On Dec 1, 5:19 pm, AnitaBonghit <anita.m.bong...@gmail.com> wrote:

This "Christian" concept is based on failure to understand the
original language of the Bible and the translation into English.

The terms translated to hell in various parts of the Bible are
misunderstood.

Sheol ( Old Testament "Hebrew" ): Sheol is a word used for the abode
of the dead. It is thought of as a place situated below the ground
(e.g. Ezek. 31:15), a place of darkness, silence and forgetfulness
(Job 10:21; Ps. 94:17, 88:12). Although the dead in sheol are
apparently cut off from God (Ps. 88:3-5), he is not absent (Ps.
139:8), and is able to deliver souls from sheol (Ps. 16:10).

Gehenna ( New Testament "Hebrew" ) : The word translated as "hell" in
the New Testament comes from the Hebrew word "Gehenna". Gehenna meant
"the valley of Hinnom", and was originally a particular valley outside
Jerusalem, where children were sacrificed to the god Moloch (2 Kgs
23:10; 2 Chron. 28:3;Jer. 32:35). In later Jewish literature Gehenna
came to be associated with a place of torment and unquenchable fire
that was to be the punishment for sinners. Gehenna was later a place
that was were Garbage and the bodies of the poor (Those who could not
afford a tomb) were discarded and burned day and night. This
visualization is used by the New Testament authors to describe the
condition of the sinner.

Hades ( New Testament "Greek" ): Hades is the Greek word that like
Sheol means the place of the dead. This is a place below ground and
represents the place of the dead (good & bad).

Hell ( Old & New Testaments "English" ): The English word "hell" has
changed meaning of the centuries. Originally it meant below ground. It
was a place like a small root cellar and later became to reference the
grave and finally a place of suffering. Even the early Christians did
not see it as a place of torment.

Plutarch (46-125CE) and the early Christians viewed hell as a symbolic
place. It was only over time that Christianity became the literalistic
belief system that it is now, initially all of its teachings were
either Roman Mystery religion or Jewish in origin. The Valley of
Hinnom (see above) was a place where sinners were actually burnt, the
hell that the pagan religions believed in was a symbolic place (where
those who died went) used to persuade people to behave better, and the
Jews had little actual teachings on the concept of Hell. The result
was that Christianity, a religion that was popular amongst the
illiterate and undereducated in the Roman empire, lost its inner
symbolic nature and became seen as an actual real place where sinners
were punished forever, after death.

[Of hell] "The more enlightened sages of the Mysteries viewed such
horrors as merely stories to encourage better moral behavior. Plutarch
calls the terrors of the Underworld an 'improving myth'. The Christian
philosopher Origen likewise argued that the literal terrors of hell
were false, but they ought to be publicized in order to scare simpler
believers"

[...] "Origen, however, was posthumously condemned by the Roman
Catholic
Church as a heretic for his compassionate belief that all souls would
eventually be redeemed. The Roman Church required all Christians to
believe that some souls would suffer in hell forever, while the
faithful would enjoy eternal salvation. This is the one doctrine on
the afterlife which Celsus regards as distinctively Christian. He
writes:
'Now it will be wondered how men so desperate in their beliefs can
persuade others to join their ranks. The Christians use sundry methods
of persuasion, and invent a number of terrifying incentives. Above
all, they have concocted an absolutely offensive doctrine of
everlasting punishment and rewards, exceeding anything the
philosophers (who have never denied the punishment of the unrighteous
of the reward of the blessed) could have imagined' "

Praise Natas!!!!!!

On Sat, 01 Dec 2007 16:19:02 -0800, AnitaBonghit wrote:

This "Christian" concept is based on failure to understand the original
language of the Bible and the translation into English.

Who cares?

--
Mark K. Bilbo a.a. #1423
EAC Department of Linguistic Subversion
------------------------------------------------------------
Theology: The study of elaborate verbal disguises for non-ideas.

On Sat, 1 Dec 2007 16:19:02 -0800 (PST), AnitaBonghit

<anita.m.bong...@gmail.com> wrote:

AnitaBonghit?

I need a bong hit - yeah, right.