(January 10, 2016 at 6:46 pm)Wyrd of Gawd Wrote:(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?
The Christian hell is modeled after the Zoroastrian hell. Consider it like being in jail until Judgment Day. And then everyone makes bail, never to return to hell. But people do return to the Zoroastrian hell.
The worse hell of all is the Islamic hell. You will be royally screwed if you end up there. It's to be avoided at all costs. Most people are probably thinking about the Islamic hell when they think of hell. It contains all kinds of horrible tortures.
In the Christian hell Satan and the demons aren't in hell. They are in the lake of fire being tormented for eternity. The fairy tale doesn't say that people will be tormented alongside them, only that some people will be tossed into the lake of fire with death and hell.
Actually, if I may, the Bible is very specific about the purpose of Hell and why most of humanity will end up there. First, Hell was created to punish Satan and his demonic cohorts. Matthew 25:41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire that has been prepared for the devil and his angels!'. Second, He describes Hell very succinctly. Matthew 13:50 “furnace of fire…weeping and gnashing of teeth. Mark 9:48 “where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched” Revelation 14:10 “he will be tormented with fire and brimstone”.
Next, why would a loving God send people to Hell? Because God is also just and holy. 1 Peter 1:14 Like obedient children, do not comply with the evil urges you used to follow in your ignorance, 15 but, like the Holy One who called you, become holy yourselves in all of your conduct He must punish sin. He also was loving and kind enough to give us a way out of Hell. 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some regard slowness, but is being patient toward you, because he does not wish for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. What is this way out? John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
The Christian Hell is the only Hell, they simply called it Sheol. However, it is alluded to and referenced by many verses in the Old Testament. However, since Jesus was the final attempt for God to reach men, He also brought the most information that pertained to man's walk with God, or lack there of.
>snip<
