How Can A Loving God Send People To Hell? | |
Anonymous Coward User ID: 29515 Puerto Rico 10/08/2005 10:09 PM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | |
gooderboy User ID: 16709 United States 10/08/2005 10:10 PM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | |
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Anonymous Coward User ID: 2168 United States 10/08/2005 10:15 PM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | self loathing. When a person learns to release these things from them (not just forget them, or hope they will go away) they will have no hell in thier heart and therefore no hell to go to. The caveat though, is that the process of releasing can be hell. Do-able. But hellishly painful none-the-less. The goal is to relase all of the negativity before you pass on from this realm. Otherwise you must carry the baggage with you to the next. |
Capt. Kirk User ID: 741 United States 10/08/2005 10:18 PM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | ...God doesn´t choose to send anyone to hell...we make that choice all by ourselves...He did however, provide us with a "get-out-hell" free pass...that is also by our choice...and by the way things are happening in the world, i wouldn´t take tomorrow for granted... |
Stinkmiester User ID: 9361 United States 10/08/2005 10:55 PM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | The subject of hell...is it a destination or holding place? The Revelation explains hell, if you donīt believe the Bible then you are not talking about hell. Here is the purpose of hell: Re:20:13: "And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works." Now those that did not know God, were judged according to their beliefs, "All you have to be is a good person." Every man knew there was a time where they were not good, and they were found guilty in their own belief. They were the ones that set up their judge. Re:20:12:"And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works." They did not know God. Re:20:14:And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. Re:20:15: "And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." So Hell gets tossed into the lake of fire empty. The question alone shows a lack of knowing the Lord Jesus Christ. |
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seer one User ID: 7073 United States 10/08/2005 11:33 PM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | |
B User ID: 306 United States 10/08/2005 11:34 PM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | The Lord talks to people, and he always did, and he always will. The people that go to hell are ones that hate God and what he stands for. How can God allow them in heaven. We than would have hate, murder, rape and ect, ect. It sure wouldnīt be heaven now would it. |
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andy thomas User ID: 29789 United States 10/09/2005 12:12 AM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | 1) love isnīt what you think it is or want it to be 2) god doesnīt send you to hell... thatīs your choice... i know... infuriating but there you have the quistian answer to your question unless you ask a presbyrterian (calvinist)... then everything was already predestined from the get-go... of course with the post-modern types theyīre like... īyeah everything is predestined... but you have free willī... and iīm like, īisnīt that buddhism or some shit?ī in adventism... there is no hell... just destruction of the wicked... non-existence... in unorthodox judaism... we seek not the salvation of the prohibitionist quist... but rather to be spent by the chemical christiana... |
Anonymous Coward User ID: 306 United States 10/09/2005 12:17 AM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | "Where there is no vision, the people perish" (Prov. 19 :18). Waiting upon God is necessary in order to see Him, to have a vision of Him. The time element in vision is essential. Our hearts are like a sensitive photographerīs plate; and in order to have God revealed there, we must sit at His feet a long time. The troubled surface of a lake will not reflect an object. Our lives must be quiet and restful if we would see God. There is power in the sight of some things to affect oneīs life. A quiet sunset will bring peace to a troubled heart. Thus the vision of God always transforms human life. Jacob saw God at Jabbokīs ford, and became Israel. The vision of God transformed Gideon from a coward into a valiant soldier. The vision of Christ changed Thomas from a doubting follower into a loyal, devout disciple. But men have had visions of God since Bible times. William Carey saw God, and left his shoemakerīs bench and went to India. David Livingstone saw God, and left all to follow Him through the jungles of dark Africa. Scores and hundreds have had visions of God, and are today in the uttermost parts of the earth working for the speedy evangelization of the heathen. --Dr. Pardington There is hardly ever a complete silence in the soul. God is whispering to us well-nigh incessantly. Whenever the sounds of the world die out in the soul, or sink low, then we hear the whisperings of God. He is always whispering to us, only we do not hear, because of the noise, hurry, and distraction which life causes as it rushes on. --F. W. Faber "Speak, Lord, in the stillness, While I wait on Thee; Hushed my heart to listen In expectancy. "Speak, O blessed Master, In this quiet hour; Let me see Thy face, Lord, Feet Thy touch of power. "For the words Thou speakest, īThey are life,ī indeed; Living bread from Heaven, Now my spirit feed! "Speak, Thy servant heareth! Be not silent, Lord; Waits my soul upon Thee For the quickening word!" