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Where the Hell is Hell?
Joe Iverson, January 2008
Many years ago, I became convinced that what I had heard about Jesus and Gospelwas indeed true. Jesus Christ came to earth to redeem mankind. He was born of avirgin, lived a perfect life, healed the sick and performed many miracles. He wascrucified, died, and three days later rose from the dead. I truly believed and havenever doubted these truths since.I didn't just want to know about Jesus, but also I wanted to experience an encounterwith God. During my quest for truth, I must have prayed that God would confirmmy faith somehow. God answered that prayer one day when had an experiencewhich I can only describe as being touched by the Lord during a time of prayer witha friend. Some might equate this with being “slain in the Spirit”. I don't place muchsignificance on the experience itself now. The important thing is that this was aturning point in my life. One of the first things I said immediately after thisexperience is that I want to know more, I want to read the Bible. Like the ApostlePaul, I proclaimed to myself “I want to know Christ” (Phil 3:10).I began to attend church and a Christian group on campus. I have since been amember of three different churches, an honorary member of two others, and avisitor of dozens more, all of varying denominations. Additionally, I must haveread over a hundred Christian books on different themes related to the Faith. I alsovolunteered as a short term missionary for two years, and earned a graduate degreefrom a Christian College. All this exposure to distinct expressions of the Christianfaith, and especially the great diversity of God's people has been an eye opening andwonderful experience. I truly feel privileged for being allowed to know so manyfellow believers who all worship the same God.Though I have never doubted the fundamentals of the Christian faith, I must admitthere have been many church teachings which I have never quite understood. WhileI'm aware of the chapter and verse that are often quoted to support such doctrines, Iremained unconvinced. No big deal, I reasoned. I can accept the church's teachingon faith and leave it at that.Thus, I have never expressed these doubts until now. And so here it is. Please don'tburn me a the stake, for I fear I am becoming a heretic according to mainstreamChristianity.
Death and the Soul
 
There are some verses which appear to support the afterlife (apart from theresurrection), and verses which teach the opposite. But the weight of evidence is onthe side of death meaning death, and not life somewhere else in some other state.Adam died. Abraham died. Moses died. All the Old Testament people died andwere buried. No one died and went to heaven or died and went to hell (except forthe rich man and Lazarus, but the details of the story make it unlikely that this isanything more than parable). They just died and were buried. Jesus verified thistruth in John 3:13: "No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who camefrom heaven, the Son of Man." The only hope believers had in both the Old andNew Testaments was to be raised from the dead at the resurrection, which wasbelieved to be a future event. Here are some passages from the Old Testament:“But God will redeem my life from the grave; he will surely take me to himself.”(Ps. 49:15)Notice the psalmist writes "redeem my life", not just his body.“But your dead will live; their bodies will rise. You who dwell in the dust, wake upand shout for joy. Your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birthto her dead.” (Isa 26:19)“Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life,others to shame and everlasting contempt.” (Dan 12:2)In the New Testament, consider the following stories: “That same day theSadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. 'Teacher,'they said, 'Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother mustmarry the widow and have children for him. Now there were seven brothers amongus. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife tohis brother. The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right ondown to the seventh. Finally, the woman died. Now then, at the resurrection, whosewife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?' Jesus replied,'You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. Atthe resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be likethe angels in heaven.'” (Matt. 22:24-30)I would love to have seen the look on their faces when Jesus said, “You are in errorbecause you do not know the Scriptures...” Although the Sadducees didn't believe inthe resurrection, they knew that everyone else listening that day did believe in it,including Jesus. Notice they did not say, “in heaven, whose wife will she be?” Thesame holds true for this account: “Jesus said to her 'your brother will rise again'.,Martha answered, 'I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.'” (Jn.11:22) She did not say he was in heaven with the saints. Rather, her only hope tosee her brother again was to wait until the resurrection day. Of course, for Lazarus,this day came early.
 
