Do you believe in Hell?

[Anonymous]

What is MOST fascinating is the fact that HADES - a term used by polytheistic ancient Greeks - is used in the bible for hell.

a myth is a myth is a myth is a myth

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes I believe in hell. But I have a far more optimistic view of life. Hell is a reminder for those who forget to live life in truth and with love. Doing so is not hard. And it ensures you will go to Heaven. I had children and taught them to believe in their own goodness also.

People of all religions who lived life frivolously or treated others with cruelty sometimes have Near Death Experiences and their NDEs were horrific. All were similar, despite their religions being so different.

Some reminder - an eternity in agonizing flames. And you say you're optimistic?

Prove that hell is eternal punishment in flames. And while you are attempting to do so, hopefully you will dig for the full meaning, take a gander at Rev 20:

The Judgment of the Dead
11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. 15 Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.

Guess death doesn't mean what it means in so many other instances in this case, just like literal fire being used to obliterate in other areas of the Bible no longer means that. Remember Sodom and Gomorrah?

If you really look at the Bible it shows that while God will render his judgement he will NOT be the 'hey it's okay, do whatever you want while ignoring my word and you'll still go to heaven' NOR will he be...it doesn't matter that you never had an opportunity to know who Christ was...and many more examples...you will suffer FOREVER in a state of burning without relief.

See how many verses you can come up with that says things like...the wages of sin is death...or as Jesus said..."Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell." Now Christ himself said the soul is not immortal.

[Anonymous]

People of all religions who lived life frivolously or treated others with cruelty sometimes have Near Death Experiences and their NDEs were horrific. All were similar, despite their religions being so different.

uh ok

So God selects a chosen few to punish in order to realize there's a second chance?

why them? why not your neighbor, who tortures cats? or the pedophile down the road, who abused hundreds of kids?

It's random.

There IS no hell. It's a fairy tale, folks.

What is wrong with you?????????????

I'm not understanding your question or your point. The neighbor who tortures cats would go to hell same as the pedophile down the road. What made you think these people would be spared?

I am responding to the first quoted text above If God allows SOME people another chance through an NDE, how does God decide who the lucky winners are?

So the pedophile will not be given another chance? or the one who sets fire to cats?

[Anonymous]

Perhaps the NDE's are a purely psychological embodiment of your expectations. If you've led a good life and expect to go to heaven, that's what you see, and similarly for those who know they deserve to go to hell. I'm an atheist, and when I was on the borderline, I saw nothing; totally consistent with my belief that death is simply the end.

[Anonymous]

I have had a few NDE's: heart stopped a few times. I am an atheist. I only can say I was "off" when it happened. There was no experience. Only, I was out. I do not believe in any sense of an afterlife.

[Anonymous]

Yes .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Perhaps the NDE's are a purely psychological embodiment of your expectations. If you've led a good life and expect to go to heaven, that's what you see, and similarly for those who know they deserve to go to hell. I'm an atheist, and when I was on the borderline, I saw nothing; totally consistent with my belief that death is simply the end.

What I find amazing are the NDE's of people who have little to no faith and live life for themselves and have NDE's that give them the 'illusion' they are just fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And what is your religion?

I'm Protestant and do not believe in Hell.

I am protestant and I have come to believe that we are in He'll now and when we die, we get out of Hell. I have lost all fear of death. Nothing else explains the horrible, terrible things that happen in this world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Perhaps the NDE's are a purely psychological embodiment of your expectations. If you've led a good life and expect to go to heaven, that's what you see, and similarly for those who know they deserve to go to hell. I'm an atheist, and when I was on the borderline, I saw nothing; totally consistent with my belief that death is simply the end.

What I find amazing are the NDE's of people who have little to no faith and live life for themselves and have NDE's that give them the 'illusion' they are just fine.

Can you post a few links of such people? I have yet to see a drugg addict who committed suicide come back to say he was embraced by the light and admitted to heaven.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

People of all religions who lived life frivolously or treated others with cruelty sometimes have Near Death Experiences and their NDEs were horrific. All were similar, despite their religions being so different.

uh ok

So God selects a chosen few to punish in order to realize there's a second chance?

why them? why not your neighbor, who tortures cats? or the pedophile down the road, who abused hundreds of kids?

It's random.

There IS no hell. It's a fairy tale, folks.

What is wrong with you?????????????

I'm not understanding your question or your point. The neighbor who tortures cats would go to hell same as the pedophile down the road. What made you think these people would be spared?

I am responding to the first quoted text above If God allows SOME people another chance through an NDE, how does God decide who the lucky winners are?

So the pedophile will not be given another chance? or the one who sets fire to cats?

Ahhhhhh....There is something called free will. NDE'ers have accidents not caused by God's hand and are returned because its not yet their time.

[Anonymous]

Ahhhhhh....There is something called free will. NDE'ers have accidents not caused by God's hand and are returned because its not yet their time.

what?

