E
Eucharisted
Guest
Jay,
There are Jewish websites that do deny Jesus was God, or, at least, condemn the belief that Jesus is God. These sites, more or less, represent the major view of Jesus in Judaism. You can find some of these sites here, here, and here.
In Judaism, it is believed that those who worship false gods go to gehenna, spending their time in pig poop (yuck!). But it is a fitting punishment, since Jews consider gentiles to be the pigs of the world - and since pigs are regarded as the filthiest animals in the world, you can understand how Judaism feels about idolters. And since Jews consider Christians to be idolters, because we worship Jesus, you can see where they believe we’ll end up if we do not repent from idoltry.
Jews do not believe that gehenna is eternal, but rather, temporal, similar to purgatory, but where all souls go to be judged in fire, and then, purified, enter into the world to come (paradise, heaven). Jews believe that God is so merciful that He cannot condemn anyone to an eternity separated from Him, and, because His will always prevails, it is believed that if even one soul was condemned to gehenna for eternity, than God would not be omnipotent, and becuase God is omnipotent, it cannot be that any soul is in gehenna for eternity. It is believed that the longest one can stay in gehenna is eleven months, because - and this is my opinion only - the number twelve mystically symbolizes perfection (and the purified soul is regarded as perfected, freed from sin). And this is why Jews do not try to convert others: not just because they consider themselves slave of the law, the law of Moses being regarded as a burden, but because they believe all souls will enter paradise, eventually.
An interesting note on the Islamic hell is that unfaithful Muslims - that is, those who only appeared to submit to God (hypocrites and two-faced people) - will only be in hell temporarily, for, if they have faith even the size of an atom, they will be saved and enter paradise on Judgment Day. However, those who commit polytheism - the Islamic equivalent of the unforgivable sin - will not be saved in the end but spend eternity in hell. The reasons behind these beliefs is very easy to discover: Hypocrisy is the worst of the major sins in Islam, yet Allah is considered All-Merciful so he forgives this sin; however, worship and belief in other gods is a sin which Allah cannot forgive - not because God cannot forgive the sin, but because the believer or unbeliever will not accept the mercy of Allah even if it were presented to him or her, because he or she dose not believe God is God but a false god. The reason polytheism is regarded as the unforgivable sin - or the equivalent of it - is because the angel Gabriel, whom Muslims call the Holy Spirit (yes, the equivalent of the Spirit of the Lord in Judaism and Christianity), is regarded as the bringer of God’s message (which is basically “There is no God save the God”), and so, those who blasphemize against the Holy Spirit (the angel Gabriel) do not accept Allah’s messeger, and not accepting his messenger, cannot enter paradise, for they have rejected Allah: similar to how we Christians believe that those who know yet reject the gospel cannot be saved, unless they repent for their sin. Muslims do believe polytheists can repent, but, as I said, come Judgment Day unrepentant unfaithful Muslims will not be released from hell along with the other damned souls but will suffer for eternity. It is an ingenious method to scare believers into not leaving Islam, and to scare believers into not embracing Christianity, because Christians are regarded as polytheists (who worship Jesus beside God), which is similiar to, but not the same as, Judaism regarding Christians as idolters (who worship Jesus as God).
