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Who's in hell? Pastor's book sparks eternal debate

danarhea

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DURHAM, N.C. (AP) -- When Chad Holtz lost his old belief in hell, he also lost his job.
The pastor of a rural United Methodist church in North Carolina wrote a note on his Facebook page supporting a new book by Rob Bell, a prominent young evangelical pastor and critic of the traditional view of hell as a place of eternal torment for billions of damned souls.

Two days later, Holtz was told complaints from church members prompted his dismissal from Marrow's Chapel in Henderson.

Does Gandhi go to hell? I don't really know. That's for another thread, but let's get right down to the nitty gritty. How about Protestants and Catholics? I was brought up Baptist, and my wife was brought up Catholic. When we were ready to get married, her priest refused to perform the ceremony, and told me to my face that I was about to drag her to hell. My Baptist preacher took a different tack. He smiled at her, instead of condemning. However, he took me aside, out of earshot of Carol, and said he couldn't do the ceremony because she was Catholic, and told me that she was going to hell if she didn't give up being Catholic. She and I got married in a Christian reformed church, after telling both the Baptist preacher and Catholic priest to take a hike.

So who goes to hell? I'm not really sure, but that Baptist preacher and Catholic priest sure seem to have a leg up on many people. But they are men of God, right? And God's word is infallible, right? So which one of them is the blasphemer? I would say that both of them are. The Bible says that a man takes a wife, and that's that. And I don't care if my wife was from some Pacific Island, and grew up wearing a bone in her nose. Sometimes I think that the cannibal in his or her own society has the capacity to be more moral than the churchgoer in ours. How many people have died because Protestants and Catholics started wars over religion? Show me a place in the Bible that says this is OK. All I see is something called the 6th Commandment. But that didn't stop Torquemada from torturing hundreds of thousands of people to death, and performing the first Holocaust of the Jews in Europe, did it? Didn't stop the 30 years war either, which began in 1617. And aside from Catholic vs. Protestant, what about Protestant vs. Protestant? It didn't stop the Civil War, or lynchings of African-Americans by the KKK, or the belief, arrived at by torturing the meaning of the Bible, that African-Americans where somehow racially inferior to white people. I could go on, but you get my drift.

So, who is going to heaven, and who is going to hell? I can't tell you who is going to hell, but if history is any indication, I would assert that my mythical Pacific Island cannibal has a better chance of getting into heaven than some people who dare to call themselves Christians.

Discussion?

Article is here.
 
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Clearly only those who kneel before His Holiness the Flying Spaghetti Monster are the ones who make it to heaven. Anyone who has not been touched by His Noodly Apendage is for sure to taste eternal damnation!
 
Does Gandhi go to hell? I don't really know. That's for another thread, but let's get right down to the nitty gritty. How about Protestants and Catholics? I was brought up Baptist, and my wife was brought up Catholic. When we were ready to get married, her priest refused to perform the ceremony, and told me to my face that I was about to drag her to hell. My Baptist preacher took a different tack. He smiled at her, instead of condemning. However, he took me aside, out of earshot of Carol, and said he couldn't do the ceremony because she was Catholic, and told me that she was going to hell if she didn't give up being Catholic. She and I got married in a Christian reformed church, after telling both the Baptist preacher and Catholic priest to take a hike.

So who goes to hell? I'm not really sure, but that Baptist preacher and Catholic priest sure seem to have a leg up on many people. But they are men of God, right? And God's word is infallible, right? So which one of them is the blasphemer? I would say that both of them are. The Bible says that a man takes a wife, and that's that. And I don't care if my wife was from some Pacific Island, and grew up wearing a bone in her nose. Sometimes I think that the cannibal in his or her own society has the capacity to be more moral than the churchgoer in ours. How many people have died because Protestants and Catholics started wars over religion? Show me a place in the Bible that says this is OK. All I see is something called the 6th Commandment. But that didn't stop Torquemada from torturing hundreds of thousands of people to death, and performing the first Holocaust of the Jews in Europe, did it? Didn't stop the 30 years war either, which began in 1617. And aside from Catholic vs. Protestant, what about Protestant vs. Protestant? It didn't stop the Civil War, or lynchings of African-Americans by the KKK, or the belief, arrived at by torturing the meaning of the Bible, that African-Americans where somehow racially inferior to white people. I could go on, but you get my drift.

