In this post I take a closer look at the many idols erected in the Valley of the sons of Hinnom. As Jeremiah points out, the things that happened in that valley brought about God’s judgement and rejection. Jeremiah’s message here is a clear “type and shadow” showing that the whole burn in Hell message is false and not of God. Instead it is a tare sown in the hearts and minds of God’s children which is a high place or stronghold that must be destroyed.
Jer 7:30 For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith the LORD: they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to pollute it.
Jer 7:31 And they have built the high places of Tophet, [which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom], to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart.
The wikipedia entry for Tophet is helpful I believe. (All emphasis is mine)
In the Hebrew Bible, Tophet or Topheth (Hebrew: תוֹפֶת; Greek: Ταφεθ; Latin: Topheth) was a location in Jerusalem in the Gehinnom where worshipers influenced by the ancient Canaanite religion engaged in the human sacrifice of children to the gods Moloch and Baal by burning them alive. Tophet became a theological or poetic synonym for hell within Christendom.
The traditional explanation that a burning rubbish heap in the Valley of Hinnom south of Jerusalem gave rise to the idea of a fiery Gehenna of judgment is attributed to Rabbi David Kimhi’s commentary on Psalm 27:13. He maintained that in this loathsome valley fires were kept burning perpetually to consume the filth and cadavers thrown into it.
According to the Hebrew Bible, the Valley of Hinnom was used as a place for worshipers in Canaan to burn their own children alive as sacrifices to the gods Moloch and Baal. One section of the Hinnom Valley was called Topheth (also spelled Tophet or Topeth), where the children were slaughtered (2 Kings 23:10). Medieval Jewish commentators David Kimhi and Rashi claimed that the name Topheth is derived from the Hebrew word toph, meaning a drum, because the cries of children being sacrificed by the priests of Moloch were masked by the sound of the beating on drums or tambourines.[2][3] According to Philip King (1993), the derivation is uncertain, but may come from an Aramaic word meaning “hearth,” “fireplace,” or “roaster.”[4]
The term is spelled Topheth in most English bibles. However, it appears in versions such as the King James and New King James as “Tophet”. Source
One thing that I notice from that quote is that the worshipers of Judah were influenced by the Canaanite religion. In the religions of Canaan this practice of burning their own children alive to Baal and Moloch was the very reason why God had them exterminated.
Also notice that it was THEIR OWN CHILDREN that they burned alive. They were not burning the children of other people but their own. Today Christians believe that God shall burn alive all children of men who do not believe in Jesus Christ. Yet the type and shadow for the whole Hell dogma is this sad episode in Judah’s history. The prophetic type tells us that only the children of those who HELD THIS RELIGIOUS BELIEF WERE SACRIFICED TO MOLOCH AND BAAL.
Christians all over the world and for many generations have been taught the abominable Hell doctrine. They have told their OWN CHILDREN from a young age that unless a person believes in Jesus they shall suffer eternal damnation in a roasting fire in Hell. They have STUMBLED THEIR OWN LITTLE ONES with the terrors of Hell which thing GOD NEVER COMMANDED nor did it ever enter His mind to do such an abominable thing.
The worst that the Law of God calls for for punishment of sin is to put to death the person who has sinned. That death was inflicted by stoning. The sinner died quickly. That was it, done. God says in Jeremiah that burning children alive –which is a slow and terrifying agonising way of dying –never entered His mind….NOR DID HE COMMAND SUCH A FORM OF SACRIFICE.
Instead the sacrifice God commanded Judah was always an animal or grain offering as a prophetic type pointing to the ONE GREAT SACRIFICE FOR SIN that God Himself would make–JESUS CHRIST and Him crucified.
Christians who teach their children the Hell Dogma are stumbling those little ones–and Jesus said it would be better for that man if he were never born. The prophetic type shown forth by Jeremiah is clearly telling all who read it that God is not behind or in support of the eternal burning in Hell doctrine. It never came from His mind. Whose did it come from? From Moloch or Baal of course–both are just another name for Lucifer/Satan the great adversary of men and God.
God does not break His own Law or go outside the bounds of His own words. If He did then all would collapse and cease to exist. God’s Law NEVER commands burning alive souls/lives. Instead the stoning to death of a sinner was the most the Law demanded.
When a person died he was said to be resting with his fathers. It did not matter whether he was a good King or an evil king, all were said to be resting with their fathers. Death effectively put that sinner, whether good or evil into the place of rest UNTIL THE RESURRECTION.
Nowhere is there any support for the idea that at death a person is sent to a place of burning torment called Hell.
That teaching is a High Place in the minds of the Church which God says pollutes or defiles His House.
Note that the Wikipedia entry links the teaching of Hell fire with this story in Jeremiah 7. It also links it with Canaanite religion. God wanted all the Canaanite religion and those who practiced it wiped out! Does that not show you that He wants the same for the Hell teaching and dare I say for all those who hold to it? The story of Judah’s fall and apostasy centred around burning alive their own children is exactly repeated by the Hell message of Christendom –which is what Wikipedia rightly recognises. It stumbles people.
God wants the stumbling stones removed from before the people. That is what He always did and does and will keep doing. He shall remove all that offends from our hearts and the collective heart of His Bride.
Imagine the terror in the hearts of those little children of Judah. Imagine the terror and fear in the hearts of the parents who were commanded and brainwashed into doing such an abominable thing. The god that their “Preachers” told them to fear was a tyrant who demanded the death of their children, knowing that by murdering their own children they effectively cursed themselves before the true God. That false god knew that by attributing to God this same abomination of BURNING ALIVE PEOPLE IN HELL that he would successfully STUMBLE millions and create a DARK BLOCKAGE in the minds of all when they think about a heavenly father. He knew that the Hell teaching would create such a contradiction in the minds of people whenever someone mentioned the merciful God. He knew that people would run from the True God and Father of all out of fear. He knew that those who would come to believe in the True God would never be fully able to trust Him because of the dark blockage which the abomination of Hell teaching is. Satan knew that the High Place of Tophet in the Valley of Hinnom would stumble many souls and cripple their spiritual walk.
The dark blockage of hell teaching attributes to God –The Father of all- the very thing that He said never entered His mind to do.
Thus we accuse God of abominable defilement when we hold to the burn in Hell forever message. We accuse the Father of hypocrisy for destroying Judah back then when He supposedly supports burning alive millions in a fire He prepared Himself. We accuse Him of defiling His own Temple –for if they defiled His House back then as Jeremiah 7 says…then He is defiling His own House with the Hell doctrine which we say He commands.
But He Himself said He never commanded it and it never entered His mind or came from Him. Are you getting the message!!??
Do you know why you are struggling to hear this message? I do. And I want to lift out of you the High place or stronghold and its poison. God did that for me December 4th 2011. And what a happy day that was! It was my 50th birthday and I had been struggling with God for many months and years and it was at the culmination of all those struggles that God my Father set me free into His restful loving arms.
In the next part I want to share more about why you find it hard to receive what I am saying the Bible really says.
