Immortal Worms?
Strangely enough, one of the
standard biblical "proof texts" that implies to many an eternal torturing
of human souls in an ever-burning Hell is an obscure reference
by Jesus to a worm that does not die:
And if
your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out.
It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with
one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell
[Greek: Gehenna],
where
"their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched."
(Mark 9:47-48)
To many over the centuries, this
has seemed to imply a conscious but 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 heads and then setting swarms of insects such as
fire-ants on them.
Artists and authors depicting the
torments of Hell have often included these worms. 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! (www.amightywind.com/hell/citizenhell.htm)
Was Jesus
really referring to worms that were themselves supernaturally
immortal and "die not," 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 was truly from God, and reflects a biblical view
of the nature of Hell ... or was this vision from another
source?
What many commentators and Bible
teachers throughout the ages seem to have ignored is that Jesus
was quoting from an Old Testament prophetic passage, that speaks
of a time on the physical Earth after the return of Christ and
the beginning of the Millennium:
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 loathsome
to all mankind. (Isaiah 66:24)
Outside the ancient city of
Jerusalem was the Valley of Hinnom, English for the term
Gehenna. In Old Testament times it had been a place where
sacrifices were made by the rebellious Israelites to pagan
gods--perhaps even the place where they sacrificed their
children to Moloch in fire. By the first century, it had been
turned into the city dump. Refuse of all kinds was tossed there,
including animal carcasses, making it a huge, stinking heap. The
bodies of criminals were also tossed on the heap. If Joseph of
Arimathea would not have requested from Pilate the body of Jesus
after the crucifixion, it may well have been tossed there. Fires
burned in the valley continually to consume the refuse, and
maggots (KJV: worms) bred there perpetually.
Was Isaiah indicating that God
would miraculously preserve the dead bodies of the rebellious
continually throughout eternity, along with the individual
maggots feeding on them? Does "their fire will not be quenched"
indicate an eternally-burning fire? Or was he perhaps 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 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, and even then may just move on to the next source of
food.
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 torture here, no mention of
disembodied souls, no mention of the Devil.
Some would suggest that Jesus
used this imagery as a "metaphor" for an unseen spiritual Hell
where spiritual worms feast on and torture souls and spiritual fire torments
the unsaved. 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, such as the
descriptions in the writings
of Dante in The Inferno, and the art illustrating
editions of that work, are not based on any biblical passage,
but on the fanciful imaginations of the authors and artists.
If one wishes to clearly
establish from the Bible itself a doctrine of an ever-burning Hell of
eternal torment
for all who are not saved,
one will need to search
for other scriptures to support it.
This site contains a collection
of articles, on the topic of Hell and the Afterlife, that may
each be used independently for research purposes. But it also is
designed as a systematic, sequential overview of the whole
topic, which can be read like a book.
For those who would like to take
advantage of this perspective of the content, the articles are
arranged in the
Reading Guide as they would appear as chapters in a book, along
with a few reference chapters at the end such as would appear in
a book Appendix.
Use the
links below to go to the next article, previous article, or
first article
in the Reading Guide sequence.
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PLEASE
NOTE:
No single short article can comprehensively cover
any aspect of the topic of Hell. If you have
questions or concerns regarding the material in this
article, be sure to first read through the site
FAQ before writing to the
author. It may already specifically address the very
points you are wondering about.
Unless otherwise
noted, all biblical references in this and other articles on the
Is It True What They Say About Hell? website are from the
New International Version (NIV).
All of the articles on this
Is it true what they say about Hell? website were written by Pam Dewey, with
the support and sponsorship of Common Ground Christian
Ministries. For more of Pam's inspirational and educational
writings, visit her Oasis
website.
All website content
© 2007, Pam
Dewey and Common Ground Christian Ministries
All rights reserved. Material may
be copied for personal use of the site visitor. For permission
to copy for any other purposes, please contact the author at
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