Actually, I started this thread and haven't posted it anywhere else on this site. You are the one who came to this thread, so doesn't that mean that YOU are the one shoving YOUR views on me and those in this thread?

wooow, this is the biggest collection of theism I've seen on a forum in a while. Can we make a Jewish thread too?:thinking:

500 posts and the thread is still going strong :)

Even my thread about this thread made a comeback today! Are we bored?:P:lol:

yep

my shortest post ever

 

I thought you were just supposed to follow the light or something. :confused::confused::confused:;)

The problem is that we don't seem to have the right transportation to take us there. According to Thom Yorke, Tom Waits and an old children's skipping song:

 

"Three, six, nine

The goose drank wine

The monkey chewed tobacco on the streetcar line

The line broke, the monkey got choked

And they all went to heaven in a little row boat"

 

All we need is a rowboat, and we cal ALL go to heaven!:D:D:D

I pray that this thread dies soon.

^seconded

:laugh3: May the thread go to heaven, or whatever comes shortly thereafter..:P

^I think it will go to hell chuck..:p

2nded... for the 2nd time lol!

:devil::devil::devil::devil::devil::devil::devil::devil::devil::devil::devil::devil::devil::devil::devil::devil::devil::devil::devil::devil::devil::devil::devil::devil::devil::devil::devil::devil:

Muhahahahaha!!:lol: Thread goes to hell. Film at 11.;)

So is this thread kinda burning atm???:uhoh:

Yeah it is,chuck has posted too many devil smileys.

*leaves thread before getting burn* :escaping:

Dogmatic Thread = Automatic Dog.:P

One small leap for frog, one giant leap for truth.

:lol:

Well, it won't die as long as we all still post in it, but I can't resist an LOL to Chuck's last post, so I guess I'm not a part of the cure.:lol:

 

*splashes holy water on Chuck*

EASTON'S BIBLE DICTIONARY:

 

 

Hell

 

derived from the Saxon helan, to cover; hence the covered or the invisible place. In Scripture there are three words so rendered:

 

(1.) Sheol, occurring in the Old Testament sixty-five times. This word sheol is derived from a root-word meaning "to ask," "demand;" hence insatiableness (Pr 30:15,16). It is rendered "grave" thirty-one times (Ge 37:35; 42:38; 44:29,31; 1Sa 2:6, etc.). The Revisers have retained this rendering in the historical books with the original word in the margin, while in the poetical books they have reversed this rule.

 

In thirty-one cases in the Authorized Version this word is rendered "hell," the place of disembodied spirits. The inhabitants of sheol are "the congregation of the dead" (Pr 21:16). It is (a) the abode of the wicked (Nu 16:33; Job 24:19; Ps 9:17; 31:17, etc.); (b) of the good (Ps 16:10; 30:3; 49:15; 86:13, etc.).

 

Sheol is described as deep (Job 11:8), dark (Job 10:21,22), with bars (Job 17:16). The dead "go down" to it (Nu 16:30,33; Eze 31:15,16,17).

 

(2.) The Greek word hades of the New Testament has the same scope of signification as sheol of the Old Testament. It is a prison (1Pe 3:19), with gates and bars and locks (Mt 16:18; Re 1:18), and it is downward (Mt 11:23; Lu 10:15).

 

The righteous and the wicked are separated. The blessed dead are in that part of hades called paradise (Lu 23:43). They are also said to be in Abraham's bosom (Lu 16:22).

 

(3.) Gehenna, in most of its occurrences in the Greek New Testament, designates the place of the lost (Mt 23:33). The fearful nature of their condition there is described in various figurative expressions (Mt 8:12; 13:42; 22:13; 25:30; Lu 16:24, etc.). (See Hinnom.)

 

 

 

AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY DICTIONARY

 

 

HELL

 

The Hebrews SHEOL, and the Greek HADES, usually translated hell, often signify the place of departed spirits, Ps 16:10; Isa 14:9; Eze 31:16. Here was the rich man, after being buried, Lu 16:23. The above and many other passages in the Old Testament show the futility of that opinion which attributes to the Hebrews an ignorance of a future state.

 

The term hell is most commonly applied to the place of punishment in the unseen world, and is usually represented in the Greek New Testament by the word Gehenna, valley of Hinnom. See HINNOM. In 2Pe 2:4, the rebellious angels are said, in the original Greek, to have been cast down into "Tartarus," this being the Grecian name of the lowest abyss of Hades. Other expressions are also used, indicating the dreadfulness of the anguish there to be endured. It is called "outer darkness," "flame," "furnace of fire," "unquenchable fire," "fire and brimstone," etc., Mt 8:12; 13:42; 22:13; 25:20,41; Mr 9:43-48; Jg 1:13; Re 20:14. The misery of hell will consist in the privation of the vision and love of God, exclusion from every source of happiness, perpetual sin, remorse of conscience in view of the past, malevolent passions, the sense of the just anger of God, and all other sufferings of body and soul which in the nature of things are the natural results of sin, or which the law of God requires as penal inflictions. The degrees of anguish will be proportioned to the degrees of guilt, Mt 10:15; 23:14; Lu 12:47,48. And these punishments will be eternal, like the happiness of heaven. The wrath of God will never cease to abide upon the lost soul, and it will always be "the wrath to come."

