Question:
What is
Hell? Is it a place? Where is it?
A Seeker of Truth
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Dear
Seeker,
Hell is typically conceived in
two ways:
1. Hell as a condition:
Hell
is the condition of being separate from God
2. Hell as a place/space
location:
Hell
is the home of condemned souls and devils; the place of eternal
punishment for the wicked after death, presided over by Satan who (according to the Bible) will be sent
there one day but Satan is not living there now.
Nowhere in the Bible is Satan mentioned as currently residing in
Hell. In fact Job 1:6 states that Satan appeared with other angels
"before the Lord." Then God asked Satan where he had been,
Satan replied, "From roaming through the earth and going back
and forth in it." - Satan freely moves about Earth. In 1 Peter 5:8 it is stated, "Your enemy the devil
prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour."
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Where did this concept of Hell come from?
If we look at the Bible we see several Greek and Hebrew words being
"translated" as Hell. In the New Testament, the original Greek
words translated into English as "Hell" are "Geenna or
Gehenna", "Hades",
and a verb, "tartaroo"
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Gehenna |
The term Gehenna
(Greek Geenna; Hebrew Ge Hinnom), was an actual location south
of Jerusalem - The Valley of Hinnom. This location was considered a
place of abomination because the Bible states that in ancient
times Israelites sacrificed
their children to a malevolent deity named Moloch, whose worship
included human sacrifice, ordeals by fire, and self-mutilation.
(See 2 Kings 16:3 - where Ahaz "burned his son as an
offering") Later Gehenna became a refuse dump
where filth and dead
animals of the city were cast out and burned. The fires were continually
maintained to prevent the spread of disease. What the fire did not consume in this
place, the worms devoured. Hence Jesus's reference to Gehenna (later
translated as Hell) as a place of "wailing and of gnashing of
teeth, where the worm does not die" and "where the fire never
goes out."
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| To the ancient Greeks, Hades as place, was the underworld itself which was divided into two parts. One part for the
dead and the other deeper part was for the captured Titans. Hades
according to the myth was a grim place where the souls of the dead were
sent. It was haunted with shadowy apparitions and guarded by the
three-headed dragon like dog Cerberus. (See the 12 labors of Hercules in the
Symbol of Life book By Daskalos) In later Greek myths the underworld Hades was
also described as a place where the evil were punished and the good are
rewarded.
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Hades |
The term Hades
which was also translated as Hell in the Bible is a Greek word (hah'-dace), corresponding to the Hebrew
word Sheol (sheh-ole'), which means the grave. Hades
was also the name given to the god of the Underworld in the early
Greek myths. Hades as a god was stern but was not
evil.
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In the image to the right,
the Greek God Hermes escorts the dead
through the underworld presenting them to Hades
to be judged. Later the Romans adopted this myth and called Hades - Pluto
and called Hermes - Mercury. |
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However, this whole Hades story
was really borrowed from a earlier rendition in Ancient Egypt. It is the
same story but with the Egyptian Gods of Osiris, and Anubus instead of Hades and
Hermes.
In this original story which goes back to the
earliest times in Egypt we see Anubus, a god of judging the dead and
presenting the recently departed to Osiris. Osiris is the god of the underworld, god of the
dead and of the resurrection into eternal
life.
Egyptians
believed that all our good and evil deeds in life were recorded in our
heart. So after death, the heart of the departed was weighed on a scales
of balance against a feather - the feather of Maat (Truth - Law -
Justice). This is where we get our concept of laws, judgment as well as
the symbol of the Scales of Justice used in law courts today.
If
the deceased's heart weighed less than the feather of Truth then they
got to enjoy the paradise in the underworld with Osiris. However also
attending the "Weighing of the Heart" ceremony in the Judgment Hall
was Ammut. Ammut was the "Devouress
of the Dead", a fearful looking demonic goddess with the head of a
crocodile and the upper body of a lioness and the lower body of a
hippopotamus. If the deceased's heart weighted more that the feather of
Truth then Ammut immediately devoured them. This meant that the departed lost
all existence, the most horrible fate for an Egyptian.
