How old were you when someone told you that you had certain rules to follow or else be tortured in Hell?

Question

I don't remember my first time, I may have figured it out from Warner Brothers cartoons, but it was before 3rd grade. I told the 4 or 5 Mormon kids who were grilling me that I didn't believe in God. When they asked me why I wanted to go to Hell I said I wanted a tan. Yeah, I've always been a smart@ss.

Yeah, Hope. I'm also the kid who spilled the beans about the Tooth Fairy, Santa, and the Easter Bunny to EVERYONE in 3rd grade.

Answer 1

You're the first.

Answer 2

And there we go with the misunderstandings and misinterpretations. Catholics are not evil, and Mormons either. No ones doctrine has an emphasis on Hell but all denomination study and elaborate about it in churches. I think we talk about hell just because it is connected to religion. No one talks about "bad" or "wrong" but "evil" and "hell" gets all the attention. why? after all bad is the opposite of good "wrong" is the opposite of right. you shouldn't do bad things. you shouldn't be wrong. doing something wrong like killing someone or something bad like cheating on your spouse leads you to pay sever consequences sometimes yet ... only Hell gets the call.

Answer 3

Certain rules to follow? I don't know how you missed it but try reading John 3:3 again. Jesus says "you must be born again to enter the kingdom of Heaven". If you think that being born again is a rule then please realize that it is not. Being born again is a work of God not of man. The Holy Spirit fills you so that you can do God's will repenting of your sins and trusting Jesus to save you. If you are not born again than you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven, so what do you think would happen to you then?

Answer 4

I was not pushed into believing God I just Chose to at a very young age.

Answer 5

Mormons are a "works-based" religion. They do not understand about the grace of God. We are not saved by "works", that is, by "being good" like Santa says. We are saved by grace, which is a gift of God, through faith in Christ, regardless of our sins. When we believe in Him, our sins are wiped away; we get a clean slate. When God looks at us, He doesn't see filthy sinners, He sees Christ!
To define, "grace" is God giving us something that we don't deserve, and "mercy" is God withholding from us something (punishment) that we DO deserve. When we believe, we get both grace and mercy. It's awesome, and it frees us from fear of punishment under the Law. Christ already paid the penalty for our sins.

Answer 6

Seeing as how Mormons don't believe that atheists will automatically go to hell, your story is not very convincing.

http://www.allaboutmormons.com

Answer 7

3 or 4 years old. I was raised Fundamental Baptist. And now my mom doesn't understand my love for horror movies/books. Go figure.

Answer 8

I was 10 and forced to sit through sermon on hellfire and damnation. I didn't understand a word of it, and I'm glad I have come to learn that we have a God of love that doesn't want this for us.

Answer 9

By the way, I was never told by anyone including God that following rules would keep me from hell. What I was told was that "Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and no one can get to the Father except by Him". Your comments prove that you really do not want to know the truth, just making fun of us who do.

Answer 10

I think I was 7. If you can believe it, I had a school teacher tell us all that garbage (this was in the 70s). I don't think it ever stuck though, because I don't know if I've ever been particularly afraid of hell.

Answer 11

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