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Heaven, Hell & Afterlife
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Add to FavoritesIs hell real or not? Is it something created to scare children into acting a certain, kinda like the Bogeyman? As stated in other articles, you can't physically go there, so Hell being a real place doesn't seem to work. Is it real but on a different plane of existence to where we exist? That's more possible. But again, in my head, it doesn't seem to work. Granted my view is atheistic and so this entire concept is a strange one to me.
It should be noted, however, that Hell doesn't even exist in the Bible until the New Testament. Before that, God's laws were obeyed purely out of people's love for Him. What seems probably is that when the New Testament was being added to the Bible, which I believe was in something like the second century but I could be wrong about that, the Church was starting to notice that people weren't adhering to the laws of God. A more cynical view would be that they saw church attendance numbers go down and so saw a fall in their income. Either way, the concept of punishment for not following God's path was created, and has since gone on to become the bed rock of Christian faith. (The guy who came up with the idea should have copyrighted it, he would have made a mint!) Now if you don't do what the Bible instructs you are punished with eternal damnation to hell and will suffer from now until eternity. This must have had a serious effect on the number of "good" Christians at the time.
The very idea of eternal suffering leads us away from the image of God that we are exposed to. Generally speaking, God is all about love. He will love you no matter what you have done, as long as you repent your sins and follow His path. He is portrayed as being forgiving, kind, gentle, etc. The concept of Hell throws not so much a spanner in the works, as the entire tool box. If you do not follow God's way, you will go to Hell and be punished forever more with the worst suffering imaginable. So, God is saying "Do things my way or I will cause you pain". This doesn't seem very kind or forgiving; it's cruel and egotistical. For those that would argue that it's the Devil that physically administers the punishment, if God created everything, he will have created the Devil as well. It seems a little short sighted to me that you would create something that is there to tempt your creations away from loving you. Not to mention that God would have to allow anything like that to happen, much like the tempting of Job. At the time, if I'm not mistaken and please correct me if I'm wrong, Satan was sitting next to God throughout the entire process of testing Job's faith. It was a bet between the two of them, the image of which, God and Satan sitting on a couch, bowl of popcorn between them, placing bets on humanity like their watching a sporting event, is an unsettling thought, even to the non-believer.
The concept of Hell seems to contradict certain other teachings of the Bible, and given the timing of it's addition to the Bible, I would have to conclude that it doesn't exist, and was in fact created as a metaphor, probably for the guilt people felt having wronged another, to deter evil-doers.
Learn more about this author, E. Xangell.
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Real
Hell is as real as you are! If you want to you can call it a metaphor, but you would only be deceiving yourself. Hell is not a representation of another place to be presented as something like doing time out for being bad. No, it is a place to spend your eternity in. Each and everyone of us is going to spend eternity somewhere. We are all destined to eternity.
Whether you believe in GOD or not does not matter, the bible strictly says "None believers will go into the judgment seat of GOD"; there the books will be open to them and their life will be flashed before their eyes. One question will be asked of them; "What did you do with MY SON, Jesus Christ? As their life is running in fast pace in front of them the reel will stop at every opportunity that was given to that person to accept Jesus Christ into their life. From the time of understanding to their last breath, all the opportunities will be rerun and when they are found wanting, judgment will be issued; Guilty as charged and the condemned person will be ushered into Hell.
When I was a teenager, I had a friend who loved to put bumper stickers on his car. One I remember most said, "Heaven does not want me and Hell is afraid I'll take over". Well nothing could be further from the truth. That statement claims that there will be chaos or lack of order in Hell. Not so, my heathen friends, not so. Jesus Christ himself will be the warden. No one will be allowed to make a move in hell. Why because is it hell. There is no freedom in hell. Once the devil is taken out of the world, he will also be there, but no one will know exactly where because he will fall in just like everybody else. There is a space designated for everyone who WANTS to go there. GOD does not send anybody to hell, YOU send you to hell. GOD wants no one to go to hell, that is why he sent his only begotten son, to die on the cross for mine and your sins. He took upon himself ALL the sins of the world, already committed and those that were to be committed. The only thing that will keep you out of hell will be to accept Jesus Christ into your life. Buddha will not keep you out of hell, Islam will not keep you out of hell, Scientology will not clear you enough to keep you out of hell, Catholicism, Mormonism, Jehovah's Witness and all the other ism's will only condemn you to hell. The only way to get out of going to hell is by having a "RELATIONSHIP WITH JESUS CHRIST AS YOUR LORD AND SAVIOUR". Nothing else will do, non believers will say that there is no hell and no heaven, but how sure of that are they? How sure of that are you?
Hell is very real, as real as the air you breath, the sky above and the sun rays you feel. As real as the night is black, the wintry air is cold and the summer temperature is hot. Be not dismayed my friend hell is waiting, don't let it wait on you. To make it more real and fathomable, below is my take on hell,
In the movie "Superman" starring Chris Reeve, there is a court scene at the beginning. Three individuals are being tried for betraying their homeland. Having been found guilty they are put into thin disks and sent into outer space. Well hell is going to be similar to those disks. Just like the c.d. or dvd's that you have at home, they are not just laying around all over your house, you have them in racks with little space between them. So it will be in hell. Everyone who condemns himself there will be in their own little thin holder, not being able to move a muscle, inches away from another sinner. There will be killers who failed to repent, thieves who took what was not theirs, down to the sweet little old lady who would have given you the shirt off her back while on earth, but failed to acknowledge and accept Jesus Christ into their lives. All lined up in row after row. Each and everyone of those individuals crying at the top of their lungs, gnashing their teeth, relating to the unquenchable thirst, the pain of the heat and cold of hell, being instilled in a thin plate with no allowance for movement. Itches that can't be scratched, pains that can't be alleviated, and all because in there living days, there was no hell.
The question has been asked; How sure are you that there is no hell? A good student will research an article to the fullest to find all the facts before they turn in a paper to determine what grade they will receive. The grade in question here is will you receive Heaven or will you receive Hell, I implore you don't leave earth with a bad grade. Remember you can not get to heaven because of your believing Parents, uncles, aunts, or children. You have to do it yourself. Jesus said "Those who are not for me are against me". There is no middle ground, no fence sitting. Choose you this day who you shall serve, as for me and my house we shall serve the Lord.
Learn more about this author, Ekim Seyer.
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