ANNOUNCER: A question that gets asked frequently, if I don’t forgive others, will I go to hell? It comes from what Jesus said in Matthew 5:21-22, so let’s think about what are the possibilities for the interpretation of this passage. Thank you for listening today. This is Grace in Focus. We are a ministry of the Grace Evangelical Society. Our website is faithalone.org. We have many theological free grace-oriented articles at that site, which you can read and research for free. You can also find our blog there and subscribe for free to our magazine Grace in Focus. It is a great piece that we produce six times per year, every other month, and it is free all except for postage if you live outside of the 48 contiguous United States, so get signed up for it today at faithalone.org. 

Now with today’s discussion, here are Bob Wilkin and Sam Marr. 

SAM: All right, everybody. We’ve got a question today from Anne. She’s leading a ladies’ Bible study online. They’re talking about the Ten Commandments, and one of the ladies in her Bible study asked a question about Matthew 5:22. And I know you and Ken and others have talked about this verse a lot, and I think Zane Hodges has written about this. But the question is, if someone believed in Jesus’ promise of everlasting life, so they’re saved, they’re born again, but they couldn’t forgive someone who hurt them, or even called them fool in their heart, or I think in the New King James that says “Raca,” will that person go to hell? 

BOB: Okay, so that’s a really good question, Anne, and it’s the type of question that all of you listening face, right? If you’re teaching a Sunday school class, you’re going to hear this kind of question. If you teach a home Bible study or a Bible study at work, you’re going to get this kind of question. There’s two things I would say. Number one, you need to always use the approach that was used to me when I came to faith in Christ. The guy shared Ephesians 2:8-9 with me, and then I started sharing, yes, but what about James 2? And what about Hebrews 6? What about Hebrews 10? And this went on for five sessions, and he’d give a short answer to each of those passages, but he would say this, whatever that passage means, it can’t contradict “For by grace you’ve been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it’s the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” 

So the first thing I would say about this is if you’re teaching a study, you can always say it can’t mean that if I call someone a fool, then I’m going to hell. Because John 3:16 is real clear, “whoever believes in Him will never perish, but has everlasting life.” And so that’s a done deal. The moment I believe I’m secure forever. So we can always say, look, I’ll do some research on this passage. I’m not really sure but I’ll get back to you, but we know it doesn’t contradict John 3:16, John 5:24, Ephesians 2:8-9. Now secondly, look at the context. Can you read, Sam, Matthew 5:21 and 22? 

SAM: “You have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment. But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment, and whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca’ shall be in danger of the council, and whoever says ‘you fool’ shall be in danger of hell fire.” 

BOB: Okay, first of all, I think we need to recognize, and this is something Zane Hodges pointed out that there’s three different people being considered here, not one. It’s not just if anyone says “you fool” he’ll be in danger of hellfire. And by the way, this is an appropriate question of the Ten Commandments because Jesus is expanding on the discussion of you shall not kill. You shall not murder. Actually it’s not, you should not kill. It’s you should not murder because there are different Hebrew words for murder, killing, and murder in war is not forbidden. But killing someone outside of war is forbidden. Unless it’s of course capital punishment in which case that’s permitted too. So He’s discussing that, and He says, let me expand on that and say, if you’re angry with his brother without a cause, he’ll be in danger of the judgment. 

Now, I would say that this, and dispensationalists typically understand Matthew 5, 6, and 7 as being teaching about the coming millennial kingdom, this is the law which will be effect in the millennial kingdom. It’s not an effect today. Right now, if someone is angry with his brother without a cause, he’s not in danger of some sort of judgment from some council in the United States or any country around the world. But during the Millennium, the judgment of the Lord Jesus Christ all around the planet is going to be much stricter than it is today. So there will be a judgment for someone who’s angry with his brother without a cause. 

I have the words “his brother” circled. Hodges points out that two of these three examples refer to his brother and the third does not. So Hodges says the first one is clearly a born-again person. And if he’s angry with his brother without a cause, then he’s liable to some sort of judgment, being brought before a tribunal or something. And then whoever says to his brother again, “Raca”, empty head, knucklehead, numbskull, something like that, he’ll be in danger of the council. So maybe the council is a step worse than the judgment. Maybe the first judgment is directly from the ruler. But the second one is from something called the council, which I assume rulers over various cities will appoint councils that will handle judgment that is more difficult. 

