Rethink your belief that your belief about the nature of Hell is universal. Went to churches of various denominations throughout my life, and the “Hell is just separation from God” version came up rarely.
We’re you sleeping then? Because it comes up.
Well, there’s no shortage of “I died and went to hell” stories where the dead stand in vast fields, surrounded by each other but too engrossed in their own pain and anguish to interact with each other. Or where they are truly alone with themselves for all eternity.
Like I said, it seldom came up in the churches I attended when I grew up, and unless you were at those same churches I doubt you have any knowledge at all about what they taught. The idea that Hell is just separation from God is definitely not universal.
In a world with over 4000 religions (belief/faith systems), you want a broad consensus on events and prophesies? Or shall we limit it to the Christian sects? Jewish Christianity, Pauline Christianity and Gnostic Christianity are all sources of Christianity. and guess what, they differ.
I’m the one saying there is no broad consensus(as my links obviously point out), so asserting that Hell is “Separation from God” is the goto in this conversation doesn’t work, personal beliefs of some participating in this thread notwithstanding.
There’s a reason Hypnos (Sleep) and Thanatos (Death) are twin gods, and it would tend to indicate that there is no consciousness of existence in Death in their belief system.
Like the article says, Sheol just means ‘grave’, not ‘hell’.
And a total WTF from that article that I admit that I laughed at, but did not link clicky;
Swedenborgianism
See Swedenborgianism
You’re free to believe anything you choose. You can believe that unbaptized individuals go to a physical hell for eternity where they suffer in the company of the lowest form of humanity. If you believe that, you can find someone with a Church somewhere who thinks you’re right. You can also believe that your “hell” may be no worse than throwing a few logs on the fire to keep warm. No sunny pastures to lay down in.
Assume there is a God, and he gave mankind a church to run. Do you really think man could do that without totally screwing it up, let alone agreeing about anything God had said?
And your point is, what? That anyone who talks about Hell has to mean a Hell with eternal torture, because many of the conceptions of Hell at the link include that?
Anecdata, then.
Not universal, sure. But IMA (in my anecdata) it’s pretty common.
From Catch-22:
Because salvation is not free. It comes with a DEFINITE cost.
I am not sure. Something that makes a sinner sincerely want to repent.
Wouldn’t the standard Christian answer to that be “Yes, and Jesus paid that cost”?
What’s the cost?
Bible says it’s free, fwiw.
But God is.
That is indeed, one definition of the punishment of Hell. Going without the love of God in a grey featureless boring place, and being totally aware that YOUR actions sent you there.
“Hell is a spiritual state of separation from God and inability to experience the love of God, while being conscious of the ultimate deprivation of it as punishment.” Orthodox.
“Rather than a place, hell indicates the state of those who freely and definitively separate themselves from God, the source of all life and joy” Catholic.
“…after serving their sentence in Gehenna, all souls are reconciled to God and admitted to heaven, or ways are found at the time of death of drawing all souls to repentance so that no “hellish” suffering is experienced.” Universalist.
But yes, various protestant denominations have widely varying views on hell.
Bout tree fiddy.