- Joined
- Oct 28, 2017
To be more clear on this, prior to Jesus's death on the cross, in Christian theology, there used to be a portion of hell, aka Hades, aka Sheol, called Abraham's Bosom, which is where all the Old Testament saints, such as Adam, David, the Prophets, Samuel, etc. went, along with any righteous Jews who died prior to Christ's sacrifice. They remained there till Christ's death on the cross. Sinners and those who committed evil still went to Sheol, where they burned in fire and torment. This is illustrated in Christ's parable of Lazarus and the rich man, where the rich man went to Sheol to suffer, while Lazarus, the poor beggar, went to Abraham's bosom. Though both could see and even talk to each other, they could not interact, as there was a bottomless chasm between them.
After Christ died, he went down into hell and preached to those in Abraham's bosom, to let them know that the promised messiah had come. Then Abraham's bosom was taken up into Heaven with Christ, and the Old Testament saints finally joined God in Paradise (this is what Jesus meant when he told the thief on the cross that "today, you will be with me in Paradise"), though, prior to going to Heaven, many of them were bodily resurrected as their graves were opened and walked around amongst the living, which was witnessed by many people, according to the New Testament. The Bible says that, after this was done and Jesus himself resurrected and went to Earth (eventually returning to Heaven), Hell "enlarged itself" for all the sinners who would come there afterward. Now, the saved go straight to Heaven, while the unsaved go straight to Hell, and there is no longer any "holding area" for those who are saved in Hell.
Back to HH itself, the problems that others in this thread have noted in regards to the issues on how one even gets into Heaven in HH is due to the fact that Viv has taken certain aspects of Christian theology for her story, but has not embraced the entirety of the theology wholeheartedly. How does one get to Heaven in Christianity? By declaring with your mouth and believing in your heart that Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior. As Jesus said in John 3:16, "I am the way, the truth and the light, no man can come unto the Father except by me". All those who confess with their mouth and believe in their heart in Jesus's death and resurrection and that he is their Lord and Savior is saved. But in Hazbin Hotel, Jesus Christ functionally doesn't exist. He hasn't been mentioned, nor alluded to. Its a glaring omission, maybe even a bigger omission than the lack of the mention of God the Father. If Jesus was acknowledged, it would solve the biggest issue of how people get to Heaven in the first place, and offer the clearest example of why the sinners are in hell, even those who thought they were "good people". Christian theology teaches that being a good man won't get you to heaven, only faith in Jesus Christ will. My grandfather always says that at one time he was "a good man on his way to hell". All those born on Earth are born sinners. Reprobates in other words. The Bible says that we are all "born in sin, and shaped out in iniquity". We are born on our way to hell. Very young children, toddlers and babies are afforded mercy due to being too young to make conscious choices regarding sinning, understand sin, and just overall being innocent, but any old enough to understand sin and tell right from wrong, good from evil are given no protection. If you die without Christ, you go to hell, not because of what you do, but because of who you are, a born sinner. God is perfect and demands perfection to get into heaven, but none of us are perfect. Christ died as the propitiation for sin, because mankind could never be "good enough" to get to heaven on his own.
The issue for HH is that Viv ignores the most important aspect of Christian theology and has replaced it with...nothing, leaving everyone to wonder why anyone goes to heaven or hell in the first place, and how the "sinners" might be redeemed. It also overlooks the fact that the sinners are irredeemable in Christian theology not because they are "destined" (though predestination is a belief in the Calvinist/Reformed strand of Christianity, I doubt that is what Viv is going for here) but because they are already in hell. Their chance to choose Christ was in life, and that has long past. Now, they are turned over to eternal punishment. The only way someone who goes to hell gets a second chance is if they are revived to life on Earth, and there are those who have claimed to have momentarily died and been to hell, and this led to their conversion to Christ. The sinners are doomed because they already rejected Christ on Earth, so its too late to for them now. The lack of Christ in HH is its greatest and most glaring weakness because the rest of the theology doesn't work without him.
