Below are fifteen words that have been twisted into Christianese. The early church translators and those who created doctrine apparently were fluent in Christianese. This is not an exhaustive list, but it is a list of major words that have heavily impacted Christian doctrine.
[2 Pe 2:1] But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who PRIVATELY shall bring in DAMNABLE HERESIES, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
Greek word = aionios
Definition = Age-lasting. Pertaining to an age, not infinite time. Same word describes Jonah's "eternal" 3 days in the fish.
[2] Forever
(noun)
Greek word = aion
Definition = An age. A period with
a beginning and end.
"Age of ages" equals one age of multiple ages. Not one infinite stretch. What is "forever AND ever" even supposed to mean? Have you ever asked yourself that?
[3] Punishment
Greek word = kolasis
Definition = Pruning. Corrective cutting
to promote growth. Gardening term. The goal is
restoration, not retribution. It's corrective or remedial punishment aimed at improving the offender. It was a horticultural term for trimming to control or shape growth.
[4] Torment
Greek word = basanizo
Definition = Testing by touchstone. Assaying metal for purity.
Metallurgy term. Fire tests
and refines, it doesn't torture and punish. It literally means "to apply the touchstone" or "to rub/test with the basanos." This gives it a core idea of verification through trial or probing to reveal true quality. A silversmith carefully burns all contaminants out of the silver to obtain pure silver. How does he know when the silver is ready? He can see his reflection in it.
[5] Brimstone
Greek word = theion
Definition = Divine. Also: sulfur used
for purification rituals.
Temples burned theion to
purify. It's protective and cleansing, not torture. Have you ever wondered why it's called the Lake of Fire AND brimstone? Why "and brimstone"?
[6] Destroy /
Perish
Greek word = apollumi
Definition = To lose, ruin, or render
useless. Not annihilate.
The lost sheep wasn't annihilated.
It was separated and recoverable. The prodigal son was lost but still alive.
[7] Unquenchable
Greek word = asbestos
Definition = Cannot be extinguished
by human effort. Doesn't mean "burns forever."
Means you can't put it out. When used, this fire is burning the chaff from the wheat... it's purifying. You can't count the uses in Mark chapter 9 because those were added to Scripture by Scribes and are not inspired passages.
[8] Worm
Greek word = skolex
Definition = Maggot. Eats dead flesh, in the garbage dump outside of Jerusalem known as Gehenna, until the job is done.
Maggots consume and stop.
They don't torture eternally. The garbage dump will be full of corpses again beginning at the return of Yeshua.
[9] Lake of Fire
Greek word = limno pur
Definition = a purifying pool. Fire + divine brimstone.
Death and Hades get thrown in.
Abstractions can't be "tortured." The lake of fire will purify!
[10] Saved
Greek word = sozo
Definition = To rescue, heal, deliver,
make whole, preserve.
Same word for healing a paralytic
and "salvation" in Romans 10:9.
[11] Judgment
Greek word = krisis
Definition = Separation. Distinction.
Sorting pure from impure.
God judges by separating corruption
from purity — not condemning souls. Again, separating the chaff from the wheat.
[12] Destruction
Greek word = olethros
Definition = Ruin. Destruction of
what's targeted.
Paul: destruction of flesh leads
to salvation of spirit.
The fire doesn't destroy the person - it destroys that which corrupts the person... separating the chaff from the wheat.
Let's pause here. Why would the precise Word of God use three distinctly different original language words to all equal one English word "hell"? They don't all equal "hell". Let alone, Christianity's definition of "hell". That's like me saying that white means black and sometimes purple.
The english word "hell" stems from an old German word which simply meant "to cover" or "conceal". You could hell a potato if you buried it in dirt. Is that potato being tortured, and punished endlessly, for all of eternity, screaming and gnashing it's little potato teeth, forever and ever?
No - of course it isn't.
[13] Hell (Gehenna)
Greek word = geenna
Definition = Valley of Hinnom. Jerusalem's garbage dump. A place for destroying dead things. Not torturing living people.
[14] Hell (OT)
Hebrew word = sheol
The grave. Where all the dead go - righteous and unrighteous. Morally neutral. Jacob expected to go there. It's not punishment — it's the unseen - the unknown.
[15] Hell
Greek word = hades
Definition = Realm of the dead. Greek exact equivalent of Sheol. Not a torture chamber. Just the unseen world of the dead. It literally means "unknown" or "unseen".
The next time you notice any of these words while reading Scripture, hopefully this short list will cause pause.
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