Posted on 04/06/2013 10:46:39 AM PDT by ReformationFan
Believing the truth about hell also motivates us to persuade people to be reconciled to God. By God’s grace those of us who are trusting Christ have been rescued from this horrible destiny. How can we love people and refuse to speak plainly to them about the realities of eternal damnation and God’s gracious provision of salvation? Clearer visions of hell will give us greater love for both God and people.
“There is one very serious defect to my mind in Christ’s moral character, and that is that He believed in hell.” So wrote the agnostic British philosopher Bertrand Russell in 1967. The idea of eternal punishment for sin, he further notes, is “a doctrine that put cruelty in the world and gave the world generations of cruel torture.”
His views are at least more consistent than religious philosopher John Hick, who refers to hell as a “grim fantasy” that is not only “morally revolting” but also “a serious perversion of the Christian Gospel.” Worse yet was theologian Clark Pinnock who, despite having regarded himself as an evangelical, dismissed hell with a rhetorical question: “How can one imagine for a moment that the God who gave His Son to die for sinners because of His great love for them would install a torture chamber somewhere in the new creation in order to subject those who reject Him to everlasting pain?”
So, what should we think of hell? Is the idea of it really responsible for all the cruelty and torture in the world? Is the doctrine of hell incompatible with the way of Jesus Christ? Hardly. In fact, the most prolific teacher of hell in the Bible is Jesus, and He spoke more about it than He did about heaven.
(Excerpt) Read more at theaquilareport.com ...
Yeshua made it plain what would happen to those he never knew.
They cannot blame him; it is their own rejection of him that condemns them.
I just pray that, as the Lord desires for everyone to be saved, His will may be done, and hopefully few will end up in such a horrible place.
Here’s a question for everyone: If Christian kills himself, will he go to Hell?
I consider it one of the separating factors between God and Jesus (which as a trinitarian, I believe are simulataneously the same and separate entities).
God is not the forgiver, Jesus is.
God sends you to hell. Jesus does not.
If you view God as an omnipotent, generally detached entity and Jesus as being one that understands and cares for man, then it starts to make more sense.
Do we care for the fire ants that we toss poison on so they stop biting our feet? Not really. In fact, not at all.
Hmm. First death is a physical death. Second death is a spiritual death. As best as I’ve been able to glean, that death is being thrown into fire everlasting. It wouldn’t make sense to be “destroyed” if the fire was everlasting.
Predestination is where we naturally land when trying to understand the verses you’ve mentioned because we can’t fathom that concept any other way - but predestination cannot be the case. Perhaps being not limited by time it was known whether we would make the choice or not before we made it. It was still our choice to make, however.
NO...but of course most Christians wouldn’t consider that.
You could say it’s murder...be another individual or oneself...it’s taking a life...just as in abortion.
All of which are covered and forgiven if they are in Christ....but woe to them before they do the deed...
In a very real sense Jesus killed himself, after all he said: "I lay my life down, nobody takes it from me, but I lay it down willingly." (John 10:18)
So, if (a) the death of Jesus was suicide; (b) Jesus was a man [fully human]; and (c) Jesus is/will-be in heaven, then it cannot be said that everyone who kills themselves will be in hell.
Don't mean to make light of such a deep subject that we really know very little about. But my reaction in reading this ... is ... what if a person chooses to suffer? We hear a lot about choice. If people are told they have a choice to live in the big house or live outside and they choose outside who am I to judge :-) Of course the deeper problem is there are people - past, present, future - who really aren't clearly presented with this choice. so I find that part of the doctrine to be difficult. Where I come out is ... I don't know what happens to those people. All I know is they are not with God.
LOL, so you think that “jail” or the death penalty should not be mentioned to criminals. come on , wake up.
why define fear as a bad thing...it's healthy to have fear when appropriate. ...it protects, warns and lets us know we likely need to change direction.
God would have all to be saved and be with Him...that's His plan. He finds no pleasure whatsoever in the death of the wicked....rather that they would come to Him thru Christ and be in eternity with Him...but it's a choice.
The choice is to be with God or eternally forever separated from God.....and it's a choice of each individual.
No one is condemned to hell that has not heard the story and had the chance to accept or reject. Says so right there in the book.
I’m sure we can trust God knows those people who have not the ability nor have heard the Gospel....should they die...He will surely make the right call concerning them. He made them, he assuredly knows them far more then we.
I think , though, the question really is about if God is good or not...not so much what about the people. After all He is the creator...so the question really is how and who do we see God as.
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