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I don't know where you came up with 99% and 1% I have no idea how many people will be in Heaven or hell, only God knows that. People are still suffering and dying because this is sinful fallen world we live in, it does not mean Jesus did not defeat satan at the cross. I think there is already been enough scripture given to prove there that hell is eternal. If hell was not going to be eternal and God was going reconcile everyone to Himself, then why did Jesus die such a horrible death on the cross, it would have been for nothing.
I was obviously exagerrating. I was just making a point that most people who believe in eternal torment believe that a lot more people will end up in hellfire than paradise. They use the wide is the gate, narrow is the way verse.
I for my part cannot understand how anyone who believes in an eternal hell dares to bring children into the world.
My wife and I just had our eighth child together six weeks ago. We share a very strong conviction against abortion and birth control. We're protestants, but would have made good Catholics in that respect
I brought them into the world believing in eternal hell and do a lot of praying for their salvation. I've been just trusting God for the outcome.
Only recently have I grown to believe that hell is not eternal and that words translated as "eternal" and "everlasting" could have been better translated.
My wife and I just had our eighth child together six weeks ago. We share a very strong conviction against abortion and birth control. We're protestants, but would have made good Catholics in that respect
I brought them into the world believing in eternal hell and do a lot of praying for their salvation. I've been just trusting God for the outcome.
Only recently have I grown to believe that hell is not eternal and that words translated as "eternal" and "everlasting" could have been better translated.
Evidently satan is still blinding the minds of men and holding them captive to do his will (all according to God's plan though) He is described as the god of this age. But God sent Jesus on a mission to be the Savior of the world and all are to be subjected to Him that God may be all in all. Satan is defeated in that God knows how things are going to work out but as the writer of Hebrews says, we do not see all in subjection to Jesus now. When all are subjected to Jesus and when all rule, power, and authority are abolished (except for the Father's) we will see the defeat of satan. Because we believe that Jesus died a horrible death and will be effective in restoring all men who belong to the Father back to the Father, means that Jesus died for nothing? Jesus died for all men, gave Himself as a ransom for all. All were lost, dead, enslaved to sin, estranged from God, sick, enemies of God. He died a horrible death for all of us. Without what He did at Calvary, none of us would be restored. He should get all if He died for all and all belong to Him. He deserves all. God bless.
I agree that satan is blinding the minds of people, but if what you said was true, that God is going to reconcile all people to Him, then why did Jesus have to die? If that were true, then He died for nothing, which I do not believe.
I agree that satan is blinding the minds of people, but if what you said was true, that God is going to reconcile all people to Him, then why did Jesus have to die? If that were true, then He died for nothing, which I do not believe.
ILoveNorthCarolina, this is the way that God designed it. We are reconciled to God through the death of His Son.
"For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fulness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself. having made peace through the blood of His cross..." Col.1:20
ILoveNorthCarolina, this is the way that God designed it. We are reconciled to God through the death of His Son.
"For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fulness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself. having made peace through the blood of His cross..." Col.1:20
God bless.
Christ's death provided a way for all people to come to God. It cleared away the sin that keeps us from having a right relationship with God. This does not mean everyone has been saved or will be, but the way has been cleared for anyone who will trust Jesus to be saved. We are reconciled to God through faith in Jesus and what He did on the cross. Not everyone has this faith, some never will. How can God allow anyone into Heaven who rejects Jesus? I still believe people in hell will be there for eternity.
Spm62, I found the other article I was looking for. I had no idea where it was but it was the first article that I linked to when I got home from work. In very descriptive language it talks about the fact that if eternal hell is true, then why wouldn't God have revealed this for thousands of years? Why would God who is described as love, keep this penalty a secret, even from His chosen people?
Quote:
There is no doubt that Moses was acquainted with the doctrine of future endless punishments. It was the common doctrine of Egypt, as all agree; and "Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians." Acts 7:22. And yet, knowing it as thoroughly as he must have done, he never alludes to it once in all his laws and penalties...
If he had believed it to be of God, if he had believed in endless torments as the doom of the wicked after death, and had received this as a revelation from heaven, could he have passed it over in silence? Would he have dared to conceal it, or treat so terrible a subject with such marked contempt? And what motive could he have had for doing this?
] If it be true, and for four thousand years the wicked have been plunging into the flaming pit, how, as we have said, are we to clear the character of God from the charge of the most cruel indifference, the most monstrous injustice? What can be said in defense of such a course of proceeding?[
Look at it. He resolves to inflict unutterable and endless tortures on His guilty children; He annexes this as a penalty to His law; He reveals the law, but He carefully conceals the awful penalty. His children know nothing at all of the terrible fate which awaits them; they are entirely ignorant of the tremendous fact that their transgressions of the law involve this dreadful result, this woe immortal and infinite, stretching into duration without end
And God, their Father, sees them rushing on, year after year, age after age, and stumbling blindfolded down into the black gulf of death and torment, and yet speaks not one word of warning, gives not the slightest intimation to any of them that they are coming to such a doom! There He sits on the throne of the universe, with arms folded in the consciousness of power, with lips sealed in determined silence. He knows all, sees all; while His poor victims are walking in darkness, wholly ignorant of the frightful risk they are running
One word from Him might break the fatal spell; but that word is not spoken. His arm, stretched out for a moment, might turn back the rushing tide of ruin; but it remains motionless. No movement of His, no sound nor look, indicates the least interest in the shocking tragedy which is passing under His eye, and of which He is the author. For four thousand years He beholds this torrent of immortal souls pouring over the precipice of sin into the bottomless pit of damnation below; and through it all remains silent - never once speaks to them of their awful fate; nor seeks, by the terrors of it, to save the living from the doom of the dead
What kind of a God is this? What claim has He to the name of Father? What kind of a Lawgiver is this, who publishes the law, but keeps the penalty concealed, a secret, with Himself only? What would be said of a king who should enact a code of laws, annexing to every one of them, as a warning to evil-doers, the punishment of death; but never make this fact known to the people?
Yet this is precisely what God has done, as our argument shows, for four thousand years, if the doctrine of endless punishment be true
AP Adams
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Last edited by ShanaBrown; 12-14-2007 at 07:46 PM..
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I have no idea how many people will be in Heaven or hell, only God knows that. People are still suffering and dying because this is sinful fallen world we live in, it does not mean Jesus did not defeat satan at the cross. I think there is already been enough scripture given to prove there that hell is eternal. If hell was not going to be eternal and God was going reconcile everyone to Himself, then why did Jesus die such a horrible death on the cross, it would have been for nothing.
