Tag: death

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Bible

The Sacrifice of the Cross


Sebastian thought he had to start over. He had no other choice. After his partner stole all their money and disappeared his past due rent was getting bigger and so was his almost maxed credit cards.

Then out of blue he met a guy, Andrew, and when Andrew heard about his problems he said it wouldn’t be a problem to lend him the sum that was just about right.

It was actually more than he needed for covering the debts and he was able to open a new company.

Unfortunately it was a terrible time for business. His company went broke soon. And it turned out Andrew wasn’t the guy’s real name. Perhaps it was Andrei, or Andi, or… something else. It turned out he had a lot of friends and at least half of them were behind bars or wanted by the FBI.


Sebastian started getting visits, emails and phone calls from random people. With serious threats concerning himself and his family.
And then a miracle happened! Grace, Sebastian’s wife, met a close friend she hadn’t seen in years. It turned out the friend got married to an incredibly rich guy and when she found out about Sebastian’s problem, she didn’t take no for an answer, just cut the check for all the money that was owed.

 

Sebastian cashed the check and brought the money to Andrei.

 

Andrey seemed happy. He opened his safe, put all the money inside and looked at Sebastian.

 

– All right, I forgive you your debt – said Andrei
– Say what? – Sebastian thought he didn’t understand
– I forgive you your debt – repeated Andrei
– What debt? – Asked Sebastian – I had one debt with you and I just paid it off
– I don’t know where that money came from, if it was stolen or whatever, but it doesn’t matter now, I told you – your debt is forgiven! I’m a good guy! By the way, can we be friends now? You haven’t introduced me to your wife and kids yet!

 

Sebastian didn’t understand anything Andrei said. Forgiven debt? Good guy? Andrei had threatened to break all his bones.
Stop for a second. Read what Andrei had just said one more time. Does it make any sense at all?

Nope.

It’s not hard to conclude.

But there is a theory with a very similar logic that is accepted by literally hundreds of millions of people.

 

Various theologians call it differently, mostly penal substitution or ransom theory of atonement. It is supposed to explain the reason the sacrifice of the cross took place.

 

This theory claims that God is infinitely just and can’t just disregard human sin. Humanity is then doomed for eternal punishment (somehow theologians can’t come up with any shorter idea of a punishment) but God finds a way out! Because he is also infinitely merciful and doesn’t want to send all people to hell, he sends Jesus Christ, who sacrifices himself and because he was sinless, God accepts his atonement and declares people justified.

Declares some people justified, to be exact. Vast majority of Churches adds some conditions – like faith, confession, baptism or other things. Makes me wonder why Jesus didn’t fulfill these conditions as well to make it simple because right now it seems very complicated.

Jesus died to justify me – but am I justified already?

Not yet.

The list of conditions… varies tremendously and some Churches change it quite often.

 

I had believed this theory for lots of years. I preached it to others. I had never questioned the Bible itself or the existence of God but somehow… this theory always produced some kind of anxiety within me.

And I had lots of questions no one knew how to answer. Examples:

  • What’s with people who were born before? They can’t fulfill any conditions, for example they can’t believe in Jesus
  • What would happen if Jews turned out to love Jesus and he wouldn’t have gotten killed? Would all humanity be doomed?
  • How did Jesus bear the punishment we were supposed to be punished with? We were supposed to go hell for eternity; Jesus just dies and came back to life after 3 days.

 

I won’t try to answer these questions because I don’t think there are answers that make sense

 

A breakthrough in my life was created when I came up with one more question:

Does God really forgive us anything?

The question may sound shocking. What do I mean “anything”, isn’t God infinitely merciful?

Let’s think for a moment. What’s necessary for one person to forgive another one?

You may think remorse is necessary. Or apologizing. Or restitution.

But it’s not pure forgiveness then.

The definition of forgiveness is to stop feeling angry or resentful toward for an offense.

No conditions.

If someone wronged me and didn’t feel any remorse, I will always then have this angry feeling toward them. I will be hurting myself.
Pure forgiveness can only have condition – a will to forgive.
According to the ransom theory of atonement entire humanity would end up in hell if Jesus hadn’t died.

[cross pictuew]

Had Jesus not died, we would have been punished.

