My NEW FACEBOOK friend Tyler wrote this. I thought I would share it with you all. I agree with him on this. LOVE KEITH
My personal belief is not in a "hell" but in Gehenna, as a literal place, geographical place. I think it can be easily proven that the modern concept of hell has pagan roots. The Jews never believed in a "hell" like we do, in an "eternity ...of fire" or "eternal damnation". They believed in Sheol, the "grave". Quite different from "Hades". Hades doesn't really interpret to Sheol, but it has been used by the KJV and others in antiquity, and passed down. The Church unfortunately really accepted much of the Greek and Roman pagan ideas of hell. I think we can also argue that Jesus never ever went around and said "repent, for hell is for you if you don't". Consequently , the apostles didn't either. Its really a medieval and modern phenomenon to use hell as a fear tactic in order to get people These are my opinions, and the opinions shared by my wife, but we don't really ever talk about hell at house church,perhaps because its not bibilcal and perhaps because we aren't preoccupied with what other's are doing, we are preoccupied with what Christ has already done and with what He has called us to do. I think, IMHO, that to concentrate on where others go is not the Gospel. The Gospel is Jesus, that's the good news, that we've been sanctified, forever and for all time, by his act on the cross. (Heb 10,11,12)
I agree with you Keith that the Gospel has real implications in the here and now and not just in the hereafter. However, I base my belief upon a literal fiery hell from several verses, but these are a few that really speak to me:
ReplyDeleteJohn the Baptist in Luke 3:17 - "Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his garner; but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable."
Revelation 20:15 - And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
I would love for you to be right and me wrong. As it is, as reasonable brothers in Christ, we can agree to disagree. Both of these verses (and others) do not use the greek words hades, gehenna or tartaurus that have come into question (led by the Rob Bell "Love Wins" debate). These verses clearly speak of a place of never ending fire where somebody is going to go. These parts of Scripture lead me to believe in a place called hell. I believe that John the Baptist clearly spoke about that place, as did the Lord Jesus and the Apostle John. Thanks man!
Thanks for the comment brother. I think you are the first to comment on my blog. Maybe I will keep doing it. When you say literal fiery hell do you mean a literal place where the spirit or soul of humans go immediately after death? And if so what scripture do you base that on? Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI'll be glad to share a few, but let me ask you this: do you like to read? I can reccomend a good book with numerous scriptural references called "Hell" by Bill Wiese. You might not agree with his conclusions, but it would give you a bunch of scripture to ponder over and consider. I'll post some of those verses later this weekend here. Keep up the blogging!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Randy. I love that book by Bill Wiese. I already have a copy. I use it as a reference. I also have read His other book called 23 Minutes In Hell. I went to a local Church and heard Bill speak. I disagree with his conclusions. But I love the way He lays out the belief of many christians so well. Blessings, Keith.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting ancient document to check out is the Apocalypse of Peter. It's pretty short and there are actually two variants of it. It's dated back to the 2nd Century (most scholars agree mid 2nd Century). One of the variants paints an extremely vivid picture of the torments of hell. It was one of the books that was a near miss for inclusion into the canon of Scripture. Now, let me preface with this: I do not believe it has any place in the Bible. I believe it is a pseudopigraphical text. However, what it does prove is that even in the early days of Christianity, hell was a concept embraced by many believers. You should be able to google it and find a copy of it, or there is a book of Gnostic and other texts called, "The Other Bible" you could probably check out at a library with it (and many other interesting non-canonical texts). I'm not sure how much of Wiese's personal visit of hell to believe, and I have not read 23 Minutes in Hell. However, I thought his book Hell was well researched and an interesting, approachable work on it. I love to read things I agree and disagree with. The last two books I read, "Love Wins" by Rob Bell and "Forged" by Bart Erhman present views I don't agree with, but I believe it's important to read outside of our own views in order to stay informed, intelligent and even open minded.
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