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I believe that the kingdom of God is about God setting up his kingdom on earth through the 12 tribes. It is going to be a physical earthly kingdom that will rule earth. What he has prophecied in the scriptures about Abraham becoming the father of many nations will happen.
He scattered the house of Israel (10 tribes) but has not forgotten them, they have become large nations.
God on the other hand is spirit and wherever he is in the spiritual realm there is no sin.
But it appears the Old Testament and New Testament, from my study, is in complete harmony with each other.
As much as I would love to believe that hell is not eternal, so far, it appears untrue.
I'll update as I have much more studying to do, and of course am bias wanting hell to equate to annihalation considering my family is unsaved. But i need to lean towards truth.
This is a good video. Thanks for posting it. You have my for doing so.
Even today there are many words in the Old Testament that are simply guessed at by translators. Hebrew today, and that of 2500 years ago don't always match.
To give you an English example, the following is an excerpt from the prologue to one of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (the Wife of Bath): https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/...ologue-excerpt
This was written around the end of the thirteenth century in the then current English. Students still struggle with it and it is far easier as phonetically much of it makes sense. However Hebrew had no vowels, so it is much guessed at. Even God's name through many books as Yahweh, was spelled YHWH. In addition there was no punctuation at all. Much of that is guessed at. We are only 700 years from Chaucer and our language didn't almost disappear for a few years. Most of the OT is about 2500-2800 years old.
Bottom line, when people proclaim the Bible says this and the Bible says that, they are spinning a tale as large as Chaucer's. We have an IDEA about the OT, much better with the NT, and even in the latter there exists some words in Greek that were showing up for the first time by those first and second century authors.
So studying Scripture in a critical manner (not criticizing, but scrutinizing) is the only intellectually honest way to view it. It is a faith book and the authors were all making testimonies about their own faith in the Almighty. The fact is, that from one book to the next, some stories change and a few even contradict. When religionists try to make it a "perfect" book, all they do is make themselves perfectly pathetic. Only real faith can see through the word guesses, the conflicted writings, and the editorializing that took place (the Torah is the amalgamated work of at least four different authors).
So, I do not know if there is a heaven or not. The early Hebrews didn't understand "heaven" as we do. They mostly felt it was a duty to follow their God (and they didn't always do that---which is a lot of what the OT is all about). I leave heaven and hell to God, and try to be about His work on earth which is quite simple from the NT. This Bill Gaither song sung by the Oak Ridge Boys sums it up. Anyone who says it's more than this, is simply playing the same game many translators have with Scripture.
Glad you enjoyed it and thanks for the nice rep.
The only issue i have is to leave heaven or hell to god means to not abide by his word. He expects you to know what you are saved from, his sacrifice on earth for us. But either way, hope you had a wonderful weekend. Peace be with you
I believe that the kingdom of God is about God setting up his kingdom on earth through the 12 tribes. It is going to be a physical earthly kingdom that will rule earth. What he has prophecied in the scriptures about Abraham becoming the father of many nations will happen.
He scattered the house of Israel (10 tribes) but has not forgotten them, they have become large nations.
God on the other hand is spirit and wherever he is in the spiritual realm there is no sin.
Those ten tribes are the lost sheep of the House Of Israel...
To answer the question, do people deserve to "go to heaven", I would simply say, yes, since God loves humans and is no respecter of persons (does not play 'favorites').
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for doing so.