But it’s not pure forgiveness. Someone did get punished.

If this this “infinite justice”… I think I don’t understand something.

Like in the story about Sebastian and Andrei, nothing is really forgiven. The debt is paid off.

 

We may be shocked at the attitude of Andrei who speaks of friendship, but what do they teach people in most of Christian churches?

 

God is merciful! Really? According to religion he doesn’t really forgive anything, he makes someone else pay the debt!
God is our best friend! But as Andrei threatened with breaking Sebastian’s legs, God threatens us with something way worse – being an eternal deep fried human nugget. The threat is still real, by the way, unless we fulfill some conditions like faith or repentance.

 

I believed this theory but not because I was convinced about its validity, but because I was indoctrinated before I learned to think critically.

This is what happens in most of religious families. Children aren’t really given any choice; they believe everything parents tell them.

Psychology discovered quite recently that our main idea of the world is set when we’re 6 or 7. What’s worst, at this age their abstract thinking doesn’t really exist – when we tell them “if you believe and repent, you will go to heaven after you die” they are not capable to understand any of it – they can just memorize it and it will become deeply engraved in their mind – both its conscious and unconscious part of it – and future changes in unconsciousness usually require therapy.

 

I went to church since I learned to speak, I attended religious classes since the age of 6, I got totally programmed and this is one of the reasons I struggled for so many years to get rid of these believes.

 

And there is one more reason it’s usually tough to change the believes you grew up with.

Swimming against the current.

 

It is extremely hard to change your opinion… when this opinion is not just yours, and almost everyone you know believe the same thing.
When I tell you breathing is not necessary to survive you will reject this idea without a second of hesitation, but not because you understand all about breathing. Even if you had no idea what oxygen is you would simply reject because everyone believes the opposite.
According to my current knowledge necessity of breathing is true and ransom theory is not but millions of people are still convinced they’re both the same true.

It’s hard to swim against the current.

 

It’s almost impossible to believe “I’m right and they’re all wrong”. Recent discoveries in neurochemistry show us that our brain is programmed to prefer facts which confirm what we already know and get blind to the others. Google Andrew Huberman.

 

Plus thinking that I know better may seem too prideful, but history teaches us of many cases where entire nations were completely wrong. Think for example of Germany before the World War II. Most people believed Jews were not fully human and deserved to die.

At the time swimming against the current could mean persecutions, including death, so we’ll never know how many people believed Hitler and how many were too scared to open their mouth.

 

Today you most probably will not get killed if you say you don’t believe in the atonement theory but you may get ostracized by your family or friends. We are made to be social so our brain tries to prevent this from happening, including trying to turn off logical thinking.
I see something in the Bible that is a contradiction to the teachings of the Church I’ve been going to for 30 years and where most of family and friends are? Let’s skip the passage, forget about it and everything will be fine.

Back to the point.

Does God forgive us sins, then, or not?

The awesome truth is… He always has.

Even before Jesus came to this world.

 

Punishments in Old Testament had nothing to do with God’s love or his attitude toward people. There were making it possible for people to live with each other. They were never about afterlife.

 

The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; (Exodus 34: 6b-7a)

Compassionate! Abounding in love! And these words were spoken at the time Moses was receiving the commandments!

 

But the verse ends with speaking of punishment. How come?

 

Israel had their moral norms pretty steep to be easily distinguished from pagans and the rules and rewards/punishments served the same purpose as today’s police and judiciary system. They were supposed to protect people from others hurting them but they had nothing to do with vengeance and absolutely did not mean God was angry at anyone!

A murdered will be murdered – so that he wouldn’t keep killing.

Luke at Luke (no pun intended)! Friend, your sins are forgiven. (Luke 5:20 b). Jesus didn’t say “Your sins will be forgiven after I am punished in your place”.

What’s also interesting is that Jesus didn’t mention his death on cross until the very end of his mission! In the Gospel of Matthew for example the death is first mentioned in chapter 16 and is a big shock for all listeners (Matthew 16:21 and further). Jesus first came and preached the Kingdom of God – and preached it to Jews only.

 

One might think…
… that Jesus didn’t come here to die.
Why was then he killed?

