No, I'm not using a mild swear word. Many years ago, as a young tourist in the land of Israel, I walked through the valley of Hinnom. One of the names translated as hell in the Bible is this vale. The valley of Hinnom is Gehenna in Greek. It is on the southwest side of Jerusalem. Hinnom was once a site of the despicable pagan cult of child sacrifice and later became a garbage dump. This vile practice was one of the main reasons why God dispossessed the Canaanites of their land and gave it to the Israelites. This horrible background underlies a metaphor picturing the self-imposed suffering awaiting those who reject God. Perhaps one of the most gracious understandings of hell comes from the Orthodox Church. They describe hell as a deliberate choice made by recalcitrant individuals who of their own free will reject the grace and mercy of God.
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