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Does Hell Exist?
In order to be able to reply to this question, we need to first review a bit of history that will lead us to understand better as to where did the concept of the “eternal punishment” originate.
If we analyze the Old Testament, we can come to understand that in it there is not even one mention that refers to hell; in that First Testament the word Seol or Sheol appears, but it has nothing to do with the concept of hell which surged long after. In this concept, fire and eternal condemnation are not implicit, it simply refers to the place or mansion of all the dead. Jacob says in Genesis 37:35, when he thought that his son Joseph had died: “…I will go down into the grave (Sheol) unto my son mourning”. And in Isaiah 38:10, Hez-e-ki’ah king of Judah says: “…In the cutting of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave (Sheol); I am deprived of the residue of my years”. In chapter 14, verses 9 and 11, Isaiah states against the king of Babilonia “…Hell (Sheol) from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee…” “…Thy pomp is brought down to the grave (Sheol), and the noise of thy viols; the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee“.
The word sheol, comes from Hebrew “Shael” which means: To self examine, inquire or interrogate, that is: To reflect. This means that the old concept which existed regarding sheol was not of the eternal punishment, but simply the place where the dead awaited or entered into reflection.
Various other verses also exist that demostrate that not only was sheol seen as the place for the dead to rest and await, but there were also some that thought that those alive could also arrive there. Such as in Psalm of David 16:9,10 that states: “…my flesh also shall rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell (Sheol)…“.
Or verse 16:30 of Numbers: “…But if the Lord make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth, and swallow them up, with all that appertain unto them, and they go down quick into the pit (Sheol)…“.
Upon the Septuagint being translated to Greek in Alexandria, between the years 250 and 100 A.C.. the word “Hades” appears for the first time instead of the word “sheol”, which according to the Helenic tradition it was a place underneath. It was the concept of a hole, grave or pit. Hades comes from ” alpha” and “eido” that in this concept means “nothing” and “to know” , which together means to know nothing, to ignore; in other words to be in darkness. This is the closest concept that the group of 70 found to
translate to Greek what the word Sheol signified.
Once paganism entered Israel through the idolatrous kings, in the valley of Hinnom also known as Ge Hinnom, these pagan kings started to perform human sacrifices, which consisted of burning in large bonfires their first born in honor of their god Mo’lech Leviticus 18:21; 20:2-5; 2 Kings 23:10). These inhuman acts influenced in giving the valley of Ge Hinnom the concept of a terrible, filthy place.
With the arrival of the second era, in the Second Testament the concept of the ravine appears to burn impure things, and similar to the people of Israel in the dessert, the custom of using that ravine is adopted to burn the garbage. These places, in rememberance of the human sacrifices that were effected in the valley of Ge Hinnom,
were named “Gehenna”. In that manner, when one wished to speak of a place that
corresponded to all that was impure, one referred to Gehenna.
The erroneous analysis of such phrases as this one makes the concept of “fire” surge as being the means of punishment for the bad deeds or sins performed by humans.
“…for He is like a refinerïs fire, and like fullers soap” Malachi 3:2.
“I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled? Luke 12:49.
“…and will gather the wheat into his garner; but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable” Luke 3:17.
“Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire” Matthew 7:19.
“And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire…” Jude 23.
What is the real meaning of fire in this and various other passages of the First and Second Testaments? In order to understand, we must go to the nature of things: Which are the properties of fire? What happens when we subject something to this element? Fire consumes and purifies everything that it touches, but does that fire which the Scriptures talk about, does it act upon the spirit or the matter? Is it true that the fire punishes the human sins? Let us see what our Celestial Father tells us about this in the Third Testament:
And, if you believe that what is called eternal fire is not for the body, but rather for the spirit, that is another error, because in the spiritual kingdom, material elements do not exist, and fire has no bearing on the spirit. Whatever sprouts from matter, matter it is;
whatever sprouts from the spirit, spirit it is. Third Testament. Teaching 352:45,46.
Then, what does the allegory of fire symbolize in the Scriptures? Could there be then another type of fire, different from the one we know?
