Reprieved from hell.

 

115. Reprieved from hell. Some people believe that once a person is sentenced to hell, as payment for our bad deeds done here on this earth, all is lost and we will remain in hell for all eternity: This I have found, searching throughout the records of the different religions of God, may not necessary be the case. I have found, looking into the various religions, that there might, after a time, be a reprieve from hell. The different religions I have looked into say that it is up to God how long we will remain in hell, but eventually God might bring us back into His good graces and reprieve us from hell. We can see that this sort of thing does actually happen because of Christ; who was in hell for three days after his crucifixion.  Christianity: Acts 2:31 “He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell.” Christ’s soul remained in hell for three days according to the prophecy of Jonah: Matthew 12:39 “But he (Jesus) answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:” 12:40 “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” So, we find that after three days in hell Christ came out and he came back to this earth and then, after a short time, ascended up into heaven. So, this demonstrates that we may not be bound in hell forever, once we get there, but may eventually be able to come out again through God’s grace and mercy towards us. And, in relation to this statement, I ask you: just what did Jesus Christ really do while he was in hell? He preached the gospels and taught of the redemption of the soul. 1 Peter 3:18 “For Christ also hath once suffered (crucifixion) for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:” 3:19 “By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;” Gospel of Nicodemus “And if thou bring him (Christ) unto me he will set free all that are here shut up in the hard prison and bound in the chains of their sins that cannot be broken, and will bring them unto the life of his God head for ever.” (So) “The Lord of majesty appeared in the form of a man and lightened the eternal darkness and break the bonds that could not be loosed: and the succour of his everlasting might visited us that sat in the deep darkness of our transgressions and in the shadow of death of our sins.” “Thou hast healed me; Lord, thou hast brought my soul out of hell.” “That thou mightest save us out of hell and death through thy majesty.” Hell, the prison of the damned, is what this is interpreted to mean, because Christ was preaching to the spirits of the dead in what God considers to be the prison of the non-living. And, according to Nicodemus, hell was considered to be the hard prison spoken of by Peter; where Christ taught the word of God to the souls of the damned trapped in hell. Also, if this is not conclusive enough evidence of Christ’s interaction with the souls of  damned in hell, Martin Luther further tells us: “Those tyrants and jailers, then, are all expelled now, and in their place has come Jesus Christ, Lord of life, righteousness, every blessing, and salvation, and has delivered us poor lost men from the jaws of hell, has won us, made us free, and brought us again into the favor and grace of the Father.” (Martin Luther, Large Catechism)  I ask you, if the souls in hell were damned to be there for all eternity, why was Christ trying to educate their souls unto the redemption of God’s infinite mercy and grace. It would be fruitless and cruelty on the part of Christ to do such a thing and Jesus Christ was not a cruel person: 2 Corinthians 10:1 “Now I Paul myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ,” Christ was gentle and meek, not prone to cruelty; nor is God, I am assured, a cruel, maniacal, tyrant bent on making those below His exulted station suffer undo grief and harm. James 3:17 “But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.” Not the ravings of a cruel, totalitarian, brutal monster who has planned out your pain and suffering gleefully for a whole unbearable eternity. If God punishes a soul in hell I am sure it is eventually for the good of that soul: “Mazda (God) as the upholder of moral order, is sure to give His support to Zarathushtra and to punish his enemies. The punishment would, however, be for their own good, to lead them to the path of rectitude. Why should God, who is all kindness, inflict punishment on anybody unless it is for his good.” (ZOROASTER, Hymns of Atharvan p. 832) Let me repeat that statement for you to think over with deep contemplation: (Why should God, who is all kindness, inflict punishment on any soul unless it is for his or her own good!!!) for 147. “What can Allah (God) gain by your (eternal, everlasting) punishment?” 36. “Those who listen (in truth), be sure, will accept: as to the dead, Allah will raise them up: then will they be turned unto Him.” (The Qur’an (Yusuf Ali tr), Surahs 4 and 6)

