Ever since Yahshua walked the earth in the first century A.D., two facts have been universally understood.  1) He died for our sins.  2) We must repent and accept him as our savior in order to receive eternal life after death.  Right?  I mean, isn’t this just so basic that’s it’s not worthy of any discussion?  The truth is, Yahshua DID die for our sins but we do not have to “do” anything for our eternal salvation.  That gift has been assured to all humanity, without condition, regardless of our degree of understanding about his life or his message.  Yahshua did not leave mankind’s salvation to chance, in the hopes that we don’t screw up our big opportunity.

Virtually all Christian religions do not understand that THIS unconditional promise IS why he came to earth and died for our sins.  They all believe that our salvation is up to us, that is: if we fail in our responsibilities to do whatever that task is, we are doomed to eternal life in hell fire.

Fact: There is no such place as hell where unrepentant sinners are doomed to suffer for all eternity.  Nor does the Bible cite any such place.

As I’ve stated since I introduced this blog 6 months ago, I dig deep into the Bible to comprehend what it actually says rather than accept what other people told me it says.  This is what I discovered when I allowed the Bible itself to reveal what hell is.

The word hell appears 54 times in all of scripture.  In the Old Testament, it is written 31 times.  In the New Testament, it’s written 23 times.  In all of the 31 renderings in the OT, the English word hell is transliterated from the Hebrew word:

 לעזאזל; ארור! גיהינום

Converting from Hebrew, this spells “shaul thchthith”, literally meaning “unseen nether”.  This expression was simply another word for “grave”–where a human body was laid to rest after death.  In the OT, every time the word hell appears, it means the grave.  Here a just a few examples:

2 Sam. 22:6–“The sorrows of hell compassed me about; the snares of death prevented me;“

Psalm 9:17–“The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.“

Isa. 14:9–“ Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.“

In each of these verses, as well as the other 28 OT verses, you can insert “the grave” for the word hell and have a more accurate understanding of what was originally written.  You’ll discover that none of the OT verses that contain the word hell make any mention of fire or burning in hell, as is commonly believed today.  Where did this idea of fire come from?

It came from the various translations of the New Testament, in which the word hell appears 23 times, but in the NT, the word hell has three different meanings.  12 times, it is rendered “hell fire”.  10 times, it’s “grave”.  And in only one verse, it describes the place where Satan’s angels were cast down to after their rebellion in heaven.  They’re no longer residing along side Yahweh in heaven, so he cast them down to EARTH.  It is here, on earth, that their “hell” is, since they’re confined for 6,000 years to a place other than their former habitat.

In the 12 verses that hell is rendered “hell fire”, it appears in Greek as such:

Κόλαση φωτιάς

Transliterated from Greek, this reads: “gehenna of-the fire”.

In the 10 verses that it’s translated as “grave”, the Greek word is:

στην κόλαση

The English transliteration is “hadE”, no doubt the root word of “hades”, often used synonymously as the place where humans go to burn forever.

The one time that the word hell pertains to the evil angels above is here:

2 Pet. 2:4–“For if Elohim spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;”

This is the only verse that mentions spirit beings, who we know are here on earth doing as much damage as they can.  Obviously, they cannot be here on earth, free to cause havoc, while simultaneously burning in some fire.  That punishment is reserved for them at a later date.

So, do the 12 verses that cite hell fire contradict this blog title? Is THAT proof that unrepentant mankind will burn up forever because they refused to accept Yahshua as our Messiah?  Let’s take the most obvious verse in the book of Matthew.

Matt. 5:22–“But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, SHALL BE IN DANGER OF HELL FIRE.”

Did Yahshua say that a person would suffer hell fire for all eternity if they were disobedient to his teachings?  Or, does this verse pinpoint something different?  To know what he meant, we must first understand that there is not just one resurrection of the dead.

There are two.

Many people already know this, but they still confuse the second resurrection of being a person’s last chance to finally get it right, lest they end up burning in hell forever.  But, that is NOT what the Bible says about either the first or second resurrections.

The first resurrection is reserved for those who either accepted Yahshua as their savior OR those to whom salvation is imputed to them for their righteous lives that they lived.  When Paul described who would receive salvation, he mentioned Abraham, a man who lived prior to Moses getting the 10 Commandments on Mount Sinai and thousands of years prior to Yahshua’s ministry and message on earth.  Regardless of having never heard either message, he will be a part of the first resurrection.

Rom. 4:11–“And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that RIGHTEOUSNESS MIGHT BE IMPUTED UNTO THEM ALSO;”

When Yahshua returns, millions of people will be resurrected to greet him upon his arrival.  But these millions will not include the billions who either never knew him or those who did know him but rejected his message.  They will have to remain in their graves for a millennium and only THEN will they too be resurrected.

