Jesus’ Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man: Proof of an Everburning Hell of Torment?

The Parable of Lazarus:








This parable mentions that the rich man found himself in Hell. This word was translated from Hades. This parable refers to some kind of torment in Hades. But—does it say that it is everlasting? No, it does not.

And whatever happens in Hades will eventually come to an end—because Hades is going to be “emptied out”! John records a vision in the Book of Revelation, which is described as happening after 1,000 years of Satan’s captivity:


So whatever was happening in the parable to the rich man, it was not his ultimate destiny. Revelation 20 declares that his ultimate destiny is the “second death.” In Matthew 10:28, Jesus referred to this destruction of not just the body, but the soul itself. And He connected it there to the word Gehenna.


Over the centuries, commentators have looked at the parable of Lazarus in two quite different ways. In fact, under one set of assumptions this passage is declared not to be a parable—not a metaphor with a lesson—at all. This scenario suggests that Jesus’ story is a literal description of the Afterlife, and that the two men mentioned are two actual individuals.  In this approach, the primary emphasis is that the main purpose of the story is to emphasize the sufferings of torture in an ever-burning Hell, so that people will be warned to avoid it.

Others approach the story with the assumption that, like the previous story in the chapter (the parable of the unjust steward) and the three stories in the previous chapter of Luke (the 99 sheep, the lost coin, and the Prodigal Son), it is a parable. In fact, it is clearly stated that Jesus told this story not to his disciples, but to the Pharisees. Thus it is not unreasonable to assume that it is a metaphor, a fictional story told for another purpose entirely. According to this scenario, even the details of the features of Hades are taken to be figurative rather than literal. This is similar to a description of Sheol in the Old Testament. This passage in Isaiah prophetically describes the death of the King of Babylon:



Did Isaiah really intend to paint a picture of the Afterlife in Sheol as one of a place where the “leaders of the world” actually sat on thrones, and would “rise to greet” the king of Babylon? Or is this an elaborate poetic metaphor, used to paint a picture of the ignominy of the end of the king of Babylon?

Here’s how one author clarifies the importance of understanding when a biblical passage is a parable rather than photographic reality:

Parables are not to be taken literally. They are to be understood “figuratively.” The real meaning is not in what they literally say, but in what the symbols and figurative language represent. That’s why they are called “parables.” This is axiomatic! Let us turn to some parables for proof of this point:

The Prodigal Son (Luke 15:32)

“…this thy brother was dead…”

Comment: He wasn’t literally “dead.” He came home again “alive.” God did not resurrect him from the dead. The Resurrection is yet future. So the prodigal was NOT literally dead, but from the perspective of his father, he was as good as dead or he could have been considered Spiritually dead.

Parable of mote in brother’s eye (Lk. 6:39-42). “Now why are you observing the mote in your brother’s eye, yet the beam in your own eye you are not considering?”

Comment: A beam is a long piece of timber. How is it possible to have a long piece of timber in one’s eye? I know people who could fit it into their mouth, but eye, never. This parable is about morality, not body organs and building materials.

Is it not obvious that the literal, physical language in all parables must be interpreted as a higher, spiritual lesson? If the parable of Lazarus and the rich man is both literal and an historical fact, then it contradicts not only the laws of physics and logic, but also literally hundreds of plain verses of Scripture.

What if the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man is just such a poetic metaphor? What if the description of the Rich Man seeing Lazarus “in Abraham’s bosom” was not meant to be taken as a literal scenario in the Afterlife, but as a metaphor for something more elaborate? Many Bible commentators have suggested that the characters of Lazarus and the rich man are intended to stand for “groups of people.” Jesus spoke this parable to the Pharisees, and the distinct possibility is that he was using the rich man’s blessings in life as representing the spiritual favor that the Jews had possessed through knowing God and having the scriptures.

By the same token, Lazarus would then represent those who were not part of the “chosen people,” outsiders who had been cut off from the blessings of God by ignorance. The implication would then be that if pious Jews such as the Pharisees didn’t fully appreciate their blessings, in the future they might find themselves cast out while the outsiders would find God’s favor.

Even if, in spite of all of the evidence to the contrary, this parable was intended to depict a real scene somewhere in the Underworld, where the soul of the rich man is being tortured in the roaring flames of an ever-burning Hell, why would he ask only for a drop of water for his tongue? Immersed in flames, why wouldn’t he ask for a bucket of water to cool his body!?

It seems highly possible that the kind of torment he was in is being symbolized more in “mental” than physical terms. Picture someone in the Middle Ages, condemned to death by burning at the stake. He is in a dungeon of the Inquisition, but can see out a small window the stake upon which he is doomed to be burnt. Perhaps he can even see others put to death there, and, if close enough, might even feel the tremendous heat waves from the executions. Surely he would be in mental torment—the kind that leaves your mouth like cotton!

If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. (Hebrews 10:26‑27  NIV)

Notice that this doesn’t say the fearful expectation would be of “eternal torture by fire.” Instead it is of a fire that will consume the wicked. Moses was amazed when he saw a bush that could burn without being consumed. Hebrews does not say the wicked will be like such a bush, burning but never “burning up.” It states clearly that the fire will consume them.


But wouldn’t someone in torment look forward to death with desire, rather than with fearful expectation? No—even in concentration camps in Germany during the Holocaust, where conditions were horrifying, most struggled to keep alive, and to avoid the ultimate executions.

