hell may not be that bad after all

The way it's described in the bible sounds ridiculously boring, everyone just spends their time bowing before the Throne of God shouting their exultations.

 

Agreed, and though I have read three versions of the book, that was one point I did not remember....out of many. I recall more of the verses that I was looking for and relate to, such as, " Judge not, lest ye be judged.", Psalms 82:6, and John 3:16, etc.

It is all highly suspect to me, and I cannot imagine a literal existence for hell, other than self created ones here and now. I do believe in karma, Spirit, and life after death, though.

 

And what do you mean by "hell"? Since we seem to be discussing the Biblical Hell, let's look at what the Bible says:

Matt. 8:12, "but the sons of the kingdom shall be cast out into the outer darkness; in that place there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Matt. 13:41-42, "The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, 42and will cast them into the furnace of fire; in that place there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Rev. 14:11, ""And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever; and they have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name."”

There is a lot more, but the key things that repeat themselves over and over are the concepts of darkness and heat. Several times the scripture mentions torment as well. So, with that said, this is what I view hell to be like:

First, there are no demons torturing anyone. They are recieving the same treatment as everyone else. Hell was created FOR the fallen angels, and they have no dominion there. Constituents of hell are blinded by darkness, they cannot see. There is no light. The heat is tremendous. Brimstone is scalding hot and they feel as though they are conciously immersed in it. On top of that, they have come here from God's immediate presence. For those of you who have children, imagine if you had been able to hold your newborn after birth for a few moments. Then the doctor comes over and kills your child (this is not allegorical, BTW). Imagine the pain and overwhelming sense of loss that you would feel. Now, greatly magnify that feeling and you have the sense of loss that one would feel after being in God's presence only to have it stripped from you forever. If residents of Hell can hear anything, the only thing they can hear is their own screams or, possibly, the screams of others. All they have is themselves and their thoughts to deal with for all eternity. There is no comfort, no peace, no hope. Only unending dispair accompany them as they endure eternal solitude alone in the darkness.

Now for heaven:
The bible says that "we shall know as we are known." What this means is that we will know God as well as He knows us. We will be ever able to not sin and we will be physically perfect. We will be able to worship God through every aspect of our lives, not just standing around him saying "Holy, holy holy..." Though we will be resurrected, we will not be omniscient. As such, we will have to learn and grow. We do not become stagnant creatures, God did not design us that way. We will be able to explore the vastness of His creation and all the while worshiping and enjoying God and God's very presence. We will still be able to experiment and develop and learn and grow without error. Will we be able to make mistakes? I think so. However, we will not do anything contrary to God's nature. For example, will might have to make guesses regarding some scientific experiement, and we could be mistaken, but we would never react in anger or frustration when we were wrong. God meant for there to be challenges for us, but sin was not one of the challenges He intended. Anyway, that is a VERY short idea of what I think heaven and hell are like.

 

No wonder christians fear to live!

 

and ewho says the bible is accurate in its depiction of anyhting? funny how a god can create ythe whole universe/eart in 7 days but he adds a tree of knowledge the very one that would lead man to sin! i guess it was an oversight on the landscapers seems like to me there should be no hell considering he destroyed the earth by flood and the only survivors were the parents of incest.....oh well i guess we need to have faith that the bullshit is not just that... although faith is a weak persons way of trying to be strong...but i give god one thing... he made the perfect crutch for pathetic souls to lean on... that damn forsaken tree of knowledge... is what seperated the easily led from the "oh you got to be kidding me"

hell if such a place exist... is da shyt... AND THAT IS THE REASON GOD FEARS IT SO MUCH!!! if everybody knew it was a happening place who would want to serve in heaven?

 

"I rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints;
The sinners are much more fun..."

 

At 8 yrs. old, in gr. 3, I got a warm feeling inside and decided that Jesus was cool. I was a Christian. At 11, in gr. 5, I pondered the existence of the devil and hell, and concluded that it could not possibly exist. I still feel that. For at least 20 years I have publicly, and very colorfully, taunted Lucifer, Satan, or whatever, and called him out to face me. At times I did this with Christians beside me......they were visibly scared. They warned me not to tempt him, and that I am no match for his fieryness's power.
Well, still waiting.........The candyass, chickenshit, goof, loser, dickhead, cowardly, stupid wimp ( I mean you......Mr. Devil!), come out come out wherever you are.
But he won't.
Why not?
Either he's scared of me, which is what I like to think, or maybe he is not real....

I sure ain't scared of him anyway.

 

what if he's waisting you without you feeling it?

 

If he is...........I can feel it.
And he's still a chickenshit coward cuz he won't face me......if he's wasting me, he's doing it like a goof. sneaking around, and hiding.
I guess that is to be expected from the ultimate villian.

