For centuries the Churches have taught that hell is a place where the souls of wicked people suffer eternal torment. Apparently, that has changed. Hell "is not a punishment imposed by God," says Pope John Paul II, "but a development of premises already set by people in this life." So reports L'Osservatore Romano. "Rather than a place," the pontiff says, "hell indicates the state of those who freely and definitively separate themselves from God, the source of all life and joy." He adds that "eternal damnation" is not God's work; rather, "it is the creature who closes himself to God's love."
The Bible is very plain in its' explanation of what death is, and what it is really like. Please read the following texts, and after doing so, pause and give what you've just read some thought!
Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10 tells us: "The living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all...All that your hands find to do, do with your very power, for there is no work nor devising nor knowledge nor wisdom in Sheol (the grave) the place to which you are going." SINCE the dead have no conscious feelings or thoughts, it is obvious that even if they were burned, after death, they would not know it, let alone feel it. Remember also, that wages of sin is death,(Romans 6:23) and not eternal torment in a hellfire based on pagan Greek mythology.
If you would like a more detailed answer, or if you would like to discuss this subject with me, please feel free to contact me via e-mail. But for now, you can relax, you have no need to fear eternal torment. We can be assured that our loving Creator need not, and would not have such an evil place!
It added: "There are many reasons for this change, but amongst them have been the moral protest from both within and without the Christian faith against a religion of fear, and a growing sense that the picture of a God who consigned millions to eternal torment was far removed from the revelation of God's love in Christ."
However, they say that each person still faces a day of judgement and that those who fail the test will be cast into a state of annilation, or nonbeing. States the New York Herald Tribune: "The report made clear there was no chance of all people of all faiths automatically being saved." (source: Awake magazine of 1/22/97)
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