(1) THE PLAUSIBILITY OF THE BIBLICAL HEAVEN
    AND HELL

(1a) CRAIG'S TWO QUESTIONS:

[Q1] "God has to be evil as well as good, as he punishes man for not living by his rules therefore nullfiyng free will."
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The Hebrew term "Gehenna" [= Hell] derives from a valley just outside ancient Jerusalem used for discarding and burning trash.  As a poetic symbol, Gehenna can be viewed as a repository for wasted lives.  In the early Christian era, fire can serve as a symbol for a purifying process.

Like modern astral adepts, Jesus implies a multiplicity of hellish planes, each based on the principle of like attracts like: "For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you put out will be the measure you get back (Matthew 7:2)."  In a sense, God has no absolute standard of judgment.  We are automatically judged by the implicit criteria we use to judge and treat others.  So if I measure people as chumps for theft, I will find my way to a hellish plane where souls view me the same way.  In this regard, please read about "Max's Hell" in Bruce's books and on his site.  We basically judge ourselves by the essence we choose to create and hence by the postmortem company we unwittingly choose to keep.

There is, of course, a diversity of OBE insights and New Age perspectives on the hellish planes.  But there is a widespread consensus on two points:   (a) that there are many hellish planes, each with its own distinctive characteristics; (b) that these Hells are governed by the principle of like attracts like (e.g. a hell for thieves).  Or as Howard Storm learns from Christ during his NDE: "Love attracts more love and hate attracts more hate ( see "My Descent into Death," 52)."  

[Craig's 2nd Question:] "Our bodies have a huge impact on our actions.  People with brain damage would no remorse for murdering you.  Does this mean that they should spend eternity in Hell?"
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Jesus also implies the existence of hellish planes for people whose limited spiritual development and unloving acts are caused by severe deficiencies in the spiritual light available to them.  For these souls the poetic image of "few lashes" implies limited confinement followed by quick release:

"That servant who knew what his master wanted, but did not prepare himself or do what was wanted, will be beaten with many lashes.  But the one who did not know and did what deserved a beating will be beaten with few lashes.  From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded (Luke 12:47-48)."

(1b) MORE ON POSSIBLE RELEASE FROM HELL:

Jesus also envisages hellish planes that function like a debtor's prison.  If God creates us to be unique beacons of pure unconditional love and we instead choose to live lives of self-indulgent egotism, then we "owe" God a soul that outgrows this counterproductive orientation.

In Matthew 5:25-26 Jesus envisages the possibility of paying "the last cent" of one's "debt" and gaining release from a postmortem debtor's prison:

"Make friends quickly with your opponent at law while you are with him on the way, in order that your opponent may not deliver you to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and you be thrown in prison.  Truly I say to you, you shall not come out of there until you have paid the last cent."

There are four grounds for assuming that Jesus implies the possibility of ultimate release from Hell:

(a) The saying makes little sense if taken literally.  Jesus would then be advising His culpable disciples on how "to beat the rap" in a justified [?] criminal charge against them.  In that case, why advise them to wait to settle until their accuser is already in the street en route to court?  A symbolic interpretation makes more sense.  "The opponent would then be God, "the  way" would be the way of life, and the "prison" would be Hell.  In the Jewish thought of Jesus' day, Hell is often imaged as a prison.

(b) Jesus restricts His use of the formula  "Truly I say to you" to spiritual subjects like prayer, divine judgment, and our relationship with God.  The formula is never used in a secular sense like "Truly I say to you, you'll never get out of the slammer."

(c) The two earliest interpretations of the saying construe it symbolically as a reference to postmortem conditions.

(d) Luke places this saying in an eschatological context (Luke 12:57-59).  This context may support the symbolic identification of "prison" as Hell.

Jesus' Parable of the Two Debtors concludes: "and his lord, moved with anger,  handed him over to the tormentors until he should pay all that was owed him (Matthew 18:34)."  Here Jesus plays off the image of sin as a "debt" in the Lord's Prayer: "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors (Matthew 6:12)."  What is striking in this parable is that Jesus does not say, "and the lord handed him over to the tormentors, from whose grasp he will never escape."  Rather, he again implies the possibility that the debt will be paid off and the prisoner released.  Of course, this interpretation must not be misconstrued to undermine grace-based salvation.  

In the parable, the debt (10,000 talents) is immense and would be very hard to pay off.  Both Bruce Moen and Howard Storm agree that one remains Hell-bound by virtue of one's free choice rather than by divine fiat and, therefore, that graduation from Hell is theoretically always possible.  But both also agree that the lower the hellish level, the more difficult it is to be retrieved:  

[Bruce Moen:] "Since visiting Max's Hell, I have been to several other Hells in Focus 25." "In my experience, it is extremely difficult to move people from this area (the hellish BSTs) to areas of greater freedom of choice." "Examples of positively reinforced reasons to change are nonexistent in the Hells (quoted from Bruce's website articles)." During his NDE, Howard Storm is taught the same point: "But the terrible truth is that the deeper people sink into [Hell's] degradation, the less willing they are to seek salvation (53)."

