I was inspired by another post here when I came up with this topic. Who created Hell? Did God create Hell did Satan create it? It seems strange that God would create such a place to punish the people he created, even when he saw it coming anyway, since he's God. I was taught that we go to Hell when we don't go to heaven, it's either or. Plus I was also taught that Satan isn't even in Hell he's free to roam and do whatever with his minions, or the "fallen Ones"...so whats the deal? Mind you this is just a question I'm not really looking for a debate just some opnions or knowledge. Does Satan have the power to create, could he have created his own place to rule? Or did God? Aslo why would god do this? Why would God allow Satan to "live"? This is a conundrum.

I also was thinking is the word Hell even in the Bible?

True that, it's not really a punishment for satan if he can leave when he pleases.

quote:Originally posted by Raw_Power:

True that, it's not really a punishment for satan if he can leave when he pleases.

The Christian idea of Hell is actually just being separated from God completely. I guess it makes sense if you believe it, but that's probably why it was a punishment - it wasn't meant to be like a prison sentence.

Being seperated from God doesn't sound like much of a punishment, if the way to receive it is by rejecting him in life.

I remember hearing from some Christian lunatic (like Benny Hinn), that when a Christian dies [and ascends into Heaven], they forget all about their lives and live in complete awe of the "Almighty".

Taking that into consideration, I'd rather go to Hell. God really must be quite selfish if he not only wants us to love him the most in life, but no nothing of anything but Him in death.

[This message has been edited by Goat Saint (edited 09-18-2006).]

This is actually quite a good question. The best answer I can give is a simple explanation of what's actually in the Bible.

In the Old Testament, there was no mention of heaven or hell as realms of the afterlife. Therefor Jews do not worship their "god" for the right to enter heaven and escape the fires of hell, but instead to recieve blessings in this life. It wasn't until the New Testament where it was written that a man named "Jesus" (the son of "god" or "god" himself according to the Bible) talked of going to "Hell" after life and simply compared it to a large structure which was used to burn trash. All of the other facts you have heard of hell are just pulled out of various literature writer's asses. (Including many, if probably not all of the books of the New Testament.)

So everything you know about hell, how long you are there and what it is like were just completely made up. The only words ever written by the "god" of these religions were the "Ten Commandments". The rest were just Jesus' supposed words which were written 30-60+ years after his death by his incredibly elderly disciples.

In short, hell, and everything you know about it, are just literary products of great story-writers that never got the credit they deserved. To actually believe this could have any chance of being the true nature of life is just pathetic, because even if you are a Christian, you have to realize that all of this shit was not based on what "god" or his son said.It is just ancient Christian/Jewish/Sumerian folk-lore told since the dawn of civilization.....even if you are a Christian.....somehow.

[This message has been edited by Ra-deus (edited 09-18-2006).]

Of course it seems strange--Hell is a myth, cooked up by the priesthood to help keep the flock in line.

Organized religion = crowd control

Jesus talked about Gehenna and the fish story kept getting bigger and bigger as the fundamentalists kept telling it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gehenna

quote:Originally posted by Gith:

The Christian idea of Hell is actually just being separated from God completely. I guess it makes sense if you believe it, but that's probably why it was a punishment - it wasn't meant to be like a prison sentence.

Wait, isn't God everywhere? How can you be separated from an omnipresent being?

The question is ofcourse ambigious, but a commom concept of Hell, is that of chao's, a place without Order, usually decadent and corrupt.

quote:Originally posted by King_Cotton:

Wait, isn't God everywhere? How can you be separated from an omnipresent being?

Good question. In my philosophy, in Ultimate Reality God pretty much IS the universe--a universal force field of intelligence that permeates and unifies everything.

However, we choose how we experience reality through our choices and decisions. If we make a conscious decision to reject God, so be it.

As God said , hell " is the experience of the worst possible outcomes of your choices, decisions and creations. . . . It is the pain you suffer through wrong thinking. Yet even the term 'wrong thinking' is a misnomer, because there is no such thing as that which is wrong. Hell is the Opposite of joy. It is unfulfillment."

(quoted from "Conversations with God")

quote:Originally posted by Goat Saint:

Being seperated from God doesn't sound like much of a punishment, if the way to receive it is by rejecting him in life.

They are supposed to be aware of God and know that they were wrong and will never be able to be with him in paradise and whatnot.

If I were a Christian I wouldn't believe in satan and hell. When I was a young 'un in sunday school, I disregarded some teachings like Jesus being God and the whole thing about Satan.

Confusing...and still no real tangable answer...

According to Matthew 25:41, God created Hell (or at least had sub-contractors create it for him).

quote:"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels."

But people get to go there too:

quote:Revelation 20:12,15

And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and the books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books... And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.