Saturday, October 6, 2018

Where is Heaven and Hell?

     People say, "go to Hell" so casually and in vain. Ultimately, desiring that another go to hell is the epitome of hatred. Love is desiring that none should perish. Hatred is wishing that anyone should perish. Thus, the Law of God condenses down to two attitudes: (1) that God should never perish, and (2) that no one else perish. That includes enemies as well.      "Perishing" is going to Hell.  "Salvation", then, is not going to Hell, and hence, never perishing. When someone is born-again, he or she is saved from what? Perishing in Hell. God came into the world to save everyone from Hell. Without Hell there is no salvation. Likewise, without a need to be saved from Hell, there would be no need for a repository from Hell. Both Hell and Heaven are essential and real places for salvation to be real.
     Christians are not saved from the world (physical death), they are saved from Hell which is spiritual death. Adam and Eve failed to understand either the first death (physical) or the second death (spiritual). They likely had a general idea that death was expulsion from the paradise of the Garden, which they were (Gen 3:24). In their naivete they may have had a better concept of death than modern people.
     The second death is eternal dismissal from the Garden. As usual, my contention is that New Jerusalem will be set upon its original foundation - Jerusalem - which is the foundation of peace. As such, that "foundation" is the location of the Garden of Eden and is marked by the "foundation stone", the rock under the Dome of the Rock.
     Heaven will come down (Rev 21:2). We know where Heaven will be! Right now it is in an invisible realm, but just as God took on material from, Heaven will also. What will Heaven be like? The Garden of Eden except it will contain a city -the City of God:
And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God... And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof... And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book (Rev 21:10,23 & 22:19).
     I rest my case: The City of God in Heaven will come down to its original foundation in Jerusalem. In other words, Jerusalem is the City of God; that's why people want it so badly and many are specifically buried there to be a little closer to Heaven, particularly the Jews. Where is Hell? It is outside the City of God as can be seen in the last verse above. The City of God is the "holy city". Outside of there is the unholy realm which is Hell. Outside the Holy City is Gehenna.
     Just as the Garden is protected by cherubim to keep those cast out from entering back in, The City of God will be guarded as well. Rather than a fence around the Holy City and a Gate, the Garden had a hedge (Job 1:10) with a guarded path perhaps through a "gate" (Gen 3:24). The City of God will have great wall and twelve gates (Rev 21:12), obviously welcoming the  twelve thousand from the twelve tribes of Israel entry (Rev 7:3-8).
     Hell is outside the walls, and there is a chasm between which prevents entry by anyone other than the children of God!
     Now let's take a peek at Hell:
And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence. (Luke 16:22-26).
     Abraham's Bosom is Heaven. Take my word for that for now. "Hell" is from the Greek Hades who was the god of the lower regions, and is the location of departed souls. Thus Hell is the place sinful men die for eternity and is in the lower regions of the earth. Death is not a "sting" or passing over, but forever. Spiritual death is forever dying, and as Abraham described it, Hell is torment.
     In other places Hell is described: "And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell" (Mat 10:28). The Greek word for "Hell" therein is the Greek word Geenna which is transliterated Gehenna. In the Hebrew language Gehenna was Ge Hinnom - the Valley of Hinnom.  In the Old Testament is found a description:
And go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the east gate, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee, And say, Hear ye the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle. Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents; They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind: Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter. (Jer 19:2-6)
     Gehenna is where worshippers of Baal (the Devil) burned their innocent children in the fire as a burnt offering.  Evil worshippers offered their innocent children to Molech there. That is in contrast to Innocent Jesus being the offering for guilty men. Rather than innocents being burned in Gehenna (Hell) as an offering to Satan, Innocent God "casts" guilty sinners into Hell.
     The Valley of Hinnom (Gehenna) is the valley around the Old City of David. It is outside the walls of what was once the Garden of Eden, as I understand scripture. It is a place of torment and is where not only child sacrifice had been made in the times of evil kings, but later the garbage dump where it was burned.
     I believe that just as the Garden of Eden ascended unto Heaven it will later descend, and likewise that Gehenna descended into the earth. I also believe that there is an access to Hell on the Temple Mount. Perhaps the route Jesus dumped mankind's sins into Hell. In that scenario, the access to Hell is now covered by the Dome of the Rock, and the foundation stone is the gate to Hell.
     Below that foundation stone is said to be an unexplored abyss, a chasm (like Lazarus saw), which accesses the core of the earth. Down below is molten lava which is estimated to be 10,800 degrees F (6000 C). Fiery furnaces are around 1500 F (about 800 C). You can see from the Celsius temperature that the center of the earth is how hot? Seven times hotter than the fire of a furnace used for pottery! Is that a coincidence or is the center of earth Hell and the place from which Shadrack, Meschach, and Abednego were saved (Dan 3:17).
     The earth was destroyed by water in Noah's time. It is believed that the tsunamis which flooded the earth were from the great oceans beneath the crust of the earth (which were recently discovered to be thrice the oceans of the surface). That abys is the source of destruction, and we know that the next time the earth is destroyed, it will be by fire (2 Pet 3:6). It seems that Hell will come up to the surface and cleanse the world from sin. That may happen on God's eight day. (From the time of Adam until the second coming of Jesus is the six "days" or thousands of years in which God works. The seventh day is when God rested. Using God's calander,1 day = 1 thousand years, Jesus's millennial reign is the seventh day.)
     There was no eight day in the beginning but I believe eternity is the eighth "day". On the eighth day the world will be destroyed and Heaven will come down. Just as Jesus took all the sins of the world down into the abys, the abys beneath the foundation stone will cleanse the earth of sin. Before Heaven comes down, Hell will come up to take Hades' children away. Ornan's threshing floor, the foundation stone, is where I believe the evil will be threshed out, and that evil discarded into the abys.
    Where is Hell? Perhaps it is in the earth; not on it but in it. Where is Heaven? The Kingdom of David which is the Kingdom of God. Jerusalem is that Great Holy City. Before cleansing by fire, it is the harlot Babylon, but with baptism in fire Jerusalem will be the Holy Bride (Rev 21:2)!

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