Especially when death is expected to come by fire, the realization that it will take only a few minutes certainly doesn’t lessen the terror of the anticipation of the excruciating pain of flames.

Ultimately, even if those hearing the parable of Lazarus were intended to envision a real place where the rich man was in torment, there is nothing in the parable itself that is comparable to the common doctrine of an ever-burning Hell, where never-ending torture awaits anyone who is “unsaved” at death.

Whatever this parable is about, it is undeniable that it very specifically addresses certain groups of people. Jesus directed it at the Pharisees, religious leaders of the time. Both of the main characters are obviously Jews, living in a society in which the Old Testament scriptures were common knowledge. Abraham notes that the rich man’s brothers “have Moses and the Prophets.” Therefore, even if the intent of this story was to describe real details of the Afterlife, there is no way to apply what is in this scene to the fate of those who have never known God at all.

Finally, there is no information in the parable that allows us to draw any conclusions about why these two men had such different fates. If the purpose of the parable was to warn people of the torments of Hell, where is the advice on what one needed to do to avoid that? We are told nothing about the spiritual condition of the rich man, about any sins that he may have committed, about his attitude toward God. We are only told that he was wealthy, and had sumptuous banquets. And we are told nothing about the spiritual condition of Lazarus, about any good deeds he may have done, nor about his attitude toward God. We are only told that he was poor, hungry, and covered with sores. Surely Jesus did not intend listeners to come away from hearing the parable with the notion that it is evil to be rich and godly to be poor.

From careful consideration of the details of the parable of Lazarus and the rich man, and the related scriptures quoted above, it is clear that this passage cannot be used to establish:

  • Anything at all about the fate of those who do not know about or understand the expectations of God.
  • That there is an ever-burning Hell.
  • That human souls are tortured forever in such a Hell.

If someone is attempting to prove that there is such a Hellish future for the billions of humans throughout history who have not had Jesus as Savior, the parable of Lazarus isn’t the place to look.

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Immortal Worms?

And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell [Greek: gehenna], into the fire that never shall be quenched: where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. (Mark 9:43)

Strangely enough, one of the “proofs” offered by some authors that most of mankind is destined to be tortured forever in an everburning Hell is the biblical references to “worms that don’t die.”  Jesus mentions such worms in the passage above. Surely that must indicate eternal torture, if only by worms!

Yes, to many over the centuries, these undying worms have seemed to imply a conscious, tangible, but somehow disembodied “soul” being swarmed over and tormented by supernatural worms, a horrific mental picture. You might say it is somewhat akin to the kind of torture inflicted on enemies by some aboriginal tribes in centuries past–burying them alive up to their necks, and then setting swarms of insects such as fire-ants on them.

Artists and authors depicting the torments of Hell have often included “worms that dieth not” as one of the agents of torture of human souls. Here is a brief excerpt from a modern version (1992), posted on the Web as part of the description of the author’s alleged vision of Hell, and a “song” that she claimed to have heard there, sung by a “fallen preacher.” The purpose of this posting was to encourage people to turn to Jesus as Savior and avoid this type of fate.

I saw a naked man covered in flaming worms that cannot Die! He turned to me and heaved a deep sigh as flames surrounded him and he sung this song in an emotionless voice! A voice that held NO emotion only the pain and torment he was in! Flaming WORMS that looked like Snakes! were crawling in and OUT of EVERY OPENING OF HIS BODY! His EYES, EARS, NOSE, FRONT, REAR, I repeat EVERY OPENING! without getting graphically gross here! The screams yet echo in my mind as I am writing this down! … Here are a few lyrics from the song: Flaming worms crawl in, flaming worms crawl out in the belly button and out the mouth! In the front and out the rear ! In the eyes and out the ears! We scream for mercy yet NO one cares or hears! Red hot pain in my blood rivers of feces, lava, vomit and blood it looks like a flood! Flames everywhere yet they cast NO light! All I have is every kind of pain, terror, torture and fright! I am a Citizen in HELL!

Was Jesus really referring to worms that were themselves supernaturally immortal, living eternally to torment the souls of the lost? Did His few brief words in Mark really indicate that this scenario and others similar to it, with varied tortures, are playing out by the billions daily as human souls suffer in Hell? Does the Bible provide verification that the “vision” described above from the Web was truly from God, and reflects a biblical view of the nature of Hell … or was this vision from another source?

What many theologians throughout the ages seem to have ignored is that Jesus was quoting from Isaiah, and the imagery was one of a trash heap, not a supernatural underworld. Speaking of a time after the beginning of the Millennium, Isaiah wrote:

“From one New Moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and bow down before me,” says the Lord. “And they will go out and look upon the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me; their worm will not die, nor will their fire be quenched, and they will be loathesome to all mankind.” (Isaiah 66:23‑24)

In the original description in Isaiah, these worms are connected to dead bodies, which people go “look at” somewhere in the physical world, not supernatural “souls” in some hidden underworld.

The Hebrew word translated “worm” in Isaiah doesn’t refer to earthworms, but to maggots, the larvae of insects such as houseflies. On a trash heap, maggots would breed perpetually. Was Isaiah indicating that God would miraculously preserve the dead bodies of the rebellious continually throughout eternity, along with preserving the individual maggots feeding on them– making them “immortal worms”? Or was he speaking in highly figurative language indicating that the rebellious would not be given a “decent burial,” and their bodies would be exposed for all to see—and to “loathe”—while they were consumed by maggots and their flesh and bones burned by the fires until they were no more?

