Why do Christians believe in a place of torment called Hell?
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The rich man experienced a bodily death just like everyone does, even saints.
The second death is a distinctly different death from bodily death and it doesn't occur until after the great white throne judgment, per Revelation 20.
The parable of the rich man and Lazarus is not literal. People do not go to heaven for being a beggar and having a hard life. Rich people don't go to hell because they enjoyed many luxuries.
The parable of the rich man and Lazarus is not a picture of the path to salvation according to God's word.
The story is about a moral and spiritual lesson. If we take the parable of the rich man and Lazarus literally then all poor people go to heaven and all rich people go to hell. This simply is untrue.
The second death is a distinctly different death from bodily death and it doesn't occur until after the great white throne judgment, per Revelation 20.
The parable of the rich man and Lazarus is not literal. People do not go to heaven for being a beggar and having a hard life. Rich people don't go to hell because they enjoyed many luxuries.
The parable of the rich man and Lazarus is not a picture of the path to salvation according to God's word.
The story is about a moral and spiritual lesson. If we take the parable of the rich man and Lazarus literally then all poor people go to heaven and all rich people go to hell. This simply is untrue.
No, but I have noticed that people who believe the Lake of Fire is eternal punishment seems to be more concerned for the lost and on sharing the word of God with them and praying more for them.
Here's the thing, if I'm wrong then people just cease to exist. No biggie, right. They decided they didn't want to be with the Lord so they won't be. They'll just dissolve away.
If you are wrong, then people wind up in the lake of fire punished throughout eternity and you and have told them they would only cease to exist. That would be a horrendous fate that might have been avoided if they had only known the truth.
Jesus didn't lie or exaggerate. It's going to be like he said, so I wouldn't put any bets on rejecting him and then just ceasing to exist. He gave a fair warning. So we all should repeat only his words and the scriptures when asked about the afterlife. No need to interpret because his Words will do as he intended them to do. His words are life to those that believe.
Here's the thing, if I'm wrong then people just cease to exist. No biggie, right. They decided they didn't want to be with the Lord so they won't be. They'll just dissolve away.
If you are wrong, then people wind up in the lake of fire punished throughout eternity and you and have told them they would only cease to exist. That would be a horrendous fate that might have been avoided if they had only known the truth.
Jesus didn't lie or exaggerate. It's going to be like he said, so I wouldn't put any bets on rejecting him and then just ceasing to exist. He gave a fair warning. So we all should repeat only his words and the scriptures when asked about the afterlife. No need to interpret because his Words will do as he intended them to do. His words are life to those that believe.
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He died and was still alive in the fire. He did not cease to exist.
Did you even read Rev 20?
Revelation 20:10 (NKJV)
10 The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
You are making all of that up! It is not a parable and is about literal Biblical people. You have ZERO proof.
Did you even read Rev 20?
Revelation 20:10 (NKJV)
10 The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
You are making all of that up! It is not a parable and is about literal Biblical people. You have ZERO proof.
you are making a good point, however, there are some things that must be said about the lesson Jesus gave.
1. it was before the work of the cross was completed
2. what is Abrahams bosom
3. this was the only parable Jesus used real names and specific people " a certain rich man, and Lazerus.
4. what did Jesu say before this parable and after it
5. are there any other scriptures that show hell with any context to the place Jesus talked about in the Parable?
in Luke chapter 15 Jesus told many parables which were told for one reason
Luke 15:2-3
And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.
And he spake this parable unto them, saying,
verse 4-7
4 “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ 7 I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.
Then Jesus told all these parables:
Lost Sheep
The Lost Coin
the Lost Son
the context continues into chapter 16 as the original did not have chapters and verses.
Luke 16:1-13
the Unjust steward
all of these parables were told to the people and the Pharisees.
Now we see why Jesus saved the last parables in verses 14-18
14 Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, also heard all these things(the parables said before in chapter 15&16), and they derided Him. 15 And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.
16 “The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it. 17 And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail.
18 “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced from her husband commits adultery.