Many Christians believe that man has some kind of immortal spirit that continues tolive after this life is over. This belief is also common in other religions, but has nobiblical support. The Apostle Paul's often wrote of the resurrection from the dead ashis and our only hope to gain eternal life. “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him inhis death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.” (Phil 3:10)This does not contradict Paul's statement “We are confident, I say, and and willingrather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” (II Cor. 5:8).Paul knew that he would be with Christ after he died, and to him this would beimmediate. Think about it. If you are dead in the clinical sense, by definition youwould not be conscious. That is, you would experience neither pleasure nor pain,nor the passage of time. When that great day of the resurrection finally arrives andyou are raised from the dead, it doesn't matter if you had been for dead five minutesof five thousand years, that moment is your next moment. It will be as if you neverdied. Life will go on among the living, but to a dead person there is no time.Perhaps you've had the experience of being given a powerful drug before surgeryand did not sense the passage of time. This happened to me one time when I hadoral surgery. I was given a drug, closed my eyes, then opened them and the surgerywas over. To my surprise about 45 minutes had elapsed, but I felt as if I only closedmy eyes for a few seconds. So you will not have to “wait” ten or a hundred or athousand years. When you are raised from the dead, you'll have to ask the formercorpse next to you, “Hey, what year is this?” He replies, “I don't know, the lastthing I remember was that we hit an iceberg and started sinking.”Furthermore, what is the point of a judgment day and resurrection if everyone isalready in heaven or hell? Suppose you die and go to heaven. You're having a greattime hanging out with Jesus and the saints. Suddenly, an angel announces that it'stime for the resurrection so you all have to go back to earth to get you bodies. “Thatold thing” you say to yourself, “why would I want my old body back?” And what isthe point of a judgment day if everyone has already received their sentence orreward? “Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment..”(Heb 9:27) It doesn't say we will die once and then are judged twice. In order to be just, would not the judgment always precede the sentence or reward?Some call this doctrine which states that death is really death “soul sleep”. Andthey would point out that this is a heretical doctrine held by some cults such as theJehovah's Witnesses. So maybe the Jehovah's Witnesses are on to something here.Most of their doctrine is simply not supported by the Bible, but I have to agree withthem on this one point. Other than that, they're crazy. They don't believe Jesus rosefrom the dead bodily. They use a very poor translation of the Bible. And worst of all, they believe Jesus died on a telephone pole! If you don't believe me, check outany of their literature which depicts Christ's death and you'll see that he's not on across.
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Rning1611

You wrote: "Please let me know how you react to these ideas. Or maybe you think I'm the one who needs to be set straight. That's great too. I am an open minded person and I'm willing to let you make your case" but you have left no contact information. If you could send me a message or an email I would like to talk to you.

reply09 / 03 / 2010
redroseaus

You're right, Bill. Joe, I suggest you should pray before you read any document related to God. Some people against Catholic, they can make any statement or song, or whatever. God is the Creator, you/we are just creatures. God bless you. Mary

reply07 / 08 / 2008
bill777

I really do not have the time to read this whole article. But I will leave you with this thought to chew on. First of all, I you believe what you read in Romans where it said If you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and that he died on a cross to pay for our sins, then you have no problem. according to your own claim of faith you are saved. However the bible is quite clear there is a hell. But it was not created for man but for the devil and his fallen angles. God did give us a free will. The problem is this was a free gift and God is not an Indian giver. He does not take back what he gives us. Humans have abused this free gift and used it for evil instead of good. That is all I have to say except that You are saved and have nothing to worry about let God worry about those things. Just except his free gift of salvation. God Bless You, Bill Green

reply07 / 06 / 2008
Rning1611

Bill, if you don't understand the problem, then perhaps you know not the love of God, and you are none of his. Anyone with God's spirit would be rightly disturbed at the thought of torturing trillions of people without any constructive purpose, for the sole reason of causing them harm and misery. The callous "I don't care if people are tortured as long as it is not me" is a sickening attitude.

09 / 03 / 2010
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