Hell Is A False Doctrine Invented By The Early Christian Church?
The concept of hell is well known in the religious as well as the secular world. People in all walks of life use it to color their emotions, to criticize as well as to condemn others. Phrases from, "What the hell is that?", to "Get the hell out of here", to "Go to Hell!", are commonly used.
I have heard phrases about hell more often in the secular world than I have in the Christian community. It seems that preachers and religious teachers tend to shy away from the subject. When they do talk about it, it seems it is more to scare the daylights out of you so you'll be a better Christian. I think they shy away from the subject because they cannot fully explain the concept of Hell in this doctrine and reconcile it with other scriptures found in the bible
The New Encyclopedia Britannica in Vol. 5, page 814, states ". . . hell is the final dwelling of the damned . . .". This may be ok as a definition for non Christians, but the question is what does the Bible actually teach on the subject of hell? The Bible does teach that a pit of fire will created for Satan and his fallen angels. This pit of fire was interpreted as Gehenna, in Greek and then interpreted to Hell in the English version of the Bible.
Human beings on the other hand are not immortal.. We can and do die. When we die we no longer have a conscious state. We are unaware of our surroundings because we no longer exist in any form. Our spirit does go back to God, but it has no consciousness. It is not a being, spiritual or otherwise. Our spirit can't hear, see, taste, smell, or touch on its own.
The spirit cannot think, it has no brain! When our physical body is destroyed, we simply do not exist in any state. After death we are no longer aware of the passage of time. We totally and completely cease to exist. Logically then, how can you possibly explain a mortal human being tossed into a fire and some how survive the fire in some state in order to be tortured for eternity?
The Bible clearly teaches that God loves and is not unfeeling or uncaring. How could anyone imagine that God would want to see and feel the suffering of his own creation, His children, much less see it forever and ever. It doesn't make sense. Would any parent want to see their children tortured?
You might argue that if God says this is the punishment of the fallen angels and Satan, why not us. The simple answer would be that we were created in His own image in His own likeness to be His children. The angels were not.
Any true Christian would have to admit that they would never want to see their own children suffer agony and torment no matter how wicked they were. If we would not do this to our children, why would God do it to His?
We do not inflict that type of suffering and torture on the wicked and evil people in our society. When we convict murderers and sentence them, we do not make them suffer some type of torture. In fact we have clear laws in our society about torturing anybody for any type of crime. When we do sentence them to death, we do it in the most humane way possible. We go out of our way to ensure they do not suffer.
If we do not torture the wicked in our society, how can a Christian possibly believe that God would do it? This is not even logical. How could any Christian believe that his God would inflict this type of punishment on millions and millions of people who have died since the beginning of man. This idea does not make sense when you study who the God of the Bible is.
The traditional Christian view of hell as a place where the fires are burning, the devil is waiting, and people are screaming and crying out in agony is not Biblical, and it is cruel to teach it. It is doctrines like this that totalitarian governments use to control their people. It is this type of doctrine that the early Roman Christian Church used in order to control the newly converted pagans.
It is doctrines such as this that fuel agnostics and atheism. The picture of Hell where fires are burning and people are screaming in agony has been taught by the Christian church for centuries. It was not taught during the Apostolic period nor was it ever taught by Jesus Christ. There is not one scripture with words uttered by Jesus Christ that even hints that this would happen to the wicked in the world. If this doctrine were true it would have been peppered through out the bible, especially in the gospels, but it is not.
This is such an important doctrine to the Christian church yet you will not find one instance in the Bible where this is supported. Jesus would not have been evasive in trying to warn people about what would happen if they did not turn to Him and follow his ways. He would have made it very clear. The only way you can get this doctrine is if you take passages out of context and then combine it with pagan religious beliefs.
