Jesus Went To Hell
By James Donahue
Christian preachers don’t like to talk about it, but the Bible clearly states that Jesus spent three days in Hell after dying on the cross. As the story goes, he suffered the agony of fire and brimstone under Satan’s whip for a whole day as retribution for the sinful nature of all the humans who agree to believe on Him.
Now, instead of killing innocent lambs or children, and making blood sacrifices on rocks to cover our sins, all we have to do is kneel and “accept Jesus as our personal savior.” That’s it. He paid the cost of our impurities. He was the sacrificial lamb. This is the heart of the Christian belief system.
And it is barbaric. It is just one step above the primitive rites of old when young virgins were ceremoniously tossed into the fiery pit of smoking volcanoes just to appease the gods. They died just to assure adequate rainfall and good crops. They died to assure that armies would win looming battles against other tribes. They died to keep the volcano from erupting.
The concept of dying to cover personal sinful natures was probably not on the minds of those primitive tribesmen. It was not until organized religious systems were developed among the more advanced civilizations that the philosophy of sin and redemption was introduced.
Believe it or not, the doctrine of original sin wasn’t developed until Irenaeus, the Bishop of Lyons came along in the Second Century. It was his belief that Adam’s sin became the classic ancestral sin, and was consequently passed via his seed down through all of his descendants. Thus we all were declared sinners from the moment we were born and the only way to escape the penalty of damnation was through repentance and sacrifice.
That was one man’s idea, and it has been pinned on our asses ever since. Imagine all of the innocent sheep and other animals that were slaughtered over the centuries just to pour their blood over stone altars because somebody sinned.
The very definition of sin is conditional. It depends upon the society in which we live, the belief system that is practiced, and the spiritual, social and even physical conditions occurring at the time. But sin is ethical regarding the trespass and transgression of the moral boundaries established by particular societies at particular moments in time. Thus defining sin, especially in the eyes of an indifferent Creator God, is almost impossible.
Sure we have the Ten Commandments, as published in the Old Testament, which define certain moral behaviors that most societies accept as common sense. At least we all agree on not killing, not stealing, and not lusting after another man’s wife. Or do we?
We seem to have no problem with going to war and slaughtering thousands of soldiers and innocent civilians in the process. The theft of objects is relatively easy to understand, but larceny of ideas and even love triangles makes that phase of the sin factor somewhat vague.
And when we get right down to it, why would a Creator God establish a conditional garden in which two innocent new humanoids would be allowed to live by a tree filled with tempting fruit of knowledge, given a single commandment against ever eating the fruit, and expecting them not to be tempted to do it anyway? Taking that situation beyond the pure myth that it is, it was a situation cleverly designed to fail.
So Adam and Eve ate of the fruit, and consequently all of the generations of people to follow are condemned to hell because of that single misstep. Think of all of the trouble, all of the wars, all of the blood sacrifices that went on because of man’s sinful nature. Then finally, there was the appearance of Jesus, the final blood sacrifice, who supposedly made it all better.
Better for only the followers who invite the spirit of Jesus into their hearts, that is.
But did the world really get better after Jesus went to Hell and back? If anything, conditions appear to have gotten worse.
There are warnings elsewhere in the Bible against allowing unknown spirits into our bodies. This invites demonic possession, which many define as insanity. Thus we must pose the question: What are we inviting in when we ask Jesus to come into us? Is this a spirit we can trust?
I have to say that I have known many people who claim to have prayed that prayer, asked Jesus into their hearts, but they went on to live a most villainous life style. Did they not take on a demon posing as a friendly savior?
If Jesus indeed went to Hell, consorted with the Devil, and survived, can he ever be really trusted? Do we dare to even ask the question?
By James Donahue
Christian preachers don’t like to talk about it, but the Bible clearly states that Jesus spent three days in Hell after dying on the cross. As the story goes, he suffered the agony of fire and brimstone under Satan’s whip for a whole day as retribution for the sinful nature of all the humans who agree to believe on Him.
Now, instead of killing innocent lambs or children, and making blood sacrifices on rocks to cover our sins, all we have to do is kneel and “accept Jesus as our personal savior.” That’s it. He paid the cost of our impurities. He was the sacrificial lamb. This is the heart of the Christian belief system.
And it is barbaric. It is just one step above the primitive rites of old when young virgins were ceremoniously tossed into the fiery pit of smoking volcanoes just to appease the gods. They died just to assure adequate rainfall and good crops. They died to assure that armies would win looming battles against other tribes. They died to keep the volcano from erupting.
The concept of dying to cover personal sinful natures was probably not on the minds of those primitive tribesmen. It was not until organized religious systems were developed among the more advanced civilizations that the philosophy of sin and redemption was introduced.
Believe it or not, the doctrine of original sin wasn’t developed until Irenaeus, the Bishop of Lyons came along in the Second Century. It was his belief that Adam’s sin became the classic ancestral sin, and was consequently passed via his seed down through all of his descendants. Thus we all were declared sinners from the moment we were born and the only way to escape the penalty of damnation was through repentance and sacrifice.
That was one man’s idea, and it has been pinned on our asses ever since. Imagine all of the innocent sheep and other animals that were slaughtered over the centuries just to pour their blood over stone altars because somebody sinned.
The very definition of sin is conditional. It depends upon the society in which we live, the belief system that is practiced, and the spiritual, social and even physical conditions occurring at the time. But sin is ethical regarding the trespass and transgression of the moral boundaries established by particular societies at particular moments in time. Thus defining sin, especially in the eyes of an indifferent Creator God, is almost impossible.
Sure we have the Ten Commandments, as published in the Old Testament, which define certain moral behaviors that most societies accept as common sense. At least we all agree on not killing, not stealing, and not lusting after another man’s wife. Or do we?
We seem to have no problem with going to war and slaughtering thousands of soldiers and innocent civilians in the process. The theft of objects is relatively easy to understand, but larceny of ideas and even love triangles makes that phase of the sin factor somewhat vague.
And when we get right down to it, why would a Creator God establish a conditional garden in which two innocent new humanoids would be allowed to live by a tree filled with tempting fruit of knowledge, given a single commandment against ever eating the fruit, and expecting them not to be tempted to do it anyway? Taking that situation beyond the pure myth that it is, it was a situation cleverly designed to fail.
So Adam and Eve ate of the fruit, and consequently all of the generations of people to follow are condemned to hell because of that single misstep. Think of all of the trouble, all of the wars, all of the blood sacrifices that went on because of man’s sinful nature. Then finally, there was the appearance of Jesus, the final blood sacrifice, who supposedly made it all better.
Better for only the followers who invite the spirit of Jesus into their hearts, that is.
But did the world really get better after Jesus went to Hell and back? If anything, conditions appear to have gotten worse.
There are warnings elsewhere in the Bible against allowing unknown spirits into our bodies. This invites demonic possession, which many define as insanity. Thus we must pose the question: What are we inviting in when we ask Jesus to come into us? Is this a spirit we can trust?
I have to say that I have known many people who claim to have prayed that prayer, asked Jesus into their hearts, but they went on to live a most villainous life style. Did they not take on a demon posing as a friendly savior?
If Jesus indeed went to Hell, consorted with the Devil, and survived, can he ever be really trusted? Do we dare to even ask the question?