So, who is going to heaven, and who is going to hell? I can't tell you who is going to hell, but if history is any indication, I would assert that my mythical Pacific Island cannibal has a better chance of getting into heaven than some people who dare to call themselves Christians.

Discussion?

Article is here.

I believe the current Catholic take on it is that they can't know who is in hell as that is up to God.
 
I don't know, none of us know. And that's the short, and simple version.
 
Does Gandhi go to hell? I don't really know. That's for another thread, but let's get right down to the nitty gritty. How about Protestants and Catholics? I was brought up Baptist, and my wife was brought up Catholic. When we were ready to get married, her priest refused to perform the ceremony, and told me to my face that I was about to drag her to hell. My Baptist preacher took a different tack. He smiled at her, instead of condemning. However, he took me aside, out of earshot of Carol, and said he couldn't do the ceremony because she was Catholic, and told me that she was going to hell if she didn't give up being Catholic. She and I got married in a Christian reformed church, after telling both the Baptist preacher and Catholic priest to take a hike.

So who goes to hell? I'm not really sure, but that Baptist preacher and Catholic priest sure seem to have a leg up on many people. But they are men of God, right? And God's word is infallible, right? So which one of them is the blasphemer? I would say that both of them are. The Bible says that a man takes a wife, and that's that. And I don't care if my wife was from some Pacific Island, and grew up wearing a bone in her nose. Sometimes I think that the cannibal in his or her own society has the capacity to be more moral than the churchgoer in ours. How many people have died because Protestants and Catholics started wars over religion? Show me a place in the Bible that says this is OK. All I see is something called the 6th Commandment. But that didn't stop Torquemada from torturing hundreds of thousands of people to death, and performing the first Holocaust of the Jews in Europe, did it? Didn't stop the 30 years war either, which began in 1617. And aside from Catholic vs. Protestant, what about Protestant vs. Protestant? It didn't stop the Civil War, or lynchings of African-Americans by the KKK, or the belief, arrived at by torturing the meaning of the Bible, that African-Americans where somehow racially inferior to white people. I could go on, but you get my drift.

So, who is going to heaven, and who is going to hell? I can't tell you who is going to hell, but if history is any indication, I would assert that my mythical Pacific Island cannibal has a better chance of getting into heaven than some people who dare to call themselves Christians.

Discussion?

Article is here.

it's my belief that no religion trumps another. unfortunately, we have some very deluded people who belive that THEIR religion is the only way to avoid hell. whcih is ridiculous on it's face, after all, would god REALLY choose a catholic over a muslim, or a jew, just on the basis of their religion? of course not, just as god wouldn't expect us to able to sort out which religion was "correct". religion is man made, therefore suspect.
 
I'm down with love winning. It sounds a lot nicer than all the hate I hear about so often.
 
I don't know that I believe in hell. It seems like an unlikely place considering how much our choices and actions are influenced by our experiences. It doesn't make sense to have a place where people whose experiences lead them to make "wrong" decisions burn for eternity. By that logic, the class war between the rich and the poor might carry on in the afterlife considering how crime increases in poor neighborhoods. I don't know. If I were God, I would just make everybody watch the pain they caused other people, watch the consequences of that pain (seen and unseen), make everybody work off their asshole behavior and then let everybody in heaven.

In the end, the concept of hell seems very nonsensical to me considering how many external forces influence our behavior - in spite of the fact that the priests who taught me in high school insisted that I was already well on my way to that fiery place.
 
Anyone who has not been forgiven of sin will be sent to hell because of those sins. The only way to be forgiven is to repent before God. Jesus is the only one who can forgive sin, thus everyone but repentant and forgiven Christians will go to hell. God's love and Grace is strong enough to forgive any sin, however in order to be forgiven we must repent and believe in Jesus and the sacrifice He made. Only God and the individual knows if they are saved, so it's not our place to judge. However, all others will go to hell for their unforgiven sins because their sins prevent them from being in God's Presence and demand judgement. I do believe that this pastor should have been fired.
 
