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Can good people go to hell?

jeager106

Learning more about Jehovah.
Premium Member
Gotta relate a story.
I really screwed up a man's mind big time.
This guy is very educated, a lawyer. ( bawwww-haww)
He is a DEVOUT Christian and I love that.
He was talking (read preaching) to me and I challenged him about hell as a place
of eternal torment.
Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, using HIS Bible and info from the internet
I showed him the truth about what "hell" is.
I messed his mind up and now he won't even mention religion to me at all.
Good guy though. He wrote a book on constitutional law and it's going to be
published this year.
He isn't a gun owner but backed up the 2nd amendment big time.
 

Hockeycowboy

Witness for Jehovah
Premium Member
So me and my friend were talking about religions. And he said asked me do I respect the 10 commandments and listed them. I answered yes to all. I do respect them. Then, he asked do I help other people. I answered Yes. He asked me what do I do. I said: Today I helped my brother with picking up 30 min of his trash so when he come home he doesn't have to. I also cleaned my mom's room as a surprise. altogether about 2 h. I then asked "What is hell?". He explained it and I asked who goes to hell. He said: Non-Christians. So I respect the commandmetns and am good to people (In my opinion) and I do think Jesus did miracles, but he is not the ONLY way to god, and I would go to hell. Is that correct? Just wandering, I don't really belive in hell ;)

Wow! Your subject title is a good one!

Do you know, the Bible says Jesus was "in hell"? Yep, it does! (He was the best person who ever lived!) You can read about it in Acts of the Apostles 2:22-27, where (in vss.25-27) Peter was applying King David's prophetic words to Jesus.

So don't worry.

If it was a place of torment, why did Job pray to go there? (Job 14:13)

At Genesis 37:35 and Genesis 42:38, two separate times, Jacob (a very God-fearing man) said he was going to hell when he died!

In the Hebrew Bible (OT), the word that is translated into the English word 'hell' is "Sheol"; in the Greek Bible (NT), the word is "Hades".

You might find this link interesting:

http://www.2001translation.com/Hell.htm#_9

From another website, http://m.wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1200001978#h=4 , here is this excerpt:

"It is, in fact, because of the way that the word “hell” is understood today that it is such an unsatisfactory translation of these original Bible words. Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, unabridged, under “Hell” says: “fr[om] . . . helan to conceal.” The word “hell” thus originally conveyed no thought of heat or torment but simply of a ‘covered over or concealed place.’ In the old English dialect the expression “helling potatoes” meant, not to roast them, but simply to place the potatoes in the ground or in a cellar."

Check out the rest of the second website, too....it's very enlightening!
 
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Sonofason

Well-Known Member
Gotta relate a story.
I really screwed up a man's mind big time.
This guy is very educated, a lawyer. ( bawwww-haww)
He is a DEVOUT Christian and I love that.
He was talking (read preaching) to me and I challenged him about hell as a place
of eternal torment.
Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, using HIS Bible and info from the internet
I showed him the truth about what "hell" is.
I messed his mind up and now he won't even mention religion to me at all.
Good guy though. He wrote a book on constitutional law and it's going to be
published this year.
He isn't a gun owner but backed up the 2nd amendment big time.

I understand the origins of the word hell pretty well. But that does not mean that there is not a place or existence awaiting some people that is metaphorically represented by the real place Gehenna from which the word hell got its name.
 

Deeje

Avid Bible Student
Premium Member
I understand the origins of the word hell pretty well. But that does not mean that there is not a place or existence awaiting some people that is metaphorically represented by the real place Gehenna from which the word hell got its name.
Gehenna is the Valley of Hinnom....Jerusalem's garbage dump just outside the city walls. Fires were kept burning day and night with the addition of sulfur (brimstone) to consume the refuse.
The carcasses of dead animals and the bodies of executed criminals were often thrown into the fire for disposal. What the flames missed, the maggots finished off.
To be thrown into "gehenna" meant no burial place inscribed with one's name and family lineage.....to a Jew this meant not being remembered by God in the resurrection. It symbolized eternal death, NOT eternal suffering. The ancient Jews had no teaching of an immortal soul so the only way to live again under the Kingdom of the Messiah was by resurrection. (John 11:23, 24)

The Bible says at Jeremiah 7:30, 31
"For the people of Judah have done what is bad in my eyes,’ declares Jehovah. ‘They have set up their disgusting idols in the house that bears my name, in order to defile it. 31 They have built the high places of Toʹpheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinʹnom, in order to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, something that I had not commanded and that had never even come into my heart.’"

If God found the thought of burning children in a fire to be something repugnant, then why would he do that to his own children?

What God put before his people was "life or death" not "heaven or hell". (Deut 30:19, 20)

There is no hell of eternal torment....and never was. Eternal death is the opposite of eternal life. God is not a fiend.
 

Intrigued2003

New Member
Well, if you read John 3:16-18 you will find out who will be saved and who will not.

Following commandments isn't enough. You need to do something to rid yourself of sin entirely. Only Jesus can do that.
And how do you clean yourself? I was born in a christian country so my grandma insisted I take the sacrament.
So am I clean, or? Sorry if I'm annoying, jut asking.
 

