Our word 'Hell' is from the Hebrew word pronounced something along the lines of 'shee-ole'. It simply means "Away from god" - Nothing more. Of course it has been embellished and pushed very hard by our modern day preachers as a lake of fire where we will go if we are not good. Using fear to control people is quite common. The lake of fire apparently comes during the 'revelation' clean up fest. The great reward waiting in heaven is that you get to sit at the feet of god and worship him/it forever. If there is anything as absurd as life after death, then I would like to spend it exploring the universe rather than to sit by a stinky foot for all time to come.

>>>I believe we are all born sinners (Rom 3:23) and guilty before God.
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>>I think I can safely assume that "before" means "in front of" and not "opposite from after".
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>Yes.
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>>> God's punishment for sin is eternal death
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>>Now why would it be worded like this, I wonder. Does he punish for something else by temporary death or someone else may dole that weaker punishment for sin? Is this the origin of all the vampire tales, that someone started thinking along these lines centuries ago and came to some such conclusion?
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>There are other forms of punishment. Genesis mentions several results of Adam and Eve's original sin; sickness, pain in childbirth, physical death, weeds to name a few.
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>There is physical death and spiritual death. I believe the spirit lives on forever either in Heaven or Hell.
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>>>(Rom 6:23) in a place called Hell. When Christ died on the cross, He took that punishment on Himself (Rom 5:8) for all who had and will trust in Him.
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>>OK, so I don't owe the guy anything, right? I do hate when someone does you a favor you never asked for, and were only polite to not refuse it on the spot (or weren't even given a chance to refuse), and then you're always indebted for that favor. One more step in that direction and you're doing people the favor of not kneecapping them in return for eternal monetary gratitude... but that's completely unrelated to our subject, I'm sure the mafiosi never went to church. Or were Ca... whatever.
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>Just what I mentioned before - turn from a life of sinning and begin living their life in a way that God requires in His word (the Bible.)
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>>Though, if he did die there, that death was temporary, right? I mean, he was paroled within a few days (I assume three, seven or twelve - the preferred numeric system). Then he died again but he's supposed to return once, so temporary again, not eternal? So he's some sort of exception from these rules, if I got that right.
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>>Either way, I now understand that the intended meaning was "he died (to pay) for all our...".
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>Yes - he rose on the third day. He will return one day.