Should believers fear Hell?

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Templar81

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Is it right for believers to fear Hell or should they automatically expect to go to Heaven. I know you can't earn salvation but so many people jsut seem to think that they ahve a free pass to Heaven and I believe that you can't just accept Jesus and then do whatever you like because by committing sins a person rejects Christ and turns to Satan. When they realise what they ahve done and ask for forgiveness Jesus takes them back. Being with God is like riding a horse and sin or the devil is like pot hole in the ground that cause the horse to stumble and throw you off.
 

rockytopva

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23 Then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved? And he said unto them, [sup]24[/sup]Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. - Luke 13:23,24

This word strive supposeth that great idleness is natural to professors; they think to get to heaven by lying, as it were, on their elbows. It also suggesteth that many will be the difficulties that professors will meet with, before they get to heaven. It also concludeth that only the labouring Christian, man or woman, will get in thither. - From John Bunyan's "Straight Gate" (alas! It is a long discourse!)
 

aspen

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23 Then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved? And he said unto them, [sup]24[/sup]Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. - Luke 13:23,24

This word strive supposeth that great idleness is natural to professors; they think to get to heaven by lying, as it were, on their elbows. It also suggesteth that many will be the difficulties that professors will meet with, before they get to heaven. It also concludeth that only the labouring Christian, man or woman, will get in thither. - From John Bunyan's "Straight Gate" (alas! It is a long discourse!)

I think fearing Hell as a believer is counter-productive. After you are justified, instead of having a fatal disease, seemingly without hope, called Hell; we are healed, but can still become sick again if we fail to maintain a healthy relationship with Christ. Hell is a fatal condition of the heart, which can re-surface as symptoms and if ignored, may take complete hold of the heart, once more. Therefore, fearing Hell is sort of like fearing a Chrohn's disease flare up - it doesn't solve anything.
 

Templar81

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Why does their have to be a Hell? Why can't bad people just die and that's the end of it. No crime is worth eternal punnishment/ No judge would sentence a man to infinity in prison for stealing a loaf of bread so why does Hell ahve to be permenant.

I do believe Hell is permenant and ocne your in you'll never get out. I believe that animals just die and that it, but not wiht humans.

I'm terrified of going there even though I'm a Christian. If I wasn't a Christian I don't think i'd be scared of Hell becuse I probably wouldn't believe it.

Am I right to fear Hell?
 

aspen

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Why does their have to be a Hell? Why can't bad people just die and that's the end of it. No crime is worth eternal punnishment/ No judge would sentence a man to infinity in prison for stealing a loaf of bread so why does Hell ahve to be permenant.

I do believe Hell is permenant and ocne your in you'll never get out. I believe that animals just die and that it, but not wiht humans.

I'm terrified of going there even though I'm a Christian. If I wasn't a Christian I don't think i'd be scared of Hell becuse I probably wouldn't believe it.

Am I right to fear Hell?

I used to believe that God was vengeful and actually wanted us all in Hell.......He Son decided to appease Him by dying for us, but we still needed to walk on eggshells around the Father because we might just piss Him off without knowing it and end up in Hell.

I am glad I realized that I was mistaking God for an abusive father. Tiptoeing around a God that is totally in love with us is not necessary. God wants us to regain our true nature - to love perfectly by giving up our habit of choosing the lesser good (sin). He is a good parent and He is faithful.
 

Templar81

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I've always seen it in more or less the same way. God the Father loves us but will think nothing of sending us to Hell for so much as coughing or looking at him funny,

I suppose if God the Father was so hard we wouldn't ahve sent Jesus, the Son to die for us but why is he not angry for us, I eman mankind for killing his son and why isn't Jesus angry for being treated in that way?

If someone killed my son I would really want to hurt them, so why does God let the human race get away with such sacrilige?

All I can think of is that God doesn't blame us for it
 

aspen

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I've always seen it in more or less the same way. God the Father loves us but will think nothing of sending us to Hell for so much as coughing or looking at him funny,

I suppose if God the Father was so hard we wouldn't ahve sent Jesus, the Son to die for us but why is he not angry for us, I eman mankind for killing his son and why isn't Jesus angry for being treated in that way?

