"I think it's worth pointing out here that being a Christian does not necessarily mean that one must believe in eternal torment for a portion of humanity. In fact, the balance of the evidence indicates that the majority of the earliest Christians believed in no such thing, and that "hell" as it's understood today is largely the product of a mistranslation and a misunderstanding of the original text of certain New Testament writings, whether mistaken or deliberate (I have my suspicions, given how useful hell is for religious authorities, that it may have been the latter, especially given that for a long, long time the Church mandated that the Bible be read in Latin, when its original languages were Hebrew and Greek).
For being such a supposedly important topic, the term "hell" appears in modern English translations of the Bible only fourteen times in the entire text - and when you look at the original Greek, you will find that these references to "hell" come from no fewer than three different Greek words that have been collapsed into a single English word, which should already start casting doubt on the merits of translating these words in this way. And, in fact, the phrase "eternal punishment" only appears in the Bible one time, in the entire text, that being Matthew 25:46, and this translation has, to put it mildly, serious issues. "Eternal" is translated from the Greek word aionion, which is the adjective form of aion, from which the word "eon" is derived in English - a period of time of unspecified duration, but which is nonetheless finite. And "punishment" is translated from the Greek word kolasin, which does mean "punishment", but a very specific type of punishment: kolasin refers to punishment whose purpose is correction, whose ultimate goal is the improvement of the one receiving this punishment; the Greek word for punishment whose purpose is suffering is timoria - a completely different word.
There are other passages, but there you'll more or less find the exact same thing. It's little wonder why, originally, when people were actually reading the original text of passages like this, they arrived at the conclusion that every person, without fail, will be reconciled with God, and that "hell" was nothing more than a place of temporary spiritual cleansing.
You're free to believe whatever it is that your path in life causes you to regard as being the most likely answer to life's biggest questions. The only point I want to get across here is that your decision is not a binary choice, such that your only options are to believe in no God or to believe in a God that would submit most of humanity to eternal torment. There is also the option of a God who truly does love everyone, not one who simply says as much while doing nothing to establish it."
Pearl, I've wonder about this just as you, and did a lot of research and I've since changed my mind about the lost burning forever in hell. While I do believe the Bible says they will be cast into hell, it does say they will be devoured. I had some issues with the everlasting punishment part, but after reading all the material that shows without a doubt, that the concept of everlasting punishment is understood incorrectly by many Christians, I now believe different. Below is the link, but it's a long read, but well worth it to settle this issue.
There are key issues that explain the Hebrew and Greek words for everlasting, along with the placement of the adjectives and nouns when translating into English, and lastly, the fact there is a word for everlasting (forever and ever) that could have been used, but was not when referring to punishment. If you really want an answer that makes sense, this is the best I've read, so far.
God gave His Son so we would not have to be punished for our sin in hell. so if people want to not be punished then I suggest they get it right. I can't grasp the notion that people would rather live a sinful life and reject God out of pure stubbornness and rebellion
It is important to note that the Bible DOES NOT teach that God will send individuals to a place of eternal torment and suffering. When God told Adam and Eve what their punishment would be, he simply said in Genesis 3:19: "For dust you are and to dust you will return.” He would go back to the same exact condition he was in before he was created: Non-existence. God never told him he would suffer for all eternity.
Ecclesiastes 9:5 says that the "dead are conscious of nothing at all." Psalms 146:4 shows that when one dies their "thoughts do perish."
Interestingly, in the Criswell Theological Review, Professor Pinnock writes: “Everlasting torment is intolerable from a moral point of view because it makes God into a bloodthirsty monster who maintains an everlasting Auschwitz for victims whom he does not even allow to die.” He asks: “How can anyone with the milk of human kindness in him remain calm contemplating such an idea [the traditional doctrine of hell]? . . . How can Christians possibly project a deity of such cruelty and vindictiveness?”
