There Is No Hell

[Neo Deist]

For centuries, the Church has used fear and guilt trips to control the masses. Ask yourself why you believe in Hell...many I imagine will answer that "it is what I was taught growing up." If I ask those same people which verse(s) in the Christian Bible condemns you to Hell, no one can name it. That is because it does not exist. I spent 35 years as a Southern Baptist. I am familiar with every verse that Christians "spin" to try and make it fit. No need to post them, as not a single one actually say it. Revelation only actually mentions three beings that suffer eternal torment. Everyone else is destroyed.

Hell comes from the Hebrew sheol, and the Greek hades. Neither means a place of torment. That concept came about centuries later, and is completely man made. It is a system of control. Why do you think the Church was so against an English translation of the Latin Vulgate? It wanted to maintain its power and influence. If you can't read the Bible (as most could not read Latin by that time), you relied on what the Church said was the word of God. Abuse, anyone?

Want to know why many English speaking Christians used to think Hell was inside the earth? Because of the KJV's bad translation of Revelation 12:9. Instead of Satan being cast down to the earth (as modern translations correctly state), in the KJV rendition, Satan was cast down INTO the earth. Silly, European, Renaissance, superstitious people.

I can't imagine a loving, compassionate, benevolent God promising you paradise...only to say that if you don't do X, you will be thrown down into the pits of Hell, where your soul will burn in eternal torment...but I love you!

Free your mind.

 

[Sees]

It may be Christianity's most original concept, the pride and joy...it's almost sad to see everybody kicking it away. Most of the concepts and basically all of the names and terms already belonged to someone else.

 

[Servant_of_the_One1]

52:13
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Sahih International
The Day they are thrust toward the fire of Hell with a [violent] thrust, [its angels will say],52:14
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Sahih International
"This is the Fire which you used to deny.52:15
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Sahih International
Then is this magic, or do you not see?52:16
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Sahih International
[Enter to] burn therein; then be patient or impatient - it is all the same for you. You are only being recompensed [for] what you used to do."


The people in the hell would wish that they could return to worldly life so they become believers.


And if you only could see when the criminals shall hang their heads before their Lord (saying): "Our Lord! We have now seen and heard, so send us back, that we will do righteous good deeds. Verily, we now believe with certainty.'') (32:12)


If you could but see when they will be held over the (Hell) Fire! They will say: "Would that we were but sent back (to the world)! Then we would not deny the Ayat of our Lord, and we would be of the believers!'' Nay, it has become manifest to them what they had been concealing before. But if they were returned, they would certainly revert to that which they were forbidden. And indeed they are liars.) (6:27-28)


Be not amongst the people of regret.

 

[Rick O'Shez]

As Sartre said: "Hell is other people"

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

It is a system of control. Why do you think the Church was so against an English translation of the Latin Vulgate?

As Sartre said: "Hell is other people"

Hell is other people pompously spouting banal conspiracy theories

 

[Awoon]

"Hell" is mental torment. But no one wants to ever admit it.

 

[BSM1]

Hell comes from the Hebrew sheol, and the Greek hades. Neither means a place of torment. That concept came about centuries later, and is completely man made. It is a system of control. Why do you think the Church was so against an English translation of the Latin Vulgate? It wanted to maintain its power and influence. If you can't read the Bible (as most could not read Latin by that time), you relied on what the Church said was the word of God. Abuse, anyone?.

Ala Dante and Milton?

 

[jeager106]

Much study and explaination of the word hell itself taught me the concept is
1) pagan in origin
2) wrongly used in transaltions
3) deliberate misinformation injected into Scripture by the Holy Roman Church.
And much, much, more. Superstition, tradition, keeps islam and Christianty
bound to a false doctrine.
The islam hell is even much more graphic that the false doctrines in Christianity.
Just for grins look up the hell of islam. It is a nasty place, the concept borrowed from
Christian dogma and made even more hellish for effect.
Note that ancient Hebrew had zero notion of a place created by God to
punish sinners for all enternity. Such a place would serve satan well and bring him
glory, not a benevolent, forgiving God.

