Tell me about Hellfire!

[Abdul Alhazred]

What the Old Testament says about the afterlife:

Ecclesiastes 9:5 :: King James Version

http://tinyurl.com/3zmp6

For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.

Jesus is the first Hell prophet.

 

[Kopji]

linky

"How can something as wonderful as redemption . . . be based on fear?" said the Rev. Wilfredo Benitez of St. Anselm of Canterbury Episcopal Church in Garden Grove.

As a young preacher, Benitez warned nonbelievers they would burn in Satan's lair. He later dropped the tactic.

"Can we accept a gift at gunpoint? This is total nonsense and madness."

The article was interesting and offered some good insights. The question really, is if there is not really a heaven or hell in the traditional 'reward' sense what is the relevance of belief?

 

[elliotfc]

The article was interesting and offered some good insights. The question really, is if there is not really a heaven or hell in the traditional 'reward' sense what is the relevance of belief?

Because they exist in a non-traditional sense?

I try to stick up for reward/punishment. It seems equitable that a good deed would be rewarded. Is it essential? Certainly not. Is it good that the reward have prominence over the deed, or be a motivation for the deed? Maybe. Why not?

In an ideal world, good begets good. In a non-ideal world, good is cultivated through recognition and celebration. It seems to be essentially cynical to be suspicious of reward. Is the concept of reward inherently bad?

There may be people who are hung-up about reward/heaven, but have no problem accepting promotions when they do a bang-up job at work.

And I'm not necessarily advocating the reward concept when it comes to heaven. I'm just not sure why there is such a total hang up about it these days, particularly among believers.

To me, heaven and hell are issues that every individual will suss out with God in a unique way. Total communion or a total divide, those are the two options. Reward/punishment is but a natural analogy. And since it is an analogy, it falls short of the reality.

But there's something to the analogy, if only because Jesus employed it often.

-Elliot

 

[geni]

Jesus is the first Hell prophet.

The Old Testament is not a good source to use to conclude that. How about the various jewish books the Old Testament is derived from?

 

[Kopji]

Elliot
Thanks. I like to toss different perspectives out here sometimes. I'm not sure what the answer to 'heaven and hell' is, but it does not rise from a foundation of fear. It was hopeful to see that view recognized in an intelligent way by a minister.

 

[elliotfc]

Elliot
Thanks. I like to toss different perspectives out here sometimes. I'm not sure what the answer to 'heaven and hell' is, but it does not rise from a foundation of fear. It was hopeful to see that view recognized in an intelligent way by a minister.

Right. I think that fear is, primarily, a result. It is often used as a reason to explain the behavior of others. I think that is unfair. I'm not saying that fear isn't ever an explanation for someone's behavior. I just think it unfair that people offer fear as a knee-jerk explanation for how other people behave. This goes for religion and politics in particular.

It seems to me that people who wave the fear-stick think about fear a hell of a lot more than I do.

-Elliot

 

[c4ts]

I've been to hell. It's a small village just outside of Jerusalem called Gehenna. The fires were long gone and I didn't see any tortured souls, though.