HADES

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• Matt 5:9 . . Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of
God.

Peace is actually one of the negative aspects of Heaven because peace is not
ideal for people who thrive in a society where behaviors like the ones listed
below are the norm.

Discord, hatred, factions, cliques, mistrust, prejudice, bias, caste systems,
double standards, partiality, favoritism, deceit, surmising, dishonesty,
gossip, slander, sarcasm, cynicism, ridicule, envy, rivalry, resentment,
avarice, greed, gossip, character assassination, kangaroo courts,
complaining, tattling, meddling, confrontations, activism, quarrels,
assertiveness, heated debates, chafing, trickery, grudging, stonewalling,
bitterness, silent treatments,

. . . revenge, stubbornness, cold shouldering, snobbery, egotism,
dominance, demeaning comments, pecking orders, rebellion, arrogance,
attitudes, subterfuge, treachery, betrayal, suspicion, conceit, vanity,
superiority complexes, depression, melancholy, panic attacks, bi-polar
disorders, antisocial behaviors, sociopaths, crime, war, despotism,
oppression, injustice, human rights abuses, character assassination, toxic
rejoinders, smart-Alek retorts, snide remarks, etc, etc, et al, and ad nausea.

In addition; there are stand-up fighters for whom every disagreement is
either an insult or an act of war. And when they're angry, they just have to
give you a piece of their mind. Those people would really be a fish out of
water in God's world.

I've heard it said that Heaven is a place prepared for a prepared people; i.e.
people conditioned for Heaven; viz: undergone changes and/or modifications
so as to make them suitable for Heaven. People whose personalities are by
nature detrimental to peace are going to miss the boat if they cross over to
the next life in their natural condition.
_

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It's easy to assume that only really bad people are in Hell. But according to
Matt 7:23-27, John 3:3-8, John 3:14-20, John 3:36, and Rev 20:11-15,
anybody can be there; both the good, the bad, and the not so bad-- the
oligarchy, the aristocracy, the royalty, and the commoners: bikers, bakers,
bankers, lawyers, welders, actors and actresses, housewives, heavy
equipment operators, loggers, convicts, celebrities, homeless bums, clergy,
prostitutes, drug lords, postmen,

. . . statesmen, astronauts, school teachers, scientists, nurses, doctors,
chemists, machinists, carpenters, waiters, hotel managers, cops, judges,
nuns, priests, Popes, deacons, salesmen, Miss Americas, news anchors,
weathermen, and birdwatchers, et al --people from every walk, every
career, every religion, every culture, every language, every ethnic, every
craft, and every status: they're all in danger of the sum of all fears.

When Mother Teresa came to the end of her life, she couldn't shake the
gnawing concern that God may not like her, and quite possibly inclined to
condemn her. Teresa instinctively knew that not even nuns are exempt from
divine scrutiny.

• Rev 20:12 . . I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the
books were opened . . . and the dead were judged out of those things which
were written in the books, according to their works

Because when you strip away their gender, their titles, their distinctions,
their privileges, their haloes, their accolades, and their entitlements, and
stand them before God naked; people are only flesh and blood creatures--
naked apes --just human beings; and human beings are intrinsically sinful
beings whether inbred or bred to perfection.

• Gen 8:21 . . Man's thoughts and actions are bent toward evil from
childhood.

• Eph 2:3 . .We were by nature objects of wrath.
_

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POSIT: Christ is compassionate and would never run an eternal torture
mill for his lost sheep.

RESPONSE: Christ doesn't have any lost sheep. All the sheep that God
entrusts to His son's care are safe and sound.

• John 10:9 . . I am the gate; whoever enters through me shall be saved.

Were Christ a so-so shepherd; then he wouldn't dare say "shall be" saved;
no, he'd have to tone it down a bit and say "can be" saved. That would leave
him some room for error. But when Christ says "shall be" he's claiming a
0.0% failure rate.

In addition, the Father's free will trumps the sheep's free will.

• John 6:39 . .This is the will of the one who sent me; that I should not lose
anything of what He gave me.

So then, were Christ to lose even one of the sheep, he would disappoint the
one who sent him. But Christ never fails to satisfy his Father's expectations.

• John 8:29 . .The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone,
because I always do what is pleasing to Him.

Were Christ to lose even one of the sheep in his care, he wouldn't be able to
say that he "always" does what is pleasing to Him.