A swarm of maggots will continue to breed and feed on decaying matter until there is nothing left. The individual maggots may live, propagate, and die, but to the human eye, “the maggots” feasting on a carcass don’t die off. The swarm continues until the job is finished.

Actually, whatever Isaiah had in mind, whether literal or figurative, whether temporary or miraculously age-lasting, one thing this passage does NOT speak of is “souls” being tormented by these maggots and this fire in an unseen spiritual world of the kind of Hell envisioned by most people.

The description is of dead bodies, physical fire, and living maggots, all above ground, being seen by living humans. There is NO mention of conscious torture here, NO mention of disembodied souls, NO mention of the Devil sitting on a Hellish throne watching in glee over such torture.

Some would suggest that, even if Isaiah was making a physical reference, Jesus used this imagery as a “metaphor” for an unseen Hell where supernatural worms torture souls. But if so, there are no other passages in the Bible that make this connection. All of the depictions of such “Hellish worms” in art and literature are not based on any biblical passage, but on the fanciful, often ghoulish imaginations of the authors and artists.

(For more on this maggot-ridden trash heap, which is referred to in the Bible as gehenna, see the NonDante blog entry Digging Deeper into Hell.)

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Digging Deeper Into Hell

Both Jewish and Christian Bible commentators are forced to admit that the Old Testament is vague about ideas regarding the Afterlife, including concepts of Heaven and Hell. This means that anyone wishing to come to a strictly biblical view of any details about Hell must turn to the New Testament. If the notion of a Hell of eternal torture—the kind of Hell described by Dante, and illustrated so graphically in excruciating detail by medieval artists—is to be established by scripture, rather than by mere human speculation or fanciful invention, it will have to be found in the New Testament.

So—just what does the New Testament have to say?

Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell [Greek: Gehenna] (Matthew 10:28 NIV)

This does not speak of eternal torment, either of bodies or souls. It speaks of both being destroyed.


Yes, a judgment of the unsaved (“the enemies of God”) is mentioned here. And it even includes a “raging fire.” But this verse says nothing about this fire being an instrument of eternal torment for these enemies. It says that it will “consume” them.

Anyone convinced that an ever-burning Hell of torture has been the destination of the souls of billions of humans from throughout history will need to find a way to explain away these two scriptures. For they do not line up with that notion!

The KJV translators chose to use the English word hell when translating three different Greek words, Hades, Tartarus, and Gehenna.


The KJV translates Hades as hell 10 times. However, at the time the New Testament was written, the Greek word Hades and the Hebrew word sheol referred to exactly the same concept. In 1 Corinthians 15:55, Paul writes:


Here the KJV translators chose to translate Hades as grave, rather than hell.  Why? Because Paul was here quoting an Old Testament passage from Hosea 14. The Hebrew word sheol is in that passage, and was there translated as grave. The comparable word in Corinthians was Hades, clearly showing that the words were considered as synonyms by Paul, and both referred to the physical grave.

But only in this passage does the KJV render Hades as the grave. In all other passages in the New Testament, the KJV translators chose to translate the word as Hell. (This strange choice will be explored in a future blog entry on this NonDante blog.)


The second New Testament word translated as hell in the KJV is Tartarus. This word occurs in only one verse in the New Testament. That verse is not addressing a place of punishment for humans, but a place of confinement and punishment for “fallen angels”:

 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell [Tartarus], putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment… ( 2 Peter 2:4)

In Greek mythology, Tartarus was the place of confinement for the Titans, rebels against Zeus. It is described in myth as being deep within the earth. It seems that Tartarus in the New Testament is another name for “the Abyss” referred to in other scriptures. In Luke 8, a legion of demons begs Jesus not to send them to the “the deep” [NIV: the Abyss]. The Greek word is abussos, which implies a “bottomless pit.” In Revelation 9, John sees a vision in which an angel opens the Abyss with a key, and swarms of locusts come out, whose “king” is “the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon [destroyer].” In Revelation 20, another angel casts Satan into the Abyss, where he is confined for 1,000 years. None of these passages implies that either Tartarus or the Abyss is a place of confinement or punishment for humans.


The third New Testament word translated as hell in the KJV is Gehenna. It is used 11 times by Jesus, in the Gospels, and once in the Epistle of James. This  is the word that is accompanied by the concept of fire:

…Whoever shall say, thou fool, shall be in danger of hell [Gehenna] fire. (Matthew 5:22)

If there is a clear Biblical basis for the doctrine of eternal, never‑ending torment of humans in the fires of Hell, we must expect to find it in these “Gehenna fire” passages.

Five of these 11 references occur in a description of only one discourse of Jesus.

And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell [Gehenna], into the fire that never shall be quenched: where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell [Gehenna], into the fire that never shall be quenched: where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out; it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes be cast into hell [Gehenna] fire: where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. (Mark 9:43‑48)

The word Gehenna is translated as hell here in Mark three times. In the parallel passage in Matthew 5, describing the same discourse, it is translated that way two more times.

If someone comes to this discourse with an assumption that it is referring to eternal torture, it might be possible to “read into” it that meaning. But read it carefully. It does not describe what happens to the person once he is thrown into that “unquenchable fire.”

