I believe that hell is the consequenses right here on earth of not loving others. If you dont love, you will not recieve any love.
2007-08-20 20:32:24 · 21 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
I agree. Sin, hell, and satan are man made words.
2007-08-21 02:54:33 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
The Scriptures say that God is love (1 John 4:8). A loving God wouldn't torture us an eternity. Actually that never crossed his mind. Consider the next verse:
"They have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, in order to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, a thing that I had not commanded and that had not come up into my heart." -- Jeremiah 7:31
The teaching of hell fire has pagan origins. In ancient Babylonian and Assyrian beliefs the “nether world . . . is pictured as a place full of horrors, and is presided over by gods and demons of great strength and fierceness.”
Early evidence of the fiery aspect of Christendom’s hell is found in the religion of ancient Egypt.
For more information go to:
http://www.watchtower.org/library/w/2002/7/15/article_01.htm
http://www.watchtower.org/library/w/2001/7/15/article_01.htm
2007-08-21 03:49:07 · answer #2 · answered by Alex 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Mind you... this is the Christian faith I am explaining here... okay??? Let me see... how can I put this...
If you went to a racetrack and someone came to you and said, "Hey, I have a SURE BET for you... put ALL YOUR MONEY... everything you own, on a horse named Jesus."
You look at this person as if he just fell off a beet-truck. "You MUST be JOKING! The odds of Jesus are 100 to 1 !!! The track odds can't go any higher than that!"
"Honest, guy, trust me... I KNOW what I'm talking about... if you don't, you'll regret it the rest of your life... that I also know."
You roll your eyes.. "Oh, yeahrightsure! Why don't you go back to the stables where the horse kicked you in the head!" You walk off, and place your bet on the race.. the favorite... Jackazz... odds, 5-2... and you decide to bet your entire life's savings and worth, JUST so you can "show that guy."
The gates open... the race is on... and DOWN the stretch they come... and JESUS WINS.. by a nose over Jackazz!!
You stand there in total astonishment. The jerk was RIGHT afterall! You see some others in the stands who listened to him and they're jumping for joy while your betting slip drops to the floor. As you leave the track, you see the guy celebrating, and you go over to him. "HEY, you jerk! What gives?"
"What's the problem? I TOLD you he would win, didn't I?"
You leave the track, totally devastated. You have no home to go to... you lost it in your bet... you have nothing at all, because you lost it in that bet. "WHY didn't I listen to him? WHY didn't I bet on that Jesus horse?" you wonder. You feel like you could bang your head on the wall, you feel so stupid for not making that sure bet. You know now that the guy was right, and you should have listened to him.
Alright... analogy is over... do your sort of get the idea? First of all, hell is not a "place" but a "state of being"... that state of being is being "outside" the presence of God. The "eternal torment" is your spending the rest of eternity "kicking yourself in the butt" for not taking that sure bet, for rejecting that sure thing, and knowing that there's not going to be another "horse race" for you to change your mind. You made your bed, you're going to lie in it forever. That is the torment you will face.
Oh... and God does not send you there, nope... it is YOUR CHOICE.. that "free-will" thingie again! If you do NOT want to be with God, God is NOT going to FORCE you to be with Him... so you will be "not-with-Him"... which is what we refer to as being in HELL!
Believe what you will, as you state in your "explanation" of your question. But according to the Christian faith, what I described above is the Truth of the matter.
Sorry for the length of my dissertation!!! Have a blessed day!
2007-08-21 04:24:18 · answer #3 · answered by wyomugs 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋
There is no "place of eternal torment" for the average Joe. Here is what happened. The powers that be in the "church" figured out (about the same time they figured out how to make money at religion) that it is allot easier to scare you out of your cash than it is to have you give it freely because it's for a good cause. Study the word and ask for understanding. That part about you or I burning in eternal fire???? Not actually in there.
Your choices are these. Life or death. In both the physical and spiritual sense
2007-08-21 03:46:32 · answer #4 · answered by WstCotter G 3 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Brock: Authentic Christianity tells you, that "no" you are not sentenced to a "place of eternal torment" because God loves you and is in the saving business. "Religion", on the other hand, employs fear-religion and will tell you, unless you conform to the way I think you should, you will most definitely, be sent "to a place of eternal torment" - thus, making God a failure and therefore, Satan more powerful than God is to "save" you ! The answer is then, whether you believe in the positive message of the Gospel or the negative message of the "Religious" - Which ?