The shortest answer – he was killed by a common agreement by Jews and Romans because he his presence was not comfortable for both nations. He undermined the religious authority of Jews and Romans were trying to kill any sign of revolution inside the nations they ruled over.

 

There is of course a cosmic, infinite reason for the death of Christ. It was an event that shook the Universe.

But I’m not here to tell you why Jesus was killed.


I am here to tell you God didn’t need his death to forgive you sins because God is indeed infinitely merciful, not the pseudo-merciful, the way religion describes him.

People don’t like the idea God can forgive “just like this” because they think he is like them. They create God after their own image.
And one of the reasons Jesus came to this world is to fix these false beliefs.

Jesus didn’t punish anyone. When his disciples wanted to punish people for rejecting Gospel, he rebuked them (Luke 9:52 and further). He loved all people and was especially close to those who were considered “bad”. He preferred to be surrounded by them, rather than by the great righteous people, priests and teachers.
The death of Jesus is an example of an infinite altruism and love. I am not sure if I fully get it but I think I know what it wasn’t. It wasn’t a sacrifice that God the Father required.


God didn’t need a ransom. God has everything. In abundance. He also has love and forgiveness for us –all of us. Because he’s God. And I am proud to believe in such God.

last edited 3/7/2022

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Salvation – what’s that thang?

If we were able to write down and count every word spoken at a Christian church during one Sunday, I’m pretty sure in most cases the absolute top words would be “salvation” and “save”.


.
Most Christians think it is also one of the most common words in the Bible.

Wrong.

Not even close.

The 5 most common words (except for prepositions, pronouns, conjunctions etc.) are:

  • Lord (about 7400 times)
  • God (4300)
  • Man (2700)
  • Israel (2500)
  • People (2300)

Several hundred positions down are save (241) and salvation (171).

Could this be a hint indicating that the Bible does not necessarily focus on what Christianity likes to focus today?

 

Regardless number count in the Bible, the subject of salvation is probably the most commonly spoken about in Christendom.

 

“Once you believe, you’re saved.”
“There is no salvation apart from Jesus.”
“All people in the world are either saved or not saved.”
“Salvation is by faith.”
“How can people get saved?”

Now if we ask Christians what it means to be saved, close to 100% of them will say it’s about going to heaven rather than hell after death.

Does the Bible say that, too?

Let’s look.

SALVATION IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

In Hebrew, the word for salvation is YESHUA (sounds familiar?). These are the first 5 occurrences of “Yeshua” in the Old Testament.

I look for your deliverance, LORD (Genesis 49:18)
Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. (Exodus 14:13)
The Lord is my strength and my defense he has become my salvation.(Exodus 15:2 a)
Jeshurun grew fat and kicked; filled with food, they became heavy and sleek. They abandoned the God who made them and rejected the Rock their Savior. (Deuteronomy 32:15 a)
Then Hannah prayed and said: “My heart rejoices in the LORD; in the LORD my horn is lifted high. My mouth boasts over my enemies, for I delight in your deliverance.(1 Samuel 2:1)

 

We can see that New International Version prefers the word “deliverance” rather than “salvation” (which we find in almost all older translations), and we may discover soon why they did this. For now let’s have a closer look at the verses.

 

The first one, from Genesis 49:18, it’s a kind of interlude spoken by Jacob in his last moments as he blesses his children and prophesies about the future of the tribes. We actually can’t tell for sure what kind of deliverance Jacob was talking about there. Probably from enemies like other nations, tribes.

The next two verses are only a page away from each other and we have no doubts what they are about – Egypt is oppressing Israel and salvation or deliverance means getting free from it.

In the fourth verse, from Deuteronomy, the discussed word is a part of the title given to God and is pretty general.

In 2 Samuel, Hannah praised the Lord for giving her a son after a long period of barrenness. The salvation she is talking about is then her restored fertility.

These are just 5 first examples of the term “salvation” in the Old Testament but I did check many more. The phrase salvation (literally “saving”) cannot be bound to a single meaning; it has a wide range of meanings, similar to English. A doctor can save someone’s life. I can save someone’s problem by fixing their mistake. Signing a peace treaty can save millions of people from distress or death that follow a war.

 

There is not one verse in the Old Testament that suggests salvation has anything to do with afterlife.

Let’s go on, then.

