Hell...

[thedream233]

is one of my biggest problems with christianity. When I was a christian, my friends used to ask me: why should a person suffer for eternity for about 70 years of sin? I used to say that people went to hell because they refused to take Jesus Christ as their savior and therefore could not have a relationship with God. And if you dont have a relationship with God, how could you spend eternity with him?

Now it seems to me that a loving God could never create a place like Hell.
For one thing hell goes on forever and ever, which is a great achievement unlike anything in this world. Not even stars can last forever. If God can find a way to keep Hell going on forever without Him being there, couldn't He find a way for all people of earth to want to accept Jesus as their savior?

I mean, if we get pain in our stomachs when we need food and we get pain in our lungs and chest when we need to breathe in air, shouldn't there be some kind of huge pain that people who haven't accepted Jesus as their savior get? After all, hell is MUCH worse than death.

I guess my overall question would be: Why do christians believe God is justified for creating Hell? (other than the fact that he is God)

 

[rocklife]

I do not believe anyone is going to be burned in torture fire for billions and trillions of years for even 100 years of sinful living. That is not fair, and I don't even see that from the Bible. I believe hell is often misunderstood. the punishment for sin is death, not torture burning for billions of years.

Here is a preaching about hell that goes over many bible verses I believe are often misunderstood. Go to the one called "Cities of Ash" and you click on Watch http://www.amazingfacts.org/items/storacle_lessons.asp

thanks for asking, God bless

 

[Harlan Norris]

is one of my biggest problems with christianity. When I was a christian, my friends used to ask me: why should a person suffer for eternity for about 70 years of sin? I used to say that people went to hell because they refused to take Jesus Christ as their savior and therefore could not have a relationship with God. And if you dont have a relationship with God, how could you spend eternity with him?

Now it seems to me that a loving God could never create a place like Hell.
For one thing hell goes on forever and ever, which is a great achievement unlike anything in this world. Not even stars can last forever. If God can find a way to keep Hell going on forever without Him being there, couldn't He find a way for all people of earth to want to accept Jesus as their savior?

I mean, if we get pain in our stomachs when we need food and we get pain in our lungs and chest when we need to breathe in air, shouldn't there be some kind of huge pain that people who haven't accepted Jesus as their savior get? After all, hell is MUCH worse than death.

I guess my overall question would be: Why do christians believe God is justified for creating Hell? (other than the fact that he is God)

Only God's will is his own.All others do as God directs for good or for ill.Still, we are blessed with a chance for salvation.Which is in effect the opportunity to do God's will from our heart.Hell is the reward for those that will not serve. God created us for HIS pleasure,not ours.

 

[Mailman Dan]

Here's a question for you, do you think God should punish evil? For example, if a man rapes and murders a family member of yours, do you think God should bring that man to justice?

If God does have a justice system, does it have a prision?

No one will go to hell because they haven’t heard of Jesus Christ. The heathen will go to hell for murder, rape, adultery, lust, theft, lying, etc. Sin is not failing to hear the gospel. Rather, "sin is the transgression of the Law" (1 John 3:4). If we really care about the lost, we will become missionaries and take the good news of God’s forgiveness in Christ to them.

Some scriptures do point to different degrees of hell. For example, one states that those who harf children have the darkest part of it waiting for them.

Here's a link where you can find more short answers on hell, and what the bible says.

http://www.livingwaters.com/witnessingtool/browse.shtml#cheavenhell


Dan~~~>knows who the Judge will be

 

[Confess]

Your premise is incorrect which is why you don't understand.

God cannot by His very nature be in fellowship with anything unholy.

We are, by our very nature, unholy (sinful). Just as my hair is red, so too is my nature sinful. Now I may try to cover my hair or change its color, but that doesn't mean that my hair is permanently changed. So too is my nature. It will always be sinful and unholy. I may try to cover it with good works, but I am still the same old sinner. I do not have a free choice in this matter.

God loves us so much that he wanted a way for us to be in eternal fellowship with him. The only way to do that is to remove our sinful nature. God's final resolution was to send Jesus down to earth to pay the price for our sins so that all who believes will not inherit eternal hell, but eternal life with God.

 

[Robinsegg]

Well, if you set aside the concept of Hell being a burning place of torment (I'd say the Lake of Fire would be, but I'm not sure about Hell), and consider that Hell is eternal separation from God . . . maybe it makes more sense?

Rachel

 

[Key]

I guess my overall question would be: Why do christians believe God is justified for creating Hell? (other than the fact that he is God)

When you look at this whole mess is boils down to something very simple.

If you accept and embrace God, when you Die, God accepts and embraces you.

If you reject God, then when you die, God rejects you.

It is not that Hell is this place, but Hell, is God rejecting you, For God to refuse you Heaven is Hell. It's not like "Pick a Door" it's either you Enter Heaven or you are left outside. Being left outside.. is the "Hell" you will endure.

Since, once God rejects you, that decision is final and such, the being left outside to deal with the fact that you lost Heaven, will be hell in the purest sense.

As for sin, What people fail to realize is that Sin is not temporal, it is eternal. If you tell a lie, you will have always told a lie, long after you are dead, the fact that you told a lie remains eternal, the sin, or the act does not end with the termination of the originator of the sin, it remains.