When people say that it's possible for Jesus to lose sheep; they are actually
casting a vote of no-confidence in his claim to be the good shepherd. In their
mind's eye, he's not an exceptional shepherd at all; he's just another run-of
the-mill cowpoke.

HADES UPDATE: 61 days have elapsed since beginning the thread. If the
figures in post No.1 are in the ball park, then something like 3,432,000 new
arrivals have checked into the fiery sector of Hades since July 03, 2021
_

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A: Isn't Judaism equally as useful as Christianity for sinners seeking God's
forgiveness? Isn't that the whole purpose of Yom Kippur, a.k.a. the Day of
Atonement?

A: Pinning one's hopes on the Day Of Atonement is futile. For one thing:
there's no one to perform the ritual seeing as how there is neither a Temple
nor a fully functioning Levitical priesthood on duty in Jerusalem at this time.
In point of fact, neither of those two essential elements of the Day of
Atonement have been in Jerusalem since 70 AD. But that's not the worst of
it.

There is a special goat involved in Yom Kippur commonly called a scapegoat,
which Webster's defines as a person who is unfairly blamed for something
that others have done; in other words: a fall guy. But that does not quite
accurately define Yom Kippur's special goat. It's actually an escaping goat;
viz: a fugitive; here's why.

It's a biblical axiom that the soul that sins, it shall die, i.e. the wages of sin
is death (Ezek 18:20, Rom 6:23). Well; the special goat is allowed to live
rather than executed, so justice for the worshippers' sins remain pending;
hanging over their heads like a sword of Damocles.

NOTE: Leaving a goat out in a wilderness place to fend for itself isn't a death
sentence. No; far from it. Goats are survivors. They can get by in
environments that quite a few other species would find quite disagreeable.
And though the Jews were in a wilderness place during their wanderings,
there was vegetation enough to nourish the herds. (Ex 34:3)

Yom Kippur's purpose then, isn't to forgive the people; rather, to remind
the them that although Yom Kippur's ritual sanitizes them sufficiently for
worship purposes per Lev 16:30, their sins are still on the books, yet to be
brought to justice; which is doubtless the reason that Lev 16:29-31, Lev
16:31, Lev 23:27, and Lev 23:32 does not allow them to be cheerful and/or
feel good about themselves on that day. It's actually a day to despise one's
self, i.e. regard one's self as loathsome and despicable.
_

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I know of the Protestant pastor who was asked by Audie Murphy's widow
Pamela to speak at her husband's funeral. Audie Murphy, as you may
already know, was a 32nd degree Scottish Rite Mason and a Shriner; but he
wasn't a Christian.

In amazement, the pastor asked Mrs. Murphy why she chose a Christian
minister to speak at her husband's funeral.

Although Audie himself wasn't a Christian, Pamela was; and she explained
that the Hollywood crowd would be there the day of his funeral, and having
hob-nobbed with them during her husband's acting career, she was fully
aware that many of them were rarely confronted with something serious
about the afterlife.

Well; they got both barrels that day, and were very annoyed because they
were expecting the usual sappy, feel-good rhetoric to which pampered
celebrities are accustomed.

Some may feel that Hell isn't an appropriate topic at a funeral. But I think
that, other than Xmas and Easter, you couldn't pick a better time to bring it
up, especially since Christ said that the majority ends up there.

• Ecc 7:2 . . It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house
of gaiety, for death is the destiny of every man; the living should take this
seriously.

According to the Bible; not many great people are called (1Cor 1:26). If
that's true, then we have to expect that the majority of the world's best and
brightest achievers-- the really big names in sports, science, medicine, law,
politics, technology, business, industry, religion, entertainment, and
education, etc --don't, and won't, make it to safety when they pass on.

As I watched some of the splendor and pomp of President Gerald Ford's
funeral back in January of 2007, I couldn't help but wonder if he was in a
position to really appreciate it; as I suspect people in Hell would certainly no
longer really care anymore whether they were given an unknown pauper's
disposal in a City incinerator, or reverently placed in a grand tomb in the
National Cemetery with world-wide television coverage.
_

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• Deut 27:26 . . Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this
law by doing them.

One thing that must be emphasized is that the curse is irrevocable; so it's
very important to come to grips with it; and the sooner the better.

