Comprehending Hell Ultimately hell is the place of eternal torment and separation from God for non-believers, and we can get a better insight and understanding on hell and what it might resemble through the Biblical Language of hell and through the different descriptions the Bible uses for hell. There are a few names and and translations for hell in the bible that when translated to Greek or Hebrew give us a clearer idea of hell. Sheol is the Hebrew translation for hell, which translates to the pit, the grave, and hell. Hades is the greek word for hell, and its meaning translates the same as the Hebrew translation Sheol, so they're often grouped together. Tartarus is the greek word for hell, found in the bible only once. “The Apostle Peter …show more content…
“The fire of hell is the anguish generated by the awareness that a person has invested his or her entire life what is perishable and temporal rather than imperishable and eternal” (Grenz 643) Some people think the “fire” and some of the physical pain in hell is figurative and only the mental sorrow and ager is real. “Any figure of speech has a literal point. What is figurative is the burning flame; what is literal is that this is a place of utter heartbreak. It is a loss of everything, and it’s meant to stand for the fact that hell is the worst possible situation that could ever happen to a person.” (Gungor 3) The Bible is not completely clear about whether there will be physical pain or not, but we do know these facts for sure. “The account teaches some important facts about death and hell: (a) there is conscious existence after death; (b) hell is a real place of torment; (c) there is no second chance after death; (d) the dead cannot communicate with the living” (Ryrie 606). “In Jesus’ famous parable of Lazarus and the rich man, for example, he describes the rich man “in agony in this flame.” Looks obviously like torture, right? This is one of two key passages usually pointed to for the torture image. But let’s look closer. …show more content…
“It is not necessarily evasive to say that the true nature of hell is not revealed in a way that is plain and decisive. It could be the case that the biblical language concerning hell gives us a clear warning that without faith in Christ something very bad will happen, but what the details of that badness are we cannot know. It may in fact be a sign of hermeneutical humility to only go as far as the Bible takes us and not overreach.” (Cook) There’s a reason there are so many different beliefs and viewpoints on what hell is. The Bible is slightly vague when it comes to describing hell or whether or not there is physical torture or just mental torment. “My faith doesn’t depend on the reality of hell, of course. But these days, I have more uncertainty than ever about that part of the afterlife. If I’m honest, I have to admit I don’t know what to think about hell. I really don’t.” (Boyett 4) The Bible is very clear on one thing. Hell is unending punishment and eternal separation from God, family, and everything that is not
Dante went through each level of hell with his guide the poet Virgil starting from the top, from the sinners whose punishment was not as bad as the last level of Hell. To show , from high to low it was first, limbo in which the sinners in which did not sin, but were never baptized. Secondly, lust the sinners who have a sexual desire and were punished by have winds pushed them back and forward. Thirdly, Gluttony, here the sinners who are selfish suffer day and night in
What is Hell? According to the online Oxford Dictionary, “ A place regarded in various religions as a spiritual realm of evil and suffering, often traditionally depicted as a place of perpetual fire beneath the earth where the wicked are punished after death.” A horrible place to be. Have you ever see someone tortured? I hope not, it is a terrible thing. Imagine this scene: An individual, engulfed in flames. Screaming for help but no one can do anything about it. Skin boiling, shrieks of agony, truly a horrid scene. What crime could someone have done to deserve such a punishment. Let us use an illustration. A good father would punish his child when he has done something wrong. But a cruel father would torture him. Hell from this perspective is illogical.
In the play No Exit, by Jean Sartre, the author attempts to describe his vision of what Hell is, a subject that many have pondered, but none really know. Sartre was under the impression that Hell had nothing to do with the fire and brimstone, as many people before him believed. He instead voiced his thoughts through the characters of No Exit. “Obviously there aren’t any physical torments…and yet we’re in hell. And no one else will come here. We’ll stay in this room together, the three of us, forever and ever…in short there’s someone absent here, the official torturer…each of us shall act as the torturer of the two others.” (No Exit, p. 22) The three main characters in this play, Inez, Garcin, and Estelle create the hell they were banished to, but not by using the “racks and red-hot pincers” of the past, but by hurting each other in a disturbed form of a “love triangle”, where the love really doesn’t exist.
Hell is what he is referring to when the author says firey pit. He describes hell as the lowest,
Although most of the punishments may have been fitting and appropriate based on the sins that were committed, there are a few that the Catholic Church would disagree with, namely the fact that blasphemers against God received such a mild punishment and that souls in Purgatory and Limbo were punished at all. In conclusion, although Dante’s The Inferno does often allude to the Bible, it is not biblically accurate and was not meant to be a teaching of the Catholic Church, but a fictional story of his own vision of Hell intended for literary purposes.
pits, different cells in hell and there is a heart of hell. As Mary and JESUS went through hell their were people there who are begging god to let them in heaven and god says no because judgement has been set. He said there has been many people their way to introduce them to god and they refused. Souls are in hell begging for repentance and the answer is no because they had their chance and they turned their backs on god. Some souls even were at one time of another saved and they were going through something to make them stronger in the word and they though god was being unfair to them and blamed god for the mistake; therefore turning their backs on god. There are many false prophets in hell. As god walks through and stop to talk to these prophets they beg and pled for forgiveness and when god says judgement has been set they began to curse god and talk to him in the manner where they are really disrespecting god.
