If God is so forgiving…why did he create hell?
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Hell\n\nDefinition: The word “hell” is found in many Bible translations. In the same verses other translations read “the grave,” “the world of the dead,” and so forth. Other Bibles simply transliterate the original-language words that are sometimes rendered “hell”; that is, they express them with the letters of our alphabet but leave the words untranslated. What are those words? The Hebrew she’ohl´ and its Greek equivalent hai´des, which refer, not to an individual burial place, but to the common grave of dead mankind; also the Greek ge´en·na, which is used as a symbol of eternal destruction. However, both in Christendom and in many non-Christian religions it is taught that hell is a place inhabited by demons and where the wicked, after death, are punished (and some believe that this is with torment).\n\nDoes the Bible indicate whether the dead experience pain?\n\nEccl. 9:5, 10: “The living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all . . . All that your hand finds to do, do with your very power, for there is no work nor devising nor knowledge nor wisdom in Sheol,* the place to which you are going.” (If they are conscious of nothing, they obviously feel no pain.) (*“Sheol,” AS, RS, NE, JB; “the grave,” KJ, Kx; “hell,” Dy; “the world of the dead,” TEV.)\n\nPs. 146:4: “His spirit goes out, he goes back to his ground; in that day his thoughts* do perish.” (*“Thoughts,” KJ, 145:4 in Dy; “schemes,” JB; “plans,” RS, TEV.)\n\nDoes the Bible indicate that the soul survives the death of the body?\n\nEzek. 18:4: “The soul* that is sinning—it itself will die.” (*“Soul,” KJ, Dy, RS, NE, Kx; “the man,” JB; “the person,” TEV.)\n\n“The concept of ‘soul,’ meaning a purely spiritual, immaterial reality, separate from the ‘body,’ . . . does not exist in the Bible.”—La Parole de Dieu (Paris, 1960), Georges Auzou, professor of Sacred Scripture, Rouen Seminary, France, p. 128.\n\n“Although the Hebrew word nefesh [in the Hebrew Scriptures] is frequently translated as ‘soul,’ it would be inaccurate to read into it a Greek meaning. Nefesh . . . is never conceived of as operating separately from the body. In the New Testament the Greek word psyche is often translated as ‘soul’ but again should not be readily understood to have the meaning the word had for the Greek philosophers. It usually means ‘life,’ or ‘vitality,’ or, at times, ‘the self.’”—The Encyclopedia Americana (1977), Vol. 25, p. 236.\n\nWhat sort of people go to the Bible hell?\n\nDoes the Bible say that the wicked go to hell?\n\nPs. 9:17, KJ: “The wicked shall be turned into hell,* and all the nations that forget God.” (*“Hell,” 9:18 in Dy; “death,” TEV; “the place of death,” Kx; “Sheol,” AS, RS, NE, JB, NW.)\n\nDoes the Bible also say that upright people go to hell?\n\nJob 14:13, Dy: “[Job prayed:] Who will grant me this, that thou mayst protect me in hell,* and hide me till thy wrath pass, and appoint me a time when thou wilt remember me?” (God himself said that Job was “a man blameless and upright, fearing God and turning aside from bad.”—Job 1:8.) (*“The grave,” KJ; “the world of the dead,” TEV; “Sheol,” AS, RS, NE, JB, NW.)\n\nActs 2:25-27, KJ: “David speaketh concerning him [Jesus Christ], . . . Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell,* neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.” (The fact that God did not “leave” Jesus in hell implies that Jesus was in hell, or Hades, at least for a time, does it not?) (*“Hell,” Dy; “death,” NE; “the place of death,” Kx; “the world of the dead,” TEV; “Hades,” AS, RS, JB, NW.)\n\nDoes anyone ever get out of the Bible hell?\n\nRev. 20:13, 14, KJ: “The sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell* delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their
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Some Christians actually believe that burning in hell is God's idea. They have accepted a perversion of the scriptures without ever wondering if the translations have been mis-translated.I have been a Christian 32 years and this year I actually researched the horrible untruth "Hell." The Holy Spirit will bring us into more and more truth and expose lies and false doctrines.As with lots of Christian stuff we forget parts of the Bible whilst emphasising others. This gospel is good news! I believe all die. All rise from the grave when Jesus returns and everyones life is opened up and bare before God.. Those who have a relationship with God are resurrected and receive new bodies that will never die. And those who have decided to ignore salvation and deliberately continue to do wrong things are forever lost. Unbelievers simply pass from existence. They perish. The dead know nothing. Jesus and God would never punish forever with unquenchable fire and torment. That's a pagan, heathan, wicked perversion. However upon saying that it is very hard to change your beliefs. Especially when people go years believing a doctrine and millions of others disagree and threaten curses etc.upon those who declare hell is a false doctrine. Little by little people will come to know the truth and be set free. Seek the truth and you will find it.
