Makestraightpaths.com examines the teachings of the religious group variously known as “the Family,” “The Family International,” the “Children of God,” or the “Family of Love,” and evaluates these teachings from a Christian perspective.

This page is one of a series examining the Family’s view on salvation.

The Gospels on ‘Hell’

The Family has several doctrines on the fate of the ‘unsaved.’ Most of these doctrines, it must be said, are based upon ‘revelations’ received by the founder of the Family rather than upon Scripture. For example, Family members believe that people may be saved after they have died, particularly if they have not had a chance to hear the Gospel while alive, and that wicked people may continue their work for the Devil on Earth after death as evil spirits, in the same way that (as they believe) Christians may be used as ‘spirit helpers’ after their death. For an in-depth treatment of the unbiblical doctrine of spirit helpers, click here.

There are also Family teachings that ‘Hell’ may consist of some kind of extension of the wicked lives lived by wicked people on earth, or even an extension of the meaningless lives lived by worldly shallow people.

This page is not an exposé on these Family teachings, nor is it intended to provide a thorough theology on life after death. Therefore, this page does not propose to pinpoint the locations of Gehenna and Hades, nor does it analyse the Greek word translated ‘eternal,’ nor does it provide a step by step timeline of death and judgement.

Rather, this page takes a snapshot view of what Jesus Christ said about Hell. What were Jesus’ main concerns? What did He say to adjust his audience’s opinions? What was it that He knew His audience had to know?

This study is based upon two simple assumptions: First, as Jesus taught on the subject of Hell, we should use His teachings as the starting point for our theology. Second, before we analyse each individual passage of Scripture, we should look at what He said as a whole. That is, the primary context of each passage is to be His overall teaching. One cannot, then, read into an individual passage something that does not generally agree with His overall message.

Therefore, this study does not contain an exegesis of each text used, nor is it intended to be exhaustive, that is, it does not contain every verse that relates in any way to the topic of Hell. Further, this is not a study on Heaven, or on life after death in general.

Rather, this study takes an overview of Jesus’ teachings in order to establish His main points. This is extremely important: no theories about Hell should be proposed or considered without first establishing the foundations. It is pointless to talk about the duration of Hell or of its exact nature or of the supposed activities of the dead until we have allowed Christ to set down the fundaments.

Let us look, then, at what He said.

Jesus on Gehenna:

Jesus used the term “Gehenna” eleven times. Strong’s dictionary gives this definition: “Valley of (the son of) Hinnom; ge-henna (or Ge-Hinnom), a valley of Jerusalem, used (figuratively) as a name for the place (or state) of everlasting punishment.”

Christ repeatedly warned that Gehenna was such a terrible place that extreme measures should be taken to avoid one’s entrance therein.

Matt 5:29-30

29 If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell.

NASU

This severe warning is repeated in Matthew 18:8-9 and in Mark 9:43-48 similarly referring to the hands, feet and eyes as expendable for the sake of avoidance of hell.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus indicted seemingly ‘minor’ sins as having terrible consequences. Lust, for example equates to adultery, swearing by heaven “comes of evil” and anger carries the same punishment as murder:

Matt 5:22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. NASU

In Matthew 23, Jesus condemned the Scribes and Pharisees as children of Hell who would most likely return to its terrors.

Matt 23:15,33

15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.

33 You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell?

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Jesus declared that God His Father was to be feared as the one who had the power to kill the body and to cast it into Hell.

Luke 12:5 But I will warn you whom to fear: fear the One who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear Him!

Matt 10:28 Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

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Jesus on Hades

“Hades” is defined in Vine’s Dictionary as “the region of the departed spirits of the lost.” Jesus used the word four times.

He used it in condemnation of the unbelieving city of Capernaum.

Matt 11:23-24

23 And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will descend to Hades; for if the miracles had occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day. 24 Nevertheless I say to you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for you.

Luke 10:15 And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will be brought down to Hades!

NASU

He used Hades to contrast the power He would give His church:

Matt 16:18 I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. NASU

Hades here is possibly used as a figure of speech, meaning “the power of death,” as in the RSV:

Matt 16:18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. RSV

Finally, in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the rich man was tormented in flames in Hades.

Luke 16:22-24

22 Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham's bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried. 23 In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom. 24 And he cried out and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame.’

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Jesus on the fate of the wicked

Jesus said that the wicked would go to ‘destruction.’

Matt 7:13-14

13 Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. 14 For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

NASU

There would be “weeping and gnashing of teeth:”

Matt 8:12 but the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Matt 22:13 Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

Matt 25:30 Throw out the worthless slave into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

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It would be in a “furnace of fire.”

Matt 13:41-42

41 The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, 42 and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Matt 13:49-50

49 So it will be at the end of the age; the angels will come forth and take out the wicked from among the righteous, 50 and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Matt 25:41 Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels;

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There would be severe punishment:

Matt 18:34-35

34 And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him. 35 My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.

Matt 25:46 These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.

NASU

Life and Death

The book of John is filled with many dramatic images of the choice between life and death:

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

John 6:53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves.

John 8:24 Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.

John 11:25-26

25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”

John 20:31 but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.

NASU

Common threads

What do these passages have in common? What general observations can be made from reading them in conjunction with each other?

First, it is important to note the topics that Jesus did not address. Jesus did not specify the exact location of Hell nor did He explain on each occasion whether He was speaking literally or metaphorically. He did not give any kind of ‘timeline’ of events following death; He did not give a schedule of what would happen after someone died. He did not specifically answer all of the questions that have troubled mankind for millennia, such as, “What happens to people who die never having heard the Gospel?” or “What happens to infants who die?”

Therefore, from the words of Jesus, we cannot form well-rounded theological answers to these theoretical questions, any more than we can use them in indictment of traditional Christianity. As He did not address these issues, we cannot come to any firm conclusion on them.

Next, it is interesting to note that Jesus talked far more about Hell than He did about Heaven. He certainly talked about the Kingdom of Heaven, but did not give many details about what would happen to believers after they died. Apparently, He was far more concerned about saving people from Hell than He was about enticing them into Heaven. Modern ‘hellfire and brimstone’ evangelists are often mocked or scorned, but Jesus Himself repeatedly warned of the dangers and horrors of Hell, while giving very few details about what ‘eternal life’ would actually look like.

Jesus gave a severe picture of extreme contrasts: life or death, salvation or destruction, the bosom of Abraham or flames and torment, rewards or punishment, the Kingdom of God or weeping and gnashing of teeth. Again and again, He warned His listeners that they would perish if they did not repent.

Luke 13:3 I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. NKJV

So, what happened to the “Man of Love”? Where is His message of love? Jesus was indeed the manifestation of God’s love for mankind, but this love was displayed through salvation from a horrifying fate. Jesus’ “Repent or perish” message lay at the heart of His love.

Did Jesus say anything surprising or shocking? Would His audience have been unsettled by anything they heard?

To start with, first century Jewish people would not have been shocked by Jesus’ references to the existence of Hell or its torments. These views were reasonably common in ancient Jewish theology, although there were several variations on the theme.

“By the time when Christ taught and the apostles preached, the word Gehenna had a well-understood meaning. While there were variations in belief from time to time, especially in the direction of annihilation, and divergent speculations in the Rabbinical schools, the idea generally connected with the term Gehenna, 'hell,' in our Lord's time was that of an irreversible doom for the wholly wicked, and that in His teaching as well as in that of His apostles the word was used in its popular and prevalent sense” (salmond).

Notably, the predominant viewpoint at that time was that Hell was a place of eternal suffering. Importantly, there is nothing recorded of Jesus clarifying people’s ideas concerning the duration of Hell or the doctrine of annihilation. He did not come to explain such things. Rather, He came to save people from its flames.

There were several things that would probably have shocked His audience. First, He told them that Hell was everyone’s destination (see Luke 13:3 above), rather than being the fate of only the very wicked. Second, He warned them that even relatively ‘minor’ sins could result in Hell (see Matt 5:22 above). His third point was the most difficult for people to accept: He declared that He Himself was the only escape route.

John 8:24 Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins. NASU

It is this last point that forms the basis of all that Christians understand about Hell. God’s love is not to be understood as that which precludes the existence of Hell. Rather, God’s love is shown in His personal sacrifice to save the undeserving from its torments. Jesus did not give many explicit details about the nature of Hell. Would people be literally gnashing their teeth? Would there be literal flames causing physical pain? Were these rather metaphorical analogies depicting the agony of separation from God? Jesus didn’t say. His overriding concern was to save people from Hell, not to explain its details.

Saved from Wrath

Christ is our Saviour, but He can only be a Saviour if He saves us from mortal danger. Another way the New Testament puts it is to contrast eternal life with the ‘wrath of God’.

John 3:36 He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. NASU

It is Christ alone who can save us from this wrath.

Rom 5:9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. NASU

1 Thess 1:10 and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come. NASU

Salvation after death?

As concerning the Family belief that people may be able to get saved after they have died, it should be obvious that Jesus said nothing to allow for that possibility. Did He specifically forbid such a concept? No, He did not mention it.

Rather, Jesus was concerned that His hearers comprehended the reality of their own impending danger and that they knew that there was only one possible escape route, through Christ Himself.

Therefore it seems reasonable to say that the only possible position to be in when considering theories about salvation after death is that of the saved, repentant sinner, on his knees in humble gratitude for his own salvation, lost in overwhelming praise of the God who rescued him.

Conclusion

The most important point to gain from the above is that as Jesus Himself talked a lot about Hell, we must assume that He said what He knew we most needed to know. The Bible is ultimately his work, and there can be no place for adjusting His message to fit something that appears more palatable. Jesus said what He wanted to say, and the Holy Spirit ensured that it was recorded in the pages of the Gospels. Therefore, any theology of Hell should begin with what He said.

Many people neglect this important truth, beginning instead with theories to which the Bible does not speak directly (salvation after death), personal opinions (I believe such-and-such, and I can find several Scriptures that appear to support it), teachings of the rabbis, Gnostics or Early church leaders (so-and-so taught this or that doctrine), or simply with their own desire to come up with something less uncomfortable than the concept of hell.

However, once we accept that Jesus’ perspective is our doctrinal starting point, the theories about salvation after death, the duration of Hell, and the supposed activities of the wicked after death pale into insignificance. We must start with the teachings that Jesus thought were the most important to grasp. These teachings are intensely personal, and perhaps frustratingly unconcerned with theoretical musings about people who have not heard the Gospel or whether there would be the possibility for salvation after death. Hell, in Jesus’ opinion, is not the subject for idle speculation or fanciful hypotheses. It is a very real danger facing every person, escape from which is possible through Christ alone.

To summarise Jesus’ teachings on Hell: