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MT 7:21 "Not every one that says unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of Heaven; but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven."
MT 13:47-50 "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away. So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth."
You can try all that you want to change the obvious meaning of these Scriptures to your humanist view of God but they are what they are. God is Divine in judgement, not human and we are to partake of His Divine nature and give up human philosophy.
"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the fear of the Lord is clean converting the soul."
Matthew 13: 47 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet cast into the sea, and gathering fish of every kind; 48 and when it was filled, they drew it up on the beach; and they sat down and gathered the good fish into containers, but the bad they threw away. 49 So it will be at the [y]end of the age; the angels will come forth and [z]take out the wicked from among the righteous, 50 and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Hi, I am not about human philosophy, Garya.There will be an end to the ages, those vast periods of time through which God is working out His plan and purpose for the creation. The scriptures reveal that God is the Savior of all men and that all will be reconciled to Him in the end.
Your disbelief does not change this or steal my joy God bless and peace.
Ephesians 1: 8In all wisdom and insight 9 He [j] made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His [k]kind intention which He purposed in Him 10 with a view to an administration [l]suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things [m]in the heavens and things on the earth.
*summing up=anakephalaioomai= to gather together again in one, to reunite under one head (in mid. voice as in Eph. 1) Key Word Study Bible
Psalm 22:
27All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord,
And all the families of the nations will worship before You.
28 For the kingdom is the Lord’s
And He rules over the nations.
29 All the prosperous of the earth will eat and worship,
All those who go down to the dust will bow before Him,
Even he who cannot keep his soul alive
Hi Allen, are you saying that if you did not believe in an eternal hell, you would not be a Christian/believer? Just asking. God bless and peace.
Not at all. I'm saying that if I didn't believe in an eternal Hell, I probably would have no morals or self-control and went out and did all the crazy things most teens are doing today like having sex at a young age and smoking and drinking. I've almost 20 and I've never done any of that. I wouldn't say I'm proud of myself because pride is not a good thing. But I am extremely happy with myself that I choose to turn turn away from those things and that I'm not a walking statistic. I have none of that baggage.
For your question, I'm not sure how I could be a Christian and not believe in Hell. How is one suppose to model their lives without the fear of God? If I don't believe in Hell or that God would send me there for my sins then I could basically do whatever I want. And I would probably be one of these "God is love" Christians thinking that everybody and everything is going to Heaven and that there is no consequence for sin. I don't know how I would be a Christian if I didn't believe in sin hence needing a savior to save me from Hell because of them.
For your question, I'm not sure how I could be a Christian and not believe in Hell. How is one suppose to model their lives without the fear of God? If I don't believe in Hell or that God would send me there for my sins then I could basically do whatever I want. And I would probably be one of these "God is love" Christians thinking that everybody and everything is going to Heaven and that there is no consequence for sin. I don't know how I would be a Christian if I didn't believe in sin hence needing a savior to save me from Hell because of them.
Thanks for sharing Allen. There are many Christians who serve God because they love Him, not because of a fear that He will cast them into an eternal hell. Jesus came to deliver us out of sin and death, not at eternal hell. The wages of sin is death not eternal hell. Punishment has its place but perfect love casts out all fear and one who fears is not perfected in love (1 John 4:18) I do believe that there are consequences for sin and that God will deal with this, but I am not a Christian because I believe in an eternal hell. I believe that Jesus died for my sins and as a result, I am to live for Him. Sin leads to death but Jesus came to give us life. I want to honor Him with my life, not engage in a life of sin, and this is the result of His work in me. He is my Savior and Lord. God bless and peace.
Not at all. I'm saying that if I didn't believe in an eternal Hell, I probably would have no morals or self-control and went out and did all the crazy things most teens are doing today....
Hi Allen, Why do you think you need to be threatened with eternal suffering in order to have morals or self-control?
Thanks for sharing Allen. There are many Christians who serve God because they love Him, not because of a fear that He will cast them into an eternal hell. Jesus came to deliver us out of sin and death, not at eternal hell. The wages of sin is death not eternal hell. Punishment has its place but perfect love casts out all fear and one who fears is not perfected in love (1 John 4:18) I do believe that there are consequences for sin and that God will deal with this, but I am not a Christian because I believe in an eternal hell. I believe that Jesus died for my sins and as a result, I am to live for Him. Sin leads to death but Jesus came to give us life. I want to honor Him with my life, not engage in a life of sin, and this is the result of His work in me. He is my Savior and Lord. God bless and peace.