However… there is a passage in scripture that does tell us exactly that! For you see, in this passage in Mark, Jesus is not expounding some “new revelation.” He is directly quoting a phrase used by the prophet Isaiah. At the end of the book of Isaiah there is a description of the Millennium, after the Day of the Lord:


This describes a scene in which passersby do not view a spectacle of torture, but dead bodies of those who came to an ignominious end because of rebellion against God. This is somewhat like the fate of Mussolini. Near the end of World War II, he was executed by his own people, and his dead body was put on display (along with those of his mistress and some of his henchmen). They were hung upside down in a public street. And this “public display” can still be seen to this day, through photos taken at the time and preserved for posterity.

Isaiah describes something that can be seen by “all mankind” … so this display is not in some “underworld.” These rebels against God were to be killed, and their “remains” physically left to be seen on the surface of the Earth.

Why did Jesus use the word Gehenna for this place?

Gehenna is a variation of a term that refers the “Valley of Ben Hinnom” near Jerusalem, believed by many to be the actual site of child sacrifice by the ancient Israelites when they turned from true worship of Yahweh. Jeremiah prophesied:

The people of Judah have done evil in my eyes, declares the LORD. They have set up their detestable idols in the house that bears my Name and have defiled it. They have built high places of Topheth in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to burn their sons and daughters in the fire‑ something I did not command, nor did it enter my mind. So beware, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when people will no longer call it Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter, for they will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room. Then the carcasses of this people will become food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and there will be no one to frighten them away. (Jer 7:30‑33)

You can still see this valley to this day. It’s quite pleasant now.

But in the time of Jesus, this valley was a “city dump,” where the garbage of Jerusalem was deposited. Refuse of all kinds was tossed there, including animal carcasses, making it a huge, stinking heap. As with many city dumps even today, such as the one below in Managua, Nicaragua, fires were always burning there.

Even the bodies of executed criminals were tossed there. If Joseph of Arimathea had not intervened and requested the body of Jesus to put in his own tomb, His body, along with those of the two thieves crucified with Him, may well have been tossed into Gehenna.

Some argue that this physical location was just a “symbol,” a metaphor of a supernatural “Gehenna fire” where souls are sent after death. If so, wouldn’t that leave room for proposing that eternal torment of souls is a feature of such an “ultimate” Gehenna?

But to establish this, you have to get past that Matthew 10:28 statement that you ought to “be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell [Gehenna].”


It is the premise of this NonDante blog that you cannot get past Matthew 28. And therefore you need to rethink the topic of Hell until you come up with a systematic view that harmonizes ALL that the Bible has to say about the topic.

This is not a minor doctrinal issue–it is at the core of our belief about the nature of God. Is He truly the God of love and justice, or is he a capricious Hitlerian figure who has condemned the vast majority of mankind who ever lived, most of whom never even heard of God, Jesus, or the Bible, to fry consciously forever in flames that will never be quenched?





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“Scaring the Hell out of” Children

In his famous “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” sermon, Puritan preacher Jonathan Edwards attempted to literally “scare the Hell out of” his listeners, including the children in the audience. (See the earlier NonDante entry Fiery Blast from the Past.)  But the impact of his message on young minds and hearts may well have paled in comparison to the “educational” efforts of John Furniss (1809-1865), an Irish Catholic priest. Furniss was head of an orphanage, and he wrote material for church education programs used in England and Ireland. He is most notorious for a little booklet titled “The Sight of Hell.” Consider how this material is described by Furniss’ church superior in giving it his endorsement:

I have carefully read over this Little Volume for Children and have found nothing whatever in it contrary to the doctrines of Holy Faith; but, on the contrary, a great deal to charm, instruct, and edify our youthful classes, for whose benefit it has been written. –William Meagher, Vicar General, Dublin, December 14, 1855

See if you agree that the cheery phrase “to charm” applies to these excerpts below from Furniss’ work. These excruciating details were provided to “edify” children so that they would know exactly what fate would await them in Hell if they didn’t follow the Roman Church’s teachings.

 The First Dungeon—A Dress of Fire


You do not, perhaps, like a headache. Think what a headache that girl must have. But see more. She is wrapped up in flames, for her frock is fire. If she were on earth she would bev burnt to a cinder in a moment. But she is in Hell, where fire burns everything, but burns nothing away.


Charming, isn’t it? But this was only one of many examples Furniss vividly described for the benefit of his young students. Here’s anothr.

The Third Dungeon—The Red Hot Floor

Look into this room. What a dreadful place it is! The roof is red hot; the floor is like a thick sheet of red hot iron. See, on the middle of that red hot floor stands a girl. She looks about sixteen years old. Her feet are bare, she has neither shoes nor stockings on her feet; her bare feet stand on the red hot burning floor. The door of this room has never been opened before since she first set her foot on the red hot floor. Now she sees that the door is opening. She rushes forward. She has gone down on her knees on the red hot floor. Listen, she speaks! She says; “I have been standing with my feet on this red hot floor for years. Day and night my only standing place has been this red hot floor. Sleep never came on me for a moment, that I might forget this horrible burning floor. Look,” she says, “at my burnt and bleeding feet. Let me go off this burning floor for one moment, only for one single, short moment. Oh, that in the endless eternity of years, I might forget the pain only for one single, short moment.” The devil answers her question: “Do you ask,” he says, “for a moment, for one moment to forget your pain. No, not for one single moment during the never-ending eternity of years shall you ever leave this red hot floor!”

