Posted on 10/09/2017 11:47:22 PM PDT by Sontagged
You are correct about pearls before swine...
Also shaking the dust off from people who will not hear you.
But this is FR, and there is an assumption of a shared Judeo Christianity; all this does is go the distance.
I listened through the longer sermon of this same guy that I linked to; pretty much spot on with the Word, which as you know is the true test of his veracity.
God is real whether we believe in Him or not; all men are “religious” and will worship either gods of their own making or the one true Creator.
Hence the 1st Commandment; all which inspired Mr. Zimmerman to write:
“It may be the devil, or it may be the Lord,
but you gotta serve somebody”
- Bob Dylan
The definition of sin is “that which separates you from God”...
“The entire “hell for eternity” for mistakes made over thirty years or so just never made a lot of sense to me.”
That’s okay - the entire “Grace for Eternity” for mistakes I’ve made my entire life doesn’t make sense to me either!
Hell is a willful separation from God. His protection is no longer there, hence the evils He normally stands in the way of are gone. This is not God’s decision for humanity, it is an individual decision by each person. God has warned repeatedly and urgently, He sent Jesus to pay the price so we wouldn’t have to. If people do not take that incredible pass, it is on them...not God. God has done all He can to help humanity escape that fate.
Fake news.
Jewishnotgreek.com
The rich man and lazarus is a parable that is not about hell.
Jewishnotgreek.com
I think you are incorrect here.
This is the only story Christ told that included actual names. Every one of His parables was just "There was a man..."
I think this actually happened.
IMHO, you’re missing the Gospel message.
I’ve heard it better expressed this way.
Ever since the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve ate the fruit from the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, every human now has the ability to discern good and evil.
This is very important and simply obvious, because God warned Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit, less they would surely die.
Death is a state of existence involving separation.
When we discern good and evil, we are easily tempted to judge rather than discern, and when we substitute our thinking for what God provides, we fall out of fellowship with Him,...i.e. we miss the mark, ie, the defn of sin.
Regarding sin and hell.
All humanity has been condemned to hell. We aren’t predestined to go to Hades, as God has provided a Perfect Sacrifice for all sins, past, present and future in the death of Christ on the Cross. All sins have now been judged.
We though are only forgiven, once through faith in that Sacrifice we return to Him for salvation from condemnation, by facing him, turning away from the sin and confessing it to Him through faith in what He provided. That is a hasty summary of the Gospel.
Nobody is sent to the Lake of Fire for their sins. They are sent there because they are already condemned and they have refused to accept the forgiveness made available to them.
Today, those who have died and never had faith in Christ, reside in the Torments, until the Great White Throne Judgment.
More importantly, those who simply have faced God, confessed their sins, known and unknown to Him, through faith in what Christ provided on the Cross, are then immediately given a regenerated human spirit, which is what lives eternally with Him after we die with our soul (separated from our bodies). Believers now are face to face with the Lord upon death.
Vengeance is the Lord’s.
We too often want revenge instead of justice.
The difference between grace and mercy is getting what we don’t deserve and not receiving what we do deserve.
The question was whether or not souls in Hell can see other things or other souls; the Rich man’s testimony came to mind.
Perhaps you can answer that person better than I did...?
I agree with everything you wrote; not sure how I’m missing the Gospel message?
“The entire “hell for eternity” for mistakes made over thirty years or so just never made a lot of sense to me.”
That’s okay - the entire “Grace for Eternity” for mistakes I’ve made my entire life doesn’t make sense to me either!
Wait, Hell is “fake”?
Or are you saying you believe this man’s testimony of Hell is a lie?
The brain is just a physical device which can effect the soul and spirit, but not identical to them.
The soul and spirit exist when the body is no longer combined, (i.e. dead)
Lots of people would agree.
The problem is, should someone whose crimes consisted of fudging his tax return a couple of years, or maybe shoplifting a candy bar when he was nine, share Hitler's punishment???
The everlasting Lake of Fire was made for the fallen angels and it also involves punishment.
A better perspective is to consider the life of God and believers.
Should God have to endure their evil in His presence for eternity future, or those whom He has paid the price for, so that we might live with Him for all eternity future, should we have to eternally endure their evil?
It has been said that humanity is the appeals trial for all the fallen angels. They’ve already been condemned. This age is to show all of Creation that His judgment is not only righteous, but full of grace.
Sin separates us from Him, but technically, the definition of sin is to “miss the mark”. In this case, the mark is the Plan of God.
Moreover, scientific explanations fail to address well-documented NDE accounts in which experiencers: describe ER personnel and their conversations and actions while monitors showed clinical death; see obscure objects and details while in an out of body state; describe conversations with relatives who were not yet known to be dead and relate previously unknown information passed on to them; and are declared dead but then return to life without brain damage and may have new talents or unusual perceptive powers.
When such NDE accounts are proven and multiplied in number so as to become cumulatively persuasive, we move from the material realm of science to that of the spirit. Notably, due to the hints of reincarnation, traditional Christianity is also uncomfortable with NDEs, which fits most easily with the syncretism of New Age spiritualism.
Since scientific materialism and Christianity both have to revise fundamental tenets to accommodate NDEs as real, neither has embraced research into them with enthusiasm. Perhaps a billionaire will take up the subject and fund the necessary research.
I’m saying that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
And “hell” is a made up word that has quite a few different meanings and sources in the original text of both the old and new testaments. Jesus never spoke of it, but did speak of Gehenna, which SOME bibles translate to the word “hell”.
Now that we have greek and hebrew lexicons easily available to everyone on the internet (biblehub.com is a good one), it’s easy to really, REALLY study the bible on your own.
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