timespaceheavenhell

the practical spirituality of unconditional love

timespaceheavenhell
re: Heaven and hell -- Silvia I. Bomhardt	post reply	top of thread	forum

posted by: Gina ^R
06/05/2003, 22:51:15

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Time and space as they seem to us are only illusions because our perception of them is through our senses. All reality is no better described than our perception of it will allow. Look at some of the stars in the sky. With the naked eyed they look like individual stars but through a telescope some of them are revealed to be double stars. Two stars so close together that the naked eye cannot separate them. Now check this phenomenon out with a more advanced piece of equipment like a radio telescope that can reveal distance to the stars. They are not really close together merely in the same line of sight with the one much further from us than the other. The stars are really there. They exist and are real. It is our flawed ability to grasp the complexity of their design that creates an illusion.

Now, heaven and hell.
In seminary we learned that heaven is where God is and hell is where God is not.
We learned four theories of hell:
1)that no one goes to hell, it basically doesn't exist and people work through a process (some believe through reincarnation) of eventually coming to heaven. This is sometimes called Universal Salvation.
2) that hell is not an everlasting sentence but a place where we who have not done so well in life may experience a purifying process. (The Catholic Church has over the years developed thsi idea as Purgatory{place of purgation})
3) that hell is a place for the extinction of the soul. the damned are annihilated.
4) That hell is a place of eternal punishment and torture for those who have not come unto salvation.

I'm not going to tell you what is what...I'm just giving you some ideas to play around with.
Good thinking and good luck.
Gina