| Biblical Teachings |
| What about Hell? Is it a Lie? |
| The teaching of hell is the basis of the bondage that religion has over the followers of that religion. Do I believe hell exists? Yes, and no. Yes, I believe that hell is a place descibed in the Bible, but no, I do not belive it is a place as described and preached out of pulpits everday all over this country. I struggled with this problem fo many years. From the time I was a child, I feared going to hell, and burning forever. This fear was instilled in me all my life. I have been a preacher since 1994, and I've even taught about hell being a place of burning torment. If you take an honest look at the Bible, and resaerch the scriptures with a concordance, dictinaries, and encyclopedias, you will walk away with a lot better understand-ing of all the scriptures. Does the Bible say that Hell is on fire? No, not if you look up the meaning of the word hell. In Strong's concordance, there is one Hebrew word for hell in the OT, and three in the NT. The Hebrew word Sheol means grave, or place of departed spirits. Depending on the context, when it means grave, it means grave. In the NT, Hades means the same as Sheol, Gehenna, means a fire pit on the south-east side of the temple mount, and tartarus means the abyss, or the basement or dungeon of Hades (Sheol). Hades is the grave, or depending on the context, the spiritual realm as I like to call it. Gahenna is not hades at all, but the place where the priests put the intralls and waste products of sacrifices, where strangers who died in Jerusalem, and those who were crucified were put. This place was on fire all the time, and sulfer was put in the fire to keep the stench of decaying flesh down. So the smell was that of decaying, burning flesh, mixed with burning sulfer. Gahenna is where the Bible says Jesus was going to be put when he was crucified. That is why Joseph asked for his body, so he could put him in his own tomb. Tartatrus is only in the Bible one time. This is where God sent the fallen angels who warred against him and was cast down. No person goes to tatarus, or Gahenna, so this leaves Hades (Sheol). This is where it gets good. To get a good understanding of the Bible, we have to under-stand what it does not say in order to understand what it does say. Don't get me wrong, I'n not saying add to it, I'm saying read between the lines and get an understanding of what was going on that is not written down. Lazerus and the rich man has been preached to death to convince people that hell is real and it's on fire, and you don't want to go there to burn throughout eternity. Thers was a certain rich man, and he faired sumptuously everyday. Lazerus was a begger that sat at the rich mans gate, and desired the crumbs that fell from the rich mans table, and moreover the dogs licked his sores. Okay, lets look at what this scripture does not say. It does not say the rich man was religious, so was he? If he was religious, he wouldn't allow Lazerus in his home to eat because he would have to perform a cleansing ceremony on his home because Lazerus was unclean. He would have to throw out some, if not all the dishes he |
| ate off of. He could have fed Lazerus, and probably nursed him back to health, but it would be too much trouble, and too costly to do. So, by this reasoning the rich man was religious. Was Lazerus religious? Probably not. Did he love God? Most likely. Did he desire to go to the temple? Probably, but no unclean person was allowed inside. If the tables were turned, would he have fed the rich man. Most definately. Why was he sick and covered with sores. He probably spent is living on doctors for a loved one, and ended up poor and sick, and a begger after all this livlihood was spent. The Bible doesn't say these things, but there is a reson why this is in the Bible. Was the rich man saved? Was Lazerus saved? Let's see. The rich man died, and in hell he lift up his eyes and saw Lazerus afar off in Abrahams' bosom. Does the Bible say Abraham or Lazerus was in heaven. No. Where were they? They were in Hades, just the same as thr rich man. Hades is the spiritual realm, not a place of fire and brimstone. The rich man asked for Lazerus to give him a drop of water on his tongue. Does this mean he was on fire? No. Let me ask you this question. How long can you go without water before you become thirsty? I start getting thirsty in about two hours. in twenty four hours I would probably be very thirsty, and in two or three days I would probably be soothed with a drop of water on my tongue too. The Bible does not say how long they were there. Araham said there is agreat gulf fixed so neither could cross over to the other, and when the rich man wanted Lazerus to go and tell his brothers they don't want to come to this awful place, Abraham said they have the prophets, let them listen to them. The rich man was religious, went to the temple, and paid his tithes, but still ended up in hades. Hmmmmm. Lazerus wanted to go to temple, but couldn't, wanted to pay tithes, but couldn't, wanted to interact with other believers, but couldn't. Yet, the rich man ended up in torment, and Lazerus with Abraham, interesting........... So, the rich man wasn't saved because he was religious, he was lost because he was religious. Lazerus was't lost because he wasn't religious, he was saved because he wan't religious. Why didn't Lazerus just fly over to the rich man with his angel wings to give him some water? Because that is another lie, we do not get wings when we die. The gulf prevented them from going to the other side. They were close enough to each other to carry on a conversation without yelling to hear each other. They were all in hades-the place of the spiritual realm. The good side and the bad side are both in the same place. Depending on whether you are like the rich man or Lazerus determines which side you end up on when you die. If you are unloving, unforgiving, uncompassionate, unmerciful, greedy, ungiving, you are like the rich man. Don't be like him. |
| My definition of religion: A set of rules, regulations and doctrines that dictate what a person has to do in oorder to be saved. |