Posted on 02/01/2015 12:43:34 PM PST by Faith Presses On
Maybe descriptions of Hell are so horrific to keep people from thinking about how hellish popular versions of the Christian Heaven would be—even without Pat Robertson in the mix.
Most Westerners are at least vaguely familiar with the popular Christian version of Heaven: pearly gates, streets of gold, winged angels and the Righteous, with their bodies made perfect and immortal, singing the praises of God forever. What’s surprising is how few people have actually thought about what a nightmare this kind of existence would be.
(Excerpt) Read more at ieet.org ...
I looked at a picture of her and my gaydar pinged hard to the right.
“There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, in the end, “Thy will be done.”
All that are in Hell, choose it.
Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. Those who knock it is opened.”
C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce
Yeah, we all know that singing to God is worse than burning in Hell while Satan laughs at you. What an idiot.
So, if one of your loved ones is in hell, you’d be kept ignorant of it, and never miss them?
One is a flawed premise. Two is a flawed premise. Three is a flawed premise. Five is just wrong. Six and Eight are just wrong. Ten is wrong unless you’re in Hell.
These ten points are clearly made by someone who doesn’t understand God, and what being saved is. It is as if a communist wrote down why Heaven would be Hell.
I will tell you that Heaven WOULD be Hell for those that want nothing to do with God. God doesn’t force Himself on anyone.
St. Paul said(if I remember correctly) “The eye has not seen nor the ear heard what God has prepared for those that love him.”
That was a Twilight Zone episode where a two-bit crook gets gunned down by cops & winds up in a luxurious casino with beautiful women & anything he wants, and never loses a blackjack game.
Ultimately he gets bored & asks the “angel” to provide him some risk & danger, “sort of like the other place”.
The “angel” roars with laughter, “What are you talking about? This IS the other place!!”
No comprehension that to be in the presence of the almighty, powerful Creator who loves us is all that is necessary for heaven.
She is measuring Heaven against the earthly life which is really not so hot!
That’s what it says...knowing ever loving joy and peace by the right hand of the Lord...it comes down to choice.
We live in this world knowing one another...the next can be a reward or sentence - but one must chose. Each to their own.
My father is in Heaven...as I will be...and my son - and together we will have ever lasting joy — that is not torment to experience love or eternity in the light...and never again experience sadness or hate...
I hope they have pancakes. When I was a little girl I was sure that in heaven you got to eat pancakes all the time.
It would be nice if one of these types like this author could actually present an original idea that held even a moment of pause for actual consideration, but they never do, only the flesh is all they see with no understanding of the spirit whatsoever,
Other than the analogies that Jesus used in reference to heaven, 1 Corinthians 2:9 addresses this issue, basically indicating that our minds are incapable of conceiving what heaven is like.
I’ve had a couple of God encounters that I believe are just a shadow of what heaven is going to be like.
With that kind of peace and joy, I’ll take it any day.
I can’t wait to get there.
She doesn’t have a clue.....
why do these maroons care about heaven???
This person will be evil until the day she dies and goes to hell.
I’ve always wondered how you could live and be happy in a paradise if some of your loved ones didn’t make it. Like you, I came to the conclusion that I will have no memory of the loved ones who didn’t make it.
“But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”
1 Corinthians 2:9
See my post #36. That’s the only possible scenario. How could anyone be happy knowing their loved ones are burning in hell?
When I get there and ask St. Peter “Where’s my father?” I hope he doesn’t say “You’ve got to be kidding.”
Quick, serious rebuttals.
1. Perfection is sameness.
No, perfection is only sameness if what is perfected is the same. (A perfect fish is different than a perfect rainbow.) We are not simply differently flawed versions of the same ideal, but similarly flawed versions of fantastically varied ideals.
2. Perfection makes human ability pointless.
This is a corollary of #1, if I understand it, and so equally invalid.
3. No thrill of risk.
The thrill of risk stems from sacrificing safety to achieve what one has not yet confidently achieved. Love of the infinite is like this, though.
4. No “animal” pleasures - “food, drink, sleep and sex.”
Animal pleasures are mere corollaries to spiritual pleasures.
5. No free will.
In Heaven, our will is perfected: we achieve what we desire because what we desire is Christ. There is no tension between our own will and Christ’s, so there is no suffering for being unable to live out one’s desires.
6. 98% of those in Heaven will be embryos and toddlers (and because they never lived here, they’ll be zombies).
Again, this falsely supposes that imperfection is what distinguishes us.
7. “Gems and streets of gold” define Heaven.
The Heavenly city is described in Revelations as having such things, but hardly defined by it.
8. Those in Heaven will either be ignorant of or delighting in the torments of those in Hell.
This presupposes a childish view of Calvinist theology.
9. Singing God’s praises all the time.
Being so filled with joy that one cannot cease expressing it is not suffering.
10. Heaven goes on forever - anything without an end gets tiresome eventually.
This views the infinity as being one-sided: the amount of time we experience a given stimulus (all of creation throughout all of time) is limitless, but the stimulus itself is limited.
At the White Throne Judgment, we will see the Devil as he really is .. and we will say .. “That’s what we were afraid of” ..??
It’s in the Bible.
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