What is your view on Heaven and Hell?

Question

Do you believe in a literal firey inferno, or do you believe hell is a state of mind? Do you believe Heaven is another planet drifting somewhere out there in deep space, a paradise-state our planet will be in someday, a state of mind, or any combination of all that?

Answer 1

Fortunately I don't have to rely on my own opinion. The Bible is explicit.

The Bible explains that when man dies, he ceases to exist. Some of the scriptures I'm referring to are Ezekiel 18:4; Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10, etc. The reason for modern-day belief in a "fiery hell" comes from various sources, one of which being a habit of some Bible translators to use the word "hell" to translate a number of different words with different meanings.

You might find this article very interesting with regard the Bible's view:

http://www.watchtower.org/library/w/2002/7/15/article_02.htm

On the topic of heaven, the Bible does speak of a literal heaven and that some people from earth will be taken there. However, the hope for the majority of mankind is resurrection to a cleansed earthly paradise. (Revelation 5:9, 10; Psalm 37:10, 11, 29; John chapter 11)

This article explains in greater detail:

http://www.watchtower.org/library/w/2000/10/1/article_02.htm

Thank you for your question. I'm sure you'll find the information very interesting, logical and informative.

Answer 2

Heaven- There is no paradise planet drifting any where. When one goes to Heaven It simply means you are merging into the Lord God
The Lord is like an ocean of water. Every drop of water has its origin in the ocean. So is it each and every one of us is divine and we have emerged from the Lord. And like water all goes into the Ocean when we are good we also go back to the Lord.
Hell- Most people who have been really bad in this world Like whores and murders. Muslim Jehadis they all go into the animal kingdom. There are no exotic females waiting for any body in Hell only females of the animal kind. For another thing Do you know you have a soul? do you listen to your soul or take advise from your soul. You do not so. Whores never ask or listen to their souls so why would the soul be subjected to eternal hell fire if there was. You and your intellect are at fault not your soul. So you should get punished but you are dead and return to ashes or dust

Answer 3

I try to stay within the teaching of scripture. Hell is a grave and it is cast into the fiery lake. The lake of fire is a place of eternal torment...could the torment and burning be burning with unfulfilled lust? Could the torture be knowing that you missed out on the Paradise you could have had?I don't know I do know the torment felt their will be very real and eternal. Heaven is a place but whether it be a place on this realm is not clear. I believe both Heaven and the Lake of fire are in a different realm and I believe everyone who gets to Heaven will be amazed at how wonderful and different it is than they ever imagined.

Answer 4

I believe that Heaven and Hell do exist as they are said in the Bible that they do. Which would be Hell=dark firey pit and Heaven=paradise streets paved with Gold. I would rather believe that my whole life then think that this is all there is in life, that when we die thats it..I think there is something much more. and dont think we were created from the Big Bang theory either.. Makes much more since to me that God just existed then to think that this material combined with this material.. and then here I am. And i would rather believe in God my whole life and then when its over my beliefs pay off then me being sent to hell. and if u believe in Him and he doesnt exist then no big loss whereas the other way u are screwed for all eternity.. i take my chances with God

Answer 5

heaven and hell exist! heaven is for the repentant and the forgiven.
the literary firey inferno exists! if you look up into the sky there is a lake of fire called the sun. but in the end days the earth will melt all the elements as well, thus there will be a day that a lake of fire will exist on the earth.
In the book of revelation there is mentioned that mental torment is also a state of mind that exist in some in the presence of angels.
But one must remember that Jesus says that ONLY THE SONs of perdition will be lost. And it is written elsewhere that these sons of perdition will also be cast out into outer darkness. However, back to the book of revelation, it also says that the BEAST and the false prophet will be cast into the lake of fire "alive". In the book of Peter ch 3 it says that there were spirits in "prison" which is another form of hell yet it is not the lake of fire.
I have seen sever versions of these types of experiences and my faith in christ has delivered me from such altered states of mind.
in the mormon Faith the planet KOLOB is the place where God the father resides. but in the book of matthew it says that the kingdom of God is within you. but the margins of my bible says that the word "within" you can also be translated and interpreted as "among" you. and of course the the lords prayer asks us to ask God to bring the kingdom of God upon the earth. The kingdom of God is not the spirit kingdom, and there are those that confuse the city of New Jerusalem as being Heaven. The kingdom of heaven may consist of the whole universe where God REigns on his throne and has surpreme authoritiy. However heaven must exist where the kingdom of outer darkness does not exist, so there are some place that Gods kingdom has given up ower and authority.

Answer 6

I believe in a literal place called hell; whether the flames of hell spoken of in the Bible are literal or figurative, I don't know and I don't plan on finding out. What I do know about hell is that it is a place to be avoided, a place of separation from God and eternal torment and regret.

Heaven, on the other hand, is unimaginably beautiful. Whether it's a planet somewhere in the universe or another dimension, I don't know, but I plan on finding out.
You can too if you repent of your sins and accept Christ.

