Questions for Christians about Hell.

Phew, thanks, job saved by ambiguity.

 

The most fundamental issue contributing to our confusion regarding the nature of things is the idea that nonexistence is a form of existence. Until we figure out that this is not the case, we have not comprehended the meaning of either term. Until we figure this out we cannot determine the nature reality to any extent whatsoever.

 

Ukr-Cdn, you talk about the torment of the wicked being forever, about the smoke rising up forever, but don't versions of the bible say that Jonah was swallowed up "for ever" by the whale, and that Sodom and Gomorrah burned "for ever"? There seems to be a lot of things happening "forever" that indeed ended.

Clearly, to me the original word translated as forever and ever does can't mean what we think of it meaning, otherwise, Jonah would still be in that whale's belly, and there would be ancient cities still burning in the middle east, to this day.

Is it possible to know what the bible is telling us without being able to read the language it is written in?

 

Sometimes the word that is translated as "forever" is better translated as "to times indefinite".

 

Eternity is not a measurement of time.

 

No, and eternity has no beginning as well as no end. You are either experiencing eternity now and always have been, or it doesn't exist.

 

Exactly and if is not happening now, it is not happening at all.

 

1. For behold, the day is coming, Burning like an oven, And all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn them up," Says the LORD of hosts, "That will leave them neither root nor branch. Malachi 4:1

2. You shall trample the wicked, For they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet On the day that I do this, Says the LORD of hosts. Malachi 4:3.


What would you interpret these passages to mean?

 

Also, the fires in gehenna were always burning but the bodies weren't perpetually burning eternally there, it is the flames that were ongoing in their hunger for flesh, as there were always new bodies being heaped onto them. The source of destruction was ongoing and there were maggots to assist the process of decay, but the bodies only lasted as long as it took for them to eventually burn away into dust.

Maybe the true meaning of redemption is the choice to accept the eternal word and be kept by it, preserved eternally, or else vanish along with the rest of physical existence?

 

Descriptions of moments in time.

 

The lake of fire is metabolism. We burn in flames because we hunger for flesh.

To escape the redundant cycle of birth and death.

 

In order to know the mind/body problem must be solved. Which is as good as solving the revelation of History to Hegel's meaningful Idea, that Fuckhead..

 

You all are gonna burn up in a sea of retard.

 

Are thou being a revolutionary Statement, Or is the Law possibly against Justice for re-evolving the Conscience about Freedom? The observation was that you feel the law serves the Engineering profession inadequately.

 

After a hiatus:

Some theologians (esp. those in the Eastern Churches) have suggested that it is impossible to be "cut off" from God since he is omnipresent, and that Hell is the reaction to god's burning love by those who rejected him.

Puts a whole new spin on the idea of punishment...