Questions About Hell

FineLinen

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This is an...interesting take on the passage. Feel free to explain it. How are the "sheep" and "goats" not simply metaphoric, referring to those who have loved Christ and those who have not, as the passage indicates? And how is the everlasting punishment of the "goats" totally unrelated to the wicked? Jesus says, "These will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." In doing so, he distinguishes "these" as those who are not "the righteous." And since the "these" in the verse are cast away from Christ, separated from him unto everlasting punishment, it stands to reason they are the opposite of the righteous, that is, they are wicked.

Dear Aiki: The entire context of St. Matthew 25 is regarding servants of the master, poor investors of the master, & two clean Old Covenant animals (both clean) & pure virgins. This cornerstone passage regarding everlasting punishment has failure written all over it, not of righteous and wicked, but of the Lord's servants, investors and goats.

Can you tell us what qualifies these for "everlasting punishment"?

The foundation for “everlasting punishment” Matt. 25=

1._____________________________________?

2._____________________________________?

3._____________________________________?

4._____________________________________?

5._____________________________________?

The Sheep And The Goats - Jonathan Mitchell's Writings
 
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dqhall

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Some will not be subject to eternal darkness and loss of consciousness.

1 Corinthians 15:55-57 (KJV)
55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
56 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.
57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
 
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AlexDTX

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Stop with the red herring already. You apparently know NOTHING about Patristic Universalism. If you understood it, you would know that we should be warning people that there will be chastisement - and that being quite painful - for every sin we have done and left unconfessed. No one who is a Universalist would dare suggest to go out and live as sinful as you wish because in the end you will be saved.

St. Paul, that Great Universalist who wrote that God will have mercy on all and that it is the will of God to save all, also strictly warned His people against sin.

Honestly, this accusation from hellists is more than a little tiring and annoying.

And while I am at it....since you believe that God is going to fry everyone forever who hasn't "accepted Jesus," when was the last time you pleaded with a sinner to get saved with tears in your eyes? Do you spend every free moment you have handing out tracts and witnessing on street corners? If not, why not? Don't you know that if we don't live people as we love ourselves, we will forfeit heaven? And if you are saved from eternal hell and this is is a good for you, then why are you not out sharing this with the world instead of sitting at your computer answering us Universalists?

Yesterday I shared the Gospel. Did you?
And I am just as tired of this demonic doctrine being spread. The OP did not answer my question. Perhaps you will. Why share this doctrine to Christians who already know the Lord and are saved? And what good does it do to share it to the lost who don't care anyway?
This is a BS doctrine, and I will speak out against it every time it is brought up.
 
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zoidar

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How could satan sin without fallen nature, then?

Also, how could Adam sin without fallen nature?

And Eve.

Lucifer was an angel of light. When he rebelled against God his whole being was corrupted. If anyone has a fallen nature it's him. How then could Lucifer fall in sin? The Bible says he started to think highly of himself and thought he could take God's place. That's the only explanation we have.

I believe Adam wouldn't have been able to choose sin without being tricked.
 
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zoidar

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Adam and Eve didn’t have a sinful nature and they sinned. They sinned because if the reasons James gives. They wanted and did not have. They did not have cause they did not ask.

Believing the Bible is a lot easier.

If you quote the verses in James, it will be easier for me to answer.
 
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martymonster

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Adam and Eve didn’t have a sinful nature and they sinned. They sinned because if the reasons James gives. They wanted and did not have. They did not have cause they did not ask.

Believing the Bible is a lot easier.

If you sin, then you have a sin nature. If you don't have a sin nature, then you don't sin. It's really that simple!
 
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zoidar

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Yesterday I shared the Gospel. Did you?
And I am just as tired of this demonic doctrine being spread. The OP did not answer my question. Perhaps you will. Why share this doctrine to Christians who already know the Lord and are saved? And what good does it do to share it to the lost who don't care anyway?
This is a BS doctrine, and I will speak out against it every time it is brought up.

Brother, don't let yourself be provoked. I'm sure you are doing your best to be of service to Christ. One reason why I don't go out on the street every day with the gospel even we should, is because it's tough to do so. We can't do everything by ourselves, even Jesus took time to rest.
 