SALVATION IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

We’ll be looking at the first 5 occurrences of the word “sozo” – save.

She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. (Matthew 1:21)
The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!” (Matthew 8:25)
She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.” (Matthew 9:21)
(the same word is used in the following Matthew 9:22, so I’ll skip it)
You will be hated by everyone because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. (Matthew 10:22)
But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me! (Matthew 14:30)

“Save” and “salvation” are very popular words in the New Testament, so there should be no surprise that the first 5 occurrences are in one book! Regardless, the context the word is used in is very different in almost all of the 5 cases.

I have suggested above that the Hebrew word “Yeshuah” should sound familiar… You may have heard it from a messianic Jew as this is how they often call Jesus. His Hebrew name would actually be “Yahushua” and means “Yahweh saves”, and this explains the word “because” from Matthew 1:21 (by the way, it would be nice if translators found a way to let us know about it).

The verse says that Jesus is going to save people from their sins…

but what exactly does that mean?

 

People will sin no more? There will be no punishment for sins? Nothing will be considered as sin? The verse and its immediate context don’t conclude that. Let’s look at the place sin is mentioned the first time in the Bible:

but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die (Genesis 2:17)

The idea that the sin is punished with death is repeated through the whole Bible, and is summarized by Paul in Romans (famous “wages of sin is death” – 6:23″).

What kind of death is it about?

Lots of Christians see eternal condemnation in hell – but you won’t find a single biblical verse that says that.

It’s not a physical death, either – Adam did not physically die when he ate the forbidden fruit.

Adam got separated from God – and this is the kind of death that explains both Genesis and Romans, and this is I believe what Jesus saves people from.

The second and fifth verse talk about saving from drowning. When we see a drowning person screaming, “Save me”, I don’t think anyone would start telling that person how one can go to heaven when they die.

Clearly – the context says nothing about afterlife.

In Matthew 9:21 the context is very clear – “sozo” means heal, and “heal” is the word most of current translations use.

No afterlife, either.

Now, let’s stop for a moment longer with 10:22.

“Who stands firm to the end will be saved” is a Biblical phrase which is pretty popular among theologians, mostly in context of the question whether a saved person can lose their salvation or not. There is a doctrine called “OSAS” – once saved, always saved – and Matthew 10:22 is one of the key arguments against it. You need to stand firm in your faith/deeds (depending on theological option), or you will go to hell.

Let’s read the context of Matthew 10. What is Jesus talking about?

Chapter 10 starts with giving the 12 apostles powers of healing and driving out demons, then Jesus tells to preach the message of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Beginning with verse 16, Jesus starts warning the apostles about persecutions they can meet – flogging, imprisonment, even death – this all can happen to them for proclaiming the Gospel. Let’s look at the verse with its immediate context:

Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. You will be hated by everyone because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another. Truly I tell you, you will not finish going through the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes (Matthew 10:21-23)

Is this paragraph giving you any hint Jesus speaks about afterlife?

I know, this is what’s preached in the very most churches and what the very most Christians believe. But who cares about majority? Just because billions of flies enjoy licking feces, does it mean that we should do it as well? Truth counts, not what others believe or do.

Before we understand any part of the Bible, we have to abandon our previous beliefs and notice exactly what the text says, reading it as if we never read it before. Otherwise, we won’t be reading the Bible. We’ll be reading our beliefs into the Bible. And that is the main reason for the existence of so many Christians denominations.

The most common way to understand Matthew 10:22 is “who stands firm in their deeds/belief system till they die will be saved from eternal punishment in hell” but note, such words are not there. Note the context! No one is asking, “Lord, what will happen when we die? Shall we fry when we die? Is there a way out from the eternal suffering after we die?”

Jesus is sending the apostles for a mission, here, on earth; He is talking about persecutions, here, on earth.

It should be clear by now that the words “save” or “saving/salvation” do not have one specific meaning, as in Greek, as in English. If I say to you, “Save me!” it may mean lots of things, depending on situation – lending money, feeding me, clothing, talking to someone about my situation, giving me a ride – I can go on and on. To tell what “saving” means, we always need to see the context!

 

And the context applies to a very specific time, place and people. In Matthew 10 it’s quite simple: the time – first half of first century; place – Near East (we could be a more specific, but it is in the Near East for sure); people – Jews.

