Can you go to hell?

Eschatology Journal Special Report

If you grew up as a child in the West, you were probably told, “bad people go to hell when they die.” This thought pattern is perpetuated from generation to generation in order to scare us into being good. But it doesn’t work does it?

Many Christians would feel lost if they could not threaten someone with hell. For many, it seems like a divine right. How did this conditioning get started? For most, conditioning began in childhood.

In Europe, which is steeped in Roman tradition, ever-burning hell fire torture is taught in hopes of scaring people into staying faithful to their childhood religion. It seems odd for anyone to oppose such an entrenched tradition that has conditioned over two billion people to be enslaved to fear religion. The mother religion teaches hell plus an additional myth, purgatory. At least none of the original language words were translated into the English word “purgatory” in the King James. Otherwise many of the daughter churches (the Protestants) would also believe in purgatory.

According to E.E. Franke, it was Tertullian who first wrote about an ever-burning torturing hell-fire. This was in the 200’s AD after the original apostles had been dead for almost a century. After Tertullian, there was Augustine, who perpetuated the myth of an ever-burning hell-fire. This agreed with his Greek philosophy, which he apparently valued higher than the scriptures. We need to be careful not to allow people to spoil us through philosophy after the tradition of men.

“Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ” (Colossians 2:8).

Finding out the truth about hell requires thinking outside the box. If, after seeing the evidence, you are still not convinced, you have the option of retreating back into the box.

“For what know you, O wife, whether you shall save your husband? Or how know you O man, whether you shall save your wife?” (1 Corinthians 7:16).

For some, it comes as great comfort to realize that their mate, if they die unconverted, will not be going to an ever-burning torturing hell fire to be tormented for eternity.

There are 2 main points of view on the subject of hell. On one hand there is the belief that bad people go to an underground torture chamber filled with fire to endure torment for eternity. On the other hand there is the belief that God is a God of mercy who will reward the good with eternal life (John 3:16) and punish the evil by destroying them so that they cease to exist except as ashes under the feet of the righteous (Malachi 4:3).

What phrase is repeated in scripture more than any other?

“…his mercy endures forever.” It occurs over 40 times between 1 Chronicles 16:34 and Jeremiah 33:11). David, a man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14, Acts 13:22) repeated it 33 times. We either believe that God’s mercy endures forever or we don’t.

There is no doubt that commercial Christianity, for the most part, is built on the fear of hell. It is fear religion at its worse.

“There is no fear in love but perfect love casts out fear because fear has torment. He that fears is not made perfect in love” (1 John 4:18).

Traditional evangelists have made a living scaring people into conversions by describing the mythological ever-burning hell. This type of preacher is supposedly a counter balance to the opposite extreme that preaches that there is no punishment for the wicked (which is also a lie).

What is the punishment for being wicked? The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), not eternal life in hell fire. The deceptions about hell dovetail against each other to the extent that most people are pre-programmed to reject the truth of the matter before they even start digging to get to the bottom of the issue. It requires a breaking of set patterns of thinking and realizing that all scriptures combine together to expose a perfect picture of what to expect after our lives are over.

Of course to get to the bottom of the word issue requires us to go to the original Hebrew of the Old Testament and the original Greek of the New Testament.

In the Old Testament the word translated into the English word “hell” is the Hebrew word “sheol”, which means “the unseen”, in essence, “the grave”. The equivalent of this in the New Testament is the Greek word “hades”, which also means “the unseen”, in essence, “the grave”. There are two other Greek words that the King James translators translated into the English word “hell”.

One of the Greek words is “ge-enna”, which is a trash pit just outside Jerusalem. There is no trash there now. It is a tourist attraction. Tour guides advertise that they can take you to hell and back. Ge-enna is the place where mothers used to sacrifice their babies to the god Molock. After the altar of Molock was destroyed it became a place to put trash. Also criminals who did not deserve to be buried were put into ge-enna.

And last but not least the Greek word “tartaroo” is translated into the English word “hell”. It occurs only once in 2 Peter 2:4. It is a condition of restraint. It is not for humans. It is for fallen angels only.

Traditional hell is not substantiated by original scripture. It is a product of fear religion. Fear religion has a lot to lose as people begin to realize that God is, in fact, merciful. One of his names is Mercy.

It is small wonder that there is such confusion on the subject of hell. After being told as children that “bad people go to hell when they die”, the conditioning is completed by looking into the King James Bible and seeing the word hell occurring many times, not knowing that 4 words of 3 diverse meanings are translated into the English word “hell”. This certainly takes getting used to. And just knowing the meanings of the original words is usually not enough to alleviate the confusion.

This is a complex subject that is completely discussed in the booklet "Hell Is A Lie!" available from u0 Co, 3512 E Silver Springs Blvd, PMB 246, Ocala, FL 34470, United States. You may also request it through email to Fox@JogFox.com There is no charge. u0 Co does not recruit people.

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