[IvyRose]

I believe that Heaven and Hell are right here on Earth; that God and the Devil are in our hearts. Although, through the years, I've had a lot of trouble accepting any Church that tells me what to believe. Deep down, I've always believed that Jesus died for our sins and the only one that was or shall be condemned to Hell is Lucifer.

I believe that the fire and brimstone, humans going to Hell for their sins was created by the Church (and our government) in order to scare us all into being obedient.

The question I've had trouble with and have been kicked out of Bible School for repeating is: If God is perfect and makes no mistakes, why was his Angel Lucifer (that God created) so flawed?

The Angels were created to speak God's word and to help mankind. When the subject of Free Will and Satan was brought up as a counter debate, it is irrelevant to me. Lucifer was an Angel, he was created for a specific purpose. Does that mean that God created Evil to balance out Good?

One would have to study Angelology, in order to give a clear view on the purpose, History and existence of Angels to really answer my questions I suppose. It seems a lot of Churches do not accept this line of questioning.

What about Moses? What kind of bush was actually burning when Moses heard the voice of God? In today's world, he would have been sent to a Mental Health Care Facility and told that the voice he heard was his imagination.

I've been scared to death as a child about going to Hell. It was beaten into me that if I did not do the things my elders told me to do, that God would send me down to the deep fiery pits of Hell. It's something I just no longer wish to believe as an adult, but it still lingers in the back of my mind and it is very hard to forget and reform a thought process that was driven so deeply into my psyche.

If I told you today, that I have walked and talked with Jesus and the Devil; would you consider me insane? Others have, yet Saints in the Bible have heard the booming voice of God.

The Bible was written 100 years after Jesus died. There is a huge gap in the Bible that tells of Jesus' personal story and the interpretations of the Bible are many. Not just the Hebrew to English interpretations, but the English to English ones. It is extremely hard for me to base my faith on today's Bible.

As far as the 666 symbolism, I've had a time in my life where I came across it frequently. I was told that it was my Depression and Mania getting to me. 666 is the equation of the Star of David, which is also known to be "God's Holy Star." Just like the Swastika that Hitler used, it was once a symbol of Good Fortune. Other religions and the occult have taken the symbolism of 666 and have made the image of this to be a bad omen.

Here's another one: The upside down cross. Saint Peter requested to be crucified upside down on the cross. He did not feel worthy enough to be crucified as Jesus had. The inverted cross is known as "The Cross of St. Peter (officially known as the Petrine Cross or colloquially Peter's Cross.)" It wasn't until recently did Satanist and the Occult use this symbol in their own interpretations.

Hollywood and good story telling can also really mess with symbolism and scare us just as we like to be scared. It's just a shame that I was gullible enough to believe it for so many years. To this day, I can still not finish watching "The Exorcist." It is just too real to me and has probably aided in my sick imagination of the unknown.