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New Perspective On Hell..

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posted on May, 12 2008 @ 10:30 PM
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Many of us get wrapped up in the concept of damnation for the spirits of those who sin against God and do evil upon the Earth. I think those who do so, the believers, have to get the right -- correct version down pat to believe. Otherwise .. what are you believing? Something wrong! That means make-believe .. just like non-believers say all believers are, delusional and thinking up things. Well, if you can't find the one correct truth regarding spirits of men, where they go upon bodily death, and if their Earthly actions influence this, and top of that how long they stay in whatever state after bodily death, but go and pick the one you "think sounds the best or most logical", you are in effect believing whatever you want.

The Books of the Old and New Testament are only written the way that they are. There are many outlooks and interpretations, but in the end, only a few can be close to the one correct outlook. I am not saying there's only one correct outlook in all of creation, don't misunderstand me. I am saying there's only one truth per religion, only one truth per idea, concept, or story of history, whatever. There's only one true way something happened, then the story gets told and people believe what they want; it's the same thing for religions. As an example .. of the Sunni and Shiite sects of Islam that fight over beliefs, only one group is actually correct, or neither groups are correct, and the Sufi sect is correct. But they cannot all be correct especially when their ideas and stories conflict with each other. That can't all be true. Buddha only taught one way. His followers interpreted it, branches split, the religion/philosophy moves to other nations, it changes there as well. But there was only one original truth there, in that movement, and all the differing sects? they're attempts at finding it.

What does this have to do with classical "Hell", well, let me explain how it correlates. In the Judeo-Islamic-Christian belief foundation, "Hell" is the dominion of spirits that did evil upon the Earth in bodily form and are being therefore punished eternally, or for an extremely long amount of time. Now, where I say Judeo-Islamic-Christian, I don't mean all sects within, I am generalizing. The problem here is that one follows another, and Catholicism is largely responsible for the concept of Hell which we have today. Catholicism, incase anyone didn't know, is the merging of Paganism and Christianity; it is not Christianity in true form, that is, the literal way Jesus did it and taught it. There are new concepts, new additions, there are removals, and so on, all sanctioned "by God" according to them, but who are they? And this is just a justification to interpret the holy text beyond its' original writers' intent.

So in the Catholic version, where the concept of classical hell comes from to alot of people who do not even believe at all, let's examine that one, also because it happens to be the most ridiculous. Here we have a place described not by Jesus, but by Cardinals and Popes through the 1st millenium CE/AD. In this hell, there are levels, and each level has various tortures for the spirits that are there, and it is all described in very physical, flesh and blood terms, yet is a spiritual realm without flesh. already a contradiction. In this Hell, you spend eternity, eternity! That is .. all the time that is left in time, and then when time ends, you stay there for infinity. How stupid is that? I've never known of a punishment which did not have a rehabilitating effect over time on the object that is subjected to it, and you tell me the most high God isn't wise enough to understand that? And isn't compassionate to pull those from the fire after they've burnt for their sins long enough? Give me a break.. what kind of God is that?

So we read that Satan disobeys God, and rebels against God even though God created him and his angels. He takes 1/3rd of the angels, and attacks God and his angels. Satan obviously loses, and is cast down to Earth with the remnant of his angels, to be stuck here until the end of days, or the end of time. From here, they torment men, tempt them, frustrate them, create situations for them to fail, help them fail, influence their thoughts and decisions, influence their actions, and generally anything else they can do to get influence over men. Satan and his angels do this why? We read that they are spiteful and extra spiteful at men, whom God created and to them were the cause or.. the need to rebel against God, etc. So they try to get at God in any way that they supposedly can, and that is, through men. So they bring as many men's souls down with them is the concept.

But, here's where the common Catholic concept goes wrong. Those spirits do not stay in this state for infinity. It states that Satan himself and all of his minions would be thrown into the lake of fire to be totally destroyed forever, at the end of days. It also states that right before this, all beings will be judged. So .. the one's that have been tortured for all these millenia get to come up and stand before God and be judged. And you're telling me that this soul would not have been forever changed by these millenia of punishment and torture in "Hell"? That he would not beg his God to take him back and to redeem him? And that God the compassionate would not stop this torture in a sort of .. "time served" sentencing kind of manner? This is exactly what God will do, and if you have to go to so called Hell in the mean time, it is to learn the "hard way" what you did not learn on Earth in the flesh.