Anyone who has not been forgiven of sin will be sent to hell because of those sins. The only way to be forgiven is to repent before God. Jesus is the only one who can forgive sin, thus everyone but repentant and forgiven Christians will go to hell. God's love and Grace is strong enough to forgive any sin, however in order to be forgiven we must repent and believe in Jesus and the sacrifice He made. Only God and the individual knows if they are saved, so it's not our place to judge. However, all others will go to hell for their unforgiven sins because their sins prevent them from being in God's Presence and demand judgement. I do believe that this pastor should have been fired.

And what about the Jews? Here is something you didn't know. Do you know where the books of the law were kept, after God handed them down to Moses? Underneath the judgement seat, where God sat, in the Holy of Holies. Bet you didn't know that this is the first documented instance of the term "above the law". And God IS above the law. So while he made harsh laws calling for death for certain crimes, those laws were kept under the seat where he sat. God IS above the law, and the Jews received Grace from God, despite what the law said. After all, God IS above it.
 
And what about the Jews? Here is something you didn't know. Do you know where the books of the law were kept, after God handed them down to Moses? Underneath the judgement seat, where God sat, in the Holy of Holies. Bet you didn't know that this is the first documented instance of the term "above the law". And God IS above the law. So while he made harsh laws calling for death for certain crimes, those laws were kept under the seat where he sat. God IS above the law, and the Jews received Grace from God, despite what the law said. After all, God IS above it.

Yes, however the Jewish faith brought salvation before Christ came. Jesus was the fulfillment of the law. Biblically, the dead who followed the Law were sent to paradise and not brought into heaven until Jesus had died on the cross (meaning those in paradise finally had their sins atoned for). The Law was powerless to forgive sin. However, the Law brought about salvation before Christ and after Christ those who followed the Law were finally able to enter heaven after sin had been truly defeated by the Messiah. God is the Judge, the maker of the Law. He handed down the Law of Moses and gave punishments for sin. However, God also said that He would rather have people repent of sin and live versus people sin and die for it. God is merciful, but He is not a liar. Sin must be judged, and the only way to escape judgement is to have our sins absolved through repentance and because of the atonement of Christ who took that judgement for all people.
 
Does Gandhi go to hell? I don't really know. That's for another thread, but let's get right down to the nitty gritty. How about Protestants and Catholics? I was brought up Baptist, and my wife was brought up Catholic. When we were ready to get married, her priest refused to perform the ceremony, and told me to my face that I was about to drag her to hell. My Baptist preacher took a different tack. He smiled at her, instead of condemning. However, he took me aside, out of earshot of Carol, and said he couldn't do the ceremony because she was Catholic, and told me that she was going to hell if she didn't give up being Catholic. She and I got married in a Christian reformed church, after telling both the Baptist preacher and Catholic priest to take a hike.

So who goes to hell? I'm not really sure, but that Baptist preacher and Catholic priest sure seem to have a leg up on many people. But they are men of God, right? And God's word is infallible, right? So which one of them is the blasphemer? I would say that both of them are. The Bible says that a man takes a wife, and that's that. And I don't care if my wife was from some Pacific Island, and grew up wearing a bone in her nose. Sometimes I think that the cannibal in his or her own society has the capacity to be more moral than the churchgoer in ours. How many people have died because Protestants and Catholics started wars over religion? Show me a place in the Bible that says this is OK. All I see is something called the 6th Commandment. But that didn't stop Torquemada from torturing hundreds of thousands of people to death, and performing the first Holocaust of the Jews in Europe, did it? Didn't stop the 30 years war either, which began in 1617. And aside from Catholic vs. Protestant, what about Protestant vs. Protestant? It didn't stop the Civil War, or lynchings of African-Americans by the KKK, or the belief, arrived at by torturing the meaning of the Bible, that African-Americans where somehow racially inferior to white people. I could go on, but you get my drift.

So, who is going to heaven, and who is going to hell? I can't tell you who is going to hell, but if history is any indication, I would assert that my mythical Pacific Island cannibal has a better chance of getting into heaven than some people who dare to call themselves Christians.

Discussion?

Article is here.

God's word is infallible, but I don't know about anyone else but I have never heard the words of God. All I have ever heard are the words in the Bible written by people many years after the fact, or by Priests or Pastors based on what they read in the Bible and then interpret.

The Bible needs to be taken as a guide line with general rules and metaphors for us to live by.

