Who Came up with this Hell Business anyway?

LocalGuy

So I'm at church and I'm talking to a friend of mine named Jimmy, and we get to talking, this being before I really get both feet in Christ, and we start talking about Hell.

My view at the time was this place of eternal torment if you were of the wicked. I heard a few biblical mentions.. and how Jesus kept going on about how it's better to be maimed then in hell, his Abraham/Lazarus mention in Luke 16:23, and some Revelation mentions about the Lake of Fire, the second death.

What did not occur to me was this:
God is fire.
"For the Lord your God is a consuming fire.."
Deuteronomy 4:24
NKJV

and

"Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fires?
Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?"
A question asked in Isaiah 33:14

The next verse gives you the answer.

"He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly.
He who despises gain of oppressions,
Who gestures with his hands, refusing bribes.
Who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed.
An shuts his eye from seeing evil.." and so on and so on.

But.. but.. then.. what's going on? Good, righteous people living with eternal burning?

Let's go to Matthew 3:11. John the Baptist talks about why he is baptizing.. but then he mentions the Lamb of God.
"He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire."

So.. the righteous are baptized by Christ in fire.. which is the presence of God. IE the Burning Bush, IE The Pillar of Fire, IE the Raining Down of Sulfer from the Heavens.

Ask any Jew and they'll tell you there is no Hell. They're smart. But that means none of the prophets or kings, Not Moses, nor Noah, nor Adam, nor King David, nor Jesus the Living Son of God, believed in it. Hell, sheol, means grave, the depths, "God is not there". But God is everywhere...

Jesus did not come up with the idea of hell. So who did? Not the apostles. Must be the early Christian church. Perhaps a certain Roman Mythology.. integrated with the early Church.. Roman.. Church..

Any thoughts?

dole · Tadpole Joined: 02 Feb 2003 Posts: 27

Hell is the absence of God. If we're justified by Christ's sacrifice, we will be as white as snow in God's eyes. If we are not, we will be cast out of God's presence, for we are all sinful and God cannot tolerate sin. Thus, we would be in Hell, which is the equivalent of all things bad, since God (where every good and perfect gift comes from) would be absent. It is a nasty, lonely place with no hope.

Every time God is described as a fire does not refer to Hell. For instance, many times God's fire refines us like metal to remove all the impurity. God doesn't use the fires of Hell to purify us.

Jesus certainly spoke on Hell. Mark 9:42-48, for instance. Hell is not a fictitious place.

Hell is a scary, depressing place to think about. But be glad that you can be assured of your salvation, and let it push you on to telling others of how they can be saved as well.