“When the conscience of a sinner is able to separate the spirit from its materialism, and points out its errors, the understanding of its ingratitude will cause repentment and the shame suffered will be so intense, that it will seem weak next to it, the false idea of material fire as a purifying element of the spirit. Teaching 76:38 (ditto)
“Conscience is the light of God, and that light is fire of love that consumes all impurity. Therein the fire that smelts the new spirt, to rise again full of light. Teaching 76.39. Third Testament.
When we understand all of this in a spiritual manner, and learn that the fire referred to in the Scriptures is in reality the conscience, that voice of God that sooner or later acts as a purifying fire in the spirit, we can then also understand those verses of the First Testament which state:
“Is not my word like as a fire? Saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?” Jeremiah 23:29
Fine, now that we have analysed were the concept of fire surged, let us now seek the origin of the concept of “Hell”.
The word “Inferno” comes from the Latin word “Infernus” which means “Inferior”. This word appeared in the Scriptures when the Latin version called “Vulgata” was made in the fourth century A.C. The translation was made by he who was known as “Saint Gerome”, who together with his assistants decided that the word “Inferno” or “Infierno” (“Hell” in English language), was what best united in one, all the other concepts, that is Sheol, Hades, Gehenna, etc. La Vulgata was imposed over time over all the other Latin
translations, and in the year 1546, the Council of Trent proclaimed it as the official version of the Catholic Church.
That is how various different concepts were united in only one new concept. Sheol and Hades ceased being a place for the “dead” to wait, reflect, or rest, and Gehenna the ravine to burn garbage. Together they were converted to “Inferno” or “Hell”.
The most important truth that we found in this analysis is: That the symbol of fire in the Scriptures, is the symbol of purification and repentment of the spirit upon comfronting its own conscience; that the inferno or hell as such, as a place of eternal condemnation where fire will make sure to punish all sinners for all time to come, does not exist, because what is sentenced to eternal condemnation is sin, not the sinner (Revelation 19:10). This has always been known:
“…And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand…” Isaiah 28:18.
“… And I say also unto thee, that thou are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it”. Matthew 16:18
What our Celestial Father has revealed about hell to us in this era are concrete reasons which allow us to become aware of our lack of analysis and mistakes. Consider the following Teachings from the Third Testament. Album of Wisdom:
Did I not explain to you that God’s greatest attribute is love? Would you not believe then that an eternal torment would be an absolute negation of the Divine attribute, of eternal love? Teaching 164:34
I did not form death or hell, because My Spirit, upon conceiving the idea of the Creation, I only felt love and from deep within Me, only life sprouted; if death and hell existed, they would have to be human deeds since they are small, and you already know that nothing human is eternal. Teaching 303:42
What value would My Law and My Doctrine have if they where not capable of saving spirits from error and sin? And what purpose would My presence as man on earth have had if they were going to be many who would be lost forever in an expiation without an end? Teaching 352:48
Why condemn man to extermination or to eternal pain when his sin is only temporary and the product of his ignorance? Why condemn a being which within carries My own Divine essence?” Teaching 297:10.
Did you ever stop to think whether it could be possible for a place to exist where there would be more pain and destruction than in our own planet? Could it be possible that another place could exist where death, sickness, poverty and hatred could prevail more than in this, our earthly inferno? Why would God have to bother to create an inferno, if we have already taken the time to create one”made to order”, in accordance with our lack of compliance with the Divine Laws?
There are those that think that with corporal death comes the spirit’s rest, and others who think that upon desincarnating, because of the sins committed,they must go straight to hell, or some other place to pay for their sins. What happens when a spirit desincarnates having these ideas? Or as a rebel becomes confused and does not accept that his time in that body has terminated? What happens when upon leading a life without control and full of faults to the Law, the spirit disencarnates in a violent manner, or commits suicide? Or, what about those that simply do not know what to expect?
In the movie “What Dreams May Come” the author makes an interesting proposal to this respect, basing himself in certain texts of the English version of the Third Testament, when he describes that upon disencarnation each spirit creates his own hell or place for expiation, depending on his beliefs and practices; in accordance with the light or confusion that exist in him, depending on his errors and on his right deeds. What has our Eternal Father revealed to us regarding all these doubts?
within, the inferno of his remorse which will burn him until he is purified. Teaching52:33.
