Quote:
Originally Posted by mfblume
Bro., no offense intended, but after seeing your reaction to refutations I made in the past, specifically using Romans 5, I see no point in presenting a rebuttal to you.  You just want to believe UR no matter what. But I believe you are a good man. |
Brother Blume,
What would the purpose be for an "eternal Hell of torment"? Why would our God oversee an eternal torture chamber? So for me the question of Hell rests in it's purpose. If it is God's way of tormenting the wicked and unbelieving forever is it for entertainment or unending vengeance??? Or is it a place were the wicked are eternally "destroyed"?...which really isn't any better seeing that well over 90% of all mankind will find their place here after death.
Or is it a place of punishment and correction where the souls of the wicked and unbelieving are purified through God's just judgment in the flames as silver is purified in the fire?
I firmly believe there is a Hell. I just wrestle with what is it's purpose? What's the point? After BILLIONS and BILLIONS and BILLIONS and BILLIONS of Millennia...what purpose will Hell have served? If we answer this question...then we can see Hell's reality for we will understand it's design. As they say...form follows function.
I often ask questions because it all really troubles me.
Let's imagine a 16 year old Hindu girl, who has never heard the gospel, drowns. Popular teaching and religious tradition insists that her soul will be brought before God who orders her to be confined to a burning hell. Then she will be resurrected to stand before the throne of God on Judgment Day where it will be discovered that her name isn't in the book of life. Then she will be officially sentenced to a never ending hell in the lake of fire where she will burn for billions, and billions, and billions, and billions, upon billions, and billions, and billions of millennia....and she's NEVER going to be released.
Same situation with a 16 year old American girl who wasn't raised in a religious home and simple finds religion "strange". She's invited to church one night by a friend but is a little nervous about going so she doesn't go. Instead she goes to a party with some friends and dies in a tragic car accident on the way home. Popular teaching and religious tradition insists that she too will suffer the same fate as the Hindu girl.
These two souls will be burning in Hell for so long their earthly lives will eventually be less than a sliver of their existence, there's a good chance that there will come a point when the memory of their earthly lives will fade into oblivion and they will not even know why they are in Hell or even if there was an alternative. Endless screaming and torments, their souls will exist in a state of borderline insanity, in a horror and torment filled conscious reality. Their thoughts will be little but flickers of individuality as the next wave of pain and torments floods their being, second after second....for unending minutes, hours, days, years, centuries, and millennia. At some point their existence will be simply tortured their earthly lives not equating to a nano second in time.
What could a 16 year old girl do to possibly deserve such an existence?
What is the purpose of this?
Next you have to ask...if Jesus died to save the world....why will over 90% of everyone who has ever lived find this their eternal fate??? If Jesus died to save the world...and Satan's desire is to separate humanity from God....who wins with over 90% of humanity forever burning in horror and torments? Really...who wins? I know at the Marriage Supper there will be "Mission Accomplished" banners hung above the tables with care....but with the vast majority of humanity burning forever and ever, and ever, and ever....who really won? And how shallow would one have to be in order to be able to celebrate knowing that the vast majority are roasting in a devil's Hell forever?
What purpose does this serve?
Also consider this, if death is no more...there can only be life...for if the condition of death (both physical and spiritual) continue death remains. Also, if there isn't any crying, pain, or sorrow...how can that be said if it exists anywhere in the universe?
I believe that Jesus said some interesting things. Jesus spoke a couple parables about judgment....
Luke 12:47-48
47And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.
48But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.
Luke 12:58-59
58When thou goest with thine adversary to the magistrate, as thou art in the way, give diligence that thou mayest be delivered from him; lest he hale thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and the officer cast thee into prison.
59I tell thee, thou shalt not depart thence, till thou hast paid the very last mite.
In the Scriptures above it is implied that punishments are both temporary and are delivered in varying degrees.
Psalms 86:9
All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord; and shall glorify thy name.
The Greek word here is "goy" (go'-ee) meaning "nations" or "peoples". Here the Psalmist is saying that all the peoples whom God has made shall come and worship before him, glorifying his name. How can this be true if the vast majority of all the nations and peoples that God created are lost forever?
Those are just a few of my questions.
God bless you bro.