• Matt 5:18 . . For assuredly, I say to you: till heaven and earth pass away,
not one jot or one tittle will by any means pass from the law till all is
fulfilled.

In other words: whoever deserves that curse is absolutely certain to get it.

In point of fact, Deut 27:26 is grammatically present tense rather than
future, indicating that the curse is instant-- no delay and no waiting period.
i.e. it's already on the books hanging over people's heads like a guillotine
just waiting for an officer to give the executioner a signal to let go the rope
keeping the blade in check.

HADES UPDATE: 64 days have elapsed since beginning the thread. If the
figures in post No.1 are in the ball park, then something like 3,432,000 new
arrivals have checked into the fiery sector of Hades since July 03, 2021
_

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FAQ: Isn't Christianity's Human Sacrifice Against The Laws Of God?

A: God's codified law per Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy is
very narrow, viz: any human sacrifice-- whether underage children or
consenting adults --is illegal because none are specified.

• Deut 4:2 …You shall not add anything to what I command you or take
anything away from it, but keep the commandments of the Lord your God
that I enjoin upon you.

• Deut 5:29-30 …Be careful, then, to do as the Lord your God has
commanded you. Do not turn aside to the right or to the left: follow only the
path that the Lord your God has enjoined upon you.

However: the codified law isn't retroactive (Deut 5:2-4, Rom 4:15, Rom
5:13, Gal 3:17) This is extremely important because Jesus was designated,
and scheduled, to give his life a sacrifice for the sins of the world not only
prior to God's codified law, but also prior to God creating even a single atom
for the current cosmos. (1Pet 1:18-21 & Rev 13:8)

The past-tense grammar of the passage below reflects that ancient pre
cosmos determination.

"All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own
way; and Jehovah has laid on him the iniquity of us all." (Isa 53:6)

That passage isn't a prediction, rather, it's a statement of facts, i.e. a telling
of things reckoned already gone by prior to Isaiah writing them down more
than 700 years before Christ was born.
_

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FAQ: Can you cite an Old Testament example where God approved human
sacrifice?

A: Yes.

• Gen 22:1-2 . . Now it came about after these things, that God tested
Abraham, and said to him: Abraham! And he said: Here I am. And He said:
Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land
of Moriah; and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of
which I will tell you.

Did Abraham slay Isaac? No, but did Abraham offer Isaac? Yes.

• Gen 22:9 . .Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And
Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound
Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood.

You see, once a gift dedicated to God is placed on an altar, it's a done deal--
whether the offering is dead or alive makes no difference. In point of fact,
the letter to Hebrews credits Abraham with offering his son in obedience to
God's command.

• Heb 11:17 . . By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and
he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son

Had God disapproved human sacrifice, He would've stopped Abraham before
Isaac was laid on the altar.

NOTE: According to Gen 18:23-33, Abraham wasn't above challenging God's
sense of right and wrong. Had the old boy seriously believed that offering his
son Isaac as a burnt offering was wrong, he would've said something; in
point of fact, he had three days to think about it. (Gen 22:4)
_

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During Jonah's nautical adventure, he spent some time in sheol (Jonah 2:2)
which he placed at the bottoms of the mountains. (Jonah 2:6)

Well, Jonah's fish was under the sea rather than under the mountains, and
seeing as how no part of a mountain is located in a fish's tummy, then we
can be reasonably certain that what Jonah experienced was that he and his
body parted company; implying that Jonah wasn't alive in the fish for the
whole three days and three nights reported by Jonah 1:17; which
corroborates Jonah 2:9 that the prophet's body underwent putrefaction and
would've been completely destroyed had not God resurrected him in time to
stop the process from getting out of hand.

Jesus appropriated Jonah's experience to illustrate his own. Jesus predicted
that at some time during his three days and nights deceased, he would be in
the heart of the Earth. (Matt 12:40)

Well; Jesus' body was laid to rest on the surface of the Earth; so in order for
him to be down inside the Earth at same time, he and his body had to part
company. In other words: Jesus spent some of his three days and nights at
the bottoms of the mountains, i.e. sheol. And he too was resurrected in time
to stop the process of putrefaction from getting out of hand. (Ps 16:8-10
and Acts 2:25-32)

FAQ: What does the story of Jonah have to do with Hades?

