Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I've written several books. I get a steady stream of email from readers who want to know more. Well, the answers to most of the questions those readers ask can be found in my books.
My topic is a niche topic, and I'm very VERY small potatoes in the world of writers. And yet I'm overwhelmed with the emails and letters. Some of those letters go on for pages. I'm flattered and honored, but rarely have time to read every letter. And the long letters just make me cringe.
You wrote a VERY long letter asking a lot of tough questions.
Bill Wiese probably gets 100x the amount of mail that I get, and he probably just doesn't have the time to read every word. I'd say there's a fair chance he sends out the same email to everyone.
IMHO, he's saying, "I understand you still have questions. Read my books if you want to know what I think about this."
Thank you for your insightful post.
If Bill writes these ludicrous claims, he should expect to receive long letters questioning his madness and have all the time in the world to answer serious inquiries.
Nobody with half a brain can actually take what he has in his book seriously. If his claims are true, then we have a psychopath watching over us.
1.) Your young children have been watching some really scary movies behind your back while you were away at work or wherever, and these fears have sunk into their subconscious minds.
2.) A fundamentalist hell fire and brimstone Sunday School teacher has been planting very sick ideas into their minds that are very unhealthy for a young child.
Please, enough with the madness!
Readily evident? You've got to be kidding. Amazing how some people think their opinions are facts.
Nobody with half a brain can actually take what he has in his book seriously. If his claims are true, then we have a psychopath watching over us.
Someone's enjoying those books and buying them! I've devoted years of my life writing books on architectural history and have never made much money (but I've had a lot of fun).
As of 2012, "23 Minutes in Hell" has sold more than 1,000,000 copies and Wiese seems to have created a substantial industry off that one book (CDs, work books, subsequent related titles).
Guess I picked the wrong topic to write about! LOL.
Nobody with half a brain can actually take what he has in his book seriously. If his claims are true, then we have a psychopath watching over us.
well then it's a good thing they aren't true. which, of course, they cannot be.
nobody and i mean nobody goes to heaven or hell or purgatory and comes back
to this life. it is dangerous and ill-advised to read any of these stories.
the only pathways to "seeing" post-earthly death are Scriptual revelation and
true Saint's visions and recognized, investigated Marian apparitions... but even with these visions
the Church is careful to distinguish between private revelations and dogma.
Readily evident? You've got to be kidding. Amazing how some people think their opinions are facts.
Well, here's one sick puppy named Friar John Furniss (as in furnace of fire?) and this is what he taught little children:
Quote:
"Little child, if you go to hell there will be a devil at your side to strike you. He will go on striking you every minute for ever and ever without stopping. The first stroke will make your body as bad as the body of Job, covered, from head to foot, with sores and ulcers. The second stroke will make your body twice as bad as the body of job. The third stroke will make your body three times as bad as the body of Job. The fourth stroke will make your body four times as bad as the body of Job. How, then, will your body be after the devil has been striking it every moment for a hundred million of years without stopping? Perhaps at this moment, seven o'clock in he evening, a child is just going into hell. To morrow evening, at seven o'clock, go and knock at the gates of hell and ask what the child is doing. The devils will go and look. They will come back again and say, the child is burning. Go in week and ask what the child is doing; you will get the same answer, it is burning; Go in a year and asks the same answer comes it is burning. Go in a million of years and ask the same question, the answer is just the same--it is burning. So, if you go for ever and ever, you will always get the same answer--it is burning in the fire.)
This pamphlet was reviewed by the Catholic Board and judged not to be harmful to a child's psychological well-being. Sadly, this same philosophy is being taught today by warped Christian fundamentalists in Sunday schools all over the Christian domain.
Modern Christianity is sick, sick, SICK and the sooner it falls and a new Christianity rises up in its place that is based on Christ's original teachings of love and forgiveness the better off we will all be.
Readily evident? You've got to be kidding. Amazing how some people think their opinions are facts.
Fair enough. I'd like to hear your take on what this poster stated. Or, you could just be lashing out because you take pleasure in the concept of eternal torment.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RosemaryT
Someone's enjoying those books and buying them! I've devoted years of my life writing books on architectural history and have never made much money (but I've had a lot of fun).
As of 2012, "23 Minutes in Hell" has sold more than 1,000,000 copies and Wiese seems to have created a substantial industry off that one book (CDs, work books, subsequent related titles).
Guess I picked the wrong topic to write about! LOL.
Just like media outlets and tabloids focusing on the negative and controversial. They know what sells. The things you write are presumably written because you have a passion for the topic. Other's do what they do strictly for attention and financial gain. The work you do likely comes from the heart. Not so much for the people in the latter category.
As of 2012, "23 Minutes in Hell" has sold more than 1,000,000 copies and Wiese seems to have created a substantial industry off that one book (CDs, work books, subsequent related titles).