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The Weighing
of the Heart of the deceased by Anubus in the
Egyptian Underworld
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SATAN |
The
followers of the god Anubis are also the ones who opposed and eventually thwarted
Pharaoh Ankhenaten's and Khor-Aten's introduction of Monotheism in ancient Egypt
(See the Symbol of Life book By Daskalos) Also it was to
discredit the worship of Ankhenaten's one God, Aten, calling It evil that
produced the word Satan. In ancient Egyptian, "Sa" meant
Truth and "Aten" was the Absolute - God) thus Sa-Aten originally meant the Truth
of God. But it the followers of Anubis so ruined the reputation of Aten
and re-wrote history that the Sa Aten became known as Satan - [the evil one].
Much later in the Hebrew works
satan was written as ha-satan, "the satan".
At this time satan referred to the title of a member of the divine
court who served God by traveling the earth spying on human beings. Then
even later in Hebrew and Christian dualistic doctrines the word Satan became a
proper name and the adversary of man and God as we think of it today.
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Early Christians also struggled with the concept of Hades
or Hell. One focus was on how long the punishments of Hell would last.
Were they permanent or did they indeed end in time?
The 3rd century Christian writer and theologian
Origen and his school taught that the purpose of these consequences was temporary, and that they were only purgatorial and proportionate to the guilt of the
personality. Origen taught that the punishment would stop in time
and the end effect would be to purify both the humans and the devils.
Unfortunately this
doctrine was not accepted by the Second Council of Constantinople. So the official
Churche choose to adopt the belief in the eternal punishments
of hell. This belief later passed into
the creeds of the Reformed Churches. However the more advanced thinkers of the Renaissance
rejected the idea of an eternal Hell.
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Each
soul enters the world strengthened by the victories or weakened by the
defects of its past lives. Its place in this world is determined by past
virtues and shortcomings."
-
Origen |
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Origen
also known as Origenes, was born in Alexandria,
Egypt. He was a mighty writer with 6,000 works ( rolls or chapters).
He mixed Greek philosophy, and
Christian religion. He put forward the idea of Christ as the Logos, or Incarnate
Word, who is with the Father from eternity. Origen settled at Caesarea
and founded a school of literature, philosophy, and theology. During the
persecutions of the Christians by the Romans, Origen was imprisoned and tortured and
later released in 251, he died from his injuries 4 years later.
Origen
used the Revelation of Saint John and changed the ancient Egyptian Symbol of
life into a purely Christian symbol and gave it to the Essenes. The
Symbol of Life was most recently taught by Daskalos (See the Symbol of Life by
Daskalos) |
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No one
can keep in a hell anybody against his will. ~ Daskalos
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Today many have rejected the idea of endless physical punishment after death
as incompatible with the teaching's of Joshua Emmanuel the Christ
of God as our most loving Father. However, opinions still range
widely from the pains of Hell being no more than the remorse of
consciousness, to the more older view of eternal physical torment.
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Commercial
billboard in the United States expressing the views of its advertisers
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In the teachings of the Researchers of Truth, as Daskalos points out
below, Hell is a condition. It is of our own making. It can be found as
a temporary condition in the worlds of
existence (noetical, psychical and material planes) Beyond these conditional psycho-noetical
hells True Bliss is found in the higher worlds (the Noetic State and beyond). ~
Daniel
©5.2001
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On
Paradise and Hell - by Daskalos from the Stoa Lessons |
I
said in a lesson - nobody is keeping the records. There is no "Judgment
Day". The Judgment Day is - every moment. There is no archangel or angel
that is counting your faults and coming up as an accuser. This is wrong! They
are loving. They are curing wounds, joining bones. But, Christ said,
"Whatever one sowed, so shall he real reap" - it's the Law of the
nature of the Infinite Beingness. It is the Law in the inner Self. Yes,
somebody is recording, but that's - you. You are recording what you are doing.
So, we are recording. Where? In the Mind in the sub-consciousness. The
recording is going on every moment: you think, you desire, and you act. You
are recording everything, and according to what you are recording - what you
are sowing - so you shall reap.
So,
in passing over (closing your eyes and leaving the material body to die, to
dissolve, to decay) you never find yourself in any paradise or in any hell in
which you are not in - now. Who is placing you there? Just your vibrations -
placing you with the same vibrations of the psychical plane: you naturally
enter your hell or your paradise.
What
can we do to save ourselves from these hells and how are these hells created?
I said that everything in the psychical plane is splendid, lovely. But, going
there, one finds himself in a sub-plane of that splendid world, yet,
creating with his sub-consciousness (one is carrying along) a world of his own
(enclosing himself in his shell-hell or shell-paradise). So, one doesn't see
outside - one sees what one has created with his desires, passions,
weaknesses, the way of living.
