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I recently had a discussion with a former professor of mine about the death of Christ and His resurrection. In the discussion she began to note several creeds from various denominations about Christ descending into hell, but she interpreted it differently from me in that she believes hell isn't a physical location but more of a state of mind. She believes that the whole concept of an underworld consumed in flames and eternal suffering to be too cruel for a loving God and that the whole idea was brought about during Reformation to keep doubters of the Catholic faith within the church. She believes hell is when we deliberately choose to seperate ourselves from God and the torments we suffer in our daily lives and within our own minds are what hell really is, there is no afterlife for the damned. I am writing this thread to hear your thoughts on what hell is and to see if anyone could provide scripture that can either validate this claim or dismiss it. I look forward to hearing from you.
Hi, let me start off by telling you of my personal experiences and why I believe what I do. I believe hell is a state of being. I believe we can live hell right on this earth and on into the afterlife. When I was younger, I was going through alot of emotional pain and suffering. I was so angry at everyone around me, I was mean, I was hateful, I was rude and judgemental because that was how I was being treated by these people, but I was also in alot of pain and hurt and was suffering depression and PTSD. These same people who had hurt me, I had to forgive and it was all at once. There was so much going on, my mother and father had abandoned me, my sons father, my friends and I did not warrant that treatment, I didnt deserve it, I was a rather good person.Even though I didnt warrant this treatment, I was reacting to it, mirroring it back to these people, but it wasnt me, it was me being angry and wanting to hurt those people who hurt me. I was miserable. This was when I first started to see demons, first in dreams, then in lucid dream states and eventually while being awake. These demons were my demons though, it wasnt until I started to cope, understand and forgive that they started to go away. So I interpret demons as spiritual manifestations of our well being, or in my case, not so well being. I think the resurrection of Jesus is about overcoming our demons or odds, and living again, whether that is emotionally, or physically.
I have learned about demons and infact, at one point last year, I got really angry and was upset for quite sometime and then one reappeared again. I knew instantly what it was and how to get rid of it, I had to find peace again and let go. I was not afraid this time, because it was my demon.
This brings up another thing, have you ever seen the movie "The exorcists of Emily Rose?" I watched it with some friends and everyone was dumbfounded and scared. I was very curious to exactly what her demons were that were haunting her, I thought she had taken them to her grave. At one point, I thought of incest within the family, even though the girl was innocent, somebody had hurt her and she was holding onto some very bad feelings. Later on, I found a spiritual forum and low and behold, many of the posters there already knew the samething, from experience. Demons dont necessarily visit those who are evil, they visit those souls who are tormented. Tormented souls can be innocent, it is their path to learn to forgive and understand, to not repeat the cycles of abuse.
Well, first this is going to quickly disintegrate into a Universalist thread. So please, all posters, respond to the OP and try and keep it on topic.
Having said that, I can not agree with your professor although I can tell you it's an argument we have heard here before.
I'm assuming the scripture in question is where it says Christ descended and preached to the spirits in prison
For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. I Peter 3:18-20
I don't think that scripture can even remotely be interpreted as Christ went somewhere in a 'state of mind' without doing some serious twisting and turning there.
Jesus preached on Hell, it was a very serious topic to Him. I believe everything He said about it. I do believe Hell is a separation from God but I also believe it's separation from God in a very literal sense and a very literal place.
Jesus preached on Hell, it was a very serious topic to Him. I believe everything He said about it. I do believe Hell is a separation from God but I also believe it's separation from God in a very literal sense and a very literal place.
Yes it was so serious that He died on the cross so we could escape eternal hell, eternal separation from Him, if we choose to.
Our soul is our spiritual, emotional self, a body does not ascend to the other side of the afterlife, it rots, it is the soul...a soul cannot burn, as gas and fire are physical elements. It is metaphoric for the pain we feel emotionally, example, such as feeling blue, is metaphoric for being sad, or being angry, he had fire coming out of his ears. Going to hell very much is metaphoric, it is a state, not a physical state, but a spiritual or emotional state.
"Jesus preached on Hell, it was a very serious topic to Him. I believe everything He said about it. I do believe Hell is a separation from God but I also believe it's separation from God in a very literal sense and a very literal place."
I believe to read a word and to actually experience it, gives it a much more "awareness" of meaning. I also believe it is the difference in communication from 2,000 years ago and the communication of today. Jesus probably never heard the word metaphoric in his time...so it was explained in the best way they could explain it for their communication skills of that day. I believe it is a very literal place as well, as I also believe depression and sadness are very literal places.
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