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What if there really is no hell?

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What if there really is no hell?

from JoeUser Forums
I was watching a movie on the television, don't remember the name of it. It was one of those channel-surfing-looks-interesting-stay-with-this-one thing. One of the characters in the movie asked another, "What if there is no hell?"


Interesting question I thought! What if there really is no hell, would the world fall apart, would the gospel according to Jesus' religion be a lie? Would God not be real?


What about all those people who like to swear other people to hell, or those that even do believe there is a hell, what would they do? Would their world fall apart because there is no truth to there being a hell?


I've always been told, or understood that good people go to heaven and the bad people go straight to hell! Well, what if there is no hell for the bad people to go to? Where would they go? Into some grey area between the space-time continuum or would they be hurled into the outer galaxy of space into some phantom zone the way they do on Superman?


Seriously though, have you ever really wondered if hell is here, somewhere we can't see, just the way we all wonder about heaven? Heaven has always been described as that heavenly place of peacefulness where you will go and have eternal life. I believe in heaven, for sure that is where I think my mom will be eventually, when she's finally there, at the end of the existence of this earth. Don't you think it probably takes a long time for people who die to actually get to heaven, I mean, it's not like it's around the corner right? So, to me, my mom and dad are in some designated place, waiting to go to heaven. I believe that is what is known as purgatory right?!


Hell, the place of fire and brimstone, where the devil lives, where anything that is evil dwells, where exactly is this bottomless pit? Hmm, I'm not sure I really want to know! But would the reality of there is no hell mean that all the bad people would just stay right here, with all the good ones? And where would they go when God comes for his earth? They would probably be burned with the rest of us who won't make it into heaven!
religion
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Reply #51 from JoeUser Forums Top
He died to set them free from sin.


That's what I always believed!


True, Christ's Cross redeemed all from their sin...

So, please explain how both these men in these two scenarios go to Heaven. Please explain as to how does Christ's Redemption free Christians, who accept the Lord as their personal Savior, to sin with immunity? Please explain then, how does Christ's redemption not count and condemn to Hell those who do not accept Christ as their personal Savior even if they were Baptized as our Lord mandated? Do you not see the conundrum?

Truth is, while Christians may entertain a hope, no Christian has a right to presume that his salvation is secure irrespective of the life he lives in the future after his acceptance of Christ.

We can never be sure of the gift of final perseverance in the faith, with absolute certainity. St.Paul tells us, "we must work out our salvation in fear and trembling" and later, even St.Paul wasn't positive he would enter the pearly gates of Heaven when he said, Be ye followers of me, as I also am of Christ, adding, "I chastise my body and bring it into subjection, lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway. 1Cor. 9:27.
Reply #52 from JoeUser Forums Top
I chastise my body and bring it into subjection, lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway. 1Cor. 9:27.


I read that to be that he himself is not perfect and might have sinned. As all humans inherrently do no matter if they say they are the most irrevent follower of Christ.

So, please explain how both these men in these two scenarios go to Heaven. Please explain as to how does Christ's Redemption free Christians, who accept the Lord as their personal Savior, to sin with immunity? Please explain then, how does Christ's redemption not count and condemn to Hell those who do not accept Christ as their personal Savior even if they were Baptized as our Lord mandated?


Because Christ died for us as Jythier pointed out. In so doing he absolves us from our sins and we should have all sinned no more. However, for those of us who have...well, that leaves us wide open for condemnation in God's eyes!

I believe in the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, I am not the most perfect person in the world and I have sinned a lot, but once I ask God for forgiveness I know he will forgive me because he said he would. I then move on with my life and hopefully will not sin again, but unless I live within white walls with no human contacts, that's higly impossible! Don't you think that we humans have quite a difficult task to not sin? Even some devote Christians do! I know a few who have been the perfect example of what a Christian should be, only to find out that they have been living a lie!
Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #53 from JoeUser Forums Top
I chastise my body and bring it into subjection, lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway. 1Cor. 9:27.


