What is Hell, according to Christians?

Well, what do you think it is?

(I'm sort of doing this for two reasons, to have an interesting conversation/comparrison of ideas with others, and to see what people who aren't Christian's have been led to believe Hell is)

 

Well, there is the Disney land version in cartoon form, and then there is the written description.
Our Leader described heaven as this, "the kingdom of heaven is within you"
So hell, described Bibicially, is really being seperated from the maker emotionally. You won't find these fairy tale stories about eternal pain in the Bible, you will however find the destruction of the soul. The horns and pitchfork story is a mental game to destract people from wanting to know what hell is. Everyone knows what Hell is.
Early translations like "sheol" which was basically a burning pit where trash was eliminated: this became a comparison, as did "hades"
Hell itself was described as where the worms dont die and the fires arn't quenched. This doesnt mean you are eaten with worms eternally or burn eternally, this means there are enough flames and worms for a multitude.
Hell is a bigger part of life than death although cartoons and fables have thrown fire and brimstone at us for far too long.
I can't promice your eternity either way or the other, but I can tell you a Biblical account, or a lack therof. Hope this helps.

 

I believe Hell is a place of eternal torment. I also believe that those who go to Hell are met with a punishment and damnation unique to themselves. Afterall, what would they do with those who get off on the pain of eternal hellfire?

My personal Hell would be nice and standard. Torture. Or a very involved date with a group of vikings...*shudders*

Hey, any of you dnd nerds go by the "Nine Hells of Baator" model?

 

According to Christians?

A place you go if you don't believe in God. [Yep. Everyone before Jesus' time and anybody outside Mesopotamia were all heathens and burned] And you're punished for all eternity.

What do I think it is? Hell is not existing anymore. When you're so evil you don't even deserve to be reincarnated as a slug or something.

 

Stop it! I want to see how many people hold this view first :woo:

 

This goes on and on and on, why kick a dead horse anymore?
You asked what is hell according to Christians, not what are Christians told hell is according to non-Christians. The eternal suffering and endless pain make people hate Christians, you dont hate Christians, you hate non-Christians that have painted your brains a stale shade of black.

 

I'm not quite sure I understand you here. Are you adressing the people who hold the thought that Christians say Hell is eternal suffering and endless pain or me?

Hell, from what I understand is a complete sepperation from God. To understand that you have to understand what God is and why that is such a horrible thing, which will take more then reading a post or two about it. The fire could be a literal meaning, but it could also be a figurative one with "a shadow of truth" to it. Being sepperated from the creator is a horrible thing, which would be an intense suffering as we believe. Thus the eternal suffering.

 

There's only one place in the Bible that I can think of where it describes someone actually in hell. In that case, a man is in torment, and he is conscious - aware of who he is, what he did in life on earth, and why he is there in hell. Coincidentally, he is talking to two people who are in paradise. One is Abraham (who lived more than 2 millenia before Jesus was born) and a poor man named Lazareth.

BTW, Jesus was the one telling the story about these people.

From this one story that Jesus told, I get these facts about the afterlife:
1. Some people go to hell after they die.
2. People in hell are fully conscious and aware of who they are and what they did.
3. You can regret your past in hell and still stay in hell.
4. Hell involves very real torment.
5. Once in hell, you cannot pick yourself up and move yourself out of hell.
6. Other people are in paradise.
7. They are fully conscious, aware of who they are, and remember what they did in life.
8. One of the people in paradise is Abraham, so people who lived before Jesus, according to Jesus and Christianity, aren't all consigned to hell.
9. People in both heaven and hell are aware, to some extent, of other people and what they are doing on earth.

 

My Belief

I believe hell is a place where you send yourself. If you are sinnful you go to hell
after you die. You spend your time in complete torment until the Apocolypse. The bible says that everyone (including those who have already died) will be judged before god in the book of Revelations, so according to the bible you can get out of hell. Don't ask me how I'm not a theologen.

 

Which Christians?

The Cathars and Bogomils believed that hell was living apart from the one true God and that you would continue to live there until you had grown enough spiritually to ascend once more unto the heavenly plane. Hell was viewed to be what we consider "reality" and a persons soul would be continually sent back until it was ready to ascend. Then the Catholics slaughtered them by the thousands and burned thier priests at the stake as heretics.

 

isnt hell the place where you have to push past all the lawyers to get to the fireplace

 

In hell you can get a good tan, but you need tanning lotion SPF 45 Billion

 

I dont believe there is a hell. Hell is the churches way of unsurping power. "If you dont follow the church you go to hell, if you dont donate money to the church, you go to hell, if you dont...". If God loves us as much is said, then there is no way that he would subject us to an eternity of torment. The pain we feel through life is the punishment for our sins.

 

Interesting theory, and I've heard it said a lot. Problem is that belief in hell existed before the church did.

No one in the Bible spoke more about hell than the One who proved His unsurpassed love for humanity by dying on the cross for us. No one in the Bible spoke more about hell than the One who did everything necessary to see that none of us has to go there.

 

There may have not been established churches, but, I feel alot of Christian and Jewish posers used the threat of hell to unserp power.

 

No doubt.

So, 'posers' aside, what is your understanding of what real Christianity and Judaism teach about hell?

 

I've heard so many different interpretations. My faviourite is that hell is like jail, you serve your time there and then go up to heaven. I'll probably be in hell for a few hundred thousand years. Not very long when you think of the after life lasting eternity. :Angel:

 

I was once told by a very intense Christian man,that Hell was where you would constantly nash your teeth.......
At this point I said lovely a bed with a big fluffy pillow :love:

 

So they dose you up on E and Meth?