Subject: Heaven and Hell - Not A True Christian Doctrine
Author: mwarbinek
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Date Posted:11:41:47 02/25/09 Wed
To set the stage for this article, the Heaven and Hell doctrine is not Christian and was never taught by Jesus Christ to his early Christian Church with his Apostles.
The Heaven and Hell doctrine of mainstream Christianity denies the existence of many mansions (heavens or levels) and denies the existence of what the Bible calls "Paradise" and "Spirit Prison". Yet, it appears, on the other hand, that the heaven and hell doctrine was incorrectly derived from the belief that heaven was Paradise and Hell was Spirit Prison in the Bible.
Mainstream Christianity holds to the belief and doctrine that there is only one heaven and one hell. They claim this is Biblical and based on that, denounces the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, because we believe that there is not just the Kingdom of God, being the same heaven they believe, but we believe there are other heavens prepared for people who do not make it into God's Kingdom. Suffice to say, the focus of this article is on the legitimacy of the mainstream Christian doctrine that states there are only two places, heaven and hell.
Is the heaven and hell doctrine Biblical and Christian in origin?
The early Christian Church, sometimes called the Church of Christ with the twelve apostles did not teach or preach this doctrine. For example the term "spirit prison" was mentioned by the Apostle Peter in
1 Peter 3:18-20
18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:
19 By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;
20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.
Peter spoke of Jesus Christ entering a spiritual prison to speak to the spirits of people who have died in their sins. In the Old Testament, the same teaching prevailed, so it was not just one Apostle who believed or preached the doctrine of spirit prison. Isaiah spoke of this same spiritual place,
Isaiah 61:1
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
It is not surprising that a intermediate place exists after mortal death and the Bible shows this. The Bible shows that there is a spiritual place beyond the grave, where the wicked go and the righteous also, the same place for both, but a place that is divided,
Luke 16:19-25
19 There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day:
20 And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores,
21 And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.
22 And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;
23 And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham far off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
24 And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.
25 But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.
Where then, did this doctrine of Heaven and Hell come from? Are you truly interested to know? If you are interested, read further.
The next element is the Gnostic system that has penetrated the pagans, and the Jews, and the Christians. They were a parasite religion that taught that the God who gave the Law to the Jews was a different God and the Law was bad and was eliminated. They taught a doctrine of Heaven and Hell. That is why Justin said in his Dialogue with Trypho (80) to the Emperor on behalf of the Church at Rome that if they came across people who said they were Christians and that when they died they went to Heaven that he was not to believe that they were Christians. Look at the paper The Soul (No. 92) and also The Resurrection of the Dead (No. 143). The pagan calendar also intruded and the Church did not stamp it out. That is why the New Year is on 1 January for Janus the god of beginnings.
The Church did not believe in heaven and hell and purgatory, seeing them as pagan or Gnostic doctrines. Thus the concept of requiring consecration and absolution before death to enter heaven and avoid purgatory was dismissed as a godless and blasphemous doctrine by the early Christians. The belief in the resurrection of the dead and the total dependence on God saw no sacrament in this other than the decency of burial of the dead. Often the Church did not get that due to persecution The Bible position on the sacraments is explained in the paper The Sacraments of the Church (No. 150).
(Ibid)
The doctrine of Heaven or Hell is not a Christian doctrine, it was Gnostic and this influence affected the mainstream beliefs of Christians after the last Apostle left. In fact, in that article, the early Catholic Church did not accept the Heaven or Hell concept and declared it as heresy, but that changed over the centuries and they adopted the Pagan-Gnostic doctrine. This historic fact shows that corruption from other religious groups infiltrated Christians in the early days and behold, the false doctrine of Heaven and Hell was adopted.
Is this not interesting?
Reading history reveals that mainstream Christians were corrupted by false, pagan or heretical doctrines, which eventually became mainstream and toted today as God's word! Reading more into history, more interesting notes are found.
Justin Matyr (A.D. 110-165) condemned the Gnostics because they did not admit of the interim spirit world. The Gnostics claimed that there is no resurrection of the dead and their souls, when they die, are taken to heaven. (The Ante-Nicene Fathers 1:239). Irenaueus (A.D. 115-202) said the same (The Ante-Nicene Fathers 1:560).
(Callister, Tad R., "The Inevitable Apostasy and the Promised Restoration")
What more evidence exists?
David W. Bercot explained that the Bible has three different Greek words, "Gehenna", "Hades" and "Tartarus", that were all translated by the King Jame translators as "hell". He likewise said this was a serious mistake, because Gehenna meant a lake of fire (that is hell) and was translated correctly, but Hades meant the place where the spirits of the dead resided while awaiting resurrection. Because of this mistranslation, the concept of a spirit world for the dead became incredibly confused (Berot, from a talk on a tape titled What the Early Christians Believed About Christ's Descent into Hades). The word Tartarus also referred to hell...
(Ibid)
Some may claim that I draw this information from Mormon authors and claim that my information is tainted. Well, the historic references are clearly not Mormon and David Bercot is also non-Mormon. You can read about his Christian background here - David Bercot
Is my information correct? You can research it yourself, but you will find that I am correct.
The Greek word Hades (English spelling) does truly actually means, "abode of the dead in general, rather then the abode of the wicked." ("Hades in Christianity" - Wikipedia).
A sensible person would read these facts to see that for one, the English translation of the early manuscripts resulted in a corruption, a mistranslation that blindly removed what God truly said. When the word Hades was incorrectly translated to say "Hell", that was the work of mainstream beliefs that had no place to alter God's word, and that was placed into the "Bible"! Now that is a clear violation of Deuteronomy 4:2 / Revelations 22:18, is it not?
These facts prove that many original and true doctrines held by the early Christian Church were lost, and second, many false doctrines & philosophies infiltrated mainstream Christianity. So what do we do with this knowledge of corruption, which many Christians hold as God's word?
It is rightfully taught that the Bible is the word of God, so long as it is correctly translated or interpreted. Very wise words to follow. Next is to abandon the false doctrines that are proven as not Christian, as I have done here and seek out the truth. That can only be achieved through one source. That source is God himself through prayer, else a person is completely lost and will continue in confusion.
Until that time, I urge other Christians to start questioning their mainstream beliefs, no matter how convenient they may be and start reading historic information about the early Christians, Pagan, Gnostics and their influences on Christians over the many centuries. Be assured that God had no hand in what they created, for he never wanted you to believe that there is only two places to go, heaven or hell. When his only begotten Son Jesus Christ said that the Father has prepared many mansons, take it literally, there are many mansons and the concept or doctrine of only heaven and hell is a false Gnostic-Pagan doctrine and not of God.