Rev. 20:5–“But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.“

After the one thousand year rule, every single person who ever lived, great and small, will be resurrected and each person will be judged–but not CONDEMNED–according to their works.  After this judgement, regardless of the lives that people lived on earth, every person who has ever lived will be welcomed into Yahweh’s family through the sacrifice of his son Yahshua.

Rev. 20:10–“ And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.“

This translation makes it sound like they’ll be tormented without end, but the Greek text changes the meaning.  In Greek, it reads “into the eons of the eons”.  An “eon” is a non-specific period of time, but it signifies a beginning and end.  Just as we would say an “era” of history has no specific beginning and ending date (such as the jurassic era), it did not last forever.  Nor is an eon a period of time that lasts forever.  It will have an end.

Rev. 20:12–“And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before Yahweh; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.  ¹³ And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.  ¹⁴ And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.  ¹⁵ And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”

In verse 12, we’re introduced to the book of life.  Whose names are in it?  Every human who has ever lived.  Whose names are NOT in it?  Satan, the false prophet and the beast (verse 10, above).

Verse 13 refers to a sea.  What kind of sea?  This is an expression for the sea-of-humanity; again reinforcing that 100% of every person that had ever existed will have their names in the book of life.

Verse 14–and this is KEY–John writes about the second death.  Read verse 14 carefully.  How many human beings are cast into the lake of fire?  It says that ONLY DEATH AND HELL [the grave] were cast into the lake of fire.  Are we to assume that sinful humans will ALSO be cast into this lake?

Verse 15 may be the most overlooked verse in the entirety of the Bible–

“AND WHOSOEVER WAS NOT FOUND WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF LIFE WAS CAST INTO THE LAKE OF FIRE.”

Do we have to guess whose names are NOT found written in this book?  NO.  We already KNOW whose names ARE found written in this book–from verse 12–virtually all humanity from Adam until today.

The ONLY names that are not written in the book of life are:

Satan

The False Prophet

The Beast

The Anti Messiah

All of Satan’s Evil Angels

Period.  That, my friends, is the list of every being whose names are not listed in the book of life.  They, and ONLY they, will be cast into the lake of fire.  In Yahweh’s infinite love, once Satan has been removed forever from doing his evil on earth, 100% of every person who ever lived, both good and bad people, will be welcomed into his heavenly family.  This is a blessing beyond imagination and it’s so incomprehensible, no religion on earth understands how powerful a gift it is that Yahshua gave to us by dying for ALL (not some) of humanity.

After the second resurrection, no human being will be cast into the lake of fire.  Zero.

For those who find this hard to believe, here are just a few verses scattered throughout the Bible that reinforce the fact that every single person who ever lived or is alive today will receive this gift:

Psalm 22:27–“All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto Yahweh: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.“

Psalm 65:2–“O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come.“

Isa. 45:23–“I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.  ²⁴ Surely, shall one say, in Yahweh have I righteousness and strength: even to him shall men come; and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed.”  [especially those who professed to be atheists]

Luke 2:10–“And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.“

Luke 3:6–“And all flesh shall see the salvation of Elohim.”

John 1:9–“That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.“

1 Tim. 2:3–“For this is good and acceptable in the sight of Yahshua our Saviour;  ⁴ Who will have ALL MEN TO BE SAVED, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.  ⁵ For there is one Elohim, and one mediator between Yahweh and men, the man Yahshua Anointed;  ⁶ WHO GAVE HIMSELF A RANSOM FOR ALL TO BE TESTIFIED IN DUE TIME.

When religious institutions throughout the world finally realize the infinite reservoir of love that Yahweh has for us, even though we’re all sinners and don’t deserve this gift, a new appreciation for that love will allow a better understanding of how and why he allowed his only begotten son to guarantee that gift.  We do not have to do anything for this gift to be given to us.  It is a gift of grace.  Some people will receive this gift, having never known Yahweh’s law, as given to Moses on Mount Sinai.  Some people will receive this gift, having accepted Yahweh’s law.  Others will receive this gift, having known and believed in Yahshua and his teachings.  Still, all the rest will also receive this gift, having never known any of the above!

John 1:16–“And of his fulness HAVE ALL WE RECEIVED, AND GRACE FOR GRACE.”

Not only will zero humans ever burn forever in a hell fire, every single person who ever lived will become a member of Yahweh’s family in heaven.

Just try and wrap your head around how strong our father’s love has to be to have created us with this as his master plan, and it was all written down before the foundation of the earth was even formed.

Eph. 1:4–“ According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.”

Wow.