Hell's Population Crock

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john832

Senior Member
May 31, 2013
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Quite frankly, the thread title is accurate. Webershome's thread Hell's Population Clock is a crock. It is based on

Christianity, including Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and Protestantism, is also largely framed within concepts of judgment and, for those who fail to meet the necessary criteria, eternal suffering in hell. The Athanasian Creed, thought by modern scholars to date from the fifth or early sixth century and venerated by the Roman Catholic Church and many Protestant churches, ends with these words: “They that have done good shall go into life everlasting, and they that have done evil into everlasting fire. This is the Catholic Faith, which except a man believe faithfully and firmly, he cannot be saved.”
Playing a key role in the development of the Christian doctrine of an ever-burning hell was Augustine, the influential fourth-century bishop of Hippo in North Africa. A leading definer of subsequent Christian faith, he wrote a number of books, some of which are considered to be among the great literary works of Western civilization (see “Augustine: A Giant Out of His Time” and “Augustine’s Poisoned Chalice”).

Nearly a thousand years after Augustine, the Italian Dante Alighieri wrote The Divine Comedy. Dante was a committed Roman Catholic, a politician, a poet and a philosopher. His work, like Augustine’s, is considered one of the cornerstones of Western religious ideas. In Dante’s story he takes a guided tour through the afterlife. He goes first to hell, then to purgatory, and finally to paradise, and he writes about everything he sees. His gruesome picture of hell has taken root in Western society, having inspired such notables as Michelangelo, Gustave Doré, Sandro Botticelli, John Milton and T.S. Eliot.


From where did Augustine and Dante get their ideas about a never-ending suffering in store for sinners? Is it biblical? It’s true that by the time of Christ, Judaism had incorporated related concepts into its belief system, though in earlier times it did not teach that an ever-burning hell was to be the fate of the unsaved. Nor did the early New Testament Church teach it. The doctrine has its roots elsewhere.
Dante’s guide through the netherworld was Virgil, the first-century-B.C.E. Roman poet. In his epic poem Aeneid, the hero, Aeneas, is also taken on a tour of hell. Virgil’s graphic depiction of the dismal and macabre place profoundly influenced later artists and writers.
But the concept of hell as a place of torment predates Virgil as well. A number of ancient civilizations, including those of Mesopotamia, India, Egypt and Greece, held as part of their mythology the concept of an underworld—the realm of the dead. The first-century-B.C.E. Greek geographer and philosopher Strabo discussed the value of such myths, noting that “the states and the lawgivers had sanctioned them as a useful expedient.” He went on to explain that people “are deterred from evil courses when, either through descriptions or through typical representations of objects unseen, they learn of divine punishments, terrors, and threats.” In dealing with the unruly, reason or exhortation alone is not enough, wrote Strabo; “there is need of religious fear also, and this cannot be aroused without myths and marvels. . . . The founders of states gave their sanction to these things as bugbears wherewith to scare the simple-minded” (Geography 1.2.8).
From the website...

Religion and Spirituality: Hell: Origins of an Idea

Notice the origins of the idea of an ever burning hell.
 
Aug 15, 2009
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Again, we are not on an Opinion Forum nor a About Me Forum. Neither are we on a Huckleberry Forum. Not going to fall for your bait and switch that does not involve the Bible. I have provided a list of Scripture for you to look at above. If you want to talk about the Bible here in a Bible discussion forum, then I will be happy to converse with you. If not, please know I will not consider anything of what you have to say.
Really? Then you have a lot of people you need to email & tell 'em that.;)
 
Aug 15, 2009
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The Lake of Fire is a symbol of the the purging of the Holy Spirit.

It will go out when all Death and Hades (a personification of the Adamic Nature) is burned out of humanity and we have been restored back to Immortality. Then there shall be "no more death" - Rev 21:4
Oooooookkkkkkkk.......yer sayin' EVERYBODY will enjoy eternal bliss, INCLUDING the unbelievers as soon as they have their "hell" burned out of them?
 
Jul 22, 2014
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Bait and switch....huh?.....what are you talking about man?
That is not what it means.
You bait and switch with your poll threads...I'm sure you know this?
That is what it means.

Huh, what?
The scripture you provided doesn't address the question at hand? You still have no case.
........wow, so this is what people say about how you "twist" to make a point.......?

Bait : poor examples.....switch: twist, play unfair to win an argument, or at least convince yourself you have.
(No,... but since we were making up definitions of terms.)

Eternal...and forever? Hell and Heaven and God...real eternal places/ known...stick to the rules.
NT examples will suffice.
You should know that KEY words can and do change in the NT?
This is what I am talking about. You just are voicing a form of disagreement or an opinion, but you gave me no Biblical context to what those passages are saying. Did you even look at those verses and study them? Or do you just reply so as to tell me your opinion again? As I said, we are on a Bible discussion forum. You either want to discuss the Bible or you don't want to discuuss it. Saying you disagree is not a discussion. Folks who discuss the Bible converse back and forth with Scripture.
 
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Sirk

Guest
Now you're catching on.

