I. Counts for Heaven / Heavens, Earth, and Hell

• Heaven/the heavens: 600–700 biblical occurrences.
• Earth: 900–1,000 biblical occurrences.
• Hell: 50-65 biblical occurrences in some translations but as few as 13–14 times in more modern ones because of the exclusion of terms such as: Sheol, Hades, Gehenna, Tartarus, etc.)
• Heaven and Hell in the Same Passage : 0 occurrences..
• These numbers would suggest hell is not an afterlife counterpart for heaven.

Summary / Implications

• Heaven/heavens are mentioned many more times than hell in the Bible, especially when counting all occurrences of “heaven”, “heavens”, “heavenly”, etc.
• Hell, or words translated as hell, appear less often and sometimes only in certain New Testament contexts (especially Jesus’ teachings) or prophetic/apocalyptic literature.

Sample Verses Mentioning Heaven & Earth Together

There are dozens of verses that mention “heaven and earth” together. A few significant ones (representative, not exhaustive):

1. Genesis 1:1 — “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
   ➝ Establishes God as creator and rightful owner of all things.
2. Deuteronomy 4:26 — “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today…”
   ➝ Heaven & earth are witnesses to covenant fidelity.
3. Psalm 115:15-16 — “May you be blessed by the Lord, who made heaven and earth. The heavens are the Lord’s heavens, but the earth He has given to the children of man.”
   ➝ Heaven & earth show God’s order — heaven as His throne, earth as our realm of stewardship.
4. Isaiah 65:17 — “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not be remembered…”
   ➝ Promise of new creation and restoration.
5. Matthew 5:18 — “Until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter… will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.”
   ➝ Heaven & earth = permanence of God’s Word until its fulfillment.
6. Matthew 28:18 — “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”
   ➝ Heaven & earth are Christ’s realm of authority.
7. Revelation 21:1 — “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth…”
   ➝ Consummation — heaven and earth renewed for God’s dwelling with His people.

Themes & Uses

From those verses, we can see a few recurring patterns / uses whenever heaven & earth are mentioned together:

• Creation: As in Genesis and many Psalms, “heaven and earth” are used to denote the totality of creation — everything seen and unseen. (e.g. the act of God creating “the heavens and the earth.”)
• Authority / Dominion: Jesus’ claim in Matthew 28:18 that all authority is given to Him “in heaven and in earth” ties spiritual and physical realms together, affirming comprehensive authority.
• Judgment / Witness: Phrases like in Deuteronomy where “heaven and earth” are called as witnesses underscore seriousness and solemnity — binding testimony of both spiritual and physical dimensions.
• Eschatology / Permanence vs Transience: Luke 21:33 uses “heaven and earth” to evoke the temporal nature of creation contrasted with the enduring word of God.

Luke 21:33 - Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.

• Cosmic Unity in Redemption: Ephesians 1:10’s usage ties heaven & earth in God’s plan of redemption — not just individual or earthly, but cosmic scope.

Ephesians 1:9-10 - [God] made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.

II. 1. Hell Prepared for the Devil and His Angels

Matthew 25:41 –  “Then He will say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”

A few notes:

• The Greek phrase here uses to pyr to aiōnion (τὸ πῦρ τὸ αἰώνιον) — “the eternal fire.”
• The text does not say it was created for humans — its intended recipients are “the devil and his angels,” but humans who align with rebellion share in its outcome.
• The context is the Sheep and Goats Judgment — Jesus is speaking about the final separation of people based on whether they did the will of the Father by serving “the least of these.”

2. The Contrast: Hell vs. Heaven & Earth

3. Theological Reflection

The contrast is striking:

• Heaven & Earth are part of God’s original good creation (Gen. 1:31). They are not merely backdrops but participants (witnesses) in God’s covenant drama. Their future is renewal and reconciliation.
• Hell, by contrast, is not described as part of the original creation but as a place prepared — a necessary containment for evil once rebellion entered creation. Its purpose is not creative but judicial.

Whereas heaven and earth will be made new, hell is never redeemed — it is the destination for rebellion, the antithesis of the union of heaven and earth.

4. What The Cross Covers

Col. 1:15-20 - The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through Him and for Him. 

He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. And He is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything He might have the supremacy. 

For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through His blood, shed on the cross.

III. 1. Hell as “Outside the City”

Jesus often used the word Gehenna—which referred to the Valley of Hinnom outside Jerusalem—as a metaphor for final judgment (e.g., Matt. 5:22, Mark 9:43). This place was historically associated with idolatry, child sacrifice (2 Kings 23:10; Jer. 7:31), and later became a refuse dump.

In Revelation 21–22, the New Jerusalem is the place where God dwells with His people. Outside the city are the “dogs, sorcerers, sexually immoral…” (Rev. 22:15)—a symbolic image of exclusion from God’s presence.

This means hell may not be primarily a separate cosmic realm of fire, but a relational exile from God’s kingdom community.

