Keep your friends from going to hell!

[Cmass]

If you take the bible literally, then most people are going to hell. If this is true, many of your friends may be heading for hell. Permanent torture is the most hideous thing imaginable.
Are you begging them and doing whatever is possible can to keep out of hell?

[McCulloch]

I've heard it said from christians, that hell is the furthest one can be from god. I can agree to some extent. I believe we are the furthest we can be from god, right now. Hell isn't some place with fire and brimstone, it is not-knowing. Not knowing god. Do you know god? I don't. This is as far away as I can be from god - in a spiritual sense.

Perhaps the difference is that after death it is permanent. We, in life, can throw away our rational objections and embrace faith, in hell apparently we cannot.

[FiredUp4jesus]

I've heard it said from christians, that hell is the furthest one can be from god. I can agree to some extent. I believe we are the furthest we can be from god, right now. Hell isn't some place with fire and brimstone, it is not-knowing. Not knowing god. Do you know god? I don't. This is as far away as I can be from god - in a spiritual sense.

I think you are a lot closer than you might think. It's simply that you've become very desesitized to His presense. Every good thing is from God. Every cool breeze, fragrant aroma, delicious food, and pleasant sensation. Hell will be utterly devoid of all pleasures. God's presence will no longer be sensible. So in addition to the spiritual sense that you have alienated yourself from God, you will be removed from His physical sense as well.

[franknhonest]

"Christians" who don't accept hell as described in the Bible are betraying their faith!!!!

"Separation from God" - big deal lol. Hell in the Bible is described as punishment.

If you can't take that, you may as well just abandon your faith, you heretics!

[Cathar1950]

"Christians" who don't accept hell as described in the Bible are betraying their faith!!!!

"Separation from God" - big deal lol. Hell in the Bible is described as punishment.

If you can't take that, you may as well just abandon your faith, you heretics!

What is it that makes heretics wrong and non-heretics right?
What is this faith they are suppose to be abandoning?
Which descriptions in the bible are you suppose to believe?
I think that is why I prefer faithfulness to faith.

[methylatedghosts]

I think you are a lot closer than you might think. It's simply that you've become very desesitized to His presense. Every good thing is from God. Every cool breeze, fragrant aroma, delicious food, and pleasant sensation. Hell will be utterly devoid of all pleasures. God's presence will no longer be sensible. So in addition to the spiritual sense that you have alienated yourself from God, you will be removed from His physical sense as well.

But how do you define these "good" things. In the middle of winter, a cool breeze might not be so good - you may want a warm one. You may say cinnamon has a beautiful aroma, I might hate it. You might say lobster is a delicious food - I may think it is a digusting creature. You might think one sensation is pleasant, whil I don't. With all of these people in hell, each and every person would have to be catered for due to their own "needs of unpleasantness" would a devil be bothered with all that? Good and bad are only relative.

[Cathar1950]

Is the devil in charge of hell? I thought he get tossed in the lake of fire with the beast and false prophet and the smoke of their torment rises forever. Depending on which passages you read of course.
Maybe it is all a big ladder and every one is pissing on those below. Heaven would be the top rung and Hell would be the bottom.

With all of these people in hell, each and every person would have to be catered for due to their own "needs of unpleasantness" would a devil be bothered with all that? Good and bad are only relative.

That is kind of like my ladder. I like to cook so heaven is cooking a bad meal for someone in hell. I do recall CS Lewis writing about being in a room full of people with bowls and long spoons in hell the people were starving and in heaven they were feeding each other people.
In Egypt you had a book with you and you had to answer questions to be justified. Some Christians think getting into heaven if you just believe that Jesus’ blood saves you with variations on why and how. Sometimes it is just magic. I always like to think of God as forgiving and we should do the same way.

What is the good like and what is living a good life?
Christians need not answer this because they are not capable of either and need Jesus to make then look God enough for God to keep provided they believe certain propositions and have the Holy Spirit and of course are chosen. It seems at some time a dualism makes it into the stories and ideas.
I always saw the Jewish way as a struggle having the possibility of good and evil as well as inclinations and mistakes forgiven By God for being faithful and thru maturity.

But it seems what really maters is how we should live which would require a moral outlook even if it is relative and subjective it has to do with the way we live in social context. Hell seems like a waste and a poor educational program and ultimately useless as a deterrent because how does one know you are not headed there? It seems just believing in something that saves you is enough to make people happy enough no live life with out anxiety some of which is taught and the context seems arbitrary. Taken a verse or passage out of the bible as the one true statement seems rather difficult given the variation and lack of concrete personal experiences that can be shared. I kind of like the idea that we are I the memory of God or the universe some thing like Confused’s energy only memory that is experienced fully as now. It seems the best we can do is dream and argue over something none of us knows or has experienced.

[methylatedghosts]

But it seems what really maters is how we should live which would require a moral outlook even if it is relative and subjective it has to do with the way we live in social context. Hell seems like a waste and a poor educational program and ultimately useless as a deterrent because how does one know you are not headed there?

I fully agree. The concept of hell just seems silly and totally unecessary.

It seems just believing in something that saves you is enough to make people happy enough no live life with out anxiety some of which is taught and the context seems arbitrary. Taken a verse or passage out of the bible as the one true statement seems rather difficult given the variation and lack of concrete personal experiences that can be shared. I kind of like the idea that we are I the memory of God or the universe some thing like Confused’s energy only memory that is experienced fully as now.[/quote]

I believe we ARE god, so what would we go to hell for? And yes, our soul/spirit holds the memory of god.

It seems the best we can do is dream and argue over something none of us knows or has experienced.

I think we have experienced afterlife. We don't know it, because we willingly go through a "memory deletion" upon entering physical form. So, yes, we haven't experienced it as far as our memory can tell us. So I agree with this quote^^

[Confused]

I don't think it matters which religion you agree with. Nor does it matter which context you accept hell to mean. The fact of the matter is that if you destined to go to heaven and your family and frends are in hell, how happy will you be in heaven with this knowledge? Now, some of your friends and family may deserve hell. But not all will based on human standards. This being said. Where would you rather be? Unless God wipes out our memory (which negates free will and amounts to brain washing) if you are comfortable being in heaven with strangers or only a few of your family and friends while the rest suffer eternity under whatever concept of hell you beleive in, they you are not only moral, but no friend of mind.