Gehenna: Hell Was a Place You Could Visit

Welcome to the Kingdom Family Podcast, where

we rediscover our identity as sons and daughters

of Yahweh and learn to live the life of the Kingdom.

Let's jump in to today's episode. OK, guys, we

are back week two of rethinking hell. Last week,

we discovered something that probably many people

never consider or never study, and it's that

the word hell in English actually comes from

four different words in the Hebrew and the Greek.

Those four words were Sheol, Hades, Gehenna and

Tartarus. So in this episode, we're going to

zoom in on the word Jesus used most often and

that word is Gehenna. So I want you to consider

this question as we begin this conversation.

is what if Jesus was not talking about a place

in the afterlife but a place his listeners could

physically see and they knew what he was talking

about when he was referencing this place called

Gehenna. The word Gehenna actually comes from

Hebrew and it's And again, if you're a Hebrew

scholar, bear with me. But it's Gehenom, which

actually means the Valley of Hinnom. This was

a real place, guys. This was located south of

Jerusalem. It would have been known to everyone

in Jesus' day. It was a place in the Old Testament

era as the place where human sacrifice was offered

to the pagan god, Molech. Okay. So again, just

as with the rethinking in time series that we

ended season three with, it's important for us

to understand what these words would have meant

to the audience that was hearing it. Um, so we

have to go back and we have to look at these

things and put ourselves. in the listener's perspective

to really grab hold of what was Jesus trying

to communicate and not fast forward to 2026 and

use our modern day language to try to define

what these words meant. And I hope that makes

sense. So if we look at we're just going to kick

off here with Second Kings, Chapter 23, verse

2 Kings 23:10

10. And it says this, then the king defiled the

altar of Tofeth in the Valley of Ben -Hinom.

So no one could ever use it again. Excuse me.

So no one could ever again use it to sacrifice

a son or daughter in the fire as an offering

to Molech. And then we have we jump over to Jeremiah,

Chapter seven, verse thirty one. And it says

they have built pagan shrines at Tofeth. the

garbage dump in the valley of Ben Hanom. And

there they burned their sons and daughters in

the fire. Now catch this. I have never commanded

such a horrible deed. It never even crossed my

mind to command such a thing. So this valley,

again a very real valley, became infamous because

of child sacrifice. Children would have been

burned as offerings at this place called Gehenna

to false gods. So when people heard the word

Gehenna, they were not imagining some distant

afterlife. They pictured that valley that Jesus

was speaking of. It was a real place and it did

serve as a very real warning. So let's look at

go some more in Jeremiah will jump over to Jeremiah

Jeremiah 19:6

chapter 19 verse 6 and it says this because they

have done all of this behold the time is coming

when this place will no longer be called to fifth

or the hit on Valley but people will call it

slaughter Valley declares Yahweh God is warning

Israel that this valley would become a place

of judgment and a place of devastation. Gehenna

became a symbol, if you will, of national destruction.

It was not a symbol of some sort of eternal torture.

It was not a symbol of eternal conscience torment.

It was a national collapse and it was, in fact,

judgment imagery. We're going to dive into judgment

in a few weeks, so just bear with us as we continue

running through this. Let us remember though

that prophets often used physical places as symbolic

warnings. We have examples of this. You can look

at Babylon. You can look at Edom. You can look

at Jerusalem. Jesus, when He is speaking to the

crowds, is doing the same exact thing. So Jesus

uses the word Gehenna. So we're going to look

at Matthew chapter 5 verse 29 and it says this

Matthew 5:29

if your right eye seduces you to fall into sin

then go blind in your right eye for you're better

off losing sight in one eye than to have your

whole body thrown into hell And if your right

eye entices you to sin, let it go limp and useless,

for you're better off losing a part of your body

than to have it all thrown into hell. Now, when

I did this with our Bible study group on Wednesday

night, I made sure to bring this thought up.