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Why is there evil and suffering in the world? \nThe question implies that if a good God exists, then evil shouldn't because God, being all powerful, should stop it. \nWe need to ask and answer two questions. First, what is evil? It is that which is against God. It is anything morally bad or wrong. It is injurious, depraved, wicked. Some acceptable examples might be murder, rape, stealing, lying, and cheating. Second, if we want God to stop evil, do we want Him to stop all evil, or just some of it? In other words, if just some of it, then why? If He were to stop only part of the evil, then we would still be asking the question, "Why is there evil in the world?"\n     Let's suppose that someone was about to commit murder. God would have to stop him, maybe whisper in his ear, or if that didn't work, do something a little more drastic, like have something fall on him, or stop his heart, or make his hands suddenly fall off. Anyway, God would have to do something.\n      What if somebody wanted to steal? God would have to stop him too, right? Undoubtedly, God's imagination would permit a more practical method than I have suggested, but the end results would be the same.\n      What about lying? If someone were to tell a lie, then to be consistent wouldn't you want God right there to stop that person from lying? After all, He couldn't let any evil occur, could He?\n      Let's take it a step further. Suppose someone thought something evil. Then, of course, God would have to step in and prevent him from thinking anything bad at all, right? The end result would be that God could not allow anyone to think freely. Since everyone thinks, and no one thinks only pure thoughts, God would be pretty busy, and we wouldn't be able to think. Anyway, at what point do we stop - at the murder level, stealing level, lying level, or thinking level? As your question implies, if you want God to stop evil, you would have to be consistent and want Him to do it everywhere all the time, not just pick and choose. It wouldn't work.\n      Evil is in this world partly because we give it its place but ultimately because God, in His sovereignty, permits it and keeps it under His control.\n      Then you might say, "Couldn't He just make us perfect and that way we wouldn't sin?" He already did that. He made a perfect angel, Satan, but he sinned. He made a perfect man, Adam, and he sinned. He made a perfect woman, Eve, and she sinned. God knows what He is doing. He made us the way we are for a purpose. We don't fully understand that purpose, but He does. \nGod is sovereign; He has the right to do as He wishes. He has the right to permit evil for accomplishing His ultimate will. How can He do that? Simple, look at the Cross. It was by evil means that men lied and crucified Jesus. Yet God in His infinite wisdom used this evil for good. It was on the Cross that Jesus bore our sins in His body (1 Peter. 2:24) and it is because of the Cross that we can have forgiveness of sins. \nConsider the biblical example of Joseph in the Old Testament. He was sold into slavery by his brothers. Though they meant it for evil, God meant it for good (Gen. 50:20). God is so great that nothing happens without His permission, and in that permission His ultimate plan unfolds. In His plan He is able to use for good what man intends for evil. God is in control.
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Hello, \n\nGod is very loving, why would God who is loving and forgiving send us to burn in hell? That goes against everything God stands for, doesn't it? But when we sin he wants to forgive us, in fact 2 Peter 3:8, 9 says, "However, let this one fact not be escaping YOUR notice, beloved ones, that one day is with Jehovah as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. Jehovah is not slow respecting his promise, as some people consider slowness, but he is patient with YOU because he does not desire any to be destroyed but desires all to attain to repentance." (I welcome you all to look this up in your own personal copy of the Bible) \n\nSo you see, not only does He want us to repent, He is also patent with us. How loving! Don't you think? It goes with His personality in fact we have the scripture at 1 John 4:16 that say "God is Love" which is very straight forward. So again, this would go against God’s personality. But back to your original question on Hell, do you know that after you die you are conscious of NOTHING of at all. Ecclesiastes 9:5 tells us that "For the living know that they shall die; but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten." So if all bad people were going to be burning in hell, this would go against what the Bible says, and we know God can not lie. Titus 1:2 says "In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began." Then we have the scripture in 2 Timothy 3:16 that says all scriptures is inspired by God.\n\n\nPsalms 146:4 "His spirit goes out, he goes back to his ground; in that day his thought do perish." So again, here we see that our thoughts are gone. If we were going to burn in hell, don't you think it would make sense that we would be aware of it. \n\n\nEzekiel 18:4 "The soul that is sinning it itself will die." Notice that it doesn't say that it will burn in hell, just that it will die. And as we learned above in Ecclesiastes 9:5 the dead are aware of NOTHING. \n\n\nHell is nothing more than the common grave of mankind. Webster’s Dictionary says that the English word "hell" is equal to the Hebrew word Sheol and the Greek word Hades. In German Bibles Hoelle is the word used instead of "hell"; in Portuguese the word used is inferno, in Spanish infierno, and in French Enfer. The English translators of the Authorized Version, or King James Version, translated Sheol 31 times as "hell," 31 times as "grave," and 3 times as "pit." The Catholic Douay Version translated Sheol 64 times as "hell." In the Christian Greek Scriptures (commonly called the "New Testament"), the King James Version translated Hades as "hell" each of the 10 times it occurs.