40 Questions

Saint Steven said:

40 Questions against traditional Christianity and the doctrine of Hell

Who will answer?

1. Why did God create Satan, if he already knew ahead of time all the evil that Satan was going to do?
2. If the majority of the world won’t be saved because of the work of the enemy, then doesn’t Satan win? Why would God allow this if He is “all-powerful” and “all- knowing”?
3. Who created evil in the first place? – (Isaiah 45:7)
4. Do earthly parents love their children more than God does? – Earthly parents would never torture their children for disobedience, nor would they annihilate them, or separate themselves from their children for all eternity.
5. Does God actually love all people the same? If so, why are some people given thousands of chances to hear the Gospel and experience his love, while other people are born into the worst conditions, simply trying to survive and begging for food, never coming in contact with a missionary in their lives?
6. Does God ask us to forgive our enemies when He is ultimately not willing to do the same in the end?
7. Is being punished forever for sins committed in a short lifetime really “justice”? Or can we never understand his form of justice?
8. If we are called to become more like God, but yet we can’t understand his justice, how can we ever strive to reflect his true character?
9. Does God operate on a completely different moral scale than us? (His evil is our good, our good is his evil).. or are we truly made in his image?
10. If God does NOT will for anyone to perish, but already knows ahead of time that they will, why does he still create them? Knowing that they may never even have a chance to hear the Gospel?
11. Is the only purpose of this present life to make it into heaven? If so…
12. Do all babies and children go to heaven? Wouldn’t it be more compassionate to abort a baby and ensure its salvation, than allow it to grow up and possibly go to hell?
13. If God is love (1 John 4:8 ) and loves all people, and love supposedly never fails (1 Corinthians 13:8) and love is what draws people to God, how is it that the majority of humanity won’t be saved? Seems like God’s love fails most of the time.
14. If God truly wills for all to be saved, does God not get what God wants?
15. What does it mean that one day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord? – Will God be forcing everyone to worship him? Or will people freely be worshipping him?
16. Does everybody really get the same fair chance to believe in Jesus before they die? If hell is the worst possible fate of mankind, and if God is truly loving, then…
17. Why did He fail to mention “hell” in Genesis as the price for sin?
18. Why doesn’t the Old Testament ever teach about or even mention “hell”?
19. Why does apostle Paul never once mention hell?
20. Why was hell not the orthodox position of the early Church for five centuries after Christ?
21. Why can the most studious theologians not agree if we are saved by election or free will?
22. Why do some of the most literal translations of the Bible, Young’s Literal Translation and the Concordant Literal NT, not mention “hell” or “eternal” punishment on a single page?
23. Which Bible am I supposed to use to derive my truth from? -Even Greek scholars cannot agree on this.
24. Why would God purposely blind people and then send them to hell? (Exodus 4:11; John 12:39–40)
25. If hell was real why didn’t Moses warn about this fate in the Ten Commandments or the Mosaic Covenant consisting of over 600 laws, ordinances, and warnings? The Mosaic Law simply stated blessings and cursings IN THIS LIFETIME for failure to keep the Mosaic Law.
26. Why did God NOT clearly define that the wages of sin would be eternal damnation in hell? Why did he instead say that the penalty for eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was DEATH?
27. If hell is real, why don’t the Jews, many who know the Old Testament better than most Christians, not believe in the modern Christian concept of hell? They say they don’t believe it because it is not in their Scriptures.
28. If hell doesn’t exist in the Old Testament, how could Jesus and his disciples teach that salvation was deliverance from a place that is not even found in their Scriptures? (There was only the Old Testament at that time.)
29. If hell is real, since SOME English translations use the word “hell” for the Greek word “Gehenna,” in the New Testament, why didn’t this same place (Gehenna) get translated hell in the many places where it appears in the Hebrew form “ga ben Hinnom” in the Old Testament? If the Jews did not understand this valley as a symbol of everlasting torture, why do SOME English translations give this word such a meaning?
30. If hell was real, why did the early church appoint an avowed universalist as the President of the second council of the church in Constantinople in the fourth century? (Gregory Nazianzen, 325-381)
31. If hell was real and a place of no escape, why did the early church teach Jesus went to Hell (Hades), preached to them and led captivity captive?” (Eph. 4:8,9; Psalm 68:18; 1 Peter 3:18-20
32. If hell was real and the grave settled the matter forever, why did the early Christians offer up prayers for the dead?
33. If hell was real, why didn’t the church teach it until AFTER the church departed from reading the Bible in Greek and Hebrew, substituting Latin in its stead several centuries after Christ’s death?
34. If hell was real, why did not a single Christian writer of the first 3 centuries declare universalism as a heresy?
35. Did Jesus intentionally doom non-Jews to hell? (Matthew 10:5–6; Matthew 15:22–24)
36. What kind of person does God resist? Is. 29:13–14; Luke 10:21–22; John 12:39–40; 1 Cor. 1:27–29 (see CLT)
37. Did Paul wish to be eternally separated from God in hell? Romans 9:3
38. If hell was real and found in the original Greek manuscripts of the Bible, why is it that it was primarily those church leaders who either couldn’t read Greek (Minucius Felix, Tertullian), or hated Greek as in the case of Augustine, that the doctrine of Hell was advocated?
39. Is fire (i.e. “lake of fire”) a literal fire? Deut. 4:20; Zeph. 3:8–9; Mark 9:49; Luke 3:16; 1 Cor. 3:15; Heb. 12:29
40. How can people be dead forever if death is destroyed? Isaiah 25:8; 1 Corinthians 15:26; Revelation 20:14