After Jesus said all this He told The Parable of the rich man and Lazerus
the last verse says :
31 But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’ ”
the context continues in the next chapter of 17
1 Then He said to the disciples, “It is impossible that no offenses should come, but woe to him through whom they do come! 2 It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones. 3 Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. 4 And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him.”
the parables from chapter 15 to 16 was also a rebuke to those Pharisees and them who were rich Pharisees were still accountable to the whole law and how they treated the poor, Jesus was clear you know the word of God and you do not obey, do not think you will not be judged in the next life. Enjoy your love of mammon because in the next life you will not have it.
1. it was before the work of the cross was completed
2. what is Abrahams bosom
3. this was the only parable Jesus used real names and specific people " a certain rich man, and Lazerus.
4. what did Jesu say before this parable and after it
5. are there any other scriptures that show hell with any context to the place Jesus talked about in the Parable?
in Luke chapter 15 Jesus told many parables which were told for one reason
Luke 15:2-3
And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.
And he spake this parable unto them, saying,
verse 4-7
4 “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ 7 I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.
Then Jesus told all these parables:
Lost Sheep
The Lost Coin
the Lost Son
the context continues into chapter 16 as the original did not have chapters and verses.
Luke 16:1-13
the Unjust steward
all of these parables were told to the people and the Pharisees.
Now we see why Jesus saved the last parables in verses 14-18
14 Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, also heard all these things(the parables said before in chapter 15&16), and they derided Him. 15 And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.
16 “The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it. 17 And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail.
18 “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced from her husband commits adultery.
After Jesus said all this He told The Parable of the rich man and Lazerus
the last verse says :
31 But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’ ”
the context continues in the next chapter of 17
1 Then He said to the disciples, “It is impossible that no offenses should come, but woe to him through whom they do come! 2 It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones. 3 Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. 4 And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him.”
the parables from chapter 15 to 16 was also a rebuke to those Pharisees and them who were rich Pharisees were still accountable to the whole law and how they treated the poor, Jesus was clear you know the word of God and you do not obey, do not think you will not be judged in the next life. Enjoy your love of mammon because in the next life you will not have it.
Here's the thing about that personal blame narrative you implied as my responsibility if people go to Hell.
Ready?
You aren't responsible for anyone going to the Hell you believe to exist.
Nor am I or anyone else.
God is in control.
He predestined all things according to his will. He tells us this and some say they believe in him and yet elect what parts of his declarations about himself they'll accept.
God created Hell originally to receive Satan and the fallen angels he let to live. After the war in heaven he made their leader lord of this world where God's creation are born in league to Satan as fallen people.
And then? We live.
According to the plans God has laid out for us. Two camps.
God's elect. Those whom he predestined to be in the image of his son, who was God, the word, made flesh. Those with their names in his Book of Life already as his saved one's, before the foundation of the world.
And the second camp? Those who are not.
Hell? No one elects to go to the Hell you believe in.
They go because they are not chosen of God to be his elect.
So, when you believe in that kind of Hell, that has a man made origin, you believe in what God elected to happen before the fall was.
People here often say, read your Bible!
Then they demonstrate they have, while choosing which parts they accept and defend. And which to ignore.
And while that can also be said of me, that too is the thing about the good book.
It sustains whichever choice of doctrine one wishes to extract from it.
The thing is, God is sovereign and omniscient. Either way, we choosing, or God predestinating souls to suffer there at all, when no one is there yet, see Revelation, he created that to be so. When needing to be saved from the sin state that sends us there was his doing also.
Satan doesn't send us to Hell.
God's plan does.
That's scripture some choose not to believe.
"Prove it!" I can hear it now.
Why belabor the point of posting scripture proofs when some shall choose not to believe or think about those parts of the words God inspired so to inform the world of himself?
Ready?
You aren't responsible for anyone going to the Hell you believe to exist.
Nor am I or anyone else.
God is in control.
He predestined all things according to his will. He tells us this and some say they believe in him and yet elect what parts of his declarations about himself they'll accept.
God created Hell originally to receive Satan and the fallen angels he let to live. After the war in heaven he made their leader lord of this world where God's creation are born in league to Satan as fallen people.
And then? We live.
According to the plans God has laid out for us. Two camps.
