Here’s a crazy thought on one of many aspects of Hell.
Gehenna (translated hell) is an actual piece of real estate just south of Jerusalem. Gehenna is actually a place noted the OT as a city called Topheth, which is in the valley of Ben Hinnom. This city was a key trade route in ancient times and was fought over many, many times. Jeremiah 7:30 to the end gives an account of hell, and who will be there and I would recommend a quick read of Jeremiah 7 before proceeding.
Now, in the days of Jesus, Gehenna was known for the many battles that took place there where many people were slaughtered in the wars (and it was turned into a garbage dump). I believe that Jeremiah 7:30-34 describes the type people that engaged in those wars, and ironically, they were from the House of Judah. Additionally, Gehenna was were human sacrifices (even children) were burned alive to the pagan god Molech.
I believe that Jesus echo’s this idea when he says in Mt 24, “Then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you. Go away from me, you lawbreakers†to those who earlier stated, “On that day, many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, and in your name cast out demons and do many powerful deeds?â€Â
Jesus also said, “But woe to you, experts in the law and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You keep locking people out of the kingdom of heaven! For you neither enter nor permit those trying to enter to go in!â€Â
Which begs the question, If one is not in the kingdom of heaven, then where are they?
Jesus also states in Mt. 10:28“Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Instead, fear the one who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.†Sure, most people go straight to the doctrine of Satan on this verse, but what if we were to put this in perspective? The most prominent thought that comes to my mind is Hitler (though you are free to come to your own thought, such as an abusive spouse, X or just a mean person in general). In the case of Hitler, one man had such an influence on so many people, that millions of men, women and children were not only killed, but they were stripped of their humanity through cruel, inhumane treatment before they reached the gas chambers. Yes, these types of people are to be feared.
I’m a firm believer that Heaven and Hell are present realities and we can either bring a piece of hell to earth, or we can bring a piece of heaven to earth, after all, Jesus did say, “Luke 17:20 Now at one point the Pharisees asked Jesus when the kingdom of God was coming, so he answered, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed,nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is in your midst. (Net Bible
The KJV translates "in your midst" as "is within you." Thus, if the the Kingdom of God is truly within us and it is in our midst, then those who are capable of bringing the reality of Hell here on earth are to be greatly feared as we compensate by bringing the reality of heaven, to those that are within the reality of hell.
In the case of Hitler, a little piece of heaven came to the women in the concentration camps in the form of lipstick… it's about humaity.
http://www.saturation.org/saturationblog/archives/001186.html
An extract from the diary of Lieutenant Colonel Mervin Willett said:
The liberation of Nazi death camp, Bergen-Belsen
I can give no adequate description of the Horror Camp in which my men and myself were to spend the next month of our lives. It was just a barren wilderness, as bare as a chicken run. Corpses lay everywher, some in huge piles, sometimes they lay singly or in pairs where they had fallen.
It took a little time to get used to seeing men women and children collapse as you walked by them and to restrain oneself from going to their assistance. One had to get used early to the idea that the individual just did not count. One knew that five hundred a day were dying and that five hundred a day were going on dying for weeks before anything we could do would have the slightest effect. It was, however, not easy to watch a child choking to death from diptheria when you knew a tracheotomy and nursing could save it, one saw women drowning in their own vomit becasue they were too weak to turn over, and men eating worms as they clutched a half loaf of bread purely because they had had to eat worms to live and now could scarcely tell the difference.
Piles of corpses, naked and obscene, with a woman too weak to stand propping herself against them as she cooked the food we had given her over an open fire; men and women crouching down just anywhere in the open relieving themselves of the dysentery which was scouring their bowels, a woman standing stark naked washing herself with some issue soap in water from a tank in which the remains of a child floated.
It was shortly after the British Red Cross arrived, though it may have no connection, that a very large quantity of lipstick arrived. This was not at all what we men wanted, we were screaming for hundreds and thousands of other things and I don't know who asked for lipstick. I wish so much that I could discover who did it, it was the action of genius, sheer unadulterated brilliance. I believe nothing did more for those internees than the lipstick. Women lay in bed with no sheets and no nightie but with scarlet red lips, you saw them wantering about with nothing but a blanket over their shoulders, but with scarlet red lips. I saw a woman dead on the post mortem table and clutched in her hand was a piece of lipstick. At last someone had done something to make them individuals again, they were someone, no longer merely the number tatooed on the arm. At last they could take an interest in their appearance. That lipstick started to give them back their humanity.
An extract from the diary of Lieutenant Colonel Mervin Willett Gonin DSO who was amongst the first British soldiers to liberate Bergen-Belsen in 1945. Source: Imperial War Museum.
Posted by kevin slavin
Just a few of my random thoughts on Hell, though not articulated in their entirety…
