Do you find the teaching of eternal damnation thoroughly repulsive and the epitome of unjust?

[Nakosis]

I cringe and grit my teeth with disgust that God would do this to people I know that aren't bad people. Their crime is they don't believe in God or accept the wrong Gods and don't accept Jesus.
So, you don't find the teaching that people will be tossed about in flames while their agonizing flesh is devoured by worms, wailing and gnashing their teeth for eternity, to be disgusting?

I actually find it kind of stupid. Clearly it was designed to threaten folks away from non-belief. I guess I look at it more like a punch line to a joke that nobody was meant to take seriously.

Most Christians I talk with see it as old ideology that was taken out of "context" from the Bible. So I wonder there's any around that still buy into it.

 

[minorwork]

Eternal damnation and an eternity in heaven are two states of human experience, negative and positive poles of human existence.

The term "eternal" has different feelings depending on the location of awareness at the corresponding pole.

Pretty ridiculous to postulate what CAN be experienced while alive to the domain of the dead, though. That has no basis to testify to the reality while the experiential Hell and Heaven have had many testimonies of their reality.

 

[Vancouversailor]

I cringe and grit my teeth with disgust that God would do this to people I know that aren't bad people. Their crime is they don't believe in God or accept the wrong Gods and don't accept Jesus.
So, you don't find the teaching that people will be tossed about in flames while their agonizing flesh is devoured by worms, wailing and gnashing their teeth for eternity, to be disgusting?

What is their crime for receiving such an eternity of torture? Well, not believing in this God that hides himself and refuses to say a word, not accepting Jesus as their Lord and Savior. (Excuse me while I vomit!)

We have a book that divides people and contradicts itself that Christians can't agree on it's interpretation, and that is what we have to save souls from this eternity of torture. I see people on the road to Hell every day and what do I have as a life-preserver to try and save some of these drowning people, but a book full of contradictions and easily verifiable falsehoods. I HAVE NOTHING TO OFFER THESE PEOPLE!

God won't speak up. He's watching people die and go to Hell daily and could save the souls of so many atheists by simply speaking up, and he refuses. And he will have people tortured forever and ever and ever for not believing in him. You don't find that unjust and thoroughly repulsive?? *Barf!*

Wherever you read about hell and eternal damnation - by God or by his buggers-in-black serfs in the Catholic Church - it sure didn't come from the bible. Now that's a fact!

 

[LuisDantas]

I don't much mind the teachings of eternal damnation for unbelievers and sinners because they are so utterly impossible to take at all seriously. Their very statement is deeply self-contradictory, after all.

It is the belief in those teachings that I find worrisome.

 

[Kenny]

Could we equally ask the question "Does anyone find it repulsive that a judge would condemn a murderer to 3 consecutive life sentences" and... "Was it the judges fault that the sentence was given"?
20-year-old pleads guilty to killing parents, sister; faces 3 life sentences

(Personally speaking, I leave it to God in deciding any judgments)

 

[metis]

Wherever you read about hell and eternal damnation - by God or by his buggers-in-black serfs in the Catholic Church - it sure didn't come from the bible. Now that's a fact!

Matt.5

1. [22] But I say to you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother shall be liable to the council, and whoever says, `You fool!' shall be liable to the hell of fire.
2. [29] If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.
3. [30] And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.

Matt.18

1. [9] And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away; it is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.

Jas.3

1. [6] And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is an unrighteous world among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the cycle of nature, and set on fire by hell.

BTW, I do not believe in hell.

 

[Kenny]

Matt.5

1. [22] But I say to you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother shall be liable to the council, and whoever says, `You fool!' shall be liable to the hell of fire.
2. [29] If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.
3. [30] And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.

Matt.18

1. [9] And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away; it is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.

Jas.3

1. [6] And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is an unrighteous world among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the cycle of nature, and set on fire by hell.

BTW, I do not believe in hell.

Also in:

Deut. 32:
22 For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.

Psalms 9:
17 The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.

Isaiah 5:
14 Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it.

 

[metis]

Also in:

Deut. 32:
22 For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.

Psalms 9:
17 The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.

Isaiah 5:
14 Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it.

Ya, and I visited hell but they said you weren't home.

 

[Kenny]

Ya, and I visited hell but they said you weren't home.

LOL I took a vacation to Heaven!

I like the phrase "Earth is either the best Heaven you will experience or the worst Hell".

 

[metis]

LOL I took a vacation to Heaven!

Funny, I didn't see you. Were you incognito by pretending to be a nice guy?

 

[Kenny]

Funny, I didn't see you. Were you incognito by pretending to be a nice guy?

They told me you had gone to Hell.. (maybe to look for me?)