But of course these examples were both of young teenage girls. Perhaps Furniss wishes to imply they “deserved” their punishments, perhaps for seducing innocent young men to fornication, or some other heinous crime.

Surely, surely he didn’t include small children in his “charming” tales of Hell.

The Fifth Dungeon—The Red Hot Oven


This is a “little child” who stamps his “little feet.” No, Furniss excused no one from being the brunt of his charming stories.


What an astounding assertion! Deliberately causing a little one to die in “early childhood,” and then confining him in the afterlife to a “red hot oven” where he will consciously burn forever, is evidence of the “mercy” of God!

One must really ponder what sort of “very bad mortal sins” a child of three or four … perhaps even two … could have premeditated and committed!

Here is another kind of oven–one used at the Dachau concentration camp to incinerate the bodies of Jews and other prisoners.

But even the Nazis, although they did cause great suffering and death,  did not choose to use ovens such as this one to torture their victims, even for a short time! People were not put into Hitler’s ovens alive. How astonishing that many believe that God is far more cruel than Hitler’s Henchmen were. For of course Furniss has not been alone in his teaching that the vast majority of mankind from throughout history, up to the present day, have been consigned to just such a fate. It is a common teaching throughout most Protestant and Catholic Churches.

Most preachers in the 21st century just aren’t inclined to be quite as blatant or as graphic in their descriptions as Furniss was. But if questioned closely, most will admit that they believe in Hellish torments just as hot and just as eternal as that described by Furniss. And that indeed it will be the permanent “home” of many young women who died at sixteen or eighteen, who will be in excruciating pain for “an endless eternity of years.”

The fact that the Bible does not teach this doesn’t change the fact that most churches do.

The reality is that the doctrine of an ever-burning Hell, where the unsaved—the vast majority of all mankind who ever lived, according to most Christian groups—are perpetually tortured with unimaginable suffering throughout eternity, is not just a fringe doctrine that can be swept under the rug, or put on a shelf, or otherwise hidden from sight and ignored. It is, in one way, the centerpiece of a debate to define the very nature of God.

This NonDante blog is aimed at clearly establishing—through a lively examination of history, popular mythology, theology, and the Bible—the problems inherent in this doctrine. It is a primary goal of this blog to bring the full horror of this doctrine into sharp focus. Only when Christians can examine this doctrine in the clear light of day, with sound reasoning, and consider BOTH sides of the debate, will they be able to form a truly informed opinion on what the Bible actually says on the subject.

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Fiery Blast from the Past

Puritan preacher Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) preached the most famous fire and brimstone sermon in history in Massachusetts in 1741: “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” It was Edward’s custom to read his sermons, instead of speaking extemporaneously. So the text of this famous sermon was afterwards published. It spread far and wide throughout Colonial America, and thus is still available to us today.  At one church where he delivered this message, an eyewitness reported an “audience so moved by the sermon that people moaned, shrieked, and cried out for salvation while the preacher was speaking.”

Historical records note that Edwards didn’t use an emotional style of delivery, instead merely reading in a monotone! So what did he read that had such an emotional impact on his audience? Here’s a sample.




Notice that in Edward’s famous sermon he referred to his listeners as “sinners.” But don’t assume he was speaking in an evangelistic campaign to the public, addressing the town drunk or local prostitutes. And don’t assume he was referring only to unsaved, mature adults in his audience, who were perhaps guilty of vile sins such as adultery.

This sermon was first given not to the public, but to his own congregation of Puritans, on a Sunday morning. And he was careful to make it clear that he was not limiting his warning to adults:


Can you imagine what sort of thoughts a child of seven might have had, sitting in the congregation that day and listening to Edwards’ threats?

So was Edwards speaking the truth about God? Does He really constantly hold even little children metaphorically over Hell, ready to drop them into the pit at any moment if they should die before responding to this sort of fiery message?

Although absolutely nothing in the Bible indicates such a scenario, the vivid and powerful imagery that came from Edwards’ fertile imagination has convinced huge numbers of people to believe it anyway.

And the power of the rhetoric did not die out in Edwards’ own generation. Many 21st century websites include the text of his message—not as an historical oddity, or as a sample of colonial American literature. They offer it as a timely warning message to contemporary readers.

It is even published in the form of inexpensive little 32-page paperbacks that can be used as tools of evangelism by modern Christians. Order yours from Amazon today! At just $2.51 you could afford to order a dozen … and get free Super-Saver Shipping!

On the go a lot? You can even get a Kindle edition to read on your Amazon Kindle reader, so you can read in the dentist’s office while waiting for your appointment.

If you don’t have a Kindle, you can get a free PDF version from one website to read on your Ipad or laptop.

And you can even get it on CD, to give as a gift to your unconverted friends so that they can listen to it in the car or while doing dishes. Or, of course, they could also let their “little children” listen to it as they drift off to sleep in their little beds. In fact, if your own little children aren’t saved yet, you can get an extra copy to play next to their crib.

What’s wrong with this picture?