If we are to take the Bible literally, then why

are there not a bunch of people running around

with one eye One hand quite frankly no eyes and

no hands There's a note that I have here from

out of the passion translation And it says this

these verses use obvious hyperbole to help us

understand how intent we must be to guard or

our lives from sin Jesus is using an obvious

figure of speech when he instructs us to pluck

out our eyes or to cut off our hands The metaphor

is clear. We are to end every habit that will

lead us to destruction now Let me pause right

here and just say from my audience. I do know

there's a lot of controversy surrounding the

passion translation And I do take that when I'm

doing the study for this I don't just take footnotes

to take footnotes. I do take footnotes that I

believe will be challenging and to bring further

conversation to this. So again, I know there's

controversy. I don't take that lightly. I do

take that as I'm reading his translation and

his footnotes. I do take that into consideration.

while I'm putting my notes together. So just

just know that. And I'm going to move on from

that because that's not what this is about. I

still enjoy the passion translation, but it's

with anything. I don't just read any translation

and take what that translator put. I try to go

dig in myself and allow Holy Spirit to teach

me just as I challenge anyone to do. So anyhow,

moving from that. So again, Jesus is using is

using hyperbole in this moment to teach something

which would have been a very common Jewish rhetorical

style here. And context matters. If this verse

for example, if I was to take this verse and

try to teach a room of people that this is what

they should do, what would be your thoughts?

What would go through your head if I'm teaching

just this verse and trying to teach a room full

of let's say teenagers that this is what you're

supposed to do. No. But remember Matthew 5 is

giving what we call the Sermon on the Mount.

is what Jesus is giving and he goes through this

this process of you have heard but I say many

times over and his aim is not to make the law

any stricter for the sake of making it impossible

no Jesus is actually exposing that righteousness

was never about external behavior it was always

it's always been about the heart and there's

only one person who can heal repair and fix the

heart Again, notice some of the progression.

We have murder that begins with lust. Adultery

begins with, excuse me, murder begins with anger.

Adultery begins with lust. Oaths expose truthfulness.

Loving enemies exposes the heart of love. Jesus

is continually moving the conversation from outward

actions to an inward reality. Again, and I say

this a lot, but behavior follows identity. It's

very important what you believe about yourself.

So notice what he says, if your right eye causes

you to stumble, if your right eye causes you

to stumble, remember, I do not believe Jesus

ever wastes words and I don't believe Matthew

just randomly decided to record random words.

So I pumped the brakes here just a little bit

and so I began to ask, what does the eye represent?

What does the hand represent? Why is it the right

eye and hand that's being mentioned in this verse?

The eye represents what we allow to shape our

desires. I did a teaching several years ago on

what you magnify will be magnified in your life.

And essentially what I did, and you can try this,

I just did it with my phone camera, put it in

selfie mode, and I think I used a paper clip

and a pen. Now if I was to ask you over this

podcast which is... bigger the paper clip or

the pen, I would hope you would say the pen.

But if you take that paper clip and you adjust

the perspective of the person looking, you can

actually make that paper clip seem bigger than

the pen. So my point was this, whatever you choose

to magnify will become magnified in your own

life, whether you're magnifying your issues or

magnifying Christ, whether you're magnifying

your situation or magnifying the promises of

God. Which are you doing? And then we have the

hand. The hand represents what we do. It represents

our actions. So and then I begin to ask again,

why the right eye, why the right hand? So in

Jewish culture, what I found through studying

is that the right side symbolized strength. It

symbolized honor. power and what was most valuable.

Jesus is saying that even if it's something precious,

even if it costs you, remove whatever continually

enslaves you. And I like one of the Bill Johnson

quotes that I've heard over the years is that

it's, is there a price to be paid, a cost that

comes with this life? I would say certainly,

but it's a little embarrassing to talk about

the cost in comparison of what we gain in return.