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Josheb

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Questions Without Answers

  1. As we are required to love our enemies, may we not safely infer that God loves His enemies? (Matt. 5:44)
Not absent all context. God does not love all people in all ways all the time.
If God loves His enemies, will He punish them more than will be for their good?
Yes. God does not promise good for those who deny His existence or those who are otherwise hostile toward Him.
Would endless punishment be for the good of any being?
No, and at no time does the Bible suggest such a premise. The Bible asserts a simple, uniform dichotomy: either eternal life or eternal destruction.
As God loves His friends, if He loves His enemies also, are not all mankind the objects of His love?
Yes, however, an effort should made so as to not assert a false equivalence (apples and oranges fallacy). Friends of God and enemies of God are not identical groups. God loves both but God does not love both identically.
If God loves those only who love Him, what better is He than the sinner? (Luke 6:32-33)
He is the standard by which friends and enemies are measured. He is the standard by which love is measured. He is the Judge who sets both the rules and the terms of relevance. Luke 6:32-33 was spoken to a covenant people about a covenant people. It was not spoken to God-deniers about God deniers and the way they treat covenant people. Treating the text as relevant or applicable to all is an exegetical error that leads to bad doctrine and bad practice. The same is true of proof-texting or extricating any verse or passage from its inherent context(s).
As "love thinketh no evil," can God design the ultimate evil of a single soul? (1 Cor. 13:5)
???? Can He? Sure. Has He? No. Every single individual who has ever lived has brought upon him/herself his/her own evil. Again: 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 was written by a believer to believers about believers. There is no expectations that God-haters love in any way resembling God's love, nor that God would love those who hate or deny Him in the same manner/degree He loves others.
As "love worketh no ill," can God inflict, or cause, or allow to be inflicted, an endless ill? (Rom. 13:10)
Quote mining is also bad practice. Love does no harm to its neighbor. Those who hate God or deny Him are not His neighbor.
As we are forbidden to be overcome by evil, can we safely suppose that God will be overcome by evil? (Rom. 12:21)
No; you may not safely do suppose any such thing.
Would not the infliction of endless punishment prove that God HAD been overcome by evil?
No; the eradication of evil is not evil.
If man does wrong in returning evil for evil, would not God do wrong if He was to do the same?
No. Again: eradicating evil is not evil.
Would not endless punishment be the return of evil for evil?
No; it is the eradication of evil.
As we are commanded "to overcome evil with good," may we not safely infer that God will do the same? (Rom. 12:21)
The larger text answers that very question: "Vengeance is God's," not ours.
Would the infliction of endless punishment be overcoming evil with good?
Yes. It is good to have an absence of evil.
If God hates the sinner, does the sinner do wrong in hating Him?
Cart before the horse. The reason God hates the sinner is because s/he has hated and dishonored God selfishly and unrepentantly with hostility.
Is God a changeable being? (James 1:17)
No.

These are not questions without answers.


Note: the practice of false claims, red herrings, proof-texting, quote mining, attributional error, false cause, and the other fallacies inherent in these inquiries does not bode well for cogent discourse.
 
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Saint Steven

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Do we apply What if to verse 24 also ?

24 even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?
It seems to be a two-part question. The second is an extension of the first. The clarification of to whom given in part two is probably not in question.
 
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Saint Steven

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To me it says that even tho these vessels were made for destruction He had already foreseen their disobedience and chose to make an example of them so that His glory can be seen by man.
Explain the "What if..." question then.

Romans 9:22-24
What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? 23 What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory— 24 even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?
 
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martymonster

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Yesterday I shared the Gospel. Did you?
And I am just as tired of this demonic doctrine being spread. The OP did not answer my question. Perhaps you will. Why share this doctrine to Christians who already know the Lord and are saved? And what good does it do to share it to the lost who don't care anyway?
This is a BS doctrine, and I will speak out against it every time it is brought up.

Yeah, claiming that Christ will get what he paid for, with his own blood, yeah....how demonic!
 
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FineLinen

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Not absent all context. God does not love all people in all ways all the time.

Yes. God does not promise good for those who deny His existence or those who are otherwise hostile toward Him.

No, and at no time does the Bible suggest such a premise. The Bible asserts a simple, uniform dichotomy: either eternal life or eternal destruction.

Yes, however, an effort should made so as to not assert a false equivalence (apples and oranges fallacy). Friends of God and enemies of God are not identical groups. God loves both but God does not love both identically.

