John A. Broussard

Asbestos place mats would be nice.

Helpmabob

Hi ddd3dturner – It is a long story, to do with man’s sin and alienation from God.You have to be prepared to take up residence when you find your 'home'. But this doesn’t mean not asking any more questions.

Hi JPD - That is not what I call it though; I repeat that I am left with very little doubt that what I am dealing with is none other than God, creator of the universe, Saviour of my soul.Spot on - I’ll ask something harder next time. By the way, I agree with you that the monarchy is of variable quality, but that may be as a result of certain high profile members turning their back on God.This ties in with your earlier:So if you pitched up at paradise, you would move swiftly on?

Clarice - Sorry, I can't substantiate that right now.

Hi John - Because it is important to determine what hell is before we decide whether we will be going there (thread topic) or not?

JPD

Hi. Of course you are left with very little doubt as your mind is immersed in a nice feeling. Every Biblical verse that you read is a reinforcement as is every attack that is made upon those verses. You seek shelter in a part of your own mind where the rules are clear and the rewards apparently real. This is what you tell yourself is reality.

Paradise is a mind-originated folly created by certain chemical combinations. It could be triggered by taking a drug or by having a particular set of beliefs installed through a textual medium. Could you have arrived at the point you are now at just by observing yourself, nature and the universe?

John A. Broussard

As usual, you haven't answered my question. How in the world does your or my belief in hell (or anyone's belief in hell) have anything to do with the nature of hell?

Want to try again?

Helpmabob

Dear JPD - This is important: it is the Holy Spirit, none other – it exceeds nice, it is my guarantee of salvation. It comes as near to proof to me that I will not be going to Hell (the nature and very exiostence of which we are trying to establish here).I wouldn’t be visiting this place if I only sought shelter and re-enforcement of my own views. Reality being strictly only the things we can see, I suppose? Nothing else must be permitted!

He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power [2 Thessalonians 8-9]This implies there will be some sort of destruction and exclusion from God’s glory awaiting those who hate God. No details of what Hell would be like though, I shall keep searching.

Dear John – John, I honestly can’t put it any more simply, sorry.

Clarice O'C

Thanatophobia is the fear of death or dying. Christianity isn't the way to get over it because it's reinforcing.

Hope this helps.

JPD

If it is guaranteed why do you find it so hard to establish the existence of hell?

Reality is precisely that - one deals with the real world. What else is there that one could deal with with such certainty? Oh well everything that you talk about which isn't there I suppose. That is the easiest thing of all as anything is possible in a place that one has no evidence exists and requires no evidence that it exists. Perhaps this wouldn't be so bad if your God wasn't in there ruining everything with his clodhoppers.

It implies that whoever reads it and automatically believes it isn't too bright. They need to brush the numerous errors found elsewhere under the carpet called 'interpretation' and keep on singing at a constantly increasing volume to keep their focus on everything other than this world.

ddd3dturner

Holy Spirit? Is that like the ghost of Christmas past? I have a warm fuzzy feeling in my heart that proves that I'm not going to hell, but I'm pretty sure it is caused by this delicious mocha I'm ingesting.

Heretics believe in many things we can't see such as pollutant free air, atoms, radio waves, microwaves and all sorts of electromagnetic spectrum stuff. At least all that is a shared and commonly useful belief system that results frequently in good. Religion is a divisive and destructive force that fundamentalist Christians and Muslims will use to destroy the world in a frenzy of self-fulfilling self-loathing; on the outside chance that it'll make some of their prophecies come true.

This is so unbelieveably fraught with comic potential, I had to read it for myself. So you have to not know God AND not obey Jesus gospel? Why do you people drag stuff out of context and quote it? I know God as a mythical creation of humans who desired power a few thousand years ago and I obey Jesus gospel by not being purposefully mean to others. So I'm in?

Oh, and by honestly investigating the ideas of others, I meant the following: Did you ever go and live as a Buddhist, Taoist, Hindu or whatever for a few years? Not just ask questions designed to prove the superiority of your own culture's ancestral belief system. But really sympathetically explore their beliefs and live it. Did you ever try that? I've never met a Christian who did. I don't think it's possible to be an exclusionary Christian and be honest at the same time.

You make such an excellent straw man, sometimes I wonder if you're even real.

John A. Broussard

Thank you for your honest admission that you cannot explain how your view of hell can affect the nature of hell.

Helpmabob

Hi Clarice – My peace comes from my guarantee of salvation which comes through the Spirit of God. I have no fear of death, but I have great joy in life – it’s a win-win situation.

Hi JPD - So that makes you bright, I guess. So, as an alternative to your repeated dismissals, you ought to be able to find some passages of comfort from the bible giving reassursnce that people who turn from God will not go to Hell (i.e. argue for the thread topic) based on the Bible.

Hi ddd3dturner – I get warm feelings as well, but the Holy Spirit is different, and utterly vital to christianity.Ca n'est pas moi mon amiJesus himself said to a man like you that “you are not far from the kingdom of heaven.� It was God I sought (or rather He me), and God I eventually found (when I stopped denying the truth). Then I stopped looking for God, and starting turning toward God, and experiencing Him.