So just think about that. The Greek phrase here,

for it causes you to stumble, literally means

to trip up, to call someone to fall, to become

a snare. So Jesus is talking about whatever continually

becomes a trap that keeps you from walking in

the life of the kingdom. When he says Gouge it

out or pluck it out. It's again. It's more Jewish

hyperbole He's not really telling people to go

pluck out their eyeballs or cut off their hands

That's not at all what he's doing in this moment

No one listening to him would have thought that

he's literally commanding eye or hand removal

They would have heard deal with sin radically

and and here's a hint. You cannot deal with sin

radically Do not negotiate with what destroys

you and again hint you cannot Okay, think about

what I'm saying, you know, I'll I'll help with

that in a little bit. So This is the turn then

it says throwing it into Gehenna and this is

where the misunderstanding We're going to focus

on comes from because it was not the place that

people would go to die It was a place loaded

with prophetic imagery of judgment destruction

and the consequences of covenant unfaithfulness.

So if you look at throughout the Sermon on the

Mount, Jesus is warning his Jewish audience about

the catastrophic consequences awaiting Jerusalem

if Israel continues rejecting God's way. And

within a generation, Jerusalem would indeed be

destroyed in AD 70. We talked about this. during

the Rethinking End Time series. His point is

unchecked sin does not remain private. It eventually

brings destruction. So think about this. If sin

is a distorted identity, which I could very much

argue that that's what it is, at least one definition

of it, If sin is fundamentally living contrary

to who we truly are in Christ, then Jesus is

telling a group of people, remove anything that

keeps you believing that lie. Get it out. Cut

it away. And this is not because God rejects

you or He stops loving you, but it's because

those things keep you from experiencing the life

that is already yours. The cutting off is about

decisively rejecting false identities, rejecting

destructive patterns, and anything that would

obscure your communion with Papa, your communion

with the Trinity. Think about like a tumor. If

a doctor goes in to cut out or remove a tumor,

he's not trying to harm the patient. He's trying

to help the patient actually have life again

by removing the thing that's killing this individual.

So then we have the Greek language. It does not

use the word sin. It uses the Greek word scandalizo,

which depending on context can mean to call someone

to stumble spiritually, to trip someone up, to

lead into sin, to call someone to lose faith,

to shock or offend in a way that creates rejection

or to become disillusioned. So in this context,

I believe Jesus is saying if something becomes

a trap that leads you away from the life that

you have been given, deal with it radically,

or as I would like to take it and say this, come

into the revelation that Christ dealt with it

radically when he crucified sin on the cross.

I do not take sin lightly. I actually believe

that Jesus effectively dealt with sin the worst

way possible by crucifying it. He killed and

destroyed the power of sin the power of guilt

and the power of shame on behalf of you and I

Man this stuff is good To me the heart of this

teaching is don't treat sin casually whatever

continually blinds you to the goodness of God

or entangles you into destructive patterns, deal

with it or I would say realize Christ dealt with

it and walk in who you are in Christ. Remember

you and Christ are one. Think about this. Let

this get deep down into your spirit. There is

no emphasis here. on God desiring to punish,

but on the seriousness of anything that distorts

the life of the Kingdom within us. Realize, again,

Christ dealt with sin. and redeemed you and I

as sons and daughters. So now we learn to walk

under the Lordship of Holy Spirit. We partner

with the Trinity and we trust Holy Spirit to

transform us more into the image of Christ and

release the kingdom to the world around us. Let

me help you. You don't do the transforming. You

can't. do in the transforming. This is coming

from someone who has tried. I've tried to jump

through all the right hoops, say all the right

prayers. I've lived this life. It doesn't work.

You can't do the transformation. It's not up

to you. It's the Holy Spirit doing the transformational

work as you continually learn to yield to His

Lordship. So as I consider all of this, I think

the main idea is that we cannot fix the heart.

You chopping off a body part that you sinned

with is not fixing anything. It's a heart issue

that Christ has given, and Christ has given you

a new heart. Christ through that Adam's self,

the distorted identity, and this is just how

I see it in my opinion, you can take it for what

you will. But Christ threw that at Himself, that

distorted identity into Gehenna for you and I.

