I'm not religious, but My mum did teach me Christianity and I do find it interesting.
I now there are a quite a few religious people on here and was wondering what you believe hell to be?
Now if peopel belive in hell then this sums up my feelings, basically how can you have a loving god that is so sardistic and crule?
But does the bible actually state there is a hell like many believe?
this is an interesting site
http://ecclesia.org/truth/hell.html
especially the translation part
Also this site is a good read
http://www.helltruth.com/home.aspx
it amazes me how so many denominations and people believe in hell yet a loving God I can't see how they can be one and the same.
what are peoples views and if you believe in Hell why and how?
*hoping this doesn't turn into another religion slagging match*
I now there are a quite a few religious people on here and was wondering what you believe hell to be?
Now if peopel belive in hell then this sums up my feelings, basically how can you have a loving god that is so sardistic and crule?
A few years ago, a young lady named Mary Ellen told me that although she was raised in a Christian home, she had given up on God and was instead practicing witchcraft.
"I was raised in a hellfire-and-brimstone spitting church," she told me. "They would talk about this God who would take sinners and burn them for all eternity, and that God would be happy to inflict torture upon them for as long as time would last.
"I thought to myself, 'If that's what God is really like, I'd be better off without Him.' " Because of the portrait of God painted by the church, this intelligent young woman had turned her back on the Bible and embraced paganism and devil worship.
Mary Ellen was appalled by the idea of a God of love behaving as one would expect the devil to behave. Not even history's most reviled despots-Hitler, Stalin, or Idi Amim-were as cruel to their victims as Christians accuse God of being. Mary Ellen reacted to the idea as thousands have done: by giving up on God, because to misunderstand hell is to misunderstand the character of God, the awfulness of sin, and the love of God for all of His children.
We cannot deny that some passages in the Bible plainly state that hellfire will burn "for ever" (Revelation 14:11; 20:10). But logic alone tells us that if hell burns forever "on the breadth of the earth," it would be impossible for God to create a new earth. And if God kept sinners alive to endure an eternal burning, He would fail in His mission to rid the world of sin. Instead, He would perpetuate it.
Can you imagine a new earth where throughout eternity you could hear the howls and screams of the wicked suffering in hell? Or what if you knew that in some corner of the universe those you had loved on the earth were writhing forever in agony because of misdeeds during their relatively short lives on earth?
I have never met anyone who could enjoy heaven knowing that loved ones or family were being tortured throughout all eternity. Thankfully, the Bible states that the new earth will be a place without sorrow or pain (Revelation 21:4).
But does the bible actually state there is a hell like many believe?
this is an interesting site
http://ecclesia.org/truth/hell.html
especially the translation part
Definitions of Hell
In the King James Bible, the term "hell" is used 54 times; 31 times in the Old Testament, and 23 times in the New Testament. What is the meaning of the word "hell" in the bible? In the Old Testament, it is translated from one word, Sheol. In the New Testament, "hell" is translated from three words, tartaroo, Hades, and Gehenna. Let us look at their meanings.
1) Tartaroo [Greek New Testament]:
"Hell" is translated only one time from tartaroo, which is from the root Tartaros, which means "the deepest abyss of Hades" (2 Peter 2:4). Apparently, Peter was not writing about a place of flames and torment because "the angels that sinned" are there "to be reserved unto judgment." It would not make sense that angels would be burning in hell before judgment is pronounced on them. If angels are being reserved for judgment, it means they haven’t been judged yet. After all, an accused murderer wouldn't serve 25 years and then be judged to see if he belongs there or not. If the wicked were to live in a burning hell, they’d have eternal life, just as the righteous, differing only in its quality. The penalty for sin is death (Romans 6:23), not eternal life.
2) Sheol (Hebrew Old Testament) / Hades (Greek New Testament):
What is the meaning of the word "hell" in the Old Testament? "Hell" is always translated from the Hebrew word Sheol (which is used 65 times in the Old Testament) and means simply "the world of the dead". There is no hint of a place of fire (Jonah 2:1-2). Sheol is translated as "grave" 31 times, "hell" 31 times, and "pit" 3 times. "Sheol" is translated as "grave" in Psa.89:48, Job 17:13, where both Job (a godly man) and the wicked go to Sheol (hell). Sheol is described in terms of overwhelming floods, water, or waves (Jonah 2:2-6). Sometimes, Sheol is pictured as a hunter setting snares for its victim, binding them with cords, snatching them from the land of the living (2 Sam. 22:6; Job 24:19; Ps. 116:3). Sheol is a prison with bars, a place of no return (Job 7:9; 10:21; 16:22; 21:13; Ps.49:14; Isa.38:10). People could go to Sheol alive (Num.16:30,33; Ps.55:15; Prov.1:12).