If someone killed my son I would really want to hurt them, so why does God let the human race get away with such sacrilige?

All I can think of is that God doesn't blame us for it

Sin is like a disease that we cannot cure on our own, but we are called to manage. God wants us healthy again - like we were in the Garden. He wants the best for us. I look at Jesus dying on the Cross as an expression of God's heart breaking over the sickness we brought on to ourselves.

I think this sickness alienates us from God - we can see evidence throughout the OT of this feeling of alienation - "God is going to abandon Israel", "God is angry because of our sin!" , "God allowed the Babylonians to punish us!" The fact is, this kind of interpretation of God's character actually speaks volumes about the human condition - we feel alienated from God.

So, every time you feel like you are headed for Hell, just remember that God loves you and you need to turn to Him, instead of giving in to the cries of alienation coming from the part of you that still feels our separation from God - it is only an echo from the past.
 

Comm.Arnold

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I've always seen it in more or less the same way. God the Father loves us but will think nothing of sending us to Hell for so much as coughing or looking at him funny,

I suppose if God the Father was so hard we wouldn't ahve sent Jesus, the Son to die for us but why is he not angry for us, I eman mankind for killing his son and why isn't Jesus angry for being treated in that way?

If someone killed my son I would really want to hurt them, so why does God let the human race get away with such sacrilige?

All I can think of is that God doesn't blame us for it

Oh Templar I could kiss you, God is not giving humanity a free pass for killing his son, look what Hitler did to the jews God raised him up to do that. We will all get to watch the world be destroyed as Jesus throws satan into the lake of fire in the awesome time of Revelation !! THE CROOKED JUSTICE SYSTEM OF NORTH AMERICA WILL BE ENDED AT THE WILL OF OUR FATHER IN AN INFERNO OF FIRE AND ASHES.
 

Templar81

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So should I just assume I'm going to heven?

I have feared Hell all my life. It is very deepseated, how do I overcome the fear?
 

aspen

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So should I just assume I'm going to heven?

I have feared Hell all my life. It is very deepseated, how do I overcome the fear?


Learn to see yourself as God sees you. I think the best way to do that is by listening to God in contemplative prayer. Remember, God loves you - you need to learn to love yourself.

 

Templar81

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I know there 's a big time difference between me and most of the other people on thsi forum, so Iit's 11:30 and I just got back from Church, while all you guys are still asleep.

Anyway, I had a cat with another member of my congregation who is really good at counselling and I told her about my concerns about how I was struggling to udnerstand why God loves us. She told me that God sees things very different from us, from a human father for example and thathe doesn't have people brought into the world just to send to Hell.

He does love us, I know he does but soemtimes it just isn't clear why but I ahve to tellmyself that I can't understand everything that God does. It should be enough for me to know that God loves everyone just the same whoever they are and however bad they've been, but I have an analytical mind that just wants to go over and over things until I am completely tied in knots. I will ask God for peace with this.
 

Amazing Grace

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Is it right for believers to fear Hell or should they automatically expect to go to Heaven. I know you can't earn salvation but so many people jsut seem to think that they ahve a free pass to Heaven and I believe that you can't just accept Jesus and then do whatever you like because by committing sins a person rejects Christ and turns to Satan. When they realise what they ahve done and ask for forgiveness Jesus takes them back. Being with God is like riding a horse and sin or the devil is like pot hole in the ground that cause the horse to stumble and throw you off.

The Bible says the "Beginning of Wisdom is fearing the Lord". Why?

MT 10:26 "So do not be afraid of them. There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. 27 What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs. 28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. 30 And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

HEB 10:26 If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. 28 Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who said, "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," and again, "The Lord will judge his people." 31 It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
 

Duckybill

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I think fearing Hell as a believer is counter-productive. After you are justified, instead of having a fatal disease, seemingly without hope, called Hell; we are healed, but can still become sick again if we fail to maintain a healthy relationship with Christ. Hell is a fatal condition of the heart, which can re-surface as symptoms and if ignored, may take complete hold of the heart, once more. Therefore, fearing Hell is sort of like fearing a Chrohn's disease flare up - it doesn't solve anything.
Are you saying you don't believe in a literal Hell?



