A question about hell?

I think that you should not consider what none could possibly understand..and none to ever understand..it may be a great threshold..or it may be simply an alternate condition to current one.And that,my friend,is all any to know of it..even NCIS!Ever watch one life to live?Or listen to Tim McGraws live like you were dying?This a pretty deep subject for we little steppers.I hope you respect your opportunity though..and every second to please you..I hope.And this above all..keep your confidence,raise your head high..be more than a man..and go your own damn way!This means make ye own luck..not sitting around pondering an age old question none to ever uncover..a whole big world with many many roads/venues awaits..and money is just slightly important..unless you need to buy IBM WORLD to be happy.Most other items/needs will come if you ask..of another..enough times..for the mighty word of the first God is true..

Does God send people to hell?

Are we saying that some people do good enough so that they go to heaven, and other people do wickedly, and so they go to hell? If true, then just how good must you live in order to go to Heaven? And how bad must you live in order to merit Hell? And what of those folks who land somewhere in the middle?

Let's do a thought experiment: Out of all creation, there's this fellow, call him Dave, who has lived a life that is both good and bad. And there's this other fellow, call him Jim, who has lived virtually the same life. both of these fellows are somewhere in the middle; neither are really bad people, and neither of them are terribly good people either. In fact, these two people just happen to be right on the point of division. Dave and Jim have lived virtually identical lives, and it just happens that with Dave, there is this tiny bit of good he did sometime when he was a kid; Jim is just the same, except in his youth there was this one tiny moment when he was ever so slightly not so good. So we have these two people, identical in all respects, save that very tiny bit of good or that tiny bit of bad.

So it comes to pass that Dave goes to Heaven and Jim, uh -- doesn't.

Almost anyone would say, "Hey, where's the justice here? These people were virtually the same and one goes to eternal bliss, and the other to eternal torment, forever cut off from the face of God."

Dave is aware of this, and from his place in Heaven, he says, "I am no better than Dave! Why should I prosper, while he is in eternal torment?"

Picture the families of the blessed in heaven, lamenting over that one "black sheep" of the family who was sent to torment. Like a mighty army, they all cry out, "Why, O Lord? How can we have joy in heaven when one dear to us lies in the eternal abyss of hopeless torment forever?"

It is, of course, just a thought experiment, but for most of us, it exposes a major problem in the Heaven-or-Hell theory of eternity -- something to ponder?

Now consider these questions. I think they are really pretty simple.

Do you believe that God is loving?

Do you believe that God is just?

Do you believe that God is merciful?

Do you believe that such a God would create such a thing as Hell -- let alone ever send anyone there?

Neither do I.

Hell is the worst thing possible for you because it is the loss eternally of what would have fulfilled you.That is why in Dante's Inferno it is the DESPAIR that is worst of all, and even the worst physical punishments are welcomed for the distraction Have you ever been in the presence of someone who has just lost a loved one, It is that but worse

Sounds to me like your second idea about hell being separation from God (and I'd add, the pain of lost opportunity) makes plenty of sense.

So what is there left needing to be reconciled?

We know that the Bible is packed full of symbolism. It's entirely possible (even likely based on the reasoning you described) that the fire and brimstone is figurative as well.

going "astral" means out of time.. the mind (even without a body) still can feel all pain .look up amputees still feel pain in their arm when their arm was removed... going astral means spending time in hell until reborn and reunited with a body...also verses say an abortion was a promised seed so it also keeps making replays and rounds.. and in much suffering... til our spirits will that child to live and not be aborted...(in the first place)

There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day:

and there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores,

and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.

And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;

and in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.

Daniel 12King James Version (KJV)

12 And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.

2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

3 And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.

4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.

The bible says that hell is eternal, but is anyone going there spend that amount of time? Jesus spoke of a prison where we spend time until we have paid with our last smallest increment of wealth, perhaps a reference to hell itself.

Practically everyone who dies goes to the Bible hell. Even Jesus Christ did.

Does the Bible indicate whether the dead experience pain?

Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10: “The living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all . . . All that your hand finds to do, do with your very power, for there is no work nor devising nor knowledge nor wisdom in Sheol,* the place to which you are going.” (If they are conscious of nothing, they obviously feel no pain.) (*“Sheol,” AS, RS, NE, JB; “the grave,” KJ, Kx; “hell,” Dy; “the world of the dead,” TEV.)

Psalm 146:4: “His spirit goes out, he goes back to his ground; in that day his thoughts* do perish.” (*“Thoughts,” KJ, 145:4 in Dy; “schemes,” JB; “plans,” RS, TEV.)

Does the Bible indicate that the soul survives the death of the body?

Ezek. 18:4: “The soul* that is sinning—it itself will die.” (*“Soul,” KJ, Dy, RS, NE, Kx; “the man,” JB; “the person,” TEV.)

“The concept of ‘soul,’ meaning a purely spiritual, immaterial reality, separate from the ‘body,’ . . . does not exist in the Bible.”—La Parole de Dieu (Paris, 1960), Georges Auzou, professor of Sacred Scripture, Rouen Seminary, France, p. 128.

“Although the Hebrew word nefesh [in the Hebrew Scriptures] is frequently translated as ‘soul,’ it would be inaccurate to read into it a Greek meaning. Nefesh . . . is never conceived of as operating separately from the body. In the New Testament the Greek word psyche is often translated as ‘soul’ but again should not be readily understood to have the meaning the word had for the Greek philosophers. It usually means ‘life,’ or ‘vitality,’ or, at times, ‘the self.’”—The Encyclopedia Americana (1977), Vol. 25, p. 236.

Does the Bible say that the wicked go to hell?

Psalm 9:17, KJ: “The wicked shall be turned into hell,* and all the nations that forget God.” (*“Hell,” 9:18 in Dy; “death,” TEV; “the place of death,” Kx; “Sheol,” AS, RS, NE, JB)

Does the Bible also say that upright people go to hell?

Job 14:13, Dy: “[Job prayed:] Who will grant me this, that thou mayst protect me in hell,* and hide me till thy wrath pass, and appoint me a time when thou wilt remember me?” (God himself said that Job was “a man blameless and upright, fearing God and turning aside from bad.”—Job 1:8.) (*“The grave,” KJ; “the world of the dead,” TEV; “Sheol,” AS, RS, NE, JB.)

Acts 2:25-27, KJ: “David speaketh concerning him [Jesus Christ], . . . Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell,* neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.” (The fact that God did not “leave” Jesus in hell implies that Jesus was in hell, or Hades, at least for a time, does it not?) (*“Hell,” Dy; “death,” NE; “the place of death,” Kx; “the world of the dead,” TEV; “Hades,” AS, RS, JB.)

Does anyone ever get out of the Bible hell?

Revelation 20:13, 14, KJ: “The sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell* delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.” (So the dead will be delivered from hell. Notice also that hell is not the same as the lake of fire but will be cast into the lake of fire.) (*“Hell,” Dy, Kx; “the world of the dead,” TEV; “Hades,” NE, AS, RS, JB)

“Much confusion and misunderstanding has been caused through the early translators of the Bible persistently rendering the Hebrew Sheol and the Greek Hades and Gehenna by the word hell. The simple transliteration of these words by the translators of the revised editions of the Bible has not sufficed to appreciably clear up this confusion and misconception.”—The Encyclopedia Americana (1942), Vol. XIV, p. 81.

hell doesn't exist.

does that help?