God wants us to choose Him in this life. Having the ability to say....I can have as much fun as I want in this life, live as I please, live for myself and it does not matter because I will eventually get the same reward as the person who sold out their earthly life to Jesus is, at its face value, nonsensical, illogical and a stupid view of God and His justice. No one will be without excuse....including "the great prophet" socrates.
 
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kaylagrl

Guest
God wants us to choose Him in this life. Having the ability to say....I can have as much fun as I want in this life, live as I please, live for myself and it does not matter because I will eventually get the same reward as the person who sold out their earthly life to Jesus is, at its face value, nonsensical, illogical and a stupid view of God and His justice. No one will be without excuse....including "the great prophet" socrates.
It takes away free will.If we all end up in the same place in the end why not eat,drink and be merry? He sure doesn't make sense.Either way I choose I'm good.So why bother preaching repentance and the Gospel at all?! smh
 
Jul 22, 2014
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Really? Then you have a lot of people you need to email & tell 'em that.
I obviously cannot control what people do in their posts. What I do know is that certain topics will not be posted in the Bible discussion section of this website. So we are to talk about the Bible here. You either want to do that, or you do not want to do that. It's your choice. I choose to talk about the Bible. Why? Because it is important to me and it is close to my heart. For we shall live not by bread alone but by every Word of God that we speak; And we are to study to show ourselves approved unto God.
 
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S

Sirk

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It takes away free will.If we all end up in the same place in the end why not eat,drink and be merry? He sure doesn't make sense.Either way I choose I'm good.So why bother preaching repentance and the Gospel at all?! smh
Exactly....it's funny how people will try to justify themselves. I bet there will be all kinds of excuses tried at the judgment seat of Christ.
 
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kaylagrl

Guest
Exactly....it's funny how people will try to justify themselves. I bet there will be all kinds of excuses tried at the judgment seat of Christ.

Ya no kidding!
 
Jul 22, 2014
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God wants us to choose Him in this life. Having the ability to say....I can have as much fun as I want in this life, live as I please, live for myself and it does not matter because I will eventually get the same reward as the person who sold out their earthly life to Jesus is, at its face value, nonsensical, illogical and a stupid view of God and His justice. No one will be without excuse....including "the great prophet" socrates.
I agree. There is no point in choosing God or even thinking about Him if we all just make it into Heaven anyways. But what we do here does matter. Every thing we say and do has a consequence.

Deuteronomy 30:19
"I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:"
 
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Aug 15, 2009
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Universalism (the beliefs of Socrates) isn't just another damnable doctrine. It's the devised doctrine of the Illuminati, known also as Mystery Babylonian doctrine, & actually the doctrine of the Antichrist. Those who believe this doctrine will bow to the Antichrist, declaring him as their Lord & Messiah. Of all false doctrines, it's the worst of the worst.
 
Jan 18, 2015
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Universalism (the beliefs of Socrates) isn't just another damnable doctrine. It's the devised doctrine of the Illuminati, known also as Mystery Babylonian doctrine, & actually the doctrine of the Antichrist. Those who believe this doctrine will bow to the Antichrist, declaring him as their Lord & Messiah. Of all false doctrines, it's the worst of the worst.
Really Anti-Christ to believe that Jesus "will make all things new" huh? (Rev 21:5)

Is it demonic to believe I Cor 15:28 - That God shall be All in All?

Those that try to teach on the Anti-Christ never use the verses that say, Anti-Christ.

I John 2:18 - Now there are many Anti-Christs.
 
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Bookends

Senior Member
Aug 28, 2012
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Where in the bible, has anyone inherited God's inheritance through their disobedience?
 

john832

Senior Member
May 31, 2013
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Exactly....it's funny how people will try to justify themselves. I bet there will be all kinds of excuses tried at the judgment seat of Christ.
I am pretty sure Christ will not put up with excuses.
 

Reborn

Senior Member
Nov 16, 2014
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I choose to talk about the Bible. Why? Because it is important to me and it is close to my heart. For we shall live not by bread alone but by every Word of God that we speak; And
...as long as you compare every word that God says to what man made books have to say about it first, right?

Study?
"Study".... as in, ripping apart the Bible, and taking out chunks we don't like, explaining them away (poorly, btw).....going over God's authority,

........... THEN preaching others this rubbish, while passing it off as sound doctrine?

Here is the problem Jason.
You say let's talk about the Bible.
You say this is not about you.
Umm, YOU are the one bringing these "supposed truths"....so I have to question YOU, your credibility and what you bring to us.

You don't seem to get this......at all.

I cannot answer your questions, until I see that you are willing to openly discuss.......not bait and switch me.
Talking about it.
This is not a Q&A session, where I have to pass your lame exam, before I can enter the classroom...... you surely are not my teacher.

The way you talk to others?..., before long, I'd be the only student in your classroom anyway.
 
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JesusistheChrist

Guest
There are actually three resurrections.
Are you counting Christ's resurrection? If not, then please list what you believe the "three resurrections" to be and also please list any scriptures which you believe support your view. Thanks.