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Heaven, Hell & Afterlife
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| Metaphor | 47% | 658 votes | Total: 1410 votes | |
| Real | 53% | 752 votes |
Metaphor
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Add to FavoritesHell is out of character with an All-Loving God. I guess that puts me on the metaphor side.
It is the "Omni" things of God that cause problems: all-loving, present, powerful, etc, etc. The problem comes with reconciling justice and mercy. If no one goes to Hell, some argue, then justice is not served, and God is just. If one person goes to Hell, the God's infinite mercy is not present.
It's a thorny question and really, we cannot comprehend how to balance the two, and because of our religious upbringing have been taught one or another thing and believe what we have been taught to be true. Religion is really an attempt to understand God and our relationship with God and to fully do so, we would have to fully understand God. This is categorically impossible because God is vastly superior to anything we can comprehend. So we muddle through and decide what we decide.
In my opinion, our differences in opinion will not upset God nearly as much as they upset us.
Now that you have read my opinion, a little more information.
How do different religions describe Hell, if at all?
Before an iteration of the beliefs about Hell, an anecdote: When I was kid, we lived in Alaska for a few years. There were missionaries in our church trying to convert the Inuit to Christianity. When they described Hell as a place of fire and brimstone, the Inuit wanted to go because fire is warm. In order for them to get the concept across, they had to change the description of Hell as a place of eternally impossibly cold place.
We get most of our images and beliefs about the nature of Hell from the world of art: literature and paintings. Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy, John Milton's Paradise Lost, may be the best known.
Christian Hell, like many Christian beliefs are derived from those of Judaism. At the time of Christ, not all Jews believed there was a life after death. For those who did so believe, all dead people went to Gehenna. This word was translated as "Hell" when it came into the King James Bible. The Apostle's Creed states "He descended into hell. The third day He arose again from the dead." This concept was not the Christian view of Hell originally, but the common place of the dead, where all awaited resurrection.
Translation from one language to another is problematic, across cultures may be almost impossible (the Inuit-Missionary anecdote from above).
Now a very incomplete summary of beliefs:
The Bah' Faith describes Hell as a spiritual condition of remoteness from God. Glen Duncan in I, Lucifer has Satan describe Hell as the absence of God and the presence of time. CS Lewis in The Great Divorce describes Hell as a place where the sun is always almost setting and isolated from God.
Buddhism describes different versions of Hell, but all are temporary where negative Karma is used up.
Chinese religions describe Hell as a maze of underground chambers where we go to atone for the sins we commit.
Christianity (generally) teaches that Hell is a place of eternal suffering or punishment for unrepentant sinners. Opinions vary as to whether this is the place where unbaptized infants or those having never heard the Christian Gospel are damned.
Hinduism teaches Hell is a place we go to pay for our sins and since everyone has at least one sin in their life, everyone goes for a time to pay for them, eventually is reborn according to their Karma or eventually ascends to Heaven.
Islam teaches a Hell very similar to the Christian Hell, but with several levels. Dante may have used this model in The Divine Comedy. But it is not eternal punishment, but a place for being reconciled.
Judaism has no specific doctrine regarding the afterlife. Some traditions teach of Gehenna, a kind of purgatory.
Taoism has no concept of Hell, although popular belief populates it with demons who punish sin in innumerable and horrible manners.
In the above tabulation, I have left out many religions and over-simplified the concepts. There are many good books to read on this, some of which were noted above. An interesting read on this subject is The History of Hell by Alice K. Turner.
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Real
Imagine, if you will, waking up tomorrow in a world where people commit unspeakable evils towards one another for no other reason than because they can. Picture a place where the candle of compassion has been snuffed out in the hearts of everyone you will ever encounter, including yourself, ever again. Replace those lights of love, kindness and goodness with hearts of cold stone where darkness makes a home in every living soul until all are numb, empty and as good as dead men walking.
Some might say we don't need to imagine a world like this because the world can be just like this at times.
Ok , let me finish. Now, take away the mercy of God in all its entirety in which he generously pours out on the just and unjust, the wicked and the good, like a gentle rain that keeps us from being consumed by the fires of a corrupted and dark world.
Imagine, everything good in this life gone forever. And I do mean 'everything'. Everything that gives meaning to us on the most personal level, when the world is at its worst, trying to bring about our demise. Every flicker of light, every spark of hope that has carried us through our worst days so far. Imagine that light gone forever.
The world, even in the sick state its in today, doesn't seem that bad right?
Imagine what the world would be like if God packed his bags tomorrow and simply left us alone here to our own devices. Left us alone at the mercy of the world and dark forces that our beyond our comprehension. Whether you believe in God or not, acknowledge him or not, it does not matter. The results would be the same for all. For without God, there can be no goodness in anything. All goodness comes from God. All mercy comes from God. All love comes from God.
What kind of place would we be waking up in tomorrow if God's presence, felt in and through everything, was now absent?
We would be waking up in hell.
Now, let's take this one more horrifying step further. Imagine that after God left, we would never be able to follow after him, never be able to find him ever again.
I am terrified to the core of all that I am just trying to imagine such a fate.
Hell is very much a real place. It is the place, I pray, no one ever finds themselves in. The place where we are eternally separated from the presence of God.
If that isn't enough to wake us up, there's always the weeping and gnashing of teeth to consider.
My friends, we have an enemy, he's called the deceiver and he's very good at what he does. He's been doing it a long, long time. He wants to destroy us. He hates us because Jesus Christ has already defeated him for all time and he wants to take as many of us with him as he can. Why? Because God loves us and that is his only way at striking back at God. If he can convince us that there is no such thing as hell, then how much more of an advantage does he have at coming closer to convincing us that there is also no such thing as satan . Sounds like sound strategy on his part if you think about it: We have an enemy that can attack us any time he wants without worry of us striking back. Because as far as he would have us believe, there is no enemy for us to fight.
I pray for all of you out there, that do not know your loving heavenly Father, I pray that your ears would be open to his still small voice that desperately calls out to you. He loves you so very much and doesn't want any of us to perish.
I pray that it is never too late for any of you that do not know God's son, so that you will never have to reach the gate of heaven and have to see the sad face of Jesus Christ. And then hear the chilling and final words of, "Away, you evildoers, I never knew you."
I don't speak a fire and brimstone message. I'm not trying to scare you. I just know that the thought of being eternally separated from God, is the most terrifying and final thing that the soul will and should never have to experience.
I beg you, from one soul to another, if you hear God's voice calling you back, stop now. It's never too late. Turn around and run into his loving and open arms. God weeps for all his lost children. You would too.
Imagine that.
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Difference of opinion? Debate now.
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