I'm just wondering what the liberal consensus on Hell is. I've seen quite a few comments on the actuality of Hell in this forum and it puzzles me. Surely liberal Christians don't believe in Hell? Well I don't.
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Liberal Hell
- Thread starter Urban Prophet
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Episcoboi
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I don't think there would be a consensus among us. Some have a different understanding of hell, some don't believe in it, etc.
Personally, I don't believe in traditional concepts of either heaven or hell. I believe God is in all and all are in God. We are from God, and to God we will return. What this means, whether we are conscious of it, and what it is like, I don't know. I honestly think that how we live here and now is more important than how we will live in an afterlife. My philosophy is "God has that covered, so I'm gonna focus on being the best me I can be here and now."
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GenetoJean
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I believe in Hell. However, I dont believe our loving God will put someone there forever. Once a person repents, from their heart not their mouths, then I believe He will remove that person from hell.
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Gnarwhal
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I find the Eastern Orthodox understanding of hell, that hell is being in the presence of God and his love while simultaneously resisting and rejecting it, to be the most sensible. Honestly though I don't attribute that to my political stance.
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Episcoboi
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Not hell. At least not in my understanding of things. We tend to focus on Jesus' death to the exclusion of all else. Yes, he died, but he also lived. And, in living he brought our lives into the life of God.
I like what is said in the Pascha service:
Christ is risen from the dead,
trampling down death by death,
And upon those in the tomb bestowing life.
Jesus, according to the scriptures, did not say, "I came to save you from hell so that you all can live in heaven." Rather, he said, "I have come that they may have LIFE, and have it abundantly." That was the purpose.
It is unlikely that Christ even believed in "hell" in the sense that we know it today. After all, he was a Jew. Ask an orthodox Jew today what "Hell" is, and many will tell you that the rabbis taught that Gehinnom, where the idea of hell began, was a place where people would spend about a year and a day being purified "by fire" before they returned to God. This was the teaching of the Sages at the time that Jesus lived. It continues to be believed by many Jews (especially of the Orthodox and Traditional persuasions to this day).
The early church fathers also taught that Christ's salvific work was such that we were given life when we were dead, and not only us, but all of creation, all of the cosmos.
It is only, and I say this as a member of this population, Western Christianity that developed the hell concept in the way we now know it. This concept is foreign to Judaism as well as to the Christian East.
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Alan Hooker
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Urban Prophet said:
Hi Urban Prophet,
My understanding of Hell leans more towards annihilationism.
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timur123456789
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I am liberal , except I am Classical Economical Liberal.
Does that count ?
I believe in the smallest role of government and economic freedom.
Does that count ?
I believe in the smallest role of government and economic freedom.
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Yup, that makes sense to me - it fits with the teaching that God is love.
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Alan Hooker
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Jesus died to defeat and save us from death, from personality extinction.
(1 Corinthians 15:54) When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory.
(Isaiah 25:8) He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.
(Revelation 20:14) Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.
(John 6:51) I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.
(Romans 5) For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.
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I am a libertarian minded individual. I guess I believe only in purgatory?? 
If the "rules" that are established for a follower are not followed, purposefully or unknowingly, then Hell is the establishment that soul will find itself in. What is Hell? I have an idea of what it is but it is not something to make up to glamorize it so I stay with Hell is Hell. A place I do not want to end up and with God's graces I will never have to.
If the "rules" that are established for a follower are not followed, purposefully or unknowingly, then Hell is the establishment that soul will find itself in. What is Hell? I have an idea of what it is but it is not something to make up to glamorize it so I stay with Hell is Hell. A place I do not want to end up and with God's graces I will never have to.
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SilenceInMotion
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I don't understand where people misunderstand 'eternal punishment', which is literally stated in Scripture.
And
I don't understand how an eternity in a 'dark place' is so much better then an eternity in fire.
And
I don't understand how an eternity in a 'dark place' is so much better then an eternity in fire.
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lucaspa
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From being cut off from God. Judaism had no concept of Hell except after the last judgement. Jesus' death was the ultimate apology and repentence (sacrifice) for doing wrong to God.
Think about it this way: Say you do something really bad to your parents -- a big lie, steal from them, say something really hurtful, etc. They are hurt and angry. What is your next move? Well, you start with an apology -- heartfelt and completely sincere -- right? But the next step is to try to make it up to them somehow. Prove your apology (repentence) was sincere. Well, our sins are doing something really bad to our Father. Yes, we apologize (that is the Prayer for Repentence and Pardon in most church services each week). But how do we "make it up" to God? What can we do? Jesus' death is the making it up to God for all of us each time we blow it and sin.
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