On the issue of Hell or Sheol or Hades
God created every thing in this world like a coin. It has the head side and the opposite tail side. There is darkness and brightness, day and night, black and white, good and bad, up and down, front and back, boy and girl, man and woman, right and left, blind and clear, close and open and on and on.
Deuteronomy 28:1-14 talks about God’s blessing. I counted a total of 12 and the 12th reads, “The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your.” These are really blessings and so we close the book say a prayer to thank him and back to do our daily chores.
But there is the other side of the coin too. If we reopen our book and read on, we will see curses for disobedience. “You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country, you will be cursed when you come and cursed when you go……” And among them all, there is Hell. Why on earth would God who so loved the world want to curse and send people to Hell. It is because of our disobedience.
Sheol is the word used in the OT for the place of the dead. The derivation of the Hebrew word Sheol is uncertain. Some have suggested that it comes from a weaken form of the root s‘l which derived the words for a hollow hand (Is. 40:12) and applied as deep place. More scholars now hold the view that it is derived from the root s’l meaning ask or enquire which connected to gaping, craving monster (Is. ; Hab. 2:5 etc.).
The meaning of Sheol moves between the ideas of the grave, the under world and the state of death. We can see the picture of Sheol in Jesus’ parable of the rich man and the Lazarus in Lk. 16:19-31. The Greek Hades used in this passage represents the underworld or the realm of death. It is Hell in the New Testament equivalents of Sheol. Consequently Sheol and Hades can be construed as Hell.
God created Heaven and as usual created the other side of the coin Hell. There is also obedience and disobedience, right to wrong, applaud and punishment, righteous and sinful, just and evil. God allows freedom but also restriction not to commit sin. God, however, does not just simply put people who commit sins to Hell but only sin to the extreme that we deny him totally. Do not blind yourself into thinking that the coin has only one side. Sheol has nothing to do with hell and Hades is only a fire place to burn rubbish. Hell is only an imaginary word and perhaps we should strike it off our dictionary, Hurray, Heaven is for all and Cheers.
The choice is ours. Head or tail, pick your side of the coin!