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The Happy Face of Hell

Few Americans consider the topic of Hell seriously very often. No one wants to think about their loved ones … or themselves … ending up in such a place!  But that doesn’t imply they never think of Hell at all. Actually, references to Hell are everywhere in our society.  But most of the time it is not the horrifying Hell of speculative theology. It is the fundamentally harmless, humorous Hell of comic strips, cartoons, and Halloween.

This Hell is not the fiery underworld of everlasting, excruciating torture for the unbeliever that has been vividly described over the ages by “fire and brimstone” preachers. It is a cartoonic “theme park” inhabited by an often clown-like Devil and his legions of merry demons.

Newspaper cartoons often depict this humorous Hell. Gary Larson’s Far Side cartoons sometimes featured a somewhat bland, boring, non-threatening, rotund Devil. One strip showed the Apostle Peter in the upper panel, greeting new “angels” (the souls of dead people) arriving at the Pearly Gates: “Welcome to Heaven. Here is your harp.” In the lower panel was Larson’s bland Devil at the “Gates of Hell,” with the alternate greeting: “Welcome to Hell. Here is your accordion.”

Cartoonist Scott Adams has featured in his Dilbert cartoon strip not “Lucifer, Prince of Darkness, ruler of Hell,” but “Phil, The Prince of Insufficient Light, Ruler of Heck.” Phil doesn’t have a trident like Lucifer—he carries a shovel-sized spoon.  And he doesn’t dispense horrific punishments of physical pain and suffering. He specializes in mild punishments for mild sins, such as condemning Dilbert to eat lunch with the company accountants for some minor infraction.

Even those who do believe in a much more horrific Hell have a hard time avoiding chuckling at such cartoons.

Back in 1957, Harvey Comics even introduced a comic book counterpart to Casper the Friendly Ghost—a devilish-like demon toddler named Hot Stuff.

Perhaps his creator found inspiration in Victorian representations of the sidekick of some “cherubs.”

Then there are the devilish logos that are often adopted by sports teams. Although they may project either a cheerfully impish, or fiendishly ominous, image, no one takes seriously the implication of the word “devil” in this context as being a biblical reference. This devil is no more “real” than Superman or Spiderman. He is just a mythical figure used to imply power.

And even the marketing world contributes to the cartoonic face of Hell and the Devil. If a product has some connection to fire or heat, the Devil is a logical choice for a spokesman.

The cartoonic face of Hell has had a stronger influence for a long time on the mind of the average person than does what the Bible has to say about Hell.

The humorous happy face of the pseudo-Devil, ruler of the pseudo-Hell of comic strips and Halloween is even attractive to many people who consider themselves Christians. When Halloween rolls around they may choose to dress themselves, their children, and even their pets up in devilish costumes.

You might think this is just a 20th or 21st Century phenomenon, a reflection of our increasingly secular society. But that would be incorrect. For instance, the Victorian Era both in the US and Europe was a hot-bed of hellish humor, most evident in greeting cards and postcards.

In modern times we tend to connect devilish figures with Halloween. But the devil or devil-like characters used to be much more common icons for other holidays as well–including, surprisingly, the Christmas season.

In Germanic countries in the 1800s, the standard mythical “St. Nicholas” character who allegedly brought gifts to good boys and girls at Christmas time had an unusual sidekick.

This is the Devil-like “Krampus.” He usually appears as a hairy, two-horned, human-like being, often with one human-like foot and one cloven hoof… and an amazingly long tongue that always hangs out. Instead of Santa himself giving lumps of coal to bad little children, he played “Good Cop/Bad Cop” with the Krampus. Some legends have it that Santa “summoned” the Krampus from Hell to do his annual job, which was to threaten … and even beat … small children with a bundle of sticks if they’d been naughty rather than nice for the year.

The American version of what “Santa” would do about “naughty children” has usually been limited to tucking a lump of coal instead of candy in their Christmas stocking. But that’s too mild for the Krampus. Krampus lore has it that, if a child’s reputation for naughtiness was bad enough, they might even be snatched by the Krampus, put into the basket on his back, and either taken to a nearby river and drowned, or perhaps even be taken back to Hell with him. (This whimsical little “tradition,” of course, from the culture that brought us the children-eating witch in Hansel and Gretel.) Note the “Satan” label on the bumper of this Krampus’ sled, and the “Zur Holle” traffic sign on the left … “To Hell.”

So every year, before pretty Christmas cards would begin arriving in your mailbox, in certain parts of Europe you could expect to get “Gruss vom Krampus”: Greetings from the Krampus cards. Not nearly so pretty.

Not happy with leaving this as a “legend,” in the cultures where the Krampus concept has thrived, men—frequently  young, drunk, and rowdy—have long dressed up in outlandish costumes of hairy animal skins and chains, wielding their switches, and roamed the streets of villages and towns on December 5—Krampus Day—terrifying and beating on small children and even adults—especially attractive young women.

The heyday of the Krampus-ian revelry seems to have been the mid-to-late 1800s (most of the pics in this blog entry are from close to the turn of the last century), but the tradition has never died out in some areas of northern Europe.

Over 1200 “Krampus” gather in Schladming, Styria from all over Austria wearing goat-hair costumes and carved masks, carrying bundles of sticks used as switches and swinging cowbells to warn of their approach. They are typically intoxicated males in their teens and early twenties. They roam the streets of this typically quiet town and hit people with their switches. It is not considered wise for young women to go out on this night, as they are popular targets.