 

[GoodbyeDave]

The idea that God would create fallible beings and then hand out eternal punishment for mistakes made in a short lifetime is repulsive. God is omniscient and hence must know what justice is, and so will practice it.

In fact some Christians (e.g. Saint Isaac of Syria) have taught that going to hell is a choice. Isaac wrote that the devil could go to heaven if he said sorry.

As for other posts in this thread:
1. I'd expect some-one raised as a Southern Baptist (are there any Northern Baptists?) to claim that people were ignorant of the Bible. In the Middle Ages, Catholics heard the New Testament in the vernacular in the lessons every Sunday. What the Protestants did was to make the entire bible available: all those bits in the Old Testament which were used to justify witch-hunts, slavery, and prying into peoples' sex lives.

2. I would also expect a Muslim to have nothing to contribute but quotations from the Quran. Actually, if I remember correctly, that says that the sinners will be in hell until the end of the world, and there is a hadith saying that the flames of hell will grow cold. A slight improvement on Christianity, for once.

 

[Domenic]

For centuries, the Church has used fear and guilt trips to control the masses. Ask yourself why you believe in Hell...many I imagine will answer that "it is what I was taught growing up." If I ask those same people which verse(s) in the Christian Bible condemns you to Hell, no one can name it. That is because it does not exist. I spent 35 years as a Southern Baptist. I am familiar with every verse that Christians "spin" to try and make it fit. No need to post them, as not a single one actually say it. Revelation only actually mentions three beings that suffer eternal torment. Everyone else is destroyed.

Hell comes from the Hebrew sheol, and the Greek hades. Neither means a place of torment. That concept came about centuries later, and is completely man made. It is a system of control. Why do you think the Church was so against an English translation of the Latin Vulgate? It wanted to maintain its power and influence. If you can't read the Bible (as most could not read Latin by that time), you relied on what the Church said was the word of God. Abuse, anyone?

Want to know why many English speaking Christians used to think Hell was inside the earth? Because of the KJV's bad translation of Revelation 12:9. Instead of Satan being cast down to the earth (as modern translations correctly state), in the KJV rendition, Satan was cast down INTO the earth. Silly, European, Renaissance, superstitious people.

I can't imagine a loving, compassionate, benevolent God promising you paradise...only to say that if you don't do X, you will be thrown down into the pits of Hell, where your soul will burn in eternal torment...but I love you!

Free your mind.

DITTO.
It's good to see there are Christians who have read the Bible.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

3) deliberate misinformation injected into Scripture by the Holy Roman Church.

Evidence? Or can we simply dismiss it as baseless and bigoted drivel?

 

[outhouse]

"Hell" is mental torment. But no one wants to ever admit it.

This is one of the better explanations I have seen.

I like this allegory.

Somehow I think the original authors actually used a more primitive mythological view as a whole, but I still follow your definition.

 

[Rick O'Shez]

Hell is other people pompously spouting banal conspiracy theories

Projection, my dear Watson, projection.

 

[roger1440]

I never believed in Hell until I met my ex. The torment seemed never ending.

 

[psychoslice]

For me hell is a dark age concept, thought up by superstitious fearing guilt ridden men.

 

[jeager106]

Evidence? Or can we simply dismiss it as baseless and bigoted drivel?

I was going to ignore your post due to the snide, personal attack suggesting I am a bigot and the subject is drivel.
But here, just for you.
By they was I never knew Judaism supported the concept of a Dante Inferno
of burning souls tortured forever by a "god".
From Catholic Catechism:
We cannot be united with God unless we freely choose to love him. But we cannot love God if we sin gravely against him, against our neighbor or against ourselves . . . To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God’s merciful love means remaining separated from him forever by our own free choice. This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called "hell." (CCC 1033)

A state of self-exclusion from communication with God....."
What I thought Judaism subscribed to. "An everlasting cutting off from G-d without hope of reconcilliation."

