Hell is a mistranslation of Gehenna and Sheol. Neither of these things as described in the Bible even come close to representing hell as we know it. The only eternal punishment is death. And Revelation's supposed "lake of fire" is better translated as: Tested by being purified in God's divinity until the revelation is complete.
In the OT hell is not present when read in Hebrew. Instead the word Sheol is used. Sheol in Judaism is the common grave of all mankind. In Christianity it was altered a bit, in Christianity it is a sort like a waiting room for unsaved souls until judgment day, but it is still not a punishment. "The dead know nothing" Ecc 9:5 "for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going." Ecc 9:10
In the NT hell is also not present when read in it's original form off Aramaic. Instead you find Sheol just like in the OT, but you also find Gehenna. Gehenna was a burning trash heap outside of Jerusalem in the Valley of Hinnom. It burned for over a century and was used as a capital punishment for criminals. When the Bible says "unquenchable fires of hell" the correct translation is "unquenchable fires of Gehenna". What Jesus was saying is that mortal sin makes you worthy of that punishment in the eyes of the people. The people he was talking to understood that, it's us 2000 years later that don't.
When translated into Greek, Sheol and Gehenna became Hades and Tartarus. Those were already places of afterlife in Greek mythology and readers assumed that Sheol and Gehenna possessed the same characteristics which they don't. When translated into Latin they changed names again, and when translated into the common tongue they ended up being hell. Hell is actually a place for the dead in Norse mythology so once again the understanding of it was changed.
Lastly is the "lake of fire" in revelation. The word fire is a mistranslation of the word "theion" which means sulphur or divine since the Greeks saw sulphur AS divine. The word was not meant to infer fire ... rather it meant divinity. The word "tormented" was also a mistranslation ... the correct translation is actually "tested" or "examined". The words "eternal" or "forever and ever" are translations of "olam" which actually means "the world to come" which infers until the end of the world. So being cast into the lake of fire to be tormented forever and ever ... is actually: Tested by being purified in God's divinity until the world ends. Since revelation is concerned with the end of the world ... eternity just got a lot shorter. Those who are judged as wicked and do not get into heaven cease to exist for the punishment for the wicked is death, also called the second death for it the one from which none will ever recover as the dead did from Sheol when Christ came to judge them at the second coming.
God himself forbade the people to torture with fire, condemning it and calling it an abomination which never came into His mind. -- Leviticus 18:21; 20,2-5; Jeremiah 19:5; 32:34, 35
Summary: The only eternal punishment is death. These are poor translations that have changed their meanings over time. The church was not only aware of this but added to the misconception by adopting Dante Alighieri's work of fiction "The Inferno" as church doctrine. It is false doctrine, they knew it, but capitalized on the fear of hell that it put into the people. To this day they mislead the masses and allow this misconception to continue. Not exactly my idea of "the truth".
