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Principal Point of Faith #4:
Hell and Purgatory
6. What is Gehenna?
(a) This is actually the name of a place near Jerusalem. Literally, it was Gehenna, or Ge-Hinnom (valley of Hinnom), a real place on the south-west side of Jerusalem. In the Old Testament the Israelites behaved abominably and sacrificed their children in the fire there (Jeremiah 32:35). In later times it was where Jerusalem's rubbish was destroyed by fires that never went out. Consequently in the New Testament it was associated with permanent death, destruction, annihilation, as the fires of Gehenna destroy the rubbish of Jerusalem.
Isaiah 66:24 (NKJV)
And they shall go forth and look upon the corpses of men who have transgressed against Me. For their worm does not die, and their fire is not quenched. They shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.
Mark 9:43 (NKJV)
If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched—
2 Thessalonians 1:9 (NKJV)
These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power
 
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