[Lucas McCain]

All very wonderful, I’m sure.

But, what about hell? I’ve read estimates that the number of human beings that ever existed is around 100 billion. The vast majority of those people never heard of Jesus or Yahweh. Christian theology places every one of those billions and billions of people of people who never heard of Jesus in eternal fire. Suffering excruciating pain forever and ever without end. Right?

[ParityErr]

All very wonderful, I’m sure. But, what about hell? I’ve read estimates that the number of human beings that ever existed is around 100 billion. The vast majority of those people never heard of Jesus or Yahweh. Christian theology places every one of those billions and billions of people of people who never heard of Jesus in eternal fire. Suffering excruciating pain forever and ever without end. Right?

A hell that is burning eternally is not Biblical. Here's a good site that explains it using the Bible.

[hope_dies_last]

Lucas, your question is a very fair one. But I am not going to give you the popular answer, because the Truth is NEVER popular.

The Truth is that the fire and brimstone eternally for the damned is NOT a Biblical teaching. It was invented sometime around the time of the legalization of Christianity in Rome, for precisely the purpose of gaining converts through scare tactics.

The Bible talks only about Heaven, as referenced in the verses above, and The Second Death and Eternal Fire.

Now let’s define the latter two...

The Second Death is destruction of the Soul. There is nothing after that for the lost soul, simply because it ceases to exist (Revelation 2:11, Rev 20:6 & 14, and Rev. 21:8)

The Eternal Fire referenced in the Bible is the same “Eternal Fire” than consumed Sodom and Gomorrah... Are Sodom and Gomorrah still burning or even smoldering? NO.
In essensce, what is being said is the consequences are ETERNAL, not the physical act of burning Eternally. (Jude 1:7)

Lastly, the Book of Ecclesiastes states that Death, that is the First Death, defined by death of the physical body, is merely a sleep. (Ecclesiastes 9:5)

There is no consciousness in being dead physically or spiritually.

There is more about the topic below:

http://www.goodnewsaboutgod.com/studies/seconddeath2.htm

[hope_dies_last]

I’ve read estimates that the number of human beings that ever existed is around 100 billion. The vast majority of those people never heard of Jesus or Yahweh. Christian theology places every one of those billions and billions of people of people who never heard of Jesus in eternal fire.

Lucas, your question implies God is unfair, but it is also a question I have pondered myself. I would question the 100 billion mark for all people every existing, but let’s take that number for sake of argument…

God has revealed Himself to us in two ways, first through nature and then through the Bible. By revealing Himself in nature, God appeals to our conscience, by what is right and wrong. People that have lived in remote areas without any knowledge whatsoever of Yod-Ha-Ve-ha, or YHWH, the God of Israel, will be judged by the book of nature and their response to the appeals of the conscience during their lives, after meeting the age of accountability of course. Children below the age of accountability, (which is definitely subjective by nature or nurture, development, etc.) are mercifully covered by God’s Grace.

One important aspect that is often forgotten is that faith in God also implies that you also trust that God is fair. That is a matter of faith that no theological argument can metrically prove.

[A.A. Cunningham]

Christian theology places every one of those billions and billions of people of people who never heard of Jesus in eternal fire. Suffering excruciating pain forever and ever without end. Right?

Wrong