“What men call glory or hell, are not determined places. It is the essence of your deeds which your spirit picks up when arriving at the spiritual valley. Each one lives his inferno, inhabits his world of expiation, or enjoys the beatitude derived from elevation and the harmony with the Divine Spirit. Teaching11:56. Third Testament.
The Quest for the Apocalyptic Beast – Part 2
An Healthy Ego?
There is not such thing… Your ego is that personality, that mask that you have came to believe is the true you.
And the worst thing: You are actually intertwined with that thing, with that false notion of your true self.
Of course, your true self is the spirit within your human body.
And there are a lot of different apparels that the ego uses in order to trick us: False modesty and even shyness is nothing else that the ego, working in an inverted fashion. You see, shyness as well as shame comes from the caring of what others would think of “you”.
In other words, when you are concerned about the image projection of “you” or the perception that others would have of that image the ego created to hide itself, in reality you are worried about which might be the best way to deceive everybody…. including yourself.
The good news is that, even though the ego believes that it totally controls you, in fact, you -a spirit- are the one that has the power.
Anyone of us can shutdown its ego completely, just as Jesus thaught us to do. At the very least, you can start by diminishing it right away. All you have to do is be vigilant and aware that the beast is ready to jump out of the cage as soon as you loosen your watch.
That Voice in Your Brain: Conscience or Ego?
Beware! What many believe to be the voice of the Conscience, is in reality the voice of an impostor: the ego.
If you think that you have a conscience of your own, you have been deceived.
Self-awareness or consciousness is one thing, and most of the time it is “personal”, and we humans tend to believe that it is ours; but the Conscience is quite different.
Since the ego has another powerful trick which is to convert instantaneously any thought you have into a belief, the defense of that belief turns into the most important task you have. It doesn’t matter if that thought/belief is good or bad, or right or wrong… the only important thing is that it is “yours”, so you automatically defend it.
But the Conscience is a quite different matter.
To begin with, we all share a common, omnipresent, universal Conscience, not a particular one. That Conscience, which is by nature unselfish, wise and perfect, bonds all of us. So, there is no way you can have your own peculiar Conscience, different or apart from the one that everyone else have.
So, there is the voice of the ego and there is the one from the Conscience.
How can we distinguish one from the other? Easy. The Conscience always speaks of the divine Law, of good and love, unselfish love. It uses no fancy wording, no trickeries, no hoaxes. And there is no way for you to negotiate with the True Conscience. It is implacable, immutable, inexorable… it does not accomodate to your personal agenda.
The other voice, the voice of the ego? It will start throwing to the table which is your human mind, all kind of selfish ideas, thoughts, schemes and stratagems, interpreting, misrepresenting and accommodating things so they suit the false belief system that the ego has developed, no matter what cost to your true self or to others.
So, next time you clash with someone else’s belief or self-interests system, and that person insists in that he or she is listening and obeying the voice of his or her conscience which contradicts and opposes the voice of the Conscience in you, you better be prepared to make sure that it is not a battle of egos: yours and theirs.
The Anti-Ego Recipe
2. Take the decision of correcting the bad choices you made, so next time, you could do better than that. Forgive yourself remembering that perfectionment is a process, not a place.
3 As soon as you open your eyes, review again last night decision and plan your day accordingly.
4 Pray to God asking for help and guidance… not just for you but for everyone in the whole Universe. And don’t forget to feel and express your gratitude to our Heavenly Father for everything… even the apparently not so good things in your life… and smile. Again: There are lessons everywhere.
5 Keep on your watch all day long.
Do this for at least 21 days so you start developing the habit of being a good unselfish, loving “you”.
Next, just keep trying to be a wonderful loving creature for the rest of your life (both in the human and the spiritual sense)… one day at a time.
To sum up the recipe:
“Prevail over your own selves and the journey will be easy for you; then, you will be able to conquer the beast that John beheld in his revelation.”
The Third Testament
This way, you would not let your mind play tricks on you… on behalf of the ego.
