The Hell We Think We Know (Expanded)

A historical and biblical reexamination of eternal conscious torment

For much of the Bible, there is no concept of hell at all. The data look like this when you stop forcing them into a system built centuries after the texts were written.

Most Christians inherited their picture of hell from the pulpit, not the page. Flames that never die. Punishments tailored to particular sins. Souls suffering endlessly in a place prepar…