Source: 40 Questions against traditional Christianity and the doctrine of Hell

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I think that such questions such as those you raise ... are reasons why we need faith. We have to believe that God is going to work out all things well ... even if we don't understand ... or misunderstand how He will do it.

From the scriptural revelation, we can deduce that ...

God created the world, including humanity.

It is God's intention that He and humanity would co-exist in peaceful harmony.

In order for this to occur, humanity needs to progress morally, ... and by necessity, needs to learn what is truly good ... and what is truly evil.

So, we live these lives of exposure to good and evil (i.e. God's way and our way) ... so that we may choose in which direction we would go.

Those that choose God's way ... are gifted to the next level of human development, ... particularly because of their commitment to live with God.

Those that don't choose God's way ... are allowed to live out their physical lives, and then pass on into non-existence.

Hammster said:

The majority will be saved.

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So (truthfully wondering as to your response) ... why does Jesus imply otherwise, when He says that many walk the broad path which lead to destruction ... while few walk the path which leads to life ?

Saint Steven said:

Who will answer

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You will find the answers as you investigate the character of God.
A question for you.
Why did Jesus endure the cross etc in order to save you?
What is so special about you?

Saint Steven said:

1. Why did God create Satan, if he already knew ahead of time all the evil that Satan was going to do?

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I think a mainstream answer is that God knew He would use Satan for His good purpose, partly in order to prove how great and able God is, despite any evil.

My personal answer includes that Satan is a vessel for containing "the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience" > in Ephesians 2:2. God did not invent or bring into existence the spirit of evil. But He does manage it, by keeping it in vessels so it is not just anywhere and everywhere; and Satan's evil spirit in vessels is on its way to the flaming sewer which burns with fire and brimstone. Fire is the only thing which can control beings so Satanic . . . so stupidly stubborn. So, Satan is God's sewer bucket for keeping the spirit of evil in organized form.

From this offering, possibly you can understand how I might answer others of your questions.

Saint Steven said:

2. If the majority of the world won’t be saved because of the work of the enemy, then doesn’t Satan win? Why would God allow this if He is “all-powerful” and “all- knowing”?

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Jesus says if you gain the whole world but lose your soul, it does not profit you . . . right?

And God's word says >

"We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one." (1 John 5:19)

So, God's word does not say "if" Satan wins, but that Satan already has the evil world under his "sway". But Satan has lost Heaven . . . already. So, no Satan has not won, but he has lost, by trying merely to gain the whole world. And not only this, but he ruins whatever he gets in his power.

But Jesus has taken care of this >

"Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." (Hebrews 2:14-15)

So, then, "fear of death" is slavery to Satan. I think this can come in sneaky forms, by the way . . . like how people fear death by fearing the loss of things they want to have in their lives. For example, ones might fear not having enough money to get things they want. So they live in fear making them slaves of Satan. A guy might abuse his girlfriend in order to keep control of her, because he fears not being able to use her for the pleasure he wants.

So, Satan is already the loser of all losers, because this is the only way he can get control of anything. And fear has us focusing on what is so inferior.

But Jesus has faced all the suffering and death which Satan and his brought against Jesus. And Jesus defeated it all. Jesus beat Satan while Jesus was dead in the grave, even, and then He rose from the dead on the third day, totally showing up Satan and all his inferior stuff which can only get what is inferior . . . with "torment" >

"There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment." (in 1 John 4:18)

So, going by God's word, Satan is clearly not winning. And Jesus on the cross has already defeated him. So, this world is a prisoner-of-war camp for evil and Satan and his . . . on its way to that flaming sewer.

Saint Steven said:

3. Who created evil in the first place? – (Isaiah 45:7)

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Isaiah 45:7, I offer, is talking about "evil" which is trouble as a consequence of disobeying God. God does not directly cause this, as we can understand through James 1:13 which clearly says God does not tempt anyone. Therefore, God does not directly cause people to do evil, but He in His all-control can use evil in creative ways.