This is the act of a God who, as the writings of God’s religions tell us, is all about love and mercy: In the Bahá’í Faith we accept that God is, in truth, a good loving Father to mankind, not some maniacal being Who purposely goes out of His way to make us suffer and who has arranged a terrible suffering everlasting ending for us that even some of the worst humans on this earth would consider as completely unjust. If we, as human beings, would consider this ending as unjust, how can we attribute this kind of behavior to a benevolent God who is Justice and Love incarnate? It would be a grave injustice on the part of a creator, who knows everything, to create even one soul that He is going to condemn to agonizing suffering for all eternity. It would have been best to never have created that soul in the first place, and where would God’s all merciful essence play into all of this? God, the impetus, of the religious writings, who is the omnipotent creator of all, tells us He is the attraction of love throughout the whole universe, and informs us that He is (mercy incarnate). Baha’i Faith: “The station of God is mercy, kindness, forgiveness, sacrifice, favor, grace and giving life to the spirits and lighting the fire of His love in the hearts and arteries.” Baha’i Faith: “God is mercy, God is justice, God is life, etc., etc.” A God, who is all mercy Himself, would not create a soul who is to suffer such a fate without making an eventual way out for that soul, it goes beyond justice, it goes beyond reason. The Bahá’í Faith tells us that God, who is all goodness, has never created an evil soul who He would need to make suffer for all eternity: Baha’i Faith: “God has never created an evil spirit; all such ideas and nomenclature are symbols expressing the mere human or earthly nature of man.” It is the earthly nature of man, the animal beast inside of man, the spiritually uneducated man, that performs all these acts of tyranny and atrocity. The soul is reflecting the animal nature of man reflecting the nature of the world around him, not the light and glory of the spiritual realm man is destined to inhabit. After death the animal existence of man is over, and the material education he has had to go through is past. The education of man from this point forward is spiritual in nature and therefore requires spiritual guidance in which we find heaven and hell as part of that new spiritual training. Once we get to heaven or hell it’s not all over, now we are educated in the ways of the spirit and in the love of the Father: As to the scriptures found throughout the rest of the bible, the redemption from hell is not expressed so openly and clearly as Christ’s sojourn into hell preaching to the spirits of the dead.

(Bahá’í Faith, Abdu’l-Baha, Tablets of Abdu’l-Baha v1, p. 65 and The Promulgation of Universal Peace, pp. 159 and 294)

In the rest of the bible we find that David and Paul come closest to the analogy of the truly spiritual nature of heaven and hell, while indicating that travel from one to the other is possible due to our own actions, prayer and the will of God; because no matter where you find yourself, you will find that God is there with you.  Judaism: Psalms 16:10 “For Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption.”  Christianity: Acts 2:27 “Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell,” David and Paul both state that we can be reprieved from hell by our Heavenly Father once we have endured what it is God wants us to endure and we learn what it is God wanted us to learn; and we find that others in the bible tell us that we will not be left in hell also.  Judaism: Tobias 13:2 “For He doth scourge, and hath mercy: He leadeth down to hell, and bringeth up again: neither is there any that can avoid His hand.” (Deuterocanonical Apocrypha,) Psalms 139:8 “If I ascend up into heaven, Thou (God) art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, Thou art there.” Proverbs 15:24 “The way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell beneath.” Psalms 16:10 “For thou Wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt Thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.” Psalms 86:13 “For great is Thy mercy toward me: and Thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell.”  Christianity: Acts 2:25 “For David speaketh concerning Him, I foresaw The Lord always before my face, for He is on my right hand, that I should not be moved: 2:26 Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope: 2:27 Because Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt Thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.” 1 Thessalonians 5:9 “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,” 1 Thessalonians 5:10 “Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.” Whether we are asleep or awake we will all eventually live together with Jesus, before God in the spiritual realm of our Creator. Wisdom 16:13 “For Thou hast power of life and death: thou leadest to the gates of hell, and bringest up again.” (Deuterocanonical Apocrypha,)

 ISLAM: 106. “Those who are wretched shall be in the Fire: there will be for them therein (nothing but) the heaving of sighs and sobs:” 107. “They will dwell therein for all the time that the heavens and the earth endure, except as thy Lord willeth: for thy Lord is the (sure) Accomplisher of what He planneth.”