 

[Jenny Collins]

I cringe and grit my teeth with disgust that God would do this to people I know that aren't bad people. Their crime is they don't believe in God or accept the wrong Gods and don't accept Jesus.
So, you don't find the teaching that people will be tossed about in flames while their agonizing flesh is devoured by worms, wailing and gnashing their teeth for eternity, to be disgusting?

What is their crime for receiving such an eternity of torture? Well, not believing in this God that hides himself and refuses to say a word, not accepting Jesus as their Lord and Savior. (Excuse me while I vomit!)

We have a book that divides people and contradicts itself that Christians can't agree on it's interpretation, and that is what we have to save souls from this eternity of torture. I see people on the road to Hell every day and what do I have as a life-preserver to try and save some of these drowning people, but a book full of contradictions and easily verifiable falsehoods. I HAVE NOTHING TO OFFER THESE PEOPLE!

God won't speak up. He's watching people die and go to Hell daily and could save the souls of so many atheists by simply speaking up, and he refuses. And he will have people tortured forever and ever and ever for not believing in him. You don't find that unjust and thoroughly repulsive?? *Barf!*

Bible

 

[Jenny Collins]

I cringe and grit my teeth with disgust that God would do this to people I know that aren't bad people. Their crime is they don't believe in God or accept the wrong Gods and don't accept Jesus.
So, you don't find the teaching that people will be tossed about in flames while their agonizing flesh is devoured by worms, wailing and gnashing their teeth for eternity, to be disgusting?

What is their crime for receiving such an eternity of torture? Well, not believing in this God that hides himself and refuses to say a word, not accepting Jesus as their Lord and Savior. (Excuse me while I vomit!)

We have a book that divides people and contradicts itself that Christians can't agree on it's interpretation, and that is what we have to save souls from this eternity of torture. I see people on the road to Hell every day and what do I have as a life-preserver to try and save some of these drowning people, but a book full of contradictions and easily verifiable falsehoods. I HAVE NOTHING TO OFFER THESE PEOPLE!

God won't speak up. He's watching people die and go to Hell daily and could save the souls of so many atheists by simply speaking up, and he refuses. And he will have people tortured forever and ever and ever for not believing in him. You don't find that unjust and thoroughly repulsive?? *Barf!*

Bible does not ontradict itself nir does it teach hell. When fire is mentioned, it is symbolic.

 

[Spiderman]

Bible does not ontradict itself nir does it teach hell. When fire is mentioned, it is symbolic.

I want to believe that, but when we have over a billion Christians preaching eternal suffering, who decides what is symbolic and what isn't?

Matthew 25:46
"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

 

[Jenny Collins]

There arent a billion Christians in the world, only people who have some loose association with a church, maybe baptized as a baby, maybe getting married in the church. At best there are a billion NOMINAL Christians. And not all of them believe it, much less preach it. And frankly, I dont care what those tepid Christians think. Few of them even read the Bible. It in no way, shape or form teaches is heinous, Satan inspired doctrine. The Bible says there would false teachers who would lie about God.

 

[Jenny Collins]

Also in:

Deut. 32:
22 For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.

Psalms 9:
17 The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.

Isaiah 5:
14 Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it.

Those scriptures do NOT teach Hell fire. They are symbolic.

 

[Blackdog22]

I cringe and grit my teeth with disgust that God would do this to people I know that aren't bad people. Their crime is they don't believe in God or accept the wrong Gods and don't accept Jesus.
So, you don't find the teaching that people will be tossed about in flames while their agonizing flesh is devoured by worms, wailing and gnashing their teeth for eternity, to be disgusting?

What is their crime for receiving such an eternity of torture? Well, not believing in this God that hides himself and refuses to say a word, not accepting Jesus as their Lord and Savior. (Excuse me while I vomit!)

We have a book that divides people and contradicts itself that Christians can't agree on it's interpretation, and that is what we have to save souls from this eternity of torture. I see people on the road to Hell every day and what do I have as a life-preserver to try and save some of these drowning people, but a book full of contradictions and easily verifiable falsehoods. I HAVE NOTHING TO OFFER THESE PEOPLE!

God won't speak up. He's watching people die and go to Hell daily and could save the souls of so many atheists by simply speaking up, and he refuses. And he will have people tortured forever and ever and ever for not believing in him. You don't find that unjust and thoroughly repulsive?? *Barf!*

Lol, you know ive been reading your posts for quite a bit now and I think that although your heart wants to find, and accept this concept of God, you are too realistic and sensible about its teachings. I don't think you will ever be anything more than a skeptic in this way. No worries though, im right there with you. I deeply want to believe in a God being, an afterlife, and that something deeper is happening beneath the surface. I mean, just imagine how cool a GOD being actually existing would be! Unfortunately our reality would likely be a bit more interesting than the seeming nothingness we experience atm. It appears to all be wishful thinking as far as reality tells it thus far, not that im against being wrong about this. I would prefer my stance to be wrong, my stance unfortunately has much fewer holes I can punch through it than the millions I can throw at religion.

