The idea that God is an angry
figure who sends those He condemns to a place called Hell, where they
spend eternity in torment separated from His presence, is missing from
the Bible and unknown in the early Church. While Heaven and Hell are
decidedly real, they are experiential conditions rather than physical
places, and both exist in the presence of God. In fact, nothing exists
outside the presence of God.
This is not the way traditional
Western Christianity, Roman
Catholic or Protestant, has
envisioned the afterlife. In
Western thought Hell is a
location, a place where God
punishes the wicked, where they
are cut off from God and the
Kingdom of
Heaven.
Yet this concept occurs nowhere
in the Bible, and does not exist
in the original languages of the
Bible.
While there is no question that
according to the Scriptures
there is torment and
“gnashing of teeth”
for the
wicked, and glorification for
the righteous, and that this
judgment comes from God, these
destinies are not separate
destinations. The Bible
indicates that everyone comes
before God in the next life, and
it is because of being in God’s
presence that they either suffer
eternally, or experience eternal
joy. In other words, both the
joy of heaven, and the torment
of judgment, is caused by being
eternally in the presence of the
Almighty, the perfect and
unchanging God.
This is not a new interpretation
or a secret truth. It has been
there all along, held by the
Church from the beginning,
revealed in the languages of the
Scriptures, which were spoken by
the Christians of the early
church era. This understanding
was held by nearly all
Christians everywhere for the
first 1000 years of the Church’s
existence, and, except where
influence by western theologies,
continued to be held by
Christians beyond Western Europe
and America even up to this day
(including the roughly 350
million Orthodox Christians
worldwide).
When you examine in context the
source words which are
translated as “hell” in English
language Bibles the original
understanding becomes clear.
You will find that “hell” is
translated from four different
Greek and Hebrew words. These
words are not interchangeable in
the original language, yet,
incredibly, in English-language
bibles these words are
translated differently in
different places to fit the
translators’ theology (rather
than allow the words of
scripture to determine their
theology). Not only did English
translators dump these four very
different words into one
meaning, they were not even
consistent with it and chose to
translate these same words with
different meanings in different
places. It is no wonder that
English readers of the Bible are
confused.
If one examines what the early
Church Fathers wrote about
“hell” and the afterlife, it
will be seen that they too
understood that there is no
place called hell, and that both
paradise and torment came from
being in God’s presence in the
afterlife.
When you examine what the Roman
Catholic Church teaches and what
most Protestants believe about
the afterlife, and compare that
with the scriptures and early
Church beliefs, you find large
disparities. You will also find
their innovative doctrines were
not drawn from the Bible or
historic Church doctrine, but
rather from the mythology of the
Middle Ages, juridical concepts,
and enlightenment
rationalizations, all alien to
early Christian thought.
The Afterlife according to
the Hebrew Scriptures
Sheol is one word sometimes
translated as “Hell” in the Old
Testament. In Hebrew, this word
is a proper noun that is a name
or title, so properly it should
not have been translated but
simply transliterated, as is
done with other names. The
literal meaning of this Hebrew
word is simply “subterranean
retreat”. Sheol was not
understood as a physical place
since it exists in the spirit
world, but it is a spiritual
“place” associated with dead
people. It was understood that
when a person dies, their body
is buried, and their soul goes
to reside in Sheol. That is the
fate for all people who die,
both the righteous and the
wicked. According to Hebrew
scholars, anything more detailed
is conjecture and speculation.
Sheol was translated as “hell”
in a number of places where it
was indicating a place for the
wicked, which is consistent with
western thought. But it was
also translated as “grave” and
as “pit” in a number of other
places where it was clearly not
a place of the wicked. Yet
there are other Hebrew words for
grave and pit, so why did it not
occur to the translators that if
the author wanted to mean pit or
grave they would have used
them? It can been seen that
where Sheol fit the translators’
idea of hell as a place of
torment, they interpreted it one
way, as hell, and simply used
the word another way if it did
not, confusing those who are
trying to understand the
Scriptures in translation.
In historic Jewish
understanding, it is the
perception of the individual in
Sheol that makes the
difference. This same “place”
called Sheol is experienced by
the righteous as “gen eiden”,
the Garden of Eden or
Paradise, i.e.
“heaven”. Moreover, Sheol is
experienced by the wicked as the
“fires of gehennom”, i.e.
punishment or “hell”.
What is it that causes this same
place to be experienced
differently by the righteous and
the wicked? According to the
Jews (and by inheritance, the
Christians as well) it is the
very presence of God. Since God
fills all things and dwells
everywhere in the spirit world,
there is nowhere apart from
Him. Moreover, evil sinners,
the enemies of God, experience
His presence, His Shechinah
glory, as punishment. Yet the
righteous bask in that same
glory, and experience it as the
love and joy of God, as
Paradise.
Consider Shadrach, Meshach and
Abednego, who refused to worship
the idol in
Babylon
(Daniel 3). They were thrown by
King Nebuchadnezzar into the
“fiery furnace” which was heated
“seven times more”. The
significance of “seven” is a
number symbolic of the “furnace”
of Heaven, the place where God
dwells. The three Jews were
unharmed by the fire where one
“like the Son of God” was among
them. However, the same flames
of fire killed the king’s “most
mighty” soldiers. This is an
analogy to how the presence of
God is light and warmth to those
who love Him, and pain and
destruction to those who oppose
him, yet it is the same “fire.”
It’s also useful to consider the
ancient Greco-Roman pagan
understanding of the heavens and
Hades. Though it was not
fundamental to Hebrew theology,
the Greek view was still
sometimes referenced or
borrowed, because these ideas
were familiar and prevalent in
the culture.
The ancient pagan Greek view,
later adopted by the Romans, was
that heaven was a physical place
up in the sky. The word for
heaven is used interchangeably
with the location of the objects
of the sky, as in “heavenly
bodies”, and for the dwelling
place of the gods. That is why
the Greek word for heaven and
sky is the same; there was no
distinction made between them in
the earliest writings, but
eventually they were also
understood to be more as a
metaphor for the spiritual
heaven.
For the ancient pagan Greeks,
Hades was a place, but was
sometimes also personified in
folk mythology. The physical
place was where all humans go
when they die, a site located at
the center of the earth. The
Greek word literally means
“unseen place”. Like Sheol, it
was the final abode of all
humans, but unlike Sheol, it was
taken to be a geographic site,
the literal “underworld” in folk
mythology. It was also taken as
a metaphor for the place of
final rest. Hades was also
sometimes taken as the name of
the ruler of this place, the
pagan god Hades, also known as
Pluton by the Romans
(after which the plant Pluto was
named, the ruler of the dark).
