Tag: god

Categories
logic

The only reason you believe in Hell

 

If you believe there is a Hell … why do you believe it? How do you know it really exists?

Did you read about it in the Bible?

Has anyone told you?

Maybe God himself revealed it to you?

Have you read it somewhere?

Is this your own idea? You came up with it by yourself?

Maybe… a little bit of everything?

Many people who believe in the existence of Hell will probably answer ‘yes’ to many of the above questions, but what if the truth is much simpler?

Of course, I will not say with a 100% certainty why you believe in Hell but what I can do is to say why I did.

I believed in Hell for almost 40 years of my life.

I believed in Hell just because…

I was born in Poland.

And no, it’s not a joke. Perhaps just a simplification.

The actual underlying reason is not of course the country you were born, but we’ll get to that soon.

In the second half of 20th century Poland was almost 100% Roman Catholic. The fact that the Pope was Polish did help a lot in maintaining this status quo for many years.

(the caption should actually be ‘a map of Catholic churches in Poland…)

Until I was 20 I hadn’t met any believers who weren’t Catholics, perhaps except for a few Jehovah’s Witnesses and other “sectarians”, as everybody was calling them.

So…  I simply believed in Hell because I was born in a Roman Catholic family at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, and it was in a country that was almost 100% Catholic.

Until I connected to the Internet, which was when I was 21 (yes, the Internet got to Poland quite a few years late, comparing to the USA), I did not even know people who believe otherwise. I knew they existed but they were spoken about as outcasts and treated with contempt.

And believe it or not, you may have been born in the USA, perhaps much later than me, and you were still in the same situation.

If you are religious, especially of any kind of orthodox faith, it’d bet a $100 it was your family, not you, who chose it.

In my country almost 100% people were of the same religion. In your country it might be 30% or maybe even 5%. It doesn’t actually matters. What matters is how many percent of your family and friends were of the same religion.

Very probably it was also close to 100% or just.. all.

 

Religious people usually marry only people of the same religion, and choose friends in the same church they go to. Your religion might be a small minority in your country, but when you were growing up, when your worldview was being formed; you could still be surrounded by 100% people having the same religious beliefs.

Our brain would die of exhaustion if we tried to question everything around us. We learn that if everyone else thinks something’s normal, it is normal.

Have you ever questioned the necessity to breathe?

Is everyone I know breathing? Yes, then I don’t have to think about it, I breathe and that’s it.

Does everyone I know believe in Hell? Yes, then I don’t have to think about it, I believe and that’s it.

But let’s make a little thought experiment.

Let’s change almost any detail in my curriculum vitae:

Let’s move my birth several thousand miles in any geographical direction.

Let’s move it in time a few hundred years back, or just a few decades ahead.

Let’s change my family’s religion.

My chances of believing in Hell drop from 99% to 1%.

I would probably not even hear of Hell! If I was interested in religions perhaps I would just know that there are people out there who believe that after death God will punish them.

And if you heard about Hell for the first time, when you were already an adult, and if someone told you that God is infinite love, teaching all people to forgive everything without limits, turn the other cheek and pay back good for evil… How come this merciful God created a lake of fire where most of His beloved children will fry endlessly, sending the rest of the people to Paradise, where they will feast without ceasing, perhaps graciously taking away their memory of their family and friends suffering indescribable torments …

And if someone had told you all this …

You would say it is

the stupidest story you’ve ever heard!

Inconsistent, pointless, and that there’s no way anyone normal in the world would believe it.

Well, someone does. According to statistics, over 2 billion people are Christians.

Of course – today there are many liberal factions of Christianity that reject the idea of ​​Hell altogether, and even among members of the greatest churches that teach Hell, such as Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, and Baptist – there are more and more people questioning the idea. Not out loud, of course.

Religion likes getting more members. Some members have 2, 3 or even more children – how to make sure they will not run away?

Let’s convince them that all other religions are evil.

Our dogmas sometimes contradict each other… some, maybe lots of things are illogical… well we can’t make them unable to think but we can also try to convince them that doubting is evil as well.

Something you were taught last Sunday didn’t make sense? How can you even say that? Millions of others have believed this for centuries, do you think you’re smarter than them?

These tricks were made to keep you there, to keep going to church, pay your tithe, and some years later – to bring new believers.

My most serious error was believing that God hates it when you question His holy laws.

Stop. The laws are not His. They’re made by people. If God could hate…

He would never hate asking questions

He’d hate that we don’t use the brain He gave us!

 

Everything that was essential I had to say is contained in this one sentence:

 

I only believed in Hell because I was born in Poland.

Categories
Bible

In God’s Image

Do you know the story of a wedding where several participants suddenly passed out?

The priest announced that one of the altar boys would read two verses from the Bible, the first of which was to be especially dedicated to the bride, and the second – to her chosen one.

The latter was never read, because as soon as the altar boy finished reading the first, there was a great commotion in the church. People fainted, screamed, and a few laughed hysterically.