(The Qur’an (Yusuf Ali tr), Surah  11)

I found that the rest of the religions also state we will not be left in hell forever: Islam: “They will dwell therein (in hell) for all the time that the heavens and the earth endure, except as thy Lord willeth: for thy Lord is the (sure) Accomplisher of what He planneth.” 44. “To Allah (God) belongs exclusively (the right to grant) Intercession: to Him belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth: in the End, it is to Him that ye shall be brought back.” (from suffering, from hell etc…) for 147. “What can Allah gain by your (eternal, everlasting) punishment, if ye are grateful and ye believe? Nay, it is Allah that recogniseth (all good), and knoweth all things.”

(The Qur’an (Yusuf Ali tr), Surahs 4 and 39)

 ZOROASTRIANISM: 7. “Praise be to the merciful Lord who bestows rewards for meritorious deeds on those who obey his commands according to his will, and at last will liberate even the wicked from (the torture of) hell and will embellish with purity the whole creation.”

(Zoroaster, The Zend-Avesta, Khorda Avesta – Book of Common Prayer pt. 1)

 Zoroastrianism: Denkard. Zoroaster, “Those who are delivered from hell will obtain greatness (from the pious) and the imprisoned will be let out of hell.”

 Zoroastrianism: “The sinner however is not lost for ever. As soon as gets rid of his passion, he develops conscience and nonchalance, and opens himself up to the influence of Mazda (God) and is saved.”

(ZOROASTER, Hymns of Atharvan p. 112)

 HINDUISM: 207. “But he who, intending to hurt a Brahmana, has threatened (him with a stick and the like) shall remain in hell during a hundred years; he who (actually) struck him, during one thousand years.”

(Hindu, Laws of Manu)

 Hinduism: 54. “Those who committed mortal sins (mahapataka), having passed during large numbers of years through dreadful hells, obtain, after the expiration of (that term of punishment), the following births.”

(Hindu, Laws of Manu)

 BUDDHISM: “People take the evil way in deeds, the evil way in words, the evil way in thoughts; and by taking the evil way in deeds, words, and thoughts, at the dissolution of the body, after death, they fall into a downward state of existence, a state of suffering, into perdition, and the abyss of hell. But, this is the misery of sensuous craving, the heaping up of suffering in the future life,” “Hence it follows that there is no such thing as a real existence, or being, but only as it were an endless process, a continuous change, a becoming, consisting in a producing,  and in a being produced; in a process of action, and in a process of reaction, or rebirth.” “Long is the night to one who is awake. Long is ten miles to one who is tired. Long is the cycle of birth and death to the fool who does not know the true path.”

((The Eightfold Path), Buddha, and Dhammapada – Sayings of the Buddha 2))

 Buddhism: “No beings are left outside by the will of the Tathagatas; some day each and every one will be influenced by the wisdom and love of the Tathagatas of Transformation to lay up a stock of merit and ascend the stages. The stages of heaven, (the stages of spiritual development the soul has to go through) But, if they only realized it, they are already in the Tathagata’s Nirvana for, in Noble Wisdom, all things are in Nirvana from the beginning.” (Buddha, Lankavatara Sutra)

 SABEANISM: “Those who seek of Him find, and to those who ask of Him it will be given. For to him that standeth at a closed door Thou wilt open the closed door. In the Place of Light Thou wilt wipe away and remove from us our sins, trespasses, follies, stumblings and mistakes and wilt cast them into the hells of the earth and the nethermost limbos of darkness. Thou wilt raise us up as sinless and not as guilty, as virtuous and not as vicious before Thee.” (Sabeanism, Ginza Rba- chapter 35)

Sabeanism: “Manda-d-Hiia went to the stars. His appearance loosed the bound (souls): he knit (them into) the communion that is without parting and without limit or number, by his word which issued from him in that place. He passed by: the captives were freed. He loosed them from their sins and trespasses:” He freed the damned from their imprisonment in hell. (Sabeanism, Ginza Rba- chapter 48)

 BABI RELIGION: “If thou showest enmity unto Him Who is His Remembrance, God will, on the Day of Resurrection, condemn thee, before the kings, unto hell-fire, and thou shalt not, in very truth, find on that Day any helper except God, the Exalted.”

