jspooney

No, alter ego, Gehenna is the flaming inferno at the southern wall of Jerusalem. It is in the Valley of Hinnom and was used as the city trash dump. It was commonly understood to represent the final destination of the wicked.

scubapro

One thing that people forget - is that Hell was created as an eternal place of damnation for the fallen angels.

All angels were created prior to the creation of man. Lucifer, once the most beautiful angel with the highest position within the Angels - decided to place himself above God in his heart. The battle lines were drawn and 1/3 of the angels followed him. They "fell" - and are now demons - with Lucifer now known as Satan "roaming" the earth.

Those 1/3 of the angels fell BEFORE man was created by God.

When God created man - man had eternal fellowship with God (eternal life) in the garden of Eden.

Through Satan's deception, Adam & Eve (man) committed the original sin by eating the forbidden fruit. Upon committing this sin - man no longer had perfect fellowship with God, and in order to regain that fellowship - sacrifice must be paid for sin through shed blood. Christ was the perfect sacrifice. His shed blood covers the sin of believers - once and for all - giving believers once again eternal fellowship with God.

So, you see - a loving God did not create Hell (yes, a very literal place) as a place for wicked men. God never intended any man to go there when he created it! It was man's sin - Adam & Eve's actual act & every other man's inheritance of sin from that point forward - that opened Hell's gate to man. Again, it is a literal place that has fire/flames that burn eternally - but do not consume. Flames that produce no light - a place of complete isolation and separation from the spirit of God. A place of eternal and complete darkness...Hell.

Therefore, a loving & compassionate God doesn't send evil/wicked men to Hell for eternity - they send themselves there by not receiving the gift of eternal life provided by faith in Jesus and his shed blood for the covering of their sins. Essentially, every man & woman born since Adam & Eve has Hell as their destination (yes, once they reach the age of accountability/understanding) - automatically, unless they act upon the decision to accept faith in Jesus...or to reject the gift of eternal life by rejecting Jesus.

Man, when faced with the Gospel message - with understanding/conviction from the Holy Spirit - and his response to that message - has the ability to change his eternal destination from Hell, to Heaven.

Alter2Ego

ALTER2EGO -to- JMSUN:
Not only is there no mention of "hell" in this scripture, but this verse of scripture is part of figurative language used by Jesus regarding those that will be saved and those that will be destroyed (cast out into outer darkness). Look at the words from your quotation that I printed in red. Those words speak about people being cast into outer darkness. Hell is supposed to have flames of fire; remember? "Outer darkness" and flames of fire are a contradiction because we all know that fire illuminates or gives light.

I will address your other scriptures at another time.

Alter2Ego

You are right. Gehenna was a literal place in ancient Jerusalem where garbage was permanently destroyed. So the ancient Jews would have understood the implication when the word "Gehenna" was used to indicate permanent destruction of people--from which there can be no resurrection.

jspooney

You are wrong if you are insinuating annihilation. The blazing inferno never ended. That's why the scripture speaks of the wormwood that never dies. Hell is eternal.

Alter2Ego

I suggest you answer the eight questions in my opening post. Pay particular attention to Question 8.

Alter2Ego

ALTER2EGO -to- SCUBAPRO:
You are correct. I agree with all you've said above.

ALTER2EGO -to- SCUBAPRO:
Hell is nothing more than mankind's common grave. If you go back and read my opening post, you will see that I mentioned that the word "hell" means the same thing as "Hades," "Sheol" and "the grave" (of mankind).



King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
"And 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 works."


New International Version
"The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done."


New Living Translation
"The sea gave up its dead, and death and the grave gave up their dead. And all were judged according to their deeds."


Aramaic Bible in Plain English
"And the Sea yielded the dead which were in it, and Death and Sheol yielded the dead which were with them, and they were judged, one by one, according to their works."


I encourage you to go back and read my opening post and then answer the eight questions that are at the end of my OP. Also, I responded to part of your post in my thread entitled: "The Bible: God's Word or Man's?" Below is the weblink for that thread. You will find my responses at post #20 and post #21

http://www.pensacolafishingforum.com...an%92s-115980/

scubapro

You failed miserably when you said in another thread that Jesus was an angel...

No sense in me offering any replies to your questions - as we are worlds apart theologically.

johnf

I would also like to point out that EVERY time Christ gave us a parable he said "this is a parable". He didn't do that in this instance. Making this a statement of truth. So either there is a hell, or Christ was wrong.

johnf