He uses evil for His good purposes . . . including how He has used the crucifixion of Jesus for such good. He did not cause that, but managed which way Satan and his were allowed to go.

And my opinion is that God who is love and all-good did not bring the spirit of evil (Ephesians 2:2) into existence; if He had been in an all-good state, He could not have even thought of the idea of evil. But He does manage it, keep it in order . . . in sewer buckets such as Satan.

Saint Steven said:

4. Do earthly parents love their children more than God does? – Earthly parents would never torture their children for disobedience, nor would they annihilate them, or separate themselves from their children for all eternity.

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But selfish children can suffer torture of their own stupid and foolish emotions of wanting to have things their own way. No one in hell can suffer torment unless he or she has the selfish spirit making him or her weak enough to suffer the torment . . . which, as I have quoted, is because of fear (1 John 4:18, with Hebrews 2:14-15) . . . not because of God!!

Notice how those demons were in torment about just seeing Jesus. Jesus was not trying to make them suffer; it was their own anti-God nature making them suffer in torment in reaction to Jesus who is so kind and gentle . . . and humble > they were not humble, and pride can suffer torment about just the idea of being humble like Jesus! Satan was in Heaven, itself, but because of his pride, Heaven wasn't good enough for Satan > how stupid with evil and anti-love!!

I can see, then, that Satanic beings would suffer more torment in Heaven than in their own place away from Jesus. So, hell is their place.

There are children who can't stand being around their parents . . . while their parents are offering them so much good. But when the children get away from their caring and loving parents, they create their own trouble and torment . . . because of their own character making them able to not benefit from love and goodness.

We see now how children in the American culture are incapable of getting along as family enough to stay with parents so they can love and resource with one another. Their idol of independence ruins them from being able to share in close relating. Independence and self entitlement bring isolation, even between spouses and between them and their children. God is not doing this. Their own selfish character makes them so they do this, and suffer torment.

Saint Steven said:

Does God actually love all people the same? If so, why are some people given thousands of chances to hear the Gospel and experience his love, while other people are born into the worst conditions, simply trying to survive and begging for food, never coming in contact with a missionary in their lives?

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Again . . . each person's own character has so much to do with if the person deeply suffers and if the person benefits from God, or not. Consider > God is everywhere; so you could ask why is it that people without the Gospel do not benefit from God and His love, anyway? He is right there with them, even all through them, having created every human and now keeping humans functional.

Why don't they experience Him and His love, then, now, already? Because their spiritual wavelength is not in His love. It is like how you can not be on the radio wavelength of acid rock and at the same time be soothed by a smooth jazz radio broadcast. The smooth and soothing wavelength is right there, even passing through our body, but your wavelength is wrong. And you don't have the nature to be effected by the smooth jazz wavelength.

Like this, people in Jesus have the right nature so we can enjoy His "rest for your souls." (Matthew 11:28-30) But you can tell people about this to no end, yet their nature is unsubject so they keep demanding and pushing for burn-out and stress-out stuff.

Their worst condition, then, is
. . . . their own selfishness-infected nature.

Satan's evil spirit of pride's selfishness . . . Ephesians 2:2 . . . has infected humans, I would say right from their conception by spiritually selfish parents. It all started from Adam and Eve, bringing their infection of sin to all humans, worse than spreading the COVID or sexually transmitted diseases which are only physical.

But God does bless any and all people >

"For to this end we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe." (1 Timothy 4:10)

So, God is blessing . . . loving . . . every person . . . somehow. But the character of each person can be sort of the dictator of how well he or she is capable of benefitting from God loving him or her.

It's what you make it . . .
. . . how you take it . . .
. . just don't you fake it!!

God knows if the ones you are talking about would believe, if they did hear the Gospel. And we might consider how ones indeed have heard it, plus Jesus was right in the faces of enemies, proving Himself by healing people; yet those horrible people still hated even Jesus. Because that is how horrible and unreasonable Satan's character makes people.

Only God is able to change a person's character from being like that. So, why doesn't He do this with everyone, maybe I hear you asking? He needs vessels for dishonor . . . for carrying the filth of Satan's evil kingdom away from this earth which will be a new earth. There is the flaming sewer, waiting.

"Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?" (Romans 9:21)

By the way, in believing in Christ we have not just gotten ourselves a ticket to Heaven. But if we "trusted in Christ" (Ephesians 1:12) the way God's word means this, we are being changed into the likeness of God's own Son, as is destined for anyone who has trusted in Jesus . . . the way God's word means this.