Even in the idea of Hell, eternal suffering is a punishment, and it is the worst kind of punishment one can endure. Knowing one has sinned and would not be forgiven is a punishment so great, that in the New Testament, God chooses to sacrifice His only son to show all of mankind that God is able to forgive their sins. Therefor no man would be given the punishment to walk the earth in shame in the eyes of God as Cain did again. Suffering is only given as a punishment for grave sins against God, being idolatry and the murder of a righteous man. Regardless, these two forms of divine punishment, are much too severe for the punishment for sinning, therefor it does not conform to the theoretical prospect of retributive
Despite the obvious flaws of Dante himself, he does give a clear vision of how punishments will be taken forth in the afterlife. He gives reason to fear and respect the law of God lest eternal punishment be your only promise in the afterlife. These punishments are as relevant as can be, so he offers a very vivid picture of hell. The men that he puts in hell give it a realistic twist, enhancing the fear that is felt upon reading this work
In summary hell is very real and it will last forever. It is just for at least two reasons. The fist is that Christ is eternal and therefore sin against him is eternal. Therefore, the punishment of that sin is just in being eternal. Secondly, it is people that lock Christ out just as they did while living. Even more so, then when they were live-in, as they harden their hearts in hell. They have hardened their hearts so much and hate so much that they would never consider unlocking the door to hell to let Him In.
Through Jesus Christ, God’s favor for Israel saved people from eternal damnation. According to the books of the New Testament, sinners are condemned to hell as punishment for their unrighteous lifestyle on earth. In scriptures, hell is described to be awful; for example, Matthew 13:50 states that there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. In hell, sinners are shut out from the Lord, which is truly unfavorable. Revelations 21:8 provides readers with an idea of who is subject to eternal damnation: “But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, the murderers, the fornicators, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death” (Revelations 21:8 The Harper
(ESV) All three of these verses bring a negative connotation to Hell, but they also reveal that Hell is a spiritual place similar to Heaven. The reason for this is because of the fact that Hell cannot be located at the center of the Earth chiefly because the quenchless fires would consume this
Inferno, the first part of Divina Commedia, or the Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri, is the story of a man's journey through Hell and the observance of punishments incurred as a result of the committance of sin. In all cases the severity of the punishment, and the punishment itself, has a direct correlation to the sin committed. The punishments are fitting in that they are symbolic of the actual sin; in other words, "They got what they wanted." (Literature of the Western World, p.1409) According to Dante, Hell has two divisions: Upper Hell, devoted to those who perpetrated sins of incontinence, and Lower Hell, devoted to those who perpetrated sins of malice. The divisions of Hell are likewise split into levels corresponding to sin. Each of the levels and the divisions within levels 7,8, and 9 have an analogous historical or mythological figure used to illustrate and exemplify the sin.
Through the centuries, Christians have asserted that those who do not accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ will suffer conscious, everlasting torment. Among other things, hell has been branded as cruel and barbarous. Though traditionally accepted without question within the Christian faith, this doctrine is steeped with difficulty. It gives challenge to ideas concerning the inherent good of mankind, as well as the love and kindness of the God of the Bible. Unbelievers in general have questioned hell’s existence and justice.
One way in which death can be viewed comes across the Catholic religion. The Catholic believers look life after death in a prospective of three different worlds, such as Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise according to the deeds committed during life. If a person during his or her lifetime committed any sins, this person’s next world will be the Hell. The traditional view in which people refer to hell can be found in the book written by Dante Alighieri, “La Divina Commedia”. The book states that the formation of Hell was given by the crash of Lucifer (the angel that wanted to be better than God) from the sky onto the earth. Crashing on the Earth in Jerusalem, his head formed an upside down cone inside the Earth. This is where is located the Hell. In the Hell, people pay for their sins with different penitences (12-13). For instance, a person that committed homicide will freeze in a lake frozen by the breath of Satan (XXXIV canto). If a person during his or her life commits any sins but asks for forgiveness, then he or she will go to the Purgatory. The purgatory is represented by an island with a mountain (23). One source states that “Purgatory is very similar to Hell; the main difference is that one will eventually be released from torture. The souls that go in the Purgatory are tortured with fire. These souls remain in purgatory until they become sufficiently purified to enter heaven”(2). For example, if a soul in the purgatory asks for forgiveness and pays the punition with some tests, the soul will be released and moved immediately to Heaven (2).
What was hell? Hell was a fiery pit of loneliness—never ending torment and pain. I never really believed that there was a better place after your heart stopped beating. There was no magical force that was going to make everything better in the world. All there was was now. The present. You can't believe in darkness without believing in light so I also never believed that there was an evil force to punish you for all eternity—that seemed a little steep. The only person that was going to hold you accountable for what you have done is yourself—your conchence. That seemed to be punishment enough. To have to look at your face everyday and know that you can never change the past. It keeps you up at night. That was hell. You can never get away from yourself.