God Does Not Torment Souls

1. What have religious leaders taught and done about “hell”?

IT HAS been a common teaching in Christendom, as well as in the religions of the Orient, that “souls” of wicked persons undergo cruel torment after death in a fiery “hell.” Since they have this inhuman belief, many religious leaders have thought it to be a fine thing to persuade the rulers to torture and burn people alive in this life also, especially if they held to another faith.

ORIGIN OF “HELL” TORMENT TEACHING

3. (a) Which religions have taught a hell of torment? (b) How have some of these teachings varied?

³ The idea of a “hell” of torment stems from ancient Babylon. It is found also among the religious teachings of ancient Persia and Phoenicia. The Encyclopedia Americana (1956 ed., Vol. 14, p. 82) says:

“While there are many and significant variations of detail the main features of hell as conceived by Hindu, Persian, Egyptian, Grecian, Hebrew and Christian theologians are essentially the same.”

Though most religions of history have taught that there is a fiery “hell,” their teachings have differed as to its purpose. Says the Encyclopædia Britannica (1971 ed., Vol. 11, p. 320):

“The Roman Catholic Church teaches that hell is a state of punishment for those who die unrepentant in grave sin. Hell will last forever; its suffering will have no end. . . . The traditional Protestant teaching on hell remained until modern times substantially the same as Catholic doctrine and is still held by many conservative Protestant groups.”

On the other hand, Hindus and Buddhists teach that hell is a place of purification, akin to the Catholic “purgatory,” and that a person who goes there may have a rebirth, though rarely as a human, after his evil karma (deeds) have been burned up.

4. (a) What are the Buddhist hells like? (b) What similar teaching does the Roman Catholic religion have?

⁴ Describing the Buddhist hells, the above edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica states:

“There are eight hot hells and eight cold hells plus the realm of the pretas (ghosts with small mouths and great stomachs who are tortured by hunger and thirst). A person is born in hell as a result of the ‘ripening’ of his evil karma.”

On page 104 of this book, some idea of the supposed fiendish tortures administered in this “hell” is given in an illustration taken from a Buddhist scroll entitled “Kanzen Choaku” (meaning, Recommending the Good, Disciplining the Bad). It has many similarities to the “Inferno” of the Roman Catholic Dante, a portion of which is shown in this book on page 105.

6. (a) Why does Luke 16:19-31 not support the “hellfire-torment” teaching? (Matthew 13:10, 11) (b) How was this parable fulfilled? (Matthew 21:45, 46)

⁶ However, some persons may point to Jesus’ parable at Luke 16:19-31, which describes a rich man in a “blazing fire” of torment. The dictionary defines a “parable” as a “short fictitious story”​—not something that literally happens in real life. Here, Jesus was illustrating how, as a class, the religious leaders of the Jews would “die” figuratively toward having God’s favor and come into distress while alive on earth​—as they did on hearing Jesus proclaim his message against them. The Bible says nothing about God’s tormenting people after death in “hellfire.”a The idea of torment by fire is completely foreign to Jehovah God, who forthrightly condemned apostate Jews for the “detestable thing” of making “their sons and their daughters pass through the fire to Molech,” the god of Ammon.​—Jeremiah 32:35; 2 Chronicles 28:3.

7. (a) Who is “the father of the lie” about a “hell” of torment, and how have religious leaders used this lie? (2 Corinthians 11:13-15) (b) But how does Jehovah show himself to be the “God of all comfort”? (Romans 15:5, 6)

⁷ Like the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, that of a “hell” of torment is based on the Babylonish lie that man’s soul lives on after death. This lie has its source in Satan, who is “the father of the lie.” (John 8:44) Religious priests and clergymen have made effective use of this lie, holding many persons in bondage to their religious sects by striking into them fear of a fiery “hell” after death.