HELL IN THE NEWS!

HELL - THE DEVIL'S DOMAIN  Wednesday, December 05, 2007 08:00 AM, 02:00 PM - Our in-depth history of Hades begins with the story of a negative near-death experience, in which a man thinks he went to Hell after being declared clinically dead and before resuscitation. Following Lucifer's trail from cave paintings in France circa 6,000 BC to current portrayals in popular culture, our 2-hour exploration shows how Hell and the Devil remain powerful forces--at a church in Texas, where souls are delivered from Satan's grip; in talks with a survivor of the 1980s recovered memory craze, who "recalled" attending Witches' Sabbaths that practiced cannibalism; and at the modern Church of Satan. We review literary landmarks that expanded our ideas of the Underworld, from Dante's Inferno and Milton's Paradise Lost to Mark Twain's anti-hero, and trace development of Christian, Moslem, Jewish, and Buddhist conceptions of the afterlife.  Rating: TVPG V Running Time: 120 minutes

POLL FINDS MORE AMERICANS BELIEVE IN DEVIL THAN DARWIN  Thu Nov 29, 2007 10:53pm GMT  By Ed Stoddard DALLAS (Reuters Life!) - More Americans believe in a literal hell and the devil than Darwin's theory of evolution, according to a new Harris poll released on Thursday...The poll of 2,455 U.S. adults from Nov 7 to 13 found that 82 percent of those surveyed believed in God, a figure unchanged since the question was asked in 2005...Belief in hell and the devil was expressed by 62 percent... [Complete article contains 381 words]

CHURCHES DIFFER IN THEIR VIEWS OF HELL  November 22, 2006  JEFFREY WEISS  DALLAS ... Who does go to hell? Many people don't believe in hell at all. Non-Christian faiths have their own take, of course. Judaism, the religion that birthed Christianity, teaches of the eternal nature of the soul, a divine judgment, and a mostly undefined "World to Come." But specifics are left up to God... [The complete article contains 1926 words]

AMERICANS REVEAL BELIEF IN UFOS & WITCHES  Posted Wed Dec 5, 2007 8:30am AEDT  An overwhelming majority of Americans believe in God and significant numbers also think that UFOs, the devil and ghosts exist, a poll has shown.  The survey by Harris Online showed that 82 per cent of adult Americans believe in God and a slightly smaller percentage - 79 per cent - believe in miracles. More than 70 per cent of the 2,455 adults surveyed between November 7 and 13 said they believed in heaven and angels, while more than 60 per cent said they believed in hell and the devil. Almost equal numbers said they believe in Darwin's theory of evolution (42 per cent) - the belief that populations evolve over time through natural selection - and creationism (39 per cent) - the theory that God created mankind. Seventy per cent of Americans said they were very (21 per cent) or somewhat (49 per cent) religious, while around one-third of those polled also said they believe in UFOs, witches and astrology. –AFP

WHY WE NEED HELL, TOO: CHURCHGOERS TAKE COMFORT: HELL HAS ALL BUT DISAPPEARED FROM MODERN CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY. BUT THIS COMES AT A PRICE, IN MORAL PURPOSE AND SERIOUSNESS.  Aug 12, 2002  Kenneth L. Woodward  The most famous sermon in American history was a graphic evocation of the horrors of the damned in hell. As Jonathan Edwards expanded on his subject, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," so many moans and cries rose from his proper New England congregation that the learned theologian had to pause while his listeners recoiled in fear of their fate in the life to come... [Complete article contains 771 words]

HEAVEN, HELL AND IN BETWEEN; SPRING RELEASES INCLUDE LOOKS AT BOTH SIDES OF LIFE AFTER DEATH  May 6, 2000  Bill Broadway  One of the most intriguing religion books released this spring is a report on Hell. Lest you think the topic passe, consider the book's focus on a lively debate among many of today's evangelical Christians: Once a soul is damned, does it suffer throughout eternity? Or is the soul at some point annihilated?  [Complete article contains 333 words]

CONCEPT OF HELL  World News Tonight with Peter Jennings and Bill Blakemore  July 28, 1999  PETER JENNINGS: ...Pope John Paul's views on Hell, which he stated today. Just a week after he said that Heaven is not some place up in the clouds, the Pope says that Hell is not "down there." ABC's Bill Blakemore, who covers the Vatican for us, understands these matters...[Complete article contains 317 words]