"For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren." (Romans 8:29)

So, now God is changing the character of His children so we become like Jesus, love like Jesus, and are pleasing to our Father like Jesus is so pleasing and in us sharing this with us. But this is purely thanks to God, not to our own ability to make choices > plenty of people have "chosen Heaven", but are they choosing to be and love like Jesus? . . . like His word clearly commands us >

"And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma." (Ephesians 5:2)

Are people in their free wills choosing to stay sweetly pleasing to our Father, while they go through problems? God's love lives in us who are His children > Romans 5:5. And 1 John 4:17 tells us, I understand, how God's love in us effects our character >

"Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is so are we in this world." (1 John 4:17)

And this is what prepares us for "the day of judgment", I also understand. This comes with our Father's correction > Hebrews 12:4-14 . . . not with how we in our human character are capable of choosing.

So, God knows each person's character, and our Father has His purpose for each human.

My opinion is that because God is love, He has more people in Satan's kingdom so the evil spirit is spread around more so it and its people do not suffer so much. He even does care how the spirit of evil and Satan feel. So, He has provided them with toys. And sinners have physical pleasures so they can feel something nicer than their deep-down awful-mess of their selfishness-infected nature. If God were to pack it all into one being, like Satan all by himself, this would be much more intensely horrible for Satan and the spirit of evil; so . . . maybe . . . God being love . . . He has spread it out in many vessels so each person and the evil spirit do not suffer so intensely.

We already see how well people of hell can get along while isolated with one another . . . like during the pandemic. They are not choosing to do everything "without complaining and disputing" so they can become and love like Jesus > Philippians 2:13-16. Their free wills are not quite working, like this, to say the least. Because their real character is their dictator.

Ones can't stand being near each other. So, God lets selfish love-challenged people have some distance, with some foolish pleasures to ease the intensity of their misery. And, like this, He does not pack all the evil spirit with itself; and so it does not suffer so much torment.

This is my opinion, going by the Bible and by observation of how things seem to actually work in this lost world.

Saint Steven said:

6. Does God ask us to forgive our enemies when He is ultimately not willing to do the same in the end?

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Yes, He commands us to forgive.

Ephesians 4:32 says, "forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you."

So, we are not told to forgive only as a gesture, or merely in order to make sure we don't miss out on being forgiven. But we are told to forgive . . . "even as God", which to me means in sharing with God in us changing our character so we are forgiving in the kind and generously forgiving and adoptive way that God has forgiven us.

And Jesus in His heart was suffering and dying with desire for us to be forgiven. So, right in His heart on Calvary, Jesus already forgave us.

But . . . there is the matter of character in every human. A person's character can make him or her unable to benefit from the forgiveness being offered but refused.

Look at how certain people do what is ruining them and their bodies. They need forgiveness, but discriminatory ministers are saying they do not need forgiveness. Right now, there is discrimination against certain wrong people, by saying they don't need to be forgiven, but are ok.

And those wrong people have the character to be fooled by this and miss out.

The forgiveness lives in God's love and Jesus Christ's way of loving. So, it is here, but ones keep refusing to trust in Jesus so they can be corrected and tuned in the wavelength of how God's love has us enjoying forgiveness while we give this to others.

You can't have this forgiveness without living it, I offer

Saint Steven said:

40 Questions against traditional Christianity and the doctrine of Hell

Who will answer?

