What Is Hell? Back to In Earth As It Is In Heaven
Recently, I spoke the truth of "hell not being eternal" to a person bound
by traditional christian beliefs. This led to this person's church elders
contacting me and basically telling me they love me, but I am no longer
welcome in their church building. No problem. I would rather be
outside religious walls than in them, anyway. When discussing this with
another friend of mine, he pointed out something very interesting to me.
He made the point that all one has to attack is the false doctrine of an
eternal hell, and the religious feel threatened in all their beliefs. And
truly, all their beliefs are indeed threatened if they cease to believe in
an eternal hell. Why? As my friend so wisely pointed out, their entire
traditional christian doctrines are founded on this false teaching which
invokes fear. It is fear of not pleasing God and suffering for an eternity.
Hence, their entire teachings are fear-based and not of love. Fear is
not of God, but man-made. Fear is torment, but God is love. Thus,
many today are asking, "What is hell?"
I pointed out to the traditional, fundamental christian who is bound by
religion, that the word "hell" is not in their bible (in the original greek or
hebrew), and neither are the words "forever" and "eternal," as in
"eternal punishment" or "eternal damnation." The bible word
mis-translated as "forever" or "eternal" is the greek word "aion," which
means "a set period of time" - meaning it has an end. The words
mis-translated as "hell" mean grave (sheol and hades) or a trash
dump outside of Jerusalem (gehenna). Jesus was simply pointing out
that hell is a condition of mind or incorrect thinking. He said, "All will
be salted with fire," when he taught about what has been mis-translated
as "hell." Fire is the spirit of truth, or God which salts us to eventually
arrive unto peace, love and joy. All of us will have to learn to think
differently and get rid of the thoughts that are contrary to truth - for what
is hell, but thoughts contrary to the truth of who we are and who God
is...separation in our minds from truth and from each other.
Why was I such a threat to the whole church that the elders would meet
and then call me? Was it out of love for me, believing me to be lost?
No, it was all motivated by fear - fear of losing control.
Here is a simple thought to consider:
Since God is all-knowing (omniscient) and all-powerful (omnipotent),
then why wouldn't He simply create those who He knew would make
the choices He did prefer and therefore not have to destroy anyone for
making the choices He didn't prefer? Otherwise, we have a
blood-thirsty God who is evil, if He created people whom he already
foreknew He would have to destroy because of bad choices. Could a
just God really make the choice to destroy maliciously, when there was
no need to create that which He knew HE would have to destroy later?
If God is all-powerful and all-knowing, He should have easily been able
to create those whom He desired and save us all from ever existing
and facing wrath, when we make incorrect choices. Again, religion
doesn't make any sense when you think it through logically.
I believe God foreknew everyone as stated in the bible:
"For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the
image of His son..." Romans 11:2
"God did not cast away His people whom He foreknew."
Romans 11:2
It says in the accounts of Jesus in the New Testament that when his
disciples asked him, "Who then shall be saved?" his reply was, "The
things that are impossible with men are possible with God." Jesus
answered them quite plainly that all would be saved, for in man's
sometimes limited thinking salvation of all is impossible. And when
you really think about it, mankind has put the concept of God creating
an eternal hell into religious teachings. For if this were true, the bible
would have mentioned hell as a creation of God in Genesis 1:1, "In the
beginning, God created the heaven and the earth." It does not say that
God created hell. Why is that? Man must have created hell in his own
mind; for that is what hell is...a state of mind.
Jesus told us who creates hell if we pay attention to Matthew 23:15
"What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees.
Hypocrites! For you cross land and sea to make one convert, and then
you turn that person into twice the child of hell you yourselves are!"
If we are eternal beings, then we have always been (in God - in spirit).
Therefore, we will always be. Anything that has a beginning, must have
an end. You cannot create eternal from the temporal. God will save all.
From a poem entitled, "A Ghost Speaks," by Gloria Ladd:
"Your joy is your heaven, your sorrows your hell."
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