Fellow Christians. If hell is a place of eternal torture then why .....?

Question

does Revelations 20:14 say that it will be thrown into the lake of fire? We know that the lake of fire is the second "death". And death means "cease to exist", not eternal.

"And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death."

And another thing, how can unbelievers live forever in hell? You only live eternally if you believe in Jesus. Nonbelievers don't have the gift of eternal life, they don't have immortal souls.

I think when our bodies die, that is the first death. Then those that rejected Christ are resurrected to judgement and will be thrown into the lake of fire and there their souls will be killed. That is the second death. The destruction of the person's soul, too.

(I don't belong to a particular religion although I like to fellowship with Baptists and Pentacostals.)

JC Redding - The horsemen spoken of in chapter 6 represent death and hell. Horsemen were not thrown into the lake of fire. The horsemen were symbolic of these two things and not spoken of in this chapter. It was death and hell that were thrown into the lake of fire either way you look at it.

Answer 1

The Bible makes it clear that the wicked will be completely destroyed, as will sin and death, and the wicked will be "ashes under the soles" of our feet. The punishment is eternal, not the punishing.

Answer 2

Ummm....lets see....I've heard this question before. Ok, so, when you physically die, thats the 1st death. The second death is when you are cast into the lake of fire. Those that follow Christ will not experience the 2nd death. But here's the thing. If death means "to cease to exist", why is it that you don't cease to exist after the 1st death?

I don't think a soul is mortal....I'm pretty sure it's immortal. But this is definetely something I'll look into a little more often.

God bless.

(I'm Baptist, btw. Don't know why I felt like mentioning it. lol)

Answer 3

When you receive Christ, you receive eternal life. God is eternal life and comes into you as the holy spirit when you become a Christian. You don't receive eternal life when you die but right when you accept Jesus. Non believers don't receive eternal life but are separated from God, eternal suffering. The lake of fire probably is symbolic and that verse is talking about satan being destroyed by God.

Answer 4

Well, if you;re a Bhuddist, then that "second death" is good, as you are written out of the wheel and ascend to Nirvana. So you got that going for you.

Define reject Christ. The inference is that the rejection is the opposite of his teachings. What if you like his teachings but don't care about his church? Equating the rejection of Christ's church with Christ himself was made up by old dudes to justify oppresion and systematic conversions. Jesus never said any of that.

Answer 5

the be conscious used interior the unique hebrew bible is 'sheol' sheol could nicely be translated as 'the grave' 'the pit' or 'hell' words substitute over the years (occasion: gay used to indicate chuffed) and hell used to indicate 'to cover over' farmers used to hell their potatoes for the time of wintry climate. so in bible translations, (such because of fact the king james) sheol is translated erratically, it potential, the grave, so it potential demise, not eternal torture. jesus additionally speaks of 'fiery gehenna' it extremely is likewise translated as hell in some translations. gehenna replaced right into a place exterior of Jerusalem the place rubbish replaced into thrown in to be burnt, after a on an analogous time as, they threw in lifeless bodies of persons who did not deserve a great burial (thieves and such) however the bible by no potential says that souls, or people have been thrown in, in simple terms the bodies sheol = lifeless gehenna = a place jehovah informed adam he might certainly die. he did not say he may be tortured perpetually NOWHERE interior the bible does it point out an afterlife the place you burn perpetually

Answer 6

Nope. Spiritual death is separation from God's presence. All people will be resurrected physically and live eternally, thanks to the atonement of Jesus Christ. Where they do so is the question that each person must answer through their thoughts, their beliefs, and their actions throughout their lives.

Answer 7

you aetometigthe there is no burning torture but the wicked willbe destroyed at judgemet throne i hope people wont be foolish then really i do

Answer 8

No, sir, God could not create person's in His image then destroy these persons. You are talking about a doctrine of annihilism which is contrary to the attributes of a perfect supreme being.

Your arguments ignore the proper, formal understanding of the concept of omnipotence.

The fact is that a supreme being, God, cannot act in an illogical manner with respect to that being's divine and perfect attributes. Hence, God cannot make a rock so big that He could not move it, nor could God do anything that would be a logical contradiction to His divine nature.

