My problem with hell.

Aside from the hypocritical nature of the whole thing (God loves everyone yet tosses aborted fetuses, tribal shamans, and anyone else who's never read the good book before they died, into eternal damnation) it makes no sense to me that the entire "evil" side of the spectrum should suffer such a fate for the crime of birth. People are who they are, and you can't realistically hope to understand anyone but yourself, let alone Ted Bundy or Richard Ramirez (or even George Bush). I'm not arguing against prison or even the death sentence for people who live to commit atrocities, but let's at least have some sympathy here and realize they're never going to exist peacefully on Earth.

What do you expect of someone with a mind like that? How can you hope to judge them if you can't get near where they are psychologically? For many people, a good relationship with Jesus just isn't an option. It isn't available for them. And yet you'd still have them punished to a degree that makes what Hitler did look like third grade bullying? For what? Being themselves?

And if you do believe this is just the reality of the situation, then drop the lovey dovey bullshit. A God who allows such a thing to happen to anyone is vain, petty, and more cruel than Hitler and the rest. If that's your God, then go ahead and say it like it is. I'm getting sick of hearing about the "good news" and the "all loving God".

If God is truly loving, he'll save us all.

 

Yup, well said.

Lets hope that god, whatever you may call god, or see god as, is more loving than most christians say he/she/it is.

Otherwise, i dont want to be one with an egotistical, cruel and malignant deity that rejects countless beings like a snobbish high school cheerleader.

If god is like a spoiled child, then maybe chilling with satan in the big sauna in the ground might be better. Hell, i might even be able to beat Al Capone and Kenghis Khan in a game of poker.

 

I think your interpretaion of hell has been influenced by centuries of the Church's intepretation of hell. I am a Christian, but I cannot believe that its either hell or heaven. No one knows what goes on in the hearts and minds of other people, and no one knows how God, or Allah, or Jah, or Yahweh (however you want to call it...to me, they're differernt names for the same entity) is going to judge. I believe that God, Allah, Jah, etc. has his hand in all faiths, and I believe that all faiths point to the One Truth. I cannot believe that going to hell is just that simple as "knowing Jesus" or not.

In point, I do not believe anything that is spoonfed to the masses in Church. I listen to my heart, because if God is anywhere, she is there. (my opinion)

 

Thats a heavily debated issue...

I'm fairly certain that nowhere in the bible is it told what will happen to those who have never heard of Jesus.

And why would it? Anyone who would be reading it would be reading the book so that statement would no longer apply to them.

but all in all I don't think any of us are in any position to judge other people or try to "figure out where they're going".

 

Not only that dollydagger, but could even go so far as to take the opinion that Jesus as the Son of God is metaphorical for the awareness of God that all of us can strive for and gain, and therefor win the Kingdom for ourselves. "...but throught me" doesnt have to mean through a man's words or respect but can also mean ...but through love.
God Bless -

 

course theres no hell, its just a mentality u kno u can live here in heaven or hell its up to you i live in heaven D

 

First, the hell you speak of is not a Bible teaching.

Second, God can not “save” everybody because not everybody wants to be “saved”. We have free will and God will not take that from us, even if it might be in our best interest. That also means that we are not fated to be evil from birth but have the free will to decide who and what we want to be.

Satan has taken “Christianity” and twisted it into something that has little to do with what the Bible says.

True Christianity does exist but does not resemble what most people think of as “Christianity”. Hellfire, the trinity, the cross, an immortal soul, holidays (Christmas, Easter and the like), a paid clergy, once saved always saved, etc. are not Bible teachings and are not part of True Christianity.

 

You guys, could you expplain hell for me a little more?
Isn't hell a place where peole who have sinned go to? And Heaven people who never have?
BUt than WTF? Show me one freakin human who hasn't sinned ONCE?
And than, if hell is the place with sins, it sounds kind of fun

 

Hell is the common grave of mankind and everybody goes there until they are resurrected.

 

^totally. as Frederick Nietzsche put it: "In heaven, all the interesting people are missing."

The way most christains seem to view heaven is that it's a perpetuation of neutrality. Avoiding bad also means avoiding good, since they don't exist without each other. if that's what they think heaven is, they are already there. Except they don't realize they are there. They keep the concept of heaven as a post-mortal distant realm, that is given to them, not created by them. And as such that's all it will ever be to them, even when they're reconstituted in the next life.

the heaven they preach is among them presently, but they don't realize it because they expect it to be something much grander than the moral neutrality they put forth.

 

OlderWater,

I've read that hell is actually a pagan concept integrated into Christianity long after Christ was killed. That Sheol is really a word for grave, meaning death (until the resurrection, as you've stated) and that the word anion, translated to mean "forever and ever" when describing the duration of hell, means indefinitely, or until God's will is carried out.

I just don't know if I can trust this information, or any for that matter. I'm quite paranoid I'm afraid.

 

if everything came from "God", then isn't it only natural for everything to eventually return to God?

 

Then everything already is

 

It seems that you know the Bible better than most “Christians”.

You don’t have to trust it if you don’t want to.

As I’ve said before it’s best to decide who you want to be, then trust the information that best helps you to be that person. That way you are trusting yourself to decide what information is trustworthy.

Me, I trust the Bible because it has a lot of information that helps me be who I want to be, that may not be true to you.

 

But then there's free will which allows someone to decide for themself whether they want to return to God or not.

 

I dont understand how a part of God's creation could possibly exist outside of the whole, and without God.

 

Do you believe in free will?

 

From what I've read, that isn't exactly true. The idea of hell did arise late in Hebrew history, and the Sadducees of Jesus' time did not believe in it. You're right that Sheol was not hell, a place of punishment, but was the grave. The concept of resurrection came after the Jewish Macabbean rebellion against the Hellenistic government of occupation, and some scholars speculate that it developed to provide reassurance that the rebels didn't die in vain and would live again--in the flesh, on this earth! Hell was, I believe, originally a Persian concept, but by Jesus' time, the Pharisees and some other Jewish sects believed it, as did lots of people outside of the Jewish tradition, and so apparently did Jesus, or at least his disciples. The Gospel according to Matthew is particularly vivid in describing it, and attributing the belief to Jesus. The part about hell not being eternal is debatable, but I think a good case can be made in favor of your interpretation on that point. And you have good reason to be "paranoid", or at least skeptical, about this stuff. I wouldn't even trust what I just told you without checking it with other sources.

 

if you can find one true story in the bible than believe in hell otherwise dont worry about arab religious myths.

 

it depends on the context. Do I think we have some inherent choice from the moment we are born to side with the ever flowing source of "good" or to side with the eternal source of "bad".

Personally, I dont believe in boogeymen. I think there is only one choice to make. Some make it sooner, some make it later.