Splitting Hell Wide Open -- Part One

I have recently been following the controversial ministry of the Westboro Baptist Church.  Their less-than-subtle stance on what the Christian Bible says about Hell and who is going there has led me to revisit a study on the topic that I did long ago -- one that eventually led me to an interest in Religious studies and my decision to major in the subject in college.  I had almost forgotten for a while how much this subject deeply affects people's lives, especially fundamentalist Christians.  It sure affected me.  As I go back through what I have learned about the subject, I thought I would post about it formally here -- maybe you'll see something you didn't think about before, or post a comment to help me think about something that I haven't.  It's going to be pretty long though, so I'm writing it in parts.

By the way, if you have some time there is a pretty intense documentary on the Westboro Baptist Church from BBC2 on YouTube right now (it is in 7 parts).

Part One:  A Little Background...
One of the major reasons that I went to school to study Religion, and Christianity in particular, is because of a realization that I had during my mid-teenage years.  Longing to be a devout Christian, I spent a lot of time reading and contemplating various books in the Bible -- mostly the New Testament "Gospel" books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.  As most Christians probably do when they spend a lot of time studying a particular part of the Bible, I began to notice differences between the various English translations.  Many of these differences seemed trivial, but every once in a while I would come across a difference that I thought was pretty significant.

Take verses that talk about Hell for example.  Such a huge part of Christianity for many people, as indeed it was for me while growing up, is the belief that there are two possible places of abode after death; a place of eternal happiness, called Heaven, and a place of eternal suffering, called Hell.  My actions in this life, or at least my faith in God and Jesus, will determine where I will spend eternity after I die.  Because of the severity of the consequences in this matter, naturally I thought that getting a very grounded and circumspect understanding of the Bible verses that talked about Hell was of extreme importance.

So you can imagine my surprise when, after taking a verse that talked about Hell, say, Matthew 16:18 for instance, and looking it up in different versions of the Bible, I found that not every version translated the word "Hell" as "Hell." 

       "And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." - King James Version

This verse conveyed a comforting thought for a Christian like me; that members of Jesus' church are safe from eternal punishment.  I noticed right away, though, that while several versions of the Bible like the NKJ and the NIV use the word 'Hell' here, several other versions use the word "Hades."  Hades?  Isn't that a somewhat different concept then the concept of Hell?  Hades isn't a 'Christian' word or even a Hebrew word for that matter.  It's from Greek mythology, referring either to the god of the underworld or his dominion, where according to the Greeks, everyone went when they died.  Isn't there a pretty important difference between the church defending against eternal punishment and the church defending against, well, physical death in general?  Then I look at the Revised Standard Version of the Bible which says, "...and the powers of death shall not prevail against it."  Interesting. Are death and Hell the same thing then?  And what is Jesus, a Yahweh-fearing Jew, even acknowledging a Greek god for?  Aren't good Christians supposed to reject all concepts of multiple gods or other extra-biblical mythological traditions?

You can see where this began to get confusing for me.  But this was only the beginning...
[to be continued...]

Comments

[andrea]

I wish you had a link where you could send you a message that doesn't have to be a comment on something. What? Well, im just too lazy to go to aol and email you. Huh? i just want it to be like on myspace where you can message the person without a comment. Oh, you don't know how to make that happen? Well, maybe you'll learn that in you certificate class. (that was a lovely conversation) But what I wanted to message you was that I am so pumped to read all these religious blogs, but i haven't had a big chunk of time yet. So, be prepared i will be hitting you with some crazy comments that will turn your life around...But you ask "When will then be now?"...soon.

[m@]

Sweet! I'm glad someone is going to straighten me out! Here I am spitting out all this loco "there was no Hell" talk and I thought no one cared =) I can't wait. Until then, I give you the raspberry.

(inner thought: raspberry has a 'p' in it?)

[andrea]

there was no hell? Great, you just totally ruined the end for me.

[andrea]

Oh yeah, and a raspberry is a berry from a "rasp" bush. duh

[m@]

Yeah..but, uh, IS THERE ONE??? Oooh, you didn't see that one coming did ya? DIDJA??? ah....that felt good.

[andrea]

you'ver never seen a rasp bush? what kinda "eagle scout" are you, anyway?

[m@]

Actually, [pushing glasses up on nose] raspberries grow on CANES, not bushes. And they're not berries, their aggregate fruits. And Frankenberry? He's Jewish, surprisingly.

Ah, the Wikipedia merit badge. That was a fun one.

[andrea]

okay, put aside your silly fruit ponderings because i have read part one. Interesting. What about gahena(sp?) wasn't that another hell reference?

[m@]

Alright! It's Andrea reads my blog night =) Yeah Chica, Gehenna is part 3, so don't be a quitter.