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Yes, very much so.Its hard to accept because IF we follow the word there are things we no longer can do that our flesh wants to do.I truly believe many of the Bible's concepts aren't hard to understand. They're just hard to except.
Any one who has truley come to know God..actually has a higher reverence and fear of him then they did before they knew him.Is it the fear of God that will save you from hell? Or is it the love of God that saves?
Pro 1:7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Meaning of the fear of the Lord
The main Hebrew and Greek words translated fear in the Bible can have several shades of meaning, but in the context of the fear of the Lord, they convey a positive reverence.
The Hebrew verb yare can mean “to fear, to respect, to reverence” and the Hebrew noun yirah “usually refers to the fear of God and is viewed as a positive quality. This fear acknowledges God’s good intentions (Ex. 20:20). … This fear is produced by God’s Word (Ps. 119:38; Prov. 2:5) and makes a person receptive to wisdom and knowledge (Prov. 1:7; 9:10)” (Warren Baker and Eugene Carpenter, The Complete Word Study Dictionary: Old Testament, 2003, pp. 470-471).
The Greek noun phobos can mean “reverential fear” of God, “not a mere ‘fear’ of His power and righteous retribution, but a wholesome dread of displeasing Him” (Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, 1985, “Fear, Fearful, Fearfulness”). This is the type of positive, productive fear Luke describes in the early New Testament Church:Fear of the Lord: What Does It Mean?
Fear will not be a part of the new earth, all that is needed is for us to see the scars on Jesus and sin will never rise again.
This is an odd response..i dont recall Jesus ever telling us to go to church nor draw others to.I can understand that... but an exaggerated
claim on the horrors of hell tends to turn away far
more people than are scared into church by this method.
I have seen lots of interviews by Pastor Ray Comfort, I am
certain that he is totally sincere...... but I suspect that he turns
almost as many people away as he leads toward church..... because
we tend to think to ourselves....... if by becoming a Christian I have to
treat people like Pastor Ray Comfort does.......
no thank you!
This is a carnal reasoning that it not aligned with the word of God..have a question for these insensitive souls, will they actually take pleasure in watching their family screaming in the flames for eternity?
As the text says...so it shall be.How is it not just to do as said you would? God gives us MANY chances to turn to Him in our lives, IF we forsake those chances and choose the world are we not guilty of having a false idol? (Putting ANYTHING or ANYONE above ABBA the Father)
Jesus even warns that the Jews will not be spared.
Romans 11:21
21 For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.
Jesus is the vine, we are the branches...... IF we do not bear spiritual fruit we WILL be cut off and we WILL be thrown into the fire. For if He will not spare the natural branches (those that belong to Him naturally through the Jewish faith..... why then would He spare those NOT of the natural vine UNLESS they abide in Him and He in them?)
If Hell were temporary, why then would the rich man speak of an unending torment IF he were "just dead and obliterated"?
Luke 16:19-31
19 “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 20 At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21 and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.
22 “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 24 So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’
25 “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’
27 “He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, 28 for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’
29 “Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’
30 “‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’
31 “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”
"31" Even speaks that "even if one were to rise from the dead they would not be convinced" Sounds an awful lot like Christ, dont you think? Rose from the dead and yet, unbelief runs rampent, even by so called "Christians" that God is not who He says He is and will not do as He said He will.
This "Hell is temporary" or "Certainly a loving God would not throw me in hell forever" is the same lie of the devil that told Eve "You will not SURELY die if you eat of this tree".
I personally do not feel that hell is a punishment. Simply the conclusion of a choice. You choose life, or you choose death. Both eternal, but only one of them is the correct choice. God punishes those He loves so they are corrected from going asstray. What is the point of punishment and guidance IF one has already arrived at their destination?
God honors the choice we choose out of love because He gave us free will. What we choose to do with that free will is on our souls. We choose God, or we choose a dying world that leaves us seperate from God. If one wants nothing to do with God in this world, how would it be loving to FORCE them to be around a creator they wanted nothing to do with in life?
God is merciful, God is just.... but you can not think of those terms in light of a human mindset. You must look at it from a creators mindset. If I as an artist draw a work of art and then destroy it because I was not pleased with it, how would that drawing (lets say in this example it could talk) have any right to declare "Thats not fair" and that assessment hold MORE weight than what I decided as its creator? How is it not just if I tell that drawing I will destroy it if it does not do as I created it to do, then I do exactly as I told it I would?
Does that mean that one will NEVER sin? Absolutely not. However, it DOES mean that in ones walk they will reach a point where they are no longer LIVING in sin (excusing it as "well, nobody is perfect".) They will however stumble into sin now and then, but there is a difference between excusing it.
