Christians: Why should I want to go to your heaven when my wife and father are, according to Rev 21:8, in hell

Question

Would you want to dine at the table of someone who sent your loved ones to the dungeon?

mt486: Love.

Bimpster: I know we've disagreed in the past, and no doubt will again. But right now I see a human with compassion reaching across the gulf that divides us and I thank you for that. Peace to you.

Answer 1

Do not take anything in the Book of Revelation literally. The material is allegorical and highly poetic. Why would God send your wife and father to hell? Is that what a loving God does?

Answer 2

Bob,

I am sorry about your wife even if you weren't on the best of terms near her death. You are most likely right that the cancer caused her mind to think differently about your relationship near the split. Now that this life is over for her, you still have a decision to make about your eternity. I'm not saying to get all mushy about God and go weepy at the sight of a baptism. Get angry! Get angry with God but do not sin in your anger. Don't just curse God and die too. Test God to see that he is good. It may take time, you may not even be near the bottom yet. Grieve first you calloused heart. There was a time that you made and oath to your wife. Till death do you part unless you were married in a town clerks office then it was a bit more clinical and matter of fact. Don't let what may be as much your fault as anything else. The husband should love his wife and give up his life as Christ loved the church. Let your heart grieve first. Stay off this site for at least a week. Take a vacation dude. Go fishing or something. Just know this, My mother, father, grandparents from both parents and my wife's side of the family are all dead. Maybe just maybe we will see her father in the heavenlies. Everyone else is worm food.

Answer 3

Based on your question above, your wife and her father must be dead. If you study the Bible you will find that hell fire occurs 1000 years after the Second Advent (Rev). That is in the future. It is not burning now.

You will also find that when you die you stay in the grave and do not know anything. It is like a deep sleep according to Jesus when talking about Mary and Martha's dead brother Lazarus. This idea is also explained in many other places in the Bible.

Hell is also a one time event which burns up and goes out. It is no more eternal than was the fire that burnt up the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and then went out, (See Jude 7)

The words "eternal" and "for ever and ever" in the original languages of the Bible simply meant irreversible. The effects were eternal and permanent.

So the Bible does not say God is going to torture the unrepentant continuely throught out eternity. People will just burn up and turn to ash and cease to exist for all eternity. They will never live again.

There will be a time when God will answer your question to your satisfaction and that will be during the millenum when the books of heaven will be opened to the saints for them to review so that every saint who wants to know why their loved one is not there will be able to find out. (Of course you will have to be there to get the answer. If you want the answer, be therd.) And the reason will be clear that the lost person did not want to be saved in spite of every attempt to save them. God will not go against man's freedom of choice.

We each choose our own destiny, while God pleads with each one to choose Him and life eternal. What while your choice be? It is totally up to you.

Answer 4

Are you referring to:

8But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death."

If you're an unbeliever why would we want just you to go to Heaven and not your family? You DO know Revelation was written in code and not meant to be taken literally, right?

Answer 5

It's not going to do you, your wife, or your father any good if you end up in hell. If they are there, that's too bad. But you still have a chance to get to heaven. Eternity is a long time. And they wouldn't want you to go to hell. Remember the story in the Bible about Lazarus and the beggar. Lazarus said please go tell my family not to come to this place. You're not going to "share"
anything with them there. You'll be alone. I hope you will let go of your bitterness and accept God's love.

Answer 6

First, How do you know your wife and father are in hell?
Only God knows; no person on earth can tell you.

Second, If you believe your loved ones are in hell then you must believe the Bible. So, what sense does it make for you to go to hell? Do you think your loved ones really want you to join them in eternal hell? I think not. They want you to do everything possible to stay out of hell and to help other people stay out.

Answer 7

dude, this is what you do. You believe and all that jank. Then you die and go to heaven. Then you fashion a huge rope made out of the bedsheets (they are replaced new everyday and they are, believe me, unbreakable and fire proof). You drop that d*mn rope to your father and wife and you just pull them up. Then people be all like, hey! How they get up here? Well, to that, you just laugh at them!

Answer 8

God does not send anyone to Hell. We send ourselves.

We are given two choices, accept or reject him, everything else is detail.

I understand your sadness that loved ones never accepted God as their creator and savior. I have loved ones that I think died without accepting this Gift. But, I can tell you that there is no way for us as humans to know anothers heart. We simply cannot know for sure that our loved ones didn't believe and just stay silent about it.

Read the story of Lot (Genesis), from outward appearances and how he lived and things that he did, you would never have known that he believed in and loved God. From outward appearances, it seems that he never even taught his own daughters about God and faith in him. But the bible states that Lot was counted as rightous in Gods eyes. We just never know.

So, there is hope that your loved ones are like Lot, and just never showed or spoke of God or their belief in him.

Answer 9

You obviously don't know what happens when you die. Just have faith and do the right thing be a good person let God take care of the rest.

Answer 10

I think you need to read a bit more. God will wipe your memories of loved ones away. God will let you see their life. And ask," why should I leave them in to Heaven?" Also, do you think a God that loves you,would let you suffer by hearing the screams of the ones that don't make it?