extra medium wrote: Well I guess thats the only alternative, unless we meet on the other side.
But heck, we haven't even totally met on this side yet.
Um, that makes me think...hmmmm....you are alive, aren't you?
Let's start at the beginning.
Animals are souls (Genesis 1:23)
When Adam was created, he "came to be a living soul". (Genesis 2:7)
The soul is mortal (Ezekiel 18:4,20)
The dead are not conscious. (Ecclesiastes 9:5,6)
Here's a fill in the blank test:
"The wage sin pays is _________"
Remember the punishment decreed for eating of the tree? It was, simply, death. If God had eternal torment in mind, it would only have been fair to warn them, don't you think?
The Hebrew sord 'sheol', translated 'hell', means 'the grave'.
The Greek word 'hades', translated 'hell' means 'the unseen place'. It was used in the Septuagint version to translate the word 'sheol'.
The word 'Gehenna', translated 'hell' comes from the Hebrew words 'Geh Hinnom', meaning 'Valley of Hinnom', a place outside Jerusalem where fires were kept burning constantly to destroy garbage, dead animals, even criminals. Things thrown into the Valley of Hinnom were totally destroyed and their destruction was everlasting. They did not burn forever.
It is interesting to note that in 17th century England, if you told someone to 'Go to hell.", he would most likely have gone down to his root cellar.
BTW, so far I've only been brain dead - once or twice.
