Hello Jmlidea , When we evaluate the bible we can clearly see hell in a fiery torment doesn't exist that the term "hell" can be misunderstood by many, let me explain why.
According to the Bible, God created the first human pair perfect. (
Genesis 1:27; Deuteronomy 32:4) He placed them in a paradise garden and gave them the opportunity to live forever. However, the first humans, Adam and Eve, had one restriction. God warned them: “From every tree of the garden you may eat to satisfaction. But as for the tree of the knowledge of good and bad you must not eat from it, for in the day you eat from it you will positively die.”—
Genesis 2:16, 17.
Sadly, our first parents failed that simple test of loyalty and obedience. The Creator was obliged to sentence them to death. “In the sweat of your face you will eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For dust you are and to dust you will return.”—
Genesis 3:19.
Had Adam and Eve been in danger of burning in hell, would not God have warned them about such a punishment? The fact is that he mentioned nothing about suffering after death. How could they suffer? They did not have immortal souls that would survive after death. The Bible makes this very clear: “The soul that is sinning—it itself
will die.”—
Ezekiel 18:4.
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As the Giver of life, our Creator knows all there is to know about life and death. He tells us in his Word that “the dead . . . are conscious of nothing at all.” (
Ecclesiastes 9:5) That is why Adam and Eve could not suffer in a fiery hell after their death. They simply returned to the dust and ceased to exist. They were “conscious of nothing at all.”
Can We Suffer After Death?
The Bible says at
Romans 5:12: “Through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men.” Really, then, is it reasonable to believe that people suffer in hellfire for their sins, when Adam, the one who brought death upon the entire human race, simply became dust after dying?—
1 Corinthians 15:22.
We all come under the same law that Adam was under. “The wages sin pays is death.” Moreover, once a person dies, he is “acquitted from his sin.” (
Romans 6:7, 23) If both good and bad people die and nobody experiences suffering after death, where is God’s justice?
If hell were a place of fiery torment, would anyone ever ask to be sent there? Yet, the patriarch Job, wishing to escape his plight, made this request: “Who will grant me this, that thou mayest protect me in hell, and hide me till thy wrath pass?” (
Job 14:13,
Douay Version) Clearly, Job did not believe that hell is a place of torment. Rather, he sought protection there. Death is a state of nonexistence, and the Bible hell is the common grave of mankind.