In Greco-Roman mythology Heaven
was reserved only for the gods,
and after death mere mortals
could only hope to find a safe
place in Hades to spend
eternity. The early Greco-Roman
Hades was a very literal and
even primitive concept, compared
to the Jews’ more spiritual
Sheol. If a person was dead,
they were in Hades, and there
was no other option; only a very
rare few heroes challenged the
gods of the heavens and were
immortalized in the stars.
The pre-Christian Greek language
had thus developed in this kind
of world view, both heaven and
Hades as a physical and literal
existence up in the sky, or down
under the ground. Although these
later became more metaphorical
in more developed pagan
writings, from this is where the
universal concept of “up” for
heaven or
Paradise, and “down”
for the place of the dead came.
It is used metaphorically by
both the Jews and pagans to
describe mankind’s relationship
with God, and so became a
universal cultural concept.
This is why there are so many
Biblical references to God being
“up” in heaven, and Sheol being
“down” in the “under parts of
the earth”. However, neither
the Jews nor the early
Christians took these ideas
literally as the ancient Greeks
and Romans may have, but
understood “up” and “down” as
spiritual rather than physical
realities.
For the Jews and early
Christians, even Sheol was not
separated from God. Translating
directly from the Greek of the
Septuagint Psalms 138:7 and 8
“Where can I go to, away from
Your Spirit, and away from Your
countenance, where can I
flee to? If I ascend
into
heaven, You are there; if I
descend into Hades, You are present.”
When Jewish scholars translated
their scriptures into Greek in
the third century BC, they used
the Greek word Hades
interchangeably for the Hebrew
Sheol in the Septuagint.
Strictly speaking, the pagan
understanding was very
different, but Jewish scholars
adapted “Hades” for their use.
It is one of many examples of
changed, allegorical, or
metaphorical non-Hebrew words
used in the Bible borrowed from
Greek pagan mythology. In the
New Testament, Hades is used in
a number of places as the Greek
equivalent to Sheol as well.
In the Hebrew Scriptures, or Old
Testament, Sheol is translated
31 times as Hell in the King
James Bible, and similarly in
the Revised Standard and NRSV.
In a number of other places it
is translated as “grave” or
“pit” and once even as “dust”.
It appears the translators did
not have a very consistent
understanding as to what Sheol
means, translating the same word
differently in different
places. The idea of “Hell” as a
physical place of torment, apart
from the presence of God, had
already taken root, and the
translation fit the
preconception rather than the
original meaning of the word.
Gehennah is another word
translated as “hell”. It was
known to the Jews as a physical
place, a valley outside to the
south of
Jerusalem.
It literally means in Hebrew
“valley of the sons of Hennah”.
Here child sacrifices were once
made to the pagan god Molech.
Gehennah is mentioned in 2
Chronicles 28:3 and 33:6, and
Jeremiah 7:31, 19:2-6, and
appears in many traditional
extra-Biblical Jewish writings.
After this area came under
Jewish control a memorial fire
was kept burning there. Later
it became a dumping place for
refuse, dead animals, and
eventually prisoners’ bodies, or
the bodies of the poor that were
not claimed by any family.
Trash fires were kept
continually burning there for
sanitary reasons. It was like
many landfills: a smoky,
foul-smelling place with
carrion-eating birds circling
overhead, and with maggot
infested carcasses.
By the time of Jesus this place
became a well known metaphor for
the fate of those condemned and
judged by God. Expressions like
“the fiery pit” or the “fires of
Gehennah” and “where the worm
turns” were equivalent to the
unrighteous’ experience of God’s
presence. Gehennah was the
place where evil and sinful
people ended up. In Jewish
mystical writings it was
believed that this place is
where the final destruction of
the wicked would occur at
Messiah’s arrival. Because this
is when the resurrection would
occur, all the evil lawbreakers
would be resurrected and
standing in Gehennah when God
reclaims the earth. In the
final battle, God’s enemies, the
evil ones, would be burned up,
“Just
as wax melts before the fire,
so let the wicked perish at the
presence of God” as it says in
Psalm 68. Jesus affirmed and
clarified this teaching and
Christians now believe this will
occur on Messiah’s return.
This experience of Gehennah was
used as an analogy to express
what happens to those who oppose
the God of the Jews. Yet even
it was not a place God “sends”
people. The fire itself was
understood to be how the wicked
experienced the Shechinah glory
of God, as a burning judgment
fire.
Therefore, usage of this word is
interchangeable with “judgment”,
and quite different than Sheol.
To be forgiven of your offenses
was to be rescued from “the
fiery pit”, or rescued from
judgment. You would still go to
Sheol until the resurrection,
but in glory rather than in
torment.
Notice however that in English,
the translators rendered
Gehennah as the “valley the sons
of Hennah” in some places in the
scriptures and in other places
as “hell,” rather than just
making a direct translation of
the words wherever it appears.
This confuses the reader, who
could get a more consistent
understanding of the meaning of
the word if it was rendered
accurately as “Gehennah” every
time, or more properly as “the
Valley of the Sons of Hennah”.
There are numerous references to
God’s presence being like fire
in the Hebrew Scriptures. And
before the invention of the
electric light, any reference to
“light” meant “fire” in one form
or another. For example, “The Lord thy God is a consuming
fire”
(Numbers); God
“…appeared to [Moses] in a flame
of fire out of the midst of the
bush,”
(Exodus); “The fire of the Lord burns among
them”
(Numbers); “the Lord descends upon it in fire”
(Exodus); “You have
refined us as silver in a fire”
(Psalms); and “Who
makes His angels spirits, His
ministers a flame of fire”
(Psalms). These are a few
of the many Old Testament
references to God being
perceived as fire; it was how
the Jews understood humans
experience God’s Shechinah
glory.
No human could bear to look at
the blazing holy presence of
God: not Moses, who hid his
face, not Abraham, not Adam or
Eve after they fell from Grace.
No human could look at the face
of God and live to tell about
it.
God is described as fire in the
following verses; Gen 19:24, Ex
3:2, 9:23, 13;21-22, 19:18, Num
11:1-3, 4:24, Ne 9:12, Ps 66:10,
104:4, Is 66:15, among others
places.