2. Torah Parallel: Being Outside the Camp

In Torah, when someone became ritually unclean (leprosy, contact with a corpse, etc.), they were required to live outside the camp until purified (Lev. 13:45-46; Num. 5:2-3).

• The camp was where God dwelled (Num. 5:3 says impurity must be removed “so that they do not defile their camp, where I dwell in their midst”).
• Being outside the camp was not always permanent—there was a path to cleansing and restoration.

This paints a picture of exclusion for the sake of preserving holiness, but with the goal of eventual restoration if cleansing is received.

3. Heaven and Earth as God’s Dwelling Place

The repeated biblical phrase “heaven and earth” (Gen. 1:1, Isa. 66:1, Matt. 5:18, Rev. 21:1) refers to God’s intended sacred space—His cosmic temple where He reigns.

Hell, in contrast, is not part of this reconciled creation. It is outside the renewed heaven-and-earth reality—a place for those who refuse to live under God’s reign.

4. Redemptive Implications

This perspective suggests that hell is:

• Not God’s original plan (Matt. 25:41: “prepared for the devil and his angels”).
• Not merely punitive but protective—it keeps rebellion and corruption out of God’s restored creation.
• A tragic self-exile—people remain outside because they reject the King and His cleansing (like refusing to go through the ritual purification).

It also re-frames heaven—not as “going away” to a spiritual cloud realm—but as being inside the city, fully at home in God’s new creation.

5. The Language Behind "Hell"

James 3:6 - "The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell".

• Hell here is: geennēs - 1. valley of (the son of) Hinnom, 2. ge-henna (or Ge-Hinnom), Gehenna (from the Hebrew Gehinnom) is a valley located just south of Jerusalem that became a symbol of punishment, judgment, and hell due to its dark history. Initially a site of child sacrifice to the pagan god Molech.

It was later used as the city dump, where fires were perpetually kept burning to consume garbage, sewage, and dead animals.

So, this "hell" would be outside the city, a place for the unclean and the dead, and on fire.

IV. 1. Key Greek Word: Aiónios

The phrase translated “eternal fire” or “everlasting punishment” uses the word aiónios (αἰώνιος).

• Root: aión (αἰών) → means “age,” “era,” or “a span of time.”
• Aiónios means pertaining to an age — not necessarily “never-ending,” but age-long, “belonging to the age to come,” or “enduring for its appointed time.”

Biblical Example of Aión

• Romans 16:25 speaks of “mysteries kept secret for long ages (chronois aioniois),” which clearly had an end when revealed in Christ.
• Jonah 2:6 the LXX says Jonah was in the fish’s belly “forever (eis ton aiona)” — yet it was only three days.

So when Jesus says, “These will go away into aiónion punishment” (Matt. 25:46), it may be better understood as punishment belonging to the age to come, not necessarily endless torment.

2. Eternal Fire as a Metaphor

Even “eternal fire” (Matt. 25:41; Jude 7) may not mean a fire that burns endlessly:

• Jude 7 says Sodom and Gomorrah:

“serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.”

• The fire that consumed Sodom isn’t still burning today — it was decisive, age-defining judgment.
• Isaiah 66:24 uses the image of worms not dying and fire not being quenched to describe Jerusalem’s defeated enemies — not eternal torment, but unquenchable judgment until its work is complete.

3. Jewish Context: Purification and Restoration

In Second Temple Judaism, fire was often a metaphor for purification:

• 1 Corinthians 3:13-15 – each person’s work is tested by fire; the worthless is burned away, but the person may be saved “as through fire.”

Malachi 3:2-3 – The Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, He is coming, says the Lord of hosts. 

But who can endure the day of His coming, and who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.

This makes it possible to see aiónios kolasis (“age-long punishment”) as a purifying discipline designed to bring justice and ultimately reconcile (or at least purge) what is unclean from God’s creation — rather than endless conscious torment.

4. Contrast with Heaven and Earth

When we compare this to the repeated biblical picture of heaven and earth being made new (Isa. 65:17; 66:22; 2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:1):

• Heaven and earth are restored forever.
• Evil, death, and rebellion are excluded until their work is no more.
• Hell is “outside” — a place of exclusion — but perhaps not forever and ever without end, rather for as long as rebellion endures.

5. Implications

• Justice is satisfied — evil is dealt with fully.
• God’s character remains merciful — if hell is not eternal conscious torment but age-long, restorative or at least limited, it aligns with God’s desire that none should perish (2 Pet. 3:9).
• Hope remains open — for some theologians, this leaves the door open to eventual restoration (patristic idea of apokatastasis), though Scripture never promises that all will accept restoration.

V. 1. Jonah’s “Forever” in the Belly

Jonah 2:6 (LXX) says: “I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever…”

But Jonah was in the fish’s belly only three days and three nights (Jonah 1:17).

• This “forever” (eis ton aiōna) expresses subjective experience (“it felt endless”), finality (“I was as good as dead”), or duration until God’s intervention, not literal infinite time.
• Jonah’s prayer is like a psalm of descent into Sheol — he thought he was lost without hope.

