Believers: You're basically a decent person. So why -- ?

Question

-- are you OK with the idea that most of humanity will spend eternity suffering unimaginable agonies in Hell?

Answer 1

The question is not Why are Christians not out converting people so they can go to heaven - we already know they are doing that just as fast as they can. The question is, why are Christians so into this Just and Merciful god who created a universe in which most of humanity will spend eternity suffering unimaginable agonies in Hell? If God is all-powerful, then he can just make everyone go to heaven when they die, skipping the whole cruci-fiction charade as well as the believeth-in-me nonsense. You think it's only the ones who "rejected" God who will burn in Hell? What about the millions of people born outside the Christian Empire during the Common Era? People from Africa, Australia, East Asia, and the Americas between 50 and 1500 AD couldn't possibly have heard of Jesus, so they obviously wouldn't have believeth in him and would therefore be damned, according to Christian doctrine. Is this Just and Merciful? The words Arrogant and Short-sighted seem a bit more appropriate to me. Even if I thought there was a chance God really existed, I sure as hell wouldn't worship him.

Why are Christians so fond of such an awful creature? Because they don't really want EVERYONE to go to heaven. They want an eternal paradise full of people who think and act just like them. Meanwhile all of us jerks who grasped the concept of evolution doubted the word of a bunch of barely-literate dead guys from ancient Mesopotamia - well, we won't think we're so smart when we're suffering unimaginable agonies in Hell, will we? Won't it be fun to watch? Don't you get goose bumps just thinking about it?

Answer 2

We are not okay with that and that's why we want to at least tell them the good news that they can be free from themselves.

The unimaginable agonies are not God inflicted as many incorrectly understand.

Hell is not ruled by Satan. Satan alone doesn't torture you, you torture you and everyone else tortures you.

Satan, himself does not want to be there but in the last days he will be sent there for eternity.

Everyone rules hell. Everyone does what they want. No one collaborates and every thing is relative and hopeless. They look for a small relief but they live in constant suffocation.

In hell, humanity spends eternity doing what they have been doing and do ONLY what they want to do- everyone for eternity!

Answer 3

I'm not. Neither is the God that I serve. Jehovah God is loving, merciful, kind and just. Before Adam sinned, he was warned that he would "positively die" if he ate from the tree in the middle of the Garden.(Genesis 2:17) God did not change the penalty for sin afterward to eternal suffering.(Malachi 3:6) Romans 6:23 says: For the wages sin pays is death, but the gift God gives is everlasting life by Christ Jesus our Lord.
The penalty for sin is and always has been death. The opposite of life. Non-existence. Not torture in a fiery hell.

Answer 4

You think most of humanity wil spend it in hell?

Where do you think people go when they die?
Death is certain...eternity and where we spend it...is not.

It boils down to if you live life trying to connect with God, and as you say..live a decent life..then die...and there is nothing after it...all you've done is lived a decent life and blessed people along the way...impacting lives for generations.

But if you live a decent life or an indecent life...either way rejecting the relationship God would like to build with you and there is an eternity---you not only lose out on have a good life, but then you can face the judgement of hell...

If I handed you a quarter, and told you heads or tails..heaven or hell.....would you shudder as it falls

Answer 5

No, I'm certainly not - the wicked being sent to a place of fiery torment is NOT a Bible teaching. When Baal worshippers were burning their children in fire, God says that such a thing had not even come up into his heart (Jeremiah 19:5).

The Bible teaches that the wicked will be cut off eternally (Matthew 25:41-46; Proverbs 2:22), in other words they will be non-existant, destroyed, not tormented.

Answer 6

You make a good point, however, you are analyzing the question from a human point of view. I know many who are honest, loyal, hardworking, faithful, dependable and likeable people. If it were my decision, they would all inherit eternal life. God has a somewhat higher standard. Jesus said that the path to eternal life is narrow and few will find it. The path to everlasting destruction is broad and many will go that way. God requires perfection. You have to be completely sinless to enter Heaven. Christ said if you even think a sinful though you are just as guilty as if you had actually committed the sin. According to God, all have sinned and fallen short: and that includes you. That is why Jesus left His throne in Heaven, and came to earth. He paid our sin debt on the cross this day (Good Friday) and rose from the grave three days later. All we have to do is receive the gift, repent, and trust Him for eternal life. Sadly, many will depend on their own good works and behavior for their salvation and be lost for all eternity.

Answer 7

I believe Hell is not a punishment per say, it is a choice. God does not send you there. You go there. All the talk of Hell is a warning. Could God have been clearer? "Don't go to Hell!" I mean really, if this is true it's like a father telling his son not to touch a pot because it will burn him and then the son touches the pot. The father didn't hold his son's hand to the pot. He told him to stay away from it. If the son touches the pot in spite of the father's warning...who's fault is it?

I don't know what lies ahead for anyone who does not accept Jesus, but I know we have all been warned about it. That does not mean it's a punishment, it means God gave us really good advice that we should take. Hell is our own choice. I think God is good and I think God is a God of mercy and love. So I really don't think anyone can really understand what happens. All we know is it is not good, and if you choose to go there, you will regret that decision.

Answer 8

There are two uses of the term Hell in my religion.

First, it is another name for spirit prison, a place in the postmortal spirit world for those who have “died in their sins, without a knowledge of the truth, or in transgression, having rejected the prophets”. This is a temporary state in which spirits will be taught the gospel and have the opportunity to repent.

Second, the word hell is used to refer to the dwelling place of the devil and his angels.

Answer 9

I'm not ok with it - I think it's awful. Did you know hell was not created for humans but for the devil and his angels?

Humans were never meant to be in hell and they don't have to be. God has provided a way so that any human being, no matter what they've done can go to heaven. You don't have to earn it, you don't have to do anything to please or appease God, you just have to be on the same page with God, you have to accept truth & reality. That's it.

If you are unwilling to "walk in the light as He is in the light", if you choose not to be in the presence of God.... then the only place for you is where there is absence of God.

If you choose not to accept Jesus's payment for your sins, then the only right and just thing for God to do is to punish you for your sins (which are real, not imagined or arbitrary...)

Answer 10

God has pronouced sentence on sin, and I was not consulted about it, nor was my opinion on the matter solicited. I do not particularly consider myself to be a good person (ok, decent, perhaps), because I am a sinner, just like everyone else. I do not exhault myself, and it's a dead-on fact that no one else exhaults me. Trust me, my faults are ever before me, and if I ever try to exhault myself, there's someone there to throw my faults in my face. God is not ok with the idea that most of humanity will spend eternity in Hell, but He must judge sin because He is a God of Justice too. Just as He is a God Love, He is a God of Justice and Wrath. That's why it was so critical to Him to provide a Just way, a legal way, for man to be redeemed from sin, accomplished through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ. Through Christ's life and death, God and Justly redeem men from sin, but only if they will accept that Jesus died for their sins. If you don't accept any gift, you cannot benefit from the fact that it's there for you. It doesn't matter that neither I nor God is happy about the idea, but God will do what He said He will do, and He said you either accept the only way out of punishment for sin, or you pay the price yourself, and the price is death (defined as eternal separation from Him). Being a good and decent person and doing every good deed known to man is insufficient to remove the stain of sin. If it were, Jesus would not have had to be sacrificed. He was wounded for OUR transgressions, bruised for OUR iniquities; OUR punishment was upon Him, and by His stripes, we are healed.