The reason was as follows. The altar server had it written that he should read the verse marked “1 John 4:18.”

He thought it was one verse from the Gospel of John. He did not know that “1” changed its meaning from “John’s Gospel” to “First John” by the name of the book.

The difference was .. more than subtle.

He was to read:

There is no fear in love, but perfect love removes fear (1 John 4: 18a)

And he read:

For you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. (John 4: 18a)

 

Okay, it was supposed to be a joke 😺but it was also supposed to illustrate what disregarding the context leads to. To understand any statement, spoken or written, you need to know its context.

The same word or sentence can mean the most recent things in different contexts. The verse about five husbands was not surprising in the context of Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman in John chapter four, but it caused a panic about the wedding.

I have read seven million books on theology, religion and spirituality in my life. Maybe I’m exaggerating a bit. Top Six Million 😃Anyway – I have read many times how one confession spits on another, accusing him of his theology “taking verses out of context.”

I remember a somewhat primitive example, when one Church accused another of ripping verses out of context, and to illustrate that, they included a cheesy example that was supposed to be funny (I admit that I at the time I did consider it funny).

Throwing silver coins towards the sanctuary, he left, then went and hanged himself. Jesus said: Go, and do likewise! (Mt 27: 5 + Luke 10:37)

LET ME RIP SOMETHING OUT OF CONTEXT AS WELL

Let me do something similar, i.e. put two verses next to each other from completely different places in the Bible.

So God created man in his image, in the image of God he created him: male and female he created. (Genesis 1:27)

God created man in his image.

God is love. (1 John 4: 8b)

So what is man like?

Religion answers – man is a sinful worm, unworthy of being in God’s presence, and the fact that God keeps him alive at all is only due to the fact that God’s mercy is so great that… it is even greater than human abomination.

Today such words are hardly used anymore, most of the churches have revised their language for political correctness, but the theology has remained the same. If, as theology teaches me, eternity awaits me in hell, whether I am called only a “sinner” or “a hideous, unworthy sinner,” the meaning remains the same. There is something very wrong with me if I deserve eternity in a place of torture.

What makes sense to me is that if God created man in his image and likeness, and God is love, then man should also be…

LOVE?

Pure, perfect, perfect love?

That sounds like heresy, doesn’t it?

Now that we’re heretics, be .

Since God created man in his image and likeness, isn’t man, in short…

DIVINE?

If that sounds ridiculous to you, it probably sounded even more ridiculous to the “scribes,” or theologians of the time of Jesus. Not only absurdly, but blasphemously as well, with which they explained their repeated attempts to kill him.

Consider a rather rarely studied passage from the Gospel of John:

Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, You are gods? If / Scripture / calls gods to those to whom the word of God was directed – and the Scripture cannot be rejected, then how do you say: You are blaspheming because I have said: I am the Son of God?
(John 10: 34-36)

Jesus quotes Psalm 82. This Psalm begins as follows:

God arises in the assembly of the gods, judges in the midst of the gods (Ps 82: 1)

In the original language we find the word that is most often used to describe God – Elohim , and is used three times, once in the singular, and twice in the plural. Interesting fact – it does not coincide with the translation, because the number of the word God is often used in a completely different way than in the English language.

God [ Elohim – plural] arises in the assembly of gods [ El – singular)], in the center of the gods [ Elohim] is judged (Ps 82: 1)

Only in the latter case do the grammatical number in Hebrew and English match. Elohim , in addition to the usual plural, is also used as the so-called majestic plural, used to honor someone in a stylistic way.

Psalm 82 is about “judges,” although the translation is misleading. The role of the judges was mainly military; perhaps a better translation would be “generals” rather than “judges”.

Nevertheless, it was about mere mortals who are surprisingly called… gods! I suspect that in the Middle Ages I would have been burned at the stake for simply studying this text😀

This looks squarely blasphemy!

But who is the author of this Psalm putting this blasphemy in his mouth?

God Himself.

It is God who calls people god / gods!

It seems to me that Jesus wants to cut the discussion of the term of titles as it is not beneficial for anyone to argue about words… After all, it is people who give words meaning, and we understand words based on our experiences and knowledge, which are different for every person… quarrel which word is blasphemy and which is not therefore makes no sense.

Even the term “blasphemy” is understood differently by everyone. However, if Jesus has not condemned any blasphemy anywhere, I suggest following His example!

Let’s go a little further in this crazy reasoning. Let me ask a seemingly stupid question.

Are children human?

This is a rhetorical question, but the idea behind it is, I think, worth rethinking.

A forty-year-old man with a doctorate who climbed Mount Everest, is an honorary blood donor and fluently speaks five languages, has a child who at first cannot even speak… Does anyone question the quality of this child? Does anyone say the child is inferior to its parent?

Nobody in their right mind and even a cursory knowledge of the world questions that the quality or nature of a person depends on his skills, health or skin color.