He is the standard by which friends and enemies are measured. He is the standard by which love is measured. He is the Judge who sets both the rules and the terms of relevance. Luke 6:32-33 was spoken to a covenant people about a covenant people. It was not spoken to God-deniers about God deniers and the way they treat covenant people. Treating the text as relevant or applicable to all is an exegetical error that leads to bad doctrine and bad practice. The same is true of proof-texting or extricating any verse or passage from its inherent context(s).

???? Can He? Sure. Has He? No. Every single individual who has ever lived has brought upon him/herself his/her own evil. Again: 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 was written by a believer to believers about believers. There is no expectations that God-haters love in any way resembling God's love, nor that God would love those who hate or deny Him in the same manner/degree He loves others.

Quote mining is also bad practice. Love does no harm to its neighbor. Those who hate God or deny Him are not His neighbor.

No; you may not safely do suppose any such thing.

No; the eradication of evil is not evil.

No. Again: eradicating evil is not evil.

No; it is the eradication of evil.

The larger text answers that very question: "Vengeance is God's," not ours.

Yes. It is good to have an absence of evil.

Cart before the horse. The reason God hates the sinner is because s/he has hated and dishonored God selfishly and unrepentantly with hostility.

No.

These are not questions without answers.


Note: the practice of false claims, red herrings, proof-texting, quote mining, attributional error, false cause, and the other fallacies inherent in these inquiries does not bode well for cogent discourse.

Dear Josh: You have the questions, you have your answers. And what answers they are.

Question= Would the infliction of endless punishment be overcoming evil with good?

Your answer=

"Yes. It is good to have an absence of evil."

I have zero problem with evil being ended, and in fact firmly believe when it has accomplished the purpose for which God has designed it shall be no more. "I the Lord create good and create evil, I the Lord do all these things."

God our Father does NOT inflict endless punishment. He punishes with one object, and one object only as the Father of all fathers>>>

Change & transformation in Holy perfect rectitude
 
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Dorothy Mae

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If you quote the verses in James, it will be easier for me to answer.
Sure. “What causes wars and fightings among you? Isn’t it your passions that are at war in your members? You desire and do not have; so you kill. And you covet and cannot obtains you fight”

This is why Cain murdered. This is why we sin. It’s not something we cannot help. This is why Eve sinned.
 
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Dorothy Mae

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Lucifer was an angel of light. When he rebelled against God his whole being was corrupted. If anyone has a fallen nature it's him. How then could Lucifer fall in sin? The Bible says he started to think highly of himself and thought he could take God's place. That's the only explanation we have.

I believe Adam wouldn't have been able to choose sin without being tricked.
Adam wasn’t tricked, and he didn’t say he was. Adam and Eve sinned proving an inborn sin nature is not the reason we sin. We sin because we desire and do not have.
 
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Dorothy Mae

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No, it's not even remotely true. God says again and again, how much he hates double standards....and here you are accusing him of just that.
The judge of all the earth is not having a double standard by performing his duty whereas the guilty can be doing so if they judge.
 
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WebersHome

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Why did Adam sin?

Excellent question when it's taken into consideration with God's evaluation of His handiwork. He didn't just say it was good, rather, "very good". In other words: everything came out just exactly the way God wanted.

So; if Adam wasn't created with a so-called sin nature, then we must concede that he was at least created with a nature that could go either way.

For example God told Cain: "If you do good shall you not be accepted?" In other words: Cain could do good or he could not do good; i.e. he was capable of going either way.
_
 
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Dorothy Mae

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Dear Light: There is little question in my mind that Divine election is a fact. These individuals do not decide to follow Jesus, they come because He calls and they MUST come.

upload_2019-11-28_2-48-8.gif
 
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Dorothy Mae

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Excellent question when it's taken into consideration with God's evaluation of His handiwork. He didn't just say it was good, rather, "very good". In other words: everything came out just exactly the way God wanted.

So; if Adam wasn't created with a so-called sin nature, then we must concede that he was at least created with a nature that could go either way.

For example God told Cain: "If you do good shall you not be accepted?" In other words: Cain could do good or he could not do good; i.e. he was capable of going either way.
_
And God didn’t tell Cain that he had an inborn sin nature from Adam. God doesn’t believe we have s sin nature from Adam. He actually said to Cain that sin was OUTSIDE of him wanting in.
 
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