There are tons of information debunking the pagan myth of what is commonly
believed to be hell and hellfire and burning damnation if you would just look.

 

[jeager106]

DITTO.
It's good to see there are Christians who have read the Bible.

There are plenty that read the Bible but damned few that know HOW to read it.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

It may be Christianity's most original concept, the pride and joy...it's almost sad to see everybody kicking it away. Most of the concepts and basically all of the names and terms already belonged to someone else.

There's realms of punishment in some pre-Christian religions but Christianity seemed to make it all the more potent by tying it into not only what you do, but what you think and believe. Islam then copied the idea from Christianity, because it's obviously a useful mechanism for control. I'm not sure if pre-Christian notions of a realm of punishment were viewed as eternal, though.

 

[JayJayDee]

Revelation only actually mentions three beings that suffer eternal torment. Everyone else is destroyed.

Actually no one suffers eternal torment in a conscious way. If they did then they would have to live forever and the Bible says that eternal life is granted only to the righteous. Why would God grant eternal life to those he was going to punish? Wouldn't it be easier to simply allow them to remain dead?

Rev. 14:9-11; 20:10, KJ: “If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torment [Greek, basa·ni·smou′] ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.”

“And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.”

What is the ‘torment’ to which these texts refer? It is noteworthy that at Revelation 11:10 (KJ) reference is made to ‘prophets that torment those dwelling on the earth.’ Such torment results from humiliating exposure by the messages that these prophets proclaim.

At Revelation 14:9-11 (KJ) worshipers of the symbolic “beast and his image” are said to be “tormented with fire and brimstone.” This cannot refer to conscious torment after death because “the dead know not any thing.” (Eccl. 9:5, KJ)

Then, what causes them to experience such torment while they are still alive? It is the proclamation by God’s servants that worshipers of the “beast and his image” will experience second death, which is represented by “the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone.”

The smoke, associated with their fiery destruction, ascends forever because the destruction will be eternal and will never be forgotten.

When Revelation 20:10 says that the Devil is to experience ‘torment forever and ever’ in “the lake of fire and brimstone,” what does that mean?

Revelation 21:8 (KJ) says clearly that “the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone” means “the second death.” So the Devil’s being “tormented” there forever means that there will be no relief for him; he will be held under restraint forever, actually in eternal death. This use of the word “torment” (from the Greek ba′sa·nos) reminds one of its use at Matthew 18:34, where the same basic Greek word is applied to a ‘jailer.’—RS, AT, ED, NW. (Excerpt, Reasoning from the Scriptures WTBTS)

Hell comes from the Hebrew sheol, and the Greek hades. Neither means a place of torment.

Indeed. Both mean the same thing...the common grave of mankind, where there is no conscious existence. There are no flames.....in fact the Bible "hell" is quite cold and very uneventful. (Eccl 9:10)

Want to know why many English speaking Christians used to think Hell was inside the earth? Because of the KJV's bad translation of Revelation 12:9. Instead of Satan being cast down to the earth (as modern translations correctly state), in the KJV rendition, Satan was cast down INTO the earth. Silly, European, Renaissance, superstitious people.

The devil plays on ignorance....so does the church.

I can't imagine a loving, compassionate, benevolent God promising you paradise...only to say that if you don't do X, you will be thrown down into the pits of Hell, where your soul will burn in eternal torment...but I love you!

Free your mind.

Not rocket science...is it?

 

[Neo Deist]

The devil plays on ignorance...

If you mean devil as in Satan, the arch enemy of God...I am a deist and do not believe in Satan. Nor do I believe in demons or other supernatural boogie men. I believe in an all powerful God that could simply uncreate anything or anyone that actually was His enemy, if He wanted to. I do not blame my problems and poor choices on a devil or demon, using them as a scapegoat instead of taking responsibility for my actions.

The concept of Satan is a man made invention designed to scare people, just like Hell.