To Hell with Hell

By Femi Aribisala
Pull Quote: Sooner, rather than later, hell will disappear forever from the English bible.
Jesus says: “It is written in the prophets, ‘and they shall all be taught by God.’” (John 6:45).  However, new believers are not allowed to be taught by God.  They are quickly indoctrinated in churches where the fear of God is often taught by the commandment of men. (Isaiah 29:13).  As a result, they read the scriptures with minds already made up.  They start their walk with Christ with assumptions and presumptions that have nothing to do with the word of God.
A prime example is the bogus Christian concept of hell.  The idea of God torturing sinners in a fiery furnace for eternity is a staple diet in Christendom.  However, it is completely without true biblical foundation.  The concept was developed long after the bible was compiled essentially as a manipulative devise for populating the churches.  It was then extrapolated into the scriptures by bible translators 1600 years later.
The word hell itself had nothing to do originally with a place of torment.  It came from the anglo-saxon words “helle” which means “a hidden place;” and “helan” which means “to cover or conceal.”  Thus, something that covers the head is a “helmet.”  “Helliers” “helled a building” by roofing it. Farmers “put potatoes in hell” by burying them in the ground to preserve them in winter.  This original meaning was then corrupted by Roman Catholics into a place of fiery eternal torture controlled by demons.
Hellish distortions
English bible writers indiscriminately translated four different Hebrew and Greek words as “hell,” even though they have different meanings and refer to different things.  The first is the Hebrew word “sheol,” which simply means a place that is unseen.  Sheol is not exclusively a place of punishment.  Faithful Jacob went to sheol. (Genesis 37:35).  Righteous Job pleaded to go to sheol. (Job 14:13).  David spoke of going to sheol. (Psalm 49:15).  Even Jesus went to sheol. (Psalm 16:10).
“Hades” is the Greek equivalent of sheol that is also confusingly mistranslated as hell in the English bible.  It refers primarily to what is unseen to the natural eye in the grave.  Hades is not a place of eternal torment.  “Abraham’s bosom,” where righteous Lazarus was carried when he died, was in hades. (Luke 16:23).  When Jesus died on the cross, he went to hades. (Acts 2:27-31).  Hades is also used with reference to national judgments.  Jesus said Capernaum would go down into hades; meaning it would be destroyed. (Matthew 11:23).
The Greek word, “tartarus,” is also confusingly mistranslated as “hell” in the English bible.  The word is used in Greek fiction to denote a temporary prison for fallen angels.  It is not applied to human-beings in scripture, and says nothing about the eternal fire and torment commonly associated with the Christian hell. (2 Peter 2:4).
Lastly, the word “Gehenna” is also mistranslated as hell in the English bible.  This is by far the most idiotic mistranslation of all.  Gehenna is actually a valley on the outskirts of Jerusalem which operated as a dump for incinerating refuse.  This means it did not need to be translated at all.  Other areas in the vicinity of Jerusalem, such as Gethsemane and Calvary are not translated.  So why have a different rule for Gehenna?
On eleven occasions when Jesus referred specifically to Gehenna, it was changed in the English bible to hell.  But there is nothing to suggest Gehenna refers to is anything other than the valley outside Jerusalem.  Jesus warned those living in the environs of Jerusalem that, unless they repented, their city would be destroyed imminently with their dead bodies dumped in Gehenna.  That is exactly what happened in AD 70, as the historical record confirms.
Imagine me telling people in Lagos that if they are not careful, they will end up in Kirikiri; a notorious prison island.  Then translators decide to change my “kirikiri” to “hell.”  Would you consider this a faithful translation?  Of course, people who lived far away from Jerusalem probably would not have known what Gehenna was, any more than people in Jerusalem would know about Kirikiri.  But the truth is that Jesus did not threaten any Gentile with the prospect of Gehenna if he did not repent.  Gehenna only has relevance for people living in Jerusalem at a certain time some two thousand years ago.
None of the mistranslated hell passages in the bible say anyone of our day can go to the Christian hell.   None of them says Satan’s domain is hell, according to popular Christian folklore.  Though they speak of men being killed and destroyed in Gehenna, none of them speaks of men being tormented there.  In short, Gehenna is not the Christian hell and should never have been translated as such.
Hell fiction
Nobody in the bible was ever threatened with eternal torment as Christians are today by pastors.  God forgot to mention it to Adam and Eve.  Cain killed his brother Abel, but was not threatened with it. (Genesis 4:11-12).  Sinners were destroyed by the flood without any warning of endless torment.  Nothing was said about it to the sinners of Sodom and Gomorrah and Nineveh.  Nothing was said because the Christian hell does not exist.  It is essentially the product of the evil imagination of men.
Moses threatened the Israelites with every conceivable punishment if they disobeyed God, but completely forgot to mention hell.  No disciple of Jesus preached about it.  Not once is it mentioned in Paul’s thirteen epistles.  There is nothing in the scriptures about fiery ovens, bowls of hot oil or torture racks.  However, such graphic details are readily found in such Christian folklores as Milton’s “Paradise Lost” and Dante’s “Inferno.”  They are also the subject of countless Hollywood horror movies.
If we are tempted to use Jesus’ parable of the rich man and Lazarus as indicative of the existence of hell, let us recall that this took place in hades; a temporal grave.  Jesus says: “The hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth- those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.” (John 5:28-29).
Jesus does not indicate how long this resurrection of condemnation will take.  But it cannot be eternal because of scriptures indicating there will be a restitution of all things. (Acts 3:21).  At the end of time, every knee will bow in worship to God. (Isaiah 45:23).  God is love: he is not hate.  It is his mercy, and not his judgment, that endures forever. (Psalm 118:1).  Today’s believers are merely the “first-fruits” of salvation.  In the ages to come, God promises to return and rebuild the tabernacle of David: “so that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord.” (Acts 15:16-17).
Christians should not persist in an illogical faith.  We cannot insist the penalty for sins is eternal damnation, and then say Jesus paid the penalty for our sins.  Jesus did not spend eternity in hades.  He was only there for three days.  Therefore, the growing trend in the more modern translations including King James indicates that sooner, rather than later, hell will disappear forever from the English bible.  Hell will go to hell; which is where it truly belongs.
Vanguard