—Matthew 11:23; 16:18; Luke 10:15; 16:23; Acts 2:27, 31; Revelation 1:18; 6:8; 20:13, 14.\n\n\nThe question is: What kind of place is Sheol, or Hades? The fact that the King James Version translates the one Hebrew word Sheol three different ways shows that hell, grave and pit mean one and the same thing. And if hell means the common grave of mankind, it could not at the same time mean a place of fiery torture. Well, then, do Sheol and Hades mean the grave, or do they mean a place of torture?\n\nBefore answering this question, let us make clear that the Hebrew word Sheol and the Greek word Hades mean the same thing. This is shown by looking at Psalm 16:10 in the Hebrew Scriptures and Acts 2:31 in the Christian Greek Scriptures. Notice that in quoting from Psalm 16:10 where Sheol occurs, Acts 2:31 uses Hades. Notice, too, that Jesus Christ was in Hades, or hell. Are we to believe that God tormented Christ in a fiery hell? Of course not! Jesus was simply in his grave.\n\nWhen Jacob was mourning for his beloved son Joseph, who he thought had been killed, he said: "I shall go down mourning to my son into Sheo
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If I understand you correctly, you want to know why Satan would choose to blow his citizenship in heaven?\n\nI think pride blinded him.  He didn't know about hell.  Hell wasn't a reality until the first betrayal so far as I know.
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Excellent question, for those who hold that Jesus preached in hell, moreover how can Jesus be so much more loving than the God of the Old Testament when he is going to damn most of mankind to eternal punishment for not liking him and that was never the case before? If that's love....
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The REAL issue is this: if God made us, and doesn't want us to sin, then he must have made a mistake, because according to christians, we do sin. If God did make us right, then sends us to hell for being imperfect, when he's the one who made us that way, then he's a sadistic a-hole. \n\nSo which one is he, incompetent or sadistic?\n\nMaybe there's a third option. There's no such thing as sin. Everything we go through down here is a lesson to learn.
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The short answer is that God did not create Hell, even in the Christian religion.  John Milton did that.\n\nThe idea of Hell really caught hold when John Milton wrote his epic poem "Paradise Lost", which is couched in religious terms of a world trapped in darkest flames and demons to torment the soul.  What people tend to forget is that John Milton didn't write "Paradise Lost" about any general torment of the spirit, but about the torment he felt at being struck blind, and they definitely forget he later regained his sight and was so overjoyed he wrote "Paradise Regained" to end the story of all he experienced at losing and regaining his eyesight... which is very central to the world of most of us and which would very easily torment our spirits if we suddenly lost that way of being able to understand the world since we are used, more perhaps than any other creature in Creation, to viewing the world as the world we can see.\n\nHowever, the literal versions of Hell tossed around are much more a testament to the limitations of those people who insist upon them than they are the nature of a God who would have no need of them.\n\nThey are the punishments imagined by people whose imaginations and spirits cannot get beyond the flesh of their own bodies to realize something more than the pleasures and torments of their flesh, and whose prejudices are so constricting they cannot imagine a being with enough wisdom and grace to move beyond them.\n\nHell is a thought of the foolish, since the need for it can easily be out-thought.  \n\nHas it occurred to no one that a God would not need such an inefficient an anachronistic idea as an eternal Hell when God could literally save all his faithful creations and punish and save his wayward ones in the same moment, simply by granting them a brief glimpse of His perfect view of the Universe so they might become utterly aware of the true nature of all they had done-- the joy they had brought, the misery they had inflicted, the moments of their lives they lived in grace and the moments where they chose instead to revel in the darkness-- and go through Hell as each and every soul utterly wailed with sorrow once it realized the true nature of every moment it had failed and repented with every fiber of its being of its sins not because it wanted to escape punishment but simply because it lamented hurting something else precious and pure, and could not bear realizing it had done so... and then bring them back to purity and Heaven and into His loving arms the very instant after, thereby helping each and every part of His creation find its own unique path to perfection through Him, all in less than a blink of an eye?\n\nHell is a notion for fools who do not understand true grace can move beyond the walls of judgment everyone ultimately imprisons themselves behind, and that true wisdom cannot move beyond their own hatred.  Nothing more.
