Hell

[Moriah_Conquering_Wind]

"We'll be melting the cheese
in the southerly breeze
we'll be sharpening the skewers again ..."

 

[Abbadon]

how can you become more perfect than perfect? isnt perfect just that...perfect!! lol

I guess it's a matter of relative perfection with us. We have more room to rise from down here, and we won't take it for granted. I've only just started looking into Bohme, though.

 

[Izdaari Eristikon]

Hehe, Moriah's posts are fun to read.

I enjoy reading them too, but "eschew obfuscation" is obviously not her motto.

 

[Moriah_Conquering_Wind]

9 "He who has ears, let him hear."
10 The disciples came to him and asked, "Why do you speak to the people in parables?"
11 He replied, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.
12 Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.

13 This is why I speak to them in parables:
"Though seeing, they do not see;
though hearing, they do not hear or understand.

14 In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:
" 'You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
15 For this people's heart has become calloused;
they hardly hear with their ears,
and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them.'

16 But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear.
17 For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it."

 

[Omnichaotic]

how can you become more perfect than perfect? isnt perfect just that...perfect!! lol

There is no limit to God's perfection. In God's kingdom we only ever grow, becoming ever more perfect as eternity goes on.

 

[amadeus2]

As I stated elsewhere, I do not believe in a system of direct reward and punishment, but rather that God, in His infinite Love and mercy allows us to create our own destinies and realities as we please.

Hell is not a literal burning lake, but rather a state of being, fully self imposed.

God's pure Love pervades all things, and our experience of this Love is dependent on our state of heart, and what we love most. If we live unselfishly, in peace and harmony with all those around us, we experience joy, whereas if we live in a primarily hellish way, and live only to serve ourselves, we make ourselves miserable.

To those who spend their entire lives in purposeful ignorance of God's love, and close their eyes to it, when they finally see it face to face, find it painful beyond description. This is what hell is. God is a consuming fire, and burns away all that is not a part of Him. In this fire, we are purified of selfishness, hatred, lust, all of the things that can not exist in His presence .

Yes, our God is a consuming fire. His fire will destroy everything that cannot exist in His presence. Perhaps for some or even many this is all of their being.

 

[amadeus2]

how can you become more perfect than perfect? isnt perfect just that...perfect!! lol

Read about Job who was described as perfect, but still was lacking

 

[amadeus2]

I believe that Hell is a fictitious place created in the minds of fallible men in order to scare people into converting to Christianity.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm wasting my time with my religion.

Many people waste their time with religion, but a sincere person will never waste time with God.

 

[Moriah_Conquering_Wind]

Yes, our God is a consuming fire. His fire will destroy everything that cannot exist in His presence. Perhaps for some or even many this is all of their being.

Nope. For none of us. For all of us, it is the Virus. Once He consumes the Virus, there is no part of us that is not of Him. Herein lies His redemption. For only the Virus cannot exist in His presence. All created beings are made to do so, and when cleansed, will do so again.

 

[Omnichaotic]

Nope. For none of us. For all of us, it is the Virus. Once He consumes the Virus, there is no part of us that is not of Him. Herein lies His redemption. For only the Virus cannot exist in His presence. All created beings are made to do so, and when cleansed, will do so again.

I agree.

After the farmer has threshed his wheat, does he throw away both the useless husk as well as the head? Does the blacksmith continue to burn his precious metal even after all the dross has been removed?

 

[Moriah_Conquering_Wind]

Precisely. The error here arises when we mistakenly attribute the person or being to the dross rather than the Virus. People think metal + dross is a class designation: some are metal, some are dross. Nope. ALL are metal to be purged of dross.

 

[Abiel]

I find it psychologically unhelpful to conceive of God as He who punishes eternally in buring fire etc etc.

That would mean every member of my family who I have known bar maybe one sneak-in is there. My dear Dad, dead these two years, is, even as I type in pain and distress and agony. And I don't but the 'we all deserve Hell' line. Not for one minute. We are God's most precious creation. We do not 'all deserve Hell' any more than my naughty boy deserves me to endlessly punish him. The minute anyone convinces me of the reality of God as portrayed in Scripture as a cosmic child-abuser (both of us His children, and Jesus His Son) is the day I will hang up my Christian hat. Such a God is unworthy of praise. Maybe terror.

 

[Rebekka]

I find it psychologically unhelpful to conceive of God as He who punishes eternally in buring fire etc etc.

That would mean every member of my family who I have known bar maybe one sneak-in is there. My dear Dad, dead these two years, is, even as I type in pain and distress and agony. And I don't but the 'we all deserve Hell' line. Not for one minute. We are God's most precious creation. We do not 'all deserve Hell' any more than my naughty boy deserves me to endlessly punish him. The minute anyone convinces me of the reality of God as portrayed in Scripture as a cosmic child-abuser (both of us His children, and Jesus His Son) is the day I will hang up my Christian hat. Such a God is unworthy of praise. Maybe terror.

I can't believe that all people deserve hell, either. Maybe we don't deserve heaven (meaning that the "normal" situation would be no heaven, but not hell, either, just a nothing) - I mean, heaven is not a human right, but to deserve hell one must do more than just be, IMO. I do believe in hell, so my ideas are a bit contradicting.

God is greater than we are, so I'm sure I'm not seeing things clearly, but I have difficulty with a God who sends everyone to hell unless they (fill in the blank). To me it would make more sense that no one goes to hell unless (x or y). Which means that an atheist (created and loved by God) doesn't go to hell automatically because of his atheism.

I'm not saying that everyone goes to heaven automatically - no idea - but yes, the idea that we all deserve hell (eternal torment) for just being born - nah. Eternal nothing, that I would accept. But not eternal torment.

 

[TheCheat1]

Have you ever told a lie?

 

[Moriah_Conquering_Wind]

have you ever told the truth and had others insist you were lying?

 

[progressivegal]

Progressivegal: Is confused.

 

[Moriah_Conquering_Wind]

don't be. it's all very simple really.

 

[RebeccaJO]

Hell is real. And it is described as eternal damnation. Everlasting punishment, fire. Matthew 25:46. The ungodly (wicked) people go to hell prepared for Satan and his angels. God did not prepare hell for us, but so many will go there if they reject God. In the last days when Jesus had already came and got his children. The ones that take the mark of the beast. Will be throne in hell with Satan and suffer everlasting torment with no rest day or night.

Hell of the mind is seperation from God.

 

[TheCheat1]

You can't answer a simple question as, "Have you ever told a lie?"

 

[FLANDIDLYANDERS]

I tell lies to my children when I say "such and such a person is in heaven".

None of us know.

Is there a hell? Well certainly it exists here now on earth, just look around yourself, at your own life at times too. Eternal punishment? From a loving God? Unlikely. Not even I would punish my children for all eternity, so do we believe God to be more petty than me?

Jesus told many stories using the popular stories of the times. Then he would put a twist on the end, like he did with the Lazarus story. Do we believe God is literally a mother hen? Is the Kingdom of heaven actually a mustard seed?

Satan may well be real, if so, Hell will be his home. Jesus took the keys off of him right? Giving Jesus the say on who goes there, not us! And Who Would Jesus Damn? Not a single mother [wash my mouth][wash my mouth][wash my mouth][wash my mouth]er, not even Hitler or Gearge Bush, maybe