I really am looking to understand God, but not this God that humans teach, but the real God of Love , Joy and Peace. Not this God of eternal hell punishing, but the God of Patience, forgiveness and Mercy. You know, the real God, not this insane lunatic that many are trying to pass God off as being. You know, this lunatic that will place humans in this eternal Pain amphlipier and punish them for billions upon trillions of untold time and on into infinity. I just can't imagine how out of control this hell fire belief has gotten. And how much these bloodthirsty christians who teach it have ruined Gods reputation.
The eternal punishing of anything, muchless a human, is a sick concept, yet many believers have swallowed it into their belief, hook, line and sinker. And THAT is evidence of just how much foolishness we will absorb.
Peace.
michiel,
I must say that you are perspicacious, for many have read the same scriptures and do not understand the simple facts as you expressed them.
Most claimed christians are not really trying to be mean, when they speak of eternal punishment, they just lack understanding of God's way and His word.
To corroberate your thinking, please consider a few scriptures.
1John 4:8, says that God IS LOVE. Notice that this scripture does not say that God has an attribute of love, like it is said in the scriptures when giving descriptive names for God, called Proper Adjectives. This scripture says that GOD IS LOVE!!! This alone assures us that God would never punish people FOREVER, for wrongs they committed over a few decades, at the most. The fact is God has had His writers record that exact fact, at Rom 6:7, which says that when a person dies he is ACQUITTED from his sin. When someone is acquitted, it means he does not pay, in any way, for the things he did anymore. At Rom 6:23 the Bible tells us that the wages of sin is DEATH, so when we die we have paid the ultimate price for his sins. Nothing more is owed, either by the sinner or by God. The person sinned, he received his wages, DEATH.
The real reason for this malentendu is interpreters of the Greek word Hades. The word Hell is a corruption of the Greek word. The original word had no meaning of punishment to the Greek speaking people. This Greek word Hades has the exact meaning of the Hebrew word Sheol. This is estabolished by comparing Ps 16:10 with Acts 2:27,31. Notice that these scriptures are telling us that Jesus went into Hades, or Hell for parts of three days. Since Jesus was perfect all his life and never sinned, he definitely would not have spent one second in a place of torment.
Another point on this is what Job said at Job 14:13-15, where Job was asking to go sheol to get out of the torment he was in. Think, if he was going into a hell as explained by most religious teachers, would he ask to got there and wait until God would get over His anger and call him back from death, because God would have a yearning to see Job again.
A couple of other scriptures about Jehovah God's righteousness. Consider Deut 32:4, which says that God is just and righteous in every dealing, Ps 86:5,15, Job 34:10,12.
The truth is; God will not torture anyone, man or angel!!!
So, exactly what does the Bible indicate as the punishment for unrepentant sinners??
Remember that the wages for sin is death!!! Rom 6:23. This is made very clear at 2Thess 1:6-9, with the emphysis on verse 9, which tells us that the judicial punishment is EVERLASTING DESTRUCTION, not everlasting life in punishment. Consider also what we are told at Rev 20:14,15, where we are told that everyone whose name is not in the Book of Life will be thrown into the Lake of Fire and Sulfur, THE SECOND DEATH!!! The picture of the smoke coming from the Lake of Fire is a symbol that tells us that nothing thrown there will ever come out, because the fare is always burning.
God's purpose is to make this earth a paradise. This cannot happen unless the earth is rid of people who just will not listen, Isa 11:1-9, Isa 26:10, Isa 65:17,25, Rom 3:5,5, 2Pet 3:7, Rev 21:1-4, Luke 23:43.