Another interesting word study
to examine is the Hebrew words
used in the Old Testament when
describing how God “punishes”
people in the English bibles.
Ten different Hebrew words are
translated as “punish” in this
context, yet none carries our
meaning of punishment in
English. The most common word “paqad”
rendered 31 times as punish,
simply means “to visit” or “to
remember.” The word “anash”
[used 5 times] simply means “to
urge” or “compel”, “chasak”
[occurs 3 times] means to
restrain, “avown” [used
12 times] means sin. This also
implies the cost or penalty for
being evil or causing offence.
One interesting word translated
as punish, “yakar” means
to chastise, but also means “to
add value” as in chastising a
child makes him more valuable.
There are a few others words
rendered as punish, but they
occur only once each. As can be
seen, none of these words
clearly indicates that God does
the punishing. Apparently for
the translators, every time God
visits or remembers His people,
he is “punishing” them, but that
is not how Jews understand this
word. Nor would Jews
automatically assume that a
visit from God was a bad thing,
either.
This kind of translation seems
attributable to a presupposition
of what these words mean, and
intrinsically changes the
meanings of these words from the
original intent. The
translators’ own incorrect ideas
have clouded their objectivity,
an all-too-frequent occurrence
with virtually all western
language Bibles.
The Afterlife according to
the New Testament
Jesus and the Apostles were all
Jews of course, as were nearly
all the members of the first
Christian Church. The first
Christians saw themselves as
inheritors of the covenant of
Abraham, and the early Church of
course had no New Testament, so
they naturally understood the
afterlife in the terms of the
Old Testament. The Gospels and
all of the epistles affirm this
understanding as well, when read
in the original Greek.
During the New Testament and
Patristic times some of the
Church Fathers clearly held that
everyone went to the same place,
to Hades. Within Hades they held
there was a separating of the
unjust, who were experiencing a
foretaste of the sufferings of
judgment, from the just who were
in “Abraham’s bosom” or
Paradise –
experiencing a foretaste of
heaven
(Hippolytus -2nd c.,
Tertullian – 2nd c. Andrew of
Crete 7th c.). “Abraham’s
bosom” is understood to be
within, but separated or “walled
off”, from Hades. The departed
righteous and the unrighteous
experience that which is
appropriate to each. The word
“paradise” comes from an ancient
Persian word that means a walled
garden or courtyard, implying a
separation from the area around
the garden. In Xenophon’s
economics, Socrates said that
the king of
Persia
took particular care, wherever
he was, to have gardens or
enclosures full of every
beautiful and good thing the
earth could produce. In the
Septuagint (the Greek
translation of the OT) this word
is used to refer to the Garden
of Eden
(Gen. 2:8).
Abraham’s Bosom implies being in
an intimate embrace, being in
the hollow formed by the
doubling of a robe between the
arms of the wearer of the robe,
and being covered and protected
by the embrace.
In the Gospel story of the
Rich Man and Lazarus, they
both are able to see Abraham.
The Rich Man and Lazarus can see
and talk to one another though
they are far off from each other
and both see Abraham. “And being in torments in Hades, he
lifted up his eyes and saw
Abraham far off, and Lazarus in
his bosom.”
(Luke 16:23).
The grammar implies both the
rich man and Lazarus are in
Hades. The bosom of Abraham
represents God’s bosom. All of
them are in God’s presence, but
one is in torment, the other is
in a state of comfort. The
immediate application of the
story concerns the state of the
departed prior to the
resurrection of Christ. This is
why it is said “…neither
will
they (the Jewish People that
have Moses and the prophets)
be
persuaded
even
if
one rises from
the dead”.
Lazarus, who did not care for
personal pleasure or
possessions, spent his life
pursuing God, and then in the
afterlife basks in God’s glory
when in His Presence. The Rich
Man, on the other hand, pursued
his own selfish desires during
his life, and in doing so ended
up in pain when in God’s
Presence, because of the sin in
his heart. Abraham says to the
Rich man in Luke 16:25 “Son, remember that in your lifetime
you received your good things,
and likewise Lazarus evil
things, but now he is comforted,
and you are tormented”. See how
he contrasts “but now” (in
death), one is comforted, the
other in torment. In the Greek,
it does not say that God is
punishing him, he is simply “in
torment” while there. They were
separated by a large gulf, which
is primarily spiritual, not
physical. The Rich Man does not
have a physical tongue to cool
with physical water from
Lazarus’ physical finger.
It
is a gulf that exists in the
heart, a spiritual gulf that
causes us to experience God
loves presence as
Paradise or torment.
A gulf that was not placed
there by God, but rather created
by the choices, actions and
state of the sinner.
In The Complete WordStudy
Dictionary Edited by Sprios
Zodhiates Th.D and Dr. George
Hadjiantoniou Ph.D., the authors
describe Hades as:
“The region of departed
spirits of the lost…It
corresponds to Sheol in the
OT…in the story of the rich
man and Lazarus… [it has]
been taken to put our Lord’s
confirmation on the Jewish
idea of two compartments in
Hades, distinct from and yet
near one another…Hades is
associated with death. It
expresses the general
concept of the invisible
world or abode into which
the spirits of men are
ushered immediately after
death…In none of the
passages in which the word
itself occurs have we any
disclosures or even hints of
purgatorial fires, purifying
processes, or extended
operations of grace. The
state of human beings in
Hades is immediate and
irreversible after death…
Our Lord conclusively
teaches in the story of the
rich man and Lazarus that
there is no possibility of
repentance after
death….Unfortunately, both
the OT and NT words have
been translate in the KJV as
“hell”
(Ps. 16:10)
or the “grave” (Gen.
37:35)
or the “pit”
(Num. 16:30, 33).
Hades never denotes the
physical grave nor is it the
permanent region of the
lost. It is the
intermediate state between
death and the ultimate hell,
Gehennah”
The same inconsistency in
translation of the Old Testament
can also be seen in the New
Testament. Hades is translated
as hell ten times in the New
Testament, but it is also
translated as “grave” in 1 Cor
15:55.
In Revelation Chapter 20, it
states that Death and Hades gave
up their dead, and Death and
Hades are placed in the lake of
fire when God reclaims the
world. If the ones in Hades
were judged and will be in
torment for eternity “far from
the Lord” as so many think, why
would these same ones be
released from Hades when God
returns? It is because all who
have died reside in “Death and
Hades” until that moment, when
Death and Hades can no longer
exist because God, the author of
Life, is present. The “lake of
fire and brimstone” into which
Death and Hades is placed, in
the Greek would be grammatically
correct to translate as the
“lake of fire and divinity”, or
even “the lake of divine fire”.
