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.
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.
It’s a hell of an easy choice.
In the South before World War II, especially black preachers made their reputations on their elaborate and frightening descriptions of Hell. It was said that a truly gifted preacher could make a congregation “smell brimstone, and feel the fire licking the floorboards beneath their feet.”
And because whether he wanted to or not, he was party to the church gossips, so had a pretty good idea of who was sinning, how they were sinning, and who knew about it. This gave him an opportunity to, without naming names, fix his gaze on particular sinners to let them know that he knew, and was speaking directly to them in his sermon, and that they had not evaded what was coming to them.
This went a long way to at least temporarily set many on a more straight and narrow path, and even somewhat defuse near homicidal anger at say, a straying or intemperate spouse, if he or she displayed some degree of contrition.
However, after the war, Hell fell out of fashion, with the general desire by the clergy to embrace the more joyous and redemptive aspects of faith. But as an experiment, this change has caused mixed reviews, at best.
Then what was Jeesus being punished for when he was in hell? What was David being punished for in hell?
That's a scary sermon...
The story goes that so powerful were the words (not so much Edwards' delivery itself) that Edwards was interrupted several times by folks in the congregation desiring to be saved immediately.
When we redefine God we make ourselves out to be god. After all, if you can define who God is then aren't you the more powerful being? Interesting note: those that redefine God will redefine him/her/it in their image--their god thinks like they do, acts the same, is in constant agreement, is charming, witty, dashing, charismatic....why, god becomes downright awesome, a god that they can actually see in the mirror and really, really fall in love with!!
Well, How ‘bout it, RF, what was Jesus and David being punished for while in hell?
http://www.askelm.com/doctrine/d030601.htm
[[His views are at least more consistent than religious philosopher John Hick, who refers to hell as a “grim fantasy”]]
Hopefulyl he coems to his senses BEFORE he has to find otu hte hard way just how wrogn he is
Gehenna is a valley in Jerusalem, where people sacrificed children to Molech , and where they burned garbage. It is pretty clear to me what Jesus was telling us.