God's elect. Those whom he predestined to be in the image of his son, who was God, the word, made flesh. Those with their names in his Book of Life already as his saved one's, before the foundation of the world.
And the second camp? Those who are not.
Hell? No one elects to go to the Hell you believe in.
They go because they are not chosen of God to be his elect.
So, when you believe in that kind of Hell, that has a man made origin, you believe in what God elected to happen before the fall was.
People here often say, read your Bible!
Then they demonstrate they have, while choosing which parts they accept and defend. And which to ignore.
And while that can also be said of me, that too is the thing about the good book.
It sustains whichever choice of doctrine one wishes to extract from it.
The thing is, God is sovereign and omniscient. Either way, we choosing, or God predestinating souls to suffer there at all, when no one is there yet, see Revelation, he created that to be so. When needing to be saved from the sin state that sends us there was his doing also.
Satan doesn't send us to Hell.
God's plan does.
That's scripture some choose not to believe.
"Prove it!" I can hear it now.
Why belabor the point of posting scripture proofs when some shall choose not to believe or think about those parts of the words God inspired so to inform the world of himself?
Have you noticed? Those who insist Hell is eternal are certain they're not going there. While some appear to take great pleasure in thinking those who disagree with them shall find out how wrong they are when they arrive there.
I wonder how many will bother to read this? The Origin of Hell | The Real Gospel of Christ
From Dust to Dust
16Furthermore, I saw under the sun that in the place of judgment there is wickedness, and in the place of righteousness there is wickedness. 17I said in my heart, “God will judge the righteous and the wicked, since there is a time for every activity and every deed.”
18I said to myself, “As for the sons of men, God tests them so that they may see for themselves that they are but beasts.” 19For the fates of both men and beasts are the same: As one dies, so dies the other—they all have the same breath.a Man has no advantage over the animals, since everything is futile. 20All go to one place; all come from dust, and all return to dust.
21Who knows if the spirit of man rises upward and the spirit of the animal descends into the earth? 22I have seen that there is nothing better for a man than to enjoy his work, because that is his lot. For who can bring him to see what will come after him?
I wonder how many will bother to read this? The Origin of Hell | The Real Gospel of Christ
From Dust to Dust
16Furthermore, I saw under the sun that in the place of judgment there is wickedness, and in the place of righteousness there is wickedness. 17I said in my heart, “God will judge the righteous and the wicked, since there is a time for every activity and every deed.”
18I said to myself, “As for the sons of men, God tests them so that they may see for themselves that they are but beasts.” 19For the fates of both men and beasts are the same: As one dies, so dies the other—they all have the same breath.a Man has no advantage over the animals, since everything is futile. 20All go to one place; all come from dust, and all return to dust.
21Who knows if the spirit of man rises upward and the spirit of the animal descends into the earth? 22I have seen that there is nothing better for a man than to enjoy his work, because that is his lot. For who can bring him to see what will come after him?
Scripture stands firm though. God is God. He is a loving and merciful God, but he is also a God of wrath, judgment, and justice.
So the kindest thing to do if you love others, then tell them the truth. Let them make their own choice...and yes, Daisy God gives everyone a chance and choice.
that is not fully true.
We have been commanded by Jesus to GO and preach the gospel to every creature. IF this was not important IF salvation is not saving them from something then why such a strong command to go?
Jesus said woe to those who cause one to stumble and fall, it would be better for you to have a large rock tied around your neck and cast into the sea over what God will do to you.
what is worst than death? Unless Jesus knew of the eternal condition of hell. Which he most certainly does.
Yes God is sovereign and omniscient.
And guess what that same Supreme Authority God has Sovereignly chosen the foolishness of preaching the Gospel to save people and the Same sovereign and omniscient God has said you are to do it.
Are you obeying? That was a rhetorical qestion.
We have been commanded by Jesus to GO and preach the gospel to every creature. IF this was not important IF salvation is not saving them from something then why such a strong command to go?
Jesus said woe to those who cause one to stumble and fall, it would be better for you to have a large rock tied around your neck and cast into the sea over what God will do to you.
what is worst than death? Unless Jesus knew of the eternal condition of hell. Which he most certainly does.