Is it not somewhat strange that religion paints a picture of man as someone quite different in character from that of his Father in Heaven, his Creator?

A human child is a human being, not some vile caricature of him.

So why does religion treat man so badly?

If you don’t know what’s going on, it’s about money.

 

Religion teaches us that we are worthless, sinful, and loathsome, and deserve the worst pits of hell, and our only chance of salvation lies in obeying religious commands and prohibitions.

Of course, they are often complex, contradictory or even impossible to implement… It is not the point, after all, for a man to come once and learn everything. It is important that he comes every Sunday and throws it on the tray.

Which version do you find more logical?

  • God is love, and our Creator and Father, so we are dirty, sinful, unworthy even of His gaze.
  • God is love, so we are too.

Most religious people will identify themselves with the first answer. And changing such thinking is… finding the right word is not easy here… because ordinary “difficult” is too banal… extremely, hellishly, extremely difficult.

Everyone brought up in religion, especially those who are devoted to religion, have a kind of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). If you are told from childhood that you are evil and sinful, it will be engraved in your consciousness very, very deeply. Like their parents’ children, who are often called stupid, they are very rarely successful in science.

 

Do you know the book by Robert Fulghum “All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten“?

Its title carries a truth that developmental psychology has only learned in recent years:

Man’s worldview is formed in the first 6-7 years of life.

Of course, since the child lacks the ability to think abstractly, little is understood deeply, but the child has already entrenched in both consciousness and subconsciousness such issues as “are people good or bad?”, “Is this world friendly to me or not?” – and most importantly, “am I good or bad?”

Even when years later, a person rejects harmful religious dogmas, they can be so deeply imprinted in the mind that help, for example in the form of therapy or hypnosis, will be necessary, but the first step is to realize that as children of God we are like Him!

Not only beloved, not only accepted, but similar to HIM, just like children are like their parents!

Man, yes, is capable of doing enormous evil, but paradoxically, religion very often contributes to it – if we are told from the cradle that we are dirty, sinful and evil… won’t we behave like that?

For in him he chose us before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless before him (Eph. 1: 4)

We are holy and unblemished not because of what we do or do not do – otherwise we would lose this status and regain it every now and then, depending on what we have just done or thought, which is a total absurd! We are holy and blameless because we are God’s children!

 

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Categories
Bible

Parable of the Lost Son

 “There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. (Luke 15:11-12)

I love the precision in the Bible!

You won’t find a word that is there by mistake. And usually there’s more than meaning to everything. Most passages can be studied many times and each time something new can be discovered!

On top these multiple interpretation levels there are also mystical levels, impossible to get to through regular studying! But let me get to the point.

I have always considered the Parable of the Lost Son (PLS) to be one of the greatest stories in the Bible. It is also known as the parable of the Two Brothers, Loving Father,  Forgiving Father, or of the Prodigal Son, the latter being most popular, but in my opinion also being the worst, putting emphasis on what’s not the most important there).

Every now and then I got to discover some new level of the story… Initially I only understood that the parable was telling us that no matter how bad we screw up, if we repent – whatever that word meant – God will forgive us.

Then, thanks to one the books, I can’t remember for sure but I think it was John MacArthur’s, I realized that if the father in the story is to depict God… then God is much more loving that what’s preached in churches. At least the churches I went to.

Father runs to meet his son (Luke 15:20b) though in those times running in public was regarded as lacking dignity and was considered faux pas. Basically only slaves ran.

Here however I’d like to focus on some other details. Three little details which helped me change the way I see God.

DETAIL 1
“I don’t need your apologies”

 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

“But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. (Luke 15:21-22)

The son prepared an apologetic speech. We can all probably identify with this and many a time we have prepared one for someone we mistreated.

If we wronged someone really bad – like the parable – the process of apologizing may look like this:

    1. Person A hurts person B
    2. B is offended at A
    3. A apologizes B
    4. B feels too hurt to forgive and doesn’t feel like listening
    5. After some time A repeats their apology (sometimes points 3 to 5 repeat many times which may last many years)
    6. B officially forgives A though still having a grudge and the relationship between them is not how it used to be (and this as well may last years)
    7. B forgives A from the bottom of their heart, doesn’t remember the fault and the relationship comes back to the original state (and this unfortunately may never happen)

This is how it looks between people.

What really struck me in PLS one day is realizing the points 2-7 from the above list never took place!

“The son said to him”.. But the father isn’t listening! Interrupts his son! The son had decided to give a speech how unworthy he is and then ask for letting him work but not as a son but as a common worker. The father isn’t letting him finish though.

He’s not answering, not even listening, just yelling to the servants “bring him some clothes and shoes!”

His heart is filled with joy!!!

A religious god would say, “Well, you have sinned badly and now for some time you’ll need to work hard to atone for your sins… let me “bless” you with a few illnesses, and after you suffer a lot here on Earth I will also lock you in purgatory for 5 million years, and after you’ve paid for your sins, I will take you back”.

