FFF
Fight For Freedom
- Joined
- Apr 24, 2007
- Messages
- 691
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- 9
lol.
The very idea of Hell is just mind boggling.
It is one of the reasons I rejected Islam.
Of course modern Christians, Jews and even some modern Muslims, will say that Hell is just a metaphore - an allegory for the suffering one faces as a result of the 'realization' that one has hurt others.
But clearly that was not what Moses, Jesus or Muhammad described all those hundreds of years ago.
That's the updated PC version.
I'm not sure if Moses even mentioned anything on "hell" or some fiery place. If you see "hell" in an English Bible in the OT, it's a bad translation of the word sheol which has nothing to do with fire or torment.
Also, there's nowhere in the Greek and Hebrew Biblical texts where it mentions eternal torment. Most of the words being translated "eternal", "everlasting", and "forever and ever" don't actually mean that. They are more of like if I were to say, "a long time" which may or may not be an eternity.
"Torment" is used very infrequently in the Bible with reference to final judgement. In Rev. 20 you might find it saying something like, "the devil, the beast, and the false prophet are going to be tossed in the lake of fire where they'll be tormented forever and ever." That only applies to three beings, none of which might even be human, and as I mentioned above "forever and ever" is a bad translation of the Greek that is really saying something like "into the ages of ages." It then goes on to say something like, the wicked will have their part in the lake of fire.
Jesus used "gehenna" as a reference to the valley of Ben Hinnom, a place where garbage and dead bodies of criminals were burned. Those criminals tossed in there, did they suffer any? No, they were dead.
Most other references to final judgement in the Bible involve the words "condemned" and "contempt" and maybe one other that isn't torment. The problem with these statements, though, is that Christians who believe in eternal torment based on traditional teaching, automatically staple that belief on top of statements like "eternal condemnation."
It's amazing how many Christians can believe that God is going to torment people for an eternity, and then talk about how God is so loving and merciful. Many Christians won't let this go because they think they see it in our crappy, popular English translations.