Did Charles Taze Russell Deny Hell?

By Ronald R. Day, Senior

The statement is often presented that Russell denied the existence of hell; J. J. Ross, for instance, among many other misrepresentations of Russell, falsely claimed that Russell taught that "there is no hell for the sinful." One claims that Russell ""maintained that there was no hell." Another states: "His later study of the Bible led him to deny the existence of hell." Most of these authors confuse Charles Taze Russell with the Jehovah's Witnesses, often claiming that Russell was the founder of the Jehovah's Witnesses. One associates Russell with the Jehovah's Witnesses and claims "The Witnesses deny the existence of Hell." Another claims concerning Russell: "Among his first subjects, of course, was a 'proof' that there is no hell." (Please note that the sites linked to that contain these quotes may present a lot of misrepresentations concerning Brother Russell other than just statements concerning "hell", much of which is addressed elsewhere on this or our other sites.)

In fact, Russell upheld the existence of the Bible hell, but he did deny the existence of the kind of hell that comes from man's imaginations as represented in the doctrines of men. He stated:

We believe in the "hell" of the Bible, sheol. This, the only word used for hell for four thousand years, is translated more than one-half the time grave in our Common Version, and should always be thus translated. "Hades," in the New Testament, is its equivalent. "Gehenna fire," of the New Testament, is a symbolical picture declared to signify the Second Death. -- The Watch Tower, January 1, 1912, page 29.

In response to the claim that Russell was preaching that there is no hell, Brother Russell replied:

"There is no minister in the world that preaches more hell than I do, but the hell that I preach is the hell of the Bible and not the hell of the fire, brimstone, pitchfork and sandpaper-slide variety. The hell of the Bible is a most reasonable interpretation of the original Greek and Hebrew terms -- Hades and Sheol -- which means the death state, the tomb." -- "Press Comment" Convention Report Sermons, page 396.

Nevertheless, the thought that Russell denied the Biblical hell is evidently based on the false idea that the Biblical hell is that which is often thought of as "hell" by tradition. In Brother Russell's day, hell was most often promoted as being a place where souls of those did not accept Jesus are to spend an eternity of conscious suffering in actual flames of fire, and it was claimed to be the place where Satan tormented those souls for eternity. Many also presented the idea that Hell is made up of compartments, and that one of those compartments used to be paradise, and another compartment is tartarus, etc. Many today claim that the hell is where the souls of those who die without Christ are to spend an eternity of conscious "separation from God." Since none of these concepts are actually taught in the Bible, Russell did deny such ideas about hell, but he did uphold the Bible hell.

For links to many of Russell's studies on the Bible hell, see our resource page:

Russell on Hell