It is not happening.

God’s heart is filled with joy when He sees us… when we speak to Him… actually, anything we do! He doesn’t remember past issues!

 

Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more (Hebrews 10:17)

 

DETAIL 2

“Everything I have is yours (Luke 15:31)

 

I am pretty sure that these words aren’t without a deeper meaning!

 

One of the words that are on almost everybody’s mind is LACKING. I lack time, money, health. I lack, I don’t have enough or… don’t have at all. Marketing departments of the largest companies in the world are mostly responsible for this. No one will buy something unless they realize they LACK IT.  Lack something they badly need.

It seems we totally lost the difference of meanings between the words “need” and “want”.

I need a car to drive to work. Not any car because it wouldn’t be reliable and might break. Nor a battered or my neighbors will laugh at me. Not a cheap one or I won’t be able to show off. Not older than 5 years or my kids will be ashamed of me as I pick them up from school.

My work is only 5 minutes on foot. What I need is legs. A car is something I want.

 

We are told by omnipresent advertisements that we need cars, watches, brand clothes, vacations in exotic countries, sophisticated dishes and such a comfort that we won’t even have to get out of bed to get anything we want.

This culture of lack, apart from advertising, is also proclaimed by religion. The churches have learned that they will best attract us to them if we are persuaded that we are lacking many things that these churches are supposed to help us obtain.

We’re told we lack God’s forgiveness, God’s grace, love. We ourselves are deficient; we lack good deeds, a pure heart, and love for our neighbor.

God is telling you – that’s not true. Everything that is mine is yours. If you needed anything, it would mean that I am either an unloving Father or a weak Father!

And I am perfect and infinitely loving.

Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present nor future, nor powers, nor high, nor deep, nor any other creature, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 8: 38f)

 

DETAIL 3
you are worthy!

“I am no longer worthy to be called your son” (Luke 15: 19a)

“we will feast and party because this son of mine …” (Luke 15: 23b-24a)

 

My fault, my fault, my very great fault…

Lord, I am not worthy for you to come to me…

 

These two passages are repeated hundreds of millions of times in different languages ​​in churches around the world every day.

People are taught that they are loathsome worms, and that the most logical thing to do is for them to be trampled by God, but God, however, in His infinite goodness, decided not to trample us… if we fulfill some quite difficult conditions.

God the Father in PLS , however, is different. He doesn’t even comment on his son’s words “I am not worthy to be called your son” – because they are so preposterous – a son is a son and will always be worthy to be called a son, and nothing will change that! Legally speaking, even here on Earth sonship cannot cease… One can cease to be someone else’s husband or wife, one can renounce the citizenship of a given country, but no one can cease to be a child of their parents!

So how could a perfect God stop calling His children children? How could he turn away from them, forget about them, throw them into some hell and torture them without listening to their pleas for help and rescue?

Only a religious idol is capable of such things. But it’s not real. It doesn’t exist.

The God that exists is the God that Jesus told us about. God who sends rain on all thirsty people, regardless of their religion, education, skin color or number of offenses committed.

He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. (Matthew 5: 45b)

PLS has many more threads. The attitude of the second son is also fascinating. Later his father comes to him, too, although according to local customs it was also surprising. But that’s a topic for another article, and many books can be written about PLS. Which, moreover, was done. God is a loving Father. Love is the opposite of fear. So God is the last person in the world you are to fear.

Smile! You are safe in  the Hands of Love!

Categories
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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God loves you but…

A young woman went to her psychiatrist and told her there might something wrong with her. Even though it hasn’t been long since they got married, she doesn’t feel any love to her husband. Actually the only thing she feels about him is… fear.

The therapist asked the woman if she experienced any problems in their marriage. The woman said that her husband does love her… he keeps telling her how much he loves her and that will never leave her…

BUT…

“if you’re ever unfaithful to me or you won’t love me the way I want or just refuse to do what I tell you, I will put in in our basement, tie you up and I’ll be whipping you with my belt day by day unless you apologize and promise to do better”.

Should the therapist focus on the therapy…or just call the cops?

One more silly story… a few year old kid yelled at his dad that he hates him. Dad tied him up, kept for a few days without food or drink and tortured him by burning his body with cigarettes.

Do you have any doubts that in these two stories the ones who are in the wrong are grownups, not the kids?

I am sure you don’t! But still… if you are an orthodox Christian then…

Religion is telling you to think God is like the grown ups in these stories.

Like the abusive husband and the dad.

 

God loves you but… if you don’t love him back, he will cast you into hell for everlasting torture.
God forgives all of your sins… but if you mess up one little detail, let’s say fail to believe Jesus is God… bye bye heaven, welcome hell.
God accepted you into his family… but if you mess up your life too bad  you will be kicked out for good.
God loves children… but there’s a problem when they reach the age of accountability, after which they must quickly make their choice… TURN OR BURN!

