What is Hell?

I thought that might be a great opener for this posting. This has also been on my mind a lot as of late in my struggles for truth verses everything I was ever taught in church.

What I am going to say about hell will probably not set to well with some of you out there but since this is my blog and this is what I believe …. Well you can believe any way you want that is your right and mine as well. So with saying all of that here I go.

My belief is….. I do not believe in hell…. at least not the one where God sends bad people to burn in agony for eternity. Besides how do we determine who is bad and who is good and why would a Creator who loves us and created us the way we are with a sin nature, with many shortcomings and imperfections damn us to eternal torment because we could not and did not make the grade?
I spent many years afraid of GOD and His hell. I was afraid I was always going to fail Him and disappoint Him.
I tried not to do bad and wrong things only to turn around and do what I was trying so hard not to do.
You might say….’well you have Jesus in your heart… so you can ask for forgiveness and make it right.’
Ok, ok…. let’s look at this another way….
What if…. Your child was a rebellious sort and ran off with a bad gang doing stuff that was hurting other people? Would you damn them to eternal torment and make sure they were punished forever?
No…. you would not. No good, loving parent in their right mind would do that to their child no matter how bad they might seem.
Would you threaten that child with eternal punishment if they refused to love and obey you?
Well I would hope not. Who wants someone to love them out of fear?
You might say….’ Well GOD is a just God and His ways are not ours.’ And you are probably right… however, if His ways are not ours why do you put Him in a box of and eternal tormentor?
If I can forgive my tormentors am I any better than GOD?
Do I want justice? Sure… who doesn’t…. but do I hate so much that I would want anyone or anything to suffer eternal torment on my account?

I painted a picture a long time ago that I am just now understanding. I wish I still had that painting although I do have a drawing of it and if I can figure out how to post it later I think I will…. Anyway this is what it is about…
I am floating on a flimsy legless chair, naked, hovering over flames of hell lapping at my feet. There is a shaft of light coming out of the sky giving me some hope I might be rescued, however I am much closer to the flames then I am the light. I titled that picture ‘between Heaven and Hell’. I always felt I was much closer to the flames then any salvation of that light.

In every church I ever went to I was led to believe that I was always much closer to the flames then the light and to get closer to that light I needed to earn my way… even though the church taught grace… they always followed up with you have to earn your way… talk about a contradiction? I was always taught to fear God and His eternal hell of pain if I did not follow the rules and every church I went to seemed to have a different set of rules to follow.

Personally I do not want to follow a GOD of eternal torment…. I do not want to serve a GOD out of fear. I want my GOD to be forgiving and fair and I want to serve Him out of Love, period. I want to follow my heart and do the right thing that is written in my heart already because I belong to a Creator who designed me in the first place and knows me better that anyone, even me. My GOD is never surprised when I make mistakes and is not sitting on some far away thrown waiting to bash me and then roast me in agony when I upset Him.

Since GOD created everything then did He not create sin? Did He not create good and evil? On my….. Have I said something offensive? The thing is this… either He is the creator of all or He is not. Either He is in control or He is not.

If He has a plan… and that plan included good and evil… then just maybe He might also have a plan for the ones who seem to not get it in this life. GOD is never surprised at anything we do. He sees the front from the back eternally. He creates whatever HE wants for whatever reason… He says His own know Him and hear His voice… do you not think a person in the middle of the Amazon jungle without the aid of a bible and a so-called missionary can be reached by the call in his spirit from the Creator of all? He might call Him something different then you and I do but how can you possibly know it is not the same Creator? The same Savior? Just because your church and religion tell you that does it make it so? How can anyone honestly say that only a Christian can be saved and everyone else will burn in eternal flames of torment forever? Give me a break…

Every denomination of the Christian faith came out of the Church of Rome….do your homework… they all claim they are the only real way to GOD and truth… they all claim they have divine revelation, they all base that on their brand of the bible… they all condemn everyone who does not agree with them, to eternal torment.

Now do I think all the people who go to church or believe in a certain way will go straight to hell and if they do not listen to me they are doomed? No- way!
If you are happy with your brand of religion and you feel in your heart that is the thing to do, I am not going to tell you to run to the nearest exit. We all have brains and hearts and we need to do what we feel we have to do.

As for me?
Well since I let go of the eternal hell torment thing…. And realized my Creator put HIS DNA in me and created me the way I am. And since I realized He is in control… well I can finally breathe without feeling fear all the time. I can really enjoy my relationship with my Creator out of love and know His code is in me and I can follow that code, and so with having that code in me… I can count on the fact the He will always show me the right thing to do in every situation and even when I mess up, He is not surprised and disappointed but is there to show me a better way the next time.

I think that is pretty simple… I think He makes it simple. I think man makes it hard.

You can have all your rules, fear and eternal torment… as for me I choose freedom in and through the one, who created me, knew me before I was in my mother’s womb and is in control of my life and is never surprised at anything I might do or say. He put His love in me and He loves others through me and He is has written His code in my heart and I have the assurance I will never disappoint Him because He already knows me so well.

Blessings in and through the one who Created you...
Judy