When Death and Hades is placed
in the fiery presence of God, in
the “lake of divine fire”, it is
destroyed. It is in the very
presence of God, where death can
not exist when God is present.
It is interesting to examine the
Greek word for “divine”, it is
from the Greek “theion”,
which could also mean “divine
being”, but also means “sulfur’,
or in Old English “brimstone”
[lit. ‘burning stone’]. As
strange as that sounds to us, it
is because of the ancient
understanding of the cosmic
order of the nature of all
things. All people in all
cultures from the
Near East to the
West understood that there were
four ‘elements’, these were:
Earth, Air, Fire, and Water.
Their nature was that Earth and
Water tended to go down toward
Hades, and Air and Fire tended
to go up toward heaven. This
could plainly be seen when the
heavenly fire, lighting, would
hit a living tree and burn the
“life” out of it. Anyone could
see that the heat from the tree
would go back to heaven in the
fire, and the ash that remained
would go down into the ground.
But there was this mysterious
yellowish earth substance that
behaved very differently, when
placed in a fire it burn so
brightly that your eyes could
not bear to look at it. As it
burned, it would release the
heavenly substance that was
trapped inside and it would rise
back to heaven. Clearly, this
“burning stone” was a divine
substance, and as such, it was
simply called “divinity”. It was
burned within a new temple to
“purify” it before consecration,
presumably when this burning
stone released it’s divinity, it
causes all evil things to flee
from the temple, and thus was
the temple readied for worship.
Yet the word ‘theion’ is
translated as “brimstone” or
“sulfur” in Luke 17:29, Rev.
9:17, 14:10, 20:10, 21:8, which
is where ‘fire and brimstone’
comes out of heaven, but it is
equally interchange with the
words “divine fire”. Since this
did not fit the translators’
preconceived ideas, it is
rendered always as brimstone in
this context.
Elsewhere in Revelation it
states that the “heat comes out
of heaven” and burns the enemies
of God, yet does not harm the
ones with God’s seal on their
foreheads. So the same heat,
the heat that is the very life
and light that comes from God,
burns the sinners, and does not
harm the ones that love God.
Again, in many places God’s
presence and appearance is
described as fire in the New
Testament as well as in the
Old. Examine for example, Matt.
31:10-12, 25:41, Mark 9:49, Luke
12:49, Acts 7:30, 1Cor. 3:15,
Heb. 1:7, 12:29, Rev. 3:18 and
in numerous other places.
Typical is the verse where John
the Baptist says
“I baptize you with
water, but the One who
comes after me will baptize
you with fire”.
The author of Hebrews writes
that God is a consuming fire.
Jesus Himself states the he
brings “fire” to the earth.
That is, “divine fire.”
Everywhere in the New Testament
when humans come face to face
with the Transfigured Jesus they
cannot look at Him: Peter, James
and John on Mt. Tabor, Paul on
the road to Damascus– humans hid
their face and fell down in fear
and trembling when confronted
with the revelation of Jesus as
Almighty God. Old Testament
figures did the same, but now,
in the New Testament, it is
revealed that this “holy” fire
is present when Jesus reveals
his nature. This is because
Jesus is the incarnate God of
the Old Testament.
A
couple of these descriptions of
the fire of God’s presence are
worth examining closely. Paul
writes in 1 Cor. 3:13
“Every man’s work shall
be made manifest…because it
shall be revealed by fire,
and the fire shall try every
man’s work of what sort it
is.”
In Mark 9:49 Jesus says
“For everyone will be
salted with fire”
(interestingly, in Greek this
sentence has the grammatical
structure of an obvious
statement of fact, similar to
“for [everyone knows that]
everyone will be salted with
fire”).
Peter repeats this idea in 2
Peter 3:7
“but now, by the same
Word [that is Jesus], heaven
and earth are saved and kept
for fire on the day of
judgment, and the
destruction of impious men.”
So clearly everyone experiences
this fire caused by the presence
of God. The Bible tells us
there is no place apart from
God, that he is everywhere and
fills all things, so how can He
create a place apart from Him?
Moreover, why would He create a
place just to punish the ones He
says He loves unconditionally?
That is not the nature of a
loving God.
Since God is everywhere and
fills all things, in the spirit
world there is nowhere to escape
from God even if you wanted to
(Ps 139:7-8).
Translating 2 Thess. 1:7-8 from
the Greek literally,
St. Paul
tells the persecuted
Thessalonians that they will
“get relief at the
revelation of the Lord Jesus
coming out from heaven with
His powerful angels in
flames of fire”. [notice He
comes with
“flames of
fire”].
Yet this same presence of Jesus
causes the ones persecuting them
to
“…be punished with
everlasting destruction
BECAUSE OF
[Gr. “apo”] the presence of the Lord,
and BECAUSE OF his mighty
glory” (2 Thess. 1:9).
Further on Paul writes in 2Thess
2:8 that
“the lawless one, whom
the Lord Jesus will destroy
by the breath [or “spirit”]
of his mouth and make
ineffective by the fantastic
appearance of his presence”.
So the mere presence of Jesus
makes the “lawless one”
ineffective, yet gives relief
and comfort to the
Thessalonians.
Unfortunately many English
translations insert a word that
is not there in the Greek in
verse 1:9, adding the idea that
the wicked will be “separated”
or “cut off” from the Lord’s
presence. This is a totally
different meaning, and if Paul
had wanted to say this he would
have used the word “schizo,”
which is where we get the word
for “scissors” and
“schizophrenia” [lit.
divided-mind]. The Greek word “apo”
that Paul uses here is a
preposition that indicates cause
or direction: “because of,” “out
of,” “caused by,” “from,” etc.
The word “apo” appears
442 times in the New Testament,
and it is NEVER used to indicate
separation, location or
position. [...] The word
“Apocalypse” literally means
“out from cover,” i.e. to
reveal, hence the Book of
Revelation. Also interesting is
the word “apostate” which in
Greek literally means “out from
standing”. If you where once in
a condition to stand in God’s
presence, then “fell” away, you
would not be able to stand any
longer; you would be “out from
standing,” cowering and trying
to hide from His presence.
