Hellfire and Soul's Immortality

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Hi,

Can anyone help me to find where in the Bible one can find solid evidence that Hell exists as a place of punishment (i.e. existence in the absence of God)? I only know where it tells of Gehenna, which can easily be twisted just to mean places in the times of the OT, likened to a dump etc.

I also need help finding where in Macabees it alludes to praying for the dead and hence the basis for the Church’s teachings on praying for souls in Purgatory? My Bible commentary does not include the apocrypha unfortunately.

Maybe somebody knows of a website where these topics are discussed in detail - a link even to an article would be good!

Many thanks!
 
2 Mac. 12:43-46 He then took up a collection among all his soldiers, amounting to two thousand silver drachmas, which he sent to Jerusalem to provide for an expiatory sacrifice. In doing this he acted in a very excellent and noble way, inasmuch as he had the resurrection of the dead in view; for if he were not expecting the fallen to rise again, it would have been useless and foolish to pray for them in death. But if he did this with a view to the splendid reward that awaits those who had gone to rest in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought. Thus he made atonement for the dead that they might be freed from this sin.

Jesus specifically speaks of hell:
Matt. 18: 6-8 “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. Woe to the world because of things that cause sin! Such things must come, but woe to the one through whom they come! If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter into life maimed or crippled than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into eternal fire.”

Matt 25:41 “Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”
 
Catholic Diva, I don’t have my bible with me so I’m going to have to keep my answer rather general. Sweetchuck’s answer should help you in regards to 2 Macc. As far as Hell, Jesus used Gehenna through out the Gospels to represent the pain of eternal damnation. Gehenna itself was a garbage dump outside the wall of Jerusalm in a valley. Here people burned their trash so that there was a fire that was always burning (a rather good teaching example - we all know the pain of fire and gehenna was a place where the fire never ended). If you read all the Gospels Jesus makes it very clear that there is a Hell and it’s the state in which the Devil and his fellow angels dwell and anyone could, through their lives, be condemned for eternity at the time of their death (I would add, and this is me - it is a self condemnation it would be the individual who has rejected God’s Love). For me Jesus is clearest about the existence of Hell and how one puts himself in that state in His discourse on the Final Judgement in Matthew 25.I hope this helps and if the thread continues I may be able to add more if that would help.
 
Thank you for your comments Tome and Sweetchuck. Yes, Tome, I would appreciate if you would add to this topic as I feel it is a very pertinent subject.
 
Diva, forgive me but I cannot go into too detail right now, I’m away from my books and my guardian angel (known to to others as my dog) is getting ready to go out. But Jesus states clearly there is a hell, as I said before in Matthew 25 he’s very clear who and why will end up there. One quick and interesting point about praying for the dead. In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, he talks about their practice of Baptizing an individual in the place of one who had died with out Baptism. From this we see that the Church, even before the NT was written, understood the immortality of the soul and the importance of prayer (and in this case Sacrament) for those who had died. Hopefully we can discuss this better when I have a little more time.
 
Your parenthetical remark leads me to post this verse:

NRS 2 Thessalonians 1:9 These will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, separated from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might,
 
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