Yes God is sovereign and omniscient.
And guess what that same Supreme Authority God has Sovereignly chosen the foolishness of preaching the Gospel to save people and the Same sovereign and omniscient God has said you are to do it.
Are you obeying? That was a rhetorical qestion.
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I've discussed this with you several times and also have seen where others have discussed it with you.
You continue to be willfully blind to the scriptures. Until you open your spiritual eyes and ears and take the whole word of God into account, then it is fruitless to continue to discuss scriptures with you.
You continue to be willfully blind to the scriptures. Until you open your spiritual eyes and ears and take the whole word of God into account, then it is fruitless to continue to discuss scriptures with you.
amen
1corinthians
1:21 says
For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.
Is not God sovereign and omniscient? And did not God who is sovereign and omniscient Chose to preach the gospel to save them?
1corinthians
1:21 says
For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.
Is not God sovereign and omniscient? And did not God who is sovereign and omniscient Chose to preach the gospel to save them?
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You're mistaken. Neither you nor those others to whom you refer have ever discussed scripture with me.
Rather, you've discussed Sophistry cloaked as scripture.
You can't say you believe in God and his word and then ignore what he tells you in it.
The same motives surround those who insist Jesus was not God.
That's a lie. But they claim God never said that of himself.
You simply don't have the capacity to comprehend the immensity of God. When he tells us he is the creator,source, of all things, and all things happen according to his will and plan, and you ignore that, it is not I who is blind.
As far as discussing scripture, when you don't respect it as written, after first discerning what is of God and what is of man, you never have. And never shall.
When you're rude, and resort to insulting innuendo toward members here who don't see scripture your way, you show us that.
You, and I, are as God wills.
In the end?
You're dead! I'm dead. We're all dead!
What comes after?
Well, that's what we all call, hope.
We live as we believe.
Rather, you've discussed Sophistry cloaked as scripture.
You can't say you believe in God and his word and then ignore what he tells you in it.
The same motives surround those who insist Jesus was not God.
That's a lie. But they claim God never said that of himself.
You simply don't have the capacity to comprehend the immensity of God. When he tells us he is the creator,source, of all things, and all things happen according to his will and plan, and you ignore that, it is not I who is blind.
As far as discussing scripture, when you don't respect it as written, after first discerning what is of God and what is of man, you never have. And never shall.
When you're rude, and resort to insulting innuendo toward members here who don't see scripture your way, you show us that.
You, and I, are as God wills.
In the end?
You're dead! I'm dead. We're all dead!
What comes after?
Well, that's what we all call, hope.
We live as we believe.
P
Imo hell is a place of torment.
Consider this..
A place where no love exist.
A place where no comfort is found.
A place where no healing occures
A place where no peace is shared.
A place where death can give no release.
A place where no freedom is found.
A place of no hope.
Subtract God himself from all that exist in a place where there is no time...no sun...no moon...no light.
A place that burns constantly yet consumes nothing.
Hell was made first for the devil and his angels.
Note that at the great throne judgment all were raised from the dead great and small for death itself was defeated by the christ of the Lord.
The rightousness of God's judgement is no secret nor is it to be considered temporary.
Man was made in the image of God eternal priest to worship and serve the Lord in his good pleasure.
Consider this..
A place where no love exist.
A place where no comfort is found.
A place where no healing occures
A place where no peace is shared.
A place where death can give no release.
A place where no freedom is found.
A place of no hope.
Subtract God himself from all that exist in a place where there is no time...no sun...no moon...no light.
A place that burns constantly yet consumes nothing.
Hell was made first for the devil and his angels.
Note that at the great throne judgment all were raised from the dead great and small for death itself was defeated by the christ of the Lord.
The rightousness of God's judgement is no secret nor is it to be considered temporary.
Man was made in the image of God eternal priest to worship and serve the Lord in his good pleasure.
John 17
Oh, but it is fully true if you hold to the context of the operative words.
Even those of Jesus. You know the passages? Wherein he answers his Disciples when asked why he teaches always in parables.
Ekklos = Elect, of God.To be chosen, or selected, for God's divine purposes.
