Christianity, really?

It is interesting that you say Abraham was in hell, seeing as Abraham prophetically represents God.

 

Prophets aren't men?

 

I probably shouldn't ask but what in the world are you talking about?

 

You say on the one hand that hell is the common grave of all men, yet question ukr cdn for suggesting that Abraham was in hell because he prophetically
represented God.

 

One, this still doesn't answer the question of why you asked:

And two, Yes, according to what I believe Abraham is in the common grave of mankind awaiting the resurrection and he is not conscious of anything but I was asking about Ukr-Cdn beliefs not mine.

 

You didn't ask me why I asked, you asked me what I was talking about and I told you.

 

Great! Now are you going to answer or not?

 

What is the question?

 

The question of why you asked:

 

Obviously I wanted to know.

 

Thanks

 

Basically Hell can be used to connote what you see it eternally as (the common grave) which is how the Bosom of Abraham as Hell is being used. In this case, there are two "levels" (for lack of better word) in the common grave (prior to Christ's death and resurrection): The bosom of Abraham and Hell-fire of Gehenna.

Abraham representing God can still be likened in that those in the bosom of Abraham are comforted and it is those who gain salvation through the power of Jesus Christ.

 

I guess my question would be, since the Hebrew Scripture indicate that those who are dead are conscious of nothing, why would different levels of "hell" be necessary, if the dead have no awareness of where they are anyway?

 

Jesus indicates that they are conscious in the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus.

 

The key word here is parable and the question here is what is Jesus talking about? Do you really think that the subject of that parable is the condition of the dead? Jesus well knew what the Scripture say about the condition of the dead, and when he was truly talking about the the condition of the dead when speaking of his good friend Lazarus, what did he say, he said that he was sleeping (unconscious), dead.

 

The sleeping also dream.

 

Jesus' parables use ideas that those he is talking to are familiar with. They must have been familiar to to idea of the dead being conscious and being judged at the point of death.

Jesus also says to the family of the little girl that she was merely sleeping. Jesus seems to be saying this tongue in cheek. His disciples (although not the biggest brains) didn't understand what "asleep" meant. They did not understand that Lazarus was dead.

 

Seeing as you didn't bother to answer the questions I asked you, I'll let you off the hook and give you the answers. Jesus was talking to the Jewish religious leaders and was talking to them about themselves and their condition, not about the condition of the dead. As for being familiar with the idea of the dead being conscious and being judged at the point of death they didn't get that from the Bible but could have gotten that from the pagan ideas that they had allowed to creep into true worship.

So you think Jesus would be kidding parents whose child just died? You have got to be joking.

 

If it were someone way shown conclusively that Jesus wan not the son of god and was born in a very natural way what impact would it have on his supposed teachings, would most Christians still find them to be moral?


Or would he be more accurately be considered a fraud or insane, maybe both?

 

For lack of better words, yes (he was kidding them).

You just said she was dead, didn't the Lord say she was sleeping. Heretic

What better way to comfort parents whose child had died (and whom you are about to raise) that say you will wake her up, especially those who are not ready to understand who you are.