Do any Christians believe that hell is not a literal place?

Question

I see some people say "Hell=grave." Does this mean that some Christians support the idea that there is only heaven, and those that aren't going to heaven will just die and cease to exist?

Whatever your answer...where do you get the evidence to support that idea (just put the Bible chapter/verse...no need to copy and paste...I can look it up myself.)

Answer 1

Actually, it's a language thing. In Hebrew it's She'oel' in Greek it's hai'des. It refers to the common grave of the dead. The Greek ge'enna is used as a symbol of eternal destruction. The commonly referred to John 3:16 says, that whoever believes in him should not perish..Eccl. 9:5,10.., But as for the dead they are conscious of nothing at all...Ezek. 18:4 The soul that is sinning - it itself shall die. Rev. 20:13,14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire, Rev. 21:8 shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone. You can read the entire scriptures if you chose to. Nothing about torture forever. You made from dust and to dust you'll return. Yada, yada, yada. Research it.

Answer 2

I actually don't believe that Hell exists (or at least that no one is sent there), because I think that every human being contains enough good within themselves to be worthy of access to Heaven -- once they've repented their sins of course. This was a questions I earlier proposed on Yahoo Answers:

"Does anyone make it to Hell?

Assuming that both Heaven and Hell exist, as well as a compassionate and all-understanding God, *and* putting aside religious affiliation, is there anyone so bad that they could be sent to Hell? Serial killers, pedophiles, and the like of today's society aren't normal people -- something's mentally wrong, and for this, I can't really imagine that God would turn them away from Heaven because of a defect in their minds. Even Hitler, although his works were atrocious, could not have been a sane man to do what he did. And his Nazi soldiers? Brainwashed into this easy-to-fall-for doctrine of antisemitism in the name of a broken Germany."

Answer 3

There are some sects. Seventh Day Adventists, for one, although some don't consider them Christians.

I personally don't think -- based on Revelations -- that Heaven and Hell exists in reality AT THIS POINT IN TIME, but at the End of Time the Earth will become hell with rivers and lakes of fire and there WILL be a better place to go to and only SOME will go there and the rest will remain on the Earth and it WILL be hell!

Revelations, IF IT IS CORRECT, indicates there will be a summoning and THAT is when all will be judged.

The new agers call this the "Rapture" a word I don't subscribe to religiously, but it DOES describe a Bibical event to a degree.

Answer 4

Let's see. Genesis tells us the physical things and physical places God create as well as what are already there: Heaven. In there, I don't see any mention of physical Hell creation. So, my answer. Hell is a Figuratively place.

Answer 5

Some think Hell is a harmful doctrine which evil people in religious authority promulgated to club others into submission.

Just because evil people used it for unlawful purposes, does that make it an imaginary place? If people enticed others to murder with the reward of money, does that make money imaginary? Should we disbelieve simply because of they way people have used it in the past?

If a university threatened its students with expulsion for cheating, is expulsion evil and imaginary?

If the military threatened its officers with a dishonorable discharge on their records for cheating, is a dishonorable discharge a thing to scorned because it was used to bring some officers into submission?

I believe Hell is a real place because of the person who spoke of it, Jesus Christ. It's hard to find fault with a man whom God foretold would come as his representative. It's hard to deny Christ when God foretold His birthplace by name, mentioned the nature of His death, even the very words the people would use to rail at Him on the cross were written a thousand years before Christ came. So Jesus has been carefully introduced as God’s man thousands of years before be came. His veracity by God is unquestionable. We can trust what He has said about Hell more than anyone else.

Hell is a place of torment. It is not on earth, nor is it merely a mental state. It is for those who died in unbelief. See Luke 16:19-31 for a graphic portrayal of what hell is like.

Answer 6

Read the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). Jesus mentioned Hell more often than He did Heaven.

Heaven and Hell are real. Jesus was not a liar. Heaven and Hell are exactly as Christ described them.

Consider Blaise Pascal's "Wager":

Pascal’s Wager
(1) It is possible that the Christian God exists and it is possible that the Christian God does not exist.
(2) If one believes in the Christian God then if he exists then one receives an infinitely great reward and if he does not exist then one loses little or nothing.
(3) If one does not believe in the Christian God then if he exists then one receives an infinitely great punishment and if he does not exist then one gains little or nothing.
(4) It is better to either receive an infinitely great reward or lose little or nothing than it is to either receive an infinitely great punishment or gain little or nothing.
Therefore:
(5) It is better to believe in the Christian God than it is not to believe in the Christian God.
(6) If one course of action is better than another then it is rational to follow that course of action and irrational to follow the other.
Therefore:
(7) It is rational to believe in the Christian God and irrational not to believe in the Christian God.

Answer 7

In Matthew, in Jesus's parable about Lazarus, Jesus mentions the rich man looking up to Heaven from hell and asking Abraham to warn the rich man's brother of his fate if he doesn't repent. The "fires of hell" are also mentioned a lot in the Bible.

Answer 8

Luke 16:19-31
Isaiah 13:11-13
Rev 18-22
Matt 24-25
Malachi 3-4

Answer 9

it varies from bible to bible. Generally the classical Hell was devised back when the catholic church was crusading a lot and expanding numbers.The average peasant already had a hellish existence day to day anyway, so a fairly nasty version of hell was needed to frighten them - fire brimstone, devils with pointy forks etc.

The equivalent for you kids would be like a place where cellphones don't work and shops are closed two days a week.

As to whether people beleive in it. Seriously like the other chick said. If god is all powerful he knew who was going to end up in hell the minute they were born anyway.

Some people as noted are mentally incompetent(thanks to god) or turn to evil through their own horrific childhoods(which god put them into).

A god who creates a hell for people he created evil is one stange bastard and I am as afraid of him as any devil.

Its sort of like cloning flies just so you can pull the wings off them.

Answer 10

I am not sure that I think exactly like that, but I do not believe that a God that is supposed to love you so much would cast your soul into such a place no matter what. I think that access to heaven may be denied and the soul of that person is left to wander earth for eternity.