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Heaven vs. Hell

In: Religion Topics

Submitted By ricemackenzie
Words 2352
Pages 10
Mackenzie Rice
Corn
REL 250
28 November 2011
Gnosticism and Marcionism vs. Christianity What and where is heaven and hell? Many Christians today can answer these questions based on the beliefs they’ve obtained through the church. Most Christians would answer that heaven is a place in the sky where an obedient person’s soul goes after they die, and hell is a place in the ground where a misbehaved soul goes. These beliefs of afterlife are often taught in Christian churches; however, these beliefs weren’t always this way. This change was important because it answered the critical question in Christianity about the Last Judgment Day. This change took place after the church had to create specific writings of the beliefs of the Christian religion to refute the popular beliefs of Gnosticism and Marcionism. The ideas about heaven and hell came out of neo-platonic philosophy, which played the major role of influence in the Christian religious cults Gnosticism and Marcionism, who then prevailed with the same ideas that were adopted by the Christian orthodox. Another importance of this change in the history of the church is that the Christian orthodox today still practices these neo-platonic ideas that were first present in the Gnosticism and Marcionism.
The Christian orthodox beliefs about heaven and hell would not be the same without the Gnostic and Marcionic influences on the church. Neo-platonic philosophy about heaven and hell show up in the beliefs of Gnostics and Marcionites and the Christian orthodox. However, the neo-platonic ideas didn’t show up until after the church invalidated the Gnostics and Marcionites. These new beliefs of heaven and hell gave understanding to Christians about afterlife, in which they would not return to earth but go to a different spiritual place to be with God. Because the Christian orthodox was exposed to such ideas about heaven

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