The bible says that God is ever loving and ever forgiving, and if that is the case,k then wouldn't that defeat the purpouse of a hell?
The development of the hell concept is interesting. I would agree with your point that an all loving God would negate a hell. And of course the traditional response would be that it is we ourselves who send us to hell not God. I would make a distinction between what was 'hell' then and what is 'hell' now. Jesus spoke of 'gehenna' which at the time was a area outside the city gates where garbage was burned. This of course became the supreme image we use, fire. (the lake comes later) Anyway, I don't think hell is as open and populated in God's eyes. Where do those really awful people go? I leave that for you to decide.
Well.... according the the *unedited* versions of the Bible, it's not God who judges people and sends them to Heaven or Hell, but Satan. He is sort of.... God's right hand man, who is forever sat by his throne. Just to clarify, Lucifer and Satan are two different characters. Lucifer was chief of all the angels, but was then cast down. Satan has always been the "Judge". Unfortunately, most modern Bibles are either edited, or poorly translated.
i believe that when we die we judge ourselves. u can't get by god/satan with lies. they know all. we know if we are true enough to go to heaven and do our godly things, or if we are evil enough to be in hell. we are slapped in the face with death and our lifes expiereces are put in front of us. all the people we hurt, our buried skeletons are dug up. and we judge ourselves. for the ones who don't seem to make it that far they i believe are in pergatory. a stationary place- stuck. god is loving and forgiving. but we ourselves make us. and it is us who we judge.
check these out for a nice change of interpretation of hell and heaven.... #1) What dreams may come - movie with Robin Williams dealing with death and conception of heaven/hell (kinda a chick flick, but from an artistic standpoint beautifully done) #2) The Incarnations of Immortality - Piers Anthony.... it's 7 books, but holy shit man, what a journey....Death, Time, War, Fate, Nature, Evil, Good
mmmmmmm some define hell as the act to die, and not going to heaven, your soul dies right there too, for the joy of God is such, that not going up there (Why up?) is punishment enough........what do you think of this??. I personally don´t know what to think, for me, ot´s a topic for when stoned, a very good one actually, but I´m a good person, and love God, and whatever he wants to do with me at the end of my days, so be it.
I kinda think that heaven and hell are what one perseves them to be, for some it could be fire and others a repeat of life as some being over and over. Although, I couldn't really say what I really think is true because well...I don't know.... just rambling now
Hell.........it is different things to different people. When I was in college, I did this whole interpretation of Dante's Inferno versus The Bible's concept of hell. I prefer to think that hell is the way that Dante describes it. Having different circles and the deeper you get to hell, the colder it gets until everything is finally frozen. That and the 3 headed monster that chews on the 3 worst people in the world. But anyway, I just hope that I never personally find out what hell is like!!!
hmm, i dont beileve in hell at all, or religion for that matter. but i think if there was.. it would be a very cramped place. i think i remember reading somwehre that god is still preparing heaven for all the christians or something like that..and i take it there are a lot more people going ot hell than there are goin to heaven. so that means hell must be a shit load bigger than heaven. but if god is mightier..shoudlnt he have a bigger house than satan? or maybe they are the same size and hell is just a very cramped place...maybe thats all hell is.. a VERY VERY cramped heaven. lol, just some crazy thoughts of mine. but seroiusly...wouldnt god have the bigger place? and if its not big enough yet.. and there are not near as mnay christians as people goin to hell...woudlnt that mean that hell must be cramped as hell...lol.i just said the same thing twice in a differnet way.....
I can't get any emotion out of religion anymore, I am still pretty young @ 17 and I guess throughout these couple of years I've never had to worry about what might happen to me after death, I do think that one day I will wake up, no longer young but much older, my lust for life dissolved and somehow my thoughts will move towards faith in god. But I also feel that even then, should I believe in Jesus? right now it seems the most logical but why? simply because where I happen to have been born in the U.S., then again I would like to think that as long as I have faith in something, without distorting the big picture of everything with symbolism, and try my best to be a good natured person, that I will have some kind of favorable afterlife.
about one person's comments on satan having a bigger house than god (hell being bigger than heaven)... heaven is smaller due to the fact that more people love sin more than light. most people choose not to believe in Jesus, and therefore don't end up in heaven. dante's interpretation isn't all that far off from the Bible (dante's considered one of the greated Christian writers of his time by the way ). in the Bible, there are different levels for different levels of sinners. say... someone's heard the gospel thousands of times and still rejects it... their punishment is worse than someone who's only heard it say a few times. also, according to the Bible, hell is only for those who reject Jesus as their savior. that's the only thing that will send you there. after being saved it doesn't matter how you live your life, you still go to heaven. of course, most people who truely accept Jesus as their savior (trusting in Him alone to get them to heaven) tend to want to live a good life due to the conviction of the Holy Spirit.. it's a lot to explain. hell is real, people go there every day, and it's not a place you want to be. jesus himself describes it as a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth. john the revelator also had a vision of death and hell being cast into the lake of fire after the tribulation period, the 1,000 year reign of Christ, and the final battle of good and evil.
Isn't it strange to say that "most people do not believe in Jesus" when majority of the ruling class of most affluent societies believe in Christianity..... seems that more people can associate to crime or wrong-doings based on the societies standards and not by individual's.... we are bounded by a system that propels us to do good and that "bad" things will lead to a bad consequence.... As for the un-edited versions of the Bible stating Satan to be the judge....where does God stand on Judgement Day if there is a day like this? Was there a last conflict between them? Even if there's another dimension of after-life, how will one remember one's doings on Earth when the whole memory is stored on a physical organ like how info is stored on your computer's Central Processing Unit [CPU]? Why are we performing swift justice in our everyday Courts of Law and Judgement Day seems so far..? The theory of Hell I believe emerged way before the theory of there being a Heaven as people are naturally inclined to solve problems....and by solving the problem of evil through a creation of a Heavenly, oh so pure place, will in turn induce more people to be good.....or is it not..? Whatever it is, I do not understand how we can tolerate tyrannical mortals ruling our societies....taking lives as they wish.....Planet Earth has been sucummbed to treacherous acts by human beings from the begining till now....what difference is there between then and now in terms of acts of violence against one self, ourselves, our so called human culture. Take a good around you and judge for yourselves....I am taking the position that we are living in hell and smoking some indo calms the hell out of anyone IMO....
only 24% of the world claims to be of some form of Christianity or other (catholic or protestant). out of those, not many truely believe... it's just how they were raised (ie, "i was raised catholic"). so the percentage of people who actually believe Jesus to be the savior is much smaller. satan in the Bible is the great accuser. at the judgement seat he will be there to tell of all your sins and why you should go to hell... but for those who trusted in Jesus (while they were alive) to get them into heaven have nothing to worry about.
Yes the Incarnations of Immortality series by Piers Anthony is great. I just finished reading the first one, On a Pale Horse, which is about Death. It was so goddamn cool! Definitely recommend it. I'm just starting the second book in the series called Bearing an Hourglass, which is about the incarnation of time, Chronos...
i've always wondered the same thing, the way i see it hell was a human thought to scare the masses into believing, since for the longest time heresy was punishable by death u know the way i see it (i hope) if there is a heaven in hell, then u should be able to get into heaven as long as you were a good person