Nothing applies to us.

 

One of the interpreting rules of the Bible (and not only the Bible) is that we do not read more than the text says. The largest part of the Bible is the stories – and while from them we can always draw conclusions and lessons for us, we can’t apply all words directly to us. Matthew 10:22 is exactly the case.

Jesus was talking about fleeing death and persecution, not hellish fire!

Many theologians (like J.W. McGarvey, Albert Barnes, F.F. Bruce, D.A. Carson or Theodor Zahn) believe Jesus is talking about the First Jewish-Roman war, with its culminating point – destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.

I can’t find a better explanation. There are many hints in Matthew 10 – and other parallel passages like – Matthew 23-25, Luke 17) indicating beyond doubts that all the warnings and threats Jesus told indeed regarded situations that were supposed to happen within some years – not millenniums – from then. Let’s read this verse:

Truly I tell you, all this will come on this generation. (Matthew 23:36)

Christian theologians show an amazing amount of imagination by trying to explain to us how “this generation” can still apply today. They say it can mean Israel as nation… people in general… Look then at Matthew 16:38:

Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom (Matthew 16:38)

Could it be said any clearer? I don’ think so. And if you read whole chapters 10, 16 and 23, you will see they all contain very similar warnings to the followers of Jesus and woes to enemies of the Gospel.

The conclusion is simple – in Matthew 10:22 the word “saved” again has nothing to do with something that will happen after we die. It is about being rescued from what is going to happen in about 40 years.

Please, take some time to look up the word “save” in Concordance or on a website like “Biblehub.com” or “Biblegateway.com”. Look in the whole Bible and find one – just one – reference – where beyond doubts it means salvation from suffering after death. Just one!

You won’t.

 

What then does the term “save” mean?

There isn’t just 1 answer. There are many.

In the Old Testament, salvation usually meant a physical rescue from an enemy, In Gospels – fleeing from the deadly siege of Jerusalem, in some of the Epistles – restoring a love relationship between people and God. In the whole Bible, “save” and “salvation” lots of times refer to healing from a sickness.

If you were taught to believe the common Christian theology, it will definitely take some time until you stop seeing “salvation” as saving from hellfire. It took me years. But it’s definitely worth it. The Bible should make much more sense then.

If I were to name the most helpful thing that ever happened to me, I would say – it was when I realized that the Bible was much more focused on its direct listeners, not us.

Have you ever seen the acronym “BIBLE = Basic Instructions Before Leaving earth?” It does mention earth… but in the sense of leaving it. Most of Christians like to see afterlife as the “real” world and life on earth as a prelude, introduction, something we should not focus on. The main focus is, as the acronym points out, what it’s going to be when we leave earth. Shall we be saved or not? Salvation – that’s what it’s all about.

The numbers I gave in the beginning – about the most common words in the Bible in comparison to the words “save” and “salvation” bear an important message. Even if salvation was about afterlife, we can’t see much focus the Bible gives to it. History and narration make 60% of the Bible – all about this life! End times prophecy is only about 2%, and there is a growing number of theologians who believe this number is actually close to zero.

 

Let’s face the facts! The Bible has instructions how to live on earth and make this life meaningful, hardly mentioning the obvious fact we need to leave one day. One more time – no one in the entire Bible worries about afterlife!

Most of Christians do not have a problem calling “irrelevant to us” the passage that tells us to stone to death for adultery (Leviticus 20:10) but they are quick to call me a heretic or misled when I say that the mission of Jesus was directed only to Israel even though Jesus Himself said it (Matthew 15:24).

I do believe the Bible is trustworthy but the very, very most of it is not directed to us and only after a thorough exegesis and interpretation we can formulate lessons for our lives.

 

Do you agree that the commandment of stoning for adultery is not directed at us?

 

Good! The same with the warnings Jesus gave about upcoming destruction! The same about the 7 letters to Churches at the beginning of Revelation!


Today millions of devoted Christians have problems falling asleep, thinking, “Am I saved?”. Please, sit down for one minute and carefully note this simple fact – no one in the Bible asks this question. No one worries. And many verses indicate today no one can answer, “No” to this question anyway. Jesus is called the Savior of the world (1 John 4:14)!

