Religion has actually convinced people that there is a invisible man living in the sky watching everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he doesn't want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever until the end of time! But he loves you. He loves you, and he needs money. He always needs money. He's all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing and all-wise, somehow he just can't handle money
~George Carlin~
It's a place which most well meaning Christians have been told that they will end up if they somehow fall short of the Lords expectations. If their behavior somehow does not meet His holy standards. Growing up in the institutional church, I lived in constant fear that my salvation which God had promised for me if I accepted His Son would be in danger. That despite my accepting Jesus, God would choose to ignore all of that if my behaviors were deemed offensive to God. Indeed, this seems to have been the consistent message given by the mainstream church for thousands of years. For His part, Jesus, in His woes to the Jewish Pharisees, mentions the Pharisees becoming "Double of a son of Gehenna than you are" {Matthews Account 23:15}. What was He speaking to? Well, it turns out that Jesus, as He so often did, referenced the location of Gehenna to represent a place where the unrighteous will spend eternity. Some have found this to reference the existence of hell. But was it? Well, Jesus knew all too well what the name Gehenna meant to those listening to His words. See, Gehenna was an actual location on the outskirts of Jerusalem in the valley of Hinnom which was known as a local trash dump. It was also known to have been a place of child sacrifices to the Canaanite God Molech. Tell me, who would want to spend their eternity in such a wretched place? Living in a trash dump? I can't think of a better illustration which Jesus could give to illustrate the plight of those who refuse to acknowledge the Lord God. Jesus knew what Gehenna represented to those listening to Him. Another word which the church has bantered about is that of Sheol. It's widely agreed within the church that sheol represents hell. Yet to anyone who knows the scriptures and their history, sheol was known in the Hebrew religion as the realm of the dead. It is interesting that sheol is seen as that place where the departed go while they await their resurrection, sort of a holding place of the departed. Whatever you call it, Gehenna, hades or sheol, believers have often been threatened with the existence of these places as their destination if they didn't adhere to Gods standards.
For thus God loves the world, so that He gives His only-begotten Son, that everyone who is believing in Him should not be perishing, but may be having life eonian. For God does not dispatch His Son into the world that He should be judging the world, but that the world may be saved through Him
Johns Account 3: 16-17, Concordant New Testament
I find it interesting that those who so often speak of the torment of eternal hell are also those who refuse to speak to the truth of our life in Christ Jesus {Johns Account 14:20}. I've always seen the separation theology of the mainstream church as being black and white, good and evil. I've also noticed that it is those within the church, pastors and congregation alike, who are more than willing to sentence someone to eternal hell. Of course, that has never been our responsibility at all. That is the domain of the Father. And what has been Gods plan for His creation from the beginning? We find this spoken to by the apostle John in his iconic words we find in the New Testament. That through His never-ending love, God has loved the world. Such was the Fathers love, that He dispatched His only Son into the world. Not to condemn the world, but that ALL the world would be saved through Him {Johns Account 3:17}. So, as Jesus spoke to the crowds about Gehenna, was He actually condemning anyone to their fate? No! This was not why He came to be among us. Imagine this, that despite the words coming from the synagogues of the day, that God came in the flesh to dwell among His children {Johns Account 1:14}. This is the depth of the love of God for us. That while we were lost, that He Himself would come to live among us. Gods desire has never been that anyone would spend eternity apart from Him. Yet these are the words spoken by those within the church. Not only did He come to live among us, but it is Jesus who willingly gave Himself for us. That He who knew no sin would perish for those who did {Paul to the Corinthians (2) 5:21}. Does this sound like a God who desired any of His children to suffer for an eternity? The church will tell us that the good will be rewarded and the wicked will suffer. But we do well to remember that only the Father makes these decisions.
~Scott~
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