Hell on (Google) Earth...

The Greek word 'Ghenna' translated 'hell' in the New Testament was Jerusalem's garbage dump.

Worms ate the refuse and fires burned off the methane...
...it is a metaphor...
...it was meant to convey the idea that unless the 'spirit' of a human is united to the 'Spirit' they will be 'put out with the garbage'.

The idea of an eternally burning hell did not originate in Hebrew thought...
...but was based on ideas of mans post-mortem state that originated with Homer and later developed by Plato...
...later introduced into Christian thinking as the church became progressively more Gentile...
...then popularized by Dante and exploited by prelates as a tool to increase church membership.
...dwarfed by other issues the Protestant Reformers simply inherited the idea.

There is, however, one example of 'eternal fire' open to scientific evaluation.

A description of an event was recorded in Jude 1:7

"Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire."

Sodom and Gomorrha were destroyed by 'aionios pur', literally 'eternal fire'.


Gomorrha can be seen on Google Earth at 31 19 38 N 35 22 36 E...
Sodom at 31°11'47.62"N 35°23'47.34"E

There is no 'eternal fire' at this location now...

So the term 'eternal fire' must mean 'complete destruction' by one who is 'eternal' and not a reference to a fire that never stops burning.

great research but, possibly erroneous conclusion. I seem to remeber that the idea of a burning hell for bad folks is not simply a manufacture of the Levant religions. There are plenty of other faiths and superstitions that postulate an inferno for people who don't behave. It's like Santa's lump of coal only a whole lot hotter.

Some scientists believe the cities were destroyed by a meteor-
Times Online UK article

They have found a clay tablet with an account of the event....this would explain the high temps and massive destruction.

Definitely a nuke.

Wait, maybe two nukes.

~recommended for Mature readers~


there is a coming Hell on Earth which everyone will endure during the Great Tribulation period.

www.electricsheepcomix.com...


Parts Include:

#1 -the Seven Seals
#2 - the Seven Thunders
#3 - the Attack of the Locusts
#4 - ~work in progress~




sorry i misspelt 'apocamon'


[edit on 28-11-2009 by St Udio]

Lattiitude of hell on earth are 52°01'N, 0°44'W.

One of the Digging for the truth episodes dealt with a possibility of the destruction being caused by the large amount of sulfur in the region.

Originally posted by aristocrat2
Lattiitude of hell on earth are 52°01'N, 0°44'W.

What is this facility?

The Hebrew Shoel was simply 'the grave'...
...there was no Hebrew belief in a conscious after-life...
...and their hope was in a God who could bring the dead back to life.

There was no real concept of resurrection until the Maccabeen period...
...who lived in the 'intertestment period (last 400 years BC)...
...they believed that if they fell in battle they would be resurrected...
...in the sense that their physical human bodies would be restored to them.

By the second temple Jewish period there were a variety of beliefs, much as there is now...
...the Pharisees believed in bodily resurrection at the end of the age and a transitional state in between...
...the Sadducees did not believe in a 'transitional state'...
...then there were Greek ideas from Homer.

An eternal burning hell concept was never a part of Hebrew thought and was only introduced into Christian ideas in about the 3rd Century.

The original Christian belief was based on the resurrection of Jesus...
...where there is a hint transitional state between death and resurrection...
...and the resurrection was 'transphysical' in that His fleshly body was 'used up' in the process of transformation beyond death...
...so that He appeared as a 'healed' Jesus that ate and could be handled...
...but was somehow 'interdimensional' passing through locked doors and appearing and dissappearing in remote places...
...while He was seen by more than 500 people.

The original Christian belief was that those who believed in Jesus and received His Spirit would experience a 'transitional state' and a resurrection at the end of the age into a 'transphysical body' like His...
...in preparation for eternal life on a transformed earth...
...everyone else would just die like animals and be considered as so much trash or road kill...
...which is no biggy because most non-believers/atheists expect this anyway.

The eternal burning hell idea was a Greek concept read back into earthy first century idiom.

reply to post by troubleshooter


What you have to know is that the cities we know as Sodom, Gomorra, Admah and Zebojim were cituated around or above giant "rock-pitch" mines. All the angels had to do to make it rain fire and brimstone from heaven down there would be to introduce an igniter, and the whole deposit could go ballistic and destroy the towns cituated on the surface above....



[edit on 19/12/2009 by Neo Christian Mystic]

Originally posted by troubleshooter
The Hebrew Shoel was simply 'the grave'...

Firstly, the Hebrew word spells out She'ol or something. It translate "the abode of the dead", a word you don't have in English. But in Norwegian for instance we have the word "dødsriket" or "land of the dead". It translates into Hades in Greek, "the underworld". She'ol is typically a place below or inside the Earth. Datan was sucked alive into She'ol for instance. Below Jerusalem near the tomb of David, you find one of the entrances to She'ol. Just like there are several entrances to Hades in Greek lore, there are more entrances to She'ol in Biblical litterature.

Originally posted by Neo Christian Mystic
reply to post by troubleshooter

 

What you have to know is that the cities we know as Sodom, Gomorra, Admah and Zebojim were cituated around or above giant "rock-pitch" mines. All the angels had to do to make it rain fire and brimstone from heaven down there would be to introduce an igniter, and the whole deposit could go ballistic and destroy the towns cituated on the surface above....

That is interesting...do you have some geological data to support it...
...I am aware of evidence for a bombardment by sulphur based materials in the area...
...but have not seen anything re the 'rock-pitch' mine thing.

reply to post by troubleshooter


Well, we are not even sure where the cities were in the first place. But Genesis has a story about this place, it says that the areas around the "Siddim valley" (the cities in question) rested uppon pitch mines, and that there are salt lakes there today. When Abraham looks out over the burning cities he recolects how it looks like the smoke from a smelting furnace. They probably used this "pitch" to cast metal, they were said to be extremely violent. I guess this "pitch is either coal or some kind of petroleum.

[edit on 19/12/2009 by Neo Christian Mystic]

Originally posted by Neo Christian Mystic
reply to post by troubleshooter

 

Well, we are not even sure where the cities were in the first place. But Genesis has a story about this place, it says that the areas around the "Siddim valley" (the cities in question) rested uppon pitch mines, and that there are salt lakes there today. When Abraham looks out over the burning cities he recolects how it looks like the smoke from a smelting furnace. They probably used this "pitch" to cast metal, they were said to be extremely violent. I guess this "pitch is either coal or some kind of petroleum.

I will look into it further...the location is known and ruins of cities are there today.

Btw even wondered why Sodom has became associated with homosexuality?

Originally posted by troubleshooter
I will look into it further...the location is known and ruins of cities are there today.

Noone can say that the ruins in question are infact the given cities. They have found ruins where they believe the cities may have been.

Btw even wondered why Sodom has became associated with homosexuality?

Well, their customs included certain hospitality practices saying that whoever visited the city could be raped, whether it was a woman, man, grandmother, child or donkey, and typically in the town square where they held their ceremonies including ritual rape and many other to us incomprehensible things.