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Originally posted by Darfius
Atheists will know God exists in Hell, and since they won't even have the filtered access they do to Him on Earth, it will by no means be "fun", as Jesus warned.

But it sounds to me as if 99% of souls on Earth are going to be in Hell?

All my friends, my family... just about everyone I've ever cared about?

Spend an eternity without them, just so I can spend eternity with God, constantly worshipping and praising him for being all-powerful and all-knowing?

I simply can't reconcile the two. No God that I could believe in would be so unjust.

Originally posted by PawnCurry
But it sounds to me as if 99% of souls on Earth are going to be in Hell?

All my friends, my family... just about everyone I've ever cared about?

Spend an eternity without them, just so I can spend eternity with God, constantly worshipping and praising him for being all-powerful and all-knowing?

I simply can't reconcile the two. No God that I could believe in would be so unjust.

So Him giving you an eternity of happiness, love, joy, peace and wisdom doesn't sound appealing? You wouldn't be thankful for that?

Originally posted by sasquatch672
Posts like this are absolutely unbearable. "My big brother's gonna GET you!" Same mentality. Self-righteous and absolutely boring.

Show me where I said I was better than you, please. I appreciate disagreements. I don't appreciate you putting words into my mouth and then arguing against them.

Originally posted by Darfius
So Him giving you an eternity of happiness, love, joy, peace and wisdom doesn't sound appealing? You wouldn't be thankful for that?

I think he means the idea of being separated from your family and friends is a hard thing to bear. Even if we know intellectually that when we are in heaven with God, it will be a blessing and we will have eternal joy, it is a hard thing to feel good about here and now.

Originally posted by Darfius
So Him giving you an eternity of happiness, love, joy, peace and wisdom doesn't sound appealing? You wouldn't be thankful for that?

Well, if he's infinitely loving and forgiving, he'll probably start feeling guilty after a few millenia and bless us all with that anyway.

And no, I wouldn't be thankful for being parted from my family for all eternity.

Originally posted by sasquatch672
"Atheists (and Catholics, and Muslims, and Buddhists, and every other person on the planet that doesn't beling to your 20-person psychotic sect) will know there's a God when they're in hell..." You said that. And like I said in the other forum, you love the vision of the people you don't agree with burning in hell. Love it.

Calm down. Breathe.

If I loved that vision, wouldn't my best course of action be to not attempt at all to get you to see the error of your ways? In fact, wouldn't I promote a lifestyle not appealing to God?

20 people? That's nowhere near the millions of people on planet Earth that believe the Bible is the Word of God and have asked Jesus into their hearts.

I said they would know there is a God in Hell to dispel the false thinking that Hell is a place one wants to go. I take no pleasure in it. In fact, it saddens me, because my family is headed there right now.

Well, if he's infinitely loving and forgiving, he'll probably start feeling guilty after a few millenia and bless us all with that anyway.

You forgot infinitely fair. If He gives the righteous (through grace, not works) eternal reward, He has to give the wicked (those who love their sin and pride) eternal punishment. Or it doesn't balance. Not to mention He warned of it.

And no, I wouldn't be thankful for being parted from my family for all eternity.

Me neither. But He takes away all sadness when we are with Him. And I'm not saying write off your family, but try to bring them with you! When you accept Christ, you enter into a huge family, with our Father in Heaven. Don't damn yourself for earthly pleasures.

Originally posted by sasquatch672
"Atheists (and Catholics, and Muslims, and Buddhists, and every other person on the planet that doesn't beling to your 20-person psychotic sect) will know there's a God when they're in hell..." You said that. And like I said in the other forum, you love the vision of the people you don't agree with burning in hell. Love it.

You have no idea. It is pure hypocrisy for you to project your own hatred on anyone else. Do you think your post exudes love and tolerance? Do you ever wonder why when someone cares enough to tell you the truth you react in anger? Who are you to judge the heart of anyone?

Originally posted by Darfius
Me neither. But He takes away all sadness when we are with Him. And I'm not saying write off your family, but try to bring them with you! When you accept Christ, you enter into a huge family, with our Father in Heaven. Don't damn yourself for earthly pleasures.

This is the crux of where we disagree - I don't believe I AM damning myself for earthly pleasures. Because I don't believe in the Christian view of God. And you have to admit, that even Christians disagree fundamentally on concepts such as Heaven and Hell.

I don't know what awaits us in the great hereafter, but I'm utterly convinced that I'm not going to be judged for not being a committed Christian. (Even my daughter's Grandma believes I will go to Hell - the only reason being that I haven't been baptised, and only baptised people can get into Heaven).

So not only do we have a great swathe of "religions" to choose from - but many of those religions are divided and sub-divided - Christianity more so than most, I believe. Protestant, Catholic, Mormon, Greek Orthodox, Jehovah's Witnesses, Church of England...a multitude of cults in the USA and other countries. The list goes on. They can't all be right, can they? Can I go to Heaven without being baptised? No need to answer that, I'll never be baptised - I don't see how I could ever believe in a God who judges people so.

Originally posted by PawnCurry
So not only do we have a great swathe of "religions" to choose from - but many of those religions are divided and sub-divided - Christianity more so than most, I believe. Protestant, Catholic, Mormon, Greek Orthodox, Jehovah's Witnesses, Church of England...a multitude of cults in the USA and other countries. The list goes on. They can't all be right, can they? ....

You're right --they can't be all right.

Sooooo, just listen to me - cuz. I'm right! Everyone else is wrong!

Seriously. It is true you need to figure it out for yourself. Just try not to write off Christianity. We don't all see eye-to-eye (obviously!) but that doesn't make all of us wrong either. From our perspective, there's a lot of people in danger. So we risk looking foolish to let people know.

And personally, I really hate looking foolish - so I wouldn't do this if I didn't care. I can only assume that's the case for my other wacky Christian brothers. It's a Greek world - and Christians look like fools to the Greeks.

Originally posted by Coletti
You're right --they can't be all right.

Sooooo, just listen to me - cuz. I'm right! Everyone else is wrong!

Seriously. It is true you need to figure it out for yourself. Just try not to write off Christianity. We don't all see eye-to-eye (obviously!) but that doesn't make all of us wrong either. From our perspective, there's a lot of people ...[text shortened]... r wacky Christian brothers. It's a Greek world - and Christians look like fools to the Greeks.

At last a sensible, reasoned post, that isn't a sermon, that I can relate to!

Big rec for Coletti! 😀

Originally posted by sasquatch672
I don't hate anybody, there, you. I wouldn't describe myself as easy-going, but I don't continually tell people they're going to burn in a lake of fire for not following every single passage in the Bible. You and your lot do exactly that.

The only reason you'd miss out on Heaven is because of your lack of faith. The Bible is just a huge book explaining faith to us.