[Silly]

Jesus taught about hell more than all Biblical authors combined.

Here are four good reasons we should understand and believe what the Bible says about hell.

[nmh]

Yes, Christ had the most to say about it.

Still you hear absolute IDIOTS, tell you that “hell is a state of mind”. LOL!

It’s a place and it is real.

[G Larry]

I’m thinking that if St. Paul lived “in fear and trembling”,
then I should be a bit more circumspect about MY life.

[SeeRushToldU_So]

You and anyone that believes in a burning hell are full of sh!t.
You are totally missing the Bible’s point.

[GOP Poet]

bookmark

[Calm_Cool_and_Elected]

read this ping

[353FMG]

“...don’t believe in the Bible’s teaching on everlasting punishment...”

.
They’ll believe it when they get there.

[diamond6]

Here are some pretty scary descriptions of hell.

http://bibleprobe.com/Sister-Menendez-description-of-hell.htm

St. Teresa of Avila also was given the grace to visit hell and her accounts are also pretty terrifying.

[Secret Agent Man]

The more I’ve read about hell and its description, the more i believe that people (who will remember what they have done while alive - reference Lazarus and the Rich man) will be tormented not by anything physical, but mentally. By what they have done, what they have rejected, what they turned their back on and wanted no part of. Making it all the worse is knowing they could have accepted it but didn’t, and now it’s too late, and they are confronted with this reality and there is no second chance. They will see they were given multiple oportunities and remember all the chances they had, they cannot complain they only got one chance. God has given them what they actually wanted, existence without Him. For these people heaven would be cruel punishment, it would be hell. To be in a place you spent your whole life not preparing for, despising the kinds of things believers will do in Heaven, wanting to be in God’s presence and thanking Him, that would be torture to these folks. But so will be getting what they wanted. Eternal separation from God.

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

I still have an impossible time believing one aspect raised here and elsewhere.

The premise is that God respects your choice to reject him and lets you do so in hell. But I believe in an all merciful God. God, in his incomparable love, can’t possibly love me less than my parents do. God the Father is the ultimate parent.

Yet, my parents never “respected” my bad, ignorant, self-destructive choices. They continued always to try and help save me from my bad behavior. They never gave up on me ever, but always kept trying.

Am I to believe my loving God would give up on me to indulge greater foolish, stupid mistakes than even my mortal parents wouldn’t tacitly accept?

I refuse to accept this premise.

[Nick Danger]

In one of my computer science classes we programmed some artificial intelligences and we let them interact with each other day and night, for weeks.

After a while the subject of how they got there came up. "Who am I? Why am I here?" The usual stuff. At this point the possibility of a Supreme Being or God came up, and they argued about that a lot.

We decided not to make it easy on them by telling them the truth. We'd let them figure out for themselves, if they could, that their "gods" were nothing more than human computer science students doing a class project.

There was one guy who proposed that at the end, we take all the "intelligences" that didn't believe in us, and put them on a laptop, and make them feel excruciating pain for however long they lasted. We all agreed that sounded like fun, so we did it.

[piytar]

Wow, one of the best and most enlightening pieces I have ever read on the topic. In fact, for some time I've been leaning toward seeing Hell as a place of annihilation (i.e., you are destroyed) as opposed to eternal suffering. This article has made me really rethink that concept.

[Sir Gawain]

HELL: Eternal Torment or Complete Annihilation?

[CondoleezzaProtege]

Great post. I really appreciate Tim Keller and his ministry. I love that he doesn't "write off the city" as hopeless and how he encourages Christians to engage the culture without compromising theologically.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

What are the thoughts of the posters here regarding “Conditionalism?” I understand the doctrine to teach, in part, that the damned will be punished for a period warranted by the seriousness of their sins then annihilated. This doctrine seems to satisfy both justice and mercy.

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

Someon please answer a question.

To what end does God need hell? Why? What does he get out of it.

A masochistic being would derive enormous pleasure from seeing his rivals, opponents, enemies suffer everlasting torture. I would think this would cause God nothing but grief at the wasted potential of the people who “chose” hell over him.

What does God get out of hell? The entire universee exists to serve God. If you believe in a physical realm called Hell where everlasting punishment is meted out, then to what purpose did God make it.

You see, I don’t believe God has a single mean, vindictive, masochistic bone in his body. I don’t believe he is capable of deriving joy from hurting people. You can say he is only dispensing justice, made doubly fair because people have freely, knowingly chosen their lot in hell.

But God is the father of all of us. He created all of us to serve him and wants all of us to join him in Heaven. I’m pretty sure he does not hope to lose even one soul. So then, what does God get out of Hell?

FWIW, I believe the opposite of God is lack of God, not a physical dimension of everlasting punishment called “hell”. If anything, I believe your soul ceases to exist if you knowingly reject God, if that is even possible as I wrote above.

To what purpose did God create Hell and what does he get out of it?

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

Hell, as described in this article, is clearly cruel. I refuse to believe that God is so cruel as to allow for it.

[mad_as_he$$]

Can you or anyone show me EXACTLY where the modern concept of hell is noted in the Bible?

[wmfights]

In Matthew 10:28 Jesus says, "Do not fear those who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell."

Silverlings I thought this thread was a really good read about whether a soul can be destroyed, or is eternal. As I understand it the verb "destroy" is the same one used in Matt. 9:17 where wineskins are ruined. IOW, once a soul exists it is eternal it just ceases to function for what it was created for.

I know it's a different thread to explore this, but there doesn't seem to be as much "white noise" if you know what I mean. I pinged a couple others to see what their thoughts are.

BTW, Silly I really got a lot out of this thread. Thank you for posting it.

Merry Christmas

[Soothesayer]

Is it possible for someone who simply WANTS to believe in a loving beautiful God but otherwise can’t believe to still wind up in heaven with God?

I don’t know how to explain it.