Why Hell cannot exist.

reply to post by slymattb


If you had read any of the recommended threads you would know that the word hell means to bury or cover. So, in the sense that we all are buried or covered (by earth or water) when we die, then yes, we ALL go to hell. Hell is a state of being; a condition. It is not a place. It is a being verb, not a noun.

I am interested in your considered and studied opinion. I only ask that you consider and study before voicing it.

Originally posted by JessicaS
Maybe I'm one of the uneducated ones... but I know there is a hell... and it isn't a pit of fire that burns your body and bones for all eternity. When your dead your body stays in this plane your spirit goes to the next. A spirit can't catch on fire. It can't burn. So, the hell of fire, your referring to can't exist.

Hell is you being trapped in your own petty faults and sins, and you determine what your hell will be like. I believe that only the truly evil go to hell and go for eternity. The rest go to what the catholics refer to as purgatory. This is like hell but it's to teach our spirit what we couldn't learn on earth. What this is changes per person, so no solid explanation can ever be given.

Heaven, too is a personal experience, and is whatever you would be the most happy and joyful in. One person's hell can be another persons heaven.

There is no purgatory in the bible. When you die, you go to judgement. Either you have Jesus, and you go to heaven, or you don't and you go to Hell and you do have a body in both Heaven and Hell. Hell is a real place, the bible describes it endlessly. John Paul II was the first Pope to denounce Hell as being a real place. Why would the Catholic church proclaim Hell was a real place until only recently? Either the Pope was a deceiver or was himself deceived by Satan. The subject most frequently spoken of by Jesus is Hell and what it will be like for those who go there. You can't claim to be a Christian and deny the existence of Hell. Either you believe in all of the bible or you believe in none of it. There is no middle ground. To say there is no Hell, is to call Jesus a liar since he speaks of it so frequently. What do you think your chances of being saved are after saying Jesus lied? The churches today have gotten away from teaching about Hell because that is what Satan wants and it is a distasteful subject and keeps church attendance and tithes down. People want to hear good things when they go to church and the churches are accommodating them. Satan has the churches in his grasp and wants nothing more than for you to stop fearing the wrath of God. Read the bible for yourself. The King James or Youngs Literal Translation. Other versions were written by Satan to deceive. The differences can sometimes be subtle, but any departure from the original meaning, however small, is blasphemy. If you truly are a Christian and believe in the bible, then Hell and all it's torments are real. If you don't believe, then you will find out just how wrong you are in due course.

[edit on 3-9-2007 by animekenji]

Originally posted by outrider
If god is all forgiving, why would he send us to hell to burn.

God doesn't send you to hell. YOU send you to hell. By not accepting that Jesus died for your sins you take the punishment for your sins on yourself. God is holy, and to be holy means not to tolerate the existence of sin in his presence. God does love you, but in order to remain holy he MUST punish sinners. When you refuse to accept Jesus as savior, he cannot take the punishment for your sins, but someone has to, and that someone is YOU.

Originally posted by SpeakerofTruth
A reason it can't... Luke 3:6 "ALL flesh shall see the Salvation of God"... "Hell" is a fairy tale installed into "doctrine" as a method of control through fear. It's really that simple.

[edit on 17-7-2007 by SpeakerofTruth]

A quote taken out of context. You must read the surrounding verses to understand this correctly. These words were spoken by John the Baptist as he went forth to proclaim the coming of the Messiah. The "Salvation of God" of which he speaks, is the Lord Jesus himself, who all will see at the time of his coming. It does not mean that all will be saved, whether they believe in him or not.

Originally posted by junglejake

Originally posted by SpeakerofTruth
A reason it can't... Luke 3:6 "ALL flesh shall see the Salvation of God"... "Hell" is a fairy tale installed into "doctrine" as a method of control through fear. It's really that simple.

[edit on 17-7-2007 by SpeakerofTruth]

So Jesus was just telling a fairy tale in order to create control through fear?

"There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

"The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.'

"But Abraham replied, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.'

"He answered, 'Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.' "Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.' " 'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.' "He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.' "

(Luke 16:19-31)

"He committed no sin,
and no deceit was found in his mouth."

(1 Peter 2:22 quoting Isaiah 53:9)

If there was no deceit in His mouth, what on earth was Christ talking about regarding the Rich Man and Lazarus?

In 1 Peter 2:22 it is referring to Jesus himself who committed no sin and did not deceive with words. In the surrounding passages it tells servants to obey their masters, whether they be cruel or kind, and to remember Jesus who died on the cross and to be like him. I don't think it relates to the story of the rich man and Lazarus. The story of the rich man and Lazarus is to show that those who make a comfortable life for themselves on Earth and disregard the suffering of others will go to hell while those whose suffering they ignored will have a place in heaven above them. It also tells, when the rich man cries out to Abraham to go and save his brothers from his fate, that they have the words of Moses to save them and that if they fail to heed his words, then no apparition of one dead will sway them away from evil. Today, we have the bible, just as the rich mans brothers then had the words of Moses. We can choose to believe it, or not and face the consequences.

Originally posted by dbrandt

Originally posted by SpeakerofTruth
A reason it can't... Luke 3:6 "ALL flesh shall see the Salvation of God"... "Hell" is a fairy tale installed into "doctrine" as a method of control through fear. It's really that simple.

[edit on 17-7-2007 by SpeakerofTruth]

People in hell realize they were wrong about Jesus being the Savior, but they're still in hell.

[edit on 17-7-2007 by dbrandt]

People in Hell have no more concept of Jesus than they had in life. To know that Jesus exists and can save them would give them hope and hope cannot exist in Hell. Hell is an eternity in torment with no hope of rest or release. If you are a non-believer now, you will remain a non-believer to eliminate all trace of hope from your heart.

Originally posted by lombozo
So, you say that hell can't exist, eh? Try livin' in my house when my wife get's mad. And she's like all yellin' and stuff. I swear she get's one eyebrow when she gets mad. Yep, hell does exist!

That's nothing, though I sympathize.

Remember this famous line: (From IMdB):

Bill Cosby: [when his wife sees that he has given the kids cake for breakfast] I've always heard about people having a conniption but I've never seen one. You don't want to see 'em. My wife's face split. My wife's face split and the skin and hair split and came off of her face so that there was nothing except a skull. And orange lights came out of her hair and there was glitter all around. And fire shot from her eye sockets and began to burn my stomach and she said, "WHERE DID THEY GET CHOCOLATE CAKE FROM?"

Classic!

---

But back to the idea of Hell.

Here's a twist. Where we are now, alive, is actually 'Heaven'. Living, loving, experiencing.

Everything else (chaos, nightmares, the void) is Hell.

Enjoy every second of this great gift of being alive. (woo-hoo).

When I read threads like this I can almost understand what the atheists are complaining about when they criticize Christians.
There are plenty of verses that talk about the dead not knowing anything, not being ABLE to praise Yahweh, etc. The story of Lazarus and the rich man was a parable about the Gentile believers and the Jewish people. All this was explained with verses, literal translations, source reference, etc. on the threads I recommended earlier. I think I'm going to go on over to the atheist chat room. At least they check out your references/sources.