I hear it's nice in Hell right now....
In a previous entry (about three weeks ago) I was talking about how my faith in the Christian religion is waning, and maybe this whole court thing is God's way (well, if there is a God) of trying to get me to go back to being a humble follower. I hope that's not the case, it seems kind of underhanded for a God that's supposed to be all loving and forgiving.
In this entry I'll be explaining one of the things that is making me loose my faith: The belief in Hell, or a place of eternal punishment.
A few years ago I was with a group of people online when I heard one talking about how a beloved relative had passed away. A rather loudmouthed chatter asked the mourner if her relative had asked Jesus for forgiveness before she perished. The mourner said she didn't think so, and the other chatter told the mourner that her relative was burning in Hell for all eternity. Now, I know this is something you never tell to someone who's in mourning, so I proceeded to chew out the born-again girl, which did little as her ego remained unbruised and she said I'd probably go to Hell too. This event disturbed me.
This is what bugs me. The concept of Heaven and Hell, and that since followers are guaranteed a place in Heaven, they're somehow better than others. When I was growing up, I believed that Jesus let you into Heaven based on how kind and good you were in real life.. the better person you were, the easier you'd get through the pearly gates. But lately I've been taught the only way into the Kingdom is by basically.. well.. sucking up to Jesus. You have to be a believer to be accepted, else you burn for all eternity.
The whole thing sounds a bit egotistical. Basically, only the "true believers" go to paradise. Everyone else is a sinner, or an agent of Satan, so they're going to hell. The Christians are right, everyone else is wrong. The Christians are good, everyone else is evil. That sounds black and white, but the whole notion that you either believe and go to heaven or don't believe and go to hell seems black and white as well.
In the movie Constantine, Hell is shown as looking like a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Crumbled buildings are everywhere, a scorching wind blows constantly, and demons lurk in every dark shadow. The title character describes hell as a place where demons consume your flesh and you suffer in unimaginable agony for all eternity. This resembles other descriptions of Hell I've heard, such as a "lake of fire" where you burn forever, or a place of unrelenting torment.
Think about this for a moment. Eternity. Forever. Unrelenting. Agony. Torment. Pain. Suffering. Eternity is forever, and you'd be suffering in agony forever. I would never wish eternal agony for anyone, not even the most evil person. And especially someone who was a good, honest, and loving person who's only 'sin' was not worshiping Jesus. And, if God is supposed to be a loving, compassionate being, I could never see him ever condemning anyone to eternal suffering.
I once read in history class that during the medieval age, the Catholic church didn't even have a Hell, not as we know it today. There was only Heaven and Purgatory, a kind of abyss where God was absent. Anyone who was a sinner went to Purgatory for a while, but eventually they'd be accepted into Heaven. I don't know where the idea of Hell came around, but it sounds like it was invented to scare people into accepting the church. Either join us or suffer eternal pain in the afterlife. And because people back then were so afraid of dying, they would flock to the church like... well.. sheep.
So, honestly, I don't really believe in Hell. At least, I hope there's no such thing. I just don't see how a God who loves humans so much, who sent His son to die for our sins, would let us suffer for eternity in the underworld. Unless the crucifixion was to keep us from going there. But I wonder sometimes. The cries of some Christians about burning in hell disturb me. I probably shouldn't let them bug me, but I sometimes wonder if they're even a little right.
In this entry I'll be explaining one of the things that is making me loose my faith: The belief in Hell, or a place of eternal punishment.
A few years ago I was with a group of people online when I heard one talking about how a beloved relative had passed away. A rather loudmouthed chatter asked the mourner if her relative had asked Jesus for forgiveness before she perished. The mourner said she didn't think so, and the other chatter told the mourner that her relative was burning in Hell for all eternity. Now, I know this is something you never tell to someone who's in mourning, so I proceeded to chew out the born-again girl, which did little as her ego remained unbruised and she said I'd probably go to Hell too. This event disturbed me.
This is what bugs me. The concept of Heaven and Hell, and that since followers are guaranteed a place in Heaven, they're somehow better than others. When I was growing up, I believed that Jesus let you into Heaven based on how kind and good you were in real life.. the better person you were, the easier you'd get through the pearly gates. But lately I've been taught the only way into the Kingdom is by basically.. well.. sucking up to Jesus. You have to be a believer to be accepted, else you burn for all eternity.
The whole thing sounds a bit egotistical. Basically, only the "true believers" go to paradise. Everyone else is a sinner, or an agent of Satan, so they're going to hell. The Christians are right, everyone else is wrong. The Christians are good, everyone else is evil. That sounds black and white, but the whole notion that you either believe and go to heaven or don't believe and go to hell seems black and white as well.
In the movie Constantine, Hell is shown as looking like a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Crumbled buildings are everywhere, a scorching wind blows constantly, and demons lurk in every dark shadow. The title character describes hell as a place where demons consume your flesh and you suffer in unimaginable agony for all eternity. This resembles other descriptions of Hell I've heard, such as a "lake of fire" where you burn forever, or a place of unrelenting torment.
Think about this for a moment. Eternity. Forever. Unrelenting. Agony. Torment. Pain. Suffering. Eternity is forever, and you'd be suffering in agony forever. I would never wish eternal agony for anyone, not even the most evil person. And especially someone who was a good, honest, and loving person who's only 'sin' was not worshiping Jesus. And, if God is supposed to be a loving, compassionate being, I could never see him ever condemning anyone to eternal suffering.
I once read in history class that during the medieval age, the Catholic church didn't even have a Hell, not as we know it today. There was only Heaven and Purgatory, a kind of abyss where God was absent. Anyone who was a sinner went to Purgatory for a while, but eventually they'd be accepted into Heaven. I don't know where the idea of Hell came around, but it sounds like it was invented to scare people into accepting the church. Either join us or suffer eternal pain in the afterlife. And because people back then were so afraid of dying, they would flock to the church like... well.. sheep.
So, honestly, I don't really believe in Hell. At least, I hope there's no such thing. I just don't see how a God who loves humans so much, who sent His son to die for our sins, would let us suffer for eternity in the underworld. Unless the crucifixion was to keep us from going there. But I wonder sometimes. The cries of some Christians about burning in hell disturb me. I probably shouldn't let them bug me, but I sometimes wonder if they're even a little right.