Chalke Talk 90: Is ”the end” about punishment or reconciliation?

This week Steve continues on from last week with how we've misunderstood the doctrine of hell, particularly what Paul thinks about it.

As Steve has said over and over again, our western-framed understanding of eternal damnation would just not have registered for Paul. But as many people will say, Steve recognises, "Paul was a follower of Jesus and not the other way around." So what did Jesus really mean when he spoke about hell, particularly the word Gehenna.

Steve goes on to explain how Gehenna was an actual place - the equivalent to a modern-day dump. And so translating an actual place into a metaphorical can be quite troublesome. But despite these issues of translation or rather mistranslation, it's the message of reconciliation that comes across more in Paul's writings than any of damnation. 

You'll have to listen to the full video or podcast to here Steve unpack this. But once you've done that, tell us, what do you think? Does this make sense to you? If so why? If not, why not? And, what further questions does it raise?