According to Scripture, after Jesus died Jesus spent more than 23 minutes in hell - Acts 2 vs 27,31,32
Jesus was in ' biblical hell ' [ grave ] until God resurrected Jesus out of the temporary Bible's hell - Acts 3 v 15; 13 vs 30,37
Since Jesus taught unconscious sleep in death in harmony with the teachings found in the Hebrew OT Scriptures, then the dead are in a sleep-like state until resurrected out of the Bible's temporary hell or grave - Rev. 1 v 18
- see John 11 vs 11-14; Ecclesiastes 9 v 5; Psalms 6 v 5; 13 v 3; 115 v 17; 146 v 4; Daniel 12 vs 2,13
Only some [ baptized Christians ] are called to heaven - Revelation 20 v 6; 5 vs 9,10; 2 v 10
The majority of mankind [ John 3 v 13; Acts 2 v 34 ] will be restored back to healthy physical life on Earth during Jesus' coming 1000-year kingdom reign over Earth when enemy ' death ' will No longer exist on Earth. -
- Isaiah 25 v 8; 1st Cor. 15 v 26; Rev. 21 vs 4,5; 22 v 2
Modern Christianity is sick, sick, SICK and the sooner it falls and a new Christianity rises up in its place that is based on Christ's original teachings of love and forgiveness the better off we will all be.
Is it modern-day Christianity, or modern ' so-called ' Christianity [ aka Christendom ] that is the sick modern monstrosity named or labeled as being Christian. Remember in Matthew chapter 7 Jesus forewarned MANY would come ' in his name ' but prove false to him or false to his teachings. - see also Acts 20 vs 29,30
KJV Bibles translated the word Gehenna in English as hellfire [ a furnace of fire ] when Gehenna was just a garbage pit outside of Jerusalem where things were destroyed and Not kept burning forever. So, Gehenna is a fitting word or symbol for everlasting destruction. Eternal destruction for the wicked as Psalm 92 v 7 mentions the wicked being destroyed forever, and Not burning forever.
Since the genuine Christian ' wheat ' grows together with the fake ' weed/tares' Christians until the ' harvest time ', then there will be No new Christianity rising, but soon will be the coming ' time of separation ' between the haughty goat/weeds and the humble sheep/wheat according to Matthew 25 vs 31,32.
We can recognize the genuine sheep/wheat Christians by those who keep Jesus' New commandment of John 13 vs 34,35 to have self-sacrificing love among themselves and for others.
I was very moved by your letter to Bill and Annette. I read the response from Annette and I felt it was very lame. I am sure she did not mean to be so cold and vague.
I cannot make God real for you, no one can.But if you were to goto God and ask for his divine intervention to the renewal of your hard heart he will respond.He wants you to know that he really exists, but he will not force himself on you.
All you have to do is genuinely ask Jesus into your heart and save you from the sinful life we were all born into. Right now you cannot experience God personally because you do not have the Holy Spirit in you to help you spiritually see God the Father,God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Once you truly accept with all your heart, God will make himself known to you. He truly loves you and wants you to come to him as you are right now.
All the answers to your question will follow in the weeks and years to come. Get yourself to a bible teaching church and learn,experience his loving wonderfullness. He has been working on your heart strings and wants you to get to know him. The more you learn and spiritually walk with him, he will show you that he is in deed very very real. Not only that but you will be spared from eternal seperation from him when you eventually die. And you will die someday..but hopefully not soon...
I am going to pray that this letter gets to you soon..I will pray for peace in your situation and I encourage you to ask your mother to be a part of your going to God. It sounds like she knows what she is talking about. As long as she is making the point of Jesus being your Savior. Jesus did not only die for you He died as you, so you can have the ability to accept his free gift of salvation.
To accept Jesus into your heart all you have to do is ask!! I have a short but intimate prayer you can pray. Read it first..If you agree with the prayer...Pray it to Jesus..He will be listening.....
Dear God, I know that I am lost and a sinner. I am very sorry for all of my sins. I believe that Jesus died for me and all of my sins. I now turn away from all of my sins and ask you into my heart right now! to be my Lord and Savior and take me to Heaven when I die. In Jesus' Name, I pray Amen.
If you do this I suggest you go and tell someone you trust and tell that person what you just did...Like your Mother who truly loves you... I am already excited for you!!!
From that point on, get yourself into a bible based church and start your personal relationship with our Heavenly Father..
