Most atheists who have read the bible know only too well that it reveals that the Lake of fire is an eternal place of torment. That’s why they spend so much time in this place shaking their fists at the God of Abraham and trying to use the fact to justify their rebellion against God.
The main concept for the, "Hell is a lake of Fire" goes to Revelation, which I stated in an earlier post. If you wish I will seek out further biblical evidence for you, but somehow I doubt you will take it as "sufficient evidence"
I know it refers to Revelation.
The problem with that is that Revelation was written a good 50 years after the death of Jesus (at least) and refers to a dream that John supposedly had about the end of the world.
There is good reason that this is perhaps the most contested book in the canon across the world and history.
Not to mention that it was written by John, whose gospel did not even agree with the Synoptic gospels.
I am referring to what Jesus taught, not the non-sensical ravings of a latter apologist.
It's a good point you are raising, I will try to clarify it as I know it to be. Many Jewish words lend their names to places, ideas and people even inside the Jewish world. Since the word Gehenna was written before they lived in that region, the name of the area was a result of the definition of the word. For example, engraving is the same way for writing on a chalk board. Chalk boards didn't exist before the word. Aish meant fire, and it also means man. There's a lot of these.
I’m with you so far.
This is very evident from even a cursory reading of the Old Testament and the plentiful descriptions of how places got their names.
The reason it was referred to Gehenem AFTER the second temple era was the state of the people was low. Traditionally the people living there were in a low state of purity, a low state of holliness. The term gehenem literally means place (beyond the world) to make pure. Since Jews blame themselves for the destruction of the second temple, then the killing and burning of those people in the field is supposed to represent the fact they were unholy and were righteously punished for their transgressions.
Christians, Muslims and others interpreted it as literally meaning "BURNING"
Jews interpret it to mean something more close to "Washing Machine" ; )
Can you please provide me a reliable source which will attest to that?
Note that I am certainly not saying you are wrong – I am saying that I am not as knowledgeable on this as I would like to be, so I want to learn more about it and come to my own conclusions. This is why I posted this here.
Everyone goes to gehenom if I understand correctly. What you're molded into is dependent on your merit.
Where does this understanding come from?
As I understood it, Gehenna is a place that was decreed as filthy and sinful by God due to the sacrifices that were performed there by those who worshipped Molech, and a place where God punished and burned the bodies of sacrilegious Jews.
It doesn’t make sense to me that everyone would go to Gehenna, because of the Mark 5:21-22 quote about being in danger of the fires of Gehenna – as if it is a punishment of judgment of some sort.
NOTE: The place that was Hennoms would be referred to as Behennom. As in "House of Hennom" Where as gehennom is a different word.
If it were the house if Hinnom, it may well be referred to as Behinnom or Bethinnom, but is there not a difference between the “house of Hinnom” and the “Valley of the Sons of Hinnom”?
Regardless, Gehenna does seem to refer to a real, tangible place on earth. Furthermore, it does seem to represent that valley that once belonged to Hinnom. As you said yourself, it was referring to the field that the Jews were burned by God for their transgressions.
Am I misunderstanding you?
Please tell me where in the Bible you get your understanding of what Gehenna is, so I can read it myself.
Thank you
The people who are plugging their fingers into their ears are the people who want to believe anything but an eternal lake of fire revealed clearly in the Book of Revelation
Right.
Those looking at the
many varied translations and questioning the possible errors of man to attempt to reveal was the book actually said are plugging their ears and those who take an obviously flawed translation as the infallible word of God and insist that their own personal interpretation could be the only possible correct one are the open-minded ones.
I understand.