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.
1670. helkó
Original Word: ἑλκύω
Part of Speech: Verb
Transliteration: helkó
Phonetic Spelling: (hel-koo'-o)
Definition: to drag
Usage: I drag, draw, pull, persuade, unsheathe.
Oh, but it is fully true if you hold to the context of the operative words.
Even those of Jesus. You know the passages? Wherein he answers his Disciples when asked why he teaches always in parables.
Ekklos = Elect, of God.To be chosen, or selected, for God's divine purposes.
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.
1670. helkó
Original Word: ἑλκύω
Part of Speech: Verb
Transliteration: helkó
Phonetic Spelling: (hel-koo'-o)
Definition: to drag
Usage: I drag, draw, pull, persuade, unsheathe.
"
The first adoption of the pagan beliefs by a Christian writer was in the Apocalypse of Peter, probably written between 125 and 150 CE that remained in various church lists as a canonical text for centuries. It contains what the author claimed were the words of Yeshua as he instructed Peter after the resurrection about the signs of the end times. It also contains a variety of punishments awaiting sinners in hell and the pleasures of heaven. The descriptions clearly came from Homer, Virgil, Plato, and Orphic and Pythagorean traditions. The hell myth wasn't in the Old Testament or Christian tradition before this writer developed it out of pagan traditions.
In the New Testament canon, Yeshua referred to "Gehenna," the valley of Hinnom, where garbage burned continually, corpses were sometimes deposited, and in earlier times, people had been sacrificed. He only referred to it to illustrate his lessons about spiritual growth and the Earthly realm--that the earthly body was meaningless and would be thrown on the garbage dump. Some suggest he was warning the entire Jewish nation that it must turn away from its Earthly focus and reform by being more concerned with spiritual growth and the inner person, and if it didn't, the Jews would be destroyed in fire. He was right, of course. Jerusalem and the temple were torched in 70 CE.
However, he didn't refer to a hell as everlasting torment for people who didn't swear allegiance to him. By the time of the first English translations of the New Testament, the hell myth had been so well rooted in church tradition that where the translators saw "Gehenna," they simply inserted "hell" as the translation. That led to the misconception about hell being in the New Testament and in Yeshua's teaching.
This steady evolution took Yeshua from a humble Jewish rabbi teaching about growing spiritually to love God and man, on to the Jewish Messiah whose followers would have eternal life by being in the kingdom of God he would establish imminently, and finally on to the Greek Christos man-god who would stand before humanity in judgment, hurling men, women, children, and infants not swearing allegiance to him into the torment of eternal fire. Yeshua would have found the judgment and cruelty ascribed to him distressing, and would have overturned the tables where the authors sat writing the myths.
Over the centuries, the compassionate, loving, non-judgmental Yeshua was positioned as a judge presiding over an increasingly complex realm of pain and punishment that included levels of torture befitting the sins of the damned. In addition to the inferno ("infernus") of indescribable eternal pain, the church added a purgatory where the saved souls go to be purged of the temporal effects of their sins and two limbos where souls worked their way out of hell: the Limbo of the Infants, a place of perfect, natural happiness to which those who died before baptism go (because baptism was necessary for salvation but the infants had not committed personal sins), and the Limbo of the Patriarchs made up of two purgatories where the lost would work to raise themselves from the condemnation of hell.
The concept of a hell of torment with these remarkable complexities did not exist before the church added the inferno, purgatory, and the limbos. It simply isn't in the New Testament, written in the decades prior to 110 CE. Detailed explanations of this development of the hell myth follow."
"The Idea of Hell as a Place of Torment Develops in the Second and Third Centuries
Hell did not exist as it is thought of today in the Old Testament, Yeshua's teaching, Paul, or the earliest days of the church. It was a pagan instrument to keep the rabble in line. But by the second century, the church leaders had adopted it and were beginning to use it to marshal believers. The descriptions of a hell with punishment and torment gradually become more embellished with detail. Until the end of the second century, the penalty was simply eternal fire. The atrocities against those who wouldn't swear allegiance to Yeshua increased in intensity by the third century.