God – doctor Jekyll or Mr. Hyde?

Today I can barely understand how someone can believe in God who is at the same time love and a tyrant monster, throwing at people punishments that are totally blown out of proportions.

Well, I believed in such a god for decades…

When a human father does good things to his children we call it love.
When a human father hurts his children we call it pathology.

When our heavenly father does good things to his children we call it love.
When our heavenly father hurts his children we call it … still love.

Or maybe… “justice”.

But God is always love, everything he does is love, so…

Our minds can’t go on when we have an internal conflict, therefore we made a distinction between human love and God’s love.

All healthy and mature people know what love is. We don’t need it written down, we don’t need commandments. I’ve never inserted a fork in my wife’s eye even though I didn’t have any commandment not to do it.

I just knew.

And you know too.

If you saw a mother beating senselessly their children and telling them it’s out of love you will know she’s insane. But somehow everything God does is called love, no matter how insane that looks.


I just read the Bible – and have been doing this for 40 years – and I just can’t find anything there about God being the author of human suffering.

I also believe we have love written in our hearts. Of course, there are mental problems, toxic parents, bad influence of environment and lots of other reasons that can make us forget what love is and behave in the opposite direction, but given our childhood is normal – we will be able to love and to tell what love is.

 

Let’s take the most simple example – the way parents love babies. They’re tender, delicate, soft, and there’s nothing a baby can do to lose their love. Even a baby who “maliciously” poops their diaper 10 times a day, in the worst possible moments will still be loved and cherished and won’t even get a bad word.

And most wouldn’t disagree that anyone who’d try to punish a baby for anything would have to have their mental health checked.

Later as the child grows some things will slightly change but most shouldn’t. The more the child understands, the more parents will demand from them to teach them how to adapt to society and lead their lives in a positive direction. Certain kind of correcting actions, you may call – punishments – may be overtaken – but not as parental revenge, but to teach.

Most of these “punishments” should just be natural consequences of child’s actions. You lost your toy? You don’t have it. You rode your bike a little carelessly? You fell and got hurt.

This is such a far cry from the way religion portrays God’s ways!

God will love and accept you fully only after certain conditions and the worst thing is… we can never be sure if he really forgave us. And if we’re not forgiven… the punishment will be unbelievably cruel. And this punishment is NOT going to be a correcting action and is NOT to teach you anything as you will NOT even have a chance to come back to society.

It seems as a pure revenge.

It’s way worse than human jails.

Whose love seems better, God’s or human parents’?

Yeap, of course, human! Can we, people, love better than God?

Is it a blasphemy?

Maybe I do blasphemy indeed, but not against real God. I blasphemy against the god created and taught by religion.

GOOD NEWS – FOR WHO?

“Gospel”, in the original Bible language – euangellion (we get the word evangelical from it) literally means just “good news”.

When you stop and thing about Christian teachings, is your heart filled with joy?

When you meet someone and introduce the gospel to them… do you speak with joy? Do your listeners react with joy?

No?? How come? This is… the Good News!

But who is it good for?

I think it would be super good if you were…. totally sinless.

Plus… actually… let’s assume you are sinless… most Christian denominations seem to teach your sins won’t matter to God if you only believe… in a specific way… and the WAY can vary…

When I was studying at the Bible college I had once a few hours long conversation with other students and the teacher debating if we can still be saved if we don’t believe the Holy Spirit is a person.

Here’s how smoothly religion puts it:

You are a sinner. Sin separates you from God and you are on your way to hell. But salvation is free, therefore you don’t need to do anything.

Wait a second. You don’t need to do anything but… you need to believe.

Salvations if not from works, but from faith.

Isn’t faith a work?

A work is everything we do or say.

Faith is a work then.

 

So the fact is religions is telling us nonsense: “you don’t need to do any works to be saved – except for this one – believing”.

That’s theory, lots of denominations will also indicate certain works that must show in your life to prove that your saved.

Some denominations will also remind you your faith will work as a saving agent as long as it’s alive, active. The moment you stop believing – you’re in danger of eternal hell as well.

With hundreds of variants of what a real faith is… the Good News is the most confusing news in the history of the Universe.

It drove me crazy for many years. How to tell if I’m saved? I was a Catholic where I was taught for each “mortal” sin I will be sentenced to hell.

An example of a mortal sin? Skipping a Sunday’s mass.

Then I became a Baptist. I was taught the salvation is free, from faith, as long I have the kind of faith specified by the church.

And lots of Sundays I was read this passage in church:

Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you-unless, of course, you fail the test? (2 Corinthians 13:5 )

OMG! How do I test myself? Is Paul telling me to perform some kind of test, maybe a few times a day. to check if I’m still saved?

And what if it turns out I fail? Am I doomed forever? Can I somehow… redo my faith?

Because if I can’t… HELLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!

Terrifying.