The Quest for the Apocalyptic Beast – Part 1
Getting to Know Your Enemy
The word ‘ego’ is defined by the Webster’s dictionary as:
1: the self especially as contrasted with another self or the world
2: egotism, self-steem
3: the one of the three divisions of the psyche in psychoanalytic theory that serves as the organized conscious mediator between the person and reality especially by functioning both in the perception of and adaptation to reality.
The first acception or generally accepted meaning of the word ‘ego’ is precisely what defines the main problem with it: It separates us one from another.
By confusing individuality with the ego, and by following the traditionally wrongful psychological assumption (now under fire by advanced pyschologists) that it is the ego the one that gives us our identity, there has been an immense brain-washing in the media giving a monstruous importance to the selfish personality, opposed to altruism, which is the one prerequisite to manifesting the wonderful spiritual virtue of charity.
The present chaos is the result of that massive brain-washing… as prophesied by our Lord since the first Israel prophets up to John’s vision as narrated in the Book of Apocalypse also known as the Book of Revelation.
It were mainly two prophets that anticipated the rising of the ego as the major enemy of mankind. The first was Daniel, in ancient Babylon, and the second, John, in the island of Patmos.
And both identified that mortal enemy as the beast.
Sure, that description is a metaphor, but, wow! How precise and self-explanatory that metaphor is.
The Drop of Water and the Ocean
So, how are we going to deal with our own existence, our own identity?
Well, take for example a humble drop of water in the ocean. Of course, it has most of the ocean attributes, not all of them, of course: A single drop of water cannot make a tidal wave by itself, isn’t it?
That single drop of water is, by itself, an individual, and it has an identity with which you can distinguish it from another quite similar to it. But it ocuppies a diferent space and position in that ocean.
Now, suppose that drop of water has a mind, and discovers that it exists; in other words, it has a self-awareness.
Is that an ego?
Not at all, because along with its own self-awareness, comes the awareness of belonging to something greater than itself, starting with its neighbouring drops of water.
And when its awareness expands and becomes a full awareness, it tells that humble drop of water that it is not “I” or “Me”, but that it is “Us”, and furthermore, it is “The Ocean”, giving that drop of water the sense of belonging, of being a part of something greater than itself.
The so-called Devil
Today man cannot think about God without giving Him some type of material form. Man cannot talk of temptation without personifying the influence of evil as a being, whose mission is to induce spirits to become lost; nor can he think of the restitution of one who has sinned without imagining the punishment of the fires of hell, a hell which has never existed.
Why do you not call men who are evil on earth demons if they also tempt you, induce you to the evil deeds, and separate you from the true path?
Truly I say to you that I do not have an enemy among those who dwell on earth or those found in the spiritual valley. There does not exist one being who dedicates himself to hating me, cursing me, or separating his fellow beings from the righteous path, solely for the pleasure of hurting me. Lies! Those who separate men from their faith, who erase my name from the heart of men, and who fight against the spiritual, do not do it to offend me. They do it because is convenient to their terrestrial ambitions and their dreams of greatness and human glory.
The existence of the Prince of Darkness has been interpreted erroneously!
Many have come to believe more in his power than in mine; these men are far from the truth.
Evil exists, and all vice and sin originate from it. Sinners, or rather those who practice evil, have always existed, as much on earth as in other dwelling places or mansions. Therefore, why do you personify all existent evil into one being? Why do you put him in opposition to my Divinity? I ask you: Of what significance is an impure being compared to my absolute and infinite power? What does your sin signify in the presence of my perfection?
Humanity has misinterpreted the words of parables of the first times. Those revelations were symbolic. The intuition that man had about the supernatural became influenced by his imagination. Man created sciences, cults, superstitions, and myths related to the force of evil which have remained to the present day.
No devils could emerge from God; you have created them with your own imagination. The concept that you have of that being, whom you constantly place before me as an adversary, is false.
How can you conceive that I would ever place in the path of man a being infinitely more powerful than he, continually tempting him and leading him to eternal condemnation?
How badly you think of Me and My justice, those who say that you know Me and love Me!