A: It's widely believed that when people die they cease to exist. Well; were that
belief a fact; then Jesus would've ceased to exist when he passed away
on the cross. As a result: he would not have been restored to life via
resurrection, rather, via creation.

Jonah's experience proves that Jesus continued to exist out of body when he
passed away; and if he and Jonah did, then everyone else does too.

HADES UPDATE: 67 days have elapsed since beginning the thread. If the
figures in post No.1 are in the ball park, then something like 4,180,800 new
arrivals have checked into the fiery sector of Hades since July 03, 2021
_

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• Ps 146:3-4 . . Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom
there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that
very day his thoughts perish.

Some people honestly believe the passage above teaches that people cease
to exist when they pass away; but were their belief true, then Christ
would've ceased to exist when he passed away on the cross and in order to
restore the Lord's body back to life, it would've necessary to create him back
to existence. No; I'm pretty sure it's saying something very different. It's not
talking about consciousness. Here's a much better way to say it.

"When their breathing stops, they return to the earth, and in a moment all
their plans come to an end."

Consider all those people who perished in the World Trade Center, in the
Japan and Indonesia tsunamis, and the Haiti earthquake. None of them
woke that day planning on it being their last on earth. No, on the contrary;
they had people to see, places to go, and things to do: but before the day
ended; whatever was on their minds lost its importance-- their priorities
went right out the window and became no more significant than green
cheese on the moon.

All their plans, their dreams, their schedules, their appointments, their
schemes, their problems, their aspirations, and their loves went right down
the tubes as they were suddenly confronted with a whole new reality to cope
with.

While preparing for a new world tour, Michael Jackson died in his sleep. As a
result; his tour wrapped on the spot.

When my eldest nephew was paroled from prison; he quit drinking, and
began going to college with the goal towards becoming a counselor. For 2½
years all went well. His parole officer was happy, and my nephew was on
track and getting good grades. His future looked assured. And then on the
morning of Sept 25, 2015, he dropped dead to the floor of natural causes.
As a result; his college education, and his hope to become a counselor,
dropped dead to the floor right with him.
_

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Here in the USA, even the worst offenders among the worst have the right
to counsel, and if they can't afford an attorney, the system will appoint a
public defender for them.

But on the wrong side of Hades, people are abandoned. For example: the
names of Abraham and Lazarus are given in Luke 16:19-31, but the other
guy's name isn't given. He's a forgotten man; but not me.

• Rom 8:33-34 . . Who will bring any charge against those whom God has
chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus who
died? More than that, who was raised to life; who is at the right hand of God
and is also interceding for us?

I will be represented before God and not stand alone; but that nameless
guy? No.
_

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Saturday, June 27, 2010, a 6-month-old baby girl was killed and her mother
seriously injured when the pair were struck by a falling tree branch in New
York City's Central Park Zoo. The girl's father was taking their picture near
the sea lion exhibit when a branch above them suddenly snapped off and
fell.

Tuesday, July 3, 2007; nineteen year-old Ramiro Gonzalez was returning
home to Nyssa Oregon from a week-end honeymoon in northern California
with his bride Idalia asleep in the back seat when their 1997 Pontiac Grand
Am hit a cow twenty miles east of Burns. The Pontiac went off the road,
through a fence, and burst into flames. Idalia escaped with only minor
injuries, but Ramiro died at the Ste. Charles Medical Center in Bend the very
next day.

Ramiro and his bride didn't get to live in a home of their own for even one
single minute of their marriage-- never had a baby, never joined the PTA,
never saved for college, never went to ballet lessons, nor to soccer or little
league, never went on family picnics, never took home movies and photos at
Christmas, Easter, or birthdays, never went to the beach and built sand
castles --no, their entire future, and all their dreams of family life, were
shattered in an instant by a lame-brained bovine; and Ramiro wasn't even
20 years old yet. He could've lived another fifty years.

March 20, 2008; fifty-seven year old Judy Kay Zagorski, of Pigeon, Michigan,
was sitting in the front seat of her father's boat going 25 knots on the
Atlantic Ocean side of Vaca Key in Florida, when a Spotted Eagle Ray, with a
wingspan of 5 to 6 feet; leaped up out of the water-- for who knows what
reason --and collided with Zagorski, knocking her backwards onto the deck
of the boat. She died from the impact. Judy's sister, standing next to her,
wasn't injured.

