Both Christianity and Islam hold out the threat of eternal torture in hell as a reason to adopt their religion. But was hell a mistake?
Consider this: Numerous people -- both Christians and Muslims -- are Christian and Muslim in name only because they simply ignore, dismiss, or do not adhere to the more humane teachings of their religions.
Instead, all that matters to them is they are saved (and that, of course, homosexuals and folks who've had abortions "get what's coming to them"). Would either or both religions not be better off without them? Do they not corrupt the religions they profess to support?
Sunstone,
Many Bibles have substituted the Word Hell, where the Bible has Hades, Gehenna, pit, even Tartarus. This was done, most likely to try to frighten people to join a certain religious Denomination. They, who have changed the words to Hell, have put a different meaning to certain words as Hades. Hades, in the Greek Scriptures, means the same thing as Sheol, in the Hebrew Scriptures. This can be determined by a comparison of the Scriptures, Psalms 16:10, where Sheol is used in the Hebrew language, and Acts 2:27,31, Hades is used for the same Scripture. These Scriptures tell that Jesus, the Christ being in Hades for parts of three days. This alone seems to prove that the original meaning of Sheol, or Hades did not have a meaning of torture, torment, for Jesus was perfect, never sinned, so Jesus would never have gone to a place of torment, even for parts of three days.
If we consider the case of Job, at Job 14:13-15, where Job is asking God to hide him in Sheol until His wrath was past, and then resurrect him, because as Job said, God would have a desire to see Job again. Job, surely would not be asking to go to a place, that would be even worse than the torment he was already in with boils all over his body, Job 2:7,8.
The term Sheol, Hades was the common grave of mankind, where a person was, it seems, out of existence, except in the memory of God, Who could resurrect him again, by creating a body, just as he had, and then putting his complete Memory Bank in his mind. This would allow a person to remember, and know exactly who he was before his death, Self Recognition.
According to the Bible, when a person is dead he has no feeling, no thoughts, he, it seems, is out of existence, until resurrected, Ecclesiastes 3:18-20. These Scriptures tell the same thing as Genesis 3:19. Ecclesiastes 9:5,6,10 tells us the same thing, that a person who has died has no knowledge or feeling. The same thing is recorded at Psalms 146:3,4.
Several Bibles use the word Gehenna, where Hell is sometimes used. Gehenna was used by Jesus, because Gehenna was a place over the Southern, and part Western wall in Jerusalem, where trash, garbage was thrown. It was kept burning all the time, with sulfur thrown in to make it very hot, to burn up everything completely. Gehenna was used by Jesus as a place that enemies of God would go, from which there was NO resurrection. Gehenna was another name for the Lake of Fire and Sulfur, The Second Death, Revelation 20:14,15. Notice that things not animal, non living things are also to be thrown into The Lake of Fire and Sulfur. This shows us that these thing will never be seen again, just as anything thrown into Gehenna. Jesus used this term several times to impress the importance of listening to his teachings, Matthew 5:21,22, 23:33, Mark 9:42-48.
At 2Peter 2:4, some Bibles use the word Hell for the word Tartarus, which is a place of confinement for only angels, not for mankind, 2Peter 2:4, Jude 6.
