The word Gehenna is the Greek form of the Hebrew Gé Hinnom, meaning “Valley of Ben Hinnom”. In this valley, idolatrous cults, rituals, infanticide and burnt offerings to Baal/Moloch were held around a large fire. This practice, which has endured over the years, is still present in various cultures, beliefs and traditions around the world

• Jeremiah 7: 31-32 "They have built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Ben-hinnom so they could burn their sons and daughters in the fire—something I never commanded, nor did it even enter My mind. So behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when this place will no longer be called Topheth and the Valley of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. For they will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room."

• Jeremiah 32:34-35 "They have placed their abominations in the house that bears My Name, and so have defiled it. They have built the high places of Baal in the Valley of Hinnom to make their sons and daughters pass through the fire to Molech—something I never commanded them, nor had it ever entered My mind, that they should commit such an abomination and cause Judah to sin."

Note that YAHWEH has always applied the law of Talion: punishment is proportionate to the crime. The Bible seems to indicate that Ben Hinnom's atrocities served as the inspiration for the creation of Gehenna.

• Jeremiah 19:6 "So behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when this place will no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of Ben-hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.”

Gehenna is an unquenchable lake of fire where the souls of the ungodly, whose names are not found in the Book of Life of the Lamb, will burn eternally.

• Mark 9:47-48 "And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, where ‘their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.’."

According to the Neo-Sadducees:

1. Hell is annihilation, not eternal punishment. They upheld the heretical doctrine that man has no conscious existence outside his body after death. Yet the Bible declares that man is a tripartite being: body, soul and spirit. Soul and spirit are immaterial, immortal elements. In other words, they endure forever. The Bible also teaches that, at the resurrection of the dead, both the righteous and the unrighteous will be immortal, how then will they cease to exist?

• 1 Corinthians 15:53-54 “For the perishable must be clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come to pass: “Death has been swallowed up in victory."

2. They do not conceive that a loving God could inflict eternal conscious torment, as this would be incompatible with the biblical revelation of infinite love. They are convinced that only the Devil and his angels will burn eternally in the flames of hell. Yet the Bible declares that the Devil and his angels, as well as those who worship them, will burn eternally with them.

• Revelations 14:11 "And the smoke of their torment rises forever and ever. Day and night there is no rest for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name."

The Bible teaches that there are not yet any human souls in Gehenna. It is only after the final judgment that Gehenna will receive its population, as both Death (Hades) and Sheol (Sheol) will be cast into it.

• Matthew 13:49-50 "So will it be at the end of the age: The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous, and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

• Revelations 20:13-14 "And the sea gave up the dead who were in it; and death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them; and each of them were judged according to their works. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death—the lake of fire"

• Revelations 19:20 "But the beast was captured along with the false prophet, who on its behalf had performed signs deceiving those who had the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. Both the beast and the false prophet were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur."

However, the Bible also teaches that some angels are currently in chains and are already undergoing the punishment of eternal fire. This could be interpreted as a double punishment, i.e. an inner spiritual fire that will consume them before they are eternally cast and immersed in the lake of fire.

• Jude 1:6-7 "And the angels not having kept their own domain, but having abandoned the own dwelling, He keeps in eternal chains under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day; In like manner, Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, who indulged in sexual immorality and pursued strange flesh, are on display as an example of those who sustain the punishment of eternal fire."

May the Holy Spirit guide you in understanding this message.

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