The first one is angry without a cause. The second one is you’re not just angry, but you’ve now called him “Raca”. And so that’s worse and you’re going to get a worse experience at the council. But the third one is someone who says “you fool.” Notice he doesn’t say it to his brother. I take it this is an unbeliever who says “you fool” and he’ll be in danger of well, hell fire is a bad translation. What does the Greek have here?

SAM: Gehenna. 

BOB: Gehenna. 

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BOB: Hell fire is a bad translation. What does the the Greek have here? 

SAM: Gehenna. 

BOB: Gehenna. I have a chapter in my book, The Ten Most Misunderstood Words, and I point out there really is no word in the Bible that means hell. There’s a word that means Hades and in the New Testament, guess what that Greek word is. Hades. And there’s a word in the Old Testament that’s comparable to Hades, it’s called Sheol. And Sheol and Hades are the place of the dead. And prior to Jesus’ ascension, everybody went to Hades or Sheol, believers and unbelievers. We know this from Luke 16:19-31, where you’ve got the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man is an unbeliever. Lazarus is a believer. They both go to Hades, but the rich man goes to the torment portion of Hades. And the poor man, Lazarus, he goes to Abraham’s bosom, which was the good part. 

But this isn’t talking about Hades or Sheol. This is talking about Gehenna. 

Now, we don’t know exactly what Gehenna means. It’s possible it refers to what will be called the Lake of Fire in the life to come. It’s possible this refers to Hades and it’s possible this refers to judgment in this life because there was a place outside of Jerusalem where they would burn trash continually. And it was the Valley of Hinnom. Gehenna may refer to that. Jody Dillow argues that Gehenna refers to judgment in this life. 

Do the study, but in my study of the word fire, it most often refers to judgment in this life. It does refer to the fire in Hades, and it will refer to the Lake of Fire. But it predominantly refers to judgment in this life. For example, in John 15, the branches which are not abiding are thrown into the fire and burned. Those are believers that are thrown into fiery judgment and they experience judgment. 

So I would say here that the third person is an unbeliever who’s in danger of the death penalty. I think that’s what Gehenna fire means, is that he may lose his life. And of course, if the unbeliever loses his life, he’s going to be bound for Hades now and the Lake of Fire later. But it doesn’t necessarily mean he’s in danger of immediate death. 

SAM: So what was the judgment in the Old Testament for murder? 

BOB: The judgment in the Old Testament for murder was death. You take a life, your life is taken. Now sometimes God in his mercy suspended that, like David killing Uriah or David committing adultery. The penalty for that was also death. And in both cases, God suspended that. But for the most part, most people who committed murder were killed. But in the Old Testament, there was no penalty for being angry with your brother without a cause. There was no penalty for calling your brother “Raca.” So these are new things. Jesus is saying, see, notice He says, “You have heard, but I say,” verse 21, “You have heard, but I say,” He’s giving new revelation. And then when He says the guilty of the Gehenna fire, that’s new revelation too. 

So I would say the most likely this third element refers to an unbeliever who’s going to experience some sort of fiery judgment. And it could be resulting in premature death. And if it does, unless he comes to faith between the time he calls someone “you fool” and the time he is executed, unless he comes to faith during that time, he’s going to spend eternity in the lake of fire. But I don’t think Gehenna fire refers to Hades. It might refer to the lake of fire. But notice He’s saying, He shall be in danger of the council whoever says you fool shall be in danger of hell fire. It doesn’t mean he’s going to experience Gehenna fire. 

So it would seem there’s a whole range of judgments that could be given. One of which is this Gehenna fire, which I think could result in premature death or something like that. But there’s probably a bunch of, a range of things before that because He doesn’t say will experience Gehenna fire. He’s in danger of it. 

SAM: Yeah. And the important, most important thing to remember here is what you said at the beginning. As a believer, Christ made a promise, you believe that promise, the promise is you have everlasting life. Therefore, this verse, whatever it means isn’t talking about you, as a believer, being condemned to the lake of fire because Christ promised you that isn’t going to happen. So he wouldn’t contradict Himself. And as long as you believe that the Bible is infallible, it doesn’t contradict itself. It’s God’s word breathed. Then you shouldn’t have fear of a verse like this, but it’s okay to wrestle with it and understand what it is talking about. 

BOB: And Anne should tell her friend to keep grace in focus. 

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On our next episode: let’s continue today’s discussion. We hope you’ll join us again and in the meantime, let’s keep grace in focus.