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Quick Overview
1. Introduction
2. Where has Jesus’ teachings of love gone
3. Did Jesus teach the modern version of Hell
1. Introduction
Mahatma Gandhi once said something along the lines of “I love your Christ, but not your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” It is my goal to explain, in this article, why a lot of people outside of Christianity feel the same exact way. I will be discussing a lot of doctrines and theology in a very short space and amount of time, so please bear with me.
2. Where has Jesus’ Teachings of love gone
“You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies!” -Jesus (Matthew 5:43-44a)
“Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets.” – Jesus (Matthew 7:12)
A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. – Jesus (Matthew 22:39)
When an outsider looks at Christianity today, they see not the love of Christ, but the intolerant bigotry of Christians. How can it be that such ignorance and hate has overshadowed the teachings of love by this once great man? I am not saying that Jesus was without anger. On the contrary, he showed it at times. But, hey, he was only human. One infamous time was when the temple was being used as a point for collecting taxes. This angered Jesus so much, he tipped over the tables that were being used. This, I believe, was caused by the complete hypocrisy of the Pharisees of his time. He spoke again and again over their hypocrisy, and when he saw what was going on in the temple of his God, it was a snapping point. But Jesus spoke more of love then he would let anger show.
Today, Christians show barely any (if any) love for those who contradict their beliefs and teachings. In fact, the whole of Christianity is in chaos with with the disrespect and intolerance they show each other who worship the same God differently. Where have Jesus’ teachings of love gone? They are no where to be found in modern Christianity.
3. Did Jesus teach the modern version of Hell?
“But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca, is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.” – Jesus (Matthew 5:22)
Christians today seem to think that if the bible was inspired by God, then it was inspired in the english language and meant exactly for the people of thier time and culture. This is far from the truth. When studying the bible, you cannot study each verse individually and get an accurate view of what is being said. In fact, an accurate study of the bible is one where you study each book as a whole. As welling as studying a whole book, you must learn about different contexts in which the bible was written. Geographical context, historical context, literary context and cultural context all play a huge part in interpreting what the bible says. Without those, you will land far away from the real meaning of Jesus’ sayings. For those without the tools to do so, please visit this link and you can get most of what you need for free. I study using that tool and it helps me out a lot.
With that being said, to keep this short enough to keep your attention span, I will be using only the two most important contexts: Cultural and Literary.
When Jesus spoke about Hell fire, was he talking in a literal sense? If Jesus were a modern American, I would say yes. But he wasn’t. He was a first century Jew living in Roman occupied Judea. The way the communicate through language and description is differnt from the way a modern American would. At the time of Jesus, when a person spoke of fire and wasn’t litteraly talking about a fire they had just built, it was very seldom literal. To Jews of the time, Fire was an analogy used for judgment. So, if Jesus were to say something like “Hell fire” he probably would have simply meant the Judgment of Hell, not a literal fire and brimstone Hell.
The point for Literary context is simply this: Does an eternity of fire and torture for only 80 years (at most) of sin equate with a loving God? I would say not. Yet, love was Jesus’ main message all through out his ministry. Every chapter in the four gospels your read will have a mention of the love of Jesus and his God. The Jesus of the Gospels and the Hell of modern Christianity is one of the most incompatible things I have ever come across.
So, what was the Hell Jesus spoke about? Well, I would much rather you study and figure that out, but I will help start you off with a few passages and some website that will help you get started thinking. Here are some passages
http://www.tentmaker.org/articles/jesusteachingonhell.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gehenna
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_darkness
Note: These articles are not meant to be, in my opinoin, scholastic. They are here to get you thinking so you can do some real studying on the subject.
Very well said and compared. Those with an open mind could appreciate the wisdom in the teachings of religions of the world but not the actions of its followers. For even a silent pond which reflects the image of the blue sky will send distorted images when disturbed. Come to think of the basic mentality of a religious fanatic whose thinking has bounced over the written teachings and what he/she sees outside.
Very well stated, Deep blue. Though I am a Deist, I continually study the words of Jesus and The Buddha as well as many other enlightened teachers of wisdom.
Very well written Dean.
I especially appreciate your emphasis on personal study rather than “spoon feeding” readers.
I left the church in part because I like to sleep in on Sunday mornings lol. But for real because the growing lack of love, compassion, and charity I saw in the church.
Thank you for sharing such an enlightened view of Jesus actual message, particularly as it relates to this barbaric notion of Hell.
I’ve actually written an entire book on this topic–”Hell? No! Why You Can Be Certain There’s No Such Place As Hell,” (for anyone interested, one can get a free Ecopy of my book at my website: http://www.ricklannoye.com), but if I may, please allow me to add to your many good points from the many I share in my book.
If one is willing to look, there’s substantial evidence contained in the gospels to show that Jesus opposed the idea of Hell. For example, in Luke 9:51-56, is a story about his great disappointment with his disciples when they actually suggested imploring God to rain FIRE on a village just because they had rejected him. His response: “You don’t know what spirit is inspiring this kind of talk!” Presumably, it was NOT the Holy Spirit. He went on, trying to explain how he had come to save, heal and relieve suffering, not be the CAUSE of it.
So it only stands to reason that this same Jesus, who was appalled at the very idea of burning a few people, for a few horrific minutes until they were dead, could never, ever burn BILLIONS of people for an ETERNITY!
True, there are a few statements that made their way into the gospels which place Hell on Jesus lips, but these adulterations came along many decades after his death, most likely due to the Church filling up with Greeks who imported their belief in Hades with them when they converted.
Speaking of hell someone has a website “hell fact or fiction”. It has a lot of interesting reading on it. If you look on Google I’m sure it should come up in the top listings.
Fiction, Storm
If Jesus’ life was something so crucial for mankind that mankind should realize that everything hinged upon its understanding then one must question why (if that were true) would Jesus not leave a written record himself or leave so much open to interpretation.Also, I find that in your Golden Rule there is an error, for men must learn how others want to be treated (and that will be different from person to person ), it is not accurate to assume they all wish to be treated exactly the way you, yourself wish to be treated. So even the Golden Rule has a flaw which human intelligence is able to detect.
that is untrue, steve 666 does not believe in God but was by no means cruel, that is a lie, I am speaking about your opening dean,
Today, Christians show barely any (if any) love for those who contradict their beliefs and teachings.
it is how it is done, running around calling people crazy or a false prophet or this or that or name calling is not contradiction, not done properly anyhow,
I have had proper debates with people like steve