From:
a woman of faith-Wisconsin
Quote:
Originally Posted by ditchlights
I recently read Wiese's book 23 Minutes in Hell and couldn't help but write him a few lines. I truly was not expecting to get a response, but I did. The response seemed more like a marketing tool than anything else. I'll let you be the judge. I welcome any and all users on this forum to answer the questions that I posed to Bill in my letter. I asked some very specific questions, and did not get the response I was looking for. I value any and all responses that people could provide. My letter went as follows:
Hello Bill,
I write to you today not as an enemy of Christianity, but as a person that struggles with his faith. To begin, I will give a brief history of myself. I was raised in a die-hard Christian home. As a youth, I was raised in the church, and I attended AWANA's for many years, ultimately achieving the Timothy Trophy before leaving the program. I attended Calvary Bible Church in Burbank throughout my childhood. The current pastor is a person you might be familiar with, Dr. Jack Hughes. But in the end, my mother was so hardcore that she diverted me away from religion. As an adult, I still went to church, but not for the right reasons. I went out of obligation, not because it captivated my interest or because I wanted to grow with my knowledge of the Lord. I have said the sinners prayer many times in my life, but felt no change. I never understood people's fascination with going to church. I never "wanted" to be there. It seemed like an unwanted task verses a desired event. I have prayed many times that God just put the "Vulcan Mind Melt" on me so that I can appreciate the lifestyle that a "true" Christian does. I have never experienced any kind of change in attitude or desire to walk the walk. I bought your book for $13 dollars because the title caught my interest at the supermarket.
I am now beginning to believe that I have the tendencies of a Deist (verses a Monotheist). I believe that God created the universe, but has since washed his hands of his affairs with humans. What else can possibly explain the atrocities that we see in daily life? Just recently, a strong Christian entity in my town lost his son in a car accident. Why would God allow this to happen to a dedicated Christian man, while evil people thrive in every aspect of their lives? I'm so tired of the "You just gotta have faith" mentality. Is this how God rewards his faithful? Why did God allow YOU to have this experience of Hell? Would it not make infinitely more sense to drop that kind of bomb on a wildly popular devout atheist the likes of Christopher Hitchens or Bill Maher, who control the publicity side of the Atheistic fight? They have mega-millions of unsaved followers. Don't you think that would have been a much more realistic approach to the problem? I mean, after all, he is an omniscient God, yes? What makes you think that people will believe you more than any other hellfire and brimstone preacher? If God really wanted to make an impact, he would have allowed an extreme disbeliever this revelation, not you. Heck, I wish that I could experience what you did, as it would surely change my life. You see, I believe in things that I can feel, taste, smell, touch, and understand. The Trinity is one of the major things that does not fall into that catagory for me, amongst many other pieces of Christian doctrine.
I have watched people struggle with faith in God throughout their lives. They try so hard, yet fail in the end. I crunched some numbers recently. There are 1.5 billion Muslims on the planet. There is roughly an equal ammount of Hindus and Buddhists. That right there is half of the worlds population. They say that there are roughly 2 billion "Chistians" on the planet. This, of course, includes many faiths that are not going to Heaven according to Biblical definitions of Christianity, such as Mormons, JW's, and Catholics. That leaves 2 billion people to be accounted for, which are "other" faiths and atheists and agnostics. I last read that 70% of Americans identify with Christianity. We all know, though, that the TRUE number is roughly 20%, if that, per the Bible's definition of "Christianity". We are nowhere near being a "Christian" nation in the U.S. That would mean that, in an optimistic estimate, only 1/14 of the worlds population at any given time in the history of our civilization is going to make it into the "Kingdom of God". That would be roughly 500 million out of 7 billion people. I have a hard time believing that a "loving" God would damn 13/14 of his population to hell. And if this is really true, this is not a God that I feel I can associate with, nor want to spend eternity with. If He was truly omniscient, He would have known at the time of creaton what his creation would divert to, and if he was truly "loving", he would have put a countermeasure in place. Remember, according to the 1.5 billion Muslims on the planet, you're the one going to hell. Now, I'm not trying to stand up for Islam. I'm just stating a point. They were brought onto this earth knowing only Islam. Who is correct by telling them they're wrong. This is all they know. This is just one example.
It seems so simple for "Christians". Jesus is the "Be all and end all" of discussion. There is no other. All other religions are going to eternal damnation except for them, right? I'm sorry, as this just does not "compute" with me. I cannot hold logical debate with my mother, as she ends all discussions with me when she gets flustered. She proves the validity of the Bible with the Bible, and that ends all arguments as far as she is concerned. Once complex issues enter the equation, she ends the conversation, as it is a threat to her belief system.
I could write thirty pages on why I struggle with my faith. Unfortunately, I am a fairly busy individual that regrets he does not have the time to do so. I am not naive enough to believe that I will get a response to this e-mail, but if you choose to respond, I thank you in advance. Any "advice" that you can give before I completely convert to "the dark side" would be appreciated.
Thank You,
Mark (Oregon)
And the following is the response that I got from Bill's wife Annette:
Thanks for writing. Most of your questions are addressed in Bill’s new book, “23 Questions about hell” which comes with a bonus DVD. If you don’t want to spend the $10-15 for the book/DVD, I’m sure you can read it while at Wal-mart or a bookstore. We encourage you to get scriptural information first, before falsely accusing God of being unfair. Mark Twain even said, “We’re all ignorant, it’s just about different things.” Hosea 4:6 says, “My people perish for a lack of knowledge… because they have rejected knowledge (God’s Word).
Hey Mark,
Please let me know if you received this message. I cannot wait until you do!!
a woman of faith-Wisconsin
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The Lord hears you loud and clear!!
