I think the only reason it has been thrown off track is we have been told to use the Bible as our only source of reference, yet the Bible has gone under many changes, I mean in the start God was both good and evil...
Satan only really came about in the New Testament...
HellGod was the person who cast you to hell...
Luke 12:5 records Jesus speaking about God's Judgment "But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear, Fear Him, which after He hath killed hath Power to cast into Hell, yea, I say unto you, Fear Him."
and then again in Paul's letter:-
"The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with His mighty angels, In flaming fire taking Vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the Presence of the Lord, and from the Glory of his Power" (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9)
Descriptions of Hell found in the Bible are quite vague. The books of
Matthew,
Mark, and
Jude tell of a place of fire, while the books of
Luke and
Revelation report it as an abyss... So you see my confussion, different passages of text give a very different view.
Some Christian devinations of the Bible just state Hell as being a life without God or isolation like pergatory:-
As opposed to the concept of Purgatory, damnation to Hell is considered final and irreversible. However, the foundation of the Christian faith is that it is the death of Jesus Christ, and acceptance of his love for us, that allows repentant sinners to avoid the torments of Hell and enjoy eternity with God. Various interpretations of the torments of Hell exist, ranging from fiery pits of wailing sinners to lonely isolation from God's presence.
HeavenHeaven has just as much confussion, it changed many a time in scripture From the 16th to the late 19th century depending on the difference's between the Roman Catholic view, the Orthodox view, the Coptic view, the Jacobite view, the Abyssinian view and Protestant views...
All of these can't be correct...
The Bible as a wholeFor those reason's above and I have said time and time again, the Bible has been altered way to much for us to use it to govern or hold close to religious scripture... And for us to only use Christinaity to say if Heaven or Hell exsists is a little hard, when the Bible is so Vauge ?
(Most of the above I used Wikki quotes and passages, I am not good at putting into words every thing I have read or researched... But I have done the cutting and pasting to show my train of thaught)
ataraxy2 &
DSBoth of you are good debator's... you often back up yor claims with hard proof...
33% of the world is Christian...
Many of those live in area's the Bible is not readily avialable:-
So
DS's Claim to 1% having read it could be generous as she states... Most people I know use the Bible more as reference rather than a read cover from cover... and many I know disregard much of it... If you look at the above map, 1% is tiny so I can see why
ataraxy2 doubts your claim... But at the same time the only people I know to read the full scripture would be priests and those terminally ill, or slightly mental.
I don't see how we can have a Debate on Heaven and Hell based on writtings and passages of Christian faith with it being so Vauge without using our own opinion's and idea's.
Either way both of you stop bitching...LOL
ID is for opinion's and debate, without no opposing side there would be no debate, you both need each other...LOL