 

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Hell (2/2) – is this biblical?

In recent decades the subject of hell lost quite a lot of popularity. Even among Christians, where seems to be one of the major doctrines, only about half believe in its existence.

My previous post points out that the theory of hell is far from logical, but logic is not the main principle of Christianity (I know, it sounds bad, but I don’t mean it in a bad way – if God Almighty showed up and told me to do something against my logical thinking, I’d most probably do it).

In other words, just because I don’t understand something doesn’t give me a reason to refute it.

The principle of Christianity is…

The Bible.

Without beating around the bush I’ll say what I believe – the Bible doesn’t say a word about hell.

Some will disagree right away – they have Bibles and it does say, “Hell” in many places.

First of all, if your Bible says, “Hell” there’s a big chance it’s a pretty old translation. Most Bibles sold today doesn’t have this word or has it just a handful of times in the Bible.

 But he knoweth not that the dead are there; and that her guests are in the depths of hell. (Proverbs 9:18., KJV)

But he knoweth not that the dead are there;
That her guests are in the depths of Sheol (Proverbs 9:18 ASV)

We need to look a little into the original words used in the Bible and don’t worry, you don’t need to be an expert to get it.

Some translations have the word hell over 40 times so before we go on we need to add one detail – we’re not wondering if the word “hell” is in the Bible, because in some translations it clearly is; we wonder if the Bible says anything about hell that is… Christian… …which is a place that has 2 characteristic features:

  1. is a punishment

  2. has no end

In the original languages of the Bible there are only 3 words that are translated into hell, one in the Old Testament, 2 in New. Simple!

SHEOL/HADES

Sheol equals hades, every time the Bible was translated from Hebrew to Greek hades replaced sheol (compare Psalms 16:10 and Acts 2:31). We can find sheol 64 times and hades 11. They aren’t popular words then, let’s compare them to Lord (8,000 times) or “earth” or “town” (1,000 each).

The problem is the Bible never defines these words and we need to investigate how they are used. When we look at all sheol/hades  examples we clearly see that the place isn’t any punishment, it’s  somewhere people “go” after they die. “Go” isn’t literal, the Bible doesn’t specify if they actually go, or are thrown there, if they’re even aware of it of… if this is even a place, not a state.

One thing is certain – everyone goes there after they die, including Jesus (Acts 2:31), which can lead to believe that sheol… isn’t actually any supernatural place of living for human souls, it may just be…

… a mere grave.

Acts 2:31 tells us something interesting:

Acts 2:31, NIV: “Seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay.”

If hell is supposed to be a punishment and has no end… it can’t be sheol then. Jesus didn’t have anything to be punished for and He didn’t stay in sheol forever.

The idea of Sheol being just the grave has some good reasoning to it, there’s just one place that doesn’t fit well with it, and one of my soon-to-be articles will be about it – the story of Lasarus and the rich guy. Before I translate this article here, you can just believe my word… or not – when I say that the story, though spoken by Jesus it is not a real story but a very interesting allegory.

GEHENNA

This word is translated in almost all Bibles as hell or hell fire. Nobody questions one fact – Gehenna is an actual place on Earth, known also as Valley of Hinnom.

It is mentioned in Gospels 11 times and once in the Epistle of James. James though uses it not as a description of a place, but as an adjective describing our language, figuratively.

The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell (James 3:6, NIV)

It should then make things simpler as it is only Jesus who uses this word as a noun. Let’s look what this word means.

 

Valley of Hinnom had a historical meaning, it was mentioned in the Old Tesament (2 Chronicles 28:3.33:6, Jeremiah 7:31.19:2-6), it was the place was was used to human sacrifices. People sacrificed their children there. Horror! This place was considered cursed.

There is today a common belief among Bible scholars that the place was also used for burning garbage and people from all over the place were burning their waste there so its fire was always on. I have tried to find a reliable source of this information but… I failed.

Today when we, living let’s say, the USA, hear the word “Manhattan”, most of us will instantly picture something like sky scrapers, huge traffic, bright neons at night… But to those who never heard of Manhattan sayings like “it’s like Manhattan” mean nothing.

