Questions of the Christian faith?

[GAAZ]

Hey! Whattabout my Pineapples?

[Minosheep]

I'd like to apologize now if I seemed offensive. And I'm not gonna start a pissing contest about "No I didn't just repeat the same things over and over and over!" because nobody wants that.

I'm just zealous about my own beliefs--while accusing others of being zealots, no less. But I think that in this conversation my understanding of your beliefs, whether or not I agree with them, has improved.

[Minosheep]

I come armed with new information.

Apparently, in the very originial manuscript of the Bible, there is no such thing as Hell. Yes, you heard me, there is no such thing as Hell.

Constantine brought about this whole concept of a place where, when you die, you go and burn eternally if you're a bad person. It was a way of controlling the general populice, ruling them by fear--Constantine didn't want there to be anything that would interfere with his nice little utopia.

The original manuscript of the Bible mentions a place called the 'common grave.' There is absolutely nothing in there about a big pit of fire in which you eternally stew.

Says one site:

When the Bible talks about spirits returning to God, many assume it is only talking about believers. Similarly, when Scripture talks about souls going to Sheol, many assume it is only talking about nonbelievers suffering in hell. There is no distinction in the Bible; all spirits return to God and all souls go to Sheol.

The translators of the KJV also assumed the unfaithful suffer in the intermediate state. When the passage talks about nonbelievers going to Sheol, they use the word hell. They translate the same word as grave when the passage refers to believers. This confuses many readers.

Most conditionalists believe in soul sleep for all, while most traditionalists believe everyone remains conscious after death. On the other hand, some scholars believe the faithful go immediately to heaven to be with Christ and the unfaithful are unconscious.

They appear to make a case for believers going to heaven, which we will examine in Chapter Seven. The evidence for nonbelievers in torment, however, is almost nonexistent.

[KenseiKurisuchan]

To my understanding, hell is not the image that most people give it. It's purpose is eternal seperation from God, since you go to hell for being seperated from him. It is referred to as a lake of fire, yes, but I don't recall anything saying that it would be torment in the manner that cartoons and movies and the like show it.

I've been reading some of the Latin translations, and two of the senior high pastors as well as many other pastors for the church read the Aramaic versions when they are confused on an issue.

Can you post a link for that site? I'd like to look into this.

[Minosheep]

I'll look for the site again.

In the meantime, I learned the part before the passage from the site from my mother. The 'common grave,' or Sheol, wasn't a place of torment. When you died, your body went to the common grave, and your soul returned to God. According to the site, if I can find it again.

That's one of the things that Jehovah's Witnesses preach. They take apart the Bible and look for what it truly means, not the hearsay that people have taken it to mean. They actually look at the original manuscripts.

[Tobias]

[Daijaga]

I gotta back Tobbias up on this one. JWs have very...orignal beleifes. They're pretty non-sequitor - but not nearly has out there as Mormons. To add some fuel to demonic's fire, and I think that this is pretty much common knowledge but I'm going to throw it out there anyway, but hell or some dereivitive was a word used to refer to roman garbage pits that were usually on fire from all the methane gas and stuff, right?

[reaper]

[KenseiKurisuchan]

[Nogrick]

If one pope is infalible at one time, then hundreds of years later another pope says he's sorry for what affore mentioned pope did, is the first pope still inflaible?

And how do you guys feel about Lent?