It is a twisted version of several new testament verses and is so vague that it ended up in the denominational split of those who believe in salvation by grace and those advocating salvation through works, basically yhtose following the teachings of Paul as opposed to those of James.
Wars have been fought over this bull crap .

I'm not sure when this teaching started. Both the concepts of hell and the doctrine of salvation have evolved over the years. If one were really interested, I'm sure there are numerous papers on the topic - some of them might even be accurate!

Whatever the history says though, I guarantee that whatever a church preaches currently, they will insist was "really" there all along.

It's the basis of Christianity. Extortion and.fear.

Bart Ehrman UNC Chapel Hill is my hero.