Which Christian denominations teach this about life after death?

Question

Curious if any denominations teach the following about life after death:

Since Jesus said that eternal life can only come through Him, and that the path to life is narrow, and only a few find it, that means most people won't have eternal life. But a loving God wouldn't send the majority of people to roast forever in a fiery Hell. So instead of the traditional concept of "Hell," the people who don't find eternal life through Christ just cease to exist. When they die, they just die, like plants or animals, and they no longer exist. Or, maybe they have a soul, but their soul is destroyed. It may even be destroyed in a lake of fire or whatever, but the point is, the soul doesn't consciously burn forever, it's simply annihilated. So instead of Heaven and Hell as the two destinations after death, the two destinations are living forever with God, or ceasing to exist.

To the critics:

1) Paul, whose writings predated the Gospels, never mentioned Hell. Paul was a tough cookie. You'd expect him to mention it at least once.

2) Jesus doesn't mention Hell. He mentions Gehenna, a physical place. The language Jesus used when talking about Gehenna is the same language Isaiah used in the OT when warning Israel that their nation would be destroyed. Jesus was doing the same thing. Israel was again destroyed just 40 years after his death. Gehenna had nothing to do with "Hell."

3) In Revelations, there is a lake of fire, that is described as "the second death." I believe this symbolizes the destruction of souls of those who don't go on to life. "Second death" means just as our bodies cease to exist in the first death, so do our souls die, or cease to exist.

I find no evidence in the Bible for a Dante-style Hell, complete with eternal torment.

Answer 1

Now that you've got it, don't ever lose it no matter what ignorant people will tell you. You are right on. God didn't give us or animals a soul. He told us that we were living souls and yes we can absolutely become very dead souls as described at Ezekiel 18:4 amongst other places.
About the lake of fire or Abyss where he will send those deserving of death, you are also right on, it will be a place to destroy them once and for all as fire purifies everything that goes through it as it becomes ashes and dust... The truth of the initial warning in the garden of Eden..."dust you are, to dust you'll return" (because of having chosen disobedience) and for the very bad choice they had made to believe Satan through the serpent as opposed to the true God who alone could grant them everlasting life or death.

Answer 2

Jehovah's Witnesses teach this doctrine among their other false doctrines.
Jesus said that the lake of fire and brimstone is a place of eternal torment, where the flames are never quenched, and the worm dieth not. Look up 'worm' in the concordance, and here it means a man's soul.

As far as being a Christian denomination, they are not. They follow false doctrine, and therefore follow a false Christ. They do not consider the Christ that they follow to be God. Jesus told us Himself that He is God. "If you have seen the Son, then you have seen the Father."

Answer 3

You are on the right track. The two choices for our soul is love/back to father or dominion/having power over others/back here.
Reincarnation was on main stage for the first 500 years of christianity. Origen was the most prominent influentional of the early fathers, over 6,000 writings.
When paul and constitine decided what went into the bible it
was decided that it would be easier to control the masses if people thought they only had one life here, So all that work was destroyed in the name of power. Reincarnation is real whether you like it or not. If you look around you will see how much more sense this world makes. There is a reason everything happens we can learn the reasons and avoid many heartaches.

I believe in a god of unconditional love that created our souls with free will (not humans) in his likeness. many souls could not bear to leave fathers side for the loss of love. many souls went out and returned to share their adventures. Some souls rebeled wanted to be a god themselves. This place (earth system) WAS CREATED FOR THE SOUL TO MAKE ITS FINAL CHOICE. Do they really want to be a "little God and live in dominion=lordship over others. or return to father of love/fellowship/joy/sharing/ab... bliss. The soul continues to return until the choice is made.
What if heaven and hell are exactly the same except for one difference? What ever you picture in your head heaven to be, imagine hell to be the same except for one difference. Everything you can do in heaven you can do in hell except for one difference. The difference is love or dominion. If you choose love you are in heaven, you are sharing love/joy/fellowship, absolute bliss in all you do.

If you choose dominion you are in hell, everyone will be dominion bent, acting without regard to anything but personal pleasure, personal gain, exercising power over others. Everyman for himself in all that is done. Everything else is the same.

Now which path do/will you choose? LOVE or DOMINION

Need more info: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jbonner/...

P.S. Doesn't hell feel a lot like earth?
P.S. S. If you choose dominion click on exit, there is nothing here for you.

Answer 4

I haven't heard that one before. I have heard the "how can a loving god... blah blah" over and over again. The answer to that is simple: a loving god would not force people to love him. He lets them choose. But sin cannot be in the presence of God so if your sins are not covered by the blood of Jesus, you go to Hell. It sucks, but you can't say you were not warned.

Answer 5

I would like to take you on a slightly different journey. We were all given the gift of grace through the death of Jesus Christ. It is our inheritance, so to speak, which means that we were given this Grace through no action or inaction of our own. Jesus died for our sins. Jesus didn't die, and then also you have to do this and this and this to achieve Grace. Do you understand? Jesus died for our sins, and that's it. To say that someone will not enter the kingdom of heaven because they didn't accept Jesus Christ would make his death in vain. He died for ALL of our sins. Does that make sense? Read Galations.

Answer 6

Jehovas' Witnesses believe that.

Answer 7

I like your theory, but I didn't like when you told that animals "just die". They have a soul too, didn't you know?

Answer 8

anyone who believes in God and strives for him will go to heaven. Anyone with full belief in God but chooses to go against him will go to hell. As for Atheists, I dunno.