1. Why did God create Satan, if he already knew ahead of time all the evil that Satan was going to do?
2. If the majority of the world won’t be saved because of the work of the enemy, then doesn’t Satan win? Why would God allow this if He is “all-powerful” and “all- knowing”?
3. Who created evil in the first place? – (Isaiah 45:7)
4. Do earthly parents love their children more than God does? – Earthly parents would never torture their children for disobedience, nor would they annihilate them, or separate themselves from their children for all eternity.
5. Does God actually love all people the same? If so, why are some people given thousands of chances to hear the Gospel and experience his love, while other people are born into the worst conditions, simply trying to survive and begging for food, never coming in contact with a missionary in their lives?
6. Does God ask us to forgive our enemies when He is ultimately not willing to do the same in the end?
7. Is being punished forever for sins committed in a short lifetime really “justice”? Or can we never understand his form of justice?
8. If we are called to become more like God, but yet we can’t understand his justice, how can we ever strive to reflect his true character?
9. Does God operate on a completely different moral scale than us? (His evil is our good, our good is his evil).. or are we truly made in his image?
10. If God does NOT will for anyone to perish, but already knows ahead of time that they will, why does he still create them? Knowing that they may never even have a chance to hear the Gospel?
11. Is the only purpose of this present life to make it into heaven? If so…
12. Do all babies and children go to heaven? Wouldn’t it be more compassionate to abort a baby and ensure its salvation, than allow it to grow up and possibly go to hell?
13. If God is love (1 John 4:8 ) and loves all people, and love supposedly never fails (1 Corinthians 13:8) and love is what draws people to God, how is it that the majority of humanity won’t be saved? Seems like God’s love fails most of the time.
14. If God truly wills for all to be saved, does God not get what God wants?
15. What does it mean that one day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord? – Will God be forcing everyone to worship him? Or will people freely be worshipping him?
16. Does everybody really get the same fair chance to believe in Jesus before they die? If hell is the worst possible fate of mankind, and if God is truly loving, then…
17. Why did He fail to mention “hell” in Genesis as the price for sin?
18. Why doesn’t the Old Testament ever teach about or even mention “hell”?
19. Why does apostle Paul never once mention hell?
20. Why was hell not the orthodox position of the early Church for five centuries after Christ?
21. Why can the most studious theologians not agree if we are saved by election or free will?
22. Why do some of the most literal translations of the Bible, Young’s Literal Translation and the Concordant Literal NT, not mention “hell” or “eternal” punishment on a single page?
23. Which Bible am I supposed to use to derive my truth from? -Even Greek scholars cannot agree on this.
24. Why would God purposely blind people and then send them to hell? (Exodus 4:11; John 12:39–40)
25. If hell was real why didn’t Moses warn about this fate in the Ten Commandments or the Mosaic Covenant consisting of over 600 laws, ordinances, and warnings? The Mosaic Law simply stated blessings and cursings IN THIS LIFETIME for failure to keep the Mosaic Law.
26. Why did God NOT clearly define that the wages of sin would be eternal damnation in hell? Why did he instead say that the penalty for eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was DEATH?
27. If hell is real, why don’t the Jews, many who know the Old Testament better than most Christians, not believe in the modern Christian concept of hell? They say they don’t believe it because it is not in their Scriptures.
28. If hell doesn’t exist in the Old Testament, how could Jesus and his disciples teach that salvation was deliverance from a place that is not even found in their Scriptures? (There was only the Old Testament at that time.)
29. If hell is real, since SOME English translations use the word “hell” for the Greek word “Gehenna,” in the New Testament, why didn’t this same place (Gehenna) get translated hell in the many places where it appears in the Hebrew form “ga ben Hinnom” in the Old Testament? If the Jews did not understand this valley as a symbol of everlasting torture, why do SOME English translations give this word such a meaning?
30. If hell was real, why did the early church appoint an avowed universalist as the President of the second council of the church in Constantinople in the fourth century? (Gregory Nazianzen, 325-381)
31. If hell was real and a place of no escape, why did the early church teach Jesus went to Hell (Hades), preached to them and led captivity captive?” (Eph. 4:8,9; Psalm 68:18; 1 Peter 3:18-20
32. If hell was real and the grave settled the matter forever, why did the early Christians offer up prayers for the dead?
33. If hell was real, why didn’t the church teach it until AFTER the church departed from reading the Bible in Greek and Hebrew, substituting Latin in its stead several centuries after Christ’s death?
34. If hell was real, why did not a single Christian writer of the first 3 centuries declare universalism as a heresy?
35. Did Jesus intentionally doom non-Jews to hell? (Matthew 10:5–6; Matthew 15:22–24)
36. What kind of person does God resist? Is. 29:13–14; Luke 10:21–22; John 12:39–40; 1 Cor. 1:27–29 (see CLT)
37. Did Paul wish to be eternally separated from God in hell? Romans 9:3
38. If hell was real and found in the original Greek manuscripts of the Bible, why is it that it was primarily those church leaders who either couldn’t read Greek (Minucius Felix, Tertullian), or hated Greek as in the case of Augustine, that the doctrine of Hell was advocated?
39. Is fire (i.e. “lake of fire”) a literal fire? Deut. 4:20; Zeph. 3:8–9; Mark 9:49; Luke 3:16; 1 Cor. 3:15; Heb. 12:29
40. How can people be dead forever if death is destroyed? Isaiah 25:8; 1 Corinthians 15:26; Revelation 20:14

Source: 40 Questions against traditional Christianity and the doctrine of Hell

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How do you expect us to answer 40 questions in one post?

Saint Steven said:

40 Questions against traditional Christianity and the doctrine of Hell

Who will answer?

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I will answer, until I get bored...

1. Why did God create Satan, if he already knew ahead of time all the evil that Satan was going to do?

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God created even Satan with free will. No brainer, if Satan and his angels that followed him were created like robots, unable to rebel against God, then could his rebellion ever happen? No, of course not. The one asking this evidently forget to take Elementary Logic in school.

1. If the majority of the world won’t be saved because of the work of the enemy, then doesn’t Satan win? Why would God allow this if He is “all-powerful” and “all- knowing”?

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That's a repeat partially of question 1, about God's Omnipotence (all knowing). Free will allows us to go whichever way we want. He wants our love, and being made like a robot showing Him love isn't real love. So He made us with free will. Because some rebelled, the only way to continue to have real peace in His Eternity, is to prune the dead branches who refuse to love Him. And I say, good riddance to those dead branches.