But the Jewish books don't have a Hell, whats up with that? All they have is "the grave" aka Sheol, and the garbage dump, aka Gehenna. Gehenna, a garbage dump outside of Jerusalem where idolaters used to sacrifice babies to Babylonian-like deities where all the trash was thrown out and all the lepers lived. It was a literal, physical place. And this was used by Jesus to describe Hell in such a manner that if you waste your life you are throwing it away, not that you'll spend eternal damnation in hellfire! If Satan cannot physically hurt you in the flesh directly, as in manifest and stab you, why should he have any more power over you in the spirit alone? Particularly if you are even closer to God in the spirit in the sense that you can experience God and God's angels/beings/power in a more "real" way in spirit form, as opposed to in human, flesh form.

It was the early Catholic Church who took the original texts and first threw some out and said they didnt want them, then took the rest and translated them into the language of the day, Greek I believe, possibly Latin. When this was done, entire words and phrases were changed, some words were left out, others were changed to something like it in definition, but not precisely it. For example, Hell replacing Gehenna the garbage dump. They also perpetuated all of the concepts of demons having the power that they do like possession, spending eternal damnation in Hell being tormented by an evil overlord while God sits idle, etc. And it was all to gain control over the entire Christian masses with fear. With fear, they could be led in any direction, they'd follow any new laws, mandates, or introductions to the religion, whether they were obfuscated as "from the original way, from Christ teachings", or as something added by divine right by the Pope of the day.

The truth is, on Judgment day, after the so-called "Battle of Armageddon" and all of this .. when all humans have been slain in combat and in chaos on the Earth, all spirits will be risen to be judged; should any be left alive at this point they will be judged, being dead or alive makes little difference at that point. If you had been a spirit who has been resigned to the grave, that is Sheol, a concept the Catholics built Hell upon, a state of spiritual "offness" or sleep .. literally "in the grave", if you had been one of these spirits .. upon judgment God wouldn't throw you into a lake of burning fire that destroys you even in spirit, come on. If everything would be equal and fair and as proper as proper can be defined, as good as good can be defined, if God put you on the Earth in the flesh to learn something in the spirit, don't you think perhaps .. screwing up and spending some time in "spiritual offness", or Sheol, was part of the plan too? And so when risen for judgment, would you not rise with lessons learnt, surrounded by benevolent beings, in front of God the benevolent, with a feeling of love emanating from all directions to be judged? And if so .. don't you think God would accept your soul, which he created himself, whom he allowed subjection of temptation in the flesh via Satan, all to learn this or that or to grow spiritually, at judgment?

I tell you this today my friends.. and you may be shocked, but at the end of days, with the POSSIBLE exception of the most vile like Hitler, the murderers, rapists, drug dealers, thieves, liars, adulterers, and idolaters, lets not forget non-believers will all be judged and accepted by God, not left in a so called Hell to rot which will not exist at that point in time, or should i say timelessness, considering time would have ended if judgment was occurring. And the real truth is, even people like Hitler will probably be redeemed! That is God's love, it truly has no bounds. If Satan went to God and repented and apologized and promised to serve God for infinity, never to rebel again, God would redeem Satan himself. This is the true way.

[edit on 5/12/2008 by runetang]



posted on May, 13 2008 @ 12:11 AM
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The new testament states the same as the old, but instead of sheol for grave, they have hades. Nobody is currently in "hell", unless you are talking about the original word used in such verses, which means simply the grave. When people die they return to the dust of the earth, the grave, they don't go to some firery kingdom ruled by satan.

Genesis 3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art , and unto dust shalt thou return.

Psalms 104:29 Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust.

Ecclesiastes 12:7 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

Ecclesiastes 9:5 For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.

The lake of fire, gehenna, is at the resurrection to judgement, and it says this fire destroys....

Matthew 10:28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell (gehenna).

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

You don't go into the lake of fire, and after a certain amount of time come and out and say sorry, you are simply destroyed, finito, kaput, sayonara, aur revoir, goodbye. This is the eternal punishment, you are wiped from existance. Eternal death, the second death.

Revelation 21:8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.



posted on May, 13 2008 @ 12:23 AM
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I honestly think that hell is a form of quarantine. The more an evil a person is the longer he must burn to destroy the evilness within his soul. But thats just the way I look at it. If there is no hell, then hell, I am a happier man.



 
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