Am I right to fear Hell?
I would say it won't hurt you, but it might help you a lot.

Proverbs 9:10 (ESV)
[sup]10 [/sup]The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 (ESV)
[sup]13 [/sup]The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. [sup]14 [/sup]For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.


2 Peter 2:4-6 (ESV)
[sup]4 [/sup]For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; [sup]5 [/sup]if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; [sup]6 [/sup]if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly;

Jude 1:5-7 (ESV)
[sup]5 [/sup]Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. [sup]6 [/sup]And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day— [sup]7 [/sup]just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

 

aspen

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Are you saying you don't believe in a literal Hell?



How many times have we had this discussion? I am not going to comment on a literal Hell for the 25th time, but I am starting to believe you might be a literal Duck.
 

Duckybill

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How many times have we had this discussion? I am not going to comment on a literal Hell for the 25th time, but I am starting to believe you might be a literal Duck.
And I still don't know what you believe about Hell. Perhaps you don't want to say? Ok.

 

Duckybill

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Please don't misunderstand me Aspen. I believe you are a loving and caring person. I truly expect to see you in God's eternal Kingdom. It will be GREAT!!!! The doctrine of Hell nor 'the rapture' does not determine salvation IMO. The doctrine of Jesus/God, YES!
 

Cobbler

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Simply - No. Believers should not fear Hell.

This comes from having an assurance of your salvation. If you are worrying that you might be going to hell then you are not in fact "Trusting in Christ" for your salvation.

You need to remember that Christ holds the keys to death, and that "He who acknowledges with his lips that Christ is Lord, and beleives that God raised him from the dead will be saved" - You cannot lose your salvation. Salvation is a gift from God - and if you had to work to keep it then it wouldn't be a gift, if would be a contract.

If you do doubt your salvation - and are in fear of hell - then you need to fully understand the Gospel - as no Christian should be fearing hell.
 

Templar81

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I've ahd several dreas about Hell but only two fo them are vivid.

In one dream I died and went to Heaven, where me and others that had died around the same time found ourselvs in a huge mansion where we were greeted by angels and told to set the tablse ready for a banquet, which we did and we were promised a place at the banquet. Then we had to help get the food ready but when the banquet started we were not allowed to sit down, but told wait on the tables and were assured that we would get to join the others shortly. So we waited the tables and when we had finisehd, the angels told us iwe could join in the banquet once we had done the dishes, so we did the dishes. When that was over, the angels asked us to follow them. We went to the back of the kitchen and down some large ston steps that wound down and down. They went really far and at the bottom they opened up onto a ledge of rock that was hanging over a huge cavern. Looking voer the dge we could see fire licking up the walls and a lake of blood and fire and a huge turning wheel in the middle. people and people were screaming. Joined onto the ledge was a ladder made of bones and the angels ordered us down the ladder into the lake. We all refused so the angels just started throwing people in and some even kicked them off the ledge. They had hold of me, one on each arm and somehow I struggled free and ran back up the steps with the angles just inches behind me. I ran back into the kitchen and then into the banquetting hall and then woke up drenched in sweat. This was about 8 eyars ago.

Then I had another dream where I was standing in a cavern and a black robed figure appeared to me. His robe was like that of a monk and udner the hood his face was a flaming skull/ He told me that he was the angel of death and was bidden to tell me that I was eternally dammed. I laughed at first and told him that as a Christian I could not be dammed. The Angel of death then laughed at me and said that I was a fool because if God wanted to single someone out for damnation then it wouldn't matter what they believed. He said to me, "you will burn forever in Hell because God wills it." Then I woke up and it was Sunday morning and I honestly wonderd if I should even bother to go to Church that day. This was about a year ago and it really did feel real.

Should I dismiss them as dreams or are they warnings? Could they coem from the devil or from God? I really don't know but all I can say is they certainly felt reall at the time and still do.