Now,
is that shell-hell everlasting, eternal, as even the orthodox religion of the
Christians is teaching? No! Because, that's an insult to God, to God who is
most merciful. God did not create a human being to live less than a
hundred years (very seldom beyond that) just to cast him into an everlasting
hell. That's a blasphemy. Don't accept it! Each one finds himself in his
shell-hell [or shell paradise] which he has created.
How
can one come out of it? Is anybody forcing him to stay there? No! Anyone can
get out of his or her shell-hell - if one wants. "That's a great joy to
the angels in heaven ...", as Joshua the Christ says, "... for the
one who returns back home" - to his own nature, while he is living on the
material plane (or in the other planes).
So, there is no Judgment Day, in
the sense they are presenting. No! The Judgment Day is every
moment: by what one is doing one is judging oneself and creating the way one
is going to live.
I repeat, no one, man or a woman,
passing over, can find himself in any paradise or in any hell they are not in
already now. We have paradise or hell on the material plane also. It is the
disposition of our personality. I'll give an example, a fact that happened
before some time in a nice and luxurious hotel in the mountains, there in the
forest, in the pines. Seeing the light of the Sun, hearing the streams
murmuring, the nice wind, the breeze, yes, it is a kind of paradise! You can
feel it. Light, fresh air, everything beautiful. In that hotel, most
luxurious, there was a very, very rich man never satisfied with his life or
with anything, being all the time in trouble and fighting his fellow-men,
finding only despair in his room. In the next room there was a fellow [a
worker] who was
saying "Now, I'll go all through the year, I'll save some money but I
cannot afford living more than a week in this hotel. The way is to save some
money and come and be here - and live." Both of them were in that hotel.
It's a hotel in Cyprus. The first day that man, call him a worker, opened the
window, started breathing, listening to the music (as he said) of the air, the
fresh air, and hearing the brook passing he just said "Oh, God, thank
you. Nature is so good, it's a paradise for one who can enjoy it." He
made a prayer of his own creation - and believe me, these prayers are accepted
by God more easily then any repeated prayers, meaning nothing to us. He made a
thanksgiving prayer with his heart. He was feeling very happy. Suddenly, a
shot shook him. In the other room, the rich man foolishly committed suicide.
Being rich he could afford living in the hotel all the year round, if he
wanted to. But, he could not see the paradise. He could not see the beauty of
nature. He could not see the satisfaction of life. Just observe these two
persons: the same environment, the same place. One being in his hell and one
being in his paradise.
When a fellow passes over don't
think that there are punishing Archangels to catch him and say "Come
here! This is the record. The Book! You have done that and that. You deserve
to enter this hell (or, to enjoy this paradise)." No. You will just find
yourself where you deserve to be. Your vibrations of your psychical body will
attune you to that particular sub plane of the psychical plane and you'll find
yourself in the psychical sub plane with which you are vibrating now. No one
passing over can find himself in any paradise or hell he is not already in
now! He will find himself there with the same passions, with the same way of
thinking, the same way of feeling - as he is now in the material body. Only,
he will find these things rather more intense now.
Is there no change there? Of course there is. As there is change on anything
in the material plane so there is change there too. But, who will make the
change? Your understanding and your disposition. I am telling you that out of
the experience of the invisible helpers. No one can keep in a hell anybody
against his will.
But, how can one leave his hell if
he feels that his hell is - his paradise? This is a point. And, there is
something else, of course: how can one make a man change? The same way he will
do it here on earth. Suppose that somebody wants to change his house and live
in a better way in this material plane. What does one have to do? Take that
fellow to another bigger and better house with more facilities and comfort so
that he may see it, and then, he himself, compare it with the place he is
living in now. Or, show him still a better house in a better place near the
sea or the mountains. Show him three or four and he will make the comparison.
If you ask him "Where would you like to live now?", he will say
"I would like to live there", if - he decides (and he is authorized
to do that). "But, are you sure?" Are all the people ready to leave
their huts for better houses? I tell you - no!
This is the difficulty. And, I am telling you, nobody is forcing a fellow in
the psychical plane to remain in a state (call it hell) if one wants to leave
it. What is the choice of the invisible helpers? To make them see better
conditions and make comparison. If they wish - that's good.
One man's paradise is maybe another
one's hell. Yet, is it not the same on the material plane? You have many, many
such examples. ~ Daskalos
Researchers of Truth
contact@Researchers-of-Truth.org
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