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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Anonymous Coward User ID: 27789 United States 10/09/2005 08:24 PM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | The short answer is that Gehenna (Christīs more specific term for a state of eternal torture) is a mystery. The longer answer is that we donīt know the answer to the OPīs question! Let me briefly outline the objections to existing "easy answers." An "easy answer" given by many Protestants is that access to heaven requires only sheer belief in Christ. Thus, for Christians, getting to heaven is trivial, because it does not require forgoing any pleasure or submitting to any suffering. Do anything you want, and get to heaven anyway! Non-Christians are all doomed to eternal torture merely because they were given incorrect information. Needless to say, this "easy answer" does *not* answer the question of how an all-good God can doom billions of people to eternal torture for a lack of information that is clearly not their own fault. An "easy answer" given by many Catholics is that the only humans who suffer Gehenna are those who have chosen to go there by their seriously sinful actions and lack of repentance for same. But according to Catholic theology, a single unrepented serious sin, such as a masturbatory act, is quite sufficient to send the perpetrator to Gehenna for all eternity--though he might believe firmly in Christ and His Church, desire to be with God forever, and be willing to obey Godīs law in every other respect. It is thus dishonest to say that this sinner "chose" Gehenna in a direct sense. Rather, he chose some temporary gratification contrary to Godīs law, and will pay for it through an eternity of torture. But, a Catholic might object, the sinner must also have chosen not to repent. Yes, that is true, but that lack of repentance might have lasted only a minute, because Catholic teaching makes clear that if a human commits a serious sin and is then struck by lightning a minute later (without repentance during that intervening minute), he indeed goes directly to Gehenna. But, a Catholic might say, this is still just, because the sinner simply should not have committed his sin! But will you still feel that way when you go to heaven and find that so many of your family, relatives, and friends are suffering eternal torture? Here on earth, you often in practice treated those serious sins as relatively minor. You pretended not to notice them, because you knew that if you spoke up about those sins too often or too obtrusively, you would soon find yourself effectively alone--because so few humans nowadays actually avoid *all* of the sins the Church considers serious, or are even repentant for them. Will you really *enjoy* the eternal torture of your family and friends, as some Catholic theologians say? And if you do not enjoy their torture, how can you say that you will be completely happy in heaven? Another "easy answer" favored by many modern Catholics, including the late Pope John Paul II, is to explain away human sin, or at least human unrepentance, in such a way that only the *really* bad people go to Gehenna. (Pope John Paul, in a famous lecture, expressed doubt as to whether *any* human at all has ever gone to Gehenna!) This "easy answer" is simply impossible to square with traditional Catholic teaching and experience. We all know *many* people who were taught Catholic teaching well, but nevertheless committed serious sin and then died without any indication of repentance. A modern Catholic could claim that such people somehow got one last chance for repentance (and took it) at some hypothetical "special moment" right before the separation of body and soul, but such a hypothesis has absolutely no basis whatsoever in Scripture or Tradition. Besides, this view that Gehenna is empty (or contains only Hitler, Stalin, and Mao) turns all of Christīs own teaching about Gehenna into one gigantic BLUFF. Are Catholics really willing to claim that for 2000 years, Christ and His Church have simply been bluffing? One other "easy answer" is that souls who end up in Gehenna are effectively annihilated immediately. They either disappear into nothingness or at least lose any form of consciousness and hence do not really suffer. This answer, too, means that Christ and the Church have just been bluffing us. It is also incompatible with defined Catholic teaching. So is there an answer to this issue that is at least arguably compatible with Catholic theology? Perhaps. What if--after a period of torture appropriate to their sin--the humans in Gehenna could *petition* the Lord for annihilation? Now the Lord certainly does not provide any a priori guarantee that He will grant the petition, but what if--swayed by the fervent intercession of the saints--He does, in practice, grant the petition? It could then be said that those suffering Gehenna are either paying off a specific finite debt for their sin or are simply too arrogant to petition for annihilation. The saints might even dare to hope that everyone in Gehenna, given enough time, sees the futility of further existence and requests annihilation. Gehenna itself would still exist forever, if only because God might continually create new races of sentient beings to undergo His test; but in practice, few if any souls would actually suffer there forever. Anyone want to run this by Pope Benedict, to make sure he doesnīt label it as heresy? |