[David Gould]

So your reply is that you do not think we all deserve eternal torment. Excellent - that clears things up for me. However, how do you explain away the verses in the Bible that seem to indicate that those who do not believe will suffer eternally?

If I seek and do not find, and question and do not understand, I assume that according to your belief I will basically be given a light punishment (although it is still a mystery to me as to why a good being would punish ignorance at all) and then go to heaven. Am I wrong in thinking that this is your belief?

[so_real]

Only God can see us clearly. I can't look into my own heart and judge effectively how well I know God's will. I can't measure how much effort I've put into preparing for Him or fullfilling His wishes. I certainly can't do this for you either :-) I can only try to learn and do more than I have thus far.

But I do trust that God will judge me perfectly and that the reward or punishment I earn (up to and including eternal separation from God) will be deserved. I also know that if I deceive myself into thinking I've tried harder than I have, or deceive myself into believing that I've had less opportunity than I have, God will call me on it and that won't bode well for me.

[Ahban]

I must point out that the classic Christian position is that we all deserve eternal separation from God (what Hell is). In ourselves, we all deserve it. Even though we do love and are capable of much good, there is a tendency toward corruption in the human heart that is unsubmitted to God. It may be small enough that we can keep that inner corruption from showing up in our outer actions for a while- say 70 years or so. But any heart not dedicated to serving God will become progressively more corrupt.

It may be outwardly OK for 70-80 years, but not for millions. THose little areas of sin and rebellion that don't seem so bad no will grow to make us like demons if unchecked for an eternity.