Who is Steering the Ship?

Here I am studying the Valley of Hinnom. It's an obsession of mine. I keep finding new stuff. This is a formula for loneliness, and it almost always works. It is one of the "citronella" doctrines, it is a repellent--not of insects (mosquitoes still like me)--but of the Great Closed Minds of the church.

Early in life I learned that to go against the crowd, either in or out of the church , will isolate you like a germ that has caught penicillin. But I don't worry about the general population, it is the church which troubles me. The Greeks had Mars Hill, the Jews had the court of the temple, where debate was welcome, but the modern church has no room for discussion. It does take place, but only on the "higher level". No commoners (like me) are allowed.

I was once so naive that I believed study of the Bible was the answer to the doctrine of "hel" or "hell". Forget that! Each side has its own experts with degrees and fervent convictions.

I am an annihilationist. I believe that the unsaved will be destroyed, not eternally tortured. This makes me a terrible person in the eyes of both Protestants and Roman Catholics. They will have their doctrine of eternal torture. Nothing I can do about it. For scholarship is no answer at all. It is not steering the ship. A guy named Will is.

Since hell is not in the Bible, except by translation, I prefer original language. Hence "valley of Hinnom". Let me give you one example, which illustrates the proper and improper use of this term hell.

...whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. Matthew 5:22

Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die: I Corinthians 15:36

You may believe that calling someone a fool puts you in danger of eternal torture by fire in hell. But Jesus and Paul used the term which He warned against. Please let an insignificant one give another concept than that of eternal torment. Jesus was warning that if you called an authority figure--like the powerful Pharisees--a fool, you could end up being killed, and your dead body thrown into the Valley of Hinnom, or Gehenna.

This is what Jesus says in original texts. Hell, derived from the Anglo Saxon, was not what Jesus said. He spoke of the valley of Gehenna.This is the fate of those who call the wrong people a fool.

See The Gehenna Of Fire