Weak example: Screaming a curse after you stub your toe in the dark at 2am and willfully going off on someone for no reason with cursing.
Do you HONESTLY believe that Jesus came, suffered all that suffering and punishment to save us from a hell that is "only temporary" or a case of "no longer existing at all" ? IF it were only temperary..... why even have it at all? Why not let EVERYONE in regaurdless of how they lived and the side they choose?
Lastly for those thinking we all end up in Heaven eventually even those that suffer hell, if Jesus says:
Matthew 7:21-23
21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 22 Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many a]">[a]miracles?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’
Matthew 18:3
Truly I tell you, He said, “unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
If hell were temparary and we all wound up going to Heaven after a time in hell.... then Jesus did not speak truth in the underlined part. He would have instead said "They will not enter the kingdom until after their time in hell is served" because Jesus did not/does not lie.
If "Hell is simply a destruction and ceasing to exist" how is it that the Rich man in the story of Lazarus can be so aware that he is suffering if he has been obliterated?
Because it is human reasoning. Of course no one will ever admit it aloud, but the whole "sins against an infinite God demand therefore infinite conscious punishment" argument is them saying what they think God should do about unbelievers, not what the Bible says He will actually do. The closest thing to infinite conscious punishment - which of course inevitably equates to torture, like it or not - mentioned in Scripture is the verse about the righteous going on to eternal life, but the unrighteous to eternal punishment, in Matthew 25:46. And people somehow weigh this one verse in as undoubtedly meaning eternal conscious torment even in lieu of battalions of verses elsewhere using terms such as "dead", "destroy", "perish", "consumed", "burned UP" (not just burned infinitely somehow without ever actually being killed by the fire so that the victim is alive to feel the pain of being burned by fire forever, but burned UP).
Back to the drawing board to do what?The 'Lake of Fire' is the Second Death, which is where those who are Faithful unto Death are not Harmed by it.
You might try going back to the drawing board on that one.
Only the unsaved are "counted" as fearful and liars, not the saved. Yes, we Christians may still be fearful at times and lie at times, but the record of the saved is clean in the eyes of God as concerning eternity, for our sins are covered by the blood of Jesus, our Savior. Colossians 2:14I think you have to use the scriptures and human reasoning. Remember that death of the body is permanent and lasts forever, unless resurrected and saved. The second death or lake of fire is death of the spirit and last forever, God can still save man from the lake of fire and does as he indicates in the Bible.
The Holy Ghost said he saved me from the lake of fire. Remember the fearful and liars are cast into there, which includes probably everyone at some point, and perhaps not, but it sounds nearly all inclusive. Hope that makes sense
Only the unsaved are "counted" as fearful and liars, not the saved. Yes, we Christians may still be fearful at times and lie at times, but the record of the saved is clean in the eyes of God as concerning eternity, for our sins are covered by the blood of Jesus, our Savior. Colossians 2:14
I'm not entirely sure but annihilation makes sense to me, it's a little awkward biblically. The lake of fire does burn forever but if God can create body and soul he can destroy it. Suffering forever seems pointless, the children of perdition don't go there to suffer, they suffer because they are thrown in there.Hell, actually the Lake of Fire, is eternal punishment; conscious punishment.
The human nature (1Co 2:14) has a hard time accepting the concept at times, especially when they do not accept God's Word on the matter.
Why have people suffer forever? Why not just annihilate them after they are cast into The Lake of Fire? Someone once gave this answer:
"Infraction against infinite righteousness deserves infinite punishment."
Sounds like a good answer. Of course people can still reject it using human reasoning.
What do you think?
It will be a 'mercy killing' for the wicked and us as well as the "memory of them will cease", so we won't spend eternity feeling bad about lost relative and friends.
The common concept of Hell is a fabrication by shamans who have no truth of the Loving God to teach. Because primitive man believed in good ghosts and bad ghosts in the afterlife, they had to have a place for the bad ghosts to go.Hell, actually the Lake of Fire, is eternal punishment; conscious punishment.
The human nature (1Co 2:14) has a hard time accepting the concept at times, especially when they do not accept God's Word on the matter.
Why have people suffer forever? Why not just annihilate them after they are cast into The Lake of Fire? Someone once gave this answer:
"Infraction against infinite righteousness deserves infinite punishment."
Sounds like a good answer. Of course people can still reject it using human reasoning.
What do you think?
I'm not entirely sure but annihilation makes sense to me, it's a little awkward biblically. The lake of fire does burn forever but if God can create body and soul he can destroy it. Suffering forever seems pointless, the children of perdition don't go there to suffer, they suffer because they are thrown in there.
"Infraction against infinite righteousness deserves infinite punishment."
What do you think?
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