Does God use threats of eternal torment and promises of eternal bliss to coerce believers into submitting...?

Question

... to the will of an ideological authority that claims to know the will of God?

- OR-

Are ideological authorities predatory extortionists who belittle god by using these threats of eternal torment and promises of divine bliss as spiritual blackmail in an effort to coerce believers into first submitting to the will of an ideological authority who claims to know the will of god and then next paying for their own life long indoctrination with tithes and offerings?

-OR-

What?!?!?

Do you feel threatened by God? Post that as a question on Yahoo! Answers and you will find out.

Answer 1

The second one...

There is no hellfire. It was invented by apostate Christianity to force people to obey them in whatever they said, whether it be Bible-based truth or man-made tradition.

God wants to bring the earth back to the original paradise he intended. To do that, he must rid the earth of wickedness. This doesn't require that the wicked burn in hell forever. They must simply be removed. Death is a state of non-existence. I've made numerous posts about the fact that we ARE souls, we don't HAVE souls.

"The Bible is very clear on this matter. We ARE souls, we don't HAVE souls. Consider the following scriptures:

1) Genesis 2:7 "And God proceeded to form the man out of dust from the ground and to blow into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man came to be a living soul."

Here it says he became a living soul, not that he came to have a living soul.

2) Ezekiel 18:4 "Look! All the souls—to me they belong. As the soul of the father so likewise the soul of the son—to me they belong. The soul that is sinning—it itself will die."

It says that the soul that is sinning will die... how can that be if the soul is immortal? Answer: the soul is the person, not an immortal spirit creature

The Bible contains many other scriptures which show that a soul can die ie 'striking a soul with the sword', etc. The word translated soul (Hebrew: nephesh, Greek: psykhe) actually refers to the person themselves and even animals are spoken of as being souls.

People often interchange this word with 'spirit' (Hebrew: ruach, Greek: pneuma) which refers to the life-force within a person. However, this is also not a separate entity that lives on after death, no more than the electricity powering your television goes on to something else when you turn it off.

When God pronounced judgement on Adam and Eve after they sinned, he said at Genesis 3:17: "In the sweat of your face you will eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For dust you are and to dust you will return." He didn't say 'You'll go to heaven if you behave yourself, and if you don't I'll torment you in hell forever.'

Death is simply a state of non-existence. Other scriptures back this up, such as Ecclesiates 9:5, 10 and Psalms 146:4.

Which leads me to my final point - there is NO fiery hell. How would you feel about a parent who punished their child for misbehaving by putting their hand on a hot element, even for a second? You'd think they were pretty sadistic, and probably call social services on them. The Bible states: "God is love." (1 John 4:8) He would never torment a sinner eternally for the sins of just a few years. In fact, the Bible says what the consequences of sin are: "The wages sin pays is death" (Romans 6:23)

And since death, as we already showed, is a state of non-being, you can liken death to a parent giving a stubbornly disobedient child a permanent 'time-out'."

Nuff said.

Answer 2

The latter. If there were a god, using a carrot/stick approach to get people to believe in you when you are not even willing to just show up and say "hey, I'm god, vote for me" makes no friggin sense. Of course, it doesn't make any sense that an omni^3 being would create anything in the first place since it would already be infinitely self sufficient. Nor does it make sense such a being would care about whether or not we believed in it.

The concepts of heaven and hell are not really aimed at nonbelievers, they are aimed at keeping believers in fear so they will not listen to anything that might challenge their beliefs. It's a brainwashing tactic.

Answer 3

I believe man kind made these things up and created the church in which it survives by getting members and having them donate money to them. A god who commits a person to eternal hell or heaven is not compassionate nor logical because the time on earth is so little compared to eternality...so it isn't fair to reward people with eternal bliss or eternal torment. Man kind made this up to force people to believe in this mythology.

Answer 4

No, PEOPLE use threats of eternal torment and promises of eternal bliss to coerce believers into submitting...?

Answer 5

God Doesnt use this tactic. Humans do, so that you can "pay your way into heaven", and so that you can keep their wallets deep as a side effect. Some people seem to forget that God didnt write the Bible, nor did he mention a Hell. Humans wrote the Bible, not God.

Answer 6

huh? on the contrary it is us humans that create the illusion per say that our external being is being pushed if who feels that we are not meeting up to the expectations of god, like i said it seems we are the only ones who can judge ourselves, on the other hand god does promise (in the bible) those who believeth in him shall have everlasting life, eternal bliss doesn't that refer to our life after death? its how we live our lives here on earth, that we are judged and only god does that, has anyone ever talked to anyone after death and found out what gods requirements are? and how strict or lenient he is about our sins and good deeds? i did'nt think god expects all that and by far is not going to coheirs, he just plain gives us a choice, to live for him or to not and even if you do, who knows what the rewards will be except eternal life he says.
what it all boils down to is faith and trust, and its your choice after we are introduced to a god of our own belief.

Answer 7

Would you "without being coerced' share your love-biscuit with a person that believes cosmic virgin/sluts out way the life of innocent women and children as a tenet of faith?

Answer 8

Ooooooh, good question.
#1 = No one really knows, but it seems like, no.
#2 = This sounds more accurate to me. However, some that I have met are nice people who are just as confused as their followers are. But, they try to do good things to make the invisible sky pixie happy.

Answer 9

Read the enlighthening FAQ here.
http://www.400monkeys.com/God/

Answer 10

God doesn't use threats. Men who wrote the bible, and the misguided masses who quote it, are the people who use threats.