What is Hell, according to Christians?

Hell according to Christians leans more toward Capt Ann's position.



Hell on earth would be a Celine Dion/Michael Bolton concert.

Although Ann, what happens to all those people who never heard of Christianity and Jesus?

 

Here you go. Haldis Gundersen was in heaven, the workmen below were in hell.

More seriously, my understanding of the Christian view of hell is that it's an actual place you go to if you die and are not a Christian... actually, not entirely true, where you go if you were never a Christian. I'm not saying that this is the Christain view, it's my understanding of what I was taught about the Christian view. Oh, and that the reason it's not a nice place is because God ain't there.

My own view is that hell describes a state of chaos that we live in if we are not on a path of understanding. I personally don't believe it really matters what that path is but it must involve some kind of searching for 'truth'. The opposite of hell for me would be a state of clarity, connection and understanding rather than chaos and non-understanding.

 

I’ve heard some say hell is resurrection. You come back here if your not worthy of entering heaven to “try again.” This process keeps happening until you “get it right.”

 

Kwajman:The Bible expians towards the unknowing as being held less accountable. A deep fear looms on people worried about those that have not known the good story of salvation. So they are doomed eternally? "To whom much is given, much is expected, and to whom little is given little is expected"
Just as there are laws regarding being conscious of sin, like an accidental murder opposed to stalking someone. An accidental murder could be like shooting your gun in your back yard up in the air, and it comes down miles away and kills someone. This really happens.
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Good answeres Ann, however the story Christ told about the man in Hell was to make an important point. Im sure you are aware no one is in hell yet, that comes after the judgement. Or I should say no part of mankind is in hell, I dont know about the fallen angels.
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Ever read that part in the Bible when Jesus said, "THIS is the condemnation: that men loved darkness rather than light" so they already know hell only they don't even percieve it. The seperation is Hell and the peace not understood until you got it in your heart.
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If people really regretted hell they wouldnt be there, they wouldnt be sitting in hell saying gee I shoulda listened, they are destroyed insted, how could someone suffer except for physical sensations? I once worried myself to death thinking 10 hundred billion billion years of burning if we go wrong? Then I looked a little deeper and well, actually looked, and I found no mention of eternal torment. God made all of us, even the guilty that don't repent. He can change lives, hearts and minds in the last moment as He wills.
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Has anyone heard of the great Apostle Paul? His life was tragic, he hated Christians, had many of them put to death, then he becomes a Christian, saving possibly hundredes of thousands by his witness.
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There is more than one meaning of hell, just as there is more than one meaning for Heaven. One thing I know I sure hope I can provide a glimpse at the easy way to get to heaven!

 

I don't know - what happens to all those people who have never heard of Celine Dion or Michael Bolton?

Seriously, though, I beleive they are in the hands of a God who is infinitely wise, perfectly just, and perfectly loving. He (and He alone, which is why He says for us not to judge each other) knows their every motive, every thought, and every opportunity they did/didn't have.

For some interesting insight into how God brings the knowledge of Himself even in the most remote areas, if you ever get a chance, check out a book called "Eternity in Their Hearts" by Don Richardson. One of my all-time favorites., although it desperately needs a re-edit.

 

Are any human being in Hell? The truth is "Not something we can know."
Hell does not exist as a place, but is "a situation in which one finds onself after freely and definitively withdrawing from God, the source of life and joy." Pope John Paul II
People must be careful interpreting the religous description of Hell- the inextinguishable fire and the burning oven. Hell is a symbolic and metaphorical. These picture are meant to indicate the complete frustration and vacuity of a life without God.

 

Endeavor, Aki and Capt Ann, thank you for your answers. I imagined it would be something that Endeavor spoke of. You can't be held accountable if you don't know.....

 

This is another reason I encourage people to read the Bible. You would not belive me if I told you the percentage of people who are Christian/ go to church, yet their faiths' entertwine with traditional non-Biblical teachings: It really worries me how truth and fiction have such a fine line. Going to a man for answers about God without reading out of the Bible first is like going to Spain to learn Spanish, you pick up on some words but you can't really tell what they are saying. When you study for yourself you see through the things others are misled by.
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It is much easier to plan to be heaven bound than chance an undertimined suffering. "for God sent His Son into the world not to condemn the world, but that it might be saved' One deciple asked, "how do we work the works of God?" "This is the work of God, believe on Him whom He sent"

 

Mr Simpson, I think you're thinking of re-incarnation. Resurrection is comming back alive from death. Re-incarnation is coming back in a new form after death. Resurrections difference being that you are still you.
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P.S. no one has gotten it right yet except Jesus Christ, so to plan to come back and try again hasn't worked for anybody yet. We are told we are all sinners and no one can be perfect. Look at King David, look at the deciples, everyone has the same oppourtunity to salvation and a long hard road to get there.

 

That's was i meant Endeavor.

 

Why would they be???

 

This is from a book called "Jesus Before Christianity" by a Dominican called Albert Nolan. It is a great book, incidentally.

The book describes how those that would exclude themselves from the egalitarian and loving "Kingdom of God" on Earth would "have experienced an individual and personal catastrophe" akin to being "in the outer darkness" or akin to being thrown on a rubbish dump!

A fairly modern translation I have of the Bible makes various references to Gehenna that were substituted with the word "hell" in the classic "King James" Bible.

 

making it the single oldest spook tactic in existance.

 

Actually, the Greeks thought of Hell as "just where you go when you die". There wasnt a heaven. When you died, you went to the underworld.

 

I don't believe in the hot or cold hell anymore, cause here on Earth we make ourselves the way of how we want to live our lives, either hellish or heavenly. Any religion is probably tended to scare us, and don't believe in some of the writing and the stories in the bible. But I believe we do re-incarnate here on Earth for the reasons to make up for our mistakes.

If you believe in some stuff in the bible that sounds scary. Don't believe that it could happen to you. Most of us don't deserve to be punished or tormented all we need is a change and some chances to have at least an understanding.

 

The most contemporary, radical interpretation of hell from a "Christian" perspective (see Bishop Sponge) would be seperation from God (God not interpreted as a living being, but a humanistic concept that binds us, i.e., LOVE.) So, hell is living without love.

There is no "place" of torment but what you create here and now...

 

From what I've been told (as I'm not Christian), its a place where your soul is damned for eternity. There is no opportunity to redeem oneself and as others have stated, you are separated from God.

 

We all go to purgatory for a few thousand years, depending on the level of our sins, and then we go to heaven. A few thousand years, in eternity, is not even a blip on the radar. Too easy.

 

The whole concept is quite childish... there is no Hell. And you can't say, "Christians believe X." Because Christianity is too broad. Many Christians do not believe in a literal Hell. (I, myself, am an atheist).