2015: Opposition Parties ‘ll Conclude Merger Talks In 2013 – Shekarau

 TONY AMOKEODO

The claim of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP) to rule forever will be put to test as  leading opposition parties, including  the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) may conclude merger talks in April 2013.
Former Kano State Governor Ibrahim Shekarau disclosed this during an interactive session with some select journalists in Abuja on Saturday.
Shekarau is the chairman of 21-man committee of the ANPP  mandated to reposition the party in terms of bringing in  both new members and funding.
The committee was also saddled with the responsibility of ensuring that aggrieved ANPP members were brought back to the party.
The Shekarau committee was also directed to discuss merger talks with other opposition parties.
According to him, the opposition parties have started the merger talks in good time in order to avoid the mistakes of what happened in 2011.
He added that the desire of the stakeholders was to have a single formidable opposition party to challenge the dominance of the PDP in 2015 general polls and not to go into alliances.
Commenting on the ongoing merger talks, “Our party (ANPP) has made it very clear to the ACN and the CPC that we are committed to total merger and nothing else. We have had alliances in the past. We want to reach an understanding that in the end, we will dissolve into one entity because we have studied all the experiences right from the First Republic.
 “Ninety per cent of the alliances entered into from the First Republic till date has not really worked. We believe as we progress in these discussions, more parties in the opposition will come on board. But these three main opposition parties have it in writing. The three parties have exchanged letters of interest among themselves. A lot of processes are involved,” he said.
This, in a nutshell, is what this committee is out to do. We have been given six months to do all of these.
When reminded that conflict of interest affected the alliance of the opposition parties in 2011, Shekarau responded that the parties were committed to make the merger talks work on the grounds that there was the need to give a dynamic government to the people.
He said, “I think there is a fundamental difference between the period you are talking about in 2011 and now. There are two fundamental reasons that make them different. In 2011, we started late. The second reason is that negotiations started after all the parties have already held their congresses.
 “They already had their presidential candidates on ground. That was part of what really made it difficult. There was the argument of who was going to step down for whom. Even if I wanted to step down for another person, I didn’t have that freedom because it was not a personal mandate since primaries had already been conducted before the negotiations started.
 “Again, our parties had already submitted names of candidates to INEC. When you merge, it is beyond the national election. When you merge, what do you do with the gubernatorial candidates in a state like Kano? These were not part of the discussions.
 “In the end, we told ourselves, look, let us talk to ourselves sensibly. Another factor then was that we had only some weeks to go to the elections. What assurance do you have to adequately enlighten the electorate on their new identity? The candidates were all scared. These were all the difficulties. We agreed that after the elections, then we can start. If we are able to finish within the next six months, we will then have more than two years to sell our new identity to the public. These were the fundamental reasons that scuttled the previous one. It is 50 per cent solved already”.
 Leadership

