Originally posted by @sonshipWhat effect is it supposed to have on people who find it unbelievable?
"And if anyone was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire." (Revelation 20:15)
If anyone's reaction to this verse is fear, he or she has gotten the reaction intended by God.
Fear is the appropriate response.
Divegeester can ask me a question any time he stops the fanfare as if it is going to be new and significant more so then any past question on this to me.
1.) Revelation 20:15 can be believed or it can be disbelieved. That is the hearer's business.
2.) Revelation 20:15 is not the ONLY important verse in the whole Bible. But it is in the Bible.
3.) Revelation 20:15 is not a summary of the entire heart of God. Those who attempt to suggest it is reveal more about where THEY are rather than where God is.
4.) Our limitations of knowing the details of how the lake of fire would punish don't much reduce the sense that it is something a person should want nothing to do with ... period.
5.) There is a rhetorical question in Revelation 15:4 -
"Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy ... for Your righteous judgments have been manifested." (See 15:4)
I take the answer to be "No one." No one will not at some time fear the righteous judgment of a holy God.
At some time or another all creatures will see, revere, and respect, standing in fear and awe of the judgment of the holy God.
Originally posted by @sonshipWhat deterrent or coercive effect is all this fearmongering supposed to have on people who find it unbelievable? Did the writers of this stuff not stop and think for a minute about the ludicrous Dr Strangelove-type flaw at the very core of these boggle-eyed threats?
Our limitations of knowing the details of how the lake of fire would punish don't much reduce the sense that it is something a person should want nothing to do with ... period.
How one comes to the salvation in Christ is secondary. That one COMES to salvation in Christ is primary.
The biographies of believers in Christ as varied, wide, and diverse. Even in the Gospel of John the nine cases of people coming to Christ cover a wide scope.
To Nicodemus in John 3 Jesus did speak of not perishing.
He also spoke of man needing a new nature from a new birth.
To the Samaritan woman at the well in chapter 4 Jesus spoke to her unquenchable thirst for happiness that only His life could give. She was sinful because she was so THIRSTY to find happiness. Five husbands did not satisfy her.
I recall nothing of Jesus speaking of judgment to this Samaritan woman.
In chapter 5 verses 1 through 9 there is a religious man who was too weak to benefit from religion. Nothing of eternal judgment do I see mentioned to this weak man in John 5:1-9
Latter in John 5 He speaks a long lesson to the Jews about His co-equal authority, co-equal power to give life, co-equal right to judge, and co-equal ability to raise the dead as with God. Judgment is mentioned. He is being opposed strongly by the religionists.
The seekers in chapter 6 are hungry and Jesus teaches them about the true food, the real food, the real hunger satisfying Son of God. Not much mentioned at all about eternal damnation in chapter 6.
To the thirsty crowd celebrating In chapter 7 again He teaches of the thirst quenching flow of the Spirit He is to become. Their innermost beings will have divine life through Jesus.
To the woman caught in the act of adultery about to be stoned, Jesus shows Himself as mercy, qualified to judge but eager to pardon.
To the blind man in chapter nine He is the One who can heal the situation that one was born with - being totally outside of man's religion.
In chapter ten He is the Good Shepherd leading the sheep into oneness and the feeding pastureland of Triune God.
In chapter eleven He is the One saving from death totally in the raising of Lazarus.
The point here is that the evangelist John showed a wide scope of needs to which Christ is the answer. Every chapter is not a discussion of damnation. It is there but it is not the only thing there.
Some of us can see that Christ is an all-inclusive Savior. There is not only one way He comes to save us.
No way in which He comes is to be despised.