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hmmm. Hell being tortured by good. Eternal death by being in God’s holy presence. I can see the truth in that. However, Satan was before God when prodding Him about how easy He was on Job and Satan wasn’t in agony. I think the source of punishment will be from within and without. Pure hate of self and others, no good inside, will be expressed forever.

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Fortunately it is not my job to judge anyone except for myself.

I have respect for all who try to worship Jesus Christ, who really try to follow Him. Since the Emperor of Rome, Constantine called a council of Bishops at Nicaea in 325 AD I think the “Catholic” church has gone down hill.

There are many good things that came from Nicea from a standpoint of organization it was great. The doctrines of The Church however (I think) suffered. The problem is that it was an unbeliever, certainly an unbaptized person who made most of the decisions. This Emperor made decisions which made sense to him and it strengthened “the church” substantially.

My comments here are not meant in any way to denigrate Catholics. Many Wonderful Christians are Roman or Orthodox Catholic, they Follow Jesus Christ as their Savior to the best of their ability, I simply do not believe that anyone in the linage of Constantine has any right to the Keys Peter held in the leadership of “The Church”. That is to say that I believe the Popes are not Peter’s legal heirs.

Perhaps there are no legal heirs to the Apostleship on the earth. You can’t after a couple hundred years after the death of ALL the Apostles suddenly declare that there is now a “Head” Apostle. That is what I believe that Constantine has done, and all those after him.

This is a problem. Christ was the head of The Church while He was on the earth and He certainly designated Peter to be the earthly head after His leaving the earth, there must needs be a head, who is it? That is the 64 million dollar question isn’t it.

I’m not sure there is really any claim to that other than the Pope, we all yearn for that kind of representative on earth. Wouldn’t it be great to have a Moses or Elijah to ask questions of that we knew the answers came from God? Alas, as much as I respect Catholics and their church their Pope is not that, in my humble opinion.

So, when a pope says you must needs be Catholic to go to Heaven I just consider the source and continue on not worrying about what some self appointed prophet has to say about the matter.

Until someone comes to the earth appointed by God Himself to lead His church I will do the best I can to follow Christ by reading His words. I know I will not be perfect but I believe He will know of the desire of my heart to be so. I have hope that His Grace will be sufficient for all who come unto Him, including me.