madprofessor

According to Christianity, what type of pain are you supposed to feel in hell? Would it be psychological torture, physical torture, or what? Since it would be your soul and not your physical self, would physical torture even be possible? Is it even possible to not be tortured psychologically if you're stuck in a place for an eternity?( I don't see how heaven would be any better). What exactly is the difference supposed to be between heaven and hell and why should we care if we're going to hell?

Chuck Rightmire

Hell is supposed to be a place of punishment. According to Dante, whose Inferno seems to be one of the more complete accounts of the Christian Hell, it consists of seven levels. Each person is there in identifiable if not physical form. The top layers are tremendous heat and burning sulfur, etc., the lower levels are cold. When Hell freezes over, you are in the lowest level and even the devil is frozen. Modern fundamentalists still seem to deal with the idea of burning in Hell. Many of the more main stream churches have eliminated the idea of Hell.

Heaven, on the other hand, is bliss in being able to bask in the joyous light of the creator. That, as I understand it, is the entire purpose of Heaven. But it also means that the residents of children's Limbo, in Catholic theology, will be happy but never be joyous because they will be out of the sight of the lord. And if Hell is the opposite of Heaven, this same criteria, with the added thrust of pain, may be the worst part of Hell.

Ultimately, since Christianity professes belief in the resurrection of the body in the final days, it would become physical bliss and physical agony.

WilliamB

Since Hell is imaginary, its definition varies from person to person, from Christian to Christian. A person with no sense of decency whatsoever, like the famous Jonathan Edwards for instance, will see Hell in a particularly nasty way:

" The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked: his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times more abominable in his eyes, than the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours."

I remember reading Edwards' famous eighteenth century sermon "Sinners In the Hands of an Angry God", from which the quote is taken, at school; and I recently re-read it after doing a search on Hell online. Edwards is all over the place, and is still held in high regard by a great many Christian groups today. I personally think Edwards was a very sick person, and would encourage anyone to read that aforementioned sermon in its entirety in order to see to what depths of ecstatic depravity the mind can descend when in the throes of religious mania.

On the other hand, a Christian with a healthy moral sense will come to vastly different conclusions. One such Christian, named Ray Smith, has an article online which is an emotional rebuttal to a sermon by John Hagee, of TBN. Here are some bits which I found extremely encouraging:

inquisitive01

None, since "hell" (RE: Sheol, Hades) means "grave." Where the torment (the anguish of one finding out he/she has not been granted the gift of everlasting life, but everlasting death) comes in would be at the site of Gehenna (the "lake of fire"), which is what so often seems to get confused with "hell" in this forum. Gehenna is where the Second Death (the final one) is supposed to occur. For those who "have their part in the lake of fire," it is everlasting punishment (no return from it; no more chances after this for eternity), not the everlasting act of punishing.

Sven

Maybe it's getting confused because different Christians say that "hell" means different things?
Please see the second table at www.secweb.org/asset.asp?AssetID=192

NearNihil Experience

Next time Jehovah's Witnesses come to your door, ask them what they think about the subject. You probably won't get the same answer you are used to expecting from them. They have a special ense of Hell and their ideas on the Rapture and what follows is much different ythan your average Xtian's and Christians "Left Behind" characture of the end times and beyond.

Nostalgic Pushhead

Since this thread isn't really about the 'existance' of Hell(s), I'm sending it to GRD...

inquisitive01

I agree. However, when looking at the Bible's use of the word "hell" in the original languages, the meaning becomes much clearer (there's no longer a need to guess about the meaning, in other words).

Apparently, not all Christians are concerned with what the terms mean in their original languages. That's not really surprising, though, considering that many Christians still get drunk even when the Bible says "be not drunk (intoxicated) with wine or strong drink, wherein is excess - instead be filled with the Spirit" (see Chapter 5 of Ephesians. I won't say which Verse so perhaps other surrounding Verses might also be read). Many Christians also still cheat, lie, steal, kill, etc., even though the Bible speaks against these things as well.

Sven

We seem to have an example of a "True Christian"(TM) here.

lulay

a patriarcjhal man's invention. it is the part of himself he most fears--his the 'underworld'/'psyche'/' the unconscious'--which he has called the feminine.
Because of ho denial andrejection and fear and denigration of this deep vast fundament of him self, he has filled it with castrating monsters which he knows will engulf him, if he ceases to strain against its attraction. this he calls 'Hell'. The curse of rejecting the Goddess.....