ACN, ANPP, CPC to form new party in 2013

 by Olusola Fabiyi 

Buhari, Tinubu and Onu

THREE  major opposition political parties   -  Action Congress of Nigeria, Congress for Progressive Change and the All Nigeria Peoples Party  – may drop their identities by April 2013, when talks  on  their proposed merger are expected to be completed.

The merger of the parties  is  one of the strategies being canvassed by some  politicians to defeat the ruling Peoples Democratic Party which has dominated power since the advent of the present democracy in 1999.

Analysts are of the opinion that any genuine and honest cooperation among opposition parties for the 2015 general elections could make the election tough for the PDP.

The  Chairman of the ANPP National Rebuilding and Interparty Contact Committee, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, told journalists in Abuja on Sunday, that the merger talks between the three ACN, CPC  and ANPP had reached the last stage.

 Shekarau, a   former Governor of Kano State, added that the chieftains of the three  parties had decided to forget their individual ambitions to make the fusion a success.

He  said  that  the leaders had realised that an alliance between the three parties would not work and that it was better for them to merge.

The ANPP  chieftain  said, “Certainly, we are going to submit our party certificates to the Independent National Electoral Commission after our merger. That is what a merger means. The Electoral Law is so clear on the procedure for a merger.

“If we decide to merge, the next thing is that we go back to our parties, call National Executive Committee meeting, and discuss with the members, in the presence of INEC officials. Then, you can call congress and that is all.”

He said that both the ANPP and the ACN were not new to mergers.

Shekarau said, “We have passed through this before when we were All Peoples Party and then Action Congress too, before it became ACN.

“The difference now is to pass a resolution and all this will be simultaneously done (by the three parties) and we will inform INEC about it. When that is done, INEC has no choice than to register your new identity.”

In the alternative, he said the parties might decide to adopt the name of one of the existing political parties while the remaining two would dissolve into the adopted one.

The other two options, according to him, are to “take a symbol, a flag and any other identity  from the parties so that every party will have a sense of belonging  or all of us will just forget our identity.”

Asked if the parties had learnt any lesson from their failed ambition to merge in 2011, Shekarau said ‘Yes’. But added that one of the reasons was that they started the process late.

He said, “We started late then. In fact, the negotiation  started  when all the political parties already had their presidential candidates and had finished their congresses.

“That was what made it difficult. Who among the candidates   would  you  have expected to step down?

“Arguments came for example, that I had won the presidential primary of the ANPP. Out of the 3,000 delegates, I had 2,500 votes or thereabout. Now, sitting down in a room with about 10 people and I say I’m stepping down for you, it is no longer my personal mandate.

