The word Jesus uses for ‘hell’ in the Bible is based on an actual place.
When Jesus spoke about hell, He used the word ‘Gehenna’ – the name of an actual place outside the city of Jerusalem.
It was a valley where, years earlier, wicked kings had burned babies as sacrifices to the demon god Molech.
The place had become so vile and disgusting that, by Jesus’ day, it had been turned into a rubbish dump.
Every day, tonnes of rubbish – including human waste – were carried out through what was called the ‘Dung Gate’ and thrown into this valley called Gehenna. And it was burnt up.
But the amount of waste was so endless that the fire never died out. There was always something to burn. And it smelled terrible.
This is the picture of hell that Jesus gives us.
A place of absolute filth and terror – a place where everything that is useless to His Kingdom is taken to be burnt up.
And that also gives us a picture of SALVATION.
Jesus SALVAGES us.
We were once rubbish. We were once useless. We were depraved creatures, full of sin and decay.
And as we were on our way to hell, on our way to Gehenna – the rubbish dump – Jesus stepped in and said:
“That’s the one I want.
That’s the one I’ll salvage.
That’s the one I’ll save.
That’s the one I’ll make USEFUL for My Kingdom, for My purpose.
That’s the one I love.”
