Ensign Steve

Well, now you're just trying to hurt my feelings. You didn't answer any of the questions. Maybe if you had, I would have gotten it through my thick skull. Why, oh, why, would a just and merciful god create me with such a thick skull, just so he could punish me later for having it?

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I'm not gonna keep finding new and inventive ways to say the exact same thing i just said in hopes that one day you might actually understand it,...

Thanks for that! It was getting tiresome. Are you going to start answering any of those specific questions now that you're finished being redundant?

I don't use an electron microscope. I have no idea even how to use an electron microscope (but I bet it would be pretty cool if I did). I use the only tools I have. My brain. My ability to reason. If god gave me this human mind, without the ability to fully comprehend his ways, how is it just of him to punish me for that? This is one of the questions you have yet to answer.

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But i guess since you don't believe in what he tells us, you're outta luck.

Wait! Don't write me off so quickly! If my punishment is eternal, then it is infinitely important that I understand this. I am trying to understand. Don't give up on me so quickly. Maybe if you answer the questions that have been asked of you, I will not be out of luck!

Jen

Old Man

It could be said that the gospel was never preached.
Indeed, the mercy of God does continue on for those who respond to God's mercy, but

Deu 7:10 [God] repayeth them that hate him to their face, to destroy them: he will not be slack to him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face.

The bible distinguishes sinning in ignorance, from sinning defiantly:

Jhn 9:41 Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.


1Cr 5:12 For what have I to do to judge them also that are without?

It's no business of any Christian to pronounce public judgments [vis a vis hell/heaven] on anyone who appears to be outside the church.

I already made it clear above that judging is a serious issue for all believers, and that insofar as those outside Christianity are concerned, it is not the business of believers to start making public judgments, even though they are entitled to their private views. That include's any and all hypothetical situations which serve only to trivialize the bible.

Cthulhu

But doesn't the Greco-Roman pantheon offer its own version of hell? I may be a little fuzzy on my mythology, but don't those who are cast into Tartarus suffer eternal torment with no hope of reprieve?

Magus55

Vengeance is neither mine nor the Lord's, justice is his to deal. Christianity is a religion based on peace, love, and truth - while there were many attrocities committed in the OT - that was before Jesus and times were different. Christianity didn't exist.
Islam is a religion of violence and killing non believers though.

Jesus taught to love thy neighbor as yourself, treat others as you want to be treated - hate the sin, not the sinner.

I don't hate anyone here nor have anything against them - some of you may feel differentely towards me though. I try so hard to get you to believe because i want you to be saved too - so you can enjoy God's riches for eternity - not be deceived by Satan .
I'm a pacifist, have never been in a fight and don't plan on it.

Magus55

JenniferD, i honestly don't know how better to explain it. I can't explain that any further. I can try to answer other questions for you if you seriously want to understand it. However all i can say about God is he is perfect righteousnes and eternal - any crime against him deserves eternal death because of who he is. Thats just how it is.

Maybe this will explain it a little better than me. http://www.carm.org/evidence/sendtohell.htm

Spaz

Which is why I always thought that the OT was written to try to make people live better through fear and the NT was written to deceive people into believing it all literally, but that was just my first thought about it without any research into it. And I always hated hippies too

Spaz

I still don't really get why since god is infinite he requires infinite punishment, is it because he's infinitely pissed? The link says what you did but doesn't, as I understand it anyways, really explain why it is so significant.

And another thing that I still don't get it how a perfect god would have emotion in the first place, seeing as he's perfect and just and all.

Magus55

God has emotion and feelings just like us, we were created in his image.

It hurts him when people reject him, or sin or get hurt themselves by other humans choices. He has joy, humour, happiness and most of all love.

A crime against and infinite being has to have eternal punishment because you aren't able to be forgiven after you gave your one chance - God isn't gonna wait all eternity for you to realize your corrupt, sinful, death bound state - it is a very short time - which is why you shouldn't waste it trying to contemplate him to the most minute detail.. No one has the ability to live up to God's righteousness, no work or deed will ever meet his standards. Only Jesus can meet those standards which is why he endured crucifiction for us - he carries the weight of all sins by us and makes us not guilty to God. All you have to do is believe. If you don't believe and reject God's gift of salvation - then you are eternally unforgiven - you blew your one and only chance to be found not guilty by him and live up to his standards. God is patient, but he has his limits. And since he is ultimate righteousness, he has to punish those who rejected salvation. Since they can't live up to his standards, which exist for eternity - and the one chance you had to be found not guilty is gone - you are separated from him - he is eternal so separation from him is eternal. Hell is like it is not because God specifically designed it to be that bad. Hell is where all sin is thrown into and without God's forgiveness, protection, and holiness keeping sinners from self destructing - Hell is eternal torment.

Basically if you took all murders, rapes, beatings, hate, war, violence, theft, sex sins etc. etc. etc. that has ever happened in the world - and lump all the horror and pain of that into one lump sum - that is Hell. Satan works through sin and lies and all that pain and horror gets thrown with him into Hell. On Earth - God is still around watching over things until humanity reaches the absolute point of self destruction - which is when he will intervene and send Jesus back to reclaim the believers and pour his wrath out on Sin and unbelievers because they gave up his gift.

You need to not look at Hell as God's torture chamber where he gets joy out of watching you suffer. Hell is the combined pain and torment of all of the earths sin and corruption. It is thrown into Hell to never affect believers again because Jesus saved them from it. But in Hell all the sin and corruption runs loose and makes Hell like enduring all the worlds pain - hence torment. And without God watching over Hell to keep in from reaching the absolute worst end - there is no good and holiness in Hell - its the melting pot of all evil. All sin is evil in God's eyes, and sinners can't meet up to his standards - so if you reject Jesus - you are turning away from God and the only place to be separated from Him is where all ungodliness and sin goes - Hell.

Hope that explains it a little bit better. If some of you are sincere about understanding it ( JennD), i'm happy to explain it as best i can - but i don't like being mocked.

winstonjen

Well, why would I want to be with him? Given his description in the OT, being separated from him would actually be a REWARD to me.

Spaz

But wouldn't emotion affect justice? Human's can never be completely just due to emotional bias, their emotions affect justice either postively or negatively which means that in the end there's no perfect justice. How would it be different with god? And I bet all his humor expired instantaneously since he already knew all the jokes