Even Catholic theologian Hans Küng asks: “Should the God of love . . . watch for all eternity this endless, hopeless, pitiless, loveless, cruel physical-psychological torture of his creatures?...Is he such a hardhearted creditor? . . . What would we think of a human being who satisfied his thirst for revenge so implacably and insatiably?”
To know what the Bible really teaches regarding this matter, read the following:
God loves humans so much he sent his son to die for us so why would he punish anyone forever in hell? He would not.
Eccl. 9:5 says, "For the living know that they will die, but the dead do not know anything" The dead know nothing means they are dead and don't even know pain.
Consider this:
Since the dead have no conscious existence, hell cannot be a fiery place of torment where the wicked suffer after death. What, then, is hell? Examining what happened to Jesus after he died helps to answer that question. The Bible writer Luke recounts: “Neither was [Jesus] forsaken in Hades [hell, King James Version] nor did his flesh see corruption.” (Acts 2:31) Where was the hell to which even Jesus went? The apostle Paul wrote: “I handed on to you . . . that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that he was buried, yes, that he has been raised up the third day according to the Scriptures.” (1 Corinthians 15:3, 4) So Jesus was in hell, the grave, but he was not abandoned there, for he was raised up, or resurrected.
Consider also the case of the righteous man Job, who suffered much. Wishing to escape his plight, he pleaded: “Who will grant me this, that thou mayest protect me in hell [Sheol], and hide me till thy wrath pass?” (Job 14:13, Douay Version) How unreasonable to think that Job desired to go to a fiery-hot place for protection! To Job, “hell” was simply the grave, where his suffering would end. The Bible hell, then, is the common grave of mankind where good people as well as bad ones go.
No bible or whatever was written by god himself/itself.
It was written by humans. You won't get punished for anything you've done in this life. Even if you're hitler. You will be forgiven for everything you have done. Not punished.
Well, it says what it says, and despite attempts to make it mean something else, αιωνιος is used (for example) to refer to the eternity of God, as well as to the eternity of hell.
So unless you want to argue that God isn't eternal....
God is holy, and He has an absolutely zero-tolerance policy against sin in heaven.
We have all sinned, and we have all missed the mark (the entry to heaven), and it doesn't matter if you miss by an inch or by a mile, you still missed the gate because of sin. That's not God's fault.
It's not God's fault, especially when He offered a way of escape from the eternal consequences of sin. He came to earth as Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and having never sinned, when He died, His death became OUR vicarious death, burial and resurrection. Because He didn't sin, death couldn't hold Him, and He conquered death, hell and the grave.
Because of what He did, He made it possible for sinners who have missed the mark, to be made righteous in Him. ("He who knew no sin became sin for us, so that we could become the righteousness of God in Him").
If you end up in hell after knowing what Jesus did for you, there are two serious issues:
First, it was your own fault for rejecting His offer.
Second, the agony will be so much greater, as you cry out, "Why didn't I listen? WHY DIDN'T I LISTEN?"
Don't let this be you. Jesus said that if you want in, follow Him, and He'll take care of the rest.
The default, if you do nothing, is that your sins will carry you away, kicking and screaming, into that horrible place.
That is NOT what God wants for you. He said He didn't want ANY to end up in hell, but that ALL would turn to Him and repent.
But if that's not what GOD wants, is it what YOU want for yourself? (Strangely, many people love their sins so much that they would rather hold on to their sins then give them up and go to heaven! In fact, Jesus even said that the reason people reject God is because they are evil, and they love their sins and immorality, and they hate Truth!)
So, what's it going to be? Do YOU want to be in hell forever after God has provided a way of escape? The burden is on your own shoulders, but only Jesus can rescue you - from your sins along with their eternal consequences. So choose wisely, little grasshopper, because your desire for the pleasures of sin for this brief moment in THIS life, are not worth an eternity of suffering. Choose Jesus - choose Life!