And it is making a “comeback” in many other places … and being picked up even in the USA and adopted as a new “holiday” tradition. (No doubt particularly by rowdy young men wanting to harass pretty young women.) And with modern costume-ry, they have taken it up a notch.

Happy Krampus Day everyone! It’s one of the most wonderful times of the year. “What’s Krampus Day?” you might ask. Well, it’s a lot like Christmas. Just replace peace and joy with fear and loathing, wholesome presents with brutal floggings and jolly Mr. Claus with a gruesome horned incubus named Krampus and you’ve got the general idea.

Here’s how one American visitor to a Tyrolean town described her experience at a KrampusFest.

The Krampus festival is a traditional Austrian celebration in which the men of the town dress up as horrible demons and chase small children through the streets, beating them with whips.

No, no I’m not kidding.

It started with a “parade”, although I hate to call it that because I like parades. They’re usually pretty fun, you know – floats, beauty queens in convertibles, high school marching bands. This, on the other hand, was terrifying. The demons entered the town, waving torches and rattling their chains (yeah, some of the scary demons were chained to a giant wagon which was being driven by another scary demon). They were all screaming, growling and making all kinds of other demonic noises as they marched past, whipping anyone (me) who happened to be standing too close. This was not a joke or a friendly tap, people. I still have a bruise from the demon’s whip, which is a sentence I hoped I’d never have to say.

When the demons reached the center of the town, they gathered in what was essentially a satanic ritual in which they were “set free” by San Nicolo. Yeah, Santa. Santa Claus unleashed hordes of demons on this town, giving them permission to run free and whip innocent young children and Americans. It was unbelievable. At one point, I watched a large hairy demon chase after a small girl, dive through the air, tackling the girl to the ground where he ripped off her hat and started rubbing her face in the snow. Unfortunately I didn’t get a photo of this, as I was too busy dealing with my own evil demon attack.

As scary as the Krampus revelry obviously is for small, gullible children—and as much as it encourages them to avoid naughtiness… at least close to Christmas (or St. Nicholas Day, December 6, the gift-giving day in some countries)—the bottom line is that they will eventually grow out of their fear. Yes, just as children eventually grow out of belief in the saintly, god-like Santa Claus (who “sees you when you’re sleeping and knows when you’re awake.”) So what is the ultimate result of a “tradition” about a devil-like character who ends up being just a cartoon? The little boys who were once so terrified by the Krampus … want to BE the Krampus themselves. And the fear of being naughty? Don’t be silly … the customs of society encourage them to aspire to as much ugly naughtiness as possible. It’s “fun,” don’t ya know!?

They’ve “tamed the Devil”—or turned him into a cartoonic Chewbacca-type character…with a chip on his shoulder. They think. And inserted him as a key player into the season that most people have thought is one of “peace on earth, good will to men.” AND … he’s been accepted there. Yep, it’s all in fun, don’t ya know?

What’s wrong with this picture?


Heavenly Haloes?

The popular mental picture of an angel that most people have in modern American society almost invariably includes a circle of some sort floating above the head of that angel—whether the angel looks like a pretty lady, a “cherubic” baby, or even an angelic duck.

Usually the circle is a metallic golden ring, but in recent years, popular alternatives, especially for angel costumes, are circlets of tinsel or marabou feathers (connected by a thin wire to a headband to hold it on the head of the pseudo-angel.)

Did this concept of the floating halo being part of the “outfit” of an angel come from the Bible? If not, how and when did it become so pervasive in society?

The Nimbus

The Bible says nothing about floating circles over the heads of any being. And thus we have to look elsewhere for the origin of this symbolism. That search takes us back to ancient pre-Christian art, and a pictorial symbol known as the nimbus.

Nimbus: Latin, rainstorm, cloud; probably akin to Latin nebula cloud

1 a : a luminous vapor, cloud, or atmosphere about a god or goddess when on earth b : a cloud or atmosphere (as of romance) about a person or thing
2 : an indication (as a circle) of radiant light or glory about the head of a drawn or sculptured divinity, saint, or sovereign

The Greek god, Helios, The Roman god, Neptune 

Buddha, circa 200 AD

From a Catholic Encyclopedia (bolding added)

In the plastic arts (painting and sculpture) the symbolism of the nimbus was early in use among the pagans who determined its form. In the monuments of Hellenic and Roman art, the heads of the gods, heroes, and other distinguished persons are often found with a disc-shaped halo, a circle of light, or a rayed-fillet. They are, therefore, associated especially with gods and creatures of light such as the Phoenix. The disc of light is likewise used in the Pompeian wall paintings to typify gods and demigods only, but later, in profane art it was extended to cherubs or even simple personifications, and is simply a reminder that the figures so depicted are not human. In the miniatures of the oldest Virgil manuscript all the great personages wear a nimbus. The custom of the Egyptian and Syrian kings of having themselves represented with a rayed crown to indicate the status of demigods, spread throughout the East and the West. In Rome the halo was first used only for deceased emperors as a sign of celestial bliss, but afterwards living rulers also were given the rayed crown, and after the third century, although not first by Constantine, the simple rayed nimbus. Under Constantine the rayed crown appears only in exceptional cases on the coin, and was first adopted emblematically by Julian the Apostate. Henceforth the nimbus appears without rays, as the emperors now wished themselves considered worthy of great honour, but no longer as divine beings. In early Christian art, the rayed nimbus as well as the rayless disc were adopted in accordance with tradition. The sun and the Phoenix received, as in pagan art, a wreath or a rayed crown, also the simple halo. The latter was reserved not only for emperors but for men of genius and personifications of all kinds, although both in ecclesiastical and profane art, this emblem was usually omitted in ideal figures. In other cases the influence of ancient art tradition must not be denied.