1. Who created evil in the first place? – (Isaiah 45:7)

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Satan did; Apostle John said the devil sinned from the beginning. Satan is the cause of God ending the old world when he originally was 'perfect in his ways' following God. Satan is the cause for God bringing this 2nd world earth age, with bounds, so each soul can make their choice Who they follow. This is why in Hebrews 2 we are shown that the power of 'death' has been assigned to Satan.

1. Do earthly parents love their children more than God does? – Earthly parents would never torture their children for disobedience, nor would they annihilate them, or separate themselves from their children for all eternity.

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This poor person asking that question must have not have had parents that loved him, or had parents at all. As for those who refuse The Father and His Son about their final fate, 'they'... will choose to perish in the future lake of fire. If they cannot be their own god, without Christ, then they won't want to live. It's the old, "What are you rebelling against?" question. Their answer? "Whadda' ya got?" Like God said, there won't be rebellion a second time (Nahum 1:9).

1. Does God actually love all people the same? If so, why are some people given thousands of chances to hear the Gospel and experience his love, while other people are born into the worst conditions, simply trying to survive and begging for food, never coming in contact with a missionary in their lives?

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When the prophet Jeremiah told God that he was of poor speech, and too young to go to the people and tell them what He says, God told Jeremiah that He knew him before he was in his mother's womb (Jeremiah 1). So God beforehand setup those He knew and could trust to fulfill His Plan here on earth. Simple. Even Satan has his elect that follow him that he keeps.

1. Does God ask us to forgive our enemies when He is ultimately not willing to do the same in the end?

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Loaded question, as many of these are. All one need do is ask God forgiveness through His Son Jesus Christ, and change one's way towards Faith and action in Him. Then one becomes a child of God. But rebel, wanting to be your 'own' god, and what else can He do but cast you out? Why should He share His throne with the likes of one who wants to take over His throne? Satan tried, and look where it got him, as he is already judged and sentenced to perish in the future lake of fire. Those who do what he did deserve to perish with him. So it's Nahum 1:9 again for the rebellious.

Saint Steven said:

40 Questions against traditional Christianity and the doctrine of Hell

Who will answer?

1. Why did God create Satan, if he already knew ahead of time all the evil that Satan was going to do?
2. If the majority of the world won’t be saved because of the work of the enemy, then doesn’t Satan win? Why would God allow this if He is “all-powerful” and “all- knowing”?
3. Who created evil in the first place? – (Isaiah 45:7)
4. Do earthly parents love their children more than God does? – Earthly parents would never torture their children for disobedience, nor would they annihilate them, or separate themselves from their children for all eternity.
5. Does God actually love all people the same? If so, why are some people given thousands of chances to hear the Gospel and experience his love, while other people are born into the worst conditions, simply trying to survive and begging for food, never coming in contact with a missionary in their lives?
6. Does God ask us to forgive our enemies when He is ultimately not willing to do the same in the end?
7. Is being punished forever for sins committed in a short lifetime really “justice”? Or can we never understand his form of justice?
8. If we are called to become more like God, but yet we can’t understand his justice, how can we ever strive to reflect his true character?
9. Does God operate on a completely different moral scale than us? (His evil is our good, our good is his evil).. or are we truly made in his image?
10. If God does NOT will for anyone to perish, but already knows ahead of time that they will, why does he still create them? Knowing that they may never even have a chance to hear the Gospel?
11. Is the only purpose of this present life to make it into heaven? If so…
