Hellfire? Burn or not to burn.....that is the question?

Question

Why is it devout Christians and Muslims if you cirticise their religion.....warn you you will go to hell!

Hell was just made up by religions to control the populace and increase the authority of the churches.

Answer 1

The Christians might warn you that you'll go to hell, the Muslims on the other hand, will just blow you up!

Answer 2

Hell is a Latin word which means to cover over...or in this case, mans grave. It comes from the Greek word Hades, which means place of the dead, which in turn comes from the Hebrew word Sheol which also means mans common grave.
There are mistranslations in a lot of bibles that call Gahanna in the Valley of Hinnom has Hell. Gahanna was a fiery bit in which the Jews used to throw their rubbish into and sometimes the bodies of dead criminals. Gahanna was also used to symbolically refer to those that died with out a resurrection hope.
The Bible does not teach about a fiery hell in which the souls of bad people go to to burn for an eternity.
There is a scripture in the old Hebrew Scriptures (I cannot remember where it is in the Bible...sorry) but it reads something like this.
The Jews at the time had turned away from God and started to worship pagan gods such has Baal (Beelzebub) (sorry about my spelling) and part of that worship was to sacrifice their first born into the burning fire of Gahanna. And in that scripture we read that God said 'That never such a thought came into his heart’ so the thought of burning people or souls is something that God had never even though about.

If God is a loving forgiving God then he would not have created such a place has the fiery hell that the churches teach us about.

On a side note...if we humans had an immortal soul and when we died and went to a beautiful paradise called heaven, with no more pain and war or sadness, then why did Jesus resurrect his close friend Lazarus?

Answer 3

Yes you're correct...the teaching of hellfire was created by church leaders to sow fear in the hearts of many and thereby follow them.

Notice what the bible says regarding those burning their sons in fire...

Jeremiah 7:30 ‘For the sons of Judah have done what is bad in my eyes,’ is the utterance of Jehovah. ‘They have set their disgusting things in the house upon which my name has been called, in order to defile it. 31 And they have built the high places of To′pheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hin′nom, in order to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, a thing that I had not commanded and that had not come up into my heart.’

Why would then God create hell and burn the dead there if he sees burning children as disgusting? Another thing, Romans 6:23 states “The wages sin pays is death..." One is freed from sin when he dies...there is no need to pay it in torment in hell.

Logically speaking, when wood is thrown into fire, it burns and turns to ashes, and it goes the same for all thing, afterwards it ceases to exist...this is just the same meaning with the lake of fire that is shown in the bible, symbolically all those thrown into the fire cease to exist, they dont stay there alive and burn like what we were thought.

Answer 4

You are correct .The helllfire doctrine is not biblical and is of pagan origin. Satan loves it when people think of God as cruel and sadistic.
We would never tolerate such horrific torture if it were done by anyone today. We think of Hitler and Saddam Hussein as horrible rulers and they ordered many people to be killed and tortured. So people who believe in hellfire; what does that say about God? Is he a loving, merciful and just ruler or is he cruel, sadistic and totally unjust.
No, our Creator is loving ,just ,merciful and forgiving, The wages sin pays is death states God's own Word, the Bible.
"For the wages sin pays is death, but the gift God gives is everlasting life by Christ Jesus our Lord" Romans 6:23
It does not say that the wages sin pays is everlasting torment.

Answer 5

Go to Hell. Just kidding, seriously though, it obviously does not control the masses since very few people take their faith seriously. Look at american culture: sex, money, violence. No control here. This pagan country is slowly starting to feed the faithful the lie of license. Meaning that you can do whatever you want with no recourse.

Answer 6

And how do you know that hell was made up by religious people? What proof do you have that it does not exist? Would it not make sense to be punished for the bad things we do in this life? If not, why do you think that we were even put on this Earth? To live and die (and if you believe in God then just go to heaven without any punishment of your sins)?

Answer 7

Hell=Grave

Answer 8

They fabricate a life-raft of assumption, opinion and belief in order to afford some protection from the endless waves of uncertaintity that wash against the shore.

Answer 9

It' not burn or not to burn - we are living in Hell; you only have to turn on the TV, newspaper, war, crime and many, many more HELL is right on earth

Answer 10

Hell can be everywhere you anger and loose of temper to waiting some results and hopeless.
Heaven can be anywhere you put down your desires and see what you need. If you haven't got body, will you still need something?