Introduction
Modern Christianity largely agrees on what heaven and hell are. In many ways, these concepts are the foundation for Christian ethics and morality, although they are not the only underpinning point of the religion. The most important difference is found in the two books of the Bible called the Old Testament and the New Testament. In fact, “the Israelites of the Old Testament have become the Jews of the New Testament, and much has happened to them and to the world in which they live” (Powell, 2018, p. 39). It is in the texts and names of the two Bibles there are differences in what is hell and what is paradise, but in reality, all this is part of the general.
The Concepts of Hell and Heaven in the Old Testament
In the Old Testament, paradise is a certain spiritual plane of being, where the soul goes after the body’s death. Hell, called Sheol in the Old Testament, is interesting from the point of the entire Bible. The early biblical texts of the Old Testament view Sheol as the dwelling place of all the dead, regardless of their way of living on earth, making it a literal place, a plane of existence. At the same time, paradise, the heavenly kingdom of the Lord, is also His kingdom, a place where the righteous and those close to Him arrive. It is worth understanding that Sheol also has a more metaphysical meaning associated with the death of the soul, that is, betrayal, violation of the commandments of the Lord, and the fall of the human soul. The Old Testament Sheol is both the plan of dead souls in the direct and the state of the fallen soul in the figurative sense.
The Concepts of Hell and Heaven in the New Testament
The New Testament calls Sheol with the Greek word HaĂŻdÄ“s that is, Hell and carries much of the same ideas and concepts of perception of this phenomenon. The New Testament declares in Matthew 25:46: “And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (The Kings Bible, n.d.). This speaks of confirmation of the metaphysical phenomenon of hell, saying that the souls of sinners will forever burn in the flame of their sin while the righteous will find rest. However, over time, an older principle of perceiving Hell and Paradise not as states of the Christian’s soul but as immediate plans appeared in Christianity.
An idea arose about Lucifer as the incarnation of the greatest evil reigning in hell. Originating more in the cultural and mythological European environment than in the Bible itself, a similar perception of suffering has contributed to the controversy among theologians. However, in the new covenant, where Jesus Christ, being the Messiah, saves the world from sin, laying the church’s foundation and thereby beginning to build Heaven on Earth. Paradise in the New Testament is understood not as a separate plane of being or a state of mind, but in essence, everything that exists in the Kingdom of God because Heaven is His Throne. Thus, the heavens are identified in the Bible with the Heavenly Jerusalem, where the family of David rules its valley. The heirs of David themselves ruled from Jerusalem the valley of Israel, and just as they did, the Lord rules from his Heavenly Jerusalem, that is, the throne of heaven, the valley, here meaning the earth.
Conclusion
Based on the preceding, the interpretation of Paradise and Hell in the new covenant is spiritual and philosophical development of these ideas, which began from the superficial plane of mortal souls after the death of the body. As a result, with the coming of the Messiah, these concepts have become much more harmonious and developed. Thus, Paradise is a state of soul of righteous souls, and the Kingdom of God on earth, His Heavenly Jerusalem, and Hell is a place of eternal torment that rejected the Lord and His commandments.
References
The Kings Bible. (n.d.). King James Bible – Matthew Chapter: 25. Web.
Powell, M. A. (2018). Introducing the New Testament: A historical, literary, and theological survey (2nd ed.). Baker Academic.