(The Bab, Selections from the Writings of the Bab, p. 41)

 Babi Religion: “I swear by Him Who createth all beings and unto Whom all shall return, if anyone at the hour of death beareth hatred towards Me or disputeth the clear tokens wherewith I have been invested, then naught but afflictive torment shall be his lot. On that day no ransom will be accepted, nor will any intercession be permitted, unless God so please. Verily He is the All-Compelling, the All-Glorious; and no God is there other than Him, the sovereign Ruler, the Almighty, the Most Severe.”

(The Bab, Selections from the Writings of the Bab, p. 19)

BAHA’I FAITH: “The Ancient Beauty (Bahá’u’lláh) hath consented to be bound with chains that mankind may be released from its bondage, and hath accepted to be made a prisoner within this most mighty Stronghold that the whole world may attain unto true liberty. He hath drained to its dregs the cup of sorrow, that all the peoples of the earth may attain unto abiding joy, and be filled with gladness. This is of the mercy of your Lord, the Compassionate, the Most Merciful. We have accepted to be abased, O believers in the Unity of God, that ye may be exalted, and have suffered manifold afflictions, that ye might prosper and flourish. He Who hath come to build anew the whole world, behold, how they that have joined partners with God have forced Him to dwell within the most desolate of cities!” “I sorrow not for the burden of My imprisonment. Neither do I grieve over My abasement, or the tribulation I suffer at the hands of Mine enemies. By My life! They are My glory, a glory wherewith God hath adorned His own Self. Would that ye know it!” “The shame I was made to bear hath uncovered the glory with which the whole of creation had been invested, and through the cruelties I have endured, the Day Star of Justice hath manifested itself, and shed its splendor upon men.” “It behoveth the people of Baha to die to the world and all that is therein, to be so detached from all earthly things that the inmates of Paradise may inhale from their garment the sweet smelling savor of sanctity, that all the peoples of the earth may recognize in their faces the brightness of the All-Merciful, and that through them may be spread abroad the signs and tokens of God, the Almighty, the All-Wise.”

(Bahá’í Faith, Baha’u’llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah, p. 99)

Baha’i Faith: “The shout hath been raised, and the people have come forth from their graves, and arising, are gazing around them. Some have made haste to attain the court of the God of Mercy, others have fallen down on their faces in the fire of Hell.” “A drop out of the ocean of Thy mercy sufficeth to quench the flames of hell, and a spark of the fire of Thy love is enough to set ablaze a whole world.”

(Bahá’í Faith, Baha’u’llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah, p. 41, and Prayers and Meditations by Baha’u’llah)

Baha’i Faith: “From the moment the soul leaves the body and arrives in the Heavenly World, its evolution is spiritual, and that evolution is: The approaching unto God. The soul does not evolve from degree to degree as a law — it only evolves nearer to God, by the Mercy and Bounty of God.” “What fire is fiercer on the Day of Reckoning than that of remoteness from the divine Beauty and the celestial Glory?” “The paradise and hell of existence are found in all the worlds of God, whether in this world or in the spiritual heavenly worlds.”

(Bahá’í Faith, Abdu’l-Baha, Baha’i World Faith – Abdu’l-Baha Section, p. 323,  Baha’u’llah, Gems of Divine Mysteries, p. 44 and Abdu’l-Baha, Paris Talks, p. 66)

Baha’i Faith: “It is even possible that the condition of those who have died in sin and unbelief may become changed; that is to say, they may become the object of pardon through the bounty of God, not through His justice; for bounty is giving without desert, and justice is giving what is deserved.”

(Bahá’í Faith, Abdu’l-Baha, Baha’i World Faith – Abdu’l-Baha Section, p. 329)