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For those of you who believe in eternal torment for the unsaved, why do you want to do that?
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I think the way you phrase the question may be provocative. The impression is that people want to believe something terrifying or horrific.
I want to believe what the Bible teaches without being swayed by personal preference one way or another.
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I just don't understand why people want to believe that the fate of the unsaved is to spend eternity in conscious torment when there is no clear scripture to support that belief.
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The words concerning eternal punishment of torment came from the same mouth which spoke such words of compassion, mercy, pardon, patience, forgiveness, and redemption.
For the most part the Person you would have to attribute my belief in eternal perdition to, is Jesus Christ. That same mouth, from whom such words of grace came, also produced the most stern warnings of God's judgment.
You cannot blame my concept of eternal damnation on someone else. You would have to blame my belief in such a horrific end on Jesus.
For such a solemn subject, God reserved its delivery mainly to His Son. No one else could be the main communicator of such a vital matter. And Christ Jesus is the main conveyor of that horrific warning.
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I don’t understand why they try to read into scripture something that makes the loving supreme being of the Bible into a heartless monster.
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That is an accusation against God. And since every careless word which men utter they will give an account of on the day of judgment, you may be called upon to explain your accusation.
Jesus said He would be ashamed of the one who is ashamed of Him and His words. Are you ashamed of His words concerning eternal punishment ? Perhaps one day He will ask you why you were ashamed of His words about this.
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I simply do not understand what there is that makes them want to do that when there is no need to.
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I sincerely want to believe what the Bible teaches. I do not want to see first if I like this or like that. In the process of being conformed to the image of Christ, I figure that what I do not now see through God's eyes, I will eventually see.
When we are fully conformed to the image of Christ we will have the same feeling and opinion. I think I am on the way. I think I am in the process of having my view conformed to His.
I tried to see it through the eyes of Universalist teachers. I tried hard. But it didn't work because I found their teaching to have too many errors. And in some cases I found twistings.
In spite of giving Universalism an honest chance to convince me, it did not.
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Why do they want to believe that a loving supreme being will horribly torture a person for eternity because during their fleeting few years of life they didn’t satisfy certain requirements?
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I don't think that God has only one side to His attributes. You speak about eternal supreme love. But you do not seem to see that eternal supreme righteousness apparently calls for His retribution against those who follow the Devil and his angels.
It makes sense that ultimately you have to lose if you will not be reconciled to perfect righteousness. You cannot be annihilated and win that way. You cannot defeat God. You cannot escape into nonexistence. You must lose.
Eternal perdition is the ultimate losing against perfect righteousness. And as terrible a prospect as it is, there is no other authority beyond, above, transcendent to, or other than God to whom you can appeal.
Eternal perdition means that the cosmic buck stops somewhere. Beyond that point there is no remedy. Now it may not be as easy to fall into that state as some think. But that there is a final absolute end of the line to the Satanic rebellion, does not surprise me.
If there is any redemption after being thrown forever into the lake of fire for not having your name written in the book of life, such has not been revealed to me.
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I just don’t understand why they wouldn’t rather believe that a loving supreme being will wipe the person mercifully out of existence because for some reason they didn’t or couldn’t meet these requirements and didn’t develop or have the potential to develop the right character needed to spend eternity with this supreme being.
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The Bible ends with a great marriage of God and His redeemed creature man. That entity is called the Wife of the Redeeming Lamb and the Bride.
Do you believe that Christ will marry Satan ? Do you believe that the Devil and his angels and those who will not be reconciled to God will comprise that Wife of the Redeemer ?
What passage would you point me to to prove that Satan and his hosts will one day comprise the Bride of Christ? I mean if you believe in a universal salvation to all created beings then you must believe that Satan will one day be in the Bride of Christ.
Eternal perdition is not for the improvement of character. It is for vengeance.
" Rendering vengeance to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
They will pay the penalty of eternal destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His strength." (1 Thess 1:8,9)
Did you see that ? This passage is not about rendering correction or discipline for betterment. It is about revenge. It is about divine "vengeance".
What we have to do is preach the gospel and pray for the unbelievers to be saved from that.
Topic: Conscious Eternal Torment? (Read 8717 times)