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Verified answer
To quote a great old friend of mine,
"I think it's worth pointing out here that being a Christian does not necessarily mean that one must believe in eternal torment for a portion of humanity. In fact, the balance of the evidence indicates that the majority of the earliest Christians believed in no such thing, and that "hell" as it's understood today is largely the product of a mistranslation and a misunderstanding of the original text of certain New Testament writings, whether mistaken or deliberate (I have my suspicions, given how useful hell is for religious authorities, that it may have been the latter, especially given that for a long, long time the Church mandated that the Bible be read in Latin, when its original languages were Hebrew and Greek).
For being such a supposedly important topic, the term "hell" appears in modern English translations of the Bible only fourteen times in the entire text - and when you look at the original Greek, you will find that these references to "hell" come from no fewer than three different Greek words that have been collapsed into a single English word, which should already start casting doubt on the merits of translating these words in this way. And, in fact, the phrase "eternal punishment" only appears in the Bible one time, in the entire text, that being Matthew 25:46, and this translation has, to put it mildly, serious issues. "Eternal" is translated from the Greek word aionion, which is the adjective form of aion, from which the word "eon" is derived in English - a period of time of unspecified duration, but which is nonetheless finite. And "punishment" is translated from the Greek word kolasin, which does mean "punishment", but a very specific type of punishment: kolasin refers to punishment whose purpose is correction, whose ultimate goal is the improvement of the one receiving this punishment; the Greek word for punishment whose purpose is suffering is timoria - a completely different word.
There are other passages, but there you'll more or less find the exact same thing. It's little wonder why, originally, when people were actually reading the original text of passages like this, they arrived at the conclusion that every person, without fail, will be reconciled with God, and that "hell" was nothing more than a place of temporary spiritual cleansing.
You're free to believe whatever it is that your path in life causes you to regard as being the most likely answer to life's biggest questions. The only point I want to get across here is that your decision is not a binary choice, such that your only options are to believe in no God or to believe in a God that would submit most of humanity to eternal torment. There is also the option of a God who truly does love everyone, not one who simply says as much while doing nothing to establish it."
Pearl, I've wonder about this just as you, and did a lot of research and I've since changed my mind about the lost burning forever in hell. While I do believe the Bible says they will be cast into hell, it does say they will be devoured. I had some issues with the everlasting punishment part, but after reading all the material that shows without a doubt, that the concept of everlasting punishment is understood incorrectly by many Christians, I now believe different. Below is the link, but it's a long read, but well worth it to settle this issue.
http://tentmaker.org/books/Aion_lim.html
There are key issues that explain the Hebrew and Greek words for everlasting, along with the placement of the adjectives and nouns when translating into English, and lastly, the fact there is a word for everlasting (forever and ever) that could have been used, but was not when referring to punishment. If you really want an answer that makes sense, this is the best I've read, so far.
God gave His Son so we would not have to be punished for our sin in hell. so if people want to not be punished then I suggest they get it right. I can't grasp the notion that people would rather live a sinful life and reject God out of pure stubbornness and rebellion
It is important to note that the Bible DOES NOT teach that God will send individuals to a place of eternal torment and suffering. When God told Adam and Eve what their punishment would be, he simply said in Genesis 3:19: "For dust you are and to dust you will return.” He would go back to the same exact condition he was in before he was created: Non-existence. God never told him he would suffer for all eternity.
Ecclesiastes 9:5 says that the "dead are conscious of nothing at all." Psalms 146:4 shows that when one dies their "thoughts do perish."
Interestingly, in the Criswell Theological Review, Professor Pinnock writes: “Everlasting torment is intolerable from a moral point of view because it makes God into a bloodthirsty monster who maintains an everlasting Auschwitz for victims whom he does not even allow to die.” He asks: “How can anyone with the milk of human kindness in him remain calm contemplating such an idea [the traditional doctrine of hell]? . . . How can Christians possibly project a deity of such cruelty and vindictiveness?”
Even Catholic theologian Hans Küng asks: “Should the God of love . . . watch for all eternity this endless, hopeless, pitiless, loveless, cruel physical-psychological torture of his creatures?...Is he such a hardhearted creditor? . . . What would we think of a human being who satisfied his thirst for revenge so implacably and insatiably?”
