Hell is a turn off

[Onesiphorus]

Dear Gary 52 , I find your comments fascinating and to make sure i am answering your queries have you accepted Christ s your savior, which is slightly differen to the question i asked you previously , you can Pm me with your answer if you wish

[Jon-Marc]

One thing is that not even one of us deserves God's love and mercy. He is perfect and holy and cannot look upon sin. Yet, He loved us sinful creatures so much that He sent His only begotten Son to die for our sins. He didn't have to do it; He doesn't owe us anything. He is the Potter, and we are the clay. He can do as He pleases with us, and we have no right to complain. Instead of simply destroying mankind as he was justified in doing, He chose to provide a way for us to be forever free from sin and to live eternally. What great love that is!

Another thing is that mankind seems to think he deserves only the best of everything and acts as though God owes us, when we owe Him for giving His Son to die for our sins.

God has provided a way for ALL of mankind to live forever with Him in eternal bliss, but many choose to go their own way. Then they blame God because life doesn't go the way they want. Mankind has turned its back on God, murdering millions of unborn babies, ordaining and marrying homosexuals, fighting, killing, stealing, lying, all kinds of sexual immorality, and then they think they're good enough to stand before God?

Even many of the "religious" people in the world are not much better. They try to justify themselves with their own righteousness (like the Pharisees in Jesus' day), which God says are as "filthy rags" in Isa, 64:6. Yet they offer their "filthy rags" to God and expect Him to accept them. Many say that there are many ways to heaven, and that Jesus is NOT "the Way, the Truth, and the Life" as stated in John 14:6, and that there are other ways to the Father despite Jesus saying that "no one comes to the Father but by me" in that same verse.

Many falsely believe that everyone will go to heaven, or that only the real corrupt ones go to hell. NO one deserves heaven; we ALL deserve hell, but the love and mercy of God has changed that. We can be forgiven and set free from the power and penalty of sin through Jesus Christ, God's Son.

[eddybear]

I believe the traditional Christian doctine of hell... turns people away from God.

Without getting into the debate, just a word of testimony. The night that it dawned on me that I was a rebel against God and was going to hell..... was the night I turned to Christ. Far from turning me away from God, it drove me to surrender to him. And how glad I am that I did, for nothing can ever compare to the love of God I found in Christ.

[Gary52]

Dear Gary 52 , I find your comments fascinating and to make sure i am answering your queries have you accepted Christ s your savior, which is slightly differen to the question i asked you previously , you can Pm me with your answer if you wish

For me that's a tough question...

I'm not even sure I need saving... saving from what?

Of course, I understand the basic's... Original sin, free will, and all that... But there is more to it than that... errr Yes.... that's a tough one.

I'm gonna say, I'm not sure.

[Gary52]

Without getting into the debate, just a word of testimony. The night that it dawned on me that I was a rebel against God and was going to hell..... was the night I turned to Christ. Far from turning me away from God, it drove me to surrender to him. And how glad I am that I did, for nothing can ever compare to the love of God I found in Christ.

I guess it goes both ways... I know a fair number of ex-Christians who's main reason for losing their faith was down to their revulsion of the hell doctrine.

[streetsinger]

I believed I was a Christian for many years before I received Christ into my heart, from that point everything changed. I cannot believe that someone who has experienced the love of God would lightly give it up. And I can't see anyone who truly realised the love of God, believing he could be vindictive. And finally, anyone who has received forgiveness, through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and rejects it, cannot complain at the consequences.

[Gary52]

I believed I was a Christian for many years before I received Christ into my heart, from that point everything changed. I cannot believe that someone who has experienced the love of God would lightly give it up. And I can't see anyone who truly realised the love of God, believing he could be vindictive. And finally, anyone who has received forgiveness, through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and rejects it, cannot complain at the consequences.

Many of the ex-christians that I speak of had been brought up by Christain parents, in traditional Christian families...

As children they were schooled in Christian theology by their parents, and of course the Church...

Once they reached an age of independance and were able to conduct ther own study. Many have told me that as children they were never fully taught the hell doctrine. As adults they taught themselves, and as a result it turned them to atheism. For them as atheists, the consequences that you speak off do not exist... to them it is a man-made myth.

Some of the ex-christians that I know had a different experience...

One in particular didn't become a christian unto middle age. He began his journey of study alone, reading his Bible in private. He then started going to an Angilan chrurch, and ended up doing the Alpha programme.

During the small group classes on the Alpha course, he asked about hell, and was told it was separation from God. That seemed a little vague to him, so he pushed them for more detail. He noticed that there was a reluctance to discuss the subject, so he dropped it...

He then began to research the subject alone using the Internet... His findings were that it was inconsistant with the nature of an all loving God...

He then tried to make sense of it by discussing his findings with his church. He was not happy with the churches answers... so he stopped going... He no longer calls himself a christian.

So there are different accounts for the hell doctrine turning people off. And of course the hell doctrine is a non starter for many.... People worldwide reject Christainty just because of that one doctrine.

[streetsinger]

Gary, I believe that the mystery of scripture is deep. Everything was put in place by God, he created Satan, the angels, the tree in the garden and, as he is omnipresent he knew everything that was going to happen. In the garden when he warned Adam no to eat, he actually said "for when you eat" prophesying that he would, rather than "if you eat" which would have signified choice. When he turned the couple out of the garden, he showed his love by making them clothes and when Cain murdered his brother he put a protection on Cain, whereas one would have expected a judgement and a sentence. There is far more than meets the eye in all this and we, as Paul says, see only as through dark glass. The fact is, that God so loved mankind that he gave Jesus as a sacrifice to free us from any punishment that our sin would warrant. Whether or not man chooses to receive this gift is entirely up to him but the gift has been offered. If the alternative is the fires of hell, the love of God is proved by the giving of an escape, so to charge God with being unloving is wrong. If there was no choice or alternative then we would be like clones with no choice and God would not have true friends that prove their friendship by returning the love he has proved by the sacrifice of his son.

[Gary52]

Gary, I believe that the mystery of scripture is deep. Everything was put in place by God, he created Satan, the angels, the tree in the garden and, as he is omnipresent he knew everything that was going to happen. In the garden when he warned Adam no to eat, he actually said "for when you eat" prophesying that he would, rather than "if you eat" which would have signified choice. When he turned the couple out of the garden, he showed his love by making them clothes and when Cain murdered his brother he put a protection on Cain, whereas one would have expected a judgement and a sentence. There is far more than meets the eye in all this and we, as Paul says, see only as through dark glass. The fact is, that God so loved mankind that he gave Jesus as a sacrifice to free us from any punishment that our sin would warrant. Whether or not man chooses to receive this gift is entirely up to him but the gift has been offered. If the alternative is the fires of hell, the love of God is proved by the giving of an escape, so to charge God with being unloving is wrong. If there was no choice or alternative then we would be like clones with no choice and God would not have true friends that prove their friendship by returning the love he has proved by the sacrifice of his son.

Like you said, God knew what was going to happen before it did happen...

The problem I have with that chain of thought, is that...

God knew that the majority of mankind would end up burning in eternal agony in hell before he created them...

It would be kinder to not create people to burn... better not to be born.

I have trouble accepting that an... all knowing... all loving God, would create souls, knowing He was going to burn them forever.

[streetsinger]

Gary, here's a thought for you. Scripture tells us that Christian are a royal priesthood, if this is so, what is the function of a priest? The function of a priest is to minister. If everyone is going to hell who aren't Christians, who are the priests supposed to minister to? As I said before there is more to this than we know.