Here, let's look at a few verses here. I think

these are important. Romans 8 .3 says this, For

God achieved what the law was unable to accomplish

because the law was written by the weakness of

human nature. Yet God sent His Son in human form

to identify with human weakness. Clothed with

humanity, God's Son gave His body to be the sin

offering so that God could once and for all condemn,

now listen to the language here, condemn the

guilt and power of sin. That's big guys. Clothed

with humanity, God's Son gave His body to be

the sin offering so that God could once and for

all condemn the guilt and the power of sin. All

right, let's look at another verse. Let's look

at Romans chapter six, verse six. Let me pull

that up real quick. And it says this, could it

be any clearer that our former identity is now

again, really think about what these words are

saying. Could it be any clearer that our former

identity is now and forever deprived of its power.

For we were co -crucified with Him to dismantle

the stronghold of sin, to dismantle the stronghold

of sin within us, so that we would not continue

to live one moment longer submitted to sin's

power. Let me read that verse again, since I

got lost somehow. Could it be any clearer that

our former identity is now and forever deprived

of its power? For we were co -crucified with

Him to dismantle the stronghold of sin within

us, so that we would not continue to live one

moment longer submitted to sin's power. Listen,

to beg God for victory over sin, is a refusal

to understand that we have already died to sin.

How did you and I die to sin? By the death of

Christ. We were co -crucified with Him. We were

co -crucified, co -buried, co -resurrected. Now

we're co -glorified, co -seated. Our joyful task

is to believe the Good News rather than to seek

to crucify ourselves sin is not suppressed by

the cross no sin is eliminated and i want you

to really think about something because i know

we have this mentality growing up in the church

at least where i grew up at to um we're taught

to crucify our flesh daily We've got to crucify

our flesh. Because we say, Paul said, I die daily.

What I need to help you understand is that what

Paul was saying is literally, I face death every

single day. Paul wasn't telling us to crucify

our flesh every day. Paul was saying, no, I literally

face death every single day. What you and I have

to realize is that our flesh was indeed crucified

on the cross with Christ. Big deal. Big stuff

here that we need to really grab hold of and

let it mess with our thoughts. I got another

one for you to think about Colossians 3 3 your

crucifixion with Christ has severed the tie to

this life and now your true life your true life

is hidden away in God in Christ again big deal.

2 Corinthians 3, 18, we can all draw close to

him with the veil removed from our faces and

with no veil we all become like mirrors who brightly

reflect the glory of the Lord Jesus. We are being

transfigured into his very image as we move from

one brighter level of glory to another and this

glorious transfiguration comes from the Lord

who is the Spirit. Big stuff here. I'm going

to see if I need to read or add in these notes

here real quick. The source of our transformation

comes from Christ's glory and the destination

we are brought to is more glory. The transforming

glory is the result of gazing upon the beauty

and splendor of Jesus Christ. Damon Thompson

has something he likes to say that I've heard

before. Whatever you behold, you become. What

are you beholding my friend? What are you staring

at? Are you staring at your sin? Are you focused

on trying to beat your sin or are you focused

on staring at Christ? If you look at the Greek

word metamorphon that's used here in 2nd Corinthians

318 it describes Transformation from the inside

out and it means to transform to change into

another form to be Transfigured to undergo in

an inward change that becomes outwardly visible.

Think of the caterpillar becoming the butterfly.

That's kind of the word used there, metamorpho,

where we get the word metamorphosis. So Jesus,

this is what I want you to understand, Jesus

accomplished what we could never accomplish.

The old man or the former way of life has been

judged and brought to an end inside of Christ.