Omnipotence means God can do everything that is possible. Omnipotence doesn’t mean that God can do anything. The concept of omnipotence has to do with power, not ability per se. In fact, there are many things God can’t do, e.g.,

- God can’t make square circles.

- God cannot lie.

-**God cannot create a morally free creature that couldn’t choose evil or the creature would not be morally free to choose.**

None of these, though, have to do with power. Instead, they are logically contradictory, and therefore contrary to God’s rational nature.

See also:
"Whatever implies being and nonbeing simultaneously is incompatible with the absolute possibility which falls under divine omnipotence. Such a contradiction is not subject to it, not from any impotence in God, but because it simply does not have the nature of being feasible or possible. Whatever, then, does not involve a contradiction is in the realm of the possible with respect to which God is omnipotent. Whatever involves a contradiction is not within the scope of omnipotence because it cannot qualify for possibility. Better, however, to say that it cannot be done, rather than God cannot do it." (T. Aquinas Summa Theologica p. 163-164 , Volume I, ques. 15 ans. 3)

God created morally free persons with the ability to choose rightly and wrongly. When we choose a behavior we have also chosen the consequences of our behavior.

As for the doctrine of hell consider the following:

1. Wouldn't everyone repent when faced with hell?
2. Would God let out people who repented?
3. Why was Hell created?

One argument against hell is this: No person in his right mind would choose eternal punishment in hell over heaven. Therefore everyone would repent when sent to hell. If God lets the repentant leave, hell will be empty (and therefore can be disregarded). If God doesn't let the repentant leave, God is unjust for continuing to punish them after they've repented.

The trouble with this line of reasoning is that repentance is not simply a matter of one saying, "Okay, I'll say whatever you want me to, just get me out of here!" Repentance involves acknowledging one's guilt, feeling remorse and the desire to change one's behavior, accepting Christ's sacrifice as substitutionary punishment for one's wrongs and agreeing to love and obey God (including Christ as God the Son). This includes by definition acceptance of eternal punishment in hell as just punishment for one's sins; while the skeptic may still object that continued punishment of the repentant is unjust, the repentant will respond that their continued punishment is deserved and could only end through God's mercy.

However, in reality people in hell won't repent, in particular not any skeptic who makes the above argument. If one thinks God is unjust for punishing people in hell, actually going there isn't going to make one suddenly decide that God is just and deserves one's love and worship after all. People are given their entire lives on Earth as an opportunity to repent and accept God; if they refuse each day of their lives to repent and believe they're justified in doing so, it's hardly conceivable that punishment in hell would change their minds.

Since hell is comprised of those who would never repent, the second question, “Would God let out people who repented?” is only a hypothetical one; it could be argued either way. In practice, someone who would repent in hell would be given the opportunity to repent on Earth and would presumably repent before they died, not after.

As for eternal punishment for finite life of sin, the answer is that our sin bears an eternal consequence because it is ultimately against an eternal God. When King David committed the sins of adultery and murder he stated, Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight (Psalm 51:4). David had sinned against Bathsheba and Uriah, how could David claim to have only sinned against God? David understood that all sin is ultimately against God. God is an eternal and infinite Being. As a result, all sin is worthy of an eternal punishment.

An earthly example of this would be comparing attacking your neighbor and attacking the President of the United States. Yes, both are crimes, but attacking the President would result in far greater consequences. How much more does sin against a holy and infinite God warrant a terrible consequence?

In short, hell and heaven were created out of God's love for mankind as a consequence of free will. God could not have created a morally free creature who could not possess the potentiality to choose to sin. God, being perfectly righteous will righteously respect the choices a person makes and grant them the eternal life they sought through the exercise of their own free will. In short, we choose the behavior, and thus we have chosen the consequences.

I have simplified much of the doctrines behind these concepts. I suggest you do some careful study of the attributes of God to digest these hard sayings. Start with some basic introductions to theology, especially the attributes of a perfect being (God) and go from there.

Answer 9

OMG! You found something in the bible that doesn't make sense!


keep reading... you'll find lots more.
For a book supposedly written by god, it has an awful lot of contradictions, inconsistencies and seems tied to the moral zeitgeist of 3500 years ago.

Answer 10

sure and a monkey had sex and a human was born...surre hahaha LOL