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NO one will be seeing God a parting from coming to and repenting through Jesus Christ.
What can atone for sin? NOTHING but the blood of JESUS.
To receive God's pardon through His Son is the ONLY answer for our sin.
To not have Your sin judged on that cross is to bear the Just punishment on your own head. The penalty for sin is death.. The second death.. Eternal Damnation.
There is no hope outside of the blood of Jesus Christ. Those that reject Him will see Him as their Judge at the Great White Throne with only one sentence - Death.
Thankfully God is Patient with His rebellious creatures and still has His arm out, but the time is coming when His arm Jesus Christ withdraws itself.
Best come to Jesus NOW for forgiveness of sins. There will be an eternal shame for rejecting Him.
What turned Storm around was his calling on Jesus. He heard a voice saying, "Call on the name of the Lord" while he was being torn at by these malevolent beings. He searched his memory and came up with things like, "God bless America" and "Jesus loves me, this I know". Upon mentioning the name of Jesus and God the beings retreated and Storm was rescued by Jesus.
Now I don't deny that Storm had some kind of nightmarish encounter, despite what Mike says to the contrary. What I can't seem to make Mike comprehend is that while this sounds "hellish" it did not take place in a realm Fundamentalists would label "hell" with the fire, and the pit, and the smoke and the heat--all the cartoon stereotypes the Fundamentalists have indoctrinated us to believe is hell.
Mike, I assume, believes in this cartoon stereotype of hell with flames licking your skin and burning you to a crisp for eternity because that's the way he been indoctrinated from the time he was in diapers. He mentions whackjobs like Fundamentalist Mary Baxter, who only reinforces this stereotype because that's what she was taught from the time she was in diapers (from the sound of it she might still be in diapers) so I assume Mike takes her word about what she experienced as being gospel truth, naturally because one Fundamentalist backs up another's diatribe. Bill Weiss, another mental case, claims he was torn at by demons, picked up and thrown against a wall repeatedly in his cell cage in hell with heat so hot he couldn't breathe, his bones broken repeatedly (and then supernaturally knitted together, I guess, so they could be broken over and over). I mean.....the utter hogwash gullible Christians gobble up these days!
So I hope Mike has picked up by now that I don't question Storm's encounter with malevolent beings. It's just that Storm never claims he was sent to a pit called hell as described by Baxter and Weiss and Zambrano and other attention-hungry publicity seekers nor does he say that his flesh was seared by flames, nor was there heat at a million degrees that suffocated him. He says the environment he came into outside his hospital room was misty which then turned dark, as I recall.
Mike's never been to hell, and much as we bicker, I hope he never does. But he takes by faith the stereotype of hell the Fundamentalist Corporate Church Machine loves to perpetuate because it serves their purpose. But when millions of non-Christians have had deathly encounters and been taken into a loving God's presence, been greeted lovingly by deceased relatives, shown the wonders of heaven, etc while at the same time relatives of millions of non-Christians who are on their deathbeds say that they began to speak to angels and deceased relatives as if they were in the room with them and talked of a beautiful paradise awaiting them when they die, well you have to wonder if the Church organization has been duping people for 2000 years for their own devious purposes about this rot of flames and burning scorching skin dropping off your bones and eyes rolling out of your head and beings half eaten by demons. Testimonies of hundreds of atheists turned Christian like Storm and Ritchie and McCormack who have had NDE's suggest that it has been duping people.
Actually I believe what the Bible says about the place described as the lake of fire. It is a place of black darkness (Jude 1:13), a place where those who are there are in disgrace and under everlasting contempt (Daniel 12:2). And yet it is also described as a furnace of fire where there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 13:42), a place of everlasting torment (Revelation 20:10), and is the place that was prepared for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41).
Now, that's not the cartoons, it's not the comic books, and it's not the invention of fundamentalists. It is the revelation of the Bible, the Word of God.
The bottom line Thrillobyte: YOU DO NOT BELIEVE THE BIBLE!!! You do not believe what Jesus, or Paul, or John said about that place which is described as 'the lake of fire' and you make unwarranted and blanket statements about those who do.
Of course! Mike is a Fundamentalist and all Fundamentalists have been taught that once an unsaved person dies God tosses them into the fires of hell for all eternity and throws away the key. Maybe even laughs at their suffering on occasion.
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.
1 Tim. 2:4who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
However...
Hebrews 9:27 And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment.
John 3:36 "He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey (the command to believe the gospel) the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."
