Salvation Was Never About "Hell"
Uncovering and Reclaiming the Spiritual Revolutions Hidden in Ancient Scripture
One of the biggest realizations on my journey out of Christianity was what this “salvation” thing was all about.
People think they know what salvation is... somehow without looking at the context of what was happening during the times that most holy books that profess to bring salvation were written.
In most cases, there was some sort of socio-economic, racial, or class-based oppression taking place. Let's take the Bible for example. Look at the Israelites in the Old Testament. Egypt enslaved them. They were saved by a man (Moses/Musa) who thought he was an Egyptian prince, only to find out that it was his own people who were the enslaved... and he responded by killing an Egyptian and then leading a revolution out of that land, prompted by an encounter with a divine temperamental force known as “YHWH.”
Look at the Hebrews in the New Testament. They were being oppressed and marginalized by the Roman government. They wanted a better life. THAT is why they were seeking a Messiah. It had nothing to do with salvation from some place they were afraid to go and burn for eternity when they died. In fact, the concept of a fiery hell didn't exist until the poem “Inferno,” written by Italian poet Dante Alighieri was published between 1308 and 1321.
This was right around the time the Moorish presence in Italy began its great decline after being expelled from Sicily by Frederick II in 1300 — this only 192 years before the Roman Catholic Church began their quest to conquer the western world via the Spanish monarch sponsored voyages of the Italian explorer Cristoforo Colombo aka Cristobal Colon (Spanish) aka Christopher Columbus (anglicized), and all that followed him. Imagine the shift in paradigm across the planet, in a matter of less than 200 years, as the world began to believe that there was a place in the center of the earth where all “bad” souls go to burn for an eternity. Not to mention they were forced to believe it, or they would be exiled from their own lands… or worse.
Let’s look closely at a piece of the actual text. The people observing the disciples (those with discipline) of KRST and all those who followed them in the book of Acts chapter 2 were amazed at the spiritual things they were seeing take place in the upper room during the feast of Pentecost — men and women uttering languages that they previously did not know, speaking the “wonderful works of God.” In reaction to this wonderful hope that they were seeing in their fellow oppressed, they asked the disciples what to do next.
Peter responds in verse 38:
First, change your mindset (repent).
Second, cleanse yourself (be baptized).
Then you will receive the "gift of the Holy Ghost."
In verse 39, he then tells them that the same promise that they are given is for their entire bloodline, for generations and generations to come.
And then in verse 40 he says, “Save yourselves from this untoward generation.” Not the next life – THIS ONE. These people weren’t asking how to escape hell. They were seeking relief from Roman oppression... right then and there.
As for the “Holy Ghost”, that’s a whole separate conversation that we can get into another time. But what’s clear is this: the "gift" it brought was deliverance from what they were experiencing in that time and in that generation.
Look at what they did immediately after that... they went from house to house, essentially building a government structure amongst themselves that existed underneath the watch of the Roman government — a “silent” movement that included several things.
Ephesians 4:7-8, 11-12 (NET)
“But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of the ***GIFT*** of Christ.
Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he captured captives; he gave ***GIFTS*** to men.”
It was he who gave some as APOSTLES (Governors/Builders), some as PROPHETS (Spiritual Leaders/Diviners/Witch Doctors), some as EVANGELISTS (Public Speakers/Orators), and some as PASTORS (those who feed the community) and TEACHERS (Philosophers/Intellectuals),
TO EQUIP the saints for the work of ministry, that is, to build up the body of Christ,”
Let’s be real: the concept of “hell” as taught today wasn’t even a thing in Hebrew or Canaanite thought. “Sheol” (the Hebrew word from which “hell” was translated in the Old Testament) was the common destination of ALL of the dead. “Hell,” as we know it now, was a Roman/Greek adaptation – "Gehenna" (the Greek word from which “hell” was translated in the New Testament) was a physical location — also known as The Valley of Hinnom. This was the former site of child sacrifice and a dumping ground for the bodies of executed criminals were burned and buried.
Even the Qur’an speaks of hell as a place called “Jahannam,” which clearly derives from the same Hebrew name of Gehenna, Gei-Hinnom, or Gei-Ben-Hinnom, meaning the “Valley (of the Son) of Hinnom, a cursed valley in which the aforementioned child sacrifices and criminal burials took place.
Sura 15:42-44
”Over my true servants you will be able to exercise no power, your power will be confined to the erring ones, those who choose to follow you.
Surely Hell (Jahannam) is the promised place for all of them.”
There are seven gates in it, and to each gate a portion of them has been allotted.”
Amongst early Moslems, there was no difference than that of the Hebrews of the Old Testament and those in the New Testament of the Bible. Early Moslems were often from lower social strata, including young people and those not part of the wealthy elite. Many of the initial converts were not part of the powerful merchant class that controlled Mecca’s economy. And just like the later Moslem Moors in Italy in 1300 and in Spain in 1492, they were forced to migrate to Medina due to persecution they faced in Mecca. Eventually, they responded militarily to secure their survival, but it was all informed by the divine encounter of their founder, the prophet Mohammed (PBUH).
So you see, when holy books speak of “salvation,” they are not talking about escaping some fiery place no one has ever seen or returned from. It is almost always about the people’s real-world circumstances in the economy, their mental anguish, their physical exhaustion, their spiritual crisis... in present life and time.
Look around. Not much has changed in 2000 years as it’s still the case for many now. Too many folks are trying to be saved from a place no one has ever proven exists.
Meanwhile, people are suffering right here, right now.
The real false prophets are the ones preaching about a world they’ve never seen while ignoring the pain we’re actually living. The biggest deception ever was not "the devil convincing the world that he doesn't exist.” The biggest deception ever was the oppressor convincing the oppressed that they needed to be saved from a place that didn't exist even in the holy books which inform their religion — that what would save them was to stop being themselves and start following rules that had nothing to do with their true God-given nature to fight for their own freedom and good fortune.
Prophets come to warn and bring solutions to an impending danger they’ve been shown which threatens their specific tribe. Their messages have nothing to do with religions and everything to do with changing the fate of their people from experiencing “hell” on earth while they yet live… not when they die.
— Egunesin