So the person- through FREE WILL - chooses to have an accident and experiences and NDE, and then God steps in and sends him/her back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Perhaps the NDE's are a purely psychological embodiment of your expectations. If you've led a good life and expect to go to heaven, that's what you see, and similarly for those who know they deserve to go to hell. I'm an atheist, and when I was on the borderline, I saw nothing; totally consistent with my belief that death is simply the end.

What I find amazing are the NDE's of people who have little to no faith and live life for themselves and have NDE's that give them the 'illusion' they are just fine.

Can you post a few links of such people? I have yet to see a drugg addict who committed suicide come back to say he was embraced by the light and admitted to heaven.

Your example of a drug addict is a bit extreme. There was a series on T.V. that focused on people that 'died' with NDE's and related what happened along with interviews of the individuals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Ahhhhhh....There is something called free will. NDE'ers have accidents not caused by God's hand and are returned because its not yet their time.

what?

So the person- through FREE WILL - chooses to have an accident and experiences and NDE, and then God steps in and sends him/her back.

Free will may trigger a sequence of events and sometimes that causes accidents. Someone speeding on a freeway, someone committing suicide, touching a pole hit by lightening, whatever the situation. In some cases, the accident isn't caused by free will but simply happens. In either case, when people have NDE's, the souls are sent back because it isn't their time.

You are assuming that those who had NDE's were given some kind of gift of a second chance whereas the rest of society was not and that is unfair for any God to bestow such a gift to only some people. However, NDE's aren't the only ways for people to learn about heaven versus hell or to learn about God. There are ample ways. Now with technology as available as it is, it's even easier to learn about religions, God, heaven and hell. It isn't hard at all to learn about afterlife and the consequences of behavior in life. As for those who never heard about God or the afterlife and never had any opportunity to learn about it, they will not be punished by God. God doesn't punish people if they had no way of knowing what they were doing is wrong. This is my belief system.

[Anonymous]

Look when my heart stopped (more than one time), it was because of an electrical malfunction in my body, not because of anything I did. Let met describe what happens:

about 30 seconds before the event: I am not feeling well, and sit/lie down and ask for help...about 1 second before the event, everything goes black. My heart stops........the next thing I know is I am waking up...it is very peaceful. like all of the stress is out of my body. Then, I notice the people around me talking. Three times, there was someone compressing my chest; once I had paddles on me (that was in the hospital for something else).

For most people, this would be called fainting, but for me, my heart stops for 20-50 seconds; the last time it happened I was in a medical office getting a test (stress test), so I was wired up. Now, I have a pacemaker. It should not happen again.

For me, there was no light, only darkness, emptiness. But there was no passing of time. I can not tell if I was out for 10 seconds or 10 minutes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Look when my heart stopped (more than one time), it was because of an electrical malfunction in my body, not because of anything I did. Let met describe what happens:

Nobody said you caused it, unless of course you had a bad diet your whole life. Even so, in most cases, people can't help getting sick and dying.

about 30 seconds before the event: I am not feeling well, and sit/lie down and ask for help...about 1 second before the event, everything goes black. My heart stops........the next thing I know is I am waking up...it is very peaceful. like all of the stress is out of my body. Then, I notice the people around me talking. Three times, there was someone compressing my chest; once I had paddles on me (that was in the hospital for something else).

For most people, this would be called fainting, but for me, my heart stops for 20-50 seconds; the last time it happened I was in a medical office getting a test (stress test), so I was wired up. Now, I have a pacemaker. It should not happen again.

For me, there was no light, only darkness, emptiness. But there was no passing of time. I can not tell if I was out for 10 seconds or 10 minutes.

It depends on how long you were clinically dead for. Those who died for just a few seconds or a minute say they were in a dark peaceful void. Those who had longer NDE's seem to say they had that too, but then later they saw a bright light and their soul was pulled toward it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Look when my heart stopped (more than one time), it was because of an electrical malfunction in my body, not because of anything I did. Let met describe what happens:

Nobody said you caused it, unless of course you had a bad diet your whole life. Even so, in most cases, people can't help getting sick and dying.

about 30 seconds before the event: I am not feeling well, and sit/lie down and ask for help...about 1 second before the event, everything goes black. My heart stops........the next thing I know is I am waking up...it is very peaceful. like all of the stress is out of my body. Then, I notice the people around me talking. Three times, there was someone compressing my chest; once I had paddles on me (that was in the hospital for something else).

For most people, this would be called fainting, but for me, my heart stops for 20-50 seconds; the last time it happened I was in a medical office getting a test (stress test), so I was wired up. Now, I have a pacemaker. It should not happen again.

For me, there was no light, only darkness, emptiness. But there was no passing of time. I can not tell if I was out for 10 seconds or 10 minutes.

It depends on how long you were clinically dead for. Those who died for just a few seconds or a minute say they were in a dark peaceful void. Those who had longer NDE's seem to say they had that too, but then later they saw a bright light and their soul was pulled toward it.

I thought time didn't matter.

After all, there really is no such thing as time, yes? It's a social construct.