Gehenna - just a rubbish tip outside Jerusalem?

[Wootah]

Many here seem to believe Gehenna is just a rubbish tip outside Jerusalem and not a reference to hell.

Pulling an argument from this video (around the 16-minute mark):

Mark 9 vs 43-49 says: 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: 44 where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. 45 And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: 46 where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.

Why does Jesus talk about entering into life and the rubbish tip outside Jerusalem in the same sentence? Do you really believe people thought hey let's follow Jesus so we don't go into the rubbish tip outside Jerusalem or do you think they knew Jesus meant hell?

Also since that rubbish tip's fire is quenched now and has been for a long time then doesn't that mean Jesus is a liar when he says that the fire there never shall be quenched?

[JehovahsWitness]

Do you really believe people thought hey let's follow Jesus so we don't go into the rubbish tip outside Jerusalem or do you think they knew Jesus meant hell?

He was clearly saying some people will be viewed by God as "human garbage". You dont torture your garbage; you dispose of it and forget it.

To learn more please go to other posts related to...

GEHENNA , BIBLE "HELL" and ...HELLFIRE TORTURE DEBUNKED

[2timothy316]

[Replying to Wootah in post #1]
I guess you're trying to say there are worms in hell too? Worms with eternal life it seems. What did they do to have such a torment? Exactly what animal other life is in hell?

[Tcg]

He was clearly saying some people will be viewed by God as "human garbage".

Human garbage, huh? That certainly does away with the idea of a loving God. Are there other verses that reveal this attitude of God's towards his own creation?


Tcg

[PinSeeker]

He was clearly saying some people will be viewed by God as "human garbage". You don't torture your garbage; you dispose of it and forget it.

Nobody "tortures" anybody in any way, much less God those in hell. But the experience of those in hell will be, figuratively speaking, a torment to them, an anguish at what they have missed out on despite the opportunity given them, and an extreme sorrow at this state of no hope of relief. The reference to "human garbage" is really good, not in the sense that God looks upon them as garbage, because never would He do anything of the sort regarding anything He made and pronounced "very good," as He did all of His creation, especially people, who He made in His image. But Gehenna certainly does symbolize a place from which no person, once there, can possibly be redeemed, as trash in a dump. Such will be the state of the dead, no longer candidates for redemption, but under God's permanent judgment and His grace totally removed. This is the second death, immersed in His all-consuming judgment ~ in a "lake of fire."

Grace and peace to all.

[onewithhim]

We have to think deeper than the picture of the garbage dump burning with worms that never die. Was Jesus referring to the torture of dead bodies and worms in a literal fire? That is what went there----bodies of dead criminals and maggots. Was this literal? How could it be? Jesus told the Pharisees that they were "fit for Gehenna." Did this mean that they would be thrown on the dump heap and lie there with the maggots? Well, the maggots surely couldn't keep living in the fire to continue to eat the rotted flesh. What is really going on here?

Jesus was simply referring to the RESULT of bodies and garbage being thrown onto the trash heap (something that God hadn't told the Jews to do; they just decided to get rid of criminals that way). The result was that all that was reduced to nothing after the fire did its job. So the fire wasn't the focal point of Jesus' speeches, it was the result of the fire burning---the disappearance of the garbage.

That was how he illustrated the annihilation of the wicked Pharisees and all the other wicked people who would reject him and his Father. They would exist no more.

[JehovahsWitness]

Human garbage, huh? That certainly does away with the idea of a loving God.

Not in my opinion... if it walks like a duck....

" Serpents! Offspring of vipers! How shall you escape from the sentence of Gehenna?" - JESUS CHRIST

It is not "loving" to love wickedness much less to tolerate wickedness indefinitely . Still, I do not believe (based on the bible) that God tortures the wicked forever (that would be unloving and unjust).


JW



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To learn more please go to other posts related to ARMAGEDDON, GEHENNA and ...KILLING IN SCRIPTURE

[2timothy316]

He was clearly saying some people will be viewed by God as "human garbage".

Human garbage, huh? That certainly does away with the idea of a loving God. Are there other verses that reveal this attitude of God's towards his own creation?


Tcg

During WWII the Nazis would skin people and make lampshades and book covers out of the skins. Do you love people like that and want them to live among your friends and family? If so doesn't that do away with the idea of you being a loving person?

[Checkpoint]

Many here seem to believe Gehenna is just a rubbish tip outside Jerusalem and not a reference to hell.

Pulling an argument from this video (around the 16-minute mark):

Mark 9 vs 43-49 says: 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: 44 where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. 45 And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: 46 where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.

Why does Jesus talk about entering into life and the rubbish tip outside Jerusalem in the same sentence? Do you really believe people thought hey let's follow Jesus so we don't go into the rubbish tip outside Jerusalem or do you think they knew Jesus meant hell?

Also since that rubbish tip's fire is quenched now and has been for a long time then doesn't that mean Jesus is a liar when he says that the fire there never shall be quenched?

Ah yes, it is a good idea to have a thread that has what Jesus said about Gehenna as its focus.

Thanks too for asking those questions. Some posters have already given some answers.

How would you, Wootah, answer those questions?

How do you show that what Jesus said about Gehenna supports "traditional doctrine on hell"?

[myth-one.com]

The worst result from the false theology that nonbelievers will suffer in the fires of hell eternally is the thousands of children murdered while in their innocent years so that they will immediately be sent to heaven with God eternally and avoid even the possibility of them burning in hell for all eternity.

Here's how that works:

The wages of sin is death, but sin is not imputed if one does not understand that the act is a sin. Thus children who die before reaching the "age of accountability" go immediately to live with God in Heaven and will never even be in risk of spending eternity in the fires of hell.

Praise the Lord?

I've never seen anyone teaching this theology come forth and accept any responsibility for this result.

Does anyone out there desire to?

Anyone?