I thought I would start with a nice, light topic for my first blog entry on my site: Hell! It seems lately that hell is a big deal, so I thought I should start with something everyone and their mother has already blogged about. The perception is that we all have Rob Bell and his recent book, “Love Wins” to thank for all this hell talk. The truth is that Rob Bell merely added his voice to a larger discussion that has been happening in the church at large. Way back in 1992 (ancient history for some people), even the Pope and the Catholic Church was weighing in on this discussion. I believe that we are dealing with two main issues in talking about hell.
First, hell just isn’t postmodern. Someone really needs to have a sit down with Satan and let him know this. I would suggest Starbucks as a place for them to meet, but that could sound cruel and judgmental, and that just isn’t postmodern. While Satan was stuck in his Milton’s “Paradise Lost” days, culture went and changed on him, and neither he nor his favorite hot spot are “in” anymore. No, we are way too tolerant, loving, and non-judgmental to go around believing in hell and eternal punishment. That’s almost as politically incorrect as believing in demons or using wooden pews. Those intolerant, violent ways of our parents have now been laid aside, and we have “progressed” in our view of God and His love to know He would never send anyone to hell.
Second, hell doesn’t look good on a Gospel tract, nor is it fun to beat people over the head with hell until they repent and become Christians. God knows it isn’t for a lack of trying that we as the church are ready to give up this evangelistic strategy. From the days of “Sinners in Hands of an Angry God”, we have done our best to scare people into heaven. Rob Bell tells us some of their stories in his book, and I have personally heard many myself. The New Age church and many of the “emerging” churches are full of people who got tired of feeling guilty every Sunday. How many cool coffee bar songs can you write about hell? really?
So, where does this leave me as a Bible nerd? With a huge problem. The Bible talks about hell and judgment. In both parts (Testaments that is). More than once. Like, quite a few times. It would be really hard to be a serious Bible reader, and not understand that God makes it clear that He is a God of justice and that there is an eternal consequence for what we do and believe here on Earth. Read a few of these Bible passages: Matthew 10:28, Matthew 11:23, Matthew 13:40-43, 47-50, John 3:16-21, John 5:24-30, Daniel 12:2-3, Ezekiel 32:17-32, 2 Thessalonians 2:5-10, Revelation 20:11-15. We also have to understand that the larger concept is eternal judgment and reward, not just one place called Hell (which is just the way we translate a few Greek words). While I will grant that we needed to evaluate evangelistic strategies for our time, changing the Bible and Gospel message shouldn’t be on the table for discussion. Bummer for me. I just bought these really cool post modern glasses. I am not bald yet, but I have that edgy, almost bald, short hair style. I use words like “new reformation” and “missional”. Unfortunately, my “old fashioned” and “outdated” views on hell make some people think of me as that guy ranting in the streets with a sandwich board on. Oh well, that is the problem with reading the Bible.
The Bible Nerd 
Yes yes he’ll is no good indeed. A little late to the discussion but good to hear. Kevin DeYoung would be a author I would suggest to anyone reading this blog post. He is a great communicator and writer.
Not really sure how to phrase this question but are there two ‘hells’, one for demons/fallen angels at the present time and one which will be filled after judgment? Rev 20:7 talks about the ‘prison’ in which Satan is held, which would seem to be the same place mentioned in Jude 6. Then just to add to that question does this ‘prison’ have any relation to the prison mentioned in 1 Pet 3:19, and how would that tie in with Gen 6?
Wow, that is a lot of passages put together, so let me try to deal with them one at a time. The Genesis 6 passage has been a favorite topic of discussion due to amount of attention it gets in Jewish apocalyptic writings. In the Book of Enoch, the author based his story on an interpretation that Genesis 6 is describing angels who rebelled with Satan, and then came down and had sex with human women. The result was a “giant like” race called the Nephilim. The veracity of this interpretation seems to gain steam with the fact that the Book of Enoch is quoted in the book of Jude, and possibly alluded to in both Jude and 2 Peter. First, just because the Bible quotes extra Biblical literature, doesn’t mean that the entire work of that author is on the same level as Scripture. Paul quotes twice from pagan authors, once in Titus about Cretans, and once in Acts in his sermon to the Athenians. Neither time is Paul saying the entire work is inspired. Second, the context of Genesis 6 is the intermarriage of the godly line of Seth with the ungodly line of Cain. The result is a group of tyrant king leaders known as the Nephilim. This interpretation fits the text much better.
Now in addressing whether thre are two hells. To answer this, you have to say what you think happened with evil people or angels before Christ and after Christ. Before Christ, the Old Testament Jews believed in a place called Sheol. Sheol was the abode of the dead, much like Hades in Greek thought. Both good and bad people are said to be in Sheol upon death. It was mainly the state of death, not a place of afterlife or hope necessarily. The OT Jews were a survival based culture that didn’t spend much time thinking about the afterlife (in contrast to prosperous people like the Egyptian leaders and their pyramids). There is talk of a Pit in books like Ezekiel, and evil people are there. As to where Satan and fallen angels are, recall from Job that Satan comes before God and the other “sons of God”. As mentioned in the article, there are a few small passages about life after death in Daniel, Isaiah, and Job for example, but not detailed teaching.
When Jesus came in the flesh, He talked of two separate places and spoke often of the afterlife: paradise and Gehenna (translated Hell in most translations). This has lead to two main views of how to explain this:
1) before Jesus rose from the dead, there were two places of “holding” after death. Taking language from Jesus parable in Luke on Lazarus and the rich man, one place was called “Abraham’s bosom” where righteous people like Lazarus waited. The other place is a place of fire, often called the “Pit”. This is also the same pit where some angels were placed after they rebelled (obviously some were allowed to be free as is evidenced by evil spirits in the OT and NT). When Jesus died, He went down to this “pit” (hell/hades), declared His victory, and then took all the righteous in “Abraham’s bosom” with Him to heaven. This is backed by Matthew 28 (some resurrected and walk around Jerusalem when Jesus dies), Ephesians 4 and your passage listed in 1 Peter 3:19. If the Pit is seen as the same as hell, then at the 2nd coming, Jesus throws Satan and the rest of the evil people and angels into this pit/hell/lake of fire/prison.
2) When people die, whether in the time before Jesus or after, they all step out of time basically and into eternity. So, they are immediately at the 2nd coming of Christ, and then go to heaven or hell then. (There are some who believe in “soul sleep” or people simply waiting in heaven or hell until the 2nd coming). This view sees Matthew 28 as some people being raised from the dead like Lazarus as a sign of firstfruits and the power released at the cross. These people then died a second time like Lazarus did. The 1 Peter 3 passage is then about the Spirit of Christ speaking THROUGH Noah to disobedient people in Noah’s day who are NOW in prison (hell). Ephesians 4 is about Jesus coming from heaven to earth, not from earth to hell. This view sees all these words as describing the same place (Gehenna, pit, prison, etc…)
Remember that often the Bible, especially the prophets, expresses literal truth through figurative means. The point is about power and spiritual warfare often, and not about trying to describe a literal place. So, eternal punishment can be described as a pit, a lake of fire, or a place of chains and darkness. What is hell really like? We might as well as what heaven is like. Will there really be streets of gold and we will live in a city the shape of a giant cube (Revelation)? Satan bound or angels in a pit might have more to do with God describing how they are powerless or bound by His power.