…The nimbus of early Christian art manifests only in a few particular drawings, its relationship with that of late antiquity. In the first half of the fourth century, Christ received a nimbus only when portrayed seated upon a throne or in an exalted and princely character, but it had already been used since Constantine, in pictures of the emperors, and was emblematic, not so much of divine as of human dignity and greatness. In other scenes however, Christ at that time was represented without this emblem. The “exaltation” of Christ as indicated by the nimbus, refers to His dignity as a teacher and king rather than to His Godhead. Before long the nimbus became a fixed symbol of Christ and later (in the fourth century), of an angel or a lamb when used as the type of Christ. The number of personages who were given a halo increased rapidly, until towards the end of the sixth century the use of symbols in the Christian Church became as general as it had formerly been in pagan art.

Thus the nimbus was not really used by artists as a depiction of an actual glow that the artist believed would have necessarily have been visible “in person” to the human eye out in the real world. It was part of the history of iconography.

Iconography: …the traditional or conventional images or symbols associated with a subject and especially a religious or legendary subject
the imagery or symbolism of a work of art, an artist, or a body of art

In other words, you might say that iconography is the use of standardized symbolic elements of pictures to impart information. When looking at a painting, the nimbus around some heads would be a clue to you that the individual was someone significant. The particular significance would depend on the culture and the period of the painting.

The iconographic symbol of the nimbus eventually became interchangeable with the word halo.

Halo: Latin halos, from Greek halOs threshing floor, disk, halo

1 : a circle of light appearing to surround the sun or moon and resulting from refraction or reflection of light by ice particles in the atmosphere

2 : something resembling a halo: as a : nimbus b : a region of space surrounding a galaxy that is sparsely populated with luminous objects (as globular clusters) but is believed to contain a great deal of dark matter c : a differentiated zone surrounding a central zone or object

3 : the aura of glory, veneration, or sentiment surrounding an idealized person or thing

By the time the Italian artist Giotto painted this scene in 1305, the use of the nimbus or halo around the heads of personages in Christian art work had indeed greatly increased. Here there are haloes around the heads of Jesus, His mother, Mary, other women and men disciples, and the angels in the sky.

But these haloes are not hovering above the heads of all of these figures. In fact, they appear almost as if they are circular golden plates placed behind each head. How did the halo get from this to the hovering little golden tube common today?

The first step to this change may have been when some artists began to realize how incongruous paintings of the backs of people who had a nimbus looked! In this painting of the Last Supper, also by Giotto around the same time, the apostles who have their backs to the viewer almost look like their noses are pressed into big golden dinner plates, rather than that their heads are surrounded by a glow. (The figure in yellow without a halo is Judas.)

In addition, early medieval paintings had very little “perspective” in the scenes. A flat plate behind the head of someone didn’t look too out of place, as everything in the picture was basically flattened also. But by the 1400s, artists were perfecting techniques that made scenes much more three dimensional and lifelike. This left the traditional nimbus around heads giving an even stronger sense of a flat plate in the picture, an element decidedly even more out of place.

This painting by an unidentified artist represents an early attempt to solve this problem. The painter literally approached the nimbus as if it were a circular plate, and tipped it on its side, foreshortening it to give the illusion of depth, and moving it to a spot above the head of the figure.

A similar effect is shown in this painting by Della Francesca in 1460 AD.

Another solution, arrived at by Raphael in this 1500 AD painting was to leave the nimbus behind the head, but remove all but the rim of it, leaving a hollow circle through which the background of the scene could be seen, maintaining the illusion of depth in that way.

And by combining these two techniques, it is easy to see how some artists eventually ended up with the circle floating above the head.

Eventually, some painters began dispensing with the halo altogether. The closer one gets to modern times, and the more realistic the environment and figures in the painting, the more common this approach became.

But the “great artworks” of Western Civilization from the thousand-year era from the fifth century to the fifteenth century have been so influential that they have dominated throughout history many of the subconscious assumptions of the average man of what angels look like—at least until the rise of the “New Age Angel” fad that now permeates American society.

Although it appears that the majority of artists—although not cartoonists!—in the 20th and 21st centuries have abandoned the iconic device of the nimbus or halo when depicting angels and other religious personages, it still thrives in particular in Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic settings.

It is a Greek Orthodox tradition for artists to continue to create icons …  pictorial representations of Christ, angels, and saints … for inspirational and worship use. The design and stylized features of such icons currently made by artists vary little from those of a thousand years ago, and continue to use the nimbus.

And a significant proportion of modern Roman Catholic art, such as this work by Arizona artist Enrique de la Vega, continues to include the nimbus, even though there is not the same level of rigid custom dictating this as there is in Orthodox art.

And of course Christmas Tree Topper and Precious Moments statues still have their haloes.

But there is no evidence from the Bible that real angels, supernatural messengers and servants of God, would have a halo if you saw them. The halo is strictly a humanly-invented idea that has made its way into the popular consciousness of mankind, based on pseudo-biblical art.

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