Subject: belief in hell? |
Bible Note: The long answer is this: The OT word for our "Hell" is "Gehenna", which is a composit word that evolved from two Hebrew words. In Nehemiah 11:30 "Gehenna" refers to the "valley of Hinnom". The Hebrew word gey ("valley") was joined with hinnom and became geenna in Greek, then Gehenna in English. As we track the term Gehenna through the New Testament we discover that it has taken on pagen influence and interpretation. Second Peter 2:4 - For if Elohim did not spare the Messengers that sinned but cast them down into fiery regions in chains of darkness ..."This verse speaks of judgement on fallen angels. The Greek inserts "tartaroo," derived from Tartarus. In 400 BC Plato wrote that souls were judged after death and those who recieved punishment were sent to Tattarus, a mythical, deep, dark, underworld pit or abyss, a gloomy place and dungeon of torment, where god-sized suffering awaits "sinners." This helped morph mythological ideas about Hell into Christian culture. Regarding Gey'Hinnom (Gehenna), Isaiah 66:24 - "And on their way out they will see the corpses of those who rebelled against me; for their worm will never die nor their fire be put out, and they will be held in horror by all humanity." Gey'Hinnom is a physical place just outside of Jerusalem that reminds Israel of not returning to her worship of Moloch. Christo-pagen theologians use Gey'Hinnom (Gehenna) to teach that the mythological hell of Tartarus and Hades is equivalent to the Biblical concept of separation from God. That there is eternal punishment (or separation from God) for sin is not in question. Exactly what it may be is arguable. I'm of a mind that when the rich man asked for only a drop of water, that he was using a figure of speech for a drop of the presence of the spirit of God. All people living have that drop of the presence of God, for it is that presence which enables God to call us unto His salvation; but how many realize that it would be torment to their souls, "Hell," to be separated from that drop of the presence of God? |