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Is It Morally Acceptable To Hope Anyone Goes To Hell?
The Federalist Patiot ^ | Dec. 6, 2004 | Dennis Prager

Posted on 12/06/2004 12:44:58 PM PST by Lindykim

"Is it morally and theologically acceptable to hope anyone goes to hell? ... One...need not be a conservative Christian to believe in some form of hell for the evil. All one need be is a rational believer in a just God. For if there is a just God, it is inconceivable that those who do evil and those who do good have identical fates. A just God must care about justice, and since there is little justice in this world, there has to be in the next. And belief in the next world is also not confined to Christianity. As the Encyclopedia Judaica ... (edited largely by non-religious Jews) notes in the first sentence under the heading 'Afterlife,' 'Judaism has always believed in an afterlife.' ... Much of humanity has been adversely affected by modern-day terror. The lives of millions -- virtually all Palestinians and Israelis, for example -- have been terribly affected by Arafat. And there are hundreds of thousands of people whose lives have been destroyed or shattered by him. At the same time, other than a few sycophants enriched by some of the billions of dollars he embezzled from the Palestinians, no one has had a better life because Yasser Arafat lived. ... Yasser Arafat single-handedly made nihilistic acts of cruelty routine, even respectable. ... Thanks to him, the Palestinian name is identified among people of goodwill with barbarity just as the German name came to be associated with barbarity as a result of Hitler. ... Just as any decent human being would want good people to be rewarded in whatever existence there is after this life, they would want the cruelest of people to be punished. So, of course, I hope Yasser Arafat is in hell. ... If you think that is hard-hearted, consider the alternative, that one of the most corrupt and cruel human beings of the past half-century is resting in peace. Whoever isn't bothered by that is the one with the hard heart." --Dennis Prager


TOPICS: Miscellaneous; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: billclinton; craighines; democratunderground; helenthomas; hellyeah; hillary; joewilson; margaretsanger; markmorford; prager; wayneslater; yes
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To: G32

In the case of the 9/11 hijackers - You don't have to believe in hell to go there. Satan believes in Jesus, but not upon him for his salvation. I heard a guy say that hell wasn't bad enough for Satan and It struck me as wrong attitude. I love my enemies, but I don't worship them.


161 posted on 12/06/2004 1:34:40 PM PST by MP5SD
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To: Ajnin

good answer...I've been there myself, a couple of times...and after suffering through a practice wife for a couple of years some time back, I learned there are different levels of hell...


162 posted on 12/06/2004 1:35:41 PM PST by nicko (CW3 (ret.) CPT, you need to just unass the AO; I know what I'm doing- that goes for you too, Major)
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To: rface

look over here....


163 posted on 12/06/2004 1:35:47 PM PST by SavageRepublican (Everything I own is covered with cat hair)
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To: MP5SD

If you wanna think the hijackers are sipping whiskey on some heavenly beach fine. I'd be really angry with God if that were the case though.


164 posted on 12/06/2004 1:36:16 PM PST by G32
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To: durasell

Okay, but it's weird!


165 posted on 12/06/2004 1:36:20 PM PST by Tax-chick (Benedicere cor tuo! Quomodo cogis comas tuas sic videri?)
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To: It's me
So, if Jesus already died for our sins, we are going to heaven. There is not hell.
Therefore, we can do whatever we want?


Grace and forgiveness is a gift for those who are in Christ's family. Just like having an American Express Card...membership has it's privileges..
166 posted on 12/06/2004 1:37:14 PM PST by texan75010 (You lost - MoveOn...to France, or Canada, or New Zealand, or Germany...take your pick.)
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To: FrankWild

...and that's on top of the fact that you've been drinking out the glass they used to unclog the urinal the day before, right?


167 posted on 12/06/2004 1:37:30 PM PST by durasell (Friends are so alarming, My lover's never charming...)
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To: P8riot

If we are predestined where does free will come in?


168 posted on 12/06/2004 1:37:32 PM PST by It's me
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To: Ichneumon
And even if it were, that still doesn't address the issue of how it's "just" to have an eternal amount of punishment for, say, 50 years of "unrepentance". Maybe 50 years of punishment, perhaps, but not an infinite, unending amount for all eternity.

You can pour a finite amount of cream into a finite mug of coffee. But you have made an irreversible change in the cosmos. It's not so simple as saying that anything we do is finite. There are repurcussions.

