Church invented Hell and Heaven to 'control the masses', says retired Bishop

A retired bishop has controversially claimed that life after death in heaven and eternal damnation in hell are scare tactics invented by Church in a bid to control masses. According to Express UK, John Shelby Spong, who is a retired bishop of Episcopal Church in US, doesn’t believe that Mediveial-era representations of afterlife are accurate. In a recently uneard interview from 2006, Spong said that he doesn’t think hell exists and furr revealed that he believes in life after death, but don’t think it has got anything to do with “reward and punishment”. 

In interview, Bishop Spong explained why he thinks idea of parise-like heaven as a reward and fiery pits of hell as punishment for sin is a human concept and t an entirely spiritual one. He said that religion is always in control business and that is something people don’t understand. He said that if heaven is a place where one is rewarded for goodness and hell is a place where one is punished for evil, n idea sort of control population. 

Spong called hell a part of control tactic and ded that Church created this fiery place to “scare hell of out people”. It is worth mentioning that Bishop Spong is a staunch believer in reforming Christian dogma and he has been challenging Church on what he thinks are outdated or dishonest practices and beliefs. He h also published his 12 Points of Reforms in 1989, where he challenged biblical story of creating in a post-Darwinian world. 

Church of England rejects idea of hell 

In this book, Spong h written that “miracle stories” of New Testament can longer be interpreted in a post-Newtonian world as supernatural events performed by an incarnate deity. He h also said that hope for life after death must be separated forever from behaviour control mentality of reward and punishment. “ Church must abandon, refore, its reliance on guilt as a motivator of behaviour,” Spong said. 

Moreover, previously, a Church of England commission h rejected idea of hell many people ascribe to today. report published by Church’s Doctrine Commission said that hell is t a medieval-styled subterranean world full of fire and pitchforks. Inste, report claimed that hell is t eternal torment, but is final and irrevocable choosing of that which is opposed to God. 

(Im: Twitter)