Holy Spirit now works from the inside out, awakening

us to who we are in Christ and conforming us

to His image. Alright, let's move on. Let's look

at Matthew, Matthew chapter 10 verse 28. And

Matthew 10:28

it says, Don't be in fear. of those who can kill

only the body but not your soul fear only God

who is able to destroy both soul and body in

hell again the word hell here is the word Gehenna

Jesus warns us that both body and soul could

be destroyed in Gehenna understand the language

it's destroyed not tortured forever destroy is

the word Apollo me and it does not mean to annihilate

or cease to exist The basic meaning is to destroy

to ruin to lose to perish to call something to

no longer fulfill its intended purpose The emphasis

is often on loss or ruin not ceasing to exist

I want you to think about this, too Let me see

if I want to get here now So the word fear here

is the word phobia and It equals fear and it

means to fear to be afraid to be in all to reverence

to respect deeply The idea ranges from terror

to reverential all So you got to look at the

context many times here and when I read Matthew

10 I see it more as a deep respect and reverence

in this verse because immediately after verse

28 Jesus would say your father notices insignificant

sparrows your father knows the number of hairs

on your head your father values you that context

shapes how I understand the one it says fear

God If Jesus had wanted his disciples to imagine

God primarily as an unpredictable being to dread,

it's striking that he immediately paints a picture

of a father whose intimate care extends to the

smallest details of creation. What is Jesus consistently

doing? He's moving people from fear toward trust.

So wrestle the question, fear not, or fear calls,

I can destroy you in hell. Wrestle that question

Moving on here Then we also The word if you look

at a polymy Going back to that word. It's also

used to describe the lost sheep the lost coin

in the prodigal son in Luke chapter 15 Pay attention

Luke 15 · chapter mention

because none of them cease to exist. They were

simply Lost and we have to recover that word

lost to really understand what that means as

well Because it doesn't mean what we've been

taught in the western church world And I don't

have time to get into that that would be maybe

we can do that another time They were simply

lost yet they still had they were still valuable

and they were still recoverable The coin think

about it. The coin still had value and the Sun

was still a Sun Now, again, believing what I

believe about the Father and all that He does

is restorative in nature, I believe destroy means

to utterly bring to ruin what opposes God's life

or to bring devastating judgment especially in

the context of Gehenna and first century Israel.

If humanity Now think about this. Was created

to bear God's image, then a polymy could be understood

as the complete ruin of that false, distorted

way of living apart from God. Christ's work is

not to destroy the person he created in his image,

but to destroy everything that corrupts and obscures

that image. And we'll get probably into that

a little more when we start talking about fire

in a few weeks. But just think about that. He's

not out to destroy the person. He's trying to

remove that false identity and anything that

corrupts or obscures his image in you and I.

It's also important to understand and for us

to remember that Jesus spoke these warnings to

first century Jews living in a time of political

tension. So again, think about this. Skip through

some of this So alright, let's let's talk about

this as we consider this verse here Matthew 10

28 If Jesus is the definitive revelation the

father because Jesus makes the comment if you've

seen me if you've seen the if you've seen me

You've seen the father Then every difficult passage

has to be read through the one who said whoever

has seen me has seen the Father So we have to

ask how does Jesus exercise authority? How do

we see him doing that through the Gospels? How

does he do that when he encounters? sinners for

example What does he do he restores he heals?

He forgives. He calls to repentance. He exposes

lies. He confronts hypocrisy. He lays down his

own life. He never delights in destruction. Now

that doesn't erase judgment, but it shapes how

we understand judgment. So that's just something

for you to consider. If this is the father here,

Jesus often speaks of what God can do as an expression

of His sovereignty, not necessarily as a statement

of His desire. Just something to wrestle with

with that and I'm going to leave that right there.

Let's look at Mark chapter 9 verse let's see

Mark 9 · chapter mention

let me bring let me bring this verse out too

this is important and I can't remember I didn't

write this verse down but you can look it up

But there's a burden. I believe it's in first

John Maybe first John 4 18 is what I'm thinking

of love never brings fear For fear is always

related to punishment, but love's perfection

drives the fear of punishment far from our hearts

Whoever walks constantly afraid of punishment

has not reached love's perfection John here is

not abolishing reverence. He's distinguishing

fear rooted in punishment from the confidence

that grows out of knowing the Father's loves.