On a November morning in 1998, Alan Pakula climbed into his Volvo station
wagon and began the 100-mile drive from Manhattan to his Long Island
house. The acclaimed movie director of Sophie's Choice, All The President's
Men, and The Pelican Brief, had made that trip countless times with no
incident.

As the 70 year-old Pakula neared exit 49 on the Long Island Expressway just
before noon, the tires of a vehicle ahead of him flipped a 7-foot piece of
steel rod into the air. Within seconds, the rod shot through Pakula's
windshield, smashing into his forehead, killing him almost instantly.

Death often comes when people least expect it. As a rule, they don't usually
get up in the morning planning it to be their last day on earth. The 169,752
killed, and 127,294 listed as missing in more than eleven countries by the
tsunami of 2004, were taken by surprise, and given no warning it was to be
their last day on earth.

The 2,829 people who perished in a terrorist attack on the World Trade
Center on September 11, 2001, and the 189 who died in the Pentagon,
didn't go in to work expecting their lives to end before lunch that day. No,
people's lives often end while they still have obligations and commitments,
aspirations, things to do, places to go, and people to see; when a car
accident, train wreck, act of nature, plane crash, crime, heart attack, or
stroke puts an abrupt end to every plan they ever made.

Tuesday, Jan 12, 2010, a 7.0 earthquake struck Port au Prince Haiti right out
of the blue subsequently causing the loss of more than 200,000 lives. A
similar act of nature on March 11, 2011, left 25,000 dead and/or missing in
Japan.

Okeechobee woman Dawn Johnston, 38, was killed Wednesday June 30,
2010 after part of a portable toilet crashed through her car's windshield.
Dawn was driving south on SR 15 shortly after 11 a.m. when two portable
toilets fell from the trailer of a pickup truck traveling north,. The portable
toilets shattered when they hit the road, and a piece of one of them crashed
through the woman's windshield, striking her. Johnston's car then veered off
the road and collided with a tree.

A rain-saturated hillside above the Stillaguamish River on the outskirts of the
rural town of Oso in the State of Washington gave way March 22, 2014
leaving behind a current death toll of 41 souls. The landslide happened to
suddenly and so rapidly that nobody saw it coming and/or had the slightest
chance of getting out of the way. Listed among the dead and missing was a
four-month old infant.

Freak incidents like those listed above can happen to anybody in the form of
a stray bullet from a drive-by, lightening strike, gas explosion, choking on a
piece of meat, electrocution, earthquake, a drunk driver, a fall in the bath
tub; bricks dropped from an overpass, a school shooting, or any number of
out-of-the-blue surprises.

Because of the uncertainty of tomorrow, people need to start thinking about
the afterlife today, now, while they have the chance; rather than risk being
caught off guard by sudden death when there will be no time to think; and
they find themselves suddenly thrust into the unseen world quite
unprepared.

• Ecc 9:12 . . No man knows when his hour will come: as fish are caught in
a cruel net, or birds are taken in a snare, so men are trapped by evil times
that fall unexpectedly upon them.

HADES UPDATE: 70 days have elapsed since beginning the thread. If the
figures in post No.1 are in the ball park, then something like 4,180,800 new
arrivals have checked into the fiery sector of Hades since July 03, 2021
_

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According to Matt 10:28, the body and the soul are perishable.

However; though the body is perishable by any means, the soul is perishable
only by divine means; i.e. the deaths of body and soul aren't necessarily
simultaneous, viz: the soul lives on until such a time as God decides to give
it either a thumb up or a thumb down.
_

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• Mark 9:47-48 . . If your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out. It is better to
enter the kingdom of God half blind than to have two eyes and be thrown
into Hell; where the worm never dies and the fire never goes out.

The "Hell" in that passage is a different Greek word than the Hell of Luke
16:19- 31. That one is haides (hah'-dace) which is an afterlife sphere where
all the dead go; both the good dead and the bad dead regardless of age,
race, color, gender or religious preference. This word here in Mark is geena
(gheh'-en-nah) which is where only the bad dead will end up some day:
likely the lake of brimstone depicted at Rev 20:11-15

Anyway; Christ's instructions didn't reveal anything new. He simply
reiterated information that had already been released by an Old Testament
prophet roughly 700 years before.

