I thought I’d take a little break from my “False View of Hell” series this week and post something a little different - though certainly on topic. In fact, it covers many of the topics I’ve already covered and some to come up next. But for now I thought I would share this nice little “visual” resource I ran across a few years ago concerning the proper Biblical view of death (and Hell). This is a comic style booklet by Jim Pinkoski that has been published for years by the “Amazing Facts” people (amazingfacts.org). And except for once little part throwing in the traditional error of the trinity (in Part 7), it does a pretty good job in both its broad coverage of scripture, common sense reasoning, and entertaining pictorials/graphics. It use to be available on the Amazing Facts site for full web viewing, but it seems to be only available for purchase there now. However I did find a viewable/download-able PDF version of the same book at helltruth.com.
This week I’m continuing my little paper - “The False View of Hell”. My goal with this piece is to try and show to both our Christian and non-Christian visitors, that the typical, predominant view that good people go to “Heaven” and bad people (or people just not believing in Jesus - a.k.a. “becoming a Christian”) go the “Hell” when they die, is NOT what the Bible actually says. Such a belief can only be seen in the bible when the presuppositions of that idea are read into certain Bible passages. And even then, they come into direct conflict with other parts of Scripture that point to different “afterlife” views. However, if (as I mentioned in Part 1) one looks at Scripture as a whole and doesn’t read Plato’s dualistic concepts into the Hebrew texts, it can be seen that man doesn’t automatically continue to live on past death in the “good place” or the “bad place”. Let’s dig deeper into this here in Part 2!
A few weeks ago, an atheist visitor to this site posted something that I’ve heard many a person say who was raised in some form of Christianity as to why they no longer believe in it. I’ve also read quotes from several famous atheists and agnostics over time expressing the same basic complaint. “Hell” as traditionally taught in mainstream Christianity is too absurd, too cruel, and too unconscionable to have come from any real Supreme Being of the universe . And you know what? I would agree with them.
In the following article series I will endeavor to dig deeper into this subject and hopefully show that one does not need to throw the “baby out with the bath water”. Once the truth of hell is known, the God of the Bible should no longer be seen as a vindictive monster, but the designer of a sensible master plan for his creation.
Posted in Death is Sleep, hell on February 22nd, 2008 3 Comments »
by Samuel M. Ohmart
Why Facts about Hell? Because there is much teaching about Hell that is not fact but dishonoring superstition, conceived in ignorance, and taught as truth by men who should know better.
IT IS A FACT:
- That the popular teaching of an eternal hell has no support in the Scriptures, as we shall show.
- that “the wages of sin is death!”— utter deprivation of being, not eternal torture.
- that fear of an eternal hell has little moral value to restrain men from sin, since millions who believe it go on living in sin.
- that fear of an eternal hell is not a necessary motive in winning men to Christ, since millions of Christians do not believe in such a hell.