If we did nothing else we would live by the Golden Rule which is the same in at least 21 religions that I an aware of.

Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.

If we all did this we would see an end to war murder all fighting etc.

Some things I know to be true and others i just believe.

I died for several minutes in 1984 and had an OBE in connection with the NDE so I know there is more after this life is over.

I also know that we can have Hell right here on earth, because I have lived it, when I let things others did get to me until I remembered that Christ Jesus died for my sins and made it possible for me see there is more out there for me if I trust in him and not let the sins of others affect what I do and feel.

A Priest and a Pastor who refuse to celebrate in the joining of two hearts have missed the point of Christianity and are judging rather than embracing it with the love Jesus would have.

I am not extremely religious, however I consider myself to be Spiritual and open to most everything.

We need to read the Bible and always ask what is it saying, because it's not to be taken work for word or we end up Radicals. Also I believe the New Testament was created as a reform because if you have read the whole Bible you know there was a major shift in attitude from the old to the new Testaments.

One used threats and intimidation and the New uses Love and welcoming to gain compliance.

Sorry to go on so long but this is what I believe.
 
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I do not beleive Hell exists in the way most pictures portray it. Fire, pitch forks and demons are not part of Gods plan.

Living withough Gods love is hell.
 
God's word is infallible, but I don't know about anyone else but I have never heard the words of God. All I have ever heard are the words in the Bible written by people many years after the fact, or by Priests or Pastors based on what they read in the Bible and then interpret.

The Bible needs to be taken as a guide line with general rules and metaphors for us to live by.

If we did nothing else we would live by the Golden Rule which is the same in at least 21 religions that I an aware of.

Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.

If we all did this we would see an end to war murder all fighting etc.

Some things I know to be true and others i just believe.

I died for several minutes in 1984 and had an OBE in connection with the NDE so I know there is more after this life is over.

I also know that we can have Hell right here on earth, because I have lived it, when I let things others did get to me until I remembered that Christ Jesus died for my sins and made it possible for me see there is more out there for me if I trust in him and not let the sins of others affect what I do and feel.

A Priest and a Pastor who refuse to celebrate in the joining of two hearts have missed the point of Christianity and are judging rather than embracing it with the love Jesus would have.

I am not extremely religious, however I consider myself to be Spiritual and open to most everything.

We need to read the Bible and always ask what is it saying, because it's not to be taken work for word or we end up Radicals. Also I believe the New Testament was created as a reform because if you have read the whole Bible you know there was a major shift in attitude from the old to the new Testaments.

One used threats and intimidation and the New uses Love and welcoming to gain compliance.

Sorry to go on so long but this is what I believe.

Nicely said.
 
Does Gandhi go to hell? I don't really know. That's for another thread, but let's get right down to the nitty gritty. How about Protestants and Catholics? I was brought up Baptist, and my wife was brought up Catholic. When we were ready to get married, her priest refused to perform the ceremony, and told me to my face that I was about to drag her to hell. My Baptist preacher took a different tack. He smiled at her, instead of condemning. However, he took me aside, out of earshot of Carol, and said he couldn't do the ceremony because she was Catholic, and told me that she was going to hell if she didn't give up being Catholic. She and I got married in a Christian reformed church, after telling both the Baptist preacher and Catholic priest to take a hike.

So who goes to hell? I'm not really sure, but that Baptist preacher and Catholic priest sure seem to have a leg up on many people. But they are men of God, right? And God's word is infallible, right? So which one of them is the blasphemer? I would say that both of them are. The Bible says that a man takes a wife, and that's that. And I don't care if my wife was from some Pacific Island, and grew up wearing a bone in her nose. Sometimes I think that the cannibal in his or her own society has the capacity to be more moral than the churchgoer in ours. How many people have died because Protestants and Catholics started wars over religion? Show me a place in the Bible that says this is OK. All I see is something called the 6th Commandment. But that didn't stop Torquemada from torturing hundreds of thousands of people to death, and performing the first Holocaust of the Jews in Europe, did it? Didn't stop the 30 years war either, which began in 1617. And aside from Catholic vs. Protestant, what about Protestant vs. Protestant? It didn't stop the Civil War, or lynchings of African-Americans by the KKK, or the belief, arrived at by torturing the meaning of the Bible, that African-Americans where somehow racially inferior to white people. I could go on, but you get my drift.

