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[captaincaustic]

I would love to try to answer questions that anyone might have about anything. I will take the question into consideration and answer with my insight (whatever that's worth).

[McCulloch]

Is No the only valid answer to this question?

[Cathar1950]

Is No the only valid answer to this question?

Yes?

[Suzanne]

I would love to try to answer questions that anyone might have about anything. I will take the question into consideration and answer with my insight (whatever that's worth).

People in here have many questions to ask and debate about but don't try giving these any truths FOR TRUTHS do not cut it in this place.. IT SEEMS THAT everything is whatever each one wants to believe and think is RIGHT or wrong according to their own IDEA OF what is RIGHT FOR THEM> and of course that is a LIE to begin with. BECAUSE there are TRUTHS to be HAD and RIGHTS TO DO and wrongs NOT TO DO.

Take My advice and do not waste your time with people that JUST want to debate and have no real truth given to them,.

[McCulloch]

People in here have many questions to ask and debate about but don't try giving these any truths FOR TRUTHS do not cut it in this place.. IT SEEMS THAT everything is whatever each one wants to believe and think is RIGHT or wrong according to their own IDEA OF what is RIGHT FOR THEM> and of course that is a LIE to begin with. BECAUSE there are TRUTHS to be HAD and RIGHTS TO DO and wrongs NOT TO DO.

Take My advice and do not waste your time with people that JUST want to debate and have no real truth given to them,.

Suzanne,
You seem to misunderstand the purpose of debate. Debate is a tool for those who love truth to get closer to understanding what is truth. I don't know if what you say is true and you don't know if what I say is true. By entering into debate, by exposing our ideas to the criticism of others, by subjecting our beliefs to examination and evaluation based on logic, reason and evidence, we can all learn something and thus come closer to truth.

[myth-one.com]

My question comes about because my pastor states that both of the following statements are TRUE! He recently earned his doctoral degree (earned -- not honorary or imaginary). He cannot explain how both of them are true, but seems to believe them simply because that is what everyone else believes.

In any event, my question is how can the following two statements both be true:

1) God, who created everything, created a system whereby the majority of mankind will suffer in the fires of hell eternally.

-- and --

2) God is love.

Thanks.

[Goat]

My question comes about because my pastor states that both of the following statements are TRUE! He recently earned his doctoral degree (earned -- not honorary or imaginary). He cannot explain how both of them are true, but seems to believe them simply because that is what everyone else believes.

In any event, my question is how can the following two statements both be true:

1) God, who created everything, created a system whereby the majority of mankind will suffer in the fires of hell eternally.

-- and --

2) God is love.

Thanks.

Good question.

The answer.. for me at least.. in the Jewish faith, there is no eternal hell. Therefore, no one will suffer 'eternally'.

[captaincaustic]

As for my answer, I would say that God is indeed love. If you are to belive that the other statement is true, however, then you must think that God is infinitely just and has promised us heaven if we are good (what is good and bad is for another discussion, however). It is said that God does not send us to Heaven or Hell, but it is our own choices that bring us to one or the other. My thought is that since it is apparent that sin is becoming more and more prevalent, a large majority will, at the end, have chosen a path to damnation. God does not want anyone to go to Hell, but he does give us the free will to choose the path towards Him or away from Him. This raises the question of why God made Hell if people He loved were doomed to end up there. The most interesting thought I have heard is hard to explain, but I will try. If there was no Hell and only Heaven, Heaven would be worse then Hell, for all those who hate God and choose to oppose him, including Satan, would be stuck there.

I hope that helps at least a little bit, myth-one.com

[myth-one.com]

As for my answer, I would say that God is indeed love. If you are to believe that the other statement is true, however, then you must think that God is infinitely just and has promised us heaven if we are good.

I do not understand the second sentence of your reply. If God, who created everything, created a system whereby the majority of mankind will suffer in the fires of hell eternally (the other statement); then God certainly is not infinitely just in my opinion!

But God is indeed just according to the scriptures:

Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. (Revelation 15:3)

So consider someone born in a remote jungle, who lives as a good person for a hundred years and never even hears the name Jesus mentioned. Christian theology to my knowledge has that poor slob burning in hell eternally. That's just? Perhaps you meant that this "poor slob" goes to heaven because he was "good." That is, take believing in Jesus out of the equation? But the only Christian exception to the "all nonbelievers burning eternally in hell" belief that I am aware of is children who die while in their innocent years. That is, they die before ever knowingly committing a sin. These go straight to heaven.
This is the theology used by Andrea Yates and others to justify the murder of their children! Something we can all be proud of.

Other quick comments about your reply: Yes, each person (including innocent children who die) chooses whether he or she goes to hell or into the Kingdom of God; and the many do choose hell. God made hell as the eternal prison of Satan and as a merciful place for a quick second death for humans who are to be cast there. If believers and nonbelievers all went to heaven, then after 120 years there would only be believers there. Believers will be resurrected as immortal spiritual bodies which live forever (born again as a spirit). Nonbelievers will be resurrected as mortal bodies with a maximum life span of 120 years. Thus within 120 years they would all die because their is no reproduction in heaven.
Thanks for you thoughful reply.

[captaincaustic]

So consider someone born in a remote jungle, who lives as a good person for a hundred years and never even hears the name Jesus mentioned. Christian theology to my knowledge has that poor slob burning in hell eternally. That's just? Perhaps you meant that this "poor slob" goes to heaven because he was "good." That is, take believing in Jesus out of the equation? But the only Christian exception to the "all nonbelievers burning eternally in hell" belief that I am aware of is children who die while in their innocent years. That is, they die before ever knowingly committing a sin.

There also exists in Roman Catholicism the belief that if you have never had the ability to learn about Jesus, you are not at fault and that DOESN'T enter into the equation. This has been called Baptism by Desire, for if one sees there is good and desires to go toward that good they are good in the eyes of the Lord. Since, in Catholic thinking, Baptism is the biggest step toward Heaven, in Catholic thinking this is how this "slob" you refer to could get to heaven.