I apologize if I offended your beliefs. I respect them. Our theological differences mean nothing in the end. The basic thing I have learned that matters is whether one has accepted and believed Christ died on the cross for their sins and is the son of God. Everything else, I don't know.
Also, I just wanted to clarify something. I don't love God because I fear him and an eternal hell. There are no amount of words to describe the countless reasons I love God. I could write to you for days about his goodness. The #1 reason I love God is because he loved me so much that he decided to sacrifice his life on the cross for me. He loved me that much and thought I was worth something so he sacrificed his life for me just so I could go to Heaven. That's absolute undeniable unconditional love. He has revealed to me that even if I was the ONLY one that would be saved in this world right now, he would have still done it. What kind of person has that kind of love but the son of God?! There are no other words to describe that kind of love but being unconditional. And that's why I love him and cling to him like I do. But I also fear him. With good reason. I believe every event that happened in the Bible. Including the world wide flood and Sodom & Gomorrah. So that was reason enough for me to keep myself in check with his commandments (even if I fail) and just try to stay on the narrow path. I don't know about other Christians, but I am going to keep this fear.
I respect whatever denomination or theology of Christianity you come from or believe in. But the basics of Christianity you need to believe to see heaven. That Jesus died on the cross for your sins and that he is the son of God. And repentance and forgiveness.
Hi Allen, Why do you think you need to be threatened with eternal suffering in order to have morals or self-control?
Because the flesh is weak. The flesh will try to make you do all kinds of crazy things and feel things that are contrary to the likeness of God. That's why we have that fear. So we remember the consequences of doing something that could cost us an eternity in Hell. God has also supplied us with the 10 commandments as a moral law for humanity. Every developed nation in the world follows the basic tenets of the 10 commandments. That's how we have developed order and law in our society. And the last thing God has supplied us with is the holy spirit. The holy spirit is inside us and is our spiritual guide in our walk with Christ. The holy spirit gives us discernment for when there are temptations to commit sin or partake in it. It's what makes you walk away from doing drugs or drinking or anything that we know that we should not be doing. It's what makes pastors preach every Sunday. It's what makes you rebuke the devil. It's what keeps you from committing suicide. It's alot of things. Every believer has the holy spirit and it is important to listen to it because that will be your saving grace throughout your life to keep you on the narrow path.
Last edited by allenk893; 05-26-2012 at 09:31 PM..
Hell is (picture this) each lost soul planted alone at the center of one of the trillions of stars out there in the universe. The larger the star the hotter it burns at its center (ours is estimated to be at a million degrees, if you can imagine such a temperature--a turkey will cook at 300) so, depending on the "degree" of sinfulness one engaged in in this life, his/her recompense is in the size of the star (s)he is planted in upon death. The person is inside the star writhing in a vast ocean of fire for all eternity--trillions of centuries passing second by agonizing second is but a blip in the timescale called "eternity". The nuns in the parochial school I attended as a kid used to to scare the "hell" out of us by warning us that if we ever "french kissed' a girl it was a mortal sin and we'd go to hell where each millennium we'd be allowed to return to the earth to take one grain of sand away from it, until finally we cleared the entire earth away to nothingness; then we'd look up to God and ask, "Is eternity almost over?" whereupon God would look down at us with a grin and say, "My child, it hasn't even begun!" And all that just for french kissing a girl. If you don't think that'd scare a bunch of horny young impressionable schoolboys into celibacy then you've never met a 6-foot tall nun we used to call "Lurch" who told us all this.
For your question, I'm not sure how I could be a Christian and not believe in Hell. How is one suppose to model their lives without the fear of God? If I don't believe in Hell or that God would send me there for my sins then I could basically do whatever I want. And I would probably be one of these "God is love" Christians thinking that everybody and everything is going to Heaven and that there is no consequence for sin. I don't know how I would be a Christian if I didn't believe in sin hence needing a savior to save me from Hell because of them.
Allen, God-willing, if you get to be my age, you'll find that it's not necessary to believe in hell to keep you from doing all that wicked sexual stuff. Nature takes care of the problem for you. Just saying.
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God bless and peace. 
I'll tell you what hell is......
And all that just for french kissing a girl. If you don't think that'd scare a bunch of horny young impressionable schoolboys into celibacy then you've never met a 6-foot tall nun we used to call "Lurch" who told us all this. 
