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the scriptures talk of the children of evil, which are not God's own. If one willfully chooses to be unholy they turn their back on God's adoption and can not be counted among God's own.
God did not say these things about God's own children.
I don't know about those words in Matt...nor God 'letting' us burn in hell, Jumbo.
But, would He allow our beliefs to create a hell for ourselves on the Other Side?
Well, yes...always sending helpers/guides to help us wake up out of it, though...
never leaving us in the hells many create for themselves. Always guiding us to Him, Heaven, our Home, never giving up.
the scriptures talk of the children of evil, which are not God's own. If one willfully chooses to be unholy they turn their back on God's adoption and can not be counted among God's own.
God did not say these things about God's own children.
So we are not all God's children? How are children evil?
The standard apologetic for this is that god is holy and cannot have unholiness in his presence and so those who have not appropriated his free offer of imputed holiness, cannot be with him. Fundamentalists do not see this as a problem because it is a solved problem and freely offered.
Ignoring for the moment whether modern Christian notions of hell are really scriptural or more founded in a combination of influences like Dante and mistranslation of key passages, the biggest problem I have with this notion is that a just god is incompatible with infinite punishment for finite transgressions, with no object other than to generate maximum unending suffering. Even human penal systems at least make a pretense of having punishments fit crimes and having an objective of reforming miscreants and making them useful members of society. Hell is just inflicting suffering as if it does anything to either make right whatever is wrong, or to improve the offender.
My take is a rock is God's, a dust particle is God's, a criminal is God's...nothing would exist if not for God.
I didn't get that from a book tho. So I don't know what the Bible says.
I guess these points are clear -- you're a Calvinist who isn't even sure YOU'RE one of the elect. Hope that works out well for you.
I can understand that post. That's kind of how I saw it too. Why fight it? That scripture about the narrow gate was the clincher for me. It seemed bizarre that someone could know that they were chosen among so many that should die. What does it feel like to be among the elect? What does it feel like to be damned?That post seems inconsistent with him stating someone could "willfully" chose to be anything other than they are. That puts a person in a position to defy God.
Never ending hell for a soul is not found in God's word. A Hell that wont go away is for the time God alloted. ( sorry for delay been occupied)
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