I was reading on another board a few minutes ago and a poster there, apparently a college teacher, bemoans the fact that today's Christian youth are largely relativistic and worship technology (video games, large screen TV's, cell phone internet, etc.). Been posting on theology boards now for about 17 or 18 years and I think your message is in tune with the times. Few on theology boards are interested in actual theology. As it is I have no ability to sway others with emotional sweetness. I see the mechanics of salvation of all in a coherent whole throughout the whole Bible, from beginning [fire and annihilation] to end [the miracle of new birth which springs from it]. I can only paint what I see.
This seems reasonable on the surface, unless the Bible really is an inspired book in a stronger sense of the idea than even most Christians realize. If true, Scripture includes an equally true revelation of God which the emotional mind often discards as unworthy--in which case the reality may be that those arguments considered profitless carry information God's children need to hear (truth). But religious man's history--as the whole of the Bible also attests to--is that we refuse to hear the bad stuff, wanting instead to have our ears tickled by soft things (2Tim 4:3).
The thing about both heaven and hell is that their realities are almost entirely out of "sight" of the human mind and its chaotic clamour of material life. In these surroundings--and how much more so today in the information age and 15 second sound bite religious beliefs--to ignore the fire in deference to the birth seems to give Mat 7:13 some meat.
In the end we may find that the direction some of those profitless arguments were pointed were worth their weight in gold (Rev 3:18).
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