Furthermore, perhaps given another decade of life (or after the first decade of punishment), the "unrepentant" may well come to see the error of his earlier ways and achieve that instant of salvation which erases the rest -- where, then, is the justice in eternal punishment? There seems nothing "just" about that.

Somehow I think God knows what He is doing. No one is in hell who "would have" been saved had he just lived a few years longer. Hell is for the unsaved. God is not shooting dice.

SD

169 posted on 12/06/2004 1:38:18 PM PST by SoothingDave
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To: Lindykim

The worldly understanding of the author is faulty. To wish hell upon someone is to take the judgment away from God.


170 posted on 12/06/2004 1:38:47 PM PST by Cultural Jihad
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Comment #171 Removed by Moderator

To: rdb3

Ah, an semi-unanswered debate -- do all roads lead to Heavan, since Christ's sacrifice is so large?

The most risk-adverse answer, reading the above passage in context, is that, to avoid Hell, one must: (1) believe Jesus Christ died on the Cross for your sins and (2) accept and acknowledge that free sacrifice to you (and sincerly accept the changes that go with accepting such a gift --- that's my part, it's not expressly in the Bible).

This prayer should do it: "Dead God, I believe you sent your son, Jesus to die for my sins so I can be forgiven. I want to live the rest of my life the way you want me to. Please put your Spirit in my life to direct me. In Christ's Holy Name I pray, Amen."

There are interpetations similar to yours, that acceptance of the gift is not even necessary, and while I like the thought, I am increasingly inclined to believe such hopeful interpretations to be incorrect.


172 posted on 12/06/2004 1:39:06 PM PST by MeanWestTexan
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To: It's me
Here is my take on Predestination. A teacher gives a test. Depending on how well you prepared yourself for the test determines what grade you will get. If you are fully prepared, you are predestine to get an "A". It was determined before hand what it takes to get that "A". All you have to do is that amount of studying to achieve that.

God laid out what it takes to get to heaven before hand. It is predestined. It is up to you to take the steps to achieve that. (Not talking about works).
173 posted on 12/06/2004 1:40:59 PM PST by texan75010 (You lost - MoveOn...to France, or Canada, or New Zealand, or Germany...take your pick.)
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To: It's me

I suspect P8riot may be a Five Point Calvinist, in which case he accepts the doctrines of Limited Atonement and Irresistible Grace - namely that free will is an illusion and that those who are saved (or damned) have no choice in the matter.


174 posted on 12/06/2004 1:44:10 PM PST by wideawake (God bless our brave soldiers and their Commander in Chief)
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To: P8riot

Maybe.

Wars have been fought over the issue of predestination. I see both sides.


175 posted on 12/06/2004 1:44:18 PM PST by MeanWestTexan
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To: G32

Hell is not a blanket, one size fits all, state. There are degrees of punishment in hell just as there are rewards in heaven. God is just - Arafat is getting what he deserves.

The question at hand is, should that cause me joy? The fact that people reject Christ and therefore are condemned to hell for eternity grieves God, as it should all believers. It is necessary, nevertheless.

Also, if he had believed in the NT it would have caused a remarkable change of heart evidenced by his actions. Belief is not just "head knowledge." Real belief causes a change in behavior. Had he believed, he would not have acted so despicably and he would have most definitely been rejected by his own people.


176 posted on 12/06/2004 1:44:19 PM PST by Jeff Blogworthy
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To: texan75010
God laid out what it takes to get to heaven before hand. It is predestined. It is up to you to take the steps to achieve that. (Not talking about works).

I can't see how you can call it predestination if there are steps that need to be taken to achieve salvation. It's not a different concept than the Catholic position that you need faith plus works. You're saying you need faith plus something else, too.

177 posted on 12/06/2004 1:45:07 PM PST by Modernman (Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. --Benjamin Franklin)
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If a Pagan tell's someone to go to hell, Are they really a Pagan?
178 posted on 12/06/2004 1:45:38 PM PST by MaxMax
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To: nicko

LOL, meet me in Paradise, we'll drink the Hajis' booze and de-flower all their virgins.


179 posted on 12/06/2004 1:46:22 PM PST by Ajnin
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To: texan75010
If you are fully prepared, you are predestine to get an "A". It was determined before hand what it takes to get that "A".

Ah, but what if the student decides to neglect his preparations? Does he do so voluntarily or involuntarily?

That's the key question of predestination.

180 posted on 12/06/2004 1:46:30 PM PST by wideawake (God bless our brave soldiers and their Commander in Chief)
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