We know for sure that when Jesus mentioned Gehenna to Jews it meant something horrible, something bad, but we won’t find a definition was exactly it was.

If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, where

“‘The worms that eat them do not die,
and the fire is not quenched.’

(Mark 9:43-48, NIV)

 

I used to read this passage many times… and I felt fear. I was scared. Dead scared. Today I am aware I wasn’t actually seeing the passage, I saw whatever religion decided it was supposed to mean.

Had I been able to think logically back then… I could have noticed a few interesting things, with the most important one being…

This passage clearly refers to the living people, not the dead ones!

When is Jesus telling us to cut off our hand to avoid hell? Now, or in the afterlife?

Common interpretation is that cutting off our hands is in this world but judgement/hell/kingdom of God, but this passage clearly shows that all of these things are in one realm. Christian doctrine teaches that when you die here, no matter what happens to your body, your soul or future body will not be affected, but Jesus clearly says that these hands won’t grow back before the judgement.

This is happening ON EARTH, while people are STILL ALIVE, thus… can have NOTHING to do with afterlife. And nothing to do..

WITH US.

Phrases like hell, fire (in parallel verses described as… ETERNAL FIRE) and last, but not least, Kingdom of God…

It’s all this life, folks.

Yes, I agree it sounds like a stupid heresy, especially if you grew up as a Christian. It did to me, for decades.

Please remember – this Bible passage was originally written thousands of years ago, in a totally different reality, and in a kind of language (Koine) that hasn’t been used since IV century. It is absolutely impossible to translate it beyond doubts… it’s a truth that no one admits but let’s find 2 different translations of that small passage that will sound the same.

We won’t.

We think we know what it says but what we know is the interpretation we’re given by translators and religion.

It takes a while to look at a passage yourself but… it’s like your life depends on it, right?

Mark 9:43-48 has an interesting construction. The same term is, in parallel, explained in 3 different ways:

Eternal life (1) means the Kingdom of God and means life (3)

Unquenched fire (1) means hell-Gehenna (2) and means a place where the worm doesn’t die (3).

Eternal in our language means lasting with no end, but the original word, aionios, is the subject of lots of disagreements.

We find also in the ancient Greek translation of the Bible, Vulgata, and we see lots of inconsistencies between different translations. The world that supposedly means “eternal” is sometimes translated as “old” (Psalm 77:5) or ancient (Proverbs 22:28). If one word is translated in so many ways, it usually means the translators need to choose…

And their choice will course depend on what they already believe.

It seems weird they use the word “eternal” translating Hebrew 6:2. What on earth is eternal judgment? A trial in a cosmic court which never ends? Keeps getting postponed?

The word aionios comes from “aion” which means has 2 basic meanings – age and time. Translators will also tell you it means eternal but nowhere in the Bible is this word defined in this way!

In my old religious days I used to also think that the worms which “do not die” will be inside our bodies, eating us alive… I am not even sure to be honest if it’s religion that’s taught me that, it might be as well… lack of explanation (probably on purpose) plus my vivid imagination!

But the explanation of this term is… in the Bible itself. As usual.

“And they will go out and look on the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me; the worms that eat them will not die, the fire that burns them will not be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind.” (Isaiah 66:24)

Worms. Eating. Dead. Bodies.

DEAD

Here, on earth.

The worms will eat the flesh and the disgrace of their death will be finalized.

Again and again, similar to Old Testament prophets, Jesus is warning against military actions that can result in their physical death.

And my comparison to the prophets is important. The Bible is a uniquely consistent book. Jesus behaved in many ways like Old Testaments prophets, which is for example described in the parable of the Tenants in Mark 12:1-12.

 

Back to the subject – Mark 9 says nothing about heaven, hell or purgatory.

So what is it about?

The next paragraph is crucial for understanding the subject.

In AD 70 there was an unbelievable massacre. Romans surrounded and attacked Jerusalem. As the best known historian of their times, Titus Flavius Josephus, write, even a million Jews could have died then. The citizens of the city were murdered and the buildings burned. The New Testament has a lot of warnings about this event but religion completely twists their meaning and refers them to some everlasting hellfire in the afterlife.

 

Portray this:

Jesus, the Good Shepherd, comes to this world. He cares for every single sheep and… Israel is facing an event that can cause hundreds of thousands of these sheep to die.

