XPost: alt.bible, alt.religion.christian.biblestudy, alt.religion.christianity   
   XPost: alt.religion.christian.roman-catholic   
      
   Christ taught in Matthew:   
      
   5:30 And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee:   
   for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and   
   not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.   
      
   25:34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed   
   of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of   
      the world:   
      
   25:41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye   
   cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:   
      
   Over time the hebrew idea of the afterlife changed.  First early in the OT   
   the afterlife was a holding place where the dead were not aware of their   
   situation.   
      
   By the 1st century it had changed into the two place aftrlife; one for the   
   righteous and the other for the unrighteous afterlife. One was a place of   
   torment,ie. hell and the other,ie Abraham's bosom awaiting the reserrection   
   in a place of contentment.  The two place doctrine is reflected in the last   
   two verses above.   
      
   This is also reflected in the NT parable of the rich man and the begger.   
   Christ used the very common understtanding of the doctrine of the afterlife   
   of 1st century jews to make His point in the parable.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)