"Everybody can go to hell."
CLARIFICATION & EXPLANATION (added later)
There are many ways one can read things on the internet, or written word in general. For instance, you could read this comment as "EVERYBODY can (just) go to hell!" And you would think this person was mad-at-the-world. They were fed up and confused and were having a very bad day (or week, or month, or year). Actually, for most of the last week that is how I have felt.
However, this statement could also be very theological. "Everybody CAN go to hell" signifies not only that one believes hell exists, but that WE actually have a say in whether or not we will end up there. Not everyone believes this. Some people believe everyone will go to heaven. Some people believe only God determines who will or will not go to heaven (or hell). Some believe our "fate" is pre-determined. Some believe in free will. So... your take on this statement can be quite telling theologically.
I believe the overall statement we can glean from this is that when we write things, they can be taken very differently by different people, and they can often be understood in ways that we had no intention of them meaning. So... there ya go.
2 comments:
I think it is an interesting statement as I have read it several times, emphasizing different parts and it seems true in that it seems possible. If you wrote the same statement using heaven - it would also seem true in that it seems possible - and those would be our two alternatives.
However...you could also read it in a negative way - like when you're having a bad day and that thought pops into your head. Then I think it just becomes more of a statement of a person's current state of mind.
There you go...those were my first thoughts...
Jah,
Good point about substituting 'heaven', dear. And then it would be hard to use in the negative... Thanks for sharing.
dh
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