12. Do all babies and children go to heaven? Wouldn’t it be more compassionate to abort a baby and ensure its salvation, than allow it to grow up and possibly go to hell?
13. If God is love (1 John 4:8 ) and loves all people, and love supposedly never fails (1 Corinthians 13:8) and love is what draws people to God, how is it that the majority of humanity won’t be saved? Seems like God’s love fails most of the time.
14. If God truly wills for all to be saved, does God not get what God wants?
15. What does it mean that one day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord? – Will God be forcing everyone to worship him? Or will people freely be worshipping him?
16. Does everybody really get the same fair chance to believe in Jesus before they die? If hell is the worst possible fate of mankind, and if God is truly loving, then…
17. Why did He fail to mention “hell” in Genesis as the price for sin?
18. Why doesn’t the Old Testament ever teach about or even mention “hell”?
19. Why does apostle Paul never once mention hell?
20. Why was hell not the orthodox position of the early Church for five centuries after Christ?
21. Why can the most studious theologians not agree if we are saved by election or free will?
22. Why do some of the most literal translations of the Bible, Young’s Literal Translation and the Concordant Literal NT, not mention “hell” or “eternal” punishment on a single page?
23. Which Bible am I supposed to use to derive my truth from? -Even Greek scholars cannot agree on this.
24. Why would God purposely blind people and then send them to hell? (Exodus 4:11; John 12:39–40)
25. If hell was real why didn’t Moses warn about this fate in the Ten Commandments or the Mosaic Covenant consisting of over 600 laws, ordinances, and warnings? The Mosaic Law simply stated blessings and cursings IN THIS LIFETIME for failure to keep the Mosaic Law.
26. Why did God NOT clearly define that the wages of sin would be eternal damnation in hell? Why did he instead say that the penalty for eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was DEATH?
27. If hell is real, why don’t the Jews, many who know the Old Testament better than most Christians, not believe in the modern Christian concept of hell? They say they don’t believe it because it is not in their Scriptures.
28. If hell doesn’t exist in the Old Testament, how could Jesus and his disciples teach that salvation was deliverance from a place that is not even found in their Scriptures? (There was only the Old Testament at that time.)
29. If hell is real, since SOME English translations use the word “hell” for the Greek word “Gehenna,” in the New Testament, why didn’t this same place (Gehenna) get translated hell in the many places where it appears in the Hebrew form “ga ben Hinnom” in the Old Testament? If the Jews did not understand this valley as a symbol of everlasting torture, why do SOME English translations give this word such a meaning?
30. If hell was real, why did the early church appoint an avowed universalist as the President of the second council of the church in Constantinople in the fourth century? (Gregory Nazianzen, 325-381)
31. If hell was real and a place of no escape, why did the early church teach Jesus went to Hell (Hades), preached to them and led captivity captive?” (Eph. 4:8,9; Psalm 68:18; 1 Peter 3:18-20
32. If hell was real and the grave settled the matter forever, why did the early Christians offer up prayers for the dead?
33. If hell was real, why didn’t the church teach it until AFTER the church departed from reading the Bible in Greek and Hebrew, substituting Latin in its stead several centuries after Christ’s death?
34. If hell was real, why did not a single Christian writer of the first 3 centuries declare universalism as a heresy?
35. Did Jesus intentionally doom non-Jews to hell? (Matthew 10:5–6; Matthew 15:22–24)
36. What kind of person does God resist? Is. 29:13–14; Luke 10:21–22; John 12:39–40; 1 Cor. 1:27–29 (see CLT)
37. Did Paul wish to be eternally separated from God in hell? Romans 9:3
38. If hell was real and found in the original Greek manuscripts of the Bible, why is it that it was primarily those church leaders who either couldn’t read Greek (Minucius Felix, Tertullian), or hated Greek as in the case of Augustine, that the doctrine of Hell was advocated?
39. Is fire (i.e. “lake of fire”) a literal fire? Deut. 4:20; Zeph. 3:8–9; Mark 9:49; Luke 3:16; 1 Cor. 3:15; Heb. 12:29
40. How can people be dead forever if death is destroyed? Isaiah 25:8; 1 Corinthians 15:26; Revelation 20:14