2. Jesus’ Interpretation: The Sign of Jonah

Jesus refers to Jonah explicitly:

• Matthew 12:39–40 – “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
• This is the only sign given to that generation — Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection.

Thus:

• Jonah’s “forever” became three days.
• Jesus’ “three days” became the defining sign of salvation history — a parallel of death, descent, and deliverance.
• These three days paid for the sins of the whole world. In God's justice He determined the price for all our sins, ALL of us, would only be three days punishment! That sounds pretty far from eternal and this was for everyone's sins, so how would the sins of just one person ever be eternal?!

If Jesus paid for everyone's sins in three days, how could any one person pay for their own sins for eternity?!

3. Jesus’ Death as Cosmic Exile

When Jesus was dead, He was not just physically dead — He was bearing the sins of the world (1 Pet. 2:24), drinking the cup of God’s wrath (Matt. 26:39), and “descending” (Eph. 4:9) to the place of the dead.

Like Jonah, He was:

• Cut off (Isa. 53:8)
• Swallowed by death (1 Cor. 15:54 quotes Isa. 25:8)
• Waiting until the Father brought Him up again (Ps. 16:10, fulfilled in Acts 2:27)

But just like Jonah, this state was temporary — lasting the exact appointed time, then reversed by God’s power.

4. Theological Insight

This connection highlights a key truth:

• God’s judgments are decisive.
• What feels like forever is often the full measure needed to complete God’s purpose (purification, payment, or vindication).
• Jesus’ three days are the ultimate fulfillment of Jonah’s “forever” — the period in which sin and death are fully dealt with.

5. Implications for Understanding “Eternal”

This reinforces that biblical words like aiōn and aiōnios are not always about endless duration, but about the quality and completeness of an age, event, or judgment.

• Jonah’s “forever” ended in resurrection-like deliverance.
• Jesus’ three-day death was sufficient — complete — not eternal.

Hell’s “eternal fire” may similarly be understood as fire of the coming age — lasting as long as it must to do its work.

VI. The fire of God is about separating what is holy from what is profane.

Genesis 3:24 (ESV):

“He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden He placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.”

Key elements:

• Drove out – humanity is exiled, sent eastward (symbol of exile throughout Scripture: Gen. 4:16; 11:2).
• Cherubim – heavenly guardians, throne attendants of God’s presence.
• Flaming sword – rotating, a barrier of divine judgment and holiness.
• Guard the way – not to destroy humans, but to prevent access until the time is right.

2. Cherubim as Guardians of God’s Presence

Cherubim are mentioned several times in the Bible:

• Exodus 25:18-22 – two cherubim over the Ark of the Covenant, forming God’s throne.
• Ezekiel 1 & 10 – cherubim carry God’s throne-chariot.
• Psalm 99:1 – God “sits enthroned upon the cherubim.”

Thus, cherubim mark the place where heaven meets earth.
At Eden’s entrance, they signify that God’s presence still dwells there — but humanity cannot approach on its own terms.

3. The Flaming Sword

The sword is a symbol of:

• Judgment – separation of the holy from the profane.
• Purification – fire often cleanses or refines.
• Divine power – it “turns every way,” meaning no human can bypass it.

This is the first explicit image of a barrier between humanity and God’s direct presence — a theme that will dominate Scripture until Christ removes the veil (Matt. 27:51).

4. The “Way” Is Guarded

Genesis says they guard “the way to the tree of life.” This is fascinating because:

• The “way” (derekh) can mean path, road, or manner of life.
• It implies there is a way — but it is presently blocked.
• The rest of Scripture reveals that God is working to reopen this way (John 14:6 — “I am the way…”).

5. Biblical Echoes

This image reverberates through the Bible:

• Tabernacle and Temple – the veil separating the Holy of Holies had cherubim woven into it (Ex. 26:31), visually recalling Eden.
• Priestly system – only a mediator (high priest) could pass beyond the veil once per year, symbolically re-entering God’s presence.
• Jesus’ death – the tearing of the veil (Matt. 27:51) signals that the “way” back to God’s presence is now open (Heb. 10:19-20).

6. Exile, Separation, and Mercy

Notice: God does not annihilate Adam and Eve. The cherubim and sword are not to punish, but to protect:

• To prevent eternal life in a state of corruption (Gen. 3:22-23).
• To hold open the hope of eventual restoration (Gen. 3:15). Before they are exiled the LORD already promises Restoration; exile is temporary.
• To signal that reconciliation will require dealing with sin — someone must pass through the fire and sword.

7. Christ as the One Who Passes Through

Jesus ultimately fulfills this image:

• He bears the sword of judgment (Zech. 13:7 — “Awake, O sword, against my shepherd…”).
• He passes through death and fire so that we may enter.
• He becomes the “new and living way” (Heb. 10:20) back to the tree of life (Rev. 2:7; 22:14).

Summary Table