A man named Rob Bell wrote a book called Love Wins. It's still relatively recent and also happens to relate very well to a number of the critics that have been commenting on this blog recently. Here's an excerpt from his book.
"A staggering number of people have been taught that a select few Christians will spend forever in a peaceful, joyous place called heaven, while the rest of humanity spends forever in torment and punishment in hell with no chance for anything better... It’s been clearly communicated to many that this belief is a central truth of the Christian faith and to reject it is, in essence, to reject Jesus... This is misguided and toxic and ultimately subverts the contagious spread of Jesus’s message of love, peace, forgiveness, and joy that our world desperately needs to hear."
I'm going to tell this to you as gently as I can.
I believe that Rob Bell is wrong, and is leading a great deal of people away from Christ.
People concentrate on the LOVE of Christ and the LOVE of God and how "no benevolent God could send people to Hell". The most overlooked truth of Christianity is this:
Every single human on this planet that has ever been or will ever be (except for Jesus) deserves to go to Hell.
Every single one of us deserves eternal punishment.
Not a ONE of us is "entitled" to eternal happiness and forgiveness. Nobody "deserves" Heaven.
Every. Single. Person. Sins.
God is generous enough to forgive every single one of us for the comparatively easy accomplishment of accepting him as Lord, and doing our best to live for Him. That we are forgiven and allowed into His presence is through no special quality of ours, but rather is a mark of the mercy of God.
I am a Christian. I accept God. I love God. And I deserve to go to Hell.
That's the plain truth. The fact that I believe I am not going to go to Hell has nothing to do with me. It only is because of the mercy of Him.
Trust me... I understand WHY Bell's message appeals to everyone. It appeals to so many people because it is what so many people want to hear. Christians and non-Christians alike would all love to believe that everybody gets into Heaven. But the truth is, that's not Biblical. In fact, the Bible disputes Bell's claims in multiple places.
For those that struggle on this topic, I recommend Francis Chan's book Erasing Hell. Good stuff. Here's a video by good old Mr. Chan.
i love religion for the morals it teaches, but what's the point if THIS is what the epitome of "Christian" belief is. Sorry that you believe this stuff and think you're right but I think I'm right and that you're dead wrong about this, and i feel bad that you're wasting the life God granted you telling everyone that they're going to hell if they don't believe in the exact God you do.
ReplyDeleteyou know, before Jesus, Jews were the most ardent followers of God. and NOW these people are just cast aside because this guy said he was the son of God and the people who believed him wrote it down in the bible (GOD didn't write the New Testament, people who BELIEVED certain things, like the fact that Jesus was the son of God wrote it.) just because THEY believed it doesn't make it true.
"Every single one of us deserves eternal punishment."
ReplyDeleteEternal?
You might want to elaborate on this. On the contrary, I'd argue that nobody deserves eternal punishment. No crime is so grave that it cannot be forgiven after, say, a thousand years (forgiveness is still part of most people's definition of Christianity, right?)
Now, there are problems with the U.S. justice system, but at least it has different punishments for different "crimes". Do an extremely bad thing? Life in prison (or, in extreme cases, the death penalty). Steal a candy bar? Probation. One thing all of these punishments have in common? An end.
Your vision of an ideal justice system seems to be exactly the opposite, where people are presumed guilty and then tortured.. without end.. "forever".
Personally, I'd like to stick with our system, unless you can give actual reasons that every single person (everyone) deserves eternal punishment, and why eternal punishment is just for anyone.
Cheers.
It's funny how so many Christians get upset at the fact that God will save all yet are fine with Him damning most. Love is the greatest commandment, to love God and love others. God's love & mercy endures forever. If it only endures in this lifetime, what good does that really do? Jesus' sacrifice was and is enough and will translate to the afterlife. God will take care of those who reject Him in this life but He will not write them off forever. His will is stronger than ours and the Scriptures teach that He wants all men to be saved.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.whatthehellbook.com/the-book/
Unloyal scum? I can think of a lot worse things than being unloyal.. like murdering "for Jesus"?
ReplyDeleteAs far as basing everything on the belief in god goes.. pretty much doesn't make sense when you admit that there are "things in the Bible that can't be proven." But for the sake of debate, I've been assuming that which shouldn't be assumed, so we'll carry on.
And when I said "elaborate", I meant answer my question at the end that you seemed to have missed. I'll copy-paste it again.
"Personally, I'd like to stick with our system, unless you can give actual reasons that every single person (everyone) deserves eternal punishment, and why eternal punishment is just for anyone."
And you probably didn't read my post, but I was challenging the notion of "Burn everyone" as being "refined".
If the US Justice system were to switch to this mentality, would you approve or disapprove? Guilty until proven innocent is the opposite of what the US system was set up to prove, but you guys seem to damn everyone without having any idea who they are or what they've done. And that seems pretty contradictory.
IDT-
ReplyDeleteSin is sin. Whether you'd like to believe it or not, everyone was born into sin and ALL have fallen short of the glory of God. We're humans- we make mistakes, and because Jesus was tempted in the very same ways that we are today God fully understands that. By the grace of God we can start again forgiven and clean. So as for the "actual reasons that every single person deserves eternal punishment"... It's literally impossible to know what is going to happen after death- it requires faith. Arguing about this is completely moot unless you put your faith in some type of standard (for me, the Bible). It says in Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Sin meaning ALL sin- as it says in Romans 3:23 "For ALL have sinned; all fall short of God's glorious standard." Sin = Death. Christ = Life. As for the Bible- yes, it has many things that cannot be proven as fact. But your ideas can't be proven either...This argument isn't about "proving" something to each other. It's about faith- maybe you put your faith in the idea that not every person deserves eternal punishment. My question for you is where is your standard? What is there to back up your beliefs? I have the living and breathing Word of God on my side...what do you have?
i've read through the previous comments. It seems that there are alot of misunderstanding about the bible going on here with you, IDT. (If people go to hell and why God sends/lets them go to hell) I think the bible it is one of the most simple and equally complicated books on earth (perhaps one of the reasons that it's been on the best seller list basically forever). God reveals himself through his word.
ReplyDeleteIf you are having questions about God, and I you really do care (which it sounds like you sincerely do, and that's wonderful!), then I would encourage you to just give the Bible a try. Obviously you have at some point, because you know some verses. However, if you want to understand it, try to read it more thoroughly(maybe even in its entirety!) The bible says that satan blinds people's minds to the truth.
2 Corinthians 4:4-5
4 The god of this age (satan) has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.
If you want to know about God, then ask God. Go to the source; don't base your beliefs on what christians tell you. Seek truth for yourself. If you think there's any chance at all that you believe there are real consequences to rejecting Jesus Christ, then please, please, please, for your own soul's sake, step out on a limb and ask God to show himself to you.