Plus… how can I know the Baptists have it right? Maybe Pentecostals? ASG? Mormons? Jehova’s Witesses?

How about… none of them has it right?

2 of the most common questions that come up in philosophical or theological disputes about God are as follows:

  • How can merciful God allow so much suffering in the world?
  • How come merciful God allow eternal suffering in hellfire?

I won’t come up with the answer to the first questions. I do have an idea and I think we have more free will that we think but it’s not the place for this.

I will come up with an answer to the second question though. You may like it.

If your hole life you have been thinking that there is something wrong in the picture of receiving eternal suffering from the hands of loving God…

You are right. It’s wrong.

Listen to your own logic, your critical thinking. Don’t listen to stupid explanations like “God doesn’t throw anyone in hellfire, people themselves reject Him and choose hell”. There has never been a human being that would like to sit a flame and continue doing this after a few minutes… nah, rather seconds… and is religion trying to convince me people CHOOSE it for eternity?

If logic and critical thinking is not game changer, how about the Bible itself?

It may not be a well known fact, at least not among orthodox Christians, but…

The Bible doesn’t mention hell at all.
Not even once.

Click to read more about hell – here and here.

 

Lots of Christians react very emotionally when you try to deny existence of hell. It may seem weird… aren’t we supposed to be happy to get a chance to debunk hell and to stop worrying about our eternity?

If the idea that there is no hell causes your anxiety… try to think hard WHY that is so.

Some of the reasons I believe are fairy common are:

  1. Deep down we ourselves are convinced the idea of hell makes no sense.
  2. We can’t fathom God forgiving all people because we paint God after our own image and we can’t forgive.

Instead of listening to religion, take a moment and look at the world! We have been created after God’s image! Look at a mother hugging a baby! Look at a pair of love birds who have seen each other after a long break! Watch the loving, full of amazement, gaze of a proud parent who is witnessing their child’s first steps!

Or check these 80 year olds who take a morning walk, holding hands, looking at each other with such love as if they were teenagers!

What you see is just a mere shadow of the kind of love God has towards us.

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. We love because he first loved us. (1 John 4:10.19)

US doesn’t mean Christians or Catholics or Protestants. US means also unbelievers, cult members, and also… murderers… all the “baddest kinds” of people we can imagine.

His love means one crucial thing.
We don’t need to worry expecting a punishment.

If you have doubts that God has problems with forgiving us… look at the best example.

Jesus.

 

One day He was brought a paralyzed man (Mark 2:5).
Jesus didn’t not tell the man to confess or promise to be better or to become a Christian.

He forgave without even being asked to.

 

And this is what God’s love is like.

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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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Can I lose my soul?

Everybody knows what “soul” is, right? The common definition says, “The spiritual or immaterial part of a human being or animal, regarded as immortal”. Christians delete the animal thing and – that’s it!

 

Or maybe that’s not it?

 

“Soul” – a tiny, 4 letter word, but once we understand what exactly it means in the Bible in will be a life changer in terms how we understand the Scriptures.

 

Let’s see what the Old and New Testament say about soul and how different translations deal with the issue.

 

 

The word “soul” in the Bible can be easily researched (good news!) as there is only one Hebrew and one Greek word which translate for it. The Hebrew one is “nephesh” – and it appears about 750 times in the Old Testament; while the Greek “psyche” can be found about 100 times in the New Testament.

The problem is that various editions of the Bible translate it in different ways.

 

Actually it is hard to find 2 Bibles that would translate these words everywhere the same way.

 

Why is it so?

 

This is a million dollars question. I will try to answer it, and I’ll try to do it without reaching to theology.

 

Just from lingual and logical point of view. The theological point of view is too complicated to be considered here as there are countless ideas and human imagination has no boundaries. I believe, though, we don’t really need to reach to theology to prove my point.

Years ago I really enjoyed taking part in never ending theologian discussions about the nature of soul and… nobody ever really convinced anyone else. One of the most common subjects was whether human soul is immortal. Most Christians believe it is, but a growing number believe that unsaved souls will be eventually killed (annihilated) or that they die together with body and then get resurrected and are given immortality.

My goal here, however, is not to answer what happens to people after they die. It is solely to research what the term “soul” means in the Bible. What I want to prove is that even though it’s a very common biblical term it is not understood correctly by the entire mainstream theology. First of all, it’s not even translated well in vast majority of Bible translations.

Let’s start with comparing the definition I already quoted – “spiritual or immaterial part of a human being or animal, regarded as immortal” – with the Bible.

If the word “soul” means an immortal part of human being – what will we say to this verse?

The soul that sinneth, it shall die (Ezekiel 18:4, KJV)

Well… how is that possible? An immortal soul can die? According to the verse, it can.

Let’s a look at a more modern translation now:

The one who sins is the one who will die (Ezekiel 18:4, NIV)

Oh, now it looks better, doesn’t it? The problem is that NIV doesn’t really translate this verse. NIV interprets it. Literally – word by word – Ezekiel 18:4 ends with “the soul – that sins – it will die”. NIV does translate used here “nephesh” as “soul” in other places, here they choose to use the word “the one”.