The history of the English word
“hell” is also revealing. The
Old English word from which hell
is derived is “helan”,
which means to hide or cover,
and is a verb. The noun form
means “hidden place”, not unlike
the literal meaning of Hades
“unseen place”. So at one time
the English church understood
that to be judged a sinner meant
one would cower and want to hide
in fear when in God’s presence.
Unfortunately, because of the
political expedience of
controlling an often rebellious
population, corrupt rules in the
West, in collusion with corrupt
clergy, and adopting ideas from
non-Biblical yet popular fantasy
novels such as Dante’s Inferno,
corrupted the use of this word
during the middle ages.
Eventually turning a verb into a
noun by popular usage, even if
theologically insupportable from
the Bible.
It is tragic that modern
translators would insert the
word “far from” or “cut off
from” into 2 Thess. 1:9,
apparently because they had a
preconception about what Paul
was trying to say so they
altered the text to fit. They
added this little “clarifying”
word that is not in the Greek
text at all, changing the
meaning and inserting their own
ideas. If your preconceived idea
is that Hell is a “place” that
an angry God sends people away
from his presence, in order to
punish and hurt them, you would
expect and look for ways that
Scripture would support your
idea.
Clearly, when you read the Bible
in the original languages you
learn that there is no place
apart from God, and there is no
place that God put you to punish
you. What scripture reveals is
that all eventually will be in
the fiery presence of the Lord,
and this presence will be either
“eternal torment” or “comfort
and glory”. Judgment and
paradise both come from being in
God’s presence.
Another word translated
incorrectly as Hell appears in 2
Peter 2:4. Saint Peter is
warning about the swift
destruction of false prophets
and false teachers. In the
Greek grammar he uses an obvious
statement of fact by stating
“For if God did not spare
the sinning angles, but
rather places them down in Tartarus, reserved
for [a future]
judgment…..the Lord knows
how to deliver the godly out
of trials, and to reserve
the unjust until the day of
judgment.”
(2 Peter
2:9).
The word
Tartarus
is also
a proper noun, that is a name of
a place, and accordingly should
not be changed into a different
word, and certainly not the same
word that used for Hades and
Gehennah.
Tartarus
originally came
from Greek mythology and popular
folk tales. It is the name of a
prison in Hades that Zeus, after
triumphing over the Titans,
placed them, bound in chains to
hold them for future punishment
for crimes against humans. It
was metaphorically seen as the
place where justice was metered
out in the spirit world, and
this metaphor often found it’s
way into Jewish apocryphal
writings about the end times.
Saint Peter borrows this term
and uses it in exactly the same
way as it was used in popular
contemporary writings by both
Greeks and Jews; it is a place
where “sinning angels” are bound
and imprisoned, awaiting a
future punishment. They are
bound by God to prevent them
from doing further harm, and
they are judged for crimes
against humanity. This image is
seen in the ancient icon of the
Resurrection, metaphorically
depicted are “dark” angels, or
demons, being bound in chains
under the feet of the
resurrected Christ, who broke
the bonds of death and rendered
powerless the “sinning angles”.
Remember from 2 Thessalonians,
where Saint Paul writes that the
power of the presence of Christ
made the “lawless One”
powerless, and gave comfort to
the Christians, which is exactly
the same idea that Saint Peter
is writing about in 2 Peter 2:4
through 9.
Again the translators made an
improper interpretation of this
passage because of preconceived
ideas about the afterlife,
changing the meaning and only
adding to the confusion for
English speaking Christians.
Also totally absent from the
scriptures is any hint that
demons are tormenting sinners.
This again comes from Dante’s
Inferno and other pagan
concepts, not from the Bible.
Because any “sinning angels” in
the presence of God, are also in
torment, and their power is made
ineffective.
The Afterlife According to
the Church Fathers
After the Gospels and Epistles
were composed, in the centuries
before Christians decided
exactly which books would be in
the New Testament, many gifted
believers wrote books of
commentary, sermons,
apologetics, and stories of
martyrdom. These eloquent early
Christian writers confirm the
Biblical view of the afterlife
and add some clarifying details.
St. Cyril of
Jerusalem
and St. John Chrysostom (4th c.)
and St. John of Damascus (6th
c.) and many others made
extensive use of the allegory of
iron or a sword place within the
“energies” of a fire. This is
reminiscent of Hebrews 4:12, and
therefor a common allegory used
in the early Church. On the
joining of the divine and the
human in Christ, God is like the
furnace that a craftsman uses to
temper a sword. When a properly
prepared sword is placed within
the fire, the fire makes it
stronger and the sword takes on
the properties of the fire, it
gives off heat and light. The
sword then has two natures, one
that cuts and one that burns,
joined together and inseparable,
yet distinctly different. This
is the two natures of Christ,
and by extension all of humanity
when we become “Christ-like”.
However, to carry this allegory
further, this same fire will
melt and destroy a sword that
was not properly prepared.
St. Isaac the Syrian in the
sixth century writes
“Paradise
is the love of God” and he
also writes “…those who are
punished in Gehenna, are
scourged by the scourge of
love”. So the “fire” is the
love of God, and we
experience His love as
either divine love, or as
painful “scourge”.
St. Basil the Great (fourth
century) points out that the
Three Children thrown into the
fiery furnace were unharmed by
the fire, yet the same fire
burned and killed the servants
at the entrance to the furnace.
According to St Gregory the
Theologian, God Himself is
Paradise and
punishment for man, since each
man tastes God’s “energies” (His
perceptible presence) according
to the condition of his soul.
St. Gregory further advises the
next life will be
“light for those whose
mind is purified… in
proportion to their degree
of purity” and darkness “to
those who have blinded their
ruling organ
[meaning the
“eyes of the heart”]…in
proportion to their
blindness…”
St. Gregory of Nyssa says,
“Hades…is not intended to
signify a place… it is some
invisible and incorporeal
condition of life, in
which the soul lives.”
(On the Soul and the
Resurrection, SVS p.73).
St. Cyril of
Jerusalem
writes about the Second Coming
of Christ,
“the sign of the Cross
[at His returning]
will be
terror to His foes, but joy
to His friends who have
believed in Him”.
Lactantius (AD 260-330) wrote
that on His return
“there comes before Him
an unquenchable fire”.
St. John Chrysostom (AD 344-407)
wrote [in homily LXXVI]
“let us clothe ourselves
with spiritual fire, let us
gird ourselves with its
flame. No man who bears
flame fears those who meet
him; be it wild beast, be it
man, be it snares
innumerable, so long as he
is armed with fire, all
things stand out of his way,
all things retire. The
flame is intolerable, the
fire can not be endured, it
consumes all. With this
fire let us clothe
ourselves, offering up glory
to our Lord Jesus Christ,
with whom the Father,
together with the Holy
Spirit, be glory, might,
honor, now and ever and
world without end. Amen.”