 

one thing i feel is really sad is how many "christians" seem more interested in threats of hell, "satan" being to blame for all their problems, and demonic boogey-men coming after them, than they are about jesus's message of peace, love and tolerance. and how many are more concerned with "saving" everyone they come in contact with, without knowing a damned thing about their inner life or spirituality, than they are with living in peace and love as jesus bade them. most of the "thou shalt nots" were all old testament stuff, weren't they? i thought that the new testament & the teachings of jesus were supposed to be more important to christians, and that jesus was all about loving one's neighbor as oneself (whatever their race, gender, sexuality, criminal record, or socio-economic class) and about "judge not".


of course, i'm just a stupid, rock-worshipping pagan. i guess i must not "understand" christianity if i think love is more important than hell. my "christian" brother - my twin brother -disowned me over some of these issues. but what offends me even more than being disowned is how he's making his "god of peace and love" out to be a totally paranoid, selfish, judgemental asshole. i wanted to say to him, "fine, call me a "sinner" if you must, but don't you be raggin' on jesus, man! he's your god, be nice to him, and don't make him out to be such a small-hearted twit!" i still don't think that kind of behavior (certainly not disowning one's twin) has anything to do with the teachings of the christ, or that "evil" and "hell" are as anywhere near as important to christian living as goodness and love. maybe i've just had too much sabbat mead. at any rate, i still like jesus more than my brother, which granted, is not saying a lot, since i like most people more than my brother.

 

My dad has personally confronted demons and people who basically do not accept Christian teachings are easily minipulated by the devil. It is only when one takes a strong stand for Jesus Christ that the devil becomes obviously irritated. It is then when the spiritual confrontation begins. When a person embraces all religions as true the devil has that person exactly where he wants them to be, deceived and at harmony with the Devil.

 

if the "devil" encourages understanding, tolerance, peace and harmony with all religions and peoples of different thought, than i think i'd rather put my lot in with him than your version of "jesus". people like you are a disgrace to any religion. you are a self-righteous, judgemental, hateful, self-serving, bigot. how dare you use any religion to justify your judgemental, small-minded hatred? that xenophobic, closed-minded religoius sepratism is NOT what the real jesus taught, and you know it, hater!

it's people like you who make it so difficult for people like me to trust the real, loving christians, without questioning their real motives. you are an embarassment to your own religion, and a shame to the name of your god. it is fortunate i know real christians who are better people. otherwise i might think they were all deluded hate-mongers like yourself.

burn in your own hell, fucker! i'll bring the marshmallows!

 

haha, so religious tolerance is now an act of the devil?

I can see satan in his hole right now scheming against god "Instead of getting people to believe in christianity, I'll get them to believe everything!!" *insert evil laugh here*

Fundamentalism in any religion is not good. We can see examples of that right now with all the Muslim fanatics causing quite a stir in the Middle East. The fundamental christians of the U.S. 50 years ago were beating black people to death, and today we seem them wanting to blow people away in the name of the lord, or running around acting like prophets of god (when Jesus specifically mentioned that those people do not know him). Chew on that for a while before you start preaching your hellfire and brimstone, telling us that in (what is it 30?) years we are all going to be nuked by Russia.

 

Not many understand that satan represents a false illusion of peace. Often, we look at the devil under false pretenses. He doesn't come around dark-cloaked and menacing. When he was in Heaven, he was an angel of light. When he was casted out, he still masqueraded as light. He was the most beautiful of all the angels. If sin wasn't attractive, no one would do it.
He presents himself as a stranger with candy trying to lure you away. What he shows is sugar coated and pretty. Candy rots your teeth, satan rots your soul.

He couldn't care less about peace and equality. But he will make you think he does if that is what it takes to get you. When you use someone, you make them believe a lie. You sweet talk them to get what you want. He is the world's greatest sweet talker.

 

If God created the angel that would become the Devil and God is omniscient, then did he not knowingly create the situation in which we mere mortals would have to choose between 'Good' and 'Evil'? If your God does in fact exist, I assure you that he does not wish the best for you. Afterall he is omnipotent and could aid us in our troubles but decides not to, but remember he is omniscient and effectively planned our misery in the FIRST place.

 

Not true at all

 

You wish to talk epistemology?

 

Cats don't come whaen you call either...

Originally Posted by JesusDiedForU
"My dad has personally confronted demons and people who basically do not accept Christian teachings are easily minipulated by the devil. It is only when one takes a strong stand for Jesus Christ that the devil becomes obviously irritated. It is then when the spiritual confrontation begins. When a person embraces all religions as true the devil has that person exactly where he wants them to be, deceived and at harmony with the Devil."

I think most people accept Christs teachings of peace, love, brotherhood and such...to me, lots of the things radical fundies use as excuses to condem people come from Pauls letters...whats the deal with that guy anyways?

Epipfany: A girl i know used almost that same analogy of teeth to describe sin, and asking for forgiveness where our sins are our plaque in our teeth [souls] and we must have periodic check-ups with God to keep our souls clean...

 

are cats of the devil? I knew it!


I take a firm stand on the side of Jesus. Have for 32 years. And I am sure that I must be a little irritating to ol' Nick, just by constantly deriding and insulting his strength, character, courage, and intellect. But I guess, like cats, I may not get him to face me. Well, until I die that is......cuz I am hellbound apparently.

 

quoth the sage of hannibal (sam clemens, mark twain):


"heaven for the climate



& hell for the company"