Where their worm does not die…

The current mainstream belief of Hell is what I believe is the one doctrine, that single-handedly is  responsible for making more atheists and unbelievers than any other teaching in the Church.  It drives more people away from Christ than any other issue, and I don’t blame them.  The concept of a vengeful God punishing the bad for eternity not only contradicts common sense, it contradicts the very Word of God.  It’s the concept of an underworld where bad people go to when they die, and that they’ll burn forever and ever, is not only cruel, but almost ridiculous.  No wonder most smart and thinking people refuse to accept this ideology. They figure if the church is out to lunch on this issue, they could be wrong in the rest of it.

So my goal here is to post a series of studies to clear up the misconception and examine the issue more closely, verse by verse.  First of all, we have to establish that there is no hell, as in people burning right now, underneath us somewhere in the earth.  That is all false. To prove that, I will analyze proof verses that some Christians use to show that there is a hell.  More often than not, these verses are taken out of context, and will look at the real meaning behind these verses.

Today I will look at one passage, Mark 9:43-48.

⁴³ If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched— ⁴⁴ where
‘ Their worm does not die
And the fire is not quenched.’

⁴⁵ And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame, rather than having two feet, to be cast into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched— ⁴⁶ where
‘ Their worm does not die
And the fire is not quenched.’

⁴⁷ 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, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire— ⁴⁸ where
‘ Their worm does not die
And the fire is not quenched.

I have found a study from helltruth.com and have use their study on this passage and more below.  The study was taken from the book, Answers to Objections, by Francis D. Nichol.

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The Bible says that hell-fire will not be quenched and that “their worm dieth not.” (See Mark 9:43-48 and Isaiah 66:24).  Doesn’t this prove the immortality of the soul?

Even if we should agree that unquenched means endlessly burning, we would not find it necessary to accept the doctrine that at death an immortal soul is freed from man and lives apart from the body.  These texts do not speak of disembodied souls, or spirits, burning.  The Bible paints a picture of literal, wicked men at the judgment day being “cast into the lake of fire.”  (See Revelation 20.)

Christ speaks of the “whole body” being “cast into hell.” (Matthew 5:29-30.)  If it be replied that the body would be destroyed by the flames, and therefore only the spirit would be left, we ask for the Bible proof that spirits, or souls, are impervious to fire.  Christ declared we should “fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Matthew 10:28.  If “destroy” means consume as regards the “body”, we demand very clear proof if we are expected to believe that “destroy” means to leave unconsumed as regards the “soul.”  A failure to produce such proof really takes the whole point out of the objection based on Mark 9 and Isaiah 66.

In Mark 9:43-48 Christ quite evidently refers to the same judgment fires as those described in Isaiah 66:24, where we read:  “They [the righteous] shall go forth, and look upon the carcasses [“dead bodies,” A.R.V.] of the men that have transgressed against me; for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched.”  We are told in so many words that the agencies of “worm” and “fire” are working, not upon disembodied spirits, but upon bodies, dead bodies.

The word “hell” used in Mark 9:43-48 is from the Greek word Gehenna.  This term, as we have learned, is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word Hinnom, the name of a valley near Jerusalem, “used as a place to cast carcasses of animals and malefactors, which were consumed by fire constantly kept up.” (See Liddell and Scott’s Greek Lexicon.)

Christ here uses this valley of Hinnom to teach His hearers the fate that awaits the wicked.  Certainly the Jews who heard His words could not possibly have obtained any idea of wicked, disembodied souls endlessly suffering.  They saw in Hinnom dead bodies being devoured by flames, or if the flames did not reach them, then by worms, those ever-present agents of destruction and disintegration.  The fact that the fires of Gehenna were ever kept burning, were “not quenched,” was the surest proof that whatever was cast into them would be entirely consumed.  To declare that if a fire keeps ever burning, then whatever is cast into it keeps ever living, is to go contrary both to the evidence of our senses and to the testimony of Scripture.