KINGDOM BUILDERS “BUILDING THE KINGDOM THROUGH THE WORD OF - TopicsExpress



          

KINGDOM BUILDERS “BUILDING THE KINGDOM THROUGH THE WORD OF GOD” PIERCING THE VEIL HELL (Part 1, Section 3) WHAT IS THE TRADITIONAL VIEW OF HELL? The term HELL is cognate to hole or cavern or hollow. It is a meaningful word formed from the Anglo-Saxon helan which means to hide. By derivation, hell denotes a dark and hidden place. Now a dark and hidden place can have many implications. For instance, it can be the grave, a pit, a hole, a cave, a hollow, an abyss, a dark cloud, a dark vaccuum, gross darkness, outer darkness, or the center of the earth. Surprisingly, the connotation for Hell as being in the center of the earth is never found in scriptures. It is a term contrived by carnal and natural men to describe a place they had difficulty explaining, once again, to invoke fear on their hearers that they might control them. Hell is type-cast as being compartmentalized in scripture. First, it is a place of Darkness & Death. The word Hell has been frequently translated from the Hebrew Old Testament word “Sheol’ and the Greek New Testament word “Hades“. They both allude to the realm of the dead, the grave and the pit. Secondly, it is a place of Judgment. Our familiar pictorial representation of the fires of hell comes from references to Gehenna, the rubbish dump outside Jerusalem. Bodies of animals and criminals were thrown there and fires were kept lit to burn the refuse. It was also historically a place of human sacrifice. These carry symbolism of destruction and God’s judgement. Thirdly, it connotes Separation From God. Paul aimed to discourage the Thessalonian believers from taking personal revenge on those who were persecuting them, by reminding them that God is just and will deal appropriately with those who deliberately cause trouble for believers. His words were unashamedly harsh on unbelievers, saying they will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might. (2 Thessalonians 1: 8-9). There is one word meaning Hell in the Old Testament and that word is “Sheol”. Sheol means underworld, grave, hell, and pit. It has been heretofore designated as the abode of the dead, a place of no return, a place without praise of God, a place of exile, and the place where the wicked are sent because of extreme degradation and sin. It is the world of the dead as like in a subterranean retreat including all its accessories and inmates. The righteous are not considered to be abandoned to it. The graphic verbage in Ezekiel and Habbakuk may be where some of the great artists got their renditions of Hell. I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to hell with them that descend into the pit: and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, shall be comforted in the nether parts of the earth. (Ezekiel 31:16). Yea also, because he transgresseth by wine, he is a proud man,neither keepeth at home , who enlargeth his desire as hell, and is as death,and cannot be satisfied but gathereth unto him all nations, and heapethunto him all people: (Habbakuk 2:5). By these descriptions, one can easily see how a vision of Hell can be rendered as a place in the nether parts or the center of the earth, and how that multitudes are going into this despicable place because of their trangressions. Hell, in fact, appears to be enlarging itself because of so many wicked people. Evangelists, preachers, ministers, pastors, and clergy worldwide preach and have a world view that more people will be in Hell than those who go to Heaven. I say, “What a miserable lot they are if they are no more effective in preaching the gospel than that.” Gehenna is Greek for Hell and was used by Jesus regularly. Most of the Jews of that day understood what he was talking about for Gehenna was a real place. It was actually the Valley of the Son of Hinnom located outside ancient Jerusalem. Gehenna was like a city dump. In Roman times, dead bodies of criminals and carcasses of animals were thrown into it while the fires were kept burning continually. Frequently, it is depicted as a place of punishment of the wicked. In ancient times, people would burn their sons and daughters in Gehenna while making sacrifices to Molech, the god of fire. It was considered by the Catholic Church as a type of purgatory where the wicked would suffer until their sins were atoned for. In the Sanhedrin 7, the maximum amount of time a sinner can spend in Gehenna is one year, with the exception of five people who are there for all of eternity. Who those five are is still a mystery. Because of the bloodiness of Israel, the word Gehenna became a metonym or a word used in the place of hell in the afterlife. Gehenna became a figurative name for the place of spiritual purification for the wicked dead. Afterwards, the soul will either ascend to the world to come, be destroyed, or continue to exist in a state of consciousness of remorse. In addition, Jewish folklore suggests the valley had a “gate” which led down to a molten lake of fire. With these things in mind, I think we can see where Jesus was coming from when he talked about Hell or Gehenna, And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in HELL. (Matthew 10:28), And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to HELL: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. (Matthew 11:23), And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of HELL shall not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:18), And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out , and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into HELL fire. (Matthew 18:9). The Gehenna Jesus was referring to was