• Isa 66:22-24 . . From one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to
another, all mankind will come and bow down before me-- speaks the Lord.
And they will go out and look upon the dead bodies of those who rebelled
against Me: their worm will not die, nor will their fire be quenched, and they
will be loathsome to all mankind.

That rather ghastly scene depicts a sort of tourist attraction similar to the La
Brea Tar Pits museum in Los Angeles where the remains of prehistoric
creatures, excavated from ancient asphalt deposits, are on display.

A worm that thrives in brimstone is pretty amazing, but not unreasonable.
The 4 inch Pompeii worm lives in sea water temperatures of 176°
Fahrenheit; hot enough to kill salmonella and sanitize an egg. So I guess if
God could create a worm like the Pompeii, it shouldn't be too difficult for Him
to create worms that like it even warmer.

FAQ: The human body is organic. So then, how can it survive in flame as
perpetual nourishment for those worms?

A: The laws of nature are not absolute. They were created in the first
chapter of Genesis to control the behavior of created matter, and as such
are easily manipulated by the one who designed them.

For example: fire totally incinerated the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah but
left unscathed a desert shrub that Moses encountered in the Sinai outback
while tending his father-in-law's sheep. (Ex 3:1-3)

Compare Dan 3:8-27 where a blistering hot fire didn't even so much as
singe the clothing of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego while slaying the
guards that threw them in the furnace.
_

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• Ecc 1:2-4 . . Meaningless! Futile! complains the Teacher. Utterly
meaningless! Everything is meaningless. What does a man gain from all his
labor at which he toils under the sun? Generations come and generations go,
but the earth remains forever.

The earth is dumber than a spatula; yet easily outlives its human potentate
whose IQ is infinitely greater. Take for example the great granite
monuments in Yosemite Valley. Tourists to the valley come, and tourists to
the valley go; and one day the grim reaper catches up with those tourists
and they're gone; yet Yosemite's great stones abide decade after decade;
century after century.

Most children born this day will be dead in 100 years; and Yosemite won't
even notice. Though a child born today may be intelligent enough to
eventually understand quantum mechanics and play classical guitar like
Andrés Segovia; yet Yosemite's sentinels-- stupid, mute, and uneducated -
will easily outlast it.

• Ecc 2:15-16 . . I thought in my heart: The fate of the fool will overtake me
also. What then do I gain by being wise? I said in my heart: This is
meaningless. For the wise man, like the fool, will not be long remembered--
in days to come both will be forgotten. Like the fool, the wise man too must
die.

HADES UPDATE: 70 days have elapsed since beginning the thread. If the
figures in post No.1 are in the ball park, then something like 4,555,200 new
arrivals have checked into the fiery sector of Hades since July 03, 2021
_

.
Judas goats are trained for use in slaughterhouses and herd control. In
stockyards, they lead sheep to slaughter; and are also used to lead other
animals to specific pens and on to trucks. The term is a reference to the
biblical traitor Judas Iscariot.

The phrase has also been used to describe goats utilized to locate feral goats
targeted for eradication. They're usually outfitted with a transmitter, painted
in red and then released. The goats then locate the remaining herds of feral
goats, allowing hunters with tracking devices to find and exterminate them.
The red paint marks the goat with the transmitter so the hunters know
which one not to shoot.

You know what can be even worse than going to Hell? Your own children
following you there: and they trusted you.

Here's a sort of cute story I heard once. I don't know if it's true but I guess
it's plausible.

A farmer went out to the barn in the dead of night after a snowfall to sneak
a pull from his liquor bottle. Just as he got to the barn door he heard
something behind him. Turning, the farmer recognized his little boy coming
towards him. In amazement he asked the little guy how he ever managed to
find his way out to the barn in the dark. His son replied: It was easy; I
walked in your footprints.

One can only imagine the anguish that parents in the netherworld must feel
knowing that they inadvertently raised their children in an ideology that led
them down a road to the infernal regions and all the while sincerely believing
themselves doing the right thing. In other words: they actually Judas-goated
their children to follow mom and dad down there. For some families, the
only thing they have to look forward to in the afterlife is a sad reunion in fire
and despair.
_

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• Luke 16:25 . . Abraham said: Son, remember

I should think that one of the negative aspects of perdition is memory. How
people down there retain their memories sans the brain cells they left behind
with their corpse, I don't know; but they do, just as the rich man in that
story is able to experience thirst sans a flesh and blood tongue. Apparently
God has some sort of file transfer protocol that silicon valley has yet to
discover.