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I have heard different theories....One...yes this is the hell...earth and your current life lessons...Another theory...Hell is the place of limbo some enter after death......yet another...hell is the place of satan, fire and suffering for eternity.....yet another...hell is a man made entity....yet another ...hell is a church made idea to scare followers into obaying and attending the church...One who says they know this answer...full of crap...cuz one will never know till the end...and even then we may never know.
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No person is greater than God. Nor were you ever promised a rose garden while here on this plane of existance. We are all here to develop our soul so that when we pass from this plane of existance to the next, we will be more prepared. Is it all understandable? At some levels, yes. Is there evil in the world? Absolutely. Did God create everything? Yes. And is everything around us, good and bad, something everyone can comprehend as being part of our learning experience? Unfortunately not. \nBy the way, God does not condemn people. Sexuality, immorality, sin . . . all are forgiven when our physical body dies and our soul moves on. I didn't say it would all seem to make sense. We are loved. We are forgiven. We are given challenges to help us grow. And we are told through the Manifestations of God that we are never alone here.
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No one knows. It is most likely imagery invented by man to impress upon others the horrible fate that awaits in hell. I do believe that if there is a real hell it will be like nothing man can concieve of. If hell is real then the rest of the religious dogma must also be legitimate. That would mean your best way to avoid hell is to follow whatever method is prescribed by your faith of choice.
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Well, yeah, an all-loving God would never let his creation (that he loves) burn in hell for their mistakes, unless he's not all-loving.
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The answer you'll get from most religious people is that they chose to disobey him. In doing so, they turned against him, and it is their own fault. Or something like that.\n\nWhat I'd really like to know is, if God is all-powerful, and knew what we would do before creating us, and due to the way he created us, is it not he who is ultimately responsible for all of our actions? How can you claim to have free will and at the same time say that all that happens, including all that we do, is part of his divine plan? Moreover, how can one attempt to justify an eternity of any magnitude of suffering as a fitting punishment for any acts committed over a finite period of time?
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That is true...Never thought of it like that...If he is supposed to forgive you for all your sins...then why do people threaten us with hell....Probably because it's all a bunch of bull sh!t.
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Hell doesn't exist as most peole think of it.  \n\nHell is GOING to happen. It isn't happening now.  It can't be because God is just and fair.  Why would he burn Cain--for slugging his brother and killing him--for 6,000 years longer than Hitler--who tortured and killed millions of people?  God wouldn't do that.  He says he will come and in Thessalonians he says "the dead in Christ shall rise first, and then those which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with Him in the clouds and so shall we ever be with the Lord."  So there IS a resurrection. And He says "the judgement shall set..." so the judgement will happen at the end of time. "Then shall the wicked be BURNED UP like stubble."  \nAlso, if people were going to burn forever it wouldn't say they go to everlasting 'punishment' (as in the RESULT of their being punished is forever), it would say they go to everlasting 'punishing.' And it doesn't. And the Bible wouldn't say, "From dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return." \nSin cannot exist in God's presence and will be zapped by the brightness of His coming--at the resurrection. So hell is for the people who love sin and hold on to it. People who must hold on to sin will get zapped, too: Natural result. But Jesus said, "If you love me, keep my commandments." So those who love Him won't be holding onto sin and won't get zapped.\n\nAlso if people were burning in Hell forever, people would live forever, and the Bible says, "The soul that sinneth. It shall die."  You can't be dead and alive (in hell or anywhere else) at the same time, can you?\n\nSo now that you've had a little enlightenment on what hell is and isn't:  I'd run it just like that. Cuz God never makes mistakes.
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Good question -- the same can be said about this business of torturing people FOREVER in hell just because they could not believe the gospel.  (It is rather hard to believe in invisible things, or in things that one is told and for which there is no proof.)  But if God loves to hate the people he supposedly loves, then that's the way it goes.
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God does not want anyone to go to hell. He would very much want each and everyone to believe in him and be saved, be baptized, and live for him. We make our own decisions. God will never force himself on us. He wants us to make that decision for ourselves. God doesn't send us to hell, we send ourselves to hell by disobeying God.