“What do you do with the people who stood in the rain and sun, slept in the bus, on the roadside and overnight. And again, our party had already submitted names of persons to INEC and when you merge, it would be beyond national election.

“What do you do with other elections like governorship elections, where each political party had their candidates?

“The CPC, ACN, and ANPP all had their candidates for other elective positions. These candidates had spent money, canvassed for votes and all that. That was why we said let all the parties go for elections.”

The former presidential candidate said all the political parties had agreed that the electoral ambitions of party members must not feature during their discussion.

 “We are all coming to the table on equal terms. Whoever has any ambition is with his political party and not ours now. We are all talking on the same level. None of these parties has any candidates for any elective office for now. We can only talk about former candidates,” Shekarau said.

The National Publicity Secretaries of the CPC and ACN, Mr. Rotimi Fashakin and Alhaji Lai Mohammed, on Sunday confirmed what Shekarau said.

 Both Fashakin and Mohammed said their parties were committed to the merger and that the modalities were being worked out.

They said their plan was to form a stronger political party that would be capable of sacking the PDP.

Fashakin said, “Yes, we are ready to lose our identity for the sake of the bigger party that is capable of sacking the PDP.

“My National Chairman, Prince Tony Momoh, has said it several time that he is ready to lose his position as well. I’m also ready for that, if that will enable us form a party that will be big enough to confront and remove the PDP from the central government.”

Mohammed said, “ACN is committed to getting a single platform of all opposition political parties that will drive the PDP out of power.”

On whether the ACN was also ready to lose its identity, he said “All I can tell you is that the modalities are being worked out. And we are committed to it.”

ThePunch

Anonymous donors besiege CPC •As party rethinks merger

 by  Olawale Rasheed- Abuja

The battle for 2015 presidency may have taken a new dimension as there are credible reports that opposition party, Congress for Progressive Change  (CPC) has been receiving anonymous donors in the last few months.
This is coming as the CPC is reported to be reconsidering its original merger agenda with the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN)with a new plan to pursue fusion with All Nigerian People’s Party (ANPP).
Checks showed that the CPC, in recent weeks, had been receiving offer of support and assistance towards the party‘s preparation for 2015, even as it was gathered that General Muhammadu Buhari has instructed that no unknown donation should be accepted.
It was gathered further that some of those unidentified donors had capitalised on the recent demise of the General‘s first daughter to throng the Kaduna residence of the politician and offer partnership and support for the next general election.
A CPC chieftain in Abuja told the Nigerian Tribune that the party had been receiving unsolicited support and pledges from some top zonal and regional figures, who are not members of the party.
“It is strange but we are receiving pledges from influential figures who choose not to be identified. Many of them said they don’t want their names mentioned or listed in connection to funding the party,” the party chief, who is very close to the party secretariat, said.
The source hinted that the party, at a point, had to stop receiving such donations and pledges, adding that “many of those donors simply said they want to identify with the party ahead of 2015.
“Let me say that they are not our members and we did not ask them for money. We are also careful not to fall into the hands of PDP agents,”  the source said.
The party chief had let the cat out of the bag when he hinted that the CPC is planning a nationwide biometric database registration of its members with its presidential hopeful, General Muhammadu Buhari, said to be the arrowhead of the registration project.
Asked how the party will fund the registration to cover CPC members across the country, the party chief confirmed that funding will not be a problem as “the party, of late, has new circles of supporters.
“Funding is not likely to be our problems in 2015. So many sympathisers, so many people, seeking alternative to PDP are reaching us secretly. But we are also afraid of being set up by pro-PDP agents,” the source said.
Contacted for comments on the reports of anonymous donations, the national publicity secretary of the CPC, Mr Rotimi Fashakin, neither confirmed nor denied the reports, but added that “the funding of the party is within the ambit of relevant laws.
“Nigerians are free to donate to political parties and if they are doing that for CPC, we are happy. We are the underdog and what you are questioning me about is showing you trends among the populace.”
Meanwhile, all may not be well with the planned grand coalition between the CPC and the ACN as the latest report indicated that the CPC is refocusing on the ANPP for relationship.
“We are having a new thought. ANPP has sizeable presence in the North with three states under its control. We think we should unite the main opposition parties in the North before reaching out to the South,” a party chief involved in the negotiation told the Nigerian Tribune.
The ANPP is said to have nominated former Kano State governor, Ibrahim Shekarau, as its contact person, with insiders hinting that the two parties had the potential of stopping the PDP in 2015.
The spokesman of the CPC, however, told the Nigerian Tribune that the party is still interested in a merger with the ACN, but added that the CPC is yet to name its committee for the merger meetings with the Bisi Akande-led ACN.
It is, however, not clear whether the change of merger plan by the CPC has anything to do with ongoing moves by major opposition actors in northern Nigerian to forge a common front against the PDP in 2015.