It does not teach a place of the conscious souls. The Greek Septuagint, which our Lord used when he read or quoted from the Old Testament, gives Hades as the exact equivalent of the Hebrew Sheol, and when the Savior, or his apostles, used the word, they meant the same as is meant in the Old Testament. Thus, the New Testament usage agrees exactly with the Old Testament. Literally, Hades means "death" or the "grave"; and figuratively, it means "destruction".
Hades is used 11 times in the New Testament. It is translated 10 times as "hell", and 1 time as "grave." Hades means "the place (state) of departed souls, grave, hell." In Acts 2:27,31, apparently, both the righteous and the wicked go to Hades, the same as they both go to Sheol in the Old Testament, for Christ went to hell when He died. In quoting the Old Testament prophecy regarding Christ, the New Testament writer uses Hades. Compare Acts 2:27 with Psalm 16:10. It seems more logical to think of Christ in the grave instead of in a burning hell.
1 Corinthians 15:55 illustrates that "grave" is a proper reading for Hades. This verse is quoted from Hosea 13:14 in the Old Testament where we find the equivalent word Sheol (grave).
Hades is also used in Matthew 11:23; 16:18, Luke 10:23, and Revelation 1:18; 6:8. In Revelation 20:13-14, if one thinks of "hell" as death represented by the grave, it makes sense for hell to be cast into the lake of fire. After all, if "hell" itself is really a lake of fire, how can it be thrown into itself? This does not make any sense. Notice in 1 Corinthians 15:26 that death will be destroyed. What is represented by death? The grave!
3) Hinnom (Hebrew Old Testament) / Gehenna (Greek New Testament):
"Hell is translated twelve times from Gehenna (or, as it is sometimes transliterated, Geenna). This is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word Hinnom, which is the name of a valley outside Jerusalem where garbage and the carcasses of animals were cast into and consumed by fire constantly kept burning. Thus, Gehenna is the only one of those words translated as "hell" in the Bible, that has any idea of fire or torment resident in it. Look at Matthew 5:22,29-30; 10:28; 18:9; 23:15,33 and Mark 9:43,45,47. It is apparent from these texts that the whole physical body is cast into Hell, and not just the soul. Gehenna is also used in Luke 12:5 and James 3:6.
"Gehenna was a well-known valley, near Jerusalem, in which the Jews in their idolatrous days had sacrificed their children to the idol Moloch, in consequence of which it was condemned to receive the offal and refuse and sewage of the city, and into which the bodies of malefactors were cast and where to destroy the odor and pestilential influences, continual fires were kept burning. Here fire, smoke, worms bred by the corruption, and other repulsive features, rendered the place a horrible one, in the eyes of the Jews. It was a locality with which they were as well acquainted. But in process of time Gehenna came to be an emblem of the consequences of sin, and to be employed figuratively by the Jews, to denote those consequences. But always in this world. The Jews never used it to mean torment after death, until long after Christ. The word had not the meaning of post-mortem torment when our Savior used it." (J.W. Hanson's, Bible Threatenings Explained).
Also note, not one single time in the entire Old Testament was this word "Ge-Hinnom" translated as "hell." See Leviticus 18:21; 20:2; Joshua 15:8; 18:16; 2 Kings 23:10; 2 Chronicles 28:3; 33:6; Nehemiah 11:30; Jeremiah 7:30-33; 19:2, 6; 32:35.
Every Bible reference using the word "hell" is addressed to this world. It was also employed in the time of Christ as a symbol of moral corruption and wickedness; but more especially as a figure of the terrible judgment of God on the rebellious and sinful nation of the Jews. It was a place fit only for waste.
Should a Jew, God's chosen people, ever be given a burial in "Gehenna," it would be the most humiliating thing that could ever happen to him. It would be like saying to a Pharisee, that his life, his religious works, his devotion to God were completely worthless, fit only for the dump.
Read the prophecy concerning the apostate Israel in Jeremiah 7:30-34:
Jeremiah 7:30 For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith the LORD: they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to pollute it.
Jeremiah 7:31 And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom (Greek = Gehenna), to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart.
Jeremiah 7:32 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that it shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom (Greek = Gehenna), but the valley of slaughter: for they shall bury in Tophet, till there be no place.
Jeremiah 7:33 And the carcases of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall fray them away. (See Matthew 24:28).
Jeremiah 7:34 Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: for the land shall be desolate. (See Revelation 18:23).
This passage undoubtedly refers to the literal destruction that would befall the Jewish nation in 70 A.D., when many Jews experienced literally the condemnation of Gehenna, by perishing miserably by fire and sword. Every Bible reference about hell is to this world. Only Jesus and James ever used the term Gehenna. Neither Paul, John, Peter nor Jude ever employed it. Would they not have warned sinners concerning it, if there were a Gehenna of torment after death? Neither Christ nor His apostles ever used the term Gehenna to Gentiles, but only to Jews, which proves it is a locality known only to Jews, whereas, if it were a place of punishment after death for sinners, it would have been preached to the Gentiles as well as to Jews.
