These three terms have different meanings and must be recognized.
Hades has similarities to the Old Testament term, Sheol as "the place of the dead" or "grave". Thus, it is used in reference to both the righteous and the wicked, since both wind up there eventually.[30]
Gehenna refers to the "Valley of Hinnom", which was a garbage dump outside of Jerusalem. It was a place where people burned their garbage and thus there was always a fire burning there. Bodies of those deemed to have died in sin without hope of salvation (such as people who committed suicide) were thrown there to be destroyed.[31] Gehenna is used in the New Testament as a metaphor for the final place of punishment for the wicked after the resurrection.[32]
Tartaro'o (the verb "throw to Tartarus") occurs only once in the New Testament in II Peter 2:4, where it is parallel to the use of the noun form in 1 Enoch as the place of incarceration of the fallen angels. It mentions nothing about human souls being sent there in the afterlife.
The parable of the Rich man and Lazarus depicting the rich man in hell asking for help to Abraham and Lazarus in heaven by James Tissot
The Last Judgement, Hell, circa 1431, by Fra Angelico
The Roman Catholic Church defines Hell as "a state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed." One finds themselves in Hell as the result of dying in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God's merciful love, becoming eternally separated from Him by one's own free choice[33] immediately after death.[34] In the Roman Catholic Church, many other Christian churches, such as the Baptists and Episcopalians, and some Greek Orthodox churches,[35] Hell is taught as the final destiny of those who have not been found worthy after the general resurrection and last judgment,[36][37][38] where they will be eternally punished for sin and permanently separated from God. The nature of this judgment is inconsistent with many Protestant churches teaching the saving comes from accepting Jesus Christ as their savior, while the Greek Orthodox and Catholic Churches teach that the judgment hinges on both faith and works. However, many Liberal Christians throughout Liberal Protestant and Anglican churches believe in Universal Reconciliation (see below) even though it might contradict more evangelical views in their denomination.[39]
Some modern Christian theologians subscribe to the doctrines of Conditional Immortality. Conditional Immortality is the belief that the soul dies with the body and does not live again until the resurrection. As with other Jewish writings of the Second Temple period, the New Testament text distinguishes two words, both translated "Hell" in older English Bibles: Hades, "the grave", and Gehenna where God "can destroy both body and soul".[40] A minority of Christians read this to mean that neither Hades nor Gehenna are eternal but refer to the ultimate destruction of the wicked in the Lake of Fire in a consuming fire after resurrection. However, because of the Greek words used in translating from the Hebrew text has become confused with Greek myths and ideas. In the Hebrew text when people died they went to Sheol, the grave[41] and the wicked ultimately went to Gehenna which is the consuming by fire. So we see where the grave or death or eventual destruction of the wicked, was translated using Greek words that since they had no exact ones to use, became a mix of mistranslation, pagan influence, and Greek myth associated with the word, but its original meaning was simple death or the destruction of the wicked at the end.[42]
Christian mortalism is the doctrine that all men and women, including Christians, must die, and do not continue and are not conscious after death. Therefore annihilationism includes the doctrine that "the wicked" are also destroyed rather than tormented forever in traditional "Hell" or the lake of fire. Christian mortalism and annihilationism are directly related to the doctrine of conditional immortality, the idea that a human soul is not immortal unless it is given eternal life at the second coming of Christ and resurrection of the dead. Such a belief is based on the many texts which show the wicked perish: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16 (KJV). "For the day of the Lord is near upon all the heathen: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head. For as ye have drunk upon my holy mountain, so shall all the heathen drink continually, yea, they shall drink, and they shall swallow down, and they shall be as though they had not been." Obadiah 1:15-16 (KJV).