150 CE: Second Clement ("eternal punishment" only)
If we do the will of Christ, we shall obtain rest; but if not, if we neglect his commandments, nothing will rescue us from eternal punishment (Second Clement 5:5).
151 CE: Justin Martyr ("eternal fire" only)
No more is it possible for the evildoer, the avaricious, and the treacherous to hide from God than it is for the virtuous. Every man will receive the eternal punishment or reward which his actions deserve. Indeed, if all men recognized this, no one would choose evil even for a short time, knowing that he would incur the eternal sentence of fire. On the contrary, he would take every means to control himself and to adorn himself in virtue, so that he might obtain the good gifts of God and escape the punishments (First Apology 12). [Jesus] shall come from the heavens in glory with his angelic host, when he shall raise the bodies of all the men who ever lived. Then he will clothe the worthy in immortality; but the wicked, clothed in eternal sensibility, he will commit to the eternal fire, along with the evil demons (First Apology 52).
155 CE: The Martyrdom of Polycarp ("eternal fire" only)
Fixing their minds on the grace of Christ, [the martyrs] despised worldly tortures and purchased eternal life with but a single hour. To them, the fire of their cruel torturers was cold. They kept before their eyes their escape from the eternal and unquenchable fire (Martyrdom of Polycarp 2:3).
177 CE: Athenagoras ("fire" only)
We [Christians] are persuaded that when we are removed from this present life we shall live another life, better than the present one. . . . Then we shall abide near God and with God, changeless and free from suffering in the soul . . . or if we fall with the rest [of mankind], a worse one and in fire; for God has not made us as sheep or beasts of burden, a mere incidental work, that we should perish and be annihilated (Plea for the Christians 31).
181 CE: Theophilus of Antioch ("eternal punishments . . . wrath, indignation, tribulation, anguish . . . everlasting fire")
Give studious attention to the prophetic writings [the Bible] and they will lead you on a clearer path to escape the eternal punishments and to obtain the eternal good things of God.... [God] will examine everything and will judge justly, granting recompense to each according to merit. To those who seek immortally by the patient exercise of good works, he will give everlasting life, joy, peace, rest, and all good things. . . , For the unbelievers and for the contemptuous and for those who do not submit to the truth but assent to iniquity, when they have been involved in adulteries, and fornications, and homosexualities, and avarice, and in lawless idolatries, there will be wrath and indignation, tribulation and anguish; and in the end, such men as these will be detained in everlasting fire (To Autolycus 1:14).
212 CE: Hippolytus ("eternal punishment . . . unquenchable and unending fire . . fiery worm which does not die and which does not waste the body but continually bursts forth from the body with unceasing pain . . . no sleep")
Standing before [Christ's] judgment, all of them, men, angels, and demons, crying out in one voice, shall say: "Just is your judgment!" And the righteousness of that cry will be apparent in the recompense made to each. To those who have done well, everlasting enjoyment shall be given; while to the lovers of evil shall be given eternal punishment. The unquenchable and unending fire awaits these latter, and a certain fiery worm which does not die and which does not waste the body but continually bursts forth from the body with unceasing pain. No sleep will give them rest; no night will soothe them; no death will deliver them from punishment; no appeal of interceding friends will profit them (Against the Greeks 3).
226 CE: Minucius Felix ("clever fire burns the limbs and restores them, wears them away and yet sustains them, just as fiery thunderbolts strike bodies but do not consume them")
I am not ignorant of the fact that many, in the consciousness of what they deserve, would rather hope than actually believe that there is nothing for them after death. They would prefer to be annihilated rather than be restored for punishment. . . . Nor is there measure nor end to these torments. That clever fire burns the limbs and restores them, wears them away and yet sustains them, just as fiery thunderbolts strike bodies but do not consume them (Octavius 34:12-5:3).
