(January 10, 2016 at 4:38 pm)TrueChristian Wrote: Greetings one and all!
We all know Hell is a horrible place, a place to avoid going to if at all possible.
But is Christian Hell especially bad compared to other ones? I would posit that yes it is.
The Hells of the ancients (Norse,Greek, Egyptian etc.) weren't necessarily punitive, but just a place for the vast majority of the dead (a few exceptional heroes excepted.)
Most people there just lived in a shadowy place, and the only the truly repellent sinners were punished (think tartarus and sisyphus.) Some traditions (such as Persian Zoroastrianism) posited that Hell is just temporary, and at the end of time all souls shall be united with The Divine.
Christian Hell... is really something else. Even YHWH, in his pitiless OT form, no matter how many people he killed (Jericho,Sodom, First born Egyptian sons) he never sent anyone to Hell. Hell as we know it, only really came from the lips of Christ Jesus, meek and mild.
Unlike Hell of the ancients, the Christian (not Jewish) Hell is truly awful. It is where unrepentent sinners wail and gnash their teeth, and are not given the slightest joy or pleasure. According to later Catholic theologians, souls in Hell cannot give or receive the slightest bit of love, and have great hatred toward the living and the saved, desiring nothing more than for them to join them in Hell.
Given the Christian nature of Hell, one could even pity Satan and the demons, despite how horrible they are. Satan and demons know that they eventually will have to roast in agonizing fire for all eternity, and can only really tempt other people to suffer with them.
Hell seems inhumane, and if God were real, you think he'd be morally obligated to destroy Hell and all it's occupants immediately.
Truthfully, the Christian doctrine of Hell almost makes me not want to be a Christian.!!!!!!
Thoughts?
I believe you have some ideas about hell that are just not reality, besides hell isn't the Christian hell, it's the place all those who chose not to believe in the living God will spend eternity and suffer through the sinful life they lead while living in the world. Those who go to hell determine what there punishment will be like because of the life they've lived against God. There are different levels of suffering in hell, those levels are determined by the sinful lives lived. If hell were about fire then all would suffer the same and that's not what scriptures teach. Just saying not criticizing.
GC
God loves those who believe and those who do not and the same goes for me, you have no choice in this matter. That puts the matter of total free will to rest.
