My Thoughts About Salvation And The God I Know

The traditional view of Heaven and Hell is meant to provide a system of justice. After one’s death, he or she will be judged based on the kind

742). Purgatory was contemplated to be a horrible place where souls were tortured until their families prayed for their soul. One-way Catholics helped someone’s soul in purgatory was by praying for forgiveness from God.

eternal punishment. These newer books perceive hell as more of a concept than an actual place of punishment.

    Hell is said to be the worst place to ever exist, and it is greatly feared about on earth and in the minds of people. “Hell is gaping for them, the flames gather and flash about them, and would fain lay hold on them and swallow them up,” this illustrates personification in giving the flames of hell the live ability to hold and swallow us. It portrays how we will be consumed by our own sins if we do not act on them to better ourselves. If we let our sins pile up they will weigh us down and we will eventually be brought down to hell to pay for our wrong doings.

In complete contrast to this, the Christian Hell is a place of punishment for crimes committed on Earth. There are tons of depictions of Hell across tons of books, movies, and TV shows, but the most widely accepted version of damnation comes from the writer Dante Alighieri, in his world famous title Dante’s Inferno. Alighieri described Hell as a sort of giant funnel, with seven layers on the inside, representing the seven deadly sins, and in Inferno, he and Virgil Maro traverse these layers, and battle their inner demons, while also witnessing the cruel, and ironic torture of those sent to this unholy plain of existence. For example those who were wrathfully in life find themselves trapped in the filthy slime of the Styx, violently beating each other for all of eternity, while those who were sullen in life are drowned just underneath the river, and stepped on by the wrathful. The Buddhist realm of the damned, Naraka, is the most similar to Dante’s Hell, but unlike the Inferno, Naraka is less a place of eternal suffering, and more a place of

Robert Herrick, an English poet, once said, “Hell is no other but a soundlesse pit, where no one beame of comfort peeps in it.” Picture any type of Hell with relief, happiness, or even the smallest crack of a smile. There is no place. In fact, one can only think of the complete opposite, whether it is a Hell filled with neglect, pain, disgust, or a never-ending life of horror. This is the place created by Dante Alighieri; The Inferno is exactly the type of Hell where no person would want to be. Even those who acted upon the lightest of sins suffered greatly. While each realm contained a different sinner, the punishment that each were forced to face was cruel, repulsive, and sometimes rather disgusting. Through grieving tears without an

Jesus never makes a clear argument against hell, indicating he had no reason to do so. According to the excerpt, the word gehenna, which is translated into hell, is used by Jesus twelve times in the Gospels. In all of the passages in which he mentions this

On the contrary, this view stems from looking at the punishment from the standpoint of human justice systems. This is not a valid way to view hell as a punishment because God determined what acts deserved what punish meant a great number of years before the creation of any human justice systems. Although you must “die” an earthly to be sent to Hell, you are not “dead” while in Hell because you can not be tormented if you are dead. The unsaved will have everlasting consciousness which enables them to suffer the torment.

A major theological problem exist as it related to Christ descending into hell to take the keys of death. Although the Apostle’s Creed points out that Jesus descended down into hel, His descent was not about suffering, but about a triumph victory over Satan. In order to ascertain the truth behind the afterlife, the validity of hell has to be established.

In Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith—Appendix 1—Dr. Groothuis presents a defense of the fairness of hell. He explains that, in our pluralistic and relativistic society, hell seems to be a repugnant and offensive doctrine, even when presented biblically and faithfully. Jesus taught the doctrine in multiple occasions, and given the evidence for the resurrection, his warnings should be taken seriously—if the resurrection is true, then Jesus was Divine and what he says is authoritative. In spite of this, many Christians avoid the subject of hell altogether and secularists—ironically—“condemn” it; however Dr. Groothuis raises a solid case for the reality of it with numerous quotes from Jesus. This is a wise strategy since even

This paper on Salvation is defining both objectively and subjectively from the two required reading text. The first text is written by Alistair McGrath’s “Theology: The Basics and the second is written by Dr. Yung Chul Han’s “Transforming Power: Dimension of the Gospel. I will describe how the both texts are in association as well as seeking observations, and other conclusions to gain a better understanding of salvation from both perspectives. According to (Mc.Grath, p.78), the word salvation is referred to as something that has already happened in the past, to something that will happen in the future. Spiritual transformation requires of us what is called dependent responsibility. All the moral commands and exhortations of scripture assume our responsibility. Salvation is deliverance from danger or suffering. The word salvation carries the idea of victory, health, or preservation (www.biblia.com). Salvation can be viewed as a spiritual transformation which the dependency of the Holy Spirit assist in the change of a believers past, self to a vessel of God in the present lives which exemplifies life, deliverance, peace, and a victory won through personal conviction. The victory is one that only Jesus Christ has authority save us which gives believers complete approval to have possession to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Throughout the years Purgatory has been explained as a waiting process before heaven. According to McLaughlin Purgatory is somewhere where souls go and suffer for a certain amount of time after death. This suffrage comes from the sins that one was not able to repent for before the time of their death (McLaughlin 1). Similarly, author J.P. Ardendzen compared purgatory to hell stating, “ … The pains of hell and purgatory are in all things equal to those of hell, except that the pains of hell are eternal, and those of purgatory only temporal” (Ardenzen 29). The pain and suffering of hell comes from our rejection of God, where as our pain and suffering in Purgatory can contribute to two aspects. The first aspect is our soul, which suffers through all the evil we have faced in our lives no matter if we realize it or not. No matter how much we love God, our soul still seeks evil that we need to cleanse it before reaching heaven. Secondly, our compassion for Jesus our whole life is something we have encompassed before our death. Our

Imagine yourself, finished in this world and ready to go into the internal life. How do you think God will judge you? Were you someone generous, humility, loving, gentle, active, temperance, or Chasity? Do you believe that God would be proud in every single thing you have down on this earth? Well, for the most part, no everyone is Jesus and have all of those qualities. That is why Dante have written the world of Purgatory. Purgatory is a place after earth is a transformation process that helps every saved soul to perfect themselves for God. Through this process of transformation in Purgatory, a soul must accept, forgive, and learn from their sin in order to be in Heaven.

Brunner makes an excellent point when he states that there is “only one way to eternal life-Christ” (146). Many people shy away from the tough questions, but Brunner rightly states the correct theological view that only through Christ are people saved. While this declaration may seem trivial to some Christians, I believe that this statement is exactly why this book is so powerful, because it clearly and assertively proclaims the truth about Christian doctrine, which is then backed up by scripture.

In both the old times and modern time of Christianity, one of the main controversial topics has surrounded one single word. Hell. Some people hear it and thing noting of it. Others shutter at the name. But everyone has questions about it, whether hell is real or a fable, eternal or temporary, physical or spiritual. Being in the Baptist community since birth, I have believed in a hell since I can remember because “to believe in God and not in hell is ultimately to disbelieve in the reality of human choices.” (Ross Douthat). My definition of hell comes straight from the Bible. That there will be “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Mathew 13:42) and that God will say, “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil