What exactly does the scripture mean in Mark 9:44,46,48 where Jesus said, “where the worm dieth not”?\u00a0 Does it mean that pain will never cease for a person who is in hell?\u00a0 Why the reference to a worm?<\/p>\n\t
“If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched — where ‘Their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.’ And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame, rather than having two feet, to be cast into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched– where ‘Their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.’ “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, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire — “where ‘Their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched’<\/em>” (Mark 9:43-48).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Jesus was speaking about the seriousness of Hell by illustrating it in hyperbole fashion. A person is better off maimed than spending an eternity in Hell. It is better to prevent being able to sin, even it if causes hardship, than to end up in Hell. Hell is pictured as a place of eternal decay and eternal burning (Isaiah 66:24). The two images are incompatible, but they represent the two ways used to dispose of a dead body. Either a body is buried with it decomposes in the earth or it is cremated. Hell is the place of the second death (Revelation 20:14) and so it is described in terms of a death that never ends. It isn’t an annihilation because it never reaches a conclusion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: What exactly does the scripture mean in Mark 9:44,46,48 where Jesus said, “where the worm dieth not”?\u00a0 Does it mean that pain will never cease for a person who is in hell?\u00a0 Why the reference to a worm? Answer: “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[373,76],"class_list":["post-24448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-hell","tag-terminology"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":57586,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-there-real-fire-in-hell\/","url_meta":{"origin":24448,"position":0},"title":"Is There Real Fire in Hell?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Clem Thurman via Gospel Minutes, Vol. 58, No. 34, Aug. 21, 2009. Question: Is there real fire in hell where the wicked shall go to be punished after this life is over? Answer: In answering this question, let us look at a couple of passages of Scripture. In Matthew\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/fire.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1505,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-hell-a-proper-translation-of-gehenna\/","url_meta":{"origin":24448,"position":1},"title":"Is “hell” a proper translation of “Gehenna”?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 21, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: The word Hell like the word baptism is not really a proper translation is it? I looked up the word hell and it is Gehenna, and Gehenna is a place, Originally the Valley of Hinnom, near Jerusalem (ISBE). So it would be helpful to use Gehenna instead of hell,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":52686,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/will-sinners-physically-burn-in-hell\/","url_meta":{"origin":24448,"position":2},"title":"Will sinners physically burn in hell?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 19, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: The Bible says after the judgment we who have received Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior will see eternal life, but those who did not will go and burn forever. I want to know what is that going to burn.\u00a0 Is it the spirit or the flesh? Answer:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1466,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-hell-like\/","url_meta":{"origin":24448,"position":3},"title":"What Is Hell Like? (Article)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 1, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton When Jesus taught with parables, each story is based on true events: people do purchase fields, widows do lose coins, and fishermen do catch a variety of things in their nets. In one story, Jesus tells of a rich man and a poor man named Lazarus.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49743,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/my-girlfriend-promises-that-we-wont-have-sex-but-every-time-she-comes-over-we-do-it-again\/","url_meta":{"origin":24448,"position":4},"title":"My girlfriend promises that we won’t have sex, but every time she comes over we do it again","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 12, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Please I need some advice. I am a Christian. I have a girlfriend who is not a Christian and I have committed fornication with her. Whenever I commit the act with her I feel guilty. I am not at peace and I ask God to forgive me. The worst\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41253,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-hell-a-real-place\/","url_meta":{"origin":24448,"position":5},"title":"Is Hell a Real Place?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 31, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jefferson David Tant In the Bible, Matthew 25 gives us a picture of the Day of Judgment, where the righteous enter into everlasting joy and peace, while the unrighteous enter into hell, an everlasting torment of fire. Some reject this as repulsive, claiming that the unrighteous will simply cease\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24448\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}