The ancient view was of a world of three layers - heaven, earth, hell
But Isaac Newton, in a line of "thinkers", observed the world as all connected.. Looking into the heavens, and the apple falling on his head, he saw there was the same law of movement, governed therefore by the same law(s)..
The book I'm reading say's it like this, comparing it to granite. If the granite on my side of the world is hard, and in other parts of the world too, then so is granite wherever it is found. So (Sir) Isaac Newton observed that things are "universal" and move, etc, according to natural law, or laws of creation/nature. And his perception of the Creator was of a builder using natural law(s) rather than one doing things like.. I think I'll make it rain today in this part of China, but sunny today in such and such part of Europe.. Weather.. the universe.. now seen as a system.
Putting together with that the idea that God was not only rational but rational of a high degree and order -- and "Occam's Razor" ...of prudent conservation.. path of least resistance.. easiest solution (way) is the best way..
So why would such a rational, all seeing and understanding builder, create a reality of three different levels operating under three different sets of natural laws? which to him seemed to suggest an illogical, wasteful and disorderly creator!
Newton felt that what can be observed about the nature of things (nature, universe, natural law) were clues to the mind of God. [How sad the world has had (spiritually) bullied upon them this blasphemous idea of a God involved with eternal fiery torment! And loss of much which he created! :doh: ]
:gsmile:
He was a thinker and had a very rational faith.................a hero of mine in that respect.
:thumbsup:
http://concordant.org/expohtml/DeathAndJudgment/TheGehennaOfFire.html
Besides that,
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." {Genesis 1:1 KJV} The creation of Hell is not mentioned.
"All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made." {John 1:3 KJV} God didn't make Hell, and so, no one else did either.
Hell can be dispensed with in so many way, on so many levels.
I think "the heavens" and "the earth" are matter, but "hell" is simply the unseen state of dead souls.
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Quote from: Tom on May 28, 2015, 02:27:58 AM
I think "the heavens" and "the earth" are matter, but "hell" is simply the unseen state of dead souls.
If you look into the way God made Adam, you will see that the Breath/Spirit which He breathed into the non-living body made Adam a living soul. So, we don't
have souls as much as we are souls. If then, we are souls because we are alive by the Spirit of Life, then "dead souls" is an oxymoron. I can understand why some prefer to point out that Hell = the unseen, but I wold rather say that the dead are dead, and there is no Hell.
Quote from: Lazarus Short on May 28, 2015, 04:57:20 AM
Quote from: Tom on May 28, 2015, 02:27:58 AM
I think "the heavens" and "the earth" are matter, but "hell" is simply the unseen state of dead souls.
If you look into the way God made Adam, you will see that the Breath/Spirit which He breathed into the non-living body made Adam a living soul. So, we don't have souls as much as we are souls. If then, we are souls because we are alive by the Spirit of Life, then "dead souls" is an oxymoron. I can understand why some prefer to point out that Hell = the unseen, but I wold rather say that the dead are dead, and there is no Hell.
:thumbsup:
"The soul that is sinning, it shall die." (Ezekiel 18:4,20)
I understand what you're saying. I think scripture says both we're living souls, and we have souls. I agree with you in a sense because a living soul ceases to exist when it dies as far as we know because we can't see it. But I think, as has been said here before, that God sees the dead in the unseen who must exist in some form even if it's just God's imagination. So maybe, because the soul is the sensation resulting from the combination of an organic body with breath or spirit, it's best to just call them the dead who have no souls or are no longer living souls, but then it makes ya wonder why scripture bothers calling us "living" souls if there aren't dead souls. I definitely don't think the dead have immortal souls. In other words, I don't think the dead are conscious.
http://concordant.org/expohtml/DeathAndJudgment/WhatIsTheSoul.html
Quote from: Lazarus Short on May 28, 2015, 01:29:43 AM
Besides that,
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." {Genesis 1:1 KJV} The creation of Hell is not mentioned.
"All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made." {John 1:3 KJV} God didn't make Hell, and so, no one else did either.
:dsunny: :doh: I never thought of it that way! Amen! :banana:
Quote from: Lazarus Short on May 28, 2015, 01:29:43 AM
Hell can be dispensed with in so many way, on so many levels.
A-MeN!! :thumbsup: :thumbsup: