Lizbeth
Well-Known Member
I agree that the picture of hell that we have been given in the west is a medieval construct…agree that it came through the RCC. I don’t believe that “hell” is some sort of giant medieval torture chamber where people are being tortured for eternity. What I do glean from scripture is that hell is really simply sheol/grave/death/destruction….certainly hellish in appearance to look upon what takes place in the grave (and I'm not sure know what or if the souls of the unredeemed suffer in undergoing it).Hell is the invention of man.
The Old testament,which the NT scribes could not corrupt, never teaches eternal damnation in fire. Never.
Therefore,if we know,accept,that Jesus was God,and some deny even that, and God does not change, then we know he did not create eternal damnation in flames to be suffered by those who he,Jesus,said,can only come to him if God allows.
Hell is the invention of the Catholic church.
And that is why their influence allowed Hell to be "taught" by Jesus. Their scribes wrote it down.
Then,the church burned heretics alive so watchers would get the message.
If Hell were real,given what Jesus actually taught,then God would be no better in character than Satan.
Because ,as the NT says, He only allows those whose consciousness he opens so to understand scripture to come to the knowledge of his truth. And be saved from his sending them to eternal fire? That's Omni benevolence?
The RCC invented a terroristic cult doctrine. And applied God's name to it.
The RCC is pagan.Which is why they have idols in their temples,venerate body parts of the dead,necromancy,and charged money,indulgences,to the gullible who were told EVERY CATHOLIC goes to micro hell,Purgatory,to burn off the residual sins they died in. Before being judged worthy of Heaven.
Pay indulgences,money,to the church and it's a get out of purgatory early ransom. The RCC today is the richest religious entity on Earth.
People in that time knew about the cult of Moloch. They knew what it was to be burned alive by a gods will.
There are so many scriptures…but I hope the following is enough to make the point, if any will take the time:
Job 21:17-32
How oft is the candle of the wicked put out! and how oft cometh their destruction upon them! God distributeth sorrows in his anger.
They are as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carrieth away.
God layeth up his iniquity for his children: he rewardeth him, and he shall know it.
His eyes shall see his destruction, and he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
For what pleasure hath he in his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off in the midst?
Shall any teach God knowledge? seeing he judgeth those that are high.
One dieth in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet.
His breasts are full of milk, and his bones are moistened with marrow.
And another dieth in the bitterness of his soul, and never eateth with pleasure.
They shall lie down alike in the dust, and the worms shall cover them.
Behold, I know your thoughts, and the devices which ye wrongfully imagine against me.
For ye say, Where is the house of the prince? and where are the dwelling places of the wicked?
Have ye not asked them that go by the way? and do ye not know their tokens,
That the wicked is reserved to the day of destruction? they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath.
Who shall declare his way to his face? and who shall repay him what he hath done?
Yet shall he be brought to the grave, and shall remain in the tomb.
See the difference between the redeemed and the unredeemed here:
Psa 49:3-20
My mouth shall speak of wisdom; and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding.
I will incline mine ear to a parable: I will open my dark saying upon the harp.
Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil, when the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about? They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches;
None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him:
(For the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever:)
That he should still live for ever, and not see corruption.
For he seeth that wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish, and leave their wealth to others.
Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling places to all generations; they call their lands after their own names.
Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish.
This their way is their folly: yet their posterity approve their sayings. Selah.
Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling.
But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me. Selah.
Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased;
For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away: his glory shall not descend after him.
Though while he lived he blessed his soul: and men will praise thee, when thou doest well to thyself.
He shall go to the generation of his fathers; they shall never see light.
Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish.
Job 26:6
Hell (sheol/grave) is naked before him (the Lord), and destruction hath no covering.
Job 31:1
I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?
For what portion of God is there from above? and what inheritance of the Almighty from on high?
Is not destruction to the wicked? and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity?
Psa 103:2-4
Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:
Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;
Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;
Can we see the difference between the wicked and the redeemed? The undredeemed wicked will never see light, they will not be redeemed....it means they perish, die, are destroyed in the grave…both body and soul as Jesus warned about…as opposed to being redeemed from the grave to inherit eternal life. It is either choose death or choose life, one or the other. Those who choose death will not see life, they will not inherit eternal life.
Jhn 3:36
He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.
What I see in scripture seems to be a very strong and clear message and warning that to perish is to die, body and soul destroyed….. the redeemed will not suffer this fate, but receive life eternal, whereas the unredeemed will. God’s wrath is the sentence of death/destructions…the wages of sin is death. Death/wrath abideth on the unredeemed….as scripture testifies, fallen man is under the wrath of God already....because fallen man has been abiding under the sentence of death beginning way back in the Garden of Eden.
Psa 49:12
Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish.
Psa 49:20
Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish.
2Pe 2:12
But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;
Jhn 8:51
Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.
Jhn 8:52
Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and thou sayest, If a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death.
Jhn 10:28
And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
Jhn 11:26
And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?
More scriptures where the new testament speaks of the destruction/perdition of the unredeemed:
Mat 7:13
Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
Rom 3:16
Destruction and misery are in their ways:
Rom 9:22
What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
Phl 3:19
Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)
2Th 1:9
Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;
1Ti 6:9
But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.
2Pe 2:1
But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
2Pe 3:16
As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.