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
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.
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...
look over here....
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.
Okay, but it's weird!
...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?
If we are predestined where does free will come in?
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
The worldly understanding of the author is faulty. To wish hell upon someone is to take the judgment away from God.
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.
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.
Maybe.
Wars have been fought over the issue of predestination. I see both sides.
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.
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.
LOL, meet me in Paradise, we'll drink the Hajis' booze and de-flower all their virgins.
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.
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