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To: Secret Agent Man
for those that never wanted anything to do with God when alive on earth, and thought how terrible and awful it would be to live according to God’s design as put forth in Scripture, being forced to live in heaven, like that, for all eternity, would be hell for those people.

Depends on what you mean by heaven. Scripture is instruction for getting into heaven. It is not a description of heaven, except in the most general of terms. Shall the discipline last forever? Is there no release even in heaven? Or is heaven what pleases each person? Or is heaven he perfect collective, where everyone wants the same thing at all times?

Another question is whether it is possible to experience God's love and reject it. Or whether those who reject God, do so because they have never experienced it. It would seem that God's love is desireable over all other things. If that is true, then experiencing God's love should end the desire for anything else. If it doesn't, then God's love is somehow deficient in desireability, which is impossible.

But if people sin for lack of experiencing God's love, then who's fault is that? Shall God punish people forever because they never experienced God? In the alternative, shall God punish people forever because they found God's love deficient?

All of this becomes infinitely less important if hell is not infinite. If hell is not infinite, the focus shifts to the infinitude of God's love.

25 posted on 02/25/2014 2:20:46 AM PST by Talisker (One who commands, must obey.)
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To: Talisker

you forget that in heaven, we will be made perfect and we will no longer have a sin nature, we will not desire to do the things that we knew were wrong to enjoy while we were alive on earth as a sinner/saint. The struggles we have to fight our “old man” won’t occur because that part of us will be gone, and it will be an answer to our prayers and we will no longer have to fight against bad urges and desires.

as far as discipline goes there will be none because there won’t be a need for it. nobody who’s been cleansed and made perfect will need it because they will not have a sin nature anymore to be tempted and sin.

Given your posts you seem to have a very negative view on heaven and the afterlife. Maybe if you start out with the mindset/reference frame that God loves us, and is on our side, and give Him the benefit of the doubt, and you might as well as so far in your existence has He killed you? - instead of starting from a negative frame of reference focused on punishment and never-ending judgment (which is not what He’s all about), you might realize some different conclusions.


39 posted on 02/25/2014 3:01:50 PM PST by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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