So, who is going to heaven, and who is going to hell? I can't tell you who is going to hell, but if history is any indication, I would assert that my mythical Pacific Island cannibal has a better chance of getting into heaven than some people who dare to call themselves Christians.

Discussion?

Article is here.

please please please let this be a popup book.
 
I gave up on belief precisely because of this question, an emotional reaction more than a logical one at the time. No way I could go onto the afterlife fulfilled if all the buddies and loved ones I've met in my time were consigned to damnation on account of differing beliefs or vice versa for that matter. Give up on people I actually built relationships with for a "father" I never met? No thanks, not sure eternal salvation can make up for that sort of betrayal.
 
"There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, in the end, 'Thy will be done.' All that are in Hell chose it."

C.S. Lewis
The Great Divorce
 
Anyone who has not been forgiven of sin will be sent to hell because of those sins. The only way to be forgiven is to repent before God. Jesus is the only one who can forgive sin, thus everyone but repentant and forgiven Christians will go to hell. God's love and Grace is strong enough to forgive any sin, however in order to be forgiven we must repent and believe in Jesus and the sacrifice He made. Only God and the individual knows if they are saved, so it's not our place to judge. However, all others will go to hell for their unforgiven sins because their sins prevent them from being in God's Presence and demand judgement. I do believe that this pastor should have been fired.
it is posts like this which cause me concern
the young forum member is bright and articulate
yet an otherwise objective person is able to hold such a certaintude about a topic about which no one can be certain
to me, this is the cause of much political strife in our world, at present, in the past, and if that belief in certainty does not change, in the future
 
Does Gandhi go to hell? I don't really know. That's for another thread, but let's get right down to the nitty gritty. How about Protestants and Catholics? I was brought up Baptist, and my wife was brought up Catholic. When we were ready to get married, her priest refused to perform the ceremony, and told me to my face that I was about to drag her to hell. My Baptist preacher took a different tack. He smiled at her, instead of condemning. However, he took me aside, out of earshot of Carol, and said he couldn't do the ceremony because she was Catholic, and told me that she was going to hell if she didn't give up being Catholic. She and I got married in a Christian reformed church, after telling both the Baptist preacher and Catholic priest to take a hike.

So who goes to hell? I'm not really sure, but that Baptist preacher and Catholic priest sure seem to have a leg up on many people. But they are men of God, right? And God's word is infallible, right? So which one of them is the blasphemer? I would say that both of them are. The Bible says that a man takes a wife, and that's that. And I don't care if my wife was from some Pacific Island, and grew up wearing a bone in her nose. Sometimes I think that the cannibal in his or her own society has the capacity to be more moral than the churchgoer in ours. How many people have died because Protestants and Catholics started wars over religion? Show me a place in the Bible that says this is OK. All I see is something called the 6th Commandment. But that didn't stop Torquemada from torturing hundreds of thousands of people to death, and performing the first Holocaust of the Jews in Europe, did it? Didn't stop the 30 years war either, which began in 1617. And aside from Catholic vs. Protestant, what about Protestant vs. Protestant? It didn't stop the Civil War, or lynchings of African-Americans by the KKK, or the belief, arrived at by torturing the meaning of the Bible, that African-Americans where somehow racially inferior to white people. I could go on, but you get my drift.

So, who is going to heaven, and who is going to hell? I can't tell you who is going to hell, but if history is any indication, I would assert that my mythical Pacific Island cannibal has a better chance of getting into heaven than some people who dare to call themselves Christians.

Discussion?

Article is here.

Strong contrasts in basic world views such as these are the main reason mixed-religion marriages fail.
 
Clearly only those who kneel before His Holiness the Flying Spaghetti Monster are the ones who make it to heaven. Anyone who has not been touched by His Noodly Apendage is for sure to taste eternal damnation!

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lol
 
it's my belief that no religion trumps another.

Which means they're going to hell regardless, so **** it, do what ever you want.
 
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I'm down with love winning.

The eternal flames of hell are the flames of luuuuuvvvv, maaaaan. It's like, like eternaly burning in louuuuvvvvvv maaaannnn. GroooOOOoooovey maaaaannnnNNnn.
 
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