Source: 40 Questions against traditional Christianity and the doctrine of Hell

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How many are taken off the board if God's plan to show forth his glory is through the glorification of his Son,
who with his own blood shall redeem from God's wrath (Romans 5:9) and condemnation of sinful mankind (Romans 5:18)
a remnant for God's own personal inheritance (Psalms 33:12, 28:9, 74:2; Ephesians 1:18) and treasured possession
(Exodus 19:5; Deuteronomy 7:6, Deuteronomy 26:18; Malachi 3:17), the church, his body and the fullness of him
(Ephesians 1:22-23), who counts himself incomplete (!) without his saints, both OT and NT (Hebrews 12:22-23)?

Saint Steven said:

40 Questions against traditional Christianity and the doctrine of Hell

Who will answer?

1. Why did God create Satan, if he already knew ahead of time all the evil that Satan was going to do?
2. If the majority of the world won’t be saved because of the work of the enemy, then doesn’t Satan win? Why would God allow this if He is “all-powerful” and “all- knowing”?
3. Who created evil in the first place? – (Isaiah 45:7)
4. Do earthly parents love their children more than God does? – Earthly parents would never torture their children for disobedience, nor would they annihilate them, or separate themselves from their children for all eternity.
5. Does God actually love all people the same? If so, why are some people given thousands of chances to hear the Gospel and experience his love, while other people are born into the worst conditions, simply trying to survive and begging for food, never coming in contact with a missionary in their lives?
6. Does God ask us to forgive our enemies when He is ultimately not willing to do the same in the end?
7. Is being punished forever for sins committed in a short lifetime really “justice”? Or can we never understand his form of justice?
8. If we are called to become more like God, but yet we can’t understand his justice, how can we ever strive to reflect his true character?
9. Does God operate on a completely different moral scale than us? (His evil is our good, our good is his evil).. or are we truly made in his image?
10. If God does NOT will for anyone to perish, but already knows ahead of time that they will, why does he still create them? Knowing that they may never even have a chance to hear the Gospel?
11. Is the only purpose of this present life to make it into heaven? If so…
12. Do all babies and children go to heaven? Wouldn’t it be more compassionate to abort a baby and ensure its salvation, than allow it to grow up and possibly go to hell?
13. If God is love (1 John 4:8 ) and loves all people, and love supposedly never fails (1 Corinthians 13:8) and love is what draws people to God, how is it that the majority of humanity won’t be saved? Seems like God’s love fails most of the time.
14. If God truly wills for all to be saved, does God not get what God wants?
15. What does it mean that one day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord? – Will God be forcing everyone to worship him? Or will people freely be worshipping him?
16. Does everybody really get the same fair chance to believe in Jesus before they die? If hell is the worst possible fate of mankind, and if God is truly loving, then…
17. Why did He fail to mention “hell” in Genesis as the price for sin?
18. Why doesn’t the Old Testament ever teach about or even mention “hell”?
19. Why does apostle Paul never once mention hell?
20. Why was hell not the orthodox position of the early Church for five centuries after Christ?
21. Why can the most studious theologians not agree if we are saved by election or free will?
22. Why do some of the most literal translations of the Bible, Young’s Literal Translation and the Concordant Literal NT, not mention “hell” or “eternal” punishment on a single page?
23. Which Bible am I supposed to use to derive my truth from? -Even Greek scholars cannot agree on this.
24. Why would God purposely blind people and then send them to hell? (Exodus 4:11; John 12:39–40)
25. If hell was real why didn’t Moses warn about this fate in the Ten Commandments or the Mosaic Covenant consisting of over 600 laws, ordinances, and warnings? The Mosaic Law simply stated blessings and cursings IN THIS LIFETIME for failure to keep the Mosaic Law.
26. Why did God NOT clearly define that the wages of sin would be eternal damnation in hell? Why did he instead say that the penalty for eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was DEATH?
27. If hell is real, why don’t the Jews, many who know the Old Testament better than most Christians, not believe in the modern Christian concept of hell? They say they don’t believe it because it is not in their Scriptures.
28. If hell doesn’t exist in the Old Testament, how could Jesus and his disciples teach that salvation was deliverance from a place that is not even found in their Scriptures? (There was only the Old Testament at that time.)
29. If hell is real, since SOME English translations use the word “hell” for the Greek word “Gehenna,” in the New Testament, why didn’t this same place (Gehenna) get translated hell in the many places where it appears in the Hebrew form “ga ben Hinnom” in the Old Testament? If the Jews did not understand this valley as a symbol of everlasting torture, why do SOME English translations give this word such a meaning?
30. If hell was real, why did the early church appoint an avowed universalist as the President of the second council of the church in Constantinople in the fourth century? (Gregory Nazianzen, 325-381)
31. If hell was real and a place of no escape, why did the early church teach Jesus went to Hell (Hades), preached to them and led captivity captive?” (Eph. 4:8,9; Psalm 68:18; 1 Peter 3:18-20
32. If hell was real and the grave settled the matter forever, why did the early Christians offer up prayers for the dead?
33. If hell was real, why didn’t the church teach it until AFTER the church departed from reading the Bible in Greek and Hebrew, substituting Latin in its stead several centuries after Christ’s death?
34. If hell was real, why did not a single Christian writer of the first 3 centuries declare universalism as a heresy?
35. Did Jesus intentionally doom non-Jews to hell? (Matthew 10:5–6; Matthew 15:22–24)
36. What kind of person does God resist? Is. 29:13–14; Luke 10:21–22; John 12:39–40; 1 Cor. 1:27–29 (see CLT)
37. Did Paul wish to be eternally separated from God in hell? Romans 9:3
38. If hell was real and found in the original Greek manuscripts of the Bible, why is it that it was primarily those church leaders who either couldn’t read Greek (Minucius Felix, Tertullian), or hated Greek as in the case of Augustine, that the doctrine of Hell was advocated?
39. Is fire (i.e. “lake of fire”) a literal fire? Deut. 4:20; Zeph. 3:8–9; Mark 9:49; Luke 3:16; 1 Cor. 3:15; Heb. 12:29
40. How can people be dead forever if death is destroyed? Isaiah 25:8; 1 Corinthians 15:26; Revelation 20:14

Source: 40 Questions against traditional Christianity and the doctrine of Hell

Click to expand...

Sure why not....first 3

1) To test the love of those He made in His image. Satan is known as the deciever and God will allow him to decieve in order to test us. Man has a choice to overcome the deceptions of the adversary. If willing to recieve, the power of His Holy Spirit will conquer that temptation.
2)An assumption is made that there is a battle between God and Satan. Satan gets his power from God, so there is something much bigger at play here.
The battle between the flesh and the spirit.
The " work" is not by the enemy it is by our choice of living by either the Spirit or living by the flesh.
3) Evil is not a creation, it is the result of disobedience.