Tag: gospels

Categories
Bible

Free gift of salvation?

Almost every Christian is proud to point how Christianity is so much different than all other religions. If a star was born every time I said it to someone, we’d have another galaxy in the sky!

The main distinct feature of Christianity is, as it is believed, that in other religions people must do things to please God while in Christianity it is God who does everything and salvation is a free gift. You don’t need to do anything, you don’t need to deserve it.

 

NOW please note this article is not about salvation per se. It only discusses what religion claims – that Christian salvation is a free gift.

 

TRADITIONAL CHURCHES

 

In most of traditional Churches – like Roman-catholic, orthodox and some protestant ones – they teach that that salvation is a gift from God but God gives us a lot of aids. Children should be baptized, then depending on denomination – different rites like holy communion, confirmation, confession etc. Plus you need to try to live well, forgive others “so that you’d also be forgiven”. Pray regularly!

 

And when you die… it’s good to have some friends and family members who will intercede with God or some dead holy people (saints) who have superpowers of hearing lots of praying people at the same time and somehow they will make your chances of salvation better.

 

Oh, and of course, obey the commandments. Each Church has their own set and none of them have clear rules on how many commandments are important for Christians and how many times can you break them before you’re called lost.

And if you do all these things… then you have a big chance getting to heaven! Just a chance though, never a certainty, because afterall salvation is in God’s hands and He is to speak last about it.

 

But of course! Salvation is a free gift! By God’s grace!

 

This is how most Churches believe.

 

Millions of people try to believe this message. Try, because it’s simply too inconsistent to be believed.

 

Millions of people live in constant fear of damnation and eternal suffering in hellfire. They are told to love and worship God who is mostly feared, not admired.

 

It used to be worse though. For most of Christian history it was a common belief was only by total ascetism you can get close to being saved from hell so lots of people were self mutilating, starving themselves and did other terrible things to get this “free gift of salvation”. Look at Symeon the Stylite.

MODERN PROTESTANT CHURCHES

Protestant Churches seem to have less rules than the traditional ones, which doesn’t mean their rules are easier. Number of rules doesn’t determine their difficulty. I could ask you to jump over a tall tree which is just one, straightforward task but you can’t say it’s an easy one. Not unless you live on a planet several times smaller than Earth.

 

On of the worst rules humans came up with is called Lordship Salvation (LS). Lots of people say it’s an obvious truth, many oppose, but most Christians in fact believe it this way or another. LS says that salvation can be your only when you make Jesus an actual Lord s

LS says that repentance and submission to Christ accompanies saving faith and continuation in the faith and spiritual growth are necessary evidence of saving faith. If you don’t grow, if you have habitual sin in your life and do nothing about – then your faith is futile, you probably never really believed.

 

Why won’t you try to find LS in the Bible though? Good luck. If LS was a real doctrine the Apostle Paul would have to warn Corinthians, that they were going straight to hell. Corinthians were going to prostitutes, committed incest and idolatry, got drunk in churches and so on. Yet Paul calls them God’s sacred temple, God’s field (1 Cor 3), he says they are all the Lord’s people who will judge the angels… There’s no word of warning, “Behave or you will burn”.

 

If the devil was to make doctrines, I’m pretty sure he would author LS. LS makes Christians live in constant fear, as you never know if today you won’t happen to commit something that will question your status.

Most of LS believers I met actually were saying boldly that their lives are free of habitual sin… this usually ended our conversation as I was scared to stain them with my sinful presence 😺

 

LS will make everyone bitter, anxious and focused on their performance, constantly comparing themselves to others thinking if they’re not better, if their behavior isn’t better evidence than hours that they are saved, not us.

 

LS believers will deny that they works are necessary for salvation, they say that faith simply changes the convert’s life and the works are just a mere result. There is one problem though. Virtually everyone has a different definition of a changed life. If someone stops drinking heavily but still smokes and curses… is his life changed? If someone cheats on their spouse a few times a week but after becoming Christian does it just a few times a year… wow the change is huge, isn’t? Qualified for heaven?

 

I had very short periods of life when I was close to believe LS was real, but most of my Christian life I couldn’t fathom how irrationally judgmental you must be to be able to determine whose life is an evidence of being saved and whose isn’t.

I, for example, for almost all of my Christian life smoked cigarettes and shortly speaking – Polish Baptists don’t smoke – it is regarded as a a very fleshy thing and even though Baptists officially reject LS, when they see someone “sinning” openly they may wonder out loud “are they even saved?”

I tried to talk to some fellow Christians, how can they think smoking is such a bad thing and everyone says it’s such a carnal thing while most of Christians don’t see anything wrong about making clicks at church, taking crap about people behind their backs or wasting 6 hours a day to watch shows.

 

They just looked at me weirdly.

 

To avoid judgment and being gossiped about I smoked in secret.

Many Christian denominations introduced other… conditions of unconditional salvation 🙂 Baptism, speaking in tongues, abstinence from alcohol or other drugs… the list is long.

 

Yet they all call it free salvation…

While both Catholic and Protestant option to me seem as free as the paycheck I get from my employer.

 

Let’s sum it up before I get to something I find actually to be most important.

 

Virtually all Christian Churches preach a totally illogical theology of “free salvation” where you actually need to work really hard, still never being certain if one is successful. Speaking of free salvation is nonsense as long as there are conditions to it!

 

If I say “move your finger and you’ll get a million bucks”, however strange it sounds, the million dollars won’t be free. It will be wages. Big without proportion, yet wages.

 

If Churches wanted to be consistent, they should either stop calling salvation free or get rid of all conditions of it.

 

But this was not all that hilarious comparing to what I am about to say…

 

There is one more condition… of free salvation…

 

FAITH

 

How could I not see this weird for so many years that you can’t claim you need to “believe to be saved” and still call salvation free!!!

 

One of the fundamental Christian doctrines lacks logic and no one cares?

 

When I started questioning things and asking my fellow believers uncomfortable questions I was often told that just because I don’t understand something doesn’t mean it’s not true… that God’s ways are higher than hours… that “God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise” (1 Cor 1:27a) but if this is supposed to mean “no logic in dogmas”, why even bother formulate them?

 

With time I came to a firm statement:

God isn’t offended when we ask questions.

If he could take offense at us (I don’t think he could), he would – for not using the brain he gave us.

 

If your church talks about free gift of salvation but adds conditions to it, even as “small” as faith, their dogmas have contradictions.

And if your church contradicts itself with main, crucial doctrines… what makes you think it doesn’t with all the others?

 

And by the way… “small” as faith? “SMALL”? Having someone believe that God came to Earth 2,000 years ago, looked as a human being, made thousands of bread loaves from a few, raised the death and got back to life after being crucified… this all is not a small thing.

The biblical word of Gospel is euangelion – literally “good news”. Bible writers and their original readers had no problem understanding this, no one questions it anywhere. This news is supposed to bring you peace. If it doesn’t, it means you don’t read what’s written. You read into it the ideas what religion wants you to think.

 

And the goal of religion is to control you.

 

 

Ask any dictator. Can you control without causing fear? Of course not.

Last, but not least… if salvation is free, then all people will be saved, right?

No?? Then it’s not free.

 

Read the Bible again, my friend! No one worries there about their fate after death, neither should you!

 

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. (Colossians 3:15a)

Today: 7 Total: 246145
Categories
Bible

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)!

 

Today: 11 Total: 246145
Categories
Bible

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: 4 Total: 246145

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!

 

 

Today: 7 Total: 246145