I remember being told by friend as a kidlet that if you dig deep enough in the ground you’ll knock a hole in the roof of hell.

Whatever the case, God’s worked it out. The question is, are we willing to believe it?

Our people are desperate to give, hardwired for it. I assume that people are good and just need opportunities.

I understand this is an interview, and not every statement can be fully developed. But even if I try to massage an optimistic view into who Rob is talking about, I keep bumping into Is 53:6, Luke 18:19, Rom 3:12, 7:18 and so on.

It could just be me, but I don’t think I’ve ever said something like that even in a casual conversation.

It is also Tartarus where the fallen Angels are held in chains.

I might add I see these are “other dimensions” and other than “the grave” may not be in the physical realm. A 12th century Hebrew scholar Nachmonides, taught the text of Genesis that the universe has 10 dimensions. He taught that four are knowable and six are beyond our knowing. Interestingly Quantum Physics is stating we that there are at least 10 dimensions…

Be Blessed,
iggy

For instance, I do not think “Heaven” is a place up there in the sky somewhere where people sit on “clouds” playing harps… yet the Bible refers to “heaven” as the sky itself many times.

Hell is a place, a kingdom, and a spiritual condition… as it is related to Death which/who rules over it.

The issue is that the “common” teaching of hell is not biblical… we are not saved to “get out of Hell” but saved unto New Life in Christ… to be New Creations… getting out of hell is a by product of salvation, but not the sole purpose as many represent it. I wonder why if the “emerging conversation” is trying to reclaim the biblical understanding of hell that many seem bent against that.

Be blessed,
iggy

I’ll take up the issue of being wiser in E. Lansing, but here is my thinking out loud on the matter.

The only spiritual conditions are alive and dead; just as there only two types people–alive and dead. Those don’t really need much more description than that.

John describes the new heaven and earth, complete with dimensions and other descriptive details. We need to find out where else a spiritual condition is laid out in such detail and say, to be consistent, “That really didn’t/won’t happen like that.”

Hell was likened to Gehenna, the big dump. Now while I wasn’t at Gehenna, I have seen my share of landfills. Gotta be careful of landfills. The methane buildup can result in spontaneous explosions and fires. The smell will bring flies from all around. They lay eggs and you get a lot of hungry maggots. Now, even if we were to spiritualize that, can we spiritualize Rev. 21:5-8 without consequence?

And if the beast and the false prophet were thrown in the lake of fire, and the devil and the fallen angels go there as well, is that just a spiritual condition they experience? Satan and the demons are already spirits and this was the place reserved for them if memory serves. People go there because they rejected God’s offer of salvation and made themselves fit for hell. And Jesus makes it clear that you do not want to go there in any case.

Just my thinking on the matter.

The kingdom of God cannot be seen, only glimpses of Christ in us.

It is faith in Christ alone without works.

You asked about Rick’s comment: “If feeding the poor is an active component of the gospel then we all are bound for the “lake of fire”.

Rick can certainly respond for himself, but I got he meant from his other comments such as “which one of us would empty our 401 K to feed the poor” to mean that even the most “active” of us in this regards are hipocrites so if salvation depends on feeding the poor we are all in trouble.

Is that what you meant Rick?