Thread: Heaven and Hell

I think one of the greatest misconceptions out there is that Satan rules hell. That just isn't the case. Hell is Satan's punishment too as well as all the angels who sided with him. Satan wants to be back in heaven just as much as anyone else does. He hates God so much that he wants to hurt him as much as he can, so he tempts us away from God. People have this image of God tossing people into hell and not caring, believe me though for everyone one of his children that ends up in hell you can bet that God is very unhappy about it.
The thing is we have free will, and that is that. You can't argue against it. If you were to make a decision to say get messed up on a shitload of beer and just when you started to do so God said "No! I will not allow you to do this." You would be pretty upset wouldn't you?
If God intervenes in one thing like people complain he should then he needs to intervene in all things and believe me when I tell you this, you would not like that one little bit. You know how much it annoys you when your parents try and tell you what to do, imagine if it was God.
The thing is, Hell is no pleasure. Not only will you be suffering for ever you will be apart from the one being in all the universe that loves you with a love that is beyond your comprehension. You will be put before that love, you will feel it, you will experience the joy that is brings and then you will be ripped away from it forever. Think about it. Do not fool yourself into thinking that hell is a party cause it isn't. Also keep in mind that Satan's greatest victory is making people believe he doesn't exist.

yer, but ure basing all this on the fact that God is in control, what if God is not omninpotent (all-powerful)
When people ask why does God let us suffer, they are overlooking the fact that evil could be more powerful!
OR maybe we have done so much wrong in the world, that God can no longer be fucked to care, i mean he sacraficed himself/son on the cross for us, and what do we do, commit more evils.

As for the fact of who descides who goes to heaven and who to hell, the bible speaks of a "parousia" or a comming together, where there is no time, and all death have occured and the samem place, we will then be judged by the Lord.

Just thought i mite input

Originally posted by Shanx@Jun 3 2003, 03:40 PM
yer, but ure basing all this on the fact that God is in control, what if God is not omninpotent (all-powerful)
When people ask why does God let us suffer, they are overlooking the fact that evil could be more powerful!
OR maybe we have done so much wrong in the world, that God can no longer be fucked to care,* i mean he sacraficed himself/son on the cross for us, and what do we do, commit more evils.

As for the fact of who descides who goes to heaven and who to hell, the bible speaks of a "parousia" or a comming together, where there is no time, and all death have occured and the samem place, we will then be judged by the Lord.

Just thought i mite input*

If God wasn't omnipotent than how did he create the universe?
God COULD keep evil in check but as Rebbie said, he doesn't because it infringes on free will.

as if evil existed...

Evil has to exist.

If it didn't how would we measure 'good' , we would have nothing to compare it to.

you compare good to bad. but there is no absolute evil or absolute good. it's opinions, and if you want my debate on good or evil, go to the good or evil thread.

Originally posted by Maverick@Jun 21 2003, 06:57 PM
If God wasn't omnipotent than how did he create the universe?

what if god didnt created the universe

I believe that heaven and hell are states of minds and not physical places, heaven is not a place where the streets are painted gold and hell where you will burn eternally. Those are not places as real as your grocery store, your own heaven and hell lays within you.
As we look deeper we see that there are numerous logic problems with the literal interpretation. The foremost problem is that the horrors of hell and the pleasures of heaven are completely subjective. What is horrible to some may not be so bad to others and what is wonderful or pleasurable for me may not be for you. I mean, wouldn't a masochist have a ball of a time in hell being tortured? Heaven for him would actually be a place where he can sample a great variety of delicious pain and his hell where he is barred from it? Okay, silly example, but you get what I mean? Another problem is the difficulty in reconciling the existence of hell with the all-loving nature of God. If God truly loves His children, why would He subject even the most sinful ones to eternal suffering? Instead, they are rejected from experiencing what they would perceive as heaven into eternal loss of freedom, because satan does not grant freedom to anyone, he is just an arsehole basically. We are not elevated to Heaven or cast down into Hell after we die; we transport ourselves there, and even though most of us don't realize it, we have the ability to arrive or depart at will.
Okay, that's my bit on heaven and hell.

Asshat, that was wonderful.


That is one of the best explanations of heaven and hell that I have ever read.

thank you very much

Why thank you Rebbie

I enjoyed yours too! I always find it interesting to hear other people's opinions, especially on this topic, it really makes me think.

Well I posted this in the Afterlife thread but I figured I would paste it here too for the sake of archiving it

I was (still sorta am) a christian and I often found it hard to believe that such a merciful, loving God (like they say) could allow his creation to suffer in a flaming holocaust for all eternity. . . doesn't seem very merciful and loving to me.

From what I've heard and read, recent translations of the Bible mistranslate hell. In the original greek scriptures there were 3 different words for hell which all have different meanings but were all mistranslated as "hell" in modern translations. These three are Hades, Sheol, and Gehenna. Sheol is described as the time of suffering and sadness before death, and Hades is death itself. All people go to Hades when they die. As far as i'm concerned no one goes to the misconcived versions of "Heaven" and "Hell" when they die. Hades is simply a state of unconsciousness in the spirtual sense. The Bible often describes death as sleep from which one will supposedly wake from at the second coming. Gehenna however is the second death that is described in the Bible as the second death. This is the death that you cannot wake from. After the second death you simply cease to exist. In the book of Revelation is states that the damned will be thrown into the lake of fire. I believe that this is metaphorical in that it means that they will be utterly destroyed. I think that the damned will not go unpunished for their sins but they won't go through eternal suffering wither. Howevr i do thing that will be a time of suffering before they are wiped off the plane of existance.

"Purgatory" as most Catholics believe was orginally something cooked up by the catholic church as a means to scare non-believers into their religion. A "turn or burn" policy, so to speak. It also made for good profit since the believers at one time (not sure if they still do) had to pay money to the church in order to save their souls from purgatory and get them into heaven. Eventually other religions and christian denominations all made their own version of hell to fit their doctrine.

Hope that makes sense.

i agree with rebbie on some things and theres some things i agree with other pple.

im so confused.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div>

yer, but ure basing all this on the fact that God is in control, what if God is not omninpotent (all-powerful)[/b]

You&#39;re question doesn&#39;t make sense. It&#39;s as if you&#39;re asking if God is not God.