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If God had not created us with the ability to choose for or against Him, we would be robots.
God can know everything... whether He chooses to know our eternal destiny or not, I don't know. But that makes no difference regarding His love for us. He knows where we are right now, and that's all that matters.
Foreknowledge on God's part has absolutely nothing to do with our choices.
A loving God that would cast one into hell for all eternity for not adopting a particular and narrow religious dogma is an extreme contradiction!!
If you conduct even the slightest objective reading on the subject you're likely to conclude that Hell is a myth.
Statement by Thomas B. Thayer, D.D.
Dr. Thayer has been described as "a biblical scholar of rare breadth" (Virtual American Biographies, 2006). He devoted considerable study to the theology of hell and wrote The Origin and History of the Doctrine of Endless Punishment (1855), still a standard treatise widely quoted. This is a portion from the chapter titled "The Biblical Doctrine of Hell."
Hell in the Old Testament
The word hell, in the Old Testament, is always a translation of the Hebrew word Sheol, which occurs sixty-four times, and is rendered "hell" thirty-two times, "grave" twenty-nine times, and "pit" three times.
By examination of the Hebrew Scriptures it will be found that its radical or primary meaning is, The place or state of the dead.
It is plain that it has here no reference to a place of endless torment after death.
It is plain, then, from these citations, that the word Sheol, "hell," makes nothing for the doctrine of future unending punishment as a part of the Law penalties. It is never used by Moses or the Prophets in the sense of a place of torment after death; and in no way conflicts with the statement already proved, that the Law of Moses deals wholly in temporal rewards and punishments.
Hell in the New Testament [continuing Thayer's explanation]
Now no one believes in such a hell as this. A material hell of fire, and torments by flame, have been long ago abandoned. And the Savior cannot be understood as believing or teaching future torments, . . .
We have now passed in review, as far as our limits will permit, the New Testament doctrine of hell, and we have not, surely, found it to be the doctrine of endless punishment, but something very wide from this.
if we choose to create hell on earth for ourselves and others that is our choice, nothing to do with god.
Some people live in a hell on earth that is nothing to with their choices. In fact they dont have any choice in the matter at all.
God is supposed to have created man in his image, which means he gave them his qualities, love and his sense of justice. Men dole out some pretty harsh punishments on lawbreakers, but so far no one has come up with a more heinous, evil method of punishment than eternal roasting! And that is not punishment for murder or pedophilia or some other gross sin. No, it is your punishment if you simply say God has not given me enough evidence of his existence to warrant my belief in him!
Hell is the grave, it is a state of unconsciousness. As Ecclesiastes tells us...'The living are conscious that they will die, but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all' Eccl 9:5.
People are going to believe what they want to believe. Some feel it necessary to realize the eternal... love.... of God by recognizing that he needed to create a fiery pit of eternal torturing and suffering.
Others feel the need to believe that hell is dying and never seeing heaven or god and you just basically 'go black and die'.
Some feel that in the end everyone goes to heaven but there are certain pennances that must be paid??
Are we really, after all this time, that naive as to the fact that people will believe what they want to believe and that none of it is predicated on fact? There's a reason why there have been so many religious beliefs, practices, and deities throughout the history of man.... PEOPLE BELIEVE WHAT THEY WANT TO BELIEVE! People seek the MOST comforting level of God. Sometimes he's a monster, sometimes he's not, but in almost all cases, he is the universe's biggest voyeur. Interpretations are different (even on something as simple as hell) because people will forever and ever try to find loopholes and reasons to explain why they believe the way they do. For many, I imagine it's very comforting to believe that your God does not banish to an eternity of fiery torture and agony... I must ask... Does that make it true?
I again turn to the historical perspective of the people at the time of writing each particular book in the Bible to grasp their true meaning and state of mind. Early Christians were being horribly prosecuted by the Romans at this point in history. They were trying to convince their followers to keep their faith under the threat of torture and death. What better way to motivate people than to tell them that if they do renounce their faith, they may live a little longer, but they are going to get their just deserts in the great eternal bonfire?
The shift was pretty clear as Jews previously (and at that time Christianity could really be thought of as a sect of Judaism) never were particularly concerned with eternal punishment or vengeance from God. This changed once Christianity started spreading, especially into the provinces in and around Greece. The Book of Revelation is filled with illusions to the Roman Empire and its evil ways at that the time. The Beast 666 was none other than the dreaded Nero Caesar.
I think God gave people free will, and it is questionable that if He knows what is going to happen, why doesn't he stop suffering. In King James' version of the Bible, "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations" (Jeremiah 1:5).
As I know people, but I don't profess to know what they'll do next. I guess anybody is capable of anything. This is a profound question, like if God can do anything, can he make a rock so big that even he can't pick it up? I believe things just work out according to a plan.
Hell is real. It's eternal separation from God. It is God respecting us and loving us to not devalue our lives and our worth by overriding our own choices and decisions that eventually lead some to end up separated from God for all eternity. If one wants nothing to do with God in this lifetime, why would they want to spend eternity with him in the next life? Wouldn't that be it's own form of hell for those people? He basically grants their hearts desire as shown and proven by their actions in life here and now.
It's not illogical to think that perhaps one person who is born, who their entire life rejects God and Jesus, has an impact on those around him/her in such a way that causes others to accept God and the gift of salvation, even though that very person him/herself will spend eternity separated from God. IMO when God is making these judgements, as the ultimate righteous judge, his objective isn't to keep as many people out of hell as possible, but to get as many people into heaven as possible.
Mams is right on, there is a hell, and she explained it very well, there is also the second death, which is granted by God to those that can not bare the sins they have committed, though reserved for the sons of perdition, it is also available to all that commit the unforgivable, which there is such a thing.
God did not create negatives, he allows Satan and man to do that, there is a big difference, Satan is the author of death, and pride, and everything that is anti-goodness.
And here is a news flash, not everything we choose is known by God or it would be. He likes a surprise...we have free will and he likes to see how we use it.
I've pondered this too. So if there's a god, he decided to create humans and put them on this planet. Then he created heaven and hell, and demands that humans obey him to get to heaven or don't obey and go to hell. Now within these humans, there are thousands of religions and sub-sects of religions, so it's up to the individual to figure out which of these is the correct religion that god wants you to obey him through. And then god never actually reveals himself to the humans or directly speaks to them (although some seem to think they're on god's direct hotline) so there has to be blind faith in god.
Sounds like god is a pompous jerk.
God created Hell for the Devil and his angles, human kind could know the real God but humans often reject God in favor of man made religions that only lead them away from God. If one searches for the true God void of the many religions of this world man will find Him. That is why we are now hearing of the countless stories of Islamics who are seeking such a God and are discovering Jesus Christ revealing Himself to them in dreams. Some of the stories that are coming out of the Middle East sound like the stories you would read in the Book of Acts. I myself have heard from God when He spoke to me many years ago. God does reveal Himself to those who truly desire Him. Jesus once said if a man seeks me with all his heart, and with all his mind, and with all his soul, he will surly find me.
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