What is hell? In 1999 Pope John Paul II described hell as "the state of those who freely and definitely separate themselves from God, the source of all life and joy." Even though Christian fundamentalist who interpret the Bible literally disagree with this description of hell, we should not overlook the fact that the Bible uses different words for hell (Tartarus, Hades, Gehanna, etc.) that all have very different meanings and thus suggest a symbolic interpretation of hell. 

Also today we actually have testimonies about hell from people who die and come back. People who have so-called Near Death Experiences describe having “hellish experiences” and distressing life-reviews, a flash-back of their lives, where they experience the effect of their harmful actions towards others. As this is experienced in an otherworldly realm and in another state of being, the pain of these experiences is of far greater intensity than anything here on earth.  

Burning in a fire can describe this pain metaphorically but hell is not a literal place of fire and punishment. Hell is the separation from God that is created through the ignorance of God and that God is within all of us. These experiences of hell as being ignorant or unaware of God also fit with the meaning of the word “hell.” Hell in Latin, Celare, means “hidden” or “concealed” and the Greek term used in the Bible for hell, Hades also means “unseen.” People who have near death experiences describe hell as the pain of becoming aware of their separation from God and the shame or self-judgment of this separation.  

Also the Hebrew word used for hell in the Bible is Sheol and the root of this word is Shaal, which means “to ask” or “to inquire.” If we interpret the hellish experience and painful life-review as an ultimate form of inquiry about how we treated our fellow humans, then the near death experience also sheds light of what hell is from this perspective.