Would the word “soul” ruin the NIV translators’ theology so bad that they decided to delete it from this passage?


Some theologians try to convince us that nephesh/psyche can mean different things in the same way many other words in Hebrew and Greek languages have a lot of meanings.

English has lots of ambiguous words, too. I remember when I started learning English (my first language is Polish) I was amazed at how many pages were dedicated to the word “get” in my dictionary. The Oxford English Dictionary gives 289 meanings of “get” but today I know this result is actually far from best – in that dictionary there are also 464 definitions of “set”, 396 of “run” and 368 or “go” and somehow we still are able to communicate using these words without any problems. Well, most of us at least.

The rule is multiple meanings usually concern common, simple words and must always be made clear by context. And if the Bible doesn’t really define nephesh/soul, there must be no doubt about what these words meant.

There is a Bible verse we could almost think of as the definition. Look here:

 

Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. (Genesis 2:7, NIV)

 

Oh, where’s the word “soul”? I forgot the creators of NIV don’t really like that word. Let’s look at good’ol King James Version:

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. (Genesis 2:7, KJV)

 

Yes, the Hebrew word here is “nephesh”. And even though it’s in the very beginning of the Bible, it’s not the first occurrence of it. “Nephesh” is also used 4 times in Genesis 1, in verses 20, 21, 24 and 30 and . NIV translates the word as “creature” in the first three times and “breath” in the last one, and – surprisingly – KJV does almost the same thing, only putting “life” instead of “breath”.

Please pay attention – the very fact that the word “nephesh” in Genesis 1 regards animals denies at least one common belief – that only humans have a soul. I am not saying by no means that humans are no different than animals. I am saying that whatever the word “soul” means, concerns both people and animals.

 

Let’s make a little experiment and see how we would react to see these verses if the word “nephesh” would consistently be translated as “soul”:

 

And God said, ‘Let the water teem with living souls, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” So God created the great souls of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.’ And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.

And God said, ‘Let the land produce living souls according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.’ And it was so. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the living soul in it—I give every green plant for food.’ And it was so. (parts of Genesis 1:20-30)

Does it look weird? Of course, it says that animals have souls! Everyone knows that only people have souls, right?!

Everyone? But did everyone read it in the Bible? Where does the Bible say that?

Show me. I can’t see.

Oh, is this getting uncomfortable to you? Great!

I remember myself about 20 years ago, when I was reading a book by Jehovah’s Witnesses quoting Ecclesiastes 3:19 saying that animals and people die in the same way, implying that neither people have any special „souls” or that they are immortal.

I was thinking bad things about the authors putting it like this, and it took me many years to realize that all they actually did was quoting the Bible; it was just in conflict with my belief that was already set – I simply believed that people had souls and animals didn’t, even though there is no Bible verse saying that.

Yes, we are called homo sapiens – thinking man – but our brain tries to save energy whenever it’s possible (it uses about 25% of all calories we eat!). Once you figure something out, your brain internalizes it – treats it as a solved problem – so you don[t have to think again.

 

It simply means… that after we have an opinion for a really long time – then, when we see a different one, we mark it as wrong without any thinking at all.

Imagine if I told you you’re supposed to wear gloves on your feet, not hands.

That’s ridiculous – you’d say – and you wouldn’t even bother to waste a second thinking if I might be right. Your intuition – or let’s call it common sense – would tell you that you know well how to wear stuff.

The really good question is – is this intuition of yours infallible?

Nope.

What it “knows” is based on your experiences and your interpretation of them. I think the most important reason we argue with others is that we tend to confuse intuition with facts.

If you were raised in a religious family and most of your friends are religious, and if they all believe almost the same things, your intuition tells you, “It’s the only truth in the world. Let’s don’t waste time for thinking about it.”

Please, do “waste” some time and think!

I encourage you to take concordance and find the word „nephesh” in the Bible – maybe not all 754 occurrences – but let’s say 50 – to see how inconsistently it’s translated in today’s translations. You can find a list of all occurrences of „nephesh” here.

No matter what vast majority of Christianity says, soul does not mean an immortal part of a person!

But what does it mean then?

Before we answer, let’s also have a look at the…

New Testament “soul“

Psyche – ψυχή – is the word that translates “nephesh” in Septuagint (translation of Old Testament into Greek from the 3rd century BC) and also is the only word that English Bibles translate as “soul”. It occurs over 100 times throughout the whole New Testament. Let’s see how New American Standard Bible translates it:

  • soul, souls (47 times)
  • life, lives (43 times)
  • persons (3 times)
  • heart (1 time)

We have a very similar situation to the Old Testament – terrible inconsistency! English readers usually understand the word „soul” as the ghostly part of us, which after death leaves the body and flies somewhere (to God, or for judgement, or to heaven/hell), while „life” is something that ends when we die. One definition aims for afterlife, the other – only for the earthly one. How can the same word mean two completely different things?

