, after he has killed, has the power to cast into hell;” And the simple question is, who is the one who kills? Is it God?! Or the murderer of people from the beginning as Jesus called him in the Gospel of John, chapter eight, verse forty-four “He was a murderer from the beginning and did not stand in the truth.” Jesus said in the Gospel of John, Chapter ten, verses ten and eleven, that He is the Good Shepherd who gives His life to the sheep, but the thief, I.e., the devil, does not come except to kill, steal, and destroy, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.” Also, we read in the epistle to the Hebrews, chapter two, verse fourteen, that the devil is the one who has the power of death and that Jesus came to abolish his power of death over us,“ Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,” It has become clear now that the Gospel teaches that the killer is the devil, as Christ Himself said, and that after he kills, he is the one who throws people into hell. Hell is the devil’s place, and he pulls down people under his influence to share with him his misery, his feeling of the gnashing of teeth of regret, and the burning fire of despair. Christians must hold fast to the truth revealed in the New Testament and not to the Jewish heritage and old teachings.

The word translated in the English translation of the Gospel as (hell), which is mentioned in the Gospels many times by the Lord Jesus Himself is originally in Greek (Gahanna), in Hebrew (GEHENNOM) ,that is to say, the Valley of Gehennom. In the days of Jesus this valley was a place to burn garbage outside the city. It was burning all day long because they threw trash in it day and night to burn it and dispose it. Thus, it is a pictorial image taken from the environment, and not that hell or the valley of Gehennom is a place God has prepared to burn disobedient humans. As for the word HADES, which Jesus spoke of directly, and is not pictorial, which is confused with the word HELL among people, and we read about it in the Gospel of Luke, chapter sixteen, verses twenty-three and twenty-four “The rich man also died and was buried. And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. “Then he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.” It is clear that Jesus’ words are about Lazarus and the rich man after their death from the flesh, they are spirits without bodies, and therefore it cannot be the sensual fire of barbecue that we know because sensual fire does not burn souls. Whatever the meaning of fire, the rich man is in a place and in a situation where he suffers excruciating torment, which Jesus Himself calls HADES (hell). Jesus did not say that God is the one who tortures in hades, as the Jewish heritage teaches. So what the HADES (hell) is it? According to the teachings of the Apostles and the Early Fathers of the church, HADES (hell) is the prison in which Satan imprisoned his captives, as he attracted them to himself by the temptation of sin. It is the place where the human spirit of Christ went during the cross to free the souls who were unjustly imprisoned and captivated by Satan. “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly were disobedient,” (1 Peter3:18-20.) It is clear that Jesus’ words are about Lazarus and the rich man after their death from the flesh, they are spirits without bodies, and therefore it cannot be the sensual fire of barbecue that we know because sensual fire does not burn souls. Whatever the meaning of fire, the rich man is in a place and in a situation where he suffers excruciating torment, which Jesus Himself calls HADES (hell). Jesus did not say that God is the one who tortures in hades, as the jewish heritage teaches. So what the HADES (hell) is it? According to the teachings of the Apostles and the Early Fathers of the church, HADES (hell) is the prison in which Satan imprisoned his captives, as he attracted them to himself by the temptation of sin. It is the place where the human spirit of Christ went during the cross to free the souls who were unjustly imprisoned and captivated by Satan. If christ is the One who went to hades with His cross to free the souls imprisoned in it, how could it be Christ who threw them there! Who do you think is the one who tortures souls in hades (hell)?

Middle Eastern and Pharaonic religions have mostly bequeathed to humanity the idea that eternal life is a reward from God to good people. On the other hand, eternal torment is God’s punishment for the wicked people, which will happen after the Day of Resurrection. This belief was expressed by Martha, Lazarus’ sister, who Christ raised from the dead, when she was speaking to Christ. In the Gospel of John, chapter eleven, verse twenty-five, Jesus corrected this concept with a new definition when He said to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.” So eternal life is the participation in God’s life through Jesus Christ. As for the second part of your question, what is the proof of the existence of the eternal life, that is, man’s participation in the life of Christ? Participation in the life of Christ bears fruits and produces a life of love, holiness, and joy in the lives of true believers. Also, some of them fulfill the revelation of Christ’s works, such as the authority over demons and releasing people from their bondages, healing the sick, and all the rest of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.