ping
And yet as Christ might put it today, you cannot drive with your eyes affixed to the rear view mirror. (He who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is not fit for the kingdom of heaven.)
Threats of damnation and punishment are not exclusive to Christianity. More details on it are, including the information that it is a place of enslavement. To say that the devil is “unlike God” is in one sense accurate, but in another sense naive. The devil apes God as best he can, but without any of the blessings, it is all to the devil’s glory.
In the only account we have of an individual soul in hell, that soul never asks to leave it. Ponder that for a while. That is exactly what you would expect out of an utter enslavement.
Who, according to Jesus, is EVERLASTING FIRE prepared for?
As Reverend E.V. Hill used to say....”Why am I a Christian? Because I I don’t want to go to hell! There are no exits. You can’t go just visit to see if you like it or not.”
Really? Does anyone really think like that? Just curious. God made us, right? God made imperfect sinful creatures with free will. I can understand that we have no business spending eternity with God if we don't even accept that He exists. I get that. But I have never understood people that believe sinful people SHOULD be tortured (not just separated from God) but tortured for eternity.
I don't think any of us have a clue how any of this works and best leave the details in the hands of God.
You can believe in God and Jesus’ Sacrifice and read the Bible until hell won’t have it and claim born again and still end up in hell if you die with with your soul in a state of mortal sin. Hope this helps someone.
Needs to be on the Religion Forum, right?
This reminded me of Bill Weise’s 23 Minutes in Hell. It’s a harrowing experience.
http://www.amazon.com/23-Minutes-In-Hell-Torment/dp/1591858828
That is False!
If God is Omniscient and Omnipotent, then God MUST be Infinite. If not, there would be a place to get out of God’s sight and away from God’s power. Then God would not be Omniscient and Omnipotent.
If God is Infinite, it is not possible to be separate from God, as that which is Infinite has no boundaries and therefore is Omnipresent.
So a “state of separation from God” cannot actually exist. We can create the illusion of it and we can believe it and we can behave as if it were so, but it cannot exist in Truth.
And if it cannot truly exist, then it cannot be eternal.
We choose to be in Heaven or in Hell every moment.
A God that punishes the Majority (the VAST majority) of Its own creation does not make sense and is not a God that I would want to know, let alone worship. Why create what you are merely going to destroy and condemn?
"There is no sin but error, no punishment but consequence."
Bookmark
Funny that Ascol has writings on Sprouls website.
I know Tom and he and the other founders guys always enjoy yucking it up with the Covenant guys. Why the Founders bunch doesn’t ever shake the dust off and move on from the SBC is ridiculous.
[[The punishment must fit the crime. The misery and torment of hell point to the wickedness and seriousness of sin. Those who protest the biblical doctrine of hell as being excessive betray their inadequate comprehension of the sinfulness of sin. ]]
The following article on the site ‘christianthinktank.com deals with this very issue- “Is hell disproportionate’?
The skeptic/atheist protesting the ‘concept of hell’ and claiming it is a ‘disproportionate punishment’, claiming ‘eternity is too long compared to the crime committed” doesn’t seem to understand that someone who commits a crime- The following excerpt to the article sums up why eternal punishment IS indeed appropriate- Sin IS a very serious issue- MUCH more serious that people realize- And the fella explains why-
[[First, as I looked again at the example (serial rapist), I realized something important: there is no such thing as a finite sin/crime. Each crime/sin actually HAS eternal consequences. If someone commits a rape, the damage to the victim MIGHT end at death, but what that statement does not take into account is the eternally different stream/ripples of events which flow from that rape. For example, we KNOW that the victim will not be able to do as much good to others during their healing period, since they are not ‘back up to speed’. During their recovery time (assuming they actually recover all the way—not a foregone conclusion at all nowadays), their interaction with other people will not be as ‘value generating’ as it would have been without the rape. Everything they touch—often for the rest of their life—is different (often less ‘vibrant’ or with less vitality). The other way to say this—importantly—is that every eternal stream of consequences they generate/participate in after that event suffers. They ‘lose’ time during recovery and their post-recovery impacts are often compromised—at least slightly, and often considerably. And thus the people they interact with do not ‘get the best’, and they are compromised somewhat…And the dominos keep falling over…
Some crimes are obvious in this—if I murder someone who later would produce children and grand-children and great-grandchildren etc, my ‘finite act’ of murder clearly has ripple-down effects that continue indefinitely into the future. [Of course, emotional damage (e.g., rape), physical damage (e.g., irreparable injury), or even economic damage (e.g., vandalism, fraud) can have a similar no-progeny result.] These are eternal consequences of a single ‘finite’ act.
CS Lewis illustrated this truth in The Great Divorce when all the inhabitants of hell were allowed to travel to heaven and remain there—but there were no takers. The inhabitants of ‘hell’ (his literary version, that is) had so self-sculpted their characters by bad choices that they had no appreciation (and actually, no tolerance!) for the virtues and qualities of heaven. Their choices had become who they had become and who they would continually and eternally choose to be—every time they would be offered a chance to change/choose. ]]
http://christianthinktank.com/way2long.html
That last part about people WILLINGLY going to hell was something I brought up the other day- even ‘good people’ will WILLINGLY go to hell rather than accept God’s forgiveness because they have cultivated In their hearts such a hatred for God that they would rather burn in hell than kneel before Him- their inner rage against God is so intense that Hell will be the outlet they seek for their own release of fury- There is no such thing as a ‘good person’ who is unsaved- refusal to accept Their Creator as their God, is a very serious offense- regardless of hos ‘good’ they are on earth while alive- Much more serious than people are willing to admit (even though they KNOW deep down just how serious their refusal to accept Him really is)
This article is excellent- (and the whole site is well worth reading through for some very novel and thought provoking articles- The fella has a very unique way of dissecting common objections to the faith and rationally coming to conclusions that the objections simply are unfair objections based on ignorance of the unknowns or unconsidered of the situation-