To know what the Bible really teaches regarding this matter, read the following:
http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/pc/r1/lp-e/1200272656/28/...
Neither can any of Jehovah's Witnesses.
God loves humans so much he sent his son to die for us so why would he punish anyone forever in hell? He would not.
Eccl. 9:5 says, "For the living know that they will die, but the dead do not know anything" The dead know nothing means they are dead and don't even know pain.
Consider this:
Since the dead have no conscious existence, hell cannot be a fiery place of torment where the wicked suffer after death. What, then, is hell? Examining what happened to Jesus after he died helps to answer that question. The Bible writer Luke recounts: “Neither was [Jesus] forsaken in Hades [hell, King James Version] nor did his flesh see corruption.” (Acts 2:31) Where was the hell to which even Jesus went? The apostle Paul wrote: “I handed on to you . . . that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that he was buried, yes, that he has been raised up the third day according to the Scriptures.” (1 Corinthians 15:3, 4) So Jesus was in hell, the grave, but he was not abandoned there, for he was raised up, or resurrected.
Consider also the case of the righteous man Job, who suffered much. Wishing to escape his plight, he pleaded: “Who will grant me this, that thou mayest protect me in hell [Sheol], and hide me till thy wrath pass?” (Job 14:13, Douay Version) How unreasonable to think that Job desired to go to a fiery-hot place for protection! To Job, “hell” was simply the grave, where his suffering would end. The Bible hell, then, is the common grave of mankind where good people as well as bad ones go.
Because god wouldn't punish someone.
That's what a stupid man said.
No bible or whatever was written by god himself/itself.
It was written by humans. You won't get punished for anything you've done in this life. Even if you're hitler. You will be forgiven for everything you have done. Not punished.
Well, it says what it says, and despite attempts to make it mean something else, αιωνιος is used (for example) to refer to the eternity of God, as well as to the eternity of hell.
So unless you want to argue that God isn't eternal....
God is holy, and He has an absolutely zero-tolerance policy against sin in heaven.
We have all sinned, and we have all missed the mark (the entry to heaven), and it doesn't matter if you miss by an inch or by a mile, you still missed the gate because of sin. That's not God's fault.
It's not God's fault, especially when He offered a way of escape from the eternal consequences of sin. He came to earth as Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and having never sinned, when He died, His death became OUR vicarious death, burial and resurrection. Because He didn't sin, death couldn't hold Him, and He conquered death, hell and the grave.
Because of what He did, He made it possible for sinners who have missed the mark, to be made righteous in Him. ("He who knew no sin became sin for us, so that we could become the righteousness of God in Him").
If you end up in hell after knowing what Jesus did for you, there are two serious issues:
First, it was your own fault for rejecting His offer.
Second, the agony will be so much greater, as you cry out, "Why didn't I listen? WHY DIDN'T I LISTEN?"
Don't let this be you. Jesus said that if you want in, follow Him, and He'll take care of the rest.
The default, if you do nothing, is that your sins will carry you away, kicking and screaming, into that horrible place.
That is NOT what God wants for you. He said He didn't want ANY to end up in hell, but that ALL would turn to Him and repent.
But if that's not what GOD wants, is it what YOU want for yourself? (Strangely, many people love their sins so much that they would rather hold on to their sins then give them up and go to heaven! In fact, Jesus even said that the reason people reject God is because they are evil, and they love their sins and immorality, and they hate Truth!)
So, what's it going to be? Do YOU want to be in hell forever after God has provided a way of escape? The burden is on your own shoulders, but only Jesus can rescue you - from your sins along with their eternal consequences. So choose wisely, little grasshopper, because your desire for the pleasures of sin for this brief moment in THIS life, are not worth an eternity of suffering. Choose Jesus - choose Life!
N
Nor can I or a lot of other people. Hell is and always has been a scare tactic to keep believers believing.
Ya, it's true... God's kind of a douchebag.