 

 

INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BIBLE ENCYCLOPIDIA

 

HELL

 

hel (see SHEOL; HADES; GEHENNA):

 

1. The Word in the King James Version:

 

The English word, from a Teutonic root meaning "to hide" or "cover," had originally the significance of the world of the dead generally, and in this sense is used by Chaucer, Spenser, etc., and in the Creed ("He descended into hell"); compare the English Revised Version Preface. Now the word has come to mean almost exclusively the place of punishment of the lost or finally impenitent; the place of torment of the wicked. In the King James Version of the Scriptures, it is the rendering adopted in many places in the Old Testament for the Hebrew word she'ol (in 31 out of 65 occurrences of that word it is so translated), and in all places, save one (1Co 15:55) in the New Testament, for the Greek word Hades (this word occurs 11 times; in 10 of these it is translated "hell"; 1Co 15:55 reads "grave," with "hell" in the margin). In these cases the word has its older general meaning, though in Lu 16:23 (parable of Rich Man and Lazarus) it is specially connected with a place of "torment," in contrast with the "Abraham's bosom" to which Lazarus is taken (Lu 16:22).

 

2. The Word in the Revised Version:

 

In the above cases the Revised Version (British and American) has introduced changes, replacing "hell" by "Sheol" in the passages in the Old Testament (the English Revised Version retains "hell" in Isa 14:9,15; the American Standard Revised Version makes no exception), and by "Hades" in the passages in the New Testament (see under these words).

 

3. Gehenna:

 

Besides the above uses, and more in accordance with the modern meaning, the word "hell" is used in the New Testament in the King James Version as the equivalent of Gehenna (12 t; Mt 5:22,29; 10:28, etc.). the Revised Version (British and American) in these cases puts "Gehenna" in the margin. Originally the Valley of Hinnom, near Jerusalem, Gehenna became among the Jews the synonym for the place of torment in the future life (the "Gehenna of fire," Mt 5:22, etc.; see GEHENNA).

 

4. Tartarus:

 

In yet one other passage in the New Testament (2Pe 2:4), "to cast down to hell" is used (the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American)) to represent the Greek tartaroo, ("to send into Tartarus"). Here it stands for the place of punishment of the fallen angels: "spared not angels when they sinned, but cast them down to hell, and committed them to pits (or chains) of darkness" (compare Jude 1:6; but also Mt 25:41). Similar ideas are found in certain of the Jewish apocalyptic books (Book of Enoch, Book of Jubilees, Apocrypha Baruch, with apparent reference to Ge 6:1-4; compare ESCHATOLOGY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT).

 

On theological aspect, see PUNISHMENT, EVERLASTING, EVERLASTING. For literature, see references in above-named arts., and compare article "Hell" by Dr. D. S. Salmond in HDB.

 

James Orr

 

 

 

SMITH'S BIBLE DICTIONARY

 

 

Hell

 

Hell.

 

In the Old Testament this is the word generally and unfortunately used by our translators to render the Hebrew Sheol. It really means the place of the dead, the unseen world, without deciding whether it be the place of misery or of happiness. It is clear that in many passages of the Old Testament Sheol can only mean "the grave," and is rendered in the Authorized Version; see, for example,

 

Ge 37:35; 42:38; 1Sa 2:6; Job 14:13

 

In other passages, however, it seems to Involve a notion of punishment, and is therefore rendered in the Authorized Version by the word "hell." But in many cases this translation misleads the reader. In the New Testament "hell" is the translation of two words, Hades and Gehenna. The word Hades, like Sheol sometimes means merely "the grave,"

 

Ac 2:31; 1Co 15:55; Re 20:13

 

or in general "the unseen world." It is in this sense that the creeds say of our Lord, "He went down into hell," meaning the state of the dead in general, without any restriction of happiness or misery. Elsewhere in the New Testament Hades is used of a place of torment,

 

Mt 11:23; Lu 16:23; 2Pe 2:4

 

etc.; consequently it has been the prevalent, almost the universal, notion that Hades is an intermediate state between death and resurrection, divided into two parts one the abode of the blest and the other of the lost. It is used eleven times in the New Testament, and only once translated "grave."

 

1Co 15:55

 

The word most frequently used (occurring twelve times) in the New Testament for the place of future punishment is Gehenna or Gehenna of fire. This was originally the valley of Hinnom, south of Jerusalem, where the filth and dead animals of the city were cast out and burned; a fit symbol of the wicked and their destruction. [see HINNOM]

Taken out in case anyone boo hoo's.

Please take the time to read this first post and pray that prayer to God at the bottom of it if you haven't yet.

TROLL!

wow some of these comments on this thread are extremely mean and uncalled for. this is not the best way to convert someone to Christianity (xfrodobagginsx) because they just get turned off by it...but still people dont need to be saying all this mean stuff to this person who has started this thread. certain threads may annoy u but please, some of these comments are just so rude.

I think we put too much emphasis on what might happen once we're dead, when the reality we face, and the conditions we make for ourselves and our fellow travelers in life are so much more important in the real sense, than any perceived "hell" or "heaven", either of which I think are just figments of over-active human imagination. Although, I have to say, for dramatic effect, it is amusing and entertaining to imagine such a place! What reality does not provide, our vivid imaginations can conjure up.. I found it interesting to think of the planes of Hades, and the one tale where one poor soul goes to drink water by dipping a cup in a river, but because the cup has holes in it, all the water drains out before they get a drink! And they keep trying over, and over, and over...:laugh3:

What seems better is to think of cause and effect, outcomes, and lessons learned. If we are taught empathy and understanding at a young age, we begin to sense what others go through from their expressions and experiences, and since no sensitive person wants to see another suffer, we then act to comfort and reduce that suffering, and to reduce the probability of the cause of the suffering to reoccur; If we act too selfishly, then we run the risk of forgetting the needs of others at times of great need; and if we act cruelly towards others, the suffering done reverberates throughout the human world, and weakens our efforts to attain higher states of enlightenment. But some individuals act cruelly to gain the control of others through unjust means, and some act cruelly just to get attention, or to cause others to suffer in a like manner (misery loves company); these traits are destructive to human society and human advancement, and lead to repressive cycles that need to be ended.