TO HELL AND BACK  [Interview with Bishop Carlton Pearson and Ted Haggard]  Keith Morrison Correspondent  Aug. 14, 2006  Hell: It’s a dreadful thought — horrific frightening place to which many of us may well be bound. Or is it a place at all? ...
Pearson: "I was angry that people go to hell...resentful of God... I said, 'God I don’t know how you're gonna call yourself a loving God and allow those people to suffer so much and then just suck them into hell.'"  Carlton Pearson...now believed, the church had it all wrong when it warned of hell as a place of punishment after death. So he began to preach that all people will eventually be reunited with God.  Ted Haggard: I think Carlton’s a good man. He’s made a horrible mistake, a grievous mistake. Does hell exist? You bet it does... [Extensive interview - contains 2460 words]

HELL HATH NO FURY  January 31, 2000  With fire and brimstone out of fashion, modern thinking says the netherworld isn't so hot after all By Jeffery L. Sheler  The pit is prepared. The fire is made ready. The furnace is now hot, ready to receive them. The flames do now rage and glow. The glittering sword is whet, and held over them, and the pit has opened her mouth under them. . . . O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in...."Scripture clearly speaks of hell as a physical place of fiery torment and warns us we should fear," says R. Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky... [Seven Page Article - Full Feature Story – 3839 Words]

WRESTLING WITH FAITH, DECENCY AND HELL  Theater Review | Author C.S. Lewis takes a self-mocking look at his life  November 26, 2007  BY Hedy Weiss Theater Critic  "C.S. Lewis on Stage" is the thinking person's holiday season show -- one that lifts you out of shopping and partying mode and drops you back into the darker, more demanding realm of faith and conscience.... [Complete article contains 376 words]

YOU THOUGHT IT WAS SAFE BUT HELL'S BACK  Margery Eatan  March 29, 2007  Hell is back. Are you concerned? Are you en route? ...Hell "really exists and is eternal, even if nobody talks about it much any more," Pope Benedict XVI told a glum group outside Rome this week. Shape up or risk "eternal damnation - the Inferno," said the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, known as Papa Ratzi around Vatican City... [Complete article contains 612 words]

POPE SAYS HELL IS SELF-IMPOSED BY THOSE WHO REJECT UNION WITH GOD  Diego Ribadeneira, Globe Staff  July 31, 1999  While hell may not be the fiery chamber depicted in popular art, Pope John Paul II said last week that hell is a reality and eternal damnation is self-imposed and not a punishment from God. "Hell is not a punishment imposed externally by God, but the condition resulting from attitudes and actions which people adopt in this life," John Paul said... [Complete article contains 436 words]

REVISITING THE ABYSS (EVOLVING RELIGIOUS DOCTRINES ON HELL)  March 25, 1991  Hell was not made for men. It is in no sense parallel to heaven: It is the darkness outside, "the outer rim where being fades away into nonentity.  To many Christians today, the fiery depictions of hell and damnation by Dante and Jonathan Edwards are more nearly like documentaries than allegories. "I preach a literal hell," says the Rev. Morris Chapman, president of the Southern Baptist Convention and pastor of the 7,900-member First Baptist Church in Wichita Falls, Texas. "The Bible calls it a 'lake of fire,' and I don't think that definition can be improved upon."  But in much of mainline Protestantism, modern Roman Catholicism and even in some evangelical churches, views of hell have changed in recent decades and, in some instances, are still evolving... [Three Page Cover Story - 1456 Words]

POPE'S VISION OF HEAVEN, HELL RILES EVANGELICALS  August 17, 1999  Hanna Rosin  Pope John Paul II has just revealed what the tabloids are calling a "shocking truth" about heaven and hell, and his revelation is turning into a serious theological sore point between Roman Catholics and American Protestant evangelicals.  [Complete article contains 477 words]

WEEP AND GNASH THOSE TEETH: HELL'S BACK WHAT DO WE BELIEVE?  Eternal damnation is real say evangelicals as young people learn about the occult  April 2, 2000 London  The Fastest growing Christian movement in Britain has reopened the controversy about the nature of Hell by insisting that traditional fire and brimstone really do exist. The Evangelical Alliance, which claims to represent a million believers, is about to bring out a report at odds with the Church of England's less literal view of Hell. The main Christian denominations have ignored hellfire in recent years, preferring to describe it as an absence of God. But the Alliance, whose members include large numbers of practising Anglicans, takes a much sterner view... [Complete article contains 734 words]

POLL SAYS AMERICANS BELIEVE IN GOD AND HELL, UFOS, WITCHES, ASTROLOGY  December 2007  Washington (AFP) — An overwhelming majority of Americans believe in God and signicant numbers also think that UFOs, the devil and ghosts exist, a poll showed Tuesday. The survey by Harris Online showed that 82 percent of adult Americans believe in God and a slightly smaller percentage -- 79 percent -- believe in miracles. More than 70 percent of the 2,455 adults surveyed between November 7 and 13 said they believe in heaven and angels, while more than six in 10 said they believed in hell and the devil. [Complete article contains 154 words]

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