The concept of “Hell” from a historical perspective:
In the Old Testament, there is no place like “Hell” as a place of eternal torment and punishment. In the Old Testament, only one place is described (Sheol) where the dead reside; there is never any mention of torment or eternal punishment. Holy men such as Abraham and Moses, or prophets like Isaiah and Elijah: Not a word about a place like “Hell.” The concept of “Hell” only appears in the Gospels. However, the New Testament was not written by Jesus himself, but rather by people from around 65 CE to about 100 CE.
This raises the question of why these individuals introduced the concept of “Hell.” According to my research, early Jewish Christianity was in direct competition with numerous other Jewish teachings and scholars, such as Simon Bar-Gioras, Menahem ben Judah, Theudas, Hillel the Elder, Shammai, Gamaliel the Elder, and religious movements like the Zealots, Pharisees, Therapeutic, Essenes, Sadducees, and Samaritans. Therefore, to attract as many followers as possible for Jesus from the beginning, a pressure tactic needed to be created: If you do not believe in our (new) religious leader, you will go to “Hell.” This erroneous teaching was then further developed by Augustine of Hippo (354–430 CE): Augustine was one of the most influential Church Fathers who significantly shaped the idea of Hell as a place of eternal punishment. In his work “De Civitate Dei” (The City of God), he argued that Hell is a place of eternal punishment for unbelievers and those who refuse to repent. He described the torments of Hell as unchangeable and eternal, and these teachings had a lasting impact on Christian theology. Also: John Chrysostom (347–407 CE), another important Church Father, spoke in his sermons and writings about the eternal punishments of Hell. He emphasized the seriousness of the biblical warnings and the necessity of repentance to escape the eternal punishments of Hell.
Don’t get me wrong: I respect Jesus Christ as a holy man who emphasized the message of love. What I reject are the people who have twisted his message.
The above is a historical perspective from Uwe Bönisch, used with permission.
The Christian explanation about hell is that God does not send people to hell because God created us with free will, and we can either accept or reject his gracious gift of salvation. In other words, according to this explanation, we send ourselves to hell by the use of our God-given free will to reject God.
This explanation is highly problematic in many ways. If you drill down into this substructure of this notion, it’s hard to not notice the following absurdities:
Almighty God created a universe and human species in which it was possible and even inevitable that we would be guilty of a crime that warrants eternal conscious punishment as the consequence.
In response, God offers the only solution in the form of the brutal human sacrifice of his son. And in some mysterious metaphysical way, this allows for the pardon of those members of the human species who hear about it, understand it properly, and accept it.
You have “free will” to accept or reject the offer. However, the choice to reject it is a choice for the punishment of eternal conscious torment. In other words, God says, “Accept my offer, OR ELSE…”
No matter how you parse this out, this cannot be accepted as rational, just, loving, or liberating.
It is not natural or rational to believe the idea that there is a God who will send a person to eternal conscious torment (Hell) as punishment for not believing and following a prescribed set of beliefs or practices. In my view, teaching this to a child is psychological abuse. If that wasn’t damaging enough, it is further explained to the child that Hell is an attribute of God’s love, which is pathological.
The doctrine of Hell as eternal conscious torment is tied to a false separation theology at the heart of traditional Christian beliefs. The idea is that God is a supreme being who created humankind as something separate. If it were possible for you to be separate or separated from God, that would make you God #2 because you would be capable of generating self-existence on your own.
By definition, if there is a “God” there is no separation from God. The psalmist understands this by writing, “Where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.”
Separation from God is not possible ontologically, regardless of how hard religion tries to convince people otherwise. It wouldn’t take more than ten minutes to discredit the doctrine of Hell by using verses from the Bible itself. I do not view all religions as meaningless or without value and benefit. However, the orthodox Christian doctrine of Hell is not only false and indefensible, it catastrophically harms people.
For centuries, the Christian church has propagandized a false story about God, Jesus, and the afterlife. Someone has to say it, so I will.
Whatever “God” is, you are not separate or separated from it.
The orthodox doctrine of hell is false, not even “biblical” and Jesus did not teach it.
A God who would use eternal conscious torment as punishment and decide upon the brutal human sacrifice of his “only begotten son” to solve it for a few is psychotic.
Just to clear the whole matter up. There is no hell. The “God” who punishes people with eternal conscious torment is a “God” of man-made (literally) religion – a demon.
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