achristianbeliever

Why can't we dumb down Hell? After all the scriptures themselves give us an idea that there are some kind of levels in Hell.

Matthew chapter 10
Jesus tells the Pharisees that their punishment will be worse than the people of Sodom and Gomorah. So I find it pointless to complain about whether a person will be burned by fire in Hell or not. I try and tell people that Hell does not mean God is not trying to burn people with fire but is simply the absence of God. But everytime I do I'm told I'm sugar-coating Hell even though the scriptures themselves say that Hell is not the same for everyone.

Mageth

Umm, do you see the contradiction in the above? Hopefully so...

Mars Man

I decided to sneak in on the weekend anyway.

Perhaps one factor may be 'Matthew' uses ge'hennah more than the other texts? It could kind of conjure up the idea of 'fire' and 'rot' more than hades.

Although Revelation uses that 'lake of fire' symbolism, it is said to mean (as in 'stand for') second death, does it not?

As for that very last sentiment, I would reason that little by little, our better understanding of mind and brain, has had some influence over the tendency to weaken that 'old time religion' stuff. The person is the brain.

John A. Broussard

We'll still be here Wednesday.

My problem is that when the bible says "fire" it seems to mean "fire" to the early Christians, but something different to many current Christians.

The same holds of even such words as "death." Could anything be plainer?

This may be a problem unique to the modern mind which, when presented with a cake recipe, expects the ingredients to be as listed. "Salt" is always "salt," never persimmons or rutabagas.

achristianbeliever

No because why can't there be one part of Hell that is the same for all but other sections that are not the same. Your the one that keeps telling me I'm limiting God.

jaded_revenge

Can we make are own parts of hell?

John A. Broussard

Rest assured, yours is the current, mainstream Christian view of hell. As I pointed out in the OP, the hell of eternal fire is out-of-date.

I am curious, however. How do you account for the fact that earlier Christians almost unanimously considered hell to be real, to be physical, to be eternal, to be a place of incredible torment where all sinners would reside for ever and ever and ever--while your view is now the prevalent one, viz., hell involves only the deprivation of the sight of god?

The scripture is the same, and yet the script seems to have changed.

Any explanation?

RUmike

I would say that there is no scriptural basis from the teachings of Jesus that there even is a 'hell', a word which never even appears in the NT. Instead, apparently we may go to some geographical location called Gehanna, but that's not the posthumous hell modern Christians seem to think of.

Furthermore, is there even scriptural basis for a place called heaven? There is definitely some talk of eternal life, but where does it say that we go to heaven inbetween death and the Parousia?

Casper

Maybe they didn't really, but were simply afraid to voice differing opinions that question literal reading of Matthew?

I would be surprised if no one in the 14th century (to yank a date from the ether) considered how they would feel pain if their body had rotten away down to the bones.

dancer_rnb

Some people take the "No life in the grave" and "second death" statements to mean there is no afterlife save at judgement for the unsaved. The rich man and lazarus is not taken literally, either.

There is also the problem of what the the duration of the time after judgement is. Eternal tormentalists and annihilationists translate certains greek words to mean forever, while universalists would tranlate them as
"a very long time" (age and an age or age of ages), indicating an eventual end
of this period.

Edited to add:
Universalists I know existed in this US in the early 1800s.


There is also the question of whether you have to belief before death.
If this is not the case, some Universalist go on to argue that everyone WILL believe on judgement day.

Resistence is futile.