P.S. Great posting there "Delores" - right on !!! You have Authentic Christianity going for you !!!
2007-08-21 03:43:36 · answer #5 · answered by guraqt2me 7 · 1⤊ 4⤋
God is Love. God just asks that you love him back. THink of it like this.. If I offered you the greatest gift in the world and all you had to do was accept it would you? God asks the same thing. He is offering you the greatest gift in the world, eternal salvation. All you have to do is accept it. Oh, there is something else it is free and you can tell all your friends about it and He will give it to them too. If you choose not to accept it you know what the consequenses are. You have been warned and there is a whole Book on the subject. God does not want you to go to Hell but it is a real place. But don't turn to God out of fear of Hell. Turn to God out of Love and you will see His love shine on you. Thne that free gift he offers you will surely want to tell everyone you see about it.
2007-08-21 03:45:59 · answer #6 · answered by Reds 2 · 1⤊ 4⤋
God is a love/hate deity. Religion emphasizes the love part and de-emphasizes the hate part. In the Bible God told a man not to turn around, but the man did and God turned him into salt (God killed him). And there are many more instances in the Bible showing God acting with hatred.
2007-08-21 03:49:03 · answer #7 · answered by liberty11235 6 · 3⤊ 1⤋
God doesn't send anyone to Hell. You send yourself there. God has done everything He possibly can to keep you out of Hell and still leave you as a person with free will and not just a robot with no mind of your own.
Most people's God given consciences tell them not to kill, steal, and commit rape etc. Our man made laws also show that it is wrong to do these things.
No one protests when our police officers throw people into jail because they have committed these horrible crimes. Why? Because you know that evildoers must be punished.
What kind of judge would appoint a criminal to prison or Capital Punishment? A mighty good one would!
If a judge were to set criminals free without the punishment specified in the law, that judge would be unjust and would have to be dismissed from the bench.
In the same way, a mighty good and holy God would also condemn a sinner or a person to hell that chooses to remain separated from Him in their sins. If He didn't, He would not be a righteous and just God.
God didn’t say “Here’s my laws. Oh, and I don’t really care if you break them or not. I made them up for the heck of it. ”
No, we don’t get to decide these things because we are not God. We have to understand we have not broken laws made up by someone inferior to us or even on the same level as us, no, we have broken God’s law. There is a big difference.
And how do we make up for breaking a law? On earth, if we break a law made by humans we may have to pay a fine, do some community service, lose our job, go to jail or even death by lethal injection if the crime is serious enough.
What is the price for breaking a law made by God? Just as humans got to make rules and make the punishments for those rules, God also made the rules and he gets to decide the punishment. And He says the punishment is death. So, we can argue all day that we only did a “few” “small” sins but according to God even one of those is punishable by death.
So is it unfair? Nope, that’s the law. Try telling a Federal Judge he should dismiss your case because you only robbed a bank once or you only murdered one person and the rest of the time you were a good law-abiding citizen.
What’s unfair is that most of us do get to keep living after we break God's law dozens, hundreds and thousands of times and that is because God loved us so much he sent his only son to be a scapegoat and take our punishment for us. All we have to do is believe in him, accept his sacrifice and repent of our sins.
Now that's a pretty good deal!
There is no greater love than this! Jesus Christ suffered the punishment we deserved so we could be forgiven of our sins and be brought back into fellowship with God.
But God is not going to force you to spend all eternity with him if you don't want to and since many people prefer hell to the alternative (complete submission to God) all the people who end up going to hell will have done so because they actually prefer hell to being forced into the presence of God .
People like to live in their favorite sins and answer to no one else. They know that if they accept Jesus as Lord and Savior that God will want them to change their lives and they might have to give up some of their autonomy, so God gives them the choice to be saved or not to be saved.
Even to our limited human way of thinking you can't get fairer than that!
2007-08-21 04:08:01 · answer #8 · answered by jeffd_57 6 · 1⤊ 2⤋
Right-O! Heaven and hell are conditions of being, which can exist in all planes of existence.
God is loving and just and wants us with Him. He does not condemn people to hell, nor do people send themselves there (as some may say), because it's simple.... there IS no tormenting hell, not the one that most people think of. It's not eternal either, its duration depends upon US.
2007-08-21 03:37:23 · answer #9 · answered by Dolores G. Llamas 6 · 3⤊ 3⤋
The same reason he put Dinosaur bones in the earth and dna in our body..... he loves to screw with our heads!
2007-08-21 03:59:46 · answer #10 · answered by Way 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