252 CE: Cyprian of Carthage ("ever-burning Gehenna . . . devoured by living flames . . . tormented . . . souls along with their bodies will be preserved for suffering in unlimited agonies . . . without the fruit of repentance; weeping will be useless, and prayer ineffectual")
An ever-burning Gehenna and the punishment of being devoured by living flames will consume the condemned; nor will there be any way in which the tormented can ever have respite or be at an end. Souls along with their bodies will be preserved for suffering in unlimited agonies. . . . The grief at punishment will then be without the fruit of repentance; weeping will be useless, and prayer ineffectual. Too late will they believe in eternal punishment, who would not believe in eternal life (To Demetrian 24)."
http://30ce.com/developmentofhell.htm
The first adoption of the pagan beliefs by a Christian writer was in the Apocalypse of Peter, probably written between 125 and 150 CE that remained in various church lists as a canonical text for centuries. It contains what the author claimed were the words of Yeshua as he instructed Peter after the resurrection about the signs of the end times. It also contains a variety of punishments awaiting sinners in hell and the pleasures of heaven. The descriptions clearly came from Homer, Virgil, Plato, and Orphic and Pythagorean traditions. The hell myth wasn't in the Old Testament or Christian tradition before this writer developed it out of pagan traditions.
In the New Testament canon, Yeshua referred to "Gehenna," the valley of Hinnom, where garbage burned continually, corpses were sometimes deposited, and in earlier times, people had been sacrificed. He only referred to it to illustrate his lessons about spiritual growth and the Earthly realm--that the earthly body was meaningless and would be thrown on the garbage dump. Some suggest he was warning the entire Jewish nation that it must turn away from its Earthly focus and reform by being more concerned with spiritual growth and the inner person, and if it didn't, the Jews would be destroyed in fire. He was right, of course. Jerusalem and the temple were torched in 70 CE.
However, he didn't refer to a hell as everlasting torment for people who didn't swear allegiance to him. By the time of the first English translations of the New Testament, the hell myth had been so well rooted in church tradition that where the translators saw "Gehenna," they simply inserted "hell" as the translation. That led to the misconception about hell being in the New Testament and in Yeshua's teaching.
This steady evolution took Yeshua from a humble Jewish rabbi teaching about growing spiritually to love God and man, on to the Jewish Messiah whose followers would have eternal life by being in the kingdom of God he would establish imminently, and finally on to the Greek Christos man-god who would stand before humanity in judgment, hurling men, women, children, and infants not swearing allegiance to him into the torment of eternal fire. Yeshua would have found the judgment and cruelty ascribed to him distressing, and would have overturned the tables where the authors sat writing the myths.
Over the centuries, the compassionate, loving, non-judgmental Yeshua was positioned as a judge presiding over an increasingly complex realm of pain and punishment that included levels of torture befitting the sins of the damned. In addition to the inferno ("infernus") of indescribable eternal pain, the church added a purgatory where the saved souls go to be purged of the temporal effects of their sins and two limbos where souls worked their way out of hell: the Limbo of the Infants, a place of perfect, natural happiness to which those who died before baptism go (because baptism was necessary for salvation but the infants had not committed personal sins), and the Limbo of the Patriarchs made up of two purgatories where the lost would work to raise themselves from the condemnation of hell.
The concept of a hell of torment with these remarkable complexities did not exist before the church added the inferno, purgatory, and the limbos. It simply isn't in the New Testament, written in the decades prior to 110 CE. Detailed explanations of this development of the hell myth follow."
"The Idea of Hell as a Place of Torment Develops in the Second and Third Centuries
Hell did not exist as it is thought of today in the Old Testament, Yeshua's teaching, Paul, or the earliest days of the church. It was a pagan instrument to keep the rabble in line. But by the second century, the church leaders had adopted it and were beginning to use it to marshal believers. The descriptions of a hell with punishment and torment gradually become more embellished with detail. Until the end of the second century, the penalty was simply eternal fire. The atrocities against those who wouldn't swear allegiance to Yeshua increased in intensity by the third century.
150 CE: Second Clement ("eternal punishment" only)
If we do the will of Christ, we shall obtain rest; but if not, if we neglect his commandments, nothing will rescue us from eternal punishment (Second Clement 5:5).
