Hell
Let’s avoid the argument of if Heaven and Hell even exist.
If one believes in the existence of Hell, one necessarily believes that God does not forgive all sins.
The New American Digest
For Followers of Gerard Van der Leun's Fine Work
Let’s avoid the argument of if Heaven and Hell even exist.
If one believes in the existence of Hell, one necessarily believes that God does not forgive all sins.
Heaven and Hell are here. Right damn here where we are right now.
We make it so. Not only do we make our own, we contribute to
everyone else’s.
If we subscribe to the idea of justice, that individuals should pay for wrongs done, forgiveness loses as much meaning as justice unserved if one is unrepentant of wrongs committed and free to commit additional wrongs.
John Venlet, very well said. Problem is that a great many pablum pukers in the pulpit do not see it that way.
DT, what brought this on?
Stray thoughts in the night.
ah yes, pondering will do that.
The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
— 2 Peter 3:9
So, even god doesn’t get what he wants all the time.
I believe we were created with freewill. It is up to us.
It is that pesky free will thing. Not every prodigal son chooses to return home to his Father’s unrestrained joy.
Everybody gets everything he wants, and I wanted a mission. And for my sins they gave me one. Brought it up to me like room service. – Captain Willard
When I was a teenager I considered this, and then rejected the whole idea of Hell. I have since concluded that there is no justice to be had in this world. For many people I suspect, such a conclusion is intolerable: if there is no justice in this world, then there must be in the next, otherwise what’s the point? Even ol’ Job wrestled with this. His buddy Zophar the Naamathite told him “Knowest thou not this of old, since man was placed upon earth, that the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment?” Those are bitter words when a person is the recipient of injustice. So people hoped that God would punish the wicked, if not in this life then the next.
This is what I think now. Injustice happens, and then life must go on. A person has to keep on keepin’ on. Never let them get me down. Never give in, never surrender. Resist all who would divert me from my chosen path. Paul’s words to Timothy are what we all ought to strive for to be able to say at the end: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” What happens after is beyond my ken.