Let’s look at this verse:

Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it. (Matthew 10:39, NIV)

Here „psyche” got translated into „life„. Now tell me, what would happen if we put the word „soul” here? „Losing soul” could mean nothing other than either going to hell or total death… in either case we would not suspect Jesus to want it to happen to us. Actually, I checked all popular translations, and I couldn’t find one which would translate „psyche” here as „soul„.

Now let’s look at another verse. More translations use the word „soul” here, but some use ‘life’.

What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? (Mark 8:36)

Take a moment to think how the meaning of this verse changes depending on whether psyche is translated as „soul” or as „life„.

The first meaning is ascetic – don’t try to gain wealth because when you lose your soul (in hell?) it won’t make you happy.

The second way of translation would keep the focus in this world – what would money help you when you die?

The same idea can be found in Luke 12 where we have a story about a rich man whose harvest was so great one year that he couldn’t fit his barns. He was planning on a happy and lazy future for himself until God showed up and told him, using the beautiful ancient English language, „You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?”.

Actually we don’t know which language God used – New Testament is written in Greek, Jesus spoke Aramaic, and the rich man could actually speak neither one of these languages – but if what we have is Greek, it has to suffice. Greek says „psyche„. English used to say „soul” (KJV) which made you worry about your eternity, but now it says „life” (NIV) which makes you way less worried as it only concerns life on earth.

Don’t you see a repeating pattern here?
Older translations say „soul„, newer ones say „life„.
I checked how many times the words „soul” and „life” appear in both KJV and NIV. Here’s the result:

KJV – soul: 55, life: 172
NIV – soul: 23, life: 229

So from about 100 uses of „psyche” King James Version translates it as „soul” in about 50% cases, while New International Version only about 25% cases. Clearly translators learned over years that Bible spends definitely less time on „the other world” than previously expected.

And I believe it makes great summary of the main subject of this article.

The Bible obviously does speak about what happens after we die. But not too often. In most of Old Testament it’s almost nonexistent. The New Testament is much better, but it doesn’t seem that verses referring to afterlife would make even 1%.

I know! It’s very hard to believe in the beginning. The vast majority of Christians who often go to church, or at least often read the Bible, believe this life only focuses on working for heaven or hell, and that this is what the Bible mostly talk about.

Religion takes God’s warnings to Israel about coming military problems, and – just because it uses the word „judgment” a lot, it applies them to us as a threat and warning from the judgment that will happen after we die… even though there isn’t a single verse describing someone’s worrying about that.

Religion takes multiple warnings from Jesus and apostles about the terrible war that will strike Jews, and… in the same way, we are told that we should worry.

Religion teaches us that Jesus came to this world to give people a chance to avoid hell… even if again there isn’t a single verse about that. Instead, what I do find in the Bible is this:

I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10 b)

Religion will add „eternal life” here but… religion is just good at adding stuff. Jesus shows lots of times how important this life is. He heals, He feeds, He teaches how to live this life the best way that is possible.

Let me say one more time – just because I conclude „soul” means „life” or „person” in the Bible, and thus it turns out the Bible emphasizes this life much more than the other, it doesn’t mean I reject actual eternal life! The Bible is still clear we all will raise from the dead and physical death is more the beginning, rather than the end. In Philippians 1:23nn Paul doesn’t have any doubts that dying means being with the Lord, and that is far better than this life. I also believe that most of „near death experiences” are real glimpses at the spiritual world, so – shortly speaking – no, I do not claim people have no soul.


I only claim that „soul” in the Bible has nothing to do with the soul we usually mean.

I still use the word „soul” when I discuss things about afterlife with people and I don’t think there is anything wrong with it, as long as we remember what that term really means when we read the Bible. There, we should rather look for the word „spirit” (Greek „pneuma”), as this word actually referring to „person minus body”. Look here:

Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Matthew 26:41)

And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. (Matthew 27:50)

May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thessalonians 5:23).

There’s only a few references to this meaning of “spirit” in the New Testament though, most of the times it speaks about Holy Spirit or evil spirits. Again, this shows how little the Bible talks about afterlife.

Should it upset us?

On the contrary! First of all, if authors of the Bible don’t spend much answering the question what will happen to us after we die, they clearly also do not worry about it. Neither should we worry then. This fact alone should improve the quality of our lives tremendously!

Please, try reading all the verses, especially in the New Testament, where you see “soul”, this time remembering it has nothing to do with heaven or hell. You will learn lots of new things. The Bible will start to make a lot of more sense. And I am pretty sure you will often feel like you’ve never seen these verses before!

Oh, I forgot to answer the question that’s the title of this article.

But I don’t have to anymore, do I?

Today: 3 Total: 246119

last edited – December 29, 2020

Categories
Bible

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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