Did Jesus invent Hell?
Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 7:28 pm
So there I was. I was reading some Mark Twain, because his writings are totally badass to the maximum. His best stuff is his religious and anti-war rants and I'm totally getting into this and going 'ho yeah' and then I get to Letters from Earth.
It goes... a little something... a'like this:
Anyone care to shed some light on this? I always thought Hell was a concept of the New Testament, like, it was always there.
(EDIT: Oh, yeah. I forgot to add a link--> http://www.sacred-texts.com/aor/twain/letearth.htm)
It goes... a little something... a'like this:
The two Testaments are interesting, each in its own way. The Old one gives us a picture of these people's Deity as he was before he got religion, the other one gives us a picture of him as he appeared afterward. The Old Testament is interested mainly in blood and sensuality. The New one in Salvation. Salvation by fire.
The first time the Deity came down to earth, he brought life and death; when he came the second time, he brought hell.
Life was not a valuable gift, but death was. Life was a fever-dream made up of joys embittered by sorrows, pleasure poisoned by pain, a dream that was a nightmare-confusion of spasmodic and fleeting delights, ecstasies, exultations, happinesses, interspersed with long-drawn miseries, griefs, perils, horrors, disappointments, defeats, humiliations, and despairs -- the heaviest curse devisable by divine ingenuity; but death was sweet, death was gentle, death was kind; death healed the bruised spirit and the broken heart, and gave them rest and forgetfulness; death was man's best friend; when man could endure life no longer, death came and set him free.
In time, the Deity perceived that death was a mistake; a mistake, in that it was insufficient; insufficient, for the reason that while it was an admirable agent for the inflicting of misery upon the survivor, it allowed the dead person himself to escape from all further persecution in the blessed refuge of the grave. This was not satisfactory. A way must be conceived to pursue the dead beyond the tomb.
The Deity pondered this matter during four thousand years unsuccessfully, but as soon as he came down to earth and became a Christian his mind cleared and he knew what to do. He invented hell, and proclaimed it.
Now here is a curious thing. It is believed by everybody that while he was in heaven he was stern, hard, resentful, jealous, and cruel; but that when he came down to earth and assumed the name Jesus Christ, he became the opposite of what he was before: that is to say, he became sweet, and gentle, merciful, forgiving, and all harshness disappeared from his nature and a deep and yearning love for his poor human children took its place. Whereas it was as Jesus Christ that he devised hell and proclaimed it!
Which is to say, that as the meek and gentle Savior he was a thousand billion times crueler than ever he was in the Old Testament -- oh, incomparably more atrocious than ever he was when he was at the very worst in those old days!
Anyone care to shed some light on this? I always thought Hell was a concept of the New Testament, like, it was always there.
(EDIT: Oh, yeah. I forgot to add a link--> http://www.sacred-texts.com/aor/twain/letearth.htm)