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I need to take God and His Son Jesus very seriously. There will be a day of judgement. There is a place called hell.
I may be persecuted for following Jesus. They may kill me. That shouldn’t bother me, and I shouldn’t fear it at all.
“Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” | Matthew 10:28
All that men can do is kill the body; and, if they do, the believer’s soul goes home to be with the Master. But God is able to destroy both body and soul in hell! Of course, God will never condemn one of His own children. I do need to respect God and know that His judgement will be true. Following Jesus is the solution.
Martin Luther caught this truth when he wrote:
Let goods and kindred go,
This mortal life also;
The body they may kill:
God’s truth abideth still;
His kingdom is forever.
The person who fears God alone need never fear any man or group of men. The fear of God is the fear that cancels fear.
- Deuteronomy 4:23–24 — 23 “So watch yourselves, that you do not forget the covenant of the Master your God which He made with you, and make for yourselves a graven image in the form of anything against which the Master your God has commanded you. 24 “For the Master your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.”
- Isaiah 8:12–13 — 12 “You are not to say, ‘It is a conspiracy!’ In regard to all that this people call a conspiracy, And you are not to fear what they fear or be in dread of it. 13 “It is the Master of hosts whom you should regard as holy. And He shall be your fear, And He shall be your dread.”
Jesus offers a decisive proof that there is a hell for the body as well as the soul in the eternal world; in other words, that the torment that awaits the lost will have elements of suffering adapted to the material as well as the spiritual part of our nature, both of which, we are assured, will exist for ever.
In the corresponding warning contained in Luke (Luke 12:4), Jesus calls His disciples “My friends,” as if He had felt that such sufferings constituted a bond of peculiar tenderness between Him and them.
What a life, you go through your whole life or what’s left of it loving an ancient God of a primitive people that is strongly understood to not exist outside of the faithful theists head. You hope you are good enough to get to heaven, however you do not know you will be judged definitely to go to heaven, for some reason such as worshipping the wrong deity or for excess sinning you may end up in hell, but also in the back of your mind you do not know if heaven and hell are real, not to mention the rest of the ideology.
It is reassuring to know that many of you are comforted and controlled by God’s guidance and your congregations because there are many in your Christian ranks who must be under considerable stress and discomfort who try very hard to get to what is currently proven to be only a mythical heaven but cannot find God inside their heart.
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Steve. Nothing you have said represents Christian faith. Hell is real but no believer in Jesus lives in fear of being good enough to avoid it. We can’t be good enough. That is what Jesus did by His work at Calvary. Of course, if you had read the Gospel of John as you said you would, you would understand that. Meanwhile, you rely only on what others say ABOUT the Bible. Sheesh, and you carry on about how Christians are indoctrinated and only believe what their leaders tell them. Lol you worship at the altar of Richard Dawkins.
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Heaven and hell or similar concepts were manufactured by man far earlier than Jewish, Christian or Muslim religions. Just as heaven and many biblical stories the ideals extended from the worlds of ancient Greek and many pagan religions. Check out the real history yourself Wally, even the Pope and your friend insanitybytes22 has figured out that hell does not exist as a pit of fire for all atheists, sorry to disappoint you.
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Steve. Go back. Read my comment. Respond to it. You characterized the minds of believers in ways that are not so. Your hubris in declaring what is in other’s minds is amazing.
To wit. You stated believers live in a state of fear concerning whether they will merit heaven. That is false. So either retract it or prove what you said Biblically.
To wit. You stated that it is always in the back of believers minds that heaven and hell might not be true. How on earth would you know this? Its certainly not in mine and I am sure not in Michael’s. Again, either prove your assertion or retract it.
Try again and this time read what was asked of you. I bet Michaels patience with nonsensical atheist sermons will be shortlived
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It is very short lived. I stand by the article. Hell is not a special place for atheists. This isn’t an atheist issue. People choose to live their life apart from God here on earth. Unfortunately, they will also get their wish for eternity. God isn’t picking on atheists. We have the choice to choose God or not. There is good news for you however. You can change your mind, act differently and start the journey to real life through Jesus.
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I understand Michael, that it is not just atheists but everyone else who is not a bonified practicing Christian, this would make a lot of people condemned to hell.
What I do not understand is how you can ignore the facts about how the Christian heaven and hell models came from older established beliefs in the supernatural world. Have you thought if the old Gods and the Gods worshipped in this century have the same effects on their worshippers as your Christian God does on you, does this not explain that it is all inside your own heads or in fact all Gods are really the same God?
Wally claims no doubts are in the back of his mind, but then his one dimensional thought in regard to life will always be the one and only way for him.
As you say, people can make a choice to have faith without question and good on them if it helps, as I think it comes down to peoples characters and needs in life, and it works very well for some, but personally I could never give up what I know is true about the world, the equality of people and the scientific facts regarding the basic reality of life and death and then suddenly change to have faith in what is just another ancient religious story.
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Reblogged this on Talmidimblogging.
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Thanks for speaking honestly brother.
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Preach it
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Oh you listened to Wally and blocked my comment, he is good at that, he gets worried someone will lose their faith.
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I didn’t block anything. You can see that because this got posted.
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I apologise, the comment must have been delayed in the wordpress system. I do not mean to be a persistent pest to you and you have the right to do as you please, however I do blog on certain issues that I find interesting and fascinating about your faith, even though I may find them unbelievable or impossible.
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