Hell

Even when I was a Christian, I was never taught about the “fire and brimstone” hell that many evangicals talk about.  My immediate family and even the church I grew up in never touched upon the supposed eternal consoquences of doing wrong on Earth.  Because of my experiences, I never really understood this idea of hell.

Fast-forward to 2008.  In a certain forum, a member posed a question about hell mostly geared towards those of non-Christian beliefs.  Without fail, there were Christians who not only expressed their beliefs, but it seemed as though they were trying to impose a certain belief system upon those who simply did not believe in their faith.

My beliefs have taken on several changes in the past few years and the idea of what hell actually was had been one of those questions that eventually lead me to believe that Christianity was not for me, but having a strong belief in a creator/god/spirit/universe caused me to remain devoutly spiritual.

So, is there a “hell”?  In my set of beliefs and experiences, the answer to this would be a resounding “no.”  And there are several reasons why:

1. I am not entirely sure hell is a place, rather an individual experience of a person/soul.  In a reading, my grandfather came to me and spoke to me.  He talked about his experience in the afterlife and explained that before he could go to heaven, he had to take a journey and confront all that he had done before taking the next step.  My grandfather, who was still conscious of himself as the Earthly being he was, had been a terrible man in life, but he had completely changed in the after life.  This leads me to my second point.

2. The creator/god/spirit/universe is not a being that is focused on “punishment” and “reward.”  I find this entity is more focused on “learning.”  It doesn’t do any good for a soul to burn for all of eternity because of the mistakes it had made in the 80 year time span it had on Earth.  There is no benefit.

3. If the creator/god/spirit/universe is all knowing and all powerful and knew what mistakes a soul would make on Earth, there would be no reason, other than some sick, twisted game, for a soul to even go to Earth or be created in the first place.  “Punishing” a soul because this entity loves them is a feable attempt to explain something that is not human, and can even take away from the vastness of said entity by using human emotions and concepts of justice.

4. For me the concept of “punishment” and “reward” is way too simple.  I believe in personal responsibility and solely being judged on character and actions.  Christians say that over your actions, you must accept Jesus is God and you must essentially say that you apologize for all the wrong you’ve done.  However, there is no learning in this, either.  It also does not make sense that a person who does not believe in God, but has lived a life of love and giving would be tortured because of the fine print. 

5. Nowhere can anyone point to any part of the Bible where Jesus, himself, wrote about hell.  Jesus was a radical, yet devout  Jew who encouraged his followers to follow the Torah in a different way.  If he was a Jew, then he would not have believed in nor agreed with the Christian view of hell.  Historically, Jesus the teacher did show some bias.  He was not perfect.  He mostly intended for Jews to hear his messages.  At best, Jesus’ teachings and being were altered to fit early Christians.  His existance was altered so early Christians could have their own great prophet.  This is a topic for another day, but I will address this another time.

So, what happens in an individual “hell”?

I do not believe there is a “sliding scale” to judge how much a wrong-doing is worth to Spirit.  If there is a “sliding scale” or way to measure one wrong-doing against another, it is decided by the individual and his or her own soul.  Those who were great people on Earth with great souls, I believe, get to choose their own lessons in life to go back and learn when they are reincarnated.  Those who have made a lot of mistakes in their Earthly life do not automatically get to go to Heaven, rather, they get to sit in a dark place and go on a journey through their own life to re-live all of their past mistakes over and over again until they have understood and learned from the their mistakes.  They are then allowed to enter into light once they have learned.

Hell is not necessarily a place to be feared.  It is another chance for people to revisit their past, take responsibility and learn from it.  There are no horned beasts, no fire, etc.–just you and the mistakes you must fix.

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