Re: Do people who have never heard the gospel go to hell?

I sure don't have time to get into a big debate with you on this, but I will try a short post to try to help. I was just going to ignore you on this subject and probably will going forward. It's too time consuming for me. Maybe someone else will dialog with you on the subject.

I really believe your interpretation of these scriptures is being effected by the cult you were once in. The Bible is clear that for those who are in Christ "to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord" referring to our physical death. There are three kinds of death spoken of in the Bible. Death refers to separation. Physical death refers to the separation of our earthly physical bodies from our souls and spirits. Our souls and spirits go to be with God when we die if we are saved. We go in a spiritual body, not a physical one. We wait for our glorified bodies until the resurrection. The word "sleep" in these passages means physical death. The doctrine of soul sleep is a cult belief. The Bible is clear that we are body, soul and spirit. If we are not saved when we die we go to a temporary place called hell which will be thrown into the lake of fire at the judgement.

The Bible is clear that Jesus descended into hell after the cross. This wording has caused some false teaching that states Jesus suffered in hell for our sins. The word hell here can be translate lower parts and I can't remember how else the word hell could have been translated. I'm not taking the time to hunt all this up. I'm just doing it from memory as that's all the time I have right now. At any rate, I know you do not believe the false teaching that Jesus suffered in hell for our sins. The Bible is clear that He paid for our sins on the cross with His blood. Now, as to what happened to Jesus between His physical death on the cross and the time He rose from the dead is theory, except for the verse you gave in Matthew that He was three days and nights in the heart of the earth. This verse that YOU gave should prove to you that Jesus was not in a soul sleep state when He died physically. He was somewhere in his spirit body with His soul. We also will be somewhere when we die with our spirit body and soul. If Jesus didn't soul sleep neither will we.

We know that hell, which is located in the lower parts of the earth, had two compartments. One for the sinners and one for the saints. The compartment for the saints was called Abraham's bosom. That is most likely where Jesus met the thief on the cross that day along with all the other saints who had died up to this time. This would agree with the scripture that you gave about Jesus being in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights. I believe that there is biblical proof that Jesus moved those in Abraham's bosom to a place in heaven, although He did not Himself go to heaven during these three days and nights. I'm not going to hunt it up. Maybe someone else will. When the saved die they no longer go to the lower parts of the earth in a compartment of hell. By the way, the compartment that held the saints, which is referred to as Abraham's bosom, was not a place of torment, but a place of joy. The second compartment is a place of torment. There is also theory that it was during this time that Jesus, while in the heart of the earth, stripped the devil and made a show of satan and his demons openly. We know Jesus did do that, but the Bible is not clear that it was done during the time that He descended into hell. I believe it was. I know He did not suffer in hell for our sins. He must have been busy doing other things like what I described in the theories above. It may have been better to translate the word hell as "the heart of the earth" in the scripture that states He descended into hell. This may have prevented some of the false teaching going on today by those confused on this issue. Tweet