3263.—Hell and Punishment
You say that the Bible does not teach that the soul is immortal. Then what was Jesus talking about in Mark 9:43-48? What was the undying worm but the undying soul that will be cast into hell where the fire will never go out? Man's flesh and body may be ashes on this earth for a while, but the soul and hell are in a different place. T. B. The Scriptures expressly tell us that "the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth: much more the wicked and the sinner." Prov. 11:31. If God's great plan both classes will be rewarded where they did their deeds. The 37th Psalm repeats the thought over and over again that the wicked shall be punished here; after that will come the eternal reward and kingdom of the righteous. Consequently there is no special place apart from this earth which is called hell, where the wicked will be in misery forever. The whole thing would not be difficult to understand if man would but take into consideration the figure which the Lord uses. The word from which "hell" comes in Mark 9:43-48 is "Gehenna," which comes from the Hebrew words meaning "the valley of Hinnom." This valley, referred to several times in the Old Testament as the valley of the son of Hinnom, lay just east of Jerusalem, and seems to have been a beautiful place. But in it were built up the high places of Baal, and these apostate Jews caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech. See Jer. 32:35. Because of the abominations which Israel committed there, that valley was desecrated, and called the Valley of Tophet, and the Lord declared that it should become the "Valley of Slaughter," where the carcasses of His people should be meat for the fowls of heaven. It afterward became a place where the offal of the city, the carcasses of malefactors, and the dead bodies of beasts, were cast. Upon these, two agencies of destruction preyed: First, the worm, constantly devouring the putrid carcasses, could be spoken of as the undying worm. Secondly, to avert pestilence, constant fires were kept burning to consume what the worms did not devour; and as these fires were ever burning, they could be said to be unquenchable. Therefore neither fire nor worm represents what was cast into this pit of destruction, but the agencies of destruction. They represent that which will utterly annihilate the soul, or the person. See Isa. 51:6, 8, in which it is declared, "The moth shall eat them up," and "the worm shall eat them." The same figures are used in the last verse of the last chapter of Isaiah, in which we are told that these agencies of destruction prey not upon living souls, but upon dead "carcasses." But will the fire ever burn?—No. And will the worm never die?—Yes. Just the same as the unquenchable fire which burned up Jerusalem went out. Compare Jer. 17:27 with 2 Chron. 36:19, 21. Just the same as the eternal fire which consumed Sodom went out when the city was burned. Jude 7. This apostle speaks of those cities as "suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." Peter tells us they were turned "into ashes." 2 Peter 2:6. That is, the punishment will endure just as long as those cities remain destroyed, which will be through all eternity. But the fires were long ago quenched under the waters of the Dead Sea. So when the worm has done its work it, too, will die. But until the work is done, no power in the universe apart from God can stay the destruction. The same thought is emphasized in Matt. 3:12, where the wicked are likened to chaff, and we are told that God will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. That fire will be kindled by the presence of God, and that presence of God will save His people.