A
prayer of St. Simeon the
Translator goes:
“…Thou who art a fire
consuming the unworthy,
consume me not, O my
Creator, but rather pass
through all my body parts,
into all my joints, my
reins, my heart. Burn Thou
the thorns of all my
transgressions, Cleanse my
soul and hallow Thou my
thoughts [etc.] …that from
me, every evil deed and
every passion may flee as
from fire…”
The Holy Orthodox Church, in
keeping with Scripture and the
most ancient Christian doctrine,
teaches that all people come
into the presence of God in the
afterlife. Some will bask in
joy because of that infinite
love, glory, light, power, and
truth that is Almighty God.
Others will cower in fear and be
in torment DUE TO THAT SAME
PRESENCE. All the same, there
will be some kind of separation
or “great gulf”.
“Life” in the Orthodox Church as
defined by the Fathers, is
experiencing the perfect, pure
and infinite love of God in
ultimate harmony and intimacy
for eternity, and “death” is
experiencing God’s energies in
torment, darkness and disharmony
for eternity. It is only
through Christ that we come to
that place of perfect harmony,
in this life, in this world.
The goal of the Christian is not
to get to “heaven” in the after
life, but rather to come to a
state of constant communion with
the Holy Spirit, beginning in
this life. We may bask in the
presence of God’s glory here and
now, and in the afterlife for
eternity.
Accordingly, from ancient times
icons have shown the Saints
dwelling in a place filled with
the golden, uncreated divine
light of God. With the icon we
symbolically peer through this
“window” into the spirit realm
infused with God’s energies. In
the icon of the
Heavenly
Kingdom,
we see Christ enthroned in the
center as God Almighty, surround
with the host of angels, His
mother the Theotokos, and all
the saints. However, at His
feet you see others, also in His
presence, who are being burned
and tormented due to just being
there, and have no escape. The
larger more elaborate icons of
the Resurrection show the Old
Testament saints with halos
looking on with joy, and others
without halos on the other side
of the gulf, looking on in fear
and confusion, as Christ frees
the captives of Death. He
rescues all of humanity
(represented by Adam and Eve
being pulled from the tomb) and
all of creation with them, from
the beginning of time to the end
of time.
It is not God’s intention that
his love will torment us, but
that will be the inevitable
result of pursuing our own
selfish desires instead of
seeking God. When we are in
harmony with God, we will bask
in that presence. Yet, if we
desire our own will and are in
disharmony with God, we suffer
in His presence. Satan is evil
not just because he harms
others, but because he is an
angel of light who stands in the
presence of God yet chooses to
pursue his own selfish desires,
which causes him to tremble in
fear. Satan and his fallen
angels, the demons, were thrown
to the earth and he became the
‘god of this world’. It can be
speculated that Satan and his
demons are on the earth because
it is the only place they can
escape God’s presence, if only
temporarily. This is why they
will suffer for eternity after
God reclaims the world at the
end of this age, filling It with
his presence. Then there will be
nowhere to escape God, for both
demons and evildoers.
So “hell” is not a “place” but
rather a condition we allow
ourselves to be in, not because
of God’s “justice” but because
of our own selfish and sinful
disobedience. In other words, we
put ourselves in “hell” when we
do anything other than seeking
God’s will. It is not that God
wants to harm us; He loves us
unconditionally, but torment is
the result of coming into His
pure presence when we are in an
impure condition.
It is like spending your whole
life in a cave or basement in
darkness, never seeing the sun,
then suddenly being thrust into
bright sunshine. Your skin will
burn, your eyes will burn, you
will want to bury yourself under
the rocks to try and escape this
terrible thing pouring down on
you, but there is no escape,
just as described in
Revelation. However, if you
expose yourself to the sun
regularly and often, eventually
you will want nothing but to
bask it the warmth and light of
the sunshine. The same sunshine
that torments one person brings
warmth and pleasure to another.
Similarly, if you get too close
to the sun, you will be burned,
not because the sun wants to
burn you, because it is the
sun’s nature.
Roman Catholic and Protestant
Understanding
It is clear from the Scriptures
and the Church Fathers there is
no room in the afterlife for
Purgatory, limbo, or any place
apart from God, nor for Calvin’s
idea of predestination and
“divine justice”.
Neither in scripture, nor in the
writings of the Saints do we see
any such innovation as Purgatory
or even of Hell as a place of
torment apart from God.
Purgatory, according to the
“Catechism of the Catholic
Church” article 1030-1031, is
defined as the place of
“All who die in God’s
grace and friendship, but
still imperfectly
purified…after death they
undergo purification, so as
to achieve the holiness
necessary to enter the joy
of heaven.” The more
purging that is necessary,
the longer one must spend in
purgatory.
Further, in article 1032,
“The Church also commends
almsgiving, indulgences, and
works of penance undertaken
on behalf of the dead…”
presumably to hasten how
quickly one may complete
this purging.
Built into this uniquely Roman
Catholic doctrine is the
assumption that in the afterlife
we would experience time passing
the same way we do in the
physical world. This is a
mistake because there are enough
hints in Scripture that time as
we know it does not exist in the
spirit world. For example:
“… one day with the Lord
is as a thousand years, and
a thousand years as one
day”. (2 Peter 3:8).
Also the idea that the return of
Christ is immanent, in addition
to the prevalent use of the word
‘eternal’ throughout the Old and
New Testaments. In the
Revelation of St. John many
scholars believe that
St. John
is not describing sequential
events (which would be
nonsensical, since the narrative
jumps around so much) but the
Saint is rather seeing all the
events occurring
simultaneously. It is like he
is in a room with all this
activity happening at once, and
he says
“then I turned and I
saw…”.
He is describing the sequence in
which he sees the visions, but
that is not necessarily in the
order that the events occurred.
Even modern science tells us
that time and space are
connected. Without physical
space [i.e. creation], there is
no time. Without a physical
body you can not experience
time. Without time, you can not
change. This would also
preclude the ancient heresy of
Origin that speculated that in
eternity eventually everyone
will be saved. This
“restoration” of all, know by
theologians as
Apokatastasis
[meaning “out from your previous
standing”], also called
Universal Salvation in modern
times, presumes that those in
“hell” will eventually change
their minds and come to
salvation in the next life.