Answer 7

There is no such thing as hell. The word is misunderstood because the words, hell, sepulchre, grave, and abyss all mean the same thing ; the common grave that all humans will be put into. The word hell is not a red fiery place that all the bad people will go to when they die. The word Hell is greatly misunderstood by ALMOST all people and religions...lol I dont mean to try to sound like a philosopher or something but its the honest truth. Hell, like the word grave, is where we are all going to when we die...its not a place where we will be inmortal and suffer . When we die, we just die and turn to nothing. Any underlying questions? My e-mail is dominicangurll@yahoo

Answer 8

I am a christian, and before that stops you, if it does, I would like to tell you 2 things. One is that Heaven is not a state nor a mind... just kidding!

Before I start I might have asked you what you think about it? Although Im sure you have at least once or twice. And also unfortunately, which way you think you should go does not determine the results.
Heaven is described as:
"Even more than being a place, heaven is the very presence of God." (Matthew 6:9)
"Reigning with God" (Revelation 22:5)
The bible also describes heaven to be paved with street's of Gold, the most glorious scents beyond even our imagination. Picture your most favourite scent! Not even close! A billion times better! There will be so much going on "no one even sleeps in heaven"! Peace, purity, love, meeting again with those you have loved. It get's even better. Believe God when He says we can not comprehend it! My grandmother is a pure devoted believer in God, and has told me wonderful storys about those who, before they have died, DREAMED about heaven! It was a realtive of ours..one I can never remember which, and she was with her husband, who had already reached it, and they were walking up a beautiful hillside with their children running behind them. I may pourly describe it but whenever my grandmother does it makes me want to weep. Heaven is where you want to be my friend. Some people have TRULY even been fortunate enough to catch a glimse of it. Also, most of the story my grandma was not able to tell because the very person who experienced it could certainly not describe it clearly. Im sure you've heard rumors all over saying that God is mean, boring, ruthless and unfair. I will tell you personally that I have witnessed miracles, as big or small as they may be so far, also very hard and aching trials though, but I promise all our incredibly worth it! Some things that I hesitate to describe as feelings as they are so unique! Faith is one, hope, comfort, and feeling so incredibly undeserving. Rushes of emotions, as if someone just poured a pale of glory upon one.
Heaven is far from earth. If it was a planet, which it is far too complex to be categorized as, perhaps we would have found it by now. But it's impossible to find from earth, and God says this a few different ways. I enchourage you to read the bible, because I do not contain the knowledge of verses and various places of these things yet, and I do apologize for that.

MOVING ON

Some people think God takes all our good works and bad works and dumps them on a huge "cosmic scale". If the good outweighs the bad, you're in. If not..well...you know what that means..

Wrong! Our actions NOW determine our heavenly role later.

While with hell the bible tells us 3 main things:
" It will last forever." (matthew 25:46)
"It wil be punishment for sin and unbelief." (2 thessalonians 1:8)
" It will be permanent seperation from God."
The bible also describes hell as "the second death". The first death clearly is the seperation from your one and only life on earth, and the second death is, once again, the forever seperation from God.

Hell is certainly not a place where people run around and live out their temptations. It is described as a place of torment, and im POSSITIVE, a place where you will find how badly you need and truly desire God, even if you might not have realized it yet. There are great demonstrations of evil on earth. Murder, rape, putrid things, the list could go on. Since the bible says we are born into sin (since Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden), we find much of it as disquised, as satan tries to make it that way. He tosses it at you little by little. Like following bread crumbs. Maybe the story of hansel and gredel, only not such a happy ending for those who do not accept God. We, and I myself too, have made exceptions, and the more we do that, the worse it gets, I have lost my scence of feeling when things are wrong because of these exceptions, and we eventually stray farther away from God, and when death comes, there is no turning back. God does fight for us everyday. "He is not willing that any should perish." and in the long run it actually is very much a choice which way we want to go, and God did this because he let us not be robots and thus showed how greatly he loved us.

I wont go on. I hope I have helped you with this question. =) Sorry to carry on so long. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, therefore he still loves you as much as anyone else! Please remember that!

Sincerely

Answer 9

Well, I just asked the question for answers about where in the bible it explicitly says someone must die physically before they enter hell. I haven't gotten a good answer yet.

So I must wonder whether hell is here on earth. Mark 9:44-48 says that in hell their "worm" dieth not. Well, I have thought about this. A worm never represent someones soul or spirit in the bible. What does the word worm here represent? Well, the greek word means grub. I have a vivid childhood memory of my father killing grubs in our garden. He killed them because they ate all the new good plants. So one must want their "worm" to die. This is a spiritual thing. Jesus was always comparing seeds to the "WORD". These seed grow, but if the worm is alive it will get those seedlings. These seeds are the truth, but if you have a worm the good thoughts that grow in truth (new plants) are destroyed. So this analoygy only makes sense if hell is here on earth separtate from God. So kill your worm and let the plants (truth) grow. Also there have been some who have been saved from the lowest hell.

Psalm 86:13 For great is thy mercy toward me: and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell.

Answer 10

Both are non-physical places, and yet are both "part" of the physical world. Heaven is the infinite epitome of pleasure, far higher than any pleasure felt in the physical world. There is no hunger, disease, or any other types of need or want. There, Gods' presence is felt eternally. It is the reward for belief in God and Christ. Also, all animals go to heaven, as they did not fall as Adam and Eve did. Hell is the infinite epitome of everything tortuous, painful, and all things like it. All sorts of pain is all that is felt there. God's presence is never there; the devil's presence is, however.
As I previously stated, they are not physical, and transcend our comprehension and interpretation of it.