Still, Jesus implies that Hell can be the lowest stage in the often interminably long process of evolutionary soul progression.  God is love and Christ is the savior not just of believers, but also of unbelievers (1 Timothy 4:10).  "Our Savior...wants everyone to be saved and to reach full knowledge of truth (1 Timothy 2:3-4)."  "The Lord...is not willing for anyone to perish, but for everyone to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9)."  If the desire and purpose of an omnipotent God is to save everyone, then why assume that His desire and purpose end after our death?  

This divine purpose is most tellingly demonstrated in Romans 11:32: "God has bound all men over to disobedience, so that He may have mercy on them all."  Here our sinful nature is part of God's plan, so that access to God must be on the basis of grace rather than any pretentious accumulation of merit points.  Paul anticipates our objection to this system: "One of you will say to me, `Then why does God blame us?  For who can resist His will (Romans 9:19)?'  In 9:20 Paul dismisses the impudence of this question.  God is off the hook because, even after death, His love still pursues the sinner in Hell.  Thus Romans 11:36 casts 11:32 within the framework of the destiny of all creation: "For from Him and through Him and back to Hm are all things."  The expression "back to Him are all things" presumably includes those languishing in Hell, though perhaps not those who have chosen the annihilation option.

(1c) THE POSSIBILITY OF ANNIHILATION IN HELL:

In the past, Brendan has posed this important question: "Could I ask to be abolished?"  The Bible warns of the possibility of straying so far from God's love that spiritual restoration becomes impossible (Hebrews 6:4-6).  Paul warns of the danger of postmortem "annihilation" ("apoleia" in Greek--Romans 9:22; Philippians  3:19).  

Bruce Moen's astral travels suggest this answer to Brendan:  "Recent exploration has discovered a sort of permanent death.  It is extremely rare."  In Howard Storm's NDE, "Jesus and the angel" agree with Bruce about the reality of soul annihilations, but not on their frequency:

"For every individual there is a unique journey into the abyss.  There is no limit to its complexity and depths of distress...Hell is separation from God...For some people, this may culminate in the ultimate annihilation of their being, if...they..do not seek their way back to God.  For others there is the possibility of salvation . . .Many desire annihilation as relief from the torment of hell (Storm, 53)."

The multiplicity of Heavens is more clearly implied in Scripture than the multiplicity of Hells.  In my next planned post I will demonstrate how the biblical models of Heaven and Hell imply postmortem evolutionary soul progression.

Don

Hey Don,

Extremely well written, well documented and to the point.  A tour de force so far.  Its interesting though you use the words like "imply, presumably, and assume," because as you and I both know, you are interpreting scripture.  To a skeptic like Spitfire you may be in for it with those words.

But I don't think that matters.  The arguments are sound enough to suggest that the support for your premises is there in scripture.  The meaning or message is often the point rather than the analogy or absolute writing in aramaic.


Matthew

There seems to be a great deal to be said for the Buddhist perspective, "anatta doctrine", that simply denies existence of an eternally constant material Godhead, and of invariant material souls  as well.

But if we all believed that way, we'd have to be personally responsible for what we do, and we'd have to accept many of those "New Age" ideas, that God is That which is manifesting ex nihilo in the form of our neighbors and ourselves.

That would make it very difficult to make any money from Priestcraft, Jihad or Inquisitions, much less the sale of indulgences. It would deny us a major reason for warfare, subjugation of non-believers, or conversion by the sword, the gallows or the torture rack.

The fact is that all experiential evidence we have from meditation, soul retrieval or past life therapy seems to point toward personal responsibility and away from blind reliance on an impersonal and punitive God who lies in wait for the ignorant with Her monstrous fly-swatter and eternal coal scuttle. Perhaps the reason that we fail to understand God is that we have forgotten that we have created Her in our own image.

In that case, we truly need blind faith - emphasis on Blind.

d

Spit said:
Quote:


God doesn't put anyone in any situation. That child CHOSE that life for lessons to be learned, just as we ALL choose our lives before coming into the earth plane.

Whoa there Spitfire. I don't have to prove anything. Besides, you will prove it to yourself before your next incarnation. If I could drag you 'there', I gladly would. Some things must be taken on faith and trust. That's just the way it is.

Namaste,
Mairlyn 

Quote:


Faith is like gambling, the last act of the desperate.

Proof is needed, otherwise your just another smuck in a tux.