This is not only unbiblical, it
presumes the ability to change
when in the presence of an
unchanging Almighty God. The
same Greek word for “eternal
life” is also used for “eternal
torment”. You can not argue
that the word really means “age”
(a fixed period of time) when
there is no time, and since it
means “eternal life” would also
only be for a fixed period of
time.
So it is very speculative to
assume that time passes outside
of creation the same way it does
here. No sound doctrine can be
built based on this assumption.
The Orthodox believe, from
Scripture and the writings of
the saints, that because God is
perfect he does not change.
However, imperfect humanity
continues to change. So when
someone in an imperfect “forever
changing” condition comes into
God’s pure unchanging presence,
it is experienced as darkness
and torment. Presumably, at the
time of death we lose the
ability to change, since our
condition will be “consolidated”
by being “caught” in the pure,
unchanging presence of God,
which will also occur to the
living at the Apocalypse. The
idea of changing in Purgatory is
incompatible with the timeless,
changeless nature of the
afterlife.
Furthermore, nowhere in the
original language of the Bible
does the Calvinistic idea occur
of a place of “hellfire”
torment, created especially by
God so He can punish those he
judges for eternity. Why would a
God who loves us unconditionally
torment us for eternity, because
of an equally unbiblical notion
of Divine Justice? In fact
nowhere in the Bible does it
explicitly state that it is God
that punishes the sinners. If
you put your hand in the
fireplace, is it the fire’s
intention to punish you? Or is
the torment you experience
caused by your own foolish
action? It is merely the nature
of the fire to burn your
unprotected skin.
Uncreated Energies
The understanding of heaven and
“punishment” [hell] in historic
Christianity is inextricably
linked to the biblical concept
of the Uncreated Light of God.
The Uncreated Energies (or
“Light” the purest form of
energy) are understood by the
Orthodox to be the Energies of
God. This Energy is the
“consuming fire”, the Shekhinah
glory, the fire that burns
silver to purify it, as it says
in Malachi. It is the fire that
burns the weeds left in the
field, the fire that burns the
pruned branches, it is the lake
of divine fire, and the thirst
and burning that torments the
Rich Man is this same Uncreated
Energy. Yet, the same fire that
torments the impure gives warmth
and comfort to the pure of
heart.
In fact the Greek word “energeia”,
and its various forms, appears
over 30 times in the new
Testament, yet it is not
translated as “energy” even once
in most popular English
translations. It is variously
rendered as operation, strong,
do, in-working, effectual, be
mighty in, shew forth self, and
even simply dropped out of the
sentence; everything except what
it means. Yet, this word was
well established in the Greek
language in the first century.
It was first used by Aristotle,
some three centuries before
Christ, as a noun, as “energy”
in the metaphysical sense— which
was borrowed in recent years in
English as an engineering term.
But even in a modern
metaphysical sense, it is
exactly as the ancient Greeks
use the word, because it is the
same word. Yet the translators
insisted on ignoring how this
word is actually used by Greek
speakers and distorted it into a
number of verbs and adjectives
(or simply drop it from the
verse), which leaves only
confusion and misunderstanding
for English readers.
When we are energized by the
Divine Energies, we will radiate
the pure Light of God.
Translating directly from the
Greek,
Saint Paul
writes to the Philippians [2:13]
“For it is God who is
energizing in you, according
to His will and to energize
for the sake of His being
well-pleased.”
In verse 3:21 he further writes
“[Christ]
who will change
the appearance of our humble
bodies to take on the form
of the body of His glory,
through the energization of
his Power…”
And to the Ephesians in verse
1:19
“and what exceeding
greatness of his power, in
us who believe, through the energization of His mighty
strength, energized in
Christ, raising him from the
dead and seating him in the
right hand of Him in the
heavens.”
So this energy “in us” changes
our bodies to glory, and was the
same energy that raised Christ
from the dead. This energy is
in fact, the Grace of God, in
Eph 3:7
St. Paul
writes
“That I was made an
attendant through the gift
of the Grace of God, granted
to me by the energization of
his Power”.
This same Energy also has the
power to heal, as St. James
writes [5:16]
“Therefore confess your
sins to one another, and
pray for one another, so
that you may be healed,
prayers given energy by a
righteous one are very powerful”.
This same energy comes from the
“one” that restrains evil, in II
Thess. 2:7
St. Paul
writes
“For already the
mysterious lawless one is
only restrained now by the
Energies, until he comes out
of the midst of it”
Receiving this Divine Energy is
the results of faith in the true
God, as
St. Paul
tells the Thessalonians in I
Thess. 2:12
“… [you received] …the
true Logos of God, which
also energizes in you
believers”.
Moreover, to the Galatians he
asks a rhetorical question with
an obvious answer [3:5]
“Indeed, would it not be
in vain, if the One
providing you the Spirit and
the powerful Energies in
you, were by works of the
law, or rather by hearing in
faith?”
There are many stories in the
historic tradition, both ancient
and relatively modern, that tell
of the saints radiating light
when they pray (for example St.
Mary of
Egypt, St.
Sava, St. Mathew of
Ethiopia,
and others). The Light that
Christ radiated on
mount
Tabor
during the Transfiguration is
this Uncreated Light, seen in
Christ revealing his true
nature. The halos in icons are
not rings or crowns (as often
wrongly represented in western
religious art) but rather a
sphere of light, like the sphere
of light around a candle in a
dark room. This light that
Christ, his mother the
Theotokos, the angels and saints
radiate in the icon is this
Uncreated Light of God.
This is the Transforming Light
that “makes all things new”.
Salvation is in fact this Energy
assimilating us to God,
“divinizing” the believers,
making us “Christ-like”, through
the Energization of the Power of
God. When we are in perfect
harmony with God, the Holy
Spirit energizes within us, and
we too radiate this Uncreated
Light. All of the saints
radiate this Light of Christ.
Interestingly, in properly
rendered icons none of the
Apostles have halos until after
Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit
was poured out into the Church.
This event, the Pentecost, is
when the Apostles were
“assimilated” into divination,
transforming them [literally in
the Greek “metamorphoses”] into
Holy beings, into “non-earthy
ones” (lit. in the Greek), and
when, according to Tradition,
the Holy Church had begun.
The Energy is Uncreated because
it existed before creation, it
is the Light and Truth and the
Love and the Life that IS God.