The Book of Acts contains the record of the apostolic preaching, and the history of the first planting of the church among the Jews and Gentiles, and embraces a period of thirty years from the ascension of Christ. In all this history, in all this preaching of the disciples and apostles of Jesus, there is no mention of Gehenna. In thirty years of missionary effort, these men of God, addressing people of all characters and nations, never, under any circumstances, threaten them with the torments of Gehenna, or allude to it in the most distant manner! In the face of such a fact as this, can any man believe that Gehenna signifies endless punishment; and that this is a part of divine revelation, a part of the gospel message to the world?
Now, if endless punishment awaits millions of the human race, and if it is denoted by this word, is it possible that only David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, and Malachi use the word to define punishment, in all less than a dozen times, while Job, Moses, Joshua, Ruth, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Solomon, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Hahum, Habbakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai and Zachariah NEVER employed it thus? Such silence is criminal, on the popular hypothesis. These holy men should and would have made every sentence bristle with the word, and thus have borne the awful message to the soul with an emphasis that could neither be resisted or disputed. The fact that the word is so seldom, and by so few, applied to punishment, and never in the Old Testament to punishment beyond death, demonstrates that it cannot mean endless.
The Apocrypha, B.C.150-500, Philo Judaeus, A.D.40, and Josephus, A.D.70-100, all refer to future punishment, but none of them use Gehenna to describe it, which they would have done, being Jews, had the word been then in use with that meaning. Were it the name of a place of future torment then, can anyone doubt that it would be found repeatedly in their writings? And does not the fact that it is never found in their writings demonstrate that it had no such use then, and if so, does it not follow that Christ used it in no such sense?
The first Christian writer who calls Hell Gehenna is Justin Martyr A.D., 140-166..
Tertullian, A.D. 200-220, was originally a Pagan; by birth, an African, and a lawyer by profession. He seems to have believed in the strictly endless punishment of the wicked, and to have argued against the doctrine of their annihilation, or, to use his own words, against the doctrine that "the wicked would be consumed, and not punished," that is, endlessly. He is the first, as far as can be ascertained, who expressly affirmed, and argued the question, that the torments of the damned would be equal in duration to the happiness of the blessed.
What I find very interesting is that Jesus and James only mentioned it. Doesn't it seem absurd that Jesus and James speaking of "hell" to the believers in Matthew 5:22, 29-30; 10:28; 9:42-47; 12:5 and James 3:6? Do they mean it literally? Seems to me when they speak of "hell", it is just figurative. It means a greater judgment while on earth, both the elect and the non-elect.
Also this site is a good read
http://www.helltruth.com/home.aspx
Hath hell no fury? Or are sinners suffering right now in eternal torment? A third view on hellfire is currently gaining greater acceptance in modern theological thought. Asserting that the belief of eternal torment is based on pagan philosophy, scholars such as England's Dr. John Stott argue that such a view of God is inconsistent with the biblical portrait of His character and with Scripture itself. Stott and other prominent Bible teachers propose that the fires will ultimately put the unsaved out of existence.
The Bible is not ambiguous on the subject. While Jesus did make it very clear that there is a real hell (see Matthew 10:28), He explained something vitally significant in the parable of the wheat and the tares.
"As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire," Jesus said, "so shall it be in the end of this world" (Matthew 13:40). The point is repeated just nine verses later in the parable of the net. The implications of such a position are obvious. First, in sharp contrast to the claims of Vatican City, hell is a real place where the "children of the wicked one" (Matthew 13:38) will be "burned" (verse 40). We also learn that, contrary to the other commonly held view on the subject, nobody has gone there yet.
It is worth noting that for the majority of times the word translated "hell" is used in Scripture, it literally means "the grave." In only 12 of the 54 times we read the word "hell" does the original word mean "a place of burning."
Hell "on Earth"
I was taught as a child that hell was indeed a real place where the wicked would burn forever and that it was located in the center of the earth. I always wondered what would happen if an oil company drilled all the way down to where hell was. And I remember watching the black-and-white movie Journey to the Center of the Earth with great interest!
But this is another area where the Bible leaves nothing to doubt. Revelation chapter 20 says that 1,000 years after the saints are resurrected, the wicked will be released from their graves. "And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them" (Revelation 20:9).
According to the Bible, the lost are burned "on the breadth of the earth." One of the great promises of the Bible to the pilgrims here below is that we can, "according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness" (2 Peter 3:13).
Just as God cleansed the earth in the days of Noah, He will cleanse the earth again at the end of the world, this time with fire. As in Noah's day, sinners will again receive their recompense, and once more it will happen "on the breadth of the earth." God's plan is to recreate this sin-marred earth and return it to its original Edenic splendor. The earth will be transformed into what the Bible calls a "lake of fire" (Revelation 20:10). Every last vestige of sin will be burned up, and the curse will be obliterated.
it amazes me how so many denominations and people believe in hell yet a loving God I can't see how they can be one and the same.
what are peoples views and if you believe in Hell why and how?
*hoping this doesn't turn into another religion slagging match*