 

NigerianTribune

Election Monitoring: Embarrassed ECOWAS Vows Never to Invite Obasanjo Again

Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and Ghanaian President elect, John Dramani Mahama-Photo: Reuters

By SaharaReporters, New York

Following embarrassing and undemocratic utterances by General Olusegun Obasanjo at yesterday’s meeting of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the leadership of the commission today held a review meeting that could end the possibility of future election observation on its behalf by the former Nigerian leader.
As SaharaReporters reported yesterday, Obasanjo was the figure behind the recommendation of the ECOWAS observation team to curtail the media in election observation that contradicts the position of ECOWAS and other international democracy observers.
A senior ECOWAS official said of today’s development, “Our meeting this evening has resolved, and this will be communicated to the political leadership of ECOWAS, that Chief Obasanjo should be saved the trouble of trying to give what he doesn't have.”
He said the review was necessitated by the negative reaction generated by General Obasanjo's role in the observation mission and the potential for it to undermine the credibility of ECOWAS in future observation missions.
According to the senior officer, “You know Obasanjo is a loose cannon. He becomes uncontrollable once bestowed with power. We regret this appointment and vowed never to have the man invited to head missions again.
“ECOWAS was only fortunate to have [been] at an election of an advanced and stable democracy. Were it to be a volatile country, his disposition, recommendations and utterances are not only capable of truncating the electoral process, they are capable of jeopardizing the security and safety of our 250 monitors mobilized from across the sub-region.”

PHOTONEWS: Monumental Fraud Discovered In Award Of Abuja Millennium Tower Project

The Senate Committee on the Federal Capital Territory has uncovered a major fraud in the award of the contract for the Abuja Millennium Tower Project contract to Salini Nigeria  construction company at a whopping sum of N69.3 billion instead of N53 billion.
The Committee made the discovery during an oversight visit to the site of the project at the Business Central District Area, Abuja.                                                 
On August 2, 2006, during the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved the construction of a Millennium Tower and Cultural Centre in Abuja worth N53 billion. The Executive Secretary of the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA), Engr. Adamu Ismail, who conducted the Senators around the site, told them that the project was awarded to Messr Salini Nigeria Ltd on November 17, 2005; while work commenced on January 12, 2007.                                         
Ismail noted that the project, which occupies four hectares of land, was expected to be completed by October 14, 2014.
The document submitted to the committee put the initial cost of the project at N62.1 billion; augmented cost, N69.3 billion; variation, N16.2 billion and advance mobilisation, N13.28 billion.                                          
The Committee which was led by its Chairman, Senator Smart Adeyemi, described the discrepancies in the figures of the contract as unacceptable and vowed that the committee will get to the root of the matter.
The committee also expressed anger and displeasure when told that 302 Nigerians were working as labourers and 33 foreigners as principal engineers. The Executive Secretary had said of the 304 Nigerians working on the project, one is a quantity surveyor and another one an engineer.
Senator Adeyemi, said: “You cannot have all the principal engineers as foreigners.”
The Millennium Tower would consist of an auditorium, virtual library, botanical garden, hotel, boutiques, drives and parking areas, in addition to providing an aerial view of the entire Federal Capital Territory and the tallest in Nigeria. The project is expected to be completed in 2014.
Saharareporters.com