If you raped someone, and they had a child from the rape, even if you died the day after the rape, the repercussions from your sin will live on, long after you died. So the idea that Sin is temporal, or limited by the duration of the sinner is a faulty assumption, and that leads to the misconception about eternal punishment, the sentence is eternal, only because the crime is eternal.

I hope I have answered your question, if not, or you desire more information, please let me know.

God Bless

Key

 

[thedream233]

well to clarify how I got my view of hell

Revelations chapter 20

10And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

15And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

 

[Zeena]

That 'book of Life' is Jesus!

For He does say;

John 14:6
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Luke 20:17
And he beheld them, and said, What is this then that is written, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner?

 

[Robinsegg]

well to clarify how I got my view of hell

Revelations chapter 20

10And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

15And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

This verse describes the "Lake of Fire" into which Satan and other beings will be cast (including those who refuse God). The same passage includes the fact that death and the grave will be thrown into the lake of fire.

These Scriptures make it clear that Satan, the beast, and the false prophet would be tormented forever. It says no such thing about unbelieving people.

There is a point at which Jesus tells a parable about Lazarus and the Rich Man, where the Rich Man was tormented by heat and thirst after death. However, I believe it is unclear if this torment is until the end of time (and would end when they're thrown into the lake of fire "the second death") or for eternity. The second death is not a physical death, but a spiritual death, an eternal separation from God, near as I can figure.

Rachel

 

[Zeena]

God is actually very clear in the fact that all mankind will be raised to immortality.

1 Corinthians 15:42-44
So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.

New bodies, same spirit, for it is only in the bod that sin reings unchecked [apart from the abiding Life of Jesus, of course, who buffets the body of believers with His Holy Spirit].

NEW BODIES!

One's that can withstand the torchures of hell for eternity!

If an unbeliever continues in his unbelief what is mortal will STILL be swallowed up by immortality!

1 Corinthians 15:53-54
For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

God is not mocked, as a man sows, so shall he reap!

Galatians 6:8
For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

 

[Robinsegg]

Just for clarification:
I wasn't trying to say the soul would then be annihilated, but that the "physical" torment might be ended for simple separation from God (which would have to be pretty bad in and of itself, imo).
Rachel

 

[Zeena]

Psalm 18:37-39
I pursued my enemies and overtook them;
I did not turn back till they were destroyed.
I crushed them so that they could not rise;they fell beneath my feet. You armed me with strength for battle;you made my adversaries bow at my feet.

Isaiah 53:5
But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.

Jeremiah 5:3
O LORD, do not your eyes look for truth? You struck them, but they felt no pain; you crushed them, but they refused correction. They made their faces harder than stone and refused to repent.

Matthew 21:44
He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed."

Acts 2:35
until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet." '

I am referring to the soul of man, when I quote these passages of Scripture..

 

[Merlin]

Hell is not for about 70yrs of sin. Hell is for one incident.
It is eternal because time will not exist as we know it now. Time will stop.
God is not creating a long time for punishment, it is simply the nature of existance outside of time.

 

[Zeena]

That's right!

 

[thedream233]

Hell is not for about 70yrs of sin. Hell is for one incident.
It is eternal because time will not exist as we know it now. Time will stop.
God is not creating a long time for punishment, it is simply the nature of existance outside of time.

where in the bible does it say that time will stop?

 

[Confess]

It should say "Time as we know it" for God's time is not our time.

 

[Stinker]

Anyone that even occasionally reads the New Testament, comes across passage after passage mentioning the eternal torment of tartarus and gehenna.

According to the New Testament writers, Jesus Himself mentioned it a number of times.

I think that to believe that it is unjust for tartarus and gehenna to exist, is to believe that it is unjust of God to punish anyone to any degree for any amount of time.

 

[Key]

well to clarify how I got my view of hell

Revelations chapter 20

10And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

15And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

This is a very incorrect assumption regarding Hell, as Jesus used many parables to explain Hell, the only constant, was there will be weeping and the gnashing of teeth.

However, The lake of Fire is only at Revelations, and this is allegorical, maybe, we need to grasp that it was a "Prophetic Vision" so, the lake of fire, might not be an actual literal lake of fire, but symbolic for something else. Just like the man eating the book, was not literal, but symbolic.

So this we need to take into strong consideration, when we talk of Hell.

Now, if you want me to defend a "Lake of Fire", well no can do. Only because. I can not support something I do not know to be actual or literal.

As such, if you want to cling to a lake of Fire, I guess you could, but you are holding to the wrong ideal, and that might be why you are having problems in the first place.

where in the bible does it say that time will stop?

To God, a day is a thousand years, and a Thousand Years is a Day. Time as we comprehend it, is not the same as time to God.

I Hope I have provided you some answers to these questions.

God Bless

Key.

 

[Misty Minister]

There is no Hell of Eternal Torment in the Torah. It is a pagan concept. There is no Heaven of Eternal Bliss either. Nope we do not follow Yah's paths of holiness out of fear or greed, we follow them because they are good for us.