2 Thessalonians 1:7 and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, 8]dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9] These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power,
NO one will be seeing God a parting from coming to and repenting through Jesus Christ.
Wrong.
Quote:
What can atone for sin? NOTHING but the blood of JESUS.
Wrong.
Quote:
To receive God's pardon through His Son is the ONLY answer for our sin.
Wrong.
Quote:
To not have Your sin judged on that cross is to bear the Just punishment on your own head. The penalty for sin is death.. The second death.. Eternal Damnation.
Wrong.
Quote:
There is no hope outside of the blood of Jesus Christ. Those that reject Him will see Him as their Judge at the Great White Throne with only one sentence - Death.
Wrong.
Quote:
Thankfully God is Patient with His rebellious creatures and still has His arm out, but the time is coming when His arm Jesus Christ withdraws itself.
Best come to Jesus NOW for forgiveness of sins. There will be an eternal shame for rejecting Him.
I am very familar with Howard Storm. Read his book. Twice. Corresponded with him via e-mail and asked him questions about his experience. I studied NDEs for many years. Basically, concentrated on the negative ones . You are right about fundies having hellish NDEs more than any other group. But whenever anyone cried out to God, He rescued them, all of them.
Yes, Howard was an athiest. When he was at his lowest point, a voice, not his, cried out from within. It said over and over - "Pray to God" He didn't even know how to pray but he tried his best. He then saw a small, faint light that grew larger and brighter and it came to him and rescued him.
You will never get through to Mike and the other fundies. Not unless they are truly open minded and I think I know the answer to that one already.
Mike was bothered by the question Howard asked one of the angels...which religion is the best. Howard was expecting a certain christian denomination...the answer he got 'proved' to Mike that Storm is a false teacher. (The answer was whichever religion brings to closer to God is the best)
What Mike fails to realize, God doesn't care what label we slap ourselves with, anyone can call themselves a christian. What matters is whether we love others or not.
This belief we have (that all will be saved) doesn't discredit Jesus, it only makes His work all the more powerful. Imagine God setting out and doing what He proclaimed from the beginning, that Jesus Christ is the savior of ALL mankind, especially to those who believe.
The fundies can't accept this because they are still putting labels on people and religions. God doesn't do that....He looks at our heart and decides what to do. He doesn't care about labels.
... God doesn't care what label we slap ourselves with, anyone can call themselves a christian. What matters is whether we love others or not.
...
The fundies can't accept this because they are still putting labels on people and religions. God doesn't do that....He looks at our heart and decides what to do. He doesn't care about labels.
He claims... 'I asked them, for example, which was the best religion. I was looking for an answer which was like: "Presbyterians." I figured these guys were all Christians. The answer I got was: "The best religion is the religion that brings you closest to God." '
WRONG!!!!! Jesus said,
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
Acts 4:12 "And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved."
You claim... ''and totally unlike the hash Fundamentalists try to pass off about sinners landing in hell writhing in fire for all eternity (something that not one person out of the millions of people who have had authentic, veridical NDE's says happened to them).''
Don't be so short sighted Mike. All religionists and nonreligionists have NDE's. They always are similar or different. of course, most raised Hindu have Hindu ones, most raised Christian have Christian ones, those raised Buddhists have Buddhists ones, and usually one must be exposed to the religion to be psychologically affected by its poison. Even Plato writes about the NDE of Er, a famous Hellen soldier who "came back from the dead."
John 14:6 Jesus isn't being literal. That would be ridiculous, as Abraham and Jacob etc. came "to the Father" without him. What Jesus was likely saying (although to dumb ears it would seem that he was seeking worship as the demons do) was that no one comes through the Father except through the way, the truth, and the life, and he himself was living the way, the truth, and the life. It would be stupid if a "100% human - 100% God" creature was even logical, let alone the way, the truth, and the life. Do you think Jesus was always literal? Read the Chapter in context. Why would our Brother Jesus put himself up as a Stumbling Block between the Father and his Children?
Acts 4:12 was written by a Sinner, and its not even quoting Jesus at that... it is always obvious in the Gospels that the apostles were very dim men who really needed a luminous guide, but it seems their darkness consumed them because they failed to get to the Father while alive, I suppose they will now have to wait for Jesus to resurrect them... Are we to believe that the Father abandons good people because they are not followers of your complicated Religion? Who is Jesus any way? Am I supposed to believe that the Way, the Truth, and the Life is an ever-changing Character in people's minds?
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I mean.....the utter hogwash gullible Christians gobble up these days! 
