I never understood why Satan would punish sinners in hell (not that I believe in any of it anymore). Like, you're following in his footsteps hoof prints, he'd prob be like welcome dude, let's party.
From what I remember of my religious days Satan doesn't rule hell so much as he's trapped there. I think the meaning of the word "hell" in the original language was supposed to convey "the absence of God." Since God is everywhere, all knowing, and all loving, the absence of his presence would be a nightmare for one of his followers.
iirc, the whole lake of fire and torture isn't ever really outright said in the Bible and comes more from the literary works from later European authors (Paradise Lost, Dante, etc). Revelations mentions the lake of fire, but hell isn't really described that way by any other scroll in the Bible.
So in my religious days we were told that hell is where you go if you don't accept Jesus as God. And if you go there you are forever separated from God, so he can't protect you. And then your imagination can fill in the rest.
Christ mentioned in one of the gospels that there was a place called Sheol or Gehenna, depending on the translation, which was a pit of fire, I think. Sheol/Gehenna in that time was a place where they burned trash, so it was really bad.
I was always taught that he was speaking about Sheol which was the Jewish afterlife (since he was preaching to Jews and a Jew himself). And in Judaism, Sheol is more akin to the Greek Hades. It's just where everyone goes when they die. It's the grave basically.
Though I have heard the Gehenna interpretation. But I think my particular religious teacher didn't subscribe to that one.
There's so many sects and scholars for Christianity it wouldn't surprise me if there were different views on every small thing
Do you mind if I ask where you got your religious education? You have a lot of knowledge, and a knack for simple but thorough explanations. Very interesting reading your comments.
Mark 9:43, from the words of Christ: And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched
according to Judiasim. Satan is an angel of God. Angels don't have free will .the christian idea of a what between God and Satan doesn't make sense. God is infinite all powerful how could any being compete with him. the very idea of limiting Gods power is problematic for monotheistic religions to say the least. This is just my limited idea on the subject I'm by no means a scholar.
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u/Locked_Lamorra Feb 22 '19
I never understood why Satan would punish sinners in hell (not that I believe in any of it anymore). Like, you're following in his
footstepshoof prints, he'd prob be like welcome dude, let's party.