To answer the question however! Yes, the concept of hell is one of the worst concepts the Bible teaches. One of the first things that started me on the opposite track from Christianity was being taught, firmly, about the consequences of losing faith and of those who had no faith, that being hell of course. The problem was I liked people, I enjoyed all kinds of people, I found many people who werent Christians to be just as full of love and kindness as Christians. In my mind non Christians MUST of been evil, sick, disgusting people, they couldn't be kind people because God was a nice guy! Right? He wouldnt hurt innocents for just not believing in something right? It was somewhere around this moment I started to see God as a more petty being and not quite the God I had imagined for years. Ehh, its just a relic from the past from people who adopted a being and tried to make him fit their reality, it doesnt exist and if a God truly did exist and held these rules we are all doomed. He is more twisted than the most evil villain on the planet in that case.

 

[Blackdog22]

Could we equally ask the question "Does anyone find it repulsive that a judge would condemn a murderer to 3 consecutive life sentences" and... "Was it the judges fault that the sentence was given"?
20-year-old pleads guilty to killing parents, sister; faces 3 life sentences

(Personally speaking, I leave it to God in deciding any judgments)

Except in this case it would be more like torturing the guy until his very last breath, then reviving him for eternity to torture him because he refused to believe in Santa Claus. When you actually compare apples to apple and not a completely insane concept to one that makes sense, then you realize how ridiculous it truly is. Also, putting on blinders and saying, "I leave it to God" comes off a bit like the guys who plead not guilty, while passively accepting and praising Hitler. Im not saying you are a Nazi, I mean you have to take a moral stance on this. The whole "hands off" approach just makes you out to be very weak and unwilling to actually back up the actions of your God, instead, you make excuses, much like those who followed Hitler (again, you aren't a Nazi).

I guess my point with this is, where exactly are you willing to stop and say no? Is it just the idea that God is stronger than you thus you have no say so? Are you afraid of God like an abused spouse? Do you love him so much you would follow him down any vile path? At what point would it be clear to you that God was doing wrong and if it ever did become clear to you God was truly an evil being, and not what you had in mind, would you actually take a stance against him or would you truly follow Satan into the darkness if thats what it turned out to be? IMO, going down this "its all up to God" hands off approach, is very, very, very dangerous should this being actually exist. You could be backing up Satan himself and not give it a second thought.

 

[Kenny]

Those scriptures do NOT teach Hell fire. They are symbolic.

Could be. And yet scripture says Hell was created for Satan. I don't think it was symbolic. If I'm wrong, no matter.

Matt 25:41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

 

[Kenny]

Except in this case it would be more like torturing the guy until his very last breath, then reviving him for eternity to torture him because he refused to believe in Santa Claus. When you actually compare apples to apple and not a completely insane concept to one that makes sense, then you realize how ridiculous it truly is. Also, putting on blinders and saying, "I leave it to God" comes off a bit like the guys who plead not guilty, while passively accepting and praising Hitler. Im not saying you are a Nazi, I mean you have to take a moral stance on this. The whole "hands off" approach just makes you out to be very weak and unwilling to actually back up the actions of your God, instead, you make excuses, much like those who followed Hitler (again, you aren't a Nazi).

I guess my point with this is, where exactly are you willing to stop and say no? Is it just the idea that God is stronger than you thus you have no say so? Are you afraid of God like an abused spouse? Do you love him so much you would follow him down any vile path? At what point would it be clear to you that God was doing wrong and if it ever did become clear to you God was truly an evil being, and not what you had in mind, would you actually take a stance against him or would you truly follow Satan into the darkness if thats what it turned out to be? IMO, going down this "its all up to God" hands off approach, is very, very, very dangerous should this being actually exist. You could be backing up Satan himself and not give it a second thought.

Black dog... your post is somewhat of a incessant diatribe of questions with no real line that one can address not to mention that in much of it I can't figure out how you got there.

The reason I say "I let God do the judging" is because I cannot judge the heart and for me to stand here and act like God is ridiculous. That has become the problem on this earth. People butting their faces up to another and shouting "YOU ARE GOING TO HELL! because of what you are doing". I don't find Jesus saying "that is the message I want you to proclaim"

Romans says "
1 You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things." So I don't pass judgment. Do you?

Besides that, I enjoy the gospel of the thief on the cross. He repented and Jesus said he would see him in paradise.

Personally, I hold the stance that it isn't God who sends someone to any type of punishment but rather man who decides his destiny. Whether eternal, as many suggest; or not, as others suggest; we will find out when we get there.