Religion

Even when I was a Christian, I never believed in Hell. the concept of demons and the devil existed long before Judeism or Christianity. It was an adopted idea to keep members of the Church in line. Jesus, if I remember, never even spoke about hell to his people. Hell started to be a prime focus after the Roman empire collapsed to keep members of the church under the control of religious leaders (although it was put into the bible before that time)

druscilla; ryry:

He told his "chosen people" to go to war with other people and kill them.
He ordered them to do so.

What you are referring to is in the Old Testament. The Old Testament was of a more vengeful God, that is why God sent Jesus so he could put straight that God was loving, kind and forgiving and not vengeful. Also God's 'chosen people' is a reference to the Jews. They however are still waiting for there Messiah, who is said to be a warrior who will claim back their holy land. This is why they rejected Jesus as the Messiah because he was a peaceful man and not a warrior. Therefore this 'holy war' is yet to happen as the Messiah has not yet come for the Jewish people as of yet.

NotOkay22:

Yes but if someone only preaches the good things then how are you going to tell the people the things that they truly need to know if they want a relationship with God. Yes God is all about love, but he is also about truth and honestly. People are sinners, its as simple as that. No matter what good you do you are still a sinner and are still going to Hell if you don't accept God as your savior and ask him to forgive you for your sins. Those are things that if you want to have a true relationship with God you need to acknowledge and understand. People need to be told those things, because all the love God shows all ties back to it.

Right, well now I'm just confused. What things do people need to be told? That they have to turn away from sin and accept God in order to have a good relationship with him? How is that not preaching about love and forgiveness and peace?

If god was so powerful, he could take away the idea of sin and save us all. If he loves us so much, he would do just that. Why afterall, should we pay just because some female nudist took fruit from a snake.


^_^

Fezzik:

NotOkay22:

Yes but if someone only preaches the good things then how are you going to tell the people the things that they truly need to know if they want a relationship with God. Yes God is all about love, but he is also about truth and honestly. People are sinners, its as simple as that. No matter what good you do you are still a sinner and are still going to Hell if you don't accept God as your savior and ask him to forgive you for your sins. Those are things that if you want to have a true relationship with God you need to acknowledge and understand. People need to be told those things, because all the love God shows all ties back to it.

Right, well now I'm just confused. What things do people need to be told? That they have to turn away from sin and accept God in order to have a good relationship with him? How is that not preaching about love and forgiveness and peace?

People need to be told the blunt truth...you turn away from God, you go to Hell. Its simple. What I was saying is that at some of the Catholic churches I have been to they refrained from teaching anything that wasnt good. But you cant fully understand Gods love without knowing about Hell and the sacrifice, and that God wants to save you from it all, but you have to follow him. So it is all about love, but sometimes in the midst of it all its hard to see love in all the pain.

LoversHeartDisease:

If god was so powerful, he could take away the idea of sin and save us all. If he loves us so much, he would do just that. Why afterall, should we pay just because some female nudist took fruit from a snake.


^_^

Because God wants us to choose him in the middle of all the pain. Like Ive said before, if God removed sin and pain and suffering, and the world was perfect, then Being a follower of God wouldn't mean anything because everyone was already perfect. Yes we had to pay because of a female "nudist", but when God made the rule about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and how she wasn't allowed to eat from it, he already knew that she was going to eat from it. Its all like a big storyboard. God could save us all, and he wants us all to be saved, but we have to choose to be saved, God wants us to choose him on our own.

LoversHeartDisease:

Even when I was a Christian, I never believed in Hell. the concept of demons and the devil existed long before Judeism or Christianity. It was an adopted idea to keep members of the Church in line. Jesus, if I remember, never even spoke about hell to his people. Hell started to be a prime focus after the Roman empire collapsed to keep members of the church under the control of religious leaders (although it was put into the bible before that time)

Jesus did speak of Heaven and Hell vividly in the Bible.

NotOkay22:

People need to be told the blunt truth...you turn away from God, you go to Hell. Its simple. What I was saying is that at some of the Catholic churches I have been to they refrained from teaching anything that wasnt good. But you cant fully understand Gods love without knowing about Hell and the sacrifice, and that God wants to save you from it all, but you have to follow him. So it is all about love, but sometimes in the midst of it all its hard to see love in all the pain.

Er, I can't really respond to that because I don't believe it (that turning away from God means you automatically go to Hell). But like I said before, I don't think the Church really has to talk about that explicitly - but that's a lot of my own views coming in. I think faith is a personal thing, and that people need to figure it out on themselves, and take what their priest says as a guideline for finding their own path - so if it's going to be a guideline, I don't think a priest should be going on about sinning and going to Hell; for one, that's going to discourage people and turn them away, for another thing, it's kind of something people need to work out on their own. But, I can't really speak for why Catholic priests preach like that; that's just why I like the way the preach.

