"Ye know. doan't ye, what it feels like when ye burn yer hand in takin' a cake out of the oven or wi' a match when ye're lightin' one of they godless cigarettes? Ay. It stings wi' a fearful pain, doan't it? And ye run away to clap a bit o' butter on it to take the pain away. Ah, but" (an impressive pause) "there'll be no butter in hell!"
Amos Starkadder was preaching to the Quivering Brethren on his favorite topic, hellfire and damnation, in Stella Gibbons' comic masterpiece, Cold Comfort Farm. The concept of Hell has been widely taught, perhaps as a means to induce people to be pious and moral. Most UCC ministers I have known do not feel that Hell is a place. One says that we make our own Heaven and Hell on earth. Another points out that Hell is rarely mentioned in the Bible, but achieved its fiery reputation in the Middle Ages. I wanted to find out if that was the case so I went to Wikipedia:
Sheol in the King James Bible is translated as "Hell" 31 times and as "the grave" 31 times. Sheol is also translated as "the pit" three times. Modern translations typically render Sheol as "the grave", "the pit", or "death", not Hell.
Gehenna in the New Testament, is often translated as "Hell". Gehenna is the valley below Jerusalem, where children were sacrificed and and where, later, refuse was burned. It has been suggested (but not in Wikipedia) that Gehenna is a symbol of purification through fire.
Hades is the Greek word traditionally used for the Hebrew word Sheol. While earlier translations most often translated Hades as "Hell", as does the King James Version, modern translations use the transliteration "Hades" or render the word as allusions "to the grave", "among the dead", "place of the dead", or similar statements.
Is this vision of Hell, offered by Amos Starkadder, found in the Bible? "It means endless, horrifyin' torment, with yer poor sinful bodies stretched out on hot gridirons in the nethermost fiery pit of hell, and demons mockin' ye while they waves coolin' jellies in front of ye".
Or as the Swedenborgians believe, "God casts no one to hell: as hell is the internal state of evil, and heaven is the internal state of good, each person enters a state that matches his or her internal nature. Each person will remain to eternity according to his will or ruling love."
You may think that is all clear as mud, but I am hoping to tempt you to explore further with the books (not cooling jellies) I am listing here:
Cold Comfort Farm /Gibbons, Stella, F GIB
Inferno : Volume 1 of The Divine Comedy /Dante Alighieri F DAN
Inventing Hell: Dante, the Bible, and eternal torment/Sweeney, Jon M. 851 SWE
Revelations : visions, prophecy, and politics in the Book of Revelation /Pagels, Elaine H., 228.06 PAG
Seven deadly sins/DVD 241.3 SEV