Posted on 02/18/2015 6:48:34 AM PST by Gamecock
All I know is that I’m going to be in Heaven with God, because of Christ, and not because of me.
I’m unworthy of Heaven. Without Christ, I wouldn’t be allowed anywhere near it.
As for suffering eternally, I don’t know about that. I want to be with the God who made me.
Being outside of that, perhaps, could be eternally tortuous.
It is said that our inability to see angels and demons is a gift, not a handicap.
We are like sheep, but we aren’t exactly sheep either. Ignorance is only bliss until the knife crosses your throat.
I don’t know about Hell, but I believe there’s a Satan. My understanding is that Satan is the prince of the air, and the king of this world.
I think that in Matthew 6, there’s a verse of the Lord’s prayer that goes
‘Thy Kingdom come, they will be done
On Earth as it is in Heaven.’
To me, that’s terrifying, because we are being specifically instructed to pray for something that prevails against the assumed norm: While God’s will is the norm in Heaven, it’s the apparent opposite here on Earth, unless we pray for that direct intervention.
Makes even more sense given that we are instructed to ask for ‘our daily bread’.
It suggests we have to continually, unceasingly pray for that intervention.
The archangels, it is said, still carry swords - even in Heaven.
Hell may be a real-time experience. We’re perhaps going through it now. When we die, perhaps some go live with God in Heaven and the others just cease - their names erased from the Book of Life.
I confess that I don’t know. I also confess that I don’t have enough information to found my belief in the nature of Hell, Satan, and eternal damnation in any terms other than being outside of the eternal presence of God.
For the sake of those I’ve known that did not accept Christ, and it was apparent in many cases that their early experiences did more than lead them from God, I pray for mercy on them, just as I pray God have mercy on me.
In the case of me, and the case of those whom I’ve known that did not accept Christ, I know that I’m no better than them.
God sent enough people to drill it into my head that Christ wanted me as I was, and I chose to believe that. All of the rest is beyond the choice is grace.
I wish I could answer your question with more certitude. I certainly wish I could answer, ‘yes, they just died - perhaps as unlucky fools - but they are beyond pain.’
I didn’t make us, and we have very little information to go on. Christ himself recognized this, and marveled when Thomas demanded to put his hand in Christ’s wounds.
He knew people like us would believe without the benefit of having actually seen Christ crucified. Even hardened Roman guards believed after seeing. What fool wouldn’t?
Christ knew there would be those that believed because His Word had reached us through broken people over thousands of years, and we’d believe anyway.
No advertiser would bet their brand on that strategy, I can tell you from hard experience.
Anyway, I hope they aren’t in pain, except maybe guys like Stalin and Hitler and Pol Pot and Mao - Pinochet, etc.
I don’t have a strong belief in that regard. Just a little hope for otherwise earnest folks that never got it through their skulls for one reason or another.
Not the answer you were probably looking for. I don’t think your salvation depends upon what you believe happens to the souls of the damned anyway. Amazing how folks get wrapped around the axel on what seems like small points.
For one that professes to be in touch with feelings you seem to have a way of showing kind words to others. There was no malice in the words that I wrote. Grieving is a human emotion which happens to be inwardly focused. It is all about the personal feeling of loss. Hence, selfish. One can choose what do human emotions. Personally, I rejoice in their going to heaven. In the case of a non-Christian, the heaven part doesn’t apply. Sucks to be them. So, they need to get over it. There is nothing sociopathic about that.
On the contrary. You gave me 2 different answers to choose from regarding eternal suffering, so I picked the one in post #36!
The thing about post 36 is that atheism is really secular humanism, and a religion all its own.
The gap between atheism and agnosticism is humility. Even the Greeks understood that hubris was probably the least forgivable of all the sins. To too many people, that gap is as wide as the one between galaxies.
Admission of ignorance is a pretty tall step for a lot of folks.
Your ‘pretty close to what I was thinking’ agreement with Ancient Man’s (ping) statement seemed to indicate a bit less humanity than would be called for in a situation like this, at least from where I sit.
The loss does have a personal impact, it is totally appropriate to grieve. It is not appropriate to wallow in self pity, but that is way different from grieving.
If ‘get over it, they’re dead’ is one’s way of (thinking that they are) appropriately expressing sympathy/empathy, I think they need to re-evaluate.
Don’t know if you’ve lost your parents yet (or a spouse, or a child), but I have little doubt that if anyone stated ‘get over it, they’re dead’, your response would NOT be ‘gosh, thanks for those kind words’.
JMO.
And yes, in retrospect, I would have favored writing ‘if one is a sociopath’, so it did not appear that I was referring to you that way. That was not intended.
Having never wanted to lie, I do think *I’m sorry for your loss* for someone who died an atheist, would be a pretty accurate statement.
I AM sorry that someone died without knowing Christ.
(Disclaimer: Still trying to work up those thoughts for ISIS and other jihadist butchers)
I find comfort on that issue when I contemplate what is revealed to us in Revelation 21:4.
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