Fezzik:

NotOkay22:

People need to be told the blunt truth...you turn away from God, you go to Hell. Its simple. What I was saying is that at some of the Catholic churches I have been to they refrained from teaching anything that wasnt good. But you cant fully understand Gods love without knowing about Hell and the sacrifice, and that God wants to save you from it all, but you have to follow him. So it is all about love, but sometimes in the midst of it all its hard to see love in all the pain.

Er, I can't really respond to that because I don't believe it (that turning away from God means you automatically go to Hell). But like I said before, I don't think the Church really has to talk about that explicitly - but that's a lot of my own views coming in. I think faith is a personal thing, and that people need to figure it out on themselves, and take what their priest says as a guideline for finding their own path - so if it's going to be a guideline, I don't think a priest should be going on about sinning and going to Hell; for one, that's going to discourage people and turn them away, for another thing, it's kind of something people need to work out on their own. But, I can't really speak for why Catholic priests preach like that; that's just why I like the way the preach.

Yes they need to figure it out on their own, but its a very complicated subject and can just get people even more confused if they try to take it all in by themselves. Faith is a personal thing, but without help people would be lost, if the priest just handed everyone a Bible and told them to figure it out then it would be so hard to have faith because everyone would be so confused. That's why someone like a priest or a pastor should discuss and help people understand all aspects of the bible, even the parts about Hell, pain, suffering, etc. because if people don't understand those parts then the Bible then their faith can truly lack.

if you don't believe in God it doesn;t mean you go to hell. I mean if you are a good person God has no real reason to send you to hell. I doubt he will send them there for just not having faith when they have lived a good life.

NotOkay22:

People need to be told the blunt truth...you turn away from God, you go to Hell

not really
say you dont believe in god but you've done many good things in your life.
it dosent mean god will send you to hell.
if your a good person and dont believe god it makes no diffrence. god loves each and every person out there.But there are counsequences to be given too.
we ourselves dont know weather we are going to hell or heaven thats god descison not ours.

To MyBlackDaliah and PrettyHandsomeAkward:

Jesus said plain and tall that good deeds to not get you into Heaven, its faith in him. It doesnt matter how "good" you are, Jesus is "the way the truth and the life, NO ONE comes to the Father except through me". Right there, you need Jesus to get into Heaven, good deeds dont do it. No doubt good deeds are a good thing, but you need Jesus to get to Heaven.

Fezzik:

^Well, look at the Good Samaritan parable.
The Good Samaritan wasn't a holy man like the other two who passed the beaten man on their way to temple, but he was the one who stopped and helped them, and he was the one Jesus praised in the story.

Yes, but if the Good Samaritan didn't have Jesus, he would still go to Hell. That parable was a parable to teach to love and care for others, but if you love and care for others, it doesn't mean that you are headed for Heaven.

Fezzik:

^Well, why not?
Jesus and God are supposed to love everyone.
Just because a good, kind person who embodies a lot of Christian ideals doesn't consider religion or believe in a Christian God, they go to Hell? Over all the Christians promoting hatred in the name of God? That doesn't sound like my God to me.

I don't understand why it is so hard to believe. Yes GOD LOVES EVERYONE, but he has his rules, and said that Heaven of for those who follow him and accept Jesus as their Savior. So if you don't do that, you don't get into Heaven. NO ONE deserves to get into Heaven, we are all sinners, and we all deserve Hell, but God sent his son so that those who believed in him could be saved from that terrible fate. So no one is "good", they may do good things to others, but they have sinned, and the penalty for sin is death. The only way to Heaven is to be saved by Jesus. NO ONE deserves Heaven.

Fezzik:

^We don't deserve Heaven, but I don't think we deserve Hell.
I mean, if Hell is the polar opposite of Heaven - I don't know about you, but I don't think I really deserve that. I do sin, yeah, but I try my best to do what's right. Couldn't there be an alternative? A middle-ground?

No there cant be. Jesus says the punishment for sin is death, no matter how "small" the sin. Jesus said that all sins are as bad as the others, that a lie deserves the same punishment as murder. But he loves us and wants us to be free from Hell. So he gave us his son (I cant imagine how hard it was to sacrifice his son!). Even Jesus was scared of death, he prayed to God that he wouldn't have to die on the cross, but he knew that it had to be done, so he accepted it. Heaven or Hell.You follow Jesus, you spend the rest of your life with him in paradise. You deny him and well...Hell. That's how it works, that's the plan. And Jesus gave us a full warning of this.