151 CE: Justin Martyr ("eternal fire" only)
No more is it possible for the evildoer, the avaricious, and the treacherous to hide from God than it is for the virtuous. Every man will receive the eternal punishment or reward which his actions deserve. Indeed, if all men recognized this, no one would choose evil even for a short time, knowing that he would incur the eternal sentence of fire. On the contrary, he would take every means to control himself and to adorn himself in virtue, so that he might obtain the good gifts of God and escape the punishments (First Apology 12). [Jesus] shall come from the heavens in glory with his angelic host, when he shall raise the bodies of all the men who ever lived. Then he will clothe the worthy in immortality; but the wicked, clothed in eternal sensibility, he will commit to the eternal fire, along with the evil demons (First Apology 52).
155 CE: The Martyrdom of Polycarp ("eternal fire" only)
Fixing their minds on the grace of Christ, [the martyrs] despised worldly tortures and purchased eternal life with but a single hour. To them, the fire of their cruel torturers was cold. They kept before their eyes their escape from the eternal and unquenchable fire (Martyrdom of Polycarp 2:3).
177 CE: Athenagoras ("fire" only)
We [Christians] are persuaded that when we are removed from this present life we shall live another life, better than the present one. . . . Then we shall abide near God and with God, changeless and free from suffering in the soul . . . or if we fall with the rest [of mankind], a worse one and in fire; for God has not made us as sheep or beasts of burden, a mere incidental work, that we should perish and be annihilated (Plea for the Christians 31).
181 CE: Theophilus of Antioch ("eternal punishments . . . wrath, indignation, tribulation, anguish . . . everlasting fire")
Give studious attention to the prophetic writings [the Bible] and they will lead you on a clearer path to escape the eternal punishments and to obtain the eternal good things of God.... [God] will examine everything and will judge justly, granting recompense to each according to merit. To those who seek immortally by the patient exercise of good works, he will give everlasting life, joy, peace, rest, and all good things. . . , For the unbelievers and for the contemptuous and for those who do not submit to the truth but assent to iniquity, when they have been involved in adulteries, and fornications, and homosexualities, and avarice, and in lawless idolatries, there will be wrath and indignation, tribulation and anguish; and in the end, such men as these will be detained in everlasting fire (To Autolycus 1:14).
212 CE: Hippolytus ("eternal punishment . . . unquenchable and unending fire . . fiery worm which does not die and which does not waste the body but continually bursts forth from the body with unceasing pain . . . no sleep")
Standing before [Christ's] judgment, all of them, men, angels, and demons, crying out in one voice, shall say: "Just is your judgment!" And the righteousness of that cry will be apparent in the recompense made to each. To those who have done well, everlasting enjoyment shall be given; while to the lovers of evil shall be given eternal punishment. The unquenchable and unending fire awaits these latter, and a certain fiery worm which does not die and which does not waste the body but continually bursts forth from the body with unceasing pain. No sleep will give them rest; no night will soothe them; no death will deliver them from punishment; no appeal of interceding friends will profit them (Against the Greeks 3).
226 CE: Minucius Felix ("clever fire burns the limbs and restores them, wears them away and yet sustains them, just as fiery thunderbolts strike bodies but do not consume them")
I am not ignorant of the fact that many, in the consciousness of what they deserve, would rather hope than actually believe that there is nothing for them after death. They would prefer to be annihilated rather than be restored for punishment. . . . Nor is there measure nor end to these torments. That clever fire burns the limbs and restores them, wears them away and yet sustains them, just as fiery thunderbolts strike bodies but do not consume them (Octavius 34:12-5:3).
252 CE: Cyprian of Carthage ("ever-burning Gehenna . . . devoured by living flames . . . tormented . . . souls along with their bodies will be preserved for suffering in unlimited agonies . . . without the fruit of repentance; weeping will be useless, and prayer ineffectual")
An ever-burning Gehenna and the punishment of being devoured by living flames will consume the condemned; nor will there be any way in which the tormented can ever have respite or be at an end. Souls along with their bodies will be preserved for suffering in unlimited agonies. . . . The grief at punishment will then be without the fruit of repentance; weeping will be useless, and prayer ineffectual. Too late will they believe in eternal punishment, who would not believe in eternal life (To Demetrian 24)."
http://30ce.com/developmentofhell.htm
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