the Hell understood at that time to be the pit or place of eternal burning of refuse, dogs, animals, dung, and criminals. It was the last place anyone would want to go as it was not a respectable place to just be dumped out, and it certainly was not a respectable end as Jews didn’t believe in being cremated in any form or fashion. Only the sinner and despicable person was discarded here to meet such an untimely fate. When Jesus talked about not fearing people killing the body, but to fear him is able to destroy both soul and body in Hell, he did not mean he would do it, only that he could. The analogy was meant to be a contrast with obvious consequences. It was like saying if you don’t hate your mother and father more than you love me, you are not worthy of me. He never intended for men to hate their parents. But, he did want to have people to love God so much that in contrast to the love of their parents, it would seem like hate. Eventually the Hebrew term Gehenna became a figurative name for the place of spiritual purification for the wicked dead in Judaism. According to most Jewish sources, the period of purification or punishment is limited to only 12 months and every Sabbath day is excluded from punishment. After this the soul will ascend to the world to come, be destroyed, or continue to exist in a state of consciousness and remorse. When John spoke of Hell and Death being cast into the “Lake of Fire” in the book of Revelation, he was not talking about some spiritual place of punishment for the second death, but he was making an analogy to things already believed by Jews as being past a gate outside the city leading to the “Lake of Fire”. Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me. (Genesis 4:14). Cain is driven out from the face of the earth and the face of God. It is this separation that brought torment to his soul whereby he felt he was a fugitive and a vagabond. No longer did he have family roots with his parents or siblings, no longer did he have the comfort and solace of home, having his own ground to till, his own livestock or animals, no longer did he have fellowship with God. He was exiled to live a life as a recluse from all that was good and decent. This was a type of Hell. The third rendition of Hell in the Greek is Tartaroo. It is considered by Jews to be a subterranean region which is doleful and dark, and is the deepest abyss of Hades. It is a place to incarcerate wayward souls, the wicked dead, and those that have done evil deeds to live in eternal torment. For if God spared not the angels that sinned , but cast them down to hell , and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment. (2 Peter 2:4). Hell is used only one time in the New Testament as the Greek word Tartaroo. Because of the scripture, many stories and pictures of Hell depicting that the angels that sinned against God abide there because they were consigned to this eternal place of torment. Today, because of the Nicean dogma, many Christians, Pastors, Evangelists, Missioniares, Priest, and ministers of nearly every denomination hold to a view that Hell is in the center of the earth, a place of torments, has eternal punishments, and is the final resting place of the wicked dead. To have a different view of that, because of its long standing precedence in the Christian Church, one would be considered to be a heretic and an outcast because he dared to preach some type of Hell other than the one that had such a preeminence amongst those preaching and those preached to. One might even be dis-fellowshipped because of such a belief. The Catholic bishops consolidated, redefined, and unified the religions and beliefs of the Roman Empire into their new universal (catholic) Magisterium. As part of this process the standard Pagan teachings about Hades were assimilated. The imagery of the Nicene Hell was largely taken from the underworld abode of the god Hades and his part time lover Persephone. According to this belief there is a literal place in the center of the earth known as Hades, the abode of the dead. This became the subterranean world of eternal fiery torment known as Hell in Christian dogma. Never mind that the dogma has no biblical basis nor traditional standing, the Magisterium of the Church declared it exists and questioning them resulted in excommunication or worse. In time, the belief became dogma and was seldom if ever questioned again. The Magisterium proclaimed that the good news was that the Church had the power to ransom the devout from the flames and torture decreed by God! The threat of eternal damnation made their subjects docile and the collection plates rang with tithes, offerings and indulgences as sincere, deceived people sold their souls, and their lives seeking to purchase salvation from Hell through the Mother Church. (Wikapedia). The pagan origins of Hell are no different than the pagan origins of Santa Claus at Christmas, the Easter Bunny on Passover, Witches, Goblins, and Devils on all Saints Eve know as Halloween, and Mardis Gras on the religious day of Fat Tuesday with all is pomp and ceremony with its exalted idols of worship. Paganism has become a mainstay in the Christian Church from centuries back, and many belief systems originate with Greek gods, false religious ceremonies, bad doctrine, and carrying over of Judaism and the law into the Catholic Church which spawned tales for the uninformed, the imaginative, the deluded, the weak believer, and those carried away by fairy tales. Truth is that we need… Truth not old wives tales, science fiction, and perversion of religion.
Posted on: Thu, 16 Oct 2014 13:13:45 +0000

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