JoStories

Well-Known Member
How do you know sin is really for real and not something made up?
Very good question. I would add to that for this person to explain what sin is as I don't believe in 'sin' at all. It's a manmade concept designed to browbeat people into doing as one who leads said faith. Its no different, IMO, that a dictator telling this person or that to do whatever or they go to prison, even get killed.
 

JoStories

Well-Known Member
I never claimed that I could. I also do not question God's word. I also don't go around asking silly questions like our friend there does.
Why exactly is it a 'silly question' since I ask the same thing or would have had she not. Who gets to decide what sin is? This concept of sin anthropomorphizes over time. Presently, there are some churches who are openly accepting of gays. The Catholic notion of eating fish on Friday has gone by the wayside for the most part. Divorce is a huge issue with Christians. These were all sins at one time. So as you can see, sin, the concept of, changes over time. Who, then, decides what get changed and how do they do that based on the fact that, as far as I know, all Christians believe the Bible to be either written by God or God breathed or inspired by same. How you you reconcile this?
 

JoStories

Well-Known Member
Why then must the daily sacrifices continue? Because sin remains.

Refer to the book of Hebrews.
In my faith, these 'sacrifices' remain not because of sin but because the person experiencing the problem. trial, etc, have a lesson they need to learn. For your faith, that might be the case but for many others it is moot and is not about sin. Have you considered that other faiths may have valid points as well?
 

JoStories

Well-Known Member
Actually I don't believe in hell or heaven, this is the only life we will ever have, enjoy it, no need to be greedy.
I actually agree Psycho and btw, a fine good morning to you sugar, but in the interest of engaging in this discussion, I am allowing for the imagined possibility. Its a break before I head to my gardens and critters and house work. KWIM? And also....

kiss kiss love:hugehug:
 

JoStories

Well-Known Member
No, madam, we both have the burden, you have to prove that heaven is not rel, so do I.
It is obvious that your first language is not English however, you seem to be doing well. So I will ask this...how would you go about proving a negative? What parameters would you begin as what you ascertain will be your non-proof and how would you know its non-proof? What will you use for proof to disprove this assertion?
 

uncung

Member
It is obvious that your first language is not English however, you seem to be doing well. So I will ask this...how would you go about proving a negative? What parameters would you begin as what you ascertain will be your non-proof and how would you know its non-proof? What will you use for proof to disprove this assertion?
Is it really complicated to prove the real thing? I wonder.
 

JoStories

Well-Known Member
Is it really complicated to prove the real thing? I wonder.
What real thing? If it were real, one could go there. You would be able to point to it and state unequivocally that that was it...its right there. And furthermore, if it were real and there, why would anyone with half a brain stay in a place where terrorism, poverty, starvation, murder, rape, etc, occurred all the time? So please..if this place is 'real', I ask you to show me where it is on a map.
 

uncung

Member
What real thing? If it were real, one could go there. You would be able to point to it and state unequivocally that that was it...its right there. And furthermore, if it were real and there, why would anyone with half a brain stay in a place where terrorism, poverty, starvation, murder, rape, etc, occurred all the time? So please..if this place is 'real', I ask you to show me where it is on a map.
So far we talk about the God what else we would prove? God is real. I can prove it.
 

rusra02

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
So me and my friend were talking about religions. And he said asked me do I respect the 10 commandments and listed them. I answered yes to all. I do respect them. Then, he asked do I help other people. I answered Yes. He asked me what do I do. I said: Today I helped my brother with picking up 30 min of his trash so when he come home he doesn't have to. I also cleaned my mom's room as a surprise. altogether about 2 h. I then asked "What is hell?". He explained it and I asked who goes to hell. He said: Non-Christians. So I respect the commandmetns and am good to people (In my opinion) and I do think Jesus did miracles, but he is not the ONLY way to god, and I would go to hell. Is that correct? Just wandering, I don't really belive in hell ;)

I believe the "hell" mentioned in some Bible translations is simply the grave. So both good people and bad go to "hell" or the grave when they die.(Ecclesiastes 9:5,10) I believe the teaching of hellfire is a lie and a slander against God.
 

metis

aged ecumenical anthropologist
Why then must the daily sacrifices continue? Because sin remains.

Refer to the book of Hebrews.
You obviously didn't check it out, because if you had, you would see that God forgives even without the Temple sacrifices. Roughly 2/3 of the references to God forgiving have nothing to do with the Temple.
 

metis

aged ecumenical anthropologist
BTW, let me just add to the above that the RCC does not teach that one must be a Christian in order to be "saved".
 

A Vestigial Mote

Well-Known Member
I've told people who thought they were good to "go to hell". As far as I know though, none of them have actually been there... yet.

Seriously though - there is most likely no such place. I myself am 99.999999999999(continue ad Infinitum) percent sure of this. I reserve the 0.0000000(you get the idea) percent because I don't claim absolute certainty about anything spiritual. But yeah - it's definitely one of the more prevalent "no proof", "no way of knowing what it's actually like" stories out there. People do love their stories.
 
Regarding Gehenna being a supposedly suitable representation of 'hell', it's
interesting to note what Gehenna looks like today:

Jerusalem Photo: Hell, Gehenna, the Hinnom Valley

Seems like a nice area. One is more likely to find a picnic basket
than an "unquenchable fire", the latter which appears to have
been, .... well, ... quenched.

Who knew? (surely Jesus would've foreseen such) ;)


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