The older one gets, the more memories they accumulate, and many of those
memories haunt us with terrible regret. However, people down below not
only have to cope with their bad memories, but also the good ones too, and
I should think it's remembering the good things they enjoyed in life that
makes their situation only worse in the heat.

If everybody was born and raised in an oven; and never once ventured out;
that would be the only life they've ever known, so they wouldn't have a clue
what it's like to really live. For them the old maxim "Ignorance is bliss"
would certainly hold true. For example: many of the people born and raised
in North Korea sincerely believe the entire world is no better off than they
are.
_

.
• Gen 6:5 . . God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth,
and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil
continually.

The thoughts of the heart are somewhat different than the thoughts that go
through the mind; and are often blocked out, viz: "repressed"; defined as a
mental process by which distressing thoughts, memories, or impulses that
may give rise to anxiety are excluded from consciousness and left to operate
in the unconscious, i.e. the subconscious which, in Freud's opinion, is a
repository for socially unacceptable ideas, wishes or desires, traumatic
memories, and painful emotions.

• Matt 15:19 . . Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts

So then, it's not how your mind works that defines you, no, it's how your
heart works that really defines you; and a man's heart is easily capable of
hoodwinking his own consciousness.

• Jer 17:9 . .The human heart is most deceitful and desperately wicked. Who
really knows how bad it is?

God is able to peer into the heart's contents. That means He will be
confronting people with things about themselves that they suppressed and
kept under wraps all their lives; and that's why I sometimes say only a fool
would take their chances with God. They have no clue the extent of the
psychological tsunami they're walking into.

HADES UPDATE: 76 days have elapsed since beginning the thread. If the
figures in post No.1 are in the ball park, then something like 4,742,400 new
arrivals have checked into the fiery sector of Hades since July 03, 2021
_

.
There was a time when everyone went to the netherworld when they passed
away: Jesus too because when he passed away on the cross; Jesus didn't go
up, rather, he went down. (Matt 12:40, John 20:17, Acts 7:25-31)

When we take into consideration everybody who ever lived and died on this
planet beginning with Adam until the day when people started going to
heaven; then we're talking about a very large number of people. How did
they all fit in the netherworld without overcrowding?

Well; it's evident that people exist in the afterlife as spirits. (Heb 12:22-23,
1Pet 3:18-20)

The feral man of Mark 5:1-13 and Luke 8:26-33 was possessed by a
community of evil spirits who labeled themselves Legion. Webster's defines a
legion as the principal unit of the Roman army comprising 3,000 to 6,000
foot soldiers with cavalry.

The legion of spirits that Christ exorcised from the man went out and
possessed a herd of about 2,000 swine. That's a pretty good example of how
spirits take up no room in the physical world; nor do they crowd each other.
All 3,000-6,000 of those spirits managed to fit inside the bodily cargo area of
just that one man.

That being the case, then the netherworld need not be a void. People can
exist down there in solid rock because spirits don't need space, they just
need a place.

NOTE: Any attempt to drill down to the heart of the Earth in search of the
netherworld would be futile because it isn't a physical world, rather, it's a
spirit world. Drillers could, and would, pass right through the very center of
the netherworld and still not find it.
_

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POSIT: Classical Christianity's Hell doesn't make sense that a supposedly
loving God would torment people in a fiery prison forever and ever.

RESPONSE: The human common sense is produced by a 3-pound lump of
flabby organic tissue; and not even all three of those pounds are devoted to
cognitive processes. On top of that, those three pounds are 60% fat. That
fatty, flabby, organic tissue can alter one's personality with little more than
an aneurism or a blow to the head.

Just how sensible can a fatty, flabby, organic sense really be compared to
the sense of a supernatural being with enough intelligence to invent, design,
and construct a fully functioning cosmos with all of its forms of life, matter,
and energy? A fatty, flabby, organic sense isn't even a dunce in comparison:
it's a single-cell protozoa; if even that.

• 1Cor 3:20 . .The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are empty.

Well; that's certainly not a very flattering evaluation. It's as much as saying
that, in God's opinion, the smartest among humanity basically consists of air
heads; and if that's His evaluation of the best and brightest, then where
does God rank those of us whose IQ hovers between average and below?
_