When those two passages are read together, Matthew

10 28, and this one here, it can be understood

as calling, Matthew 10, excuse me, Matthew 10

28 can be understood as God calling us to give

God our highest reverence. and diligence while

Matthew 10, 29 through 31 immediately reveals

why that reverence is not opposed to trust. Because

the one who is worthy of ultimate all is also

the Father who cares for us down to the smallest

detail. That's important to just wrap your head

around. So now let's look at Mark chapter 9 verse

Mark 9:43–48

43 through 48 says this If your hand entices

you to sin let it go limp and useless For it

is better for you to enter into life maimed than

to have your entire body thrown into hell the

place of Inquenchable fire and if your foot lead

you into sin cut it off For it is better to enter

life crawling than to have both feet and flung

into hell And if your eye causes you to sin pluck

it out for it is better to enter into life with

one eye Than to be thrown into hell with two

This is where the maggots never die and the fire

never goes out Everyone will pass through the

fire and every sacrifice will be seasoned with

salt So this language comes from Isaiah chapter

Isaiah 66:24

66 verse 24 and it says this They will go out

of the city and see the dead bodies of those

who are built against me, for their worm will

not die and their fire will never go out, and

they will be abhorrent to humanity. This is likely

a figure of speech for unending suffering. Some

equate the worm with the guilty conscience, for

example. It is possible. that this refers to

a mass burial site where maggots continue to

eat flesh and fire burns continually with corpses.

Some see this as having been fulfilled by the

slaughter of Israel's enemies during the time

of the Maccabees, others as the view toward a

future slaughter and still others as a description

of hell. I'm just giving you some different viewpoints

here of how you can rethink hell. Again, don't

have to land on the same conclusion that I have.

And quite frankly, I'm still discovering what

this means. So that will probably be ever evolving

the more that I grow just as what any of us should

be doing. I'm not here to give you 100 % certainty

on anything. I'm just helping you to rethink

and to give a different perspective and something

for you to consider and ask Holy Spirit for yourself.

But that's where the language of Mark 9, 43,

48 comes from. It comes from Isaiah 66 and Isaiah

is describing corpses after judgment. He's not

describing conscience torment, but dead bodies.

Again, a symbol of destruction. Another clarification

is this. Unquenchable fire does not mean eternal

burning. It means unstoppable until finished.

Think of a forest fire or a city fire. It burns

until the work is complete. So a couple of misunderstandings

we dealt with during this episode. Misunderstanding

number one. Gehenna equals eternal torment. No.

Gehenna was a known valley, not some kind of

mythological torture. Misunderstanding number

two, Jesus invented hell. Jesus referenced existing

history, not new doctrine. And misunderstanding

number three, fire always meant torment. Fire,

and we'll talk about this in a few weeks, often

means judgment, purification, and exposure. The

simple truth is Jesus didn't speak about Gehenna

because he enjoyed threatening people. He spoke

about it because he loved his people enough to

warn them. Warnings are not cruelty, they are

love. If you have children, think about, don't

touch that, it will burn you. Don't hang out

with them, don't go to this place, don't do this,

it can cause you harm. What are you doing? It's

not cruelty, you're doing this out of love. So

when Jesus was speaking about Gehenna, He was

calling people to change direction before destruction

came. It's not scare tactics, but it's protective

love. So we learned Hopefully you gained from

this episode that Gehenna is not mythology It

was actually geography Jesus was not describing

an eternal torture chamber when he's referencing

this he was referencing a real place with real

history tied to real consequences Next week take

another step and talk about She go and Hades

a little more deeper And we'll take it from there.

I hope this is helping you. I know this is only

week two, but you got several more weeks to go.

So I will see you next week for our conversation

surrounding she go in Hades. My friend be blessed.

Thanks for spending some time with me today on

the kingdom family podcast. If this episode spoke

to you, take a moment to share it and help someone

else rediscover their identity as a son or daughter

of Yahweh. And don't forget, follow the podcast

so you can stay connected with everything happening

through Kingdom Family Ministries. Until next

time, live love, live free, and live from the

life of the Kingdom.