Something like this in the history of Israel can be compared to only one thing. Holocaust.

Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.  (Matthew 24:34)

This verse is extremely uncomfortable for lots of denominations and their prophets who tried to predict the date of “the end of the world” as they assumed it’s that end that Jesus was talking about.

What is “generation”? It can mean anything if we assume certain things before… like religion does. When they assume Jesus was talking about the end of the world, nothing can change it, so the generation can mean for example… Israel? Or human race? Christians, Church?

 

The original word is simple and leaves little doubt. “Genea” is in the Bible 43 times and it always means a generation of people:

 

Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Messiah. (Matthew 1:17)

Fun fact – easy calculations tell us the biblical generation is 44 or 45 years.

 

So… the things Jesus discussed, including all events that mainstream Christianity refers to, is not going to happen at the end of the world.

It already happened.

In AD 70.

Then Romans broke into Jerusalem and burned the city together with its inhabitants.

In…

everlasting fire.

GEHENNA
IS
THE SIEGE
OF JERUSALEM

There are only 2 options.

If  Mark 9:43-48 speaks about actual hell as the everlasting torture for humans after they die, there are only 2 options to avoid it: either you will never commit any sin or you will cut off most of the members of your body.

But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister[a][b] will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’[c] is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell. (Matthew 5:22)

Seriously? Am I supposed to fry forever because I called someone a fool?

If so, the only chance no to go hell is.. being spotless.

Which is not the case, at least with me

“if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off”… has anyone heard even the worst religious fanatics doing this?

How come we get to decide what to treat literally and what figuratively?

There are over 2 billion of Christians in the world and most of them believe Jesus does warn people against hell in these passages. How many of them have cut their hands?

I haven’t heard of any case.

Do they not care what Jesus said?

I believe the words of Jesus in the Bible are real. Why have I not cut off my hand? I try to read the Bible in its context. If threat of everlasting hell was real and Jesus really was telling people by mutilating themselves they can help it I’m sure at least some of the people would have done it.

Or at least they would have debated about.

NOT A WORD.

Plus, seriously? If I cut off my hand or gouge out my eye, will I become sinless?

I’ll have other members to sin with. Humans are created in God’s image, thus creative 😺

I know that for a mind that had been set in religious thinking for many years it is very hard to stop seeing this passage as a referral to hell. But it is possible. Your logic can win if you stop, question everything and double check if what religion was teaching you is real.

Maybe it is? Maybe I’m wrong? Checking won’t hurt, quite the contrary, your beliefs will become firmer!

I know, I know, vast majority of these 2 billions Christians believe it’s all about hell.

There’s much more flies in the world though, and vast majority of them enjoy sitting on feces.

Am I supposed to do the same?

Sometimes numbers don’t matter. And only dead fish swim with the current.

Gehenna is a warning about the terrible mayhem that was about to happen within several years. The main goal of Jesus coming here was to warn Jews against it.

Israel wouldn’t listen though and the very most of Jewish population in Jerusalem was killed.

So… is there anything in the Bible about hell?

Nothing.

There is something about hades-sheol that is a grave for all people.

There is something Gehenna, a historical event.

If hell was real it would be most terrifying reality we could imagine. Christians believing it should not cease to spend all their time trying to make people convert.

And the apostles should constantly warn people to make sure they believed the right way and make sure their families and friends and all others believed as well or else…

There is not a word like this in the Epistles though.

Religion took the amazing Bible and twisted just several of its verses and have the whole world convinced  that most of God’s children will end up in eternal torment, cast away from Him and forgotten by their loved ones.

I am utterly amazed at me myself believing it for almost 40 years.

Freeing your mind isn’t simple. It may, and probably take, years before you really feel free. But isn’t any effort worth it?

I can testify. It was the biggest positive change in my life. For all these decades I was desperately trying to make the Bible tell me if God is really going to love me forever.

Once I found out, I literally already rest in peace, and I am able to focus on what’s important in life.

This life isn’t easy but knowing it all comes to a happy end without a shadow of a doubt is what makes the difference! You won’t have to wonder anymore why God made such a horrible punishment – it was only invented in religious leaders’ minds!

 

 

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