This is the minority view is held by a growing number of Bible scholars with many biblical scholars looking at the issue through the Hebrew text, have denied the teaching of innate immortality.[43][44] Rejection of the immortality of the soul, and advocacy of Christian mortalism, was a feature of Protestantism since the early days of the Reformation with Martin Luther himself rejecting the traditional idea, though his view did not carry into orthodox Lutheranism. One of the most notable English opponents of the immortality of the soul was Thomas Hobbes who describes the idea as a Greek "contagion" in Christian doctrine.[45] Modern proponents of conditional immortality include some in the Anglican church such as N.T. Wright[46] and as denominations the Seventh-day Adventists, Bible Students, Jehovah's Witnesses, Christadelphians, Living Church of God, The Church of God International, and some other Protestant Christians.
Annihilationism is the belief that the soul is mortal unless granted eternal life, making it possible to be destroyed in Hell.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church's official beliefs support annihilation,[47] and teaches annihilation.[48] They deny the Catholic purgatory and teach that the dead lie in the grave until they are raised for a last judgment, both the righteous and wicked await the resurrection at the Second Coming. Seventh-day Adventists believe that death is a state of unconscious sleep until the resurrection. They base this belief on biblical texts such as Ecclesiastes 9:5 which states "the dead know nothing", and 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 which contains a description of the dead being raised from the grave at the second coming. These verses, it is argued, indicate that death is only a period or form of slumber.
Adventists teach that the resurrection of the righteous will take place at the second coming of Jesus, while the resurrection of the wicked will occur after the millennium of Revelation 20. They reject the traditional doctrine of hell as a state of everlasting conscious torment, believing instead that the wicked will be permanently destroyed after the millennium or Annihilationism.
The Adventist views about death and hell reflect an underlying belief in: (a) conditional immortality (or conditionalism), as opposed to the immortality of the soul; and (b) the holistic (or monistic) Christian anthropology or nature of human beings, as opposed to bipartite or tripartite views.
Jehovah's Witnesses hold that the soul ceases to exist when the person dies[49] and therefore that Hell (Sheol or Hades) is a state of non-existence.[49] In their theology, Gehenna differs from Sheol or Hades in that it holds no hope of a resurrection.[49] Tatarus is held to be the metaphorical state of debasement of the fallen angels between the time of their moral fall (Genesis chapter 6) until their post-millennial destruction along with Satan (Revelation chapter 20).[50]
Universal Reconciliation is the belief that all human souls (even demons and fallen angels) will be eventually reconciled with God and admitted to Heaven. This view is held by some Unitarian-Universalists.[51][52][53]
According to Emanuel Swedenborg’s Second Coming Christian revelation, hell exists because evil people want it.[54] They, not God, introduced evil to the human race.[55]
Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) teach that hell is a state between death and resurrection, in which those spirits who did not repent while on earth must suffer for their own sins (Doctrine and Covenants 19:15–17[56]). In this sense, Mormons regard hell as a temporary state that ends for a spirit once they have "paid the uttermost farthing" (Matt 5:26) for the sins they committed. As David wrote, "thou wilt not leave my soul in hell" (Psalms 16:10, 86:13, Acts 2:27). This punishment can be characterized as a mental anguish for sins committed, which Mormons believe Christ took upon himself for all mankind while in the Garden of Gethsemane—"that they may not suffer if they would repent." (Doctrine and Covenants 19:16[57]). Mormons believe Christ initiated missionary work in the spirit world during the period between his own death and resurrection (1 Peter 3:19, 4:6), at which time he commissioned righteous spirits to teach the gospel to those who didn't have the opportunity to receive it while on earth (Doctrine and Covenants 138:30[58]). Those spirits who accept the gospel are able to repent, whereas those who choose not to repent are destined to remain in hell throughout the Millennium.[59] At the times appointed for the resurrection, "death and hell" will deliver up the dead that are in them, to be judged according to their works (Rev 20:13). At that time, all but the sons of perdition will attain a degree of glory, which Peter compared to the glory of the sun, moon, and stars (1 Cor 15:41). In another sense, hell is referred to as the permanent state of those who are not redeemed by the atonement of Jesus Christ, which will include the sons of perdition, as well as Satan and his angels.[59]