Mageth

<deleted>
Umm, no, I have not "missed" it. I simply think it's rather muddled theological thinking. And, honestly, you've done a poor job of presenting it.

The point of that is simply that the lead-in to your theological argument from "holocaust" is clearly wrong, as "holocaust" does not mean what you said it means. "Holocaust" simply and clearly does not mean "purify by fire".

Again, your theological argument may or may not be (otherwise) theologically valid. You need to work on it, though.

If you want to base your theological argument on "sacrifice under the mosaic [sic] system", then work on doing so. However, your line beginning at the word "holocaust" is flawed, as I have shown.

This is completely and totally irrelevant. Read the pages I provided you.

Honestly, you've done a piss-poor job of presenting a theological argument here. Again, you may have a valid theological argument in there somewhere. You just haven't presented it (or, apparently, worked it through) very well.

So don't fault me for not understanding the "theology" that you've mangled so badly.

Back at ya on that one, mata.

mata leao

I apologize mageth, <edit>

John A. Broussard

A very good point. The Grand Inquisitioner was a devotee to the notion you describe here, that one can purify by fire.

Christians, generally, favored that as a method of purifying witches.

Diogenes the Cynic

Nor were they purified by it but millions of them certainly were consumed by fire in the most literal way.

Holocaust means a "whole burnt offering" (from Gr. holokaustos "burnt whole") It's not Hebrew and it doesn't mean "purify by fire." The term was first applied to the Nazi genocide of the Jews by the Jewish writer (and death camp survivor) Elie Wiesel. He used the term figuratively, not literally, but it stuck. The word has now attained an accepted English usage for any massive destruction of human life.

Wads4

What complicated lives you lot do lead.

Half-Life

Matthew 25:46

* "and these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal".

Now there we have Jesus say it once again in very plain unambiguous language. And by the way, that Greek word there translated eternal [aionios], is the the exact same word there translated everlasting [aionios]. And so if these Theologians are going to wrest God's Word here to mean that in the Greek the punishment is really temporary, then they'll also have to open the huge can-o-worms and make it say there our life everlasting is temporary also. Because they're the exact same Greek word in the exact same application. As any faithful student of the Bible knows, inconsistency is the hallmark of error. But these are the problems which man gets into when He doesn't want to keep God's Word faithfully and wants to judge by what "seems" right in his own eyes. But to abandon counsel of God to believe whatever we think is good is the error of the ages.

This is taken from this page.
http://www.mountainretreatorg.net/bible/is_hell.html

Now, to all you people out there who dispute the idea of an eternal hell, how do you reconcile this? How is Hell simply destruction? If we were just destroyed upon death, we could just party and drink and have sex with anyone we wanted with no fear of ever being punished. How can God be consdiered a just God with no punishment?

Amaleq13

I'm merging this with the previous thread you started on the same subject.

Amaleq13

Here is another thread on the subject as well:

Hell: Merely a Temporary Annihilation?

Mageth

How can God be considered a just God with eternal (infinite) punishment meted out for finite transgressions (whether trivial or severe) committed in a finite life?

As an example, if I live an otherwise exemplary life, except that once I stole a pack of gum for which I never repented or made restitution, according to your system of God's "justice", I will suffer an infinite amount of torment/punishment in Hell for that single transgression.

Substitute "lack of belief in your particular God" in the above. For simply lacking belief in this finite life, I will suffer infinite punishment, no matter how otherwise exemplary and benevolent my life was.

And it doesn't matter how good or bad I was; for each and every act for which I could receive punishment according to your God's "justice", no matter how trivial or severe, I will suffer an infinite amount of torment/punishment in Hell for that act.

Which means, of course, that a genocidal despot that kills millions will suffer exactly the same amount of punishment for that crime as I would for stealing a pack of gum.

Is it just to punish a gum stealer with the same punishment as a mass murderer?

To believe your God is "just", you must answer "yes" to that question.

ggazoo

First off, I'm a Christian. Having said that, I think that...

http://www.jesus-is-lord.com/sinner.htm

... is silly. My question cgordon, is what do the Christian leaders of the world have to gain by all of this? By assembling an army of "gullible followers"? You act like Christianty is a cult and that we're "all out to get ya!" lol. Please.