When we have that Truth, Love
and Life of God, than we too
will radiate this Divine Light.
The ancients understood that
light was the purest form of
energy. This is why there are
so many biblical allusions to
the sun for God. The sun was
the source of “pure” light, life
and heat, and this created light
was likened to the Uncreated
Light of God, the source of
Everlasting “Zoe” and “Zesty”,
spiritual “life” and “heat” or
more properly “vitality”. This
is why the term “illuminated” is
used to describe the saints who
saw these “divinizing” Visions
in Heaven. In fact, it is
impossible to properly
understand the role of Light in
theology if you do not
understand it from the
Light-Energy perspective.
Yet,
Saint Paul
also cautions the Romans about
this Energy in 7:5
“for when we were in the
flesh, passionate for sins
according to the law, the
Energy in our members brings
fourth the fruit of death”.
And likewise he warns the
Corinthians
[2 Cor. 4:12]
“For this reason it energizes
death in us, though it is Life
in you”. And in Hebrews 4:12
another sober warning
“For the living Logos of
God, and [the living]
Energies, also sharper than
a two edged sword, passing
through, dividing both soul
and spirit, joints from
marrows, judging the thought
and intents of the heart”.
Note in this last verse in
English bibles, the word
“Energies” is just dropped from
the text, yet the clear
implication in the Greek is that
the “logos” is one edge, and the
“energy” is the other edge of
the sword. Implying quite
literally, without this Energy,
one is not fully armed.
When we come face to face with
this powerful Uncreated Light in
an impure and sinful condition,
we cower in fear and pain, for
our impurities are revealed and
“burned” by this illuminating
Energy. Yet those who love God
and want nothing but to be in
constant communion with God,
will strive towards purity and
will bask in glory in this same
Light. The same Energy that
causes eternal death in the
sinful, purifies and strengthens
the faithful.
This is at the root of
difference between the Eastern
Orthodox and Western
Christianity, whether Protestant
or Roman Catholic, this biblical
concept of the Uncreated
Energies of God. In the west,
the mystery of the Divine
Energies was abandoned because
it could not be understood
outside of the metaphysical
perspective, and therefore
juridical socialistic
rationalism was adopted. The
west continues to flounder in
darkness and is unarmed against
the influence of the enemies of
God, and therefore continues to
innovate false theologies.
Tragically, in the west a few
centuries after the Great Schism
(1054 AD) an innovation (i.e.
heresy) developed as a result of
an attempt to rationalize God’s
purifying fires. Latin
theologians surmised that God
created a place called purgatory
with purging fires to “purify”
those that die with imperfect
atonement, and they further
rationalized that paying
indulgences could buy your loved
ones out of these painful
purging fires faster. This
rationalization also helped keep
the church prosperous and
coffers full.
The western ideas had its roots
in Augustinian theology (who was
influenced by the Greek pagan
philosophers). Unfortunately
Augustine could not read Greek
and had to devise his own
theology from imperfect Latin
translations. Late in his life
he recanted much of his earlier
writings, an act which was
ignored in the West. Both
Luther and Calvin developed
their own theologies from
Augustine’s erroneous writings,
and ignoring Augustine’s later
retraction. This is how the
pagan notion of a God that both
punishes and rewards made its
way into western Christian
theologies. Another major
influence was the 13th century
fantasy novelist Dante, whose
political satire known as
the
Inferno borrowed heavily
from pagan mythology and bears
little resemblance to Biblical
eschatology.
Some Orthodox would contend that
the western God, who both claims
to love us, but also would
condemn us to eternal
punishment, is a schizophrenic
God. It is reminiscent of the
abusive groom who claims to love
his bride but can not stop
punishing her.
Calvin further rationalized if
God is all knowing, then He
knows who will be saved and who
will not even before they are
born, so therefore He must have
created some people just so He
can torment them in Hell for
eternity. This is the infamous
“predestination” of Calvin,
which makes God the author of
evil. This is not Biblical and
certainly not Christian.
Ultimately this doctrine denies
free will, the choice that all
humans have to either pursue
righteousness, or selfishness.
The key error is that Calvin
presumed that because God knew
who would be saved and who would
not, that he caused them to be
saved or judged.
Therefore the difference in the
understanding of the Uncreated
Energies is not just a
difference between Roman
Catholicism and Orthodoxy, it is
a difference between almost all
of the heterodox and the
Orthodox.
In Conclusion
There is no “place” of torment,
or even a “place” apart from
God, because there is no “place”
at all; you are outside of time
and space. The “place” is
actually a condition of either
punishment (“hell”) or paradise
(“heaven”) depending on how you
experience the presence of God
and His Uncreated Energies.
Consider a person who hates God,
and anything to do with religion,
and has done nothing but pursued
his own self-centered desires
all his life. It would be far
more terrifying, and painful, to
spend eternity in the fiery
embrace of God’s almighty and
divine love with no escape, than
to be far from Him.
Experiencing God’s presence and
His in-filling transforming
Energies in glory or in torment,
as
Paradise
or as Punishment, is the heaven
and hell of the Bible. Not
something God did to us, but
rather something we did to
ourselves. God unconditionally
pours out His love on all,
WHETHER WE WANT IT OR NOT,
whether we are ready for it or
not, when we enter the afterlife.
This is why the Gospel or “good
news” of Jesus Christ should be
shared with all people, of all
nations, in all tongues. For
there is nothing to fear from
God’s perfect love, since love
casts out all fear.
However, it is not totally wrong
to understand the after life as
“type” of Heaven and Hell.
Because from each individual’s
perspective, it will not be
perceived as the same “place”,
but rather as either torment and
darkness you can not escape, or
as the paradise you have always
longed for. For those judged,
they will experience God’s
presence as eternal darkness and
torment. Though it is very
important to keep in mind what
is the cause of either of these
conditions, or one could reach
very wrong conclusions about the
nature of God, as they have in
western theologies. To
misrepresent the nature of a
loving God would cause one to
conclude that it was God’s
intention to punish his creation.
Indeed, one blasphemes the
reputation of the God of the
Bible when you make him into an
angry vengeful god that punishes
His creation. The cause of the
torment is the poor choices that
we make, not God. If one thinks
of these two different “places”
as conditions that we choose to
be in, rather than
“compartments” God puts us in,
it would be more accurate.
And it will certainly be
“paradise” to finally experience
His Divine Love up close and in
person for those who seek it.
It is all in the perception.
Such is the nature of a loving
God.
For God is God.
