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W
ILL THOSE
in
bell
leave
hell at t he
time. of t he resur–
rectlon - o r are
they con fined eternally to
hell, so that they shall be
UNABLE
to take part in t he
resurrection?
What did J esus mean when
he sa id i n John
5:28-29:
" ... the hour is coming
when
all
who are in the
tombs w ill h ear hi s
voice
and
come
forth ... those who
have done evi l, to the
popular belief about hell ongt–
nate? The
Encyc/opedia America–
na
states further: "The main fea–
tures of hell as conceived by Hin–
du, Persian , Egyptian, Grecian
and
Christian theologians
are
essentially the same."
The West–
ern religious leaders from Roman
times through the Middle Ages
borrowed the doctrine of eterna!
torture from the pagan philoso-
IS
RESURRECTION
OF
JUDGMENT" (RSV).
If
" those who have
done EVIL"- the UN–
saved-sha ll come forth
in the RESURRECTION of
JUDGMENT, what is the
connection between that
resurrection of the UN-
saved , and their being in
an eterna! hellfire?
It's about time we took
this question out of hid–
ing, and took a good look
at it!
What
is the
TRUTH?
Commo n Idea of Hell
First, what IS the general–
ly accepted common be–
lief in our Wes tern world
about hell? Here's the
terse and brief summa–
tion of this popular belief,
which 1 quote from the
Encyclopedia America–
THE
A
HELL
~
•
by
Herbert W. Armstrong
Dante, and His Infern o.
It
summed up the history of the
Christian-professing doctrine of
he/l.
This factual history is rather
amazing! Dante lived A.D. 1265
to 1321. Dante, remember, wrote
a tremendously popular book, tit–
led
Divine Comedy,
in three
parts-"Hell," "Purgatory" and
"Paradise."
From the Pagans
Now
I
quote from the
aforementioned book of
history: "Of all poets of
modero times, Dante Ali–
ghieri was, perhaps, the
g r eatest educator. He
possibly had a greater
influence on the course
of civilization than any
other man since bis
day.... He wrote, in in–
comprehensible verse, an
imaginative and lurid
account o f a dismal
bell- a long poem con–
taining certain phrases
which have caught the
attention of the world,
such as,
'all hope aban–
don
...
ye, who enter
here/'
This had a tre–
mendous impression and
influence on the popular
Christian thought and
teaching. His
Jnferno
was based on Virgil and
Plato."
Dante is reported to
have been so fascinated
and enraptured by the
ideas and philosophies of
Plato and Virgil, pagan
philosophers, that he be-
na:
" ... As generally un–
derstood, hell is the abode
of evil spi rits; the infernal
regions ... whither lost
If hell does exist, where is it- and can
those who are there ever get out?
lieved they were divinely
inspired. Here is an arti–
cle on Virgil, from the
Americana:
"VIRGIL, pa-
and condemned souls go
after death to suffer indescribable
torments and eterna! pu nish–
ment. ... Sorne have thought of it
as the place created by the Deity,
where He punishes with inconceiv–
able severity, and through aH eter–
nity, the souls of those who through
unbelief or through the worship of
false gods have angered H im.
It
is
the place of divine revenge, untem–
pered, never ending."
Now where, and how, did this
August 1982
phers. Certain writers of the Mid–
d le Ages had such tremendous
influence on the Christian-profes–
sing world, that their writings and
teachings carne to be generally
accepted and believed , until it
became the doctrine of the Chris–
tian-professing world. Among
these influen t ial writers were
Augustine and Dante Alighieri.
Sorne years ago, 1 ran across a
book in a large library, titled
gan Roman poet, 70-19
B.C. Belonged to the
national school of pagan Roman
thought, influenc.ed by the Greek
writers. Christians of the M iddle
Ages, including Dante, believed
he had received sorne measure of
divine inspiration."
Plato was a pagan Greek philos–
opher, born in Athens, 427 B.C., a
student of Socrates. He wrote t he
famous book
Phaedo,
on the
immortalüy of the soul, and
this
book is the real origin of the mod-
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