That hurt more than thorns and thistles and spears and nails and whips and spit and all the rest—to be God-forsaken. The presence of the Demonic and the Devil and the powers of darkness are felt keenly. It is not non-existence or annihilation, but rather it is separation from God. But I want you to notice in this story that when the rich man was in eternity without God, without hope, his memory was very much alive.
What did the Lord say to him? Just to be God-forsaken— separated from God and all that is good and holy and to have your memories along with it. To remember a mother and dad who prayed for you, who tried to lead you right. You took the bit in your mouth and decided to go your own way.
That is what made death so mournful: nothing could make an afterlife existence sweet, since there was no life at all, and thus no family, friends, conversations, food, drink — no communion even with God.
God would forget the person and the person could not even worship. The most one could hope for was a good and particularly long life here and now. But Jews began to change their view over time, although it too never involved imagining a heaven or hell. About two hundred years before Jesus, Jewish thinkers began to believe that there had to be something beyond death—a kind of justice to come. Jews had long believed that God was lord of the entire world and all people, both the living and the dead.
If God loves his people and is sovereign over all the world why do his people experience so much tragedy? This new idea maintained that there are evil forces in the world aligned against God and determined to afflict his people. Even though God is the ultimate ruler over all, he has temporarily relinquished control of this world for some mysterious reason. But the forces of evil have little time left.
God is soon to intervene in earthly affairs to destroy everything and everyone that opposes him and to bring in a new realm for his true followers, a Kingdom of God, a paradise on earth. Most important, this new earthly kingdom will come not only to those alive at the time, but also to those who have died. Indeed, God will breathe life back into the dead, restoring them to an earthly existence. And God will bring all the dead back to life, not just the righteous.
The multitude who had been opposed to God will also be raised, but for a different reason: to see the errors of their ways and be judged. Once they are shocked and filled with regret — but too late — they will permanently be wiped out of existence. This view of the coming resurrection dominated the view of Jewish thought in the days of Jesus. It was also the view he himself embraced and proclaimed. The end of time is coming soon. God will soon destroy everything and everyone opposed to him and establish a new order on earth.
Those who enter this kingdom will enjoy a utopian existence for all time. All others will be annihilated. But Jesus put his own twist on the idea. Put most simply, that involves loving God above all things despite personal hardship, and working diligently for the welfare of others, even when it is exceedingly difficult.
This may be simple, but it is not easy. Since your neighbor is anyone you know, see, or hear about, as in the parable of the Good Samaritan, true love means helping everyone in need, not just those in your preferred social circles. Jesus was concerned principally for the poor, the outcasts, the foreigners, the marginalized, and even the most hated enemies.
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Daily Bible Reading Plans x. Recently Popular Pages x. Recently Popular Media x. The Bible speaks of hell fire. And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever Revelation Are we to understand the fire as being literal?
Moses wrote. Deuteronomy The prophet Nahum said. Who can stand before His indignation? Who can endure the heat of His anger? One popular theory is that it was the site of a perpetually burning rubbish dump fire being the ultimate decontaminate in antiquity and thus served as a metaphor for a site of purification. But there is little historical evidence for this theory.
Read more: Jesus wasn't white: he was a brown-skinned, Middle Eastern Jew. Here's why that matters. Hence, Gehenna became synonymous with wickedness, fire, and death. The term Hades comes from Greek culture.
Initially used as a name for the god who had dominion over the realm of the dead and then later for the place itself, it was a place where all dead people resided. In the Iliad, it is a murky, damp place.
In Greek poetry, Tartarus is simply another name for Hades. The writers of the New Testament, influenced by both Greek and Jewish cultures, incorporated Hades, Gehenna, Sheol, ideas of the Abyss, and other traditions into their conceptions of the realm of the dead.
They write in a time when literary tours of hell and stories about the fate of lives after death were common. The innovation of Second Temple Judaism and early Christianity was belief in a resurrection and with it the idea that after death some go to a place of reward and rest, while others are assigned a place of punishment for their bad deeds.
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