Heaven or Hell | The choice is yours

[InChrist]

Have you read the OT? I don't know many who would argue against him being a big meanie head. He changed his image a bit when he came to Earth as his own son but when it comes to salvation, he's still OT. Bow down and kiss my feet or go to Hell. I rejected this God back when I was a teenager. I've since learned that there are many paths to the same truth and each persons path is just a legitamate as the next persons. You path is correct for you and it will get you to your destination. Your only mistake is in condemning others for not taking your path.

I really think you have a flawed concept of God as revealed in the scriptures, but I doubt that I can change your mind.

I am not condemning you or others as I have absolutely no right to do so. I''m just saying that God as the Creator of heaven and earth has the right and obligation to tell His creatures how to find Him if He wants us to find Him. If there is one true God then it is only logical that there is one way to reach Him. When I give directions to my house I always give the same directions. If I gave each person different directions I wouldn't expect them to find the right house,instead I'd probably get them lost or send them to the wrong place. It's not my path or my idea. I had to personally stop wandering along my own paths and take God's revealed directions when He showed them to me.

 

[obi one]

The reason I ask is, when I was growing up overseas I had lots of muslim friends. When I returned to the states the Baptist said all my friends were going to Hell and I should get baptised and join the church or I would go to Hell too. Eventually I told them I would rather go to Hell with my friends than Heaven with them. I just wondered if anyone else felt the same.

I went to a Catholic grade school in the 1950's, before the ecumenical council, whereas churches, living in glass houses, decided to quit throwing stones. At that time, the Catholic nun's taught that all my protestant friends would go to hell because they were not Catholic. I am sure that if I had muslim friends at the time, they would have been included. My reaction, unlike yours, was to determine that the Catholic Church didn't know what they were talking about, and I have kept that determination for the rest of my life.
As per the concept of hell, and purgatory, as taught by the churches, that concept comes from Dante, and not Scripture. Sheol, or hell, of the OT, was the place outside Jerusalem were they threw the dead bodies and burnt them. The Lake of Fire in Revelation is the location of the 2nd death after judgement. There is no everlasting punishment except for the false prophet and the beast. No one else thrown in the lake of fire had everlasting life, therefore, no everlasting punishment.

 

[Trey of Diamonds]

My reaction, unlike yours, was to determine that the Catholic Church didn't know what they were talking about, and I have kept that determination for the rest of my life.

Um, why is your reaction different than mine? I rejected the Baptist Church and have done so ever since high school.

 

[InChrist]

I do not need to choose. "Hell" does not exist, such a thing defies the existience of a rational god. What god would make eternal and infinite punishment for temporal and finite crimes? Overkill much?

I use the word "Hell" to mean the earth, as it means "below", as opposed to the Heavens, which means the Universe considered as a whole.

So "Hell" as punishment does not exist to me, so I need to ask myself this.

BUT, to actually answer? I would choose heaven so that I could annoy and accuse the evangelists like a good satan (accuser and adversary in English) does.



True.

Rather than use the word hell it may be more appropriate to say separated. According to the bible there are two options: with God the Creator or apart from God the Creator. One will be eternal life and inexpressible joy and the other will be eternal death and terrible suffering. The suffering is the result of being separated from one's Creator and source of all that is life, joy, beauty, peace, and love.

 

[Trey of Diamonds]

Rather than use the word hell it may be more appropriate to say separated. According to the bible there are two options: with God the Creator or apart from God the Creator. One will be eternal life and inexpressible joy and the other will be eternal death and terrible suffering. The suffering is the result of being separated from one's Creator and source of all that is life, joy, beauty, peace, and love.

Are we not separated from the creator here on Earth?

 

[Literate Peasant]

Lets say you die and find out that there really is a Heaven and a Hell. Lets also say that you're told Hell is full of all your friends and those few family members you actually like while Heaven is full of all those self righteous evangelicals you despise. Now, you're given a choice; Heaven or Hell? Which would you choose? Why?

This is an easy choice. I'll take door number two. An eternity sitting around in the clouds with the evangelicals is too painful to even imagine.