Episode 46 - The History of Hell

Fair warning here up front, this episode is a bit long.  The history of hell is, appropriately, long and convoluted, so the episode has run on a bit despite my best editing efforts. I should also give fair warning here at the beginning, that some of what I’m going to say is not exactly in line with the conventional teachings of some churches today.  So, if you’re a church-goer, I’m just giving you fair warning that I may some things in this episode that you might disagree with.  I will also say, to you church goers, that I firmly agree with Luther’s principle of Sola Scriptura, so I’m trying to be guided by that, rather than what the church tends to believe.  The modern church, in many cases, likes to try to make things clear and simple, when in reality, the Bible is much more vague, and if you try to hold closely to the principle of Sola Scriptura, you have to admit to vagueness in some places where you really wish there was clarity.  Hell is one of those places.  So what do you think of when you think of the idea of hell?  You’ve probably got an image of a floor made of boiling lava, and horned demons gleefully poking poor burning sinners with pitchforks.  I’ll just start off by saying, that image is not from the Bible.  It’s much more an image that comes from Dante’s Inferno, and medieval paintings, but we’ll get to that here in a bit.