October 1 Bombing: SSS Wanted Me To Implicate IBB, el-Rufai, Others - Okah

 EZRA IJIOMA

Charles Okah, the elder brother of Henry Okah, the alleged mastermind of the 2010 Independence Day bombing in Abuja, has alleged that the State Security Service (SSS) tried to force him to implicate a former military head of state, Gen. Ibrahim Badamosi (retd); owner of RayPower and AIT broadcast stations, Raymond Dokpesi; a former minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, Malam Nasir El-Rufai; immediate past governor of Bayelsa State, Timipre Sylva, and the governor of Delta State, Emmanuel Uduaghan, in order for him to regain his freedom.
Charles Okah is standing trial alongside three others, Obi Nwabueze, Edmund Ebiware and Tiemkemfa Francis Osuwo (who is now late), for allegedly masterminding the October 1, 2010,  bomb blasts in Abuja that killed about 12 persons and injured many more. His younger brother, Henry, is also standing trial for the same offence before a South African court. Both are accused of being leaders of Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND), a group that claimed responsibility for those bombings.
In a Save Our Soul (SOS) letter to Cardinal Olubunmi Okogie, retired Catholic Archbishop of Lagos, which LEADERSHIP accessed, Charles Okah, who is being detained at Kuje Prisons in Abuja, said the SSS arrested him in his home in Apapa GRA, Lagos State, on October 16 and accused of him  being Jomo Gbomo, the spokesman of MEND, took him to its headquarters in Abuja in chains and offered him his freedom and a lucrative contract if he falsely testified against his younger brother, Henry, and  Babangida, Dokpesi, El-Rufai, Sylva and Uduaghan as his ‘conspirators’.
Babangida was a presidential aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the April 2011 presidential election who was seen as the most potent threat to President Goodluck Jonathan’s ambition while Dokpesi was his campaign manager. On his part, El-Rufai has been a critic of the Jonathan administration while Sylva and Uduaghan were perceived as funding the opposition to Jonathan’s 2011 presidential ambition.
Okah claimed that he was tortured with electric shocks to his private parts until he lost consciousness while his son, a student of University of Kansas in the United States, was detained when he refused to comply with the SSS.
“My son was eventually released after Mr. Femi Falana visited in the company of my wife after a month of being denied access to a lawyer. However, my containers have been impounded up to date and my bank accounts frozen,” he wrote.
Okah accused the federal government of double standards in handling the charges of terrorism against him and his co-accused.
According to him,  “While the Boko Haram suspects at Kuje prison are allowed to worship in the prison’s mosque, we have never set foot in the prison’s chapel. They are also enjoying privileges such as cable television, radio, liberty to move within the prison walls, bunk beds to sleep on and phone calls to their families; we are denied all of the above.”
The detainee also wondered why Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume, an alleged financier of Boko Haram, who is standing trial for sponsoring terrorism, would be given bail while he, Charles Okah, was denied bail for a medical check-up “which in my case is mandatory for a kidney donor, having donated my left kidney to my mother 30 years ago.”
 Justice Gabriel Kolawole of the Federal High Court Abuja is presiding over both cases.
In the letter, he implored Cardinal Okogie and other church leaders to be “more sensitive and proactive in politics of the land that touches the lives of their followers and not leave delicate issues solely in the hands of corrupt and selfish politicians.”
Meanwhile, former FCT minister, Malam Nasir el-Rufai has said the letter written by Okah was quite revealing and confirmed what they have always suspected.
He said: “This confirms what we have always known that they try to blame some of these things on a number of us. Reading it from someone that was asked to name us is quite revealing. It shows the kind of people we have in government.”
When LEADERSHIP contacted the SSS spokesman, Marilyn Ogar, she denied knowledge of the letter.
 Leadership