can any believers explain this?

Question

why has the depiction of heaven and hell seemed to remain constant throughout history and among different faiths? if you look back at the many religions that predate christianity and judaism, many of which were polytheistic, and their descriptions of heaven and hell, they're almost identical with the exception of the deities that are present. how do you explain this? you can't say god revealed heaven and hell to them without revealing himself. by the description of heaven, i'm referring to a place that is in the sky which is reserved for the righteous. by hell, a place of fire and torment where the wicked go. please explain.

dillinger, i said predating christianity and judaism. that means they wouldn't have copied it. more likely it's the other way around. i don't even know what you're referring to in the second part of your response.

Answer 1

idk! Maybe they copied Judeo-Christian theology... why? What is your need here? I also do not believe that you can prove ANY religion has predated Judaism without using an etch-a-sketch system that is totally flawed and not even accepted by many scientists as accurate.

Answer 2

Great question!

This demonstrates the common ancestry of man. Assuming that God at some point passed this information down to Adam and Eve, when the people were scattered at the tower of Babel due to their languages being changed, then it makes sense that the story would pass down from generation to generation. God did not elect to ensure that the story was kept straight with any tribe other than the Jews since it was His plan to demonstrate through them His plan of salvation.

This ought not to lead you to think that the Hebrews merely borrowed, nor that the other cultures merely borrowed. There seems to be a universal consciousness that this must be so, and this flies in the face of the idea that this was done in order to control people. After all, it's rather inconvenient for all parties involved and is contrary to their natural wishes, n'est ce pas? This is not the only story which is nearly universal, so is the flood. Isn't it possible that it was passed down in this way because it happened?

Tom

Answer 3

Can any Christian explain this? YES. In the beginning Paridise & hell both was in the heart of the earth. Paridise part was not torment But the other hell was torment, I will not give you all scriputres, But I think you have heard them before, All Saints in the OT that died went to the paridise part of hell, When the rich man died he was in hell the torment side, He say send one to tell my brothers don't come hear, but her was told that they had the prophets, how will they believe one that is dead. How will they believe one that was dead, Now in between paridise hell & hell torment there was a great gulf in between them That is also in the bible, Now when Jesus died, He decended to the lower parts of hell to give those OT saints a chance to see what they heard was prophecy that would come, & when Jesus rose from the dead, The Bible says & THE GRAVES were opened, What graves, those of the OT Saints, He brought everyone of them out of Pardise part of hell Now paridise is in the heavens, That only leaves the wicked in the heart of the eath. & they will stay there until the great white throne Judgement, & you can find that in Rev. 20:4-15 The rest of the dead lived not again until the 1000 yrs is finished, then God brings everyone of those wicked souls before him not to be judge if they have eternal life, No They were already judge on that when they went to hell, Now In Rev. Chapter 20 I know some will ask what does it mean in Rev 20:12 talking about 2 books being opened, one was the book of life, This book of life is not the same book of life for the Christians, we have already gotten our reward. But these 2 books is one if for to see how wicked a person was to judge him for how many years or even millions of yrs. they will be punish not in hell but the lake of fire. & the other book which is the book of life is none other a book that contained those names that were born during the 1000 yrs, or we can say the Milliennium, they too have to be judged. Because God is a Just God. Now you say that they will be tormented in hell, no, they will be cast into a lake of fire, With hell, the anti-christ & the anti-christ spirit, The false prophets, & the last enemy that shall be destroyed is DEATH. Even death will be cast into a lake of fire, But somewhere the lake of fire will have served it's purpose That every one & everything that was cast into the lake of Fire will be destroyed. Once Death is destroyed The planet will even be redeem back to God, we will have a perfect climate & a perfect relationship with God, with no more evil or death, Everyone that will be born in the eternal age will not have to be tested, because satan is already destroyed. And They will never die physically.

Answer 4

Tzadiq, it is good to know that someone else knows that Christmas and Easter are pagan(for the record I am a believer). By the way this is where the bible says people will burn in the lake of fire"Revelation 21:8
But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death."


To answer the question. I believe all other pagan societies adopted this idea from Judaism and put there own twist to it and not the other way around.

Answer 5

I thought you were talking about believers in having a great day with a fine meal but what the heck everybody throughout mankind's history has always had a picture of heaven and hell even if it were by different names as to the relevant cultures hope that this helps and have a very fun day - with a fine meal. AMEN! Hey.

Answer 6

The theological answer is that God imprinted truth upon the hearts of men and left them to figure out how to interpret and use it using their intelligence and free will to do so.

The anthropological answer is that dead is bad, alive is good. The dead go down in the dark. The living stay in the light. Thus, being in the light is being alive and that is good. Being in the dark is being dead and that is bad. From there it is but the shortest step to conceive of a place where the good are always alive in the light and the bad are dead in the dark. Since underground is ALWAYS dark that must be where the bad dead go. And there is Hell. Since the sky is light that must be where the good dead go to live again in the light. And that's heaven.

Answer 7

why do you think they are so similar? Valhala is completely different from the Ancient Egyptian idea of the afterlife. The anceint Greek and the ancient Hindi idea have nothing in common. And as far as Judaism goes, it has no standard ideals of afterlife; it has a kabalistic idea of "Jerusalem in the Garden of Eden", with 7 different levels; and it has the Gilgul (Wheel), which is a type of Reincarnation. But no hell; for souls who immersed themselves in evil, there is only oblivian.

When studying different cultures and history, if you think they have too much in common, you should look for a common root. And before building a theory of human nature based on these commonalities, you should broaden your horizons and study more cultures, from more points of view.

Answer 8

The depiction you described is not my view but I can explain it.

When Christianity adapted pagan customs like Sunday worship, Christmas, Easter, celebacy of the priesthood etc they also picked up pagan beliefs about the afterlife.

The Scripture tells us that the punishment of sin is death. Namely the second death after you are judged. It doesn't say you sizzle forever in a lake of fire it says that you are thrown in and are consumed the the rightoues will walk on your ashes and you won't even be remembered. The reward of the righteous is eternal life and to rule witht he messiah on earth and eventually to dwell in the heavenly Jerusalem which is described as coming down to earth. No mention of dwelling in heaven.

Answer 9

You know, Thats a good question.

Well I do believe that believer's today are following what they said in History about Heaven and Hell.

Now maybe god has revealed himself, To everyone and yet we don't see it, or want to believe it?

Maybe Heaven and Hell is revealed too us everyday, Because we were told by our ancestor's what it is, Now he reveals it by giving choice's of Good and Evil, and Choosing to go to him...

I really don't know, all that is, is my own understanding.

Answer 10

Listen,the similar recordings of past events spread out due to the Flood.That's where you get the epic of Gilgamesch and other Noah-like accounts as well as depictions of heaven and hell.You are one of the simplest minds I've encountered here.

Answer 11

Please read the 1st chapter of Genisis and you'll see that we all come from the same parents who were costantly in the presence of God. Sin separated them from Gods presence and they knew that from that time on they would die because of the sin they committed. They had children and their children had children so on and so forth. And they spread through out the world and became the people of today. So it only makes sense that they took some knowledge of God with them but after so many hundreds of years they lost touch with the one and true God and started worshipping the created instead of the Creator. Read 1st Corinthians chap.1