I read that to be that he himself is not perfect and might have sinned.


Yes, that's the way I read it too. Now, take that and knowing that St.Paul was the one whom St.Stephen forgave as he was being stoned to death and consequently was knocked off his horse by the light of Christ and was immediately changed and eventually converted and who surely must have been a holy man that is as holy as one can be, yet, who still didn't presume that he was automatically going to Heaven...I find that remarkable...and a remarkable lesson for all of us as well...we can't sit back on our haunches and do whatever and think that no matter what we do we are automatically
getting in the narrow gate..

Don't you think that we humans have quite a difficult task to not sin?


Oh, yes, for sure. We are all severely tempted, by the flesh, the devil and the world...everyday temptation is there all around us. That is the Christian battle...to overcome sin and evil with God's grace and through Christ's merits on the Cross.

Again, thank you for writing and guiding this most interesting
discussion.



Reply #54 from JoeUser Forums Top
Again, thank you for writing and guiding this most interesting discussion.


Thank you too! It's been very enlightening with everyone's thoughts and opinions!
Reply #55 from JoeUser Forums Top
It's not so much that God is focused on whom He can send to the pit, but it's rather a case of God focusing on those who will follow Him. Those are the ones He will take with Himself when He comes back to earth. The rest of those who chose to not follow Him, i.e., not go with Him, will be swept away into a place that was originally created by God for the fallen angels that rebelled in God's heaven. While it was not originally created for humans, those who chose to not follow God end up there instead with Satan and his fallen angels [demons].

Choose God.
Reply #56 from JoeUser Forums Top
The rest of those who chose to not follow Him, i.e., not go with Him, will be swept away into a place that was originally created by God for the fallen angels that rebelled in God's heaven. While it was not originally created for humans, those who chose to not follow God end up there instead with Satan and his fallen angels [demons]


And therefore for humans this place becomes hell? Hell on earth? OR wherever it is! That's a simplistic way of looking at it. A seemingly good explanation!
Reply #58 from JoeUser Forums Top
If hell doesn't exist, why should heaven exist?


The New Testament of Sacred Scripture clearly teaches the doctrine of Hell.

Several of the parables end with the condemnation to Hell. In the time of the harvest at the end of the world..."the angels shall go out and shall spearate the wicked from amongst the just. And shall cast them into the furnace of fire; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Describing the Last Judgment, Christ could not be more clear..."Then He shall say to them also that shall be on His left hand: Depart from me you cursed into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels."

Throughout St.John's Gospel is the theme of those who accept Christ shall enjoy eternal life, whereas those who reject Him will be lost forever and suffer eternal death.

Practically the whole of the second chapter of St.Peter's Epistle is devoted to the theme that wrongdoers will receive eternal punishment in Hell. St.Jude is even more emphatic. St.Paul was clear to the Thessalonians. "It is a just thing with God to repay tribulation to them that trouble you...In a flame of fire giving vengeance to them who know not God, and who obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall suffer eternal punishment in destruction. Elsewhere he says that the unjust will not possess the kingdom of GOd.

Likewise, Scripture is replete with passages that refer to a future eternal kingdom which the just shall possess. Two Chapters of St.John's book of Revelation are largely devoted to the description of Heaven.

Reply #59 from JoeUser Forums Top
People modify their behaviour based on what other people believe all the time. I think a faith based on Pascals wager is not really faith - unless it is faith. What I mean is, if the wager causes one to act in such a way that shows the world (and God) that God is believed in, it is a very real faith. Whereas, if someone just says they believe in God but does not change their behavior to reflect that belief, then they are more likely just a liar.

If someone tells me there are bears on a mountain (I do not know anything first hand about bears, but I hear they like to stay away from humans as much as we like them to) then I would bring along a whistle and blow it every once in a while to alert the bears that I was coming so they could stay clear. Whereas, if someone were to hear about bears in the woods, and bring a whistle, but never blew it, they might still get eaten.