Simple question: is there a hell? I've butted heads with Blade Runner over whether hell consists of Brim Fires--he says there isn't any--but he has never committed himself to actually addressing the question of whether there is a hell. So will those who haven't accepted Christ, or have other beliefs--go to hell, and if not Brim Fire, experience a punishment severely gross. So what say you Christians on this day before the celebration of the birth of Christ and the winters solstice? Hell or no? Will I barbecue or will I simply have the eternal sleep that my beliefs predicate anyway...

I can live my life the way I want but not without consequence. I see no reason to bow before a god that reason tells me is not there. But if I don't bow down and accept Christ then I am told my punishment is hell. It matters not that the net actions of my life have been a benefit to my fellow man. Nope, nor does it matter that I follow the words that Christ preaches--what matters is that I don't believe he is a god! That's the basis for my punishment. Not the deeds I've done to others but the perception of a deed not done to a god.

Simple question: is there a hell? I've butted heads with Blade Runner over whether hell consists of Brim Fires--he says there isn't any--but he has never committed himself to actually addressing the question of whether there is a hell. So will those who haven't accepted Christ, or have other beliefs--go to hell, and if not Brim Fire, experience a punishment severely gross. So what say you Christians on this day before the celebration of the birth of Christ and the winters solstice? Hell or no? Will I barbecue or will I simply have the eternal sleep that my beliefs predicate anyway...

I can live my life the way I want but not without consequence. I see no reason to bow before a god that reason tells me is not there. But if I don't bow down and accept Christ then I am told my punishment is hell. It matters not that the net actions of my life have been a benefit to my fellow man. Nope, nor does it matter that I follow the words that Christ preaches--what matters is that I don't believe he is a god! That's the basis for my punishment. Not the deeds I've done to others but the perception of a deed not done to a god.

Simple question: is there a hell? I've butted heads with Blade Runner over whether hell consists of Brim Fires--he says there isn't any--but he has never committed himself to actually addressing the question of whether there is a hell. So will those who haven't accepted Christ, or have other beliefs--go to hell, and if not Brim Fire, experience a punishment severely gross. So what say you Christians on this day before the celebration of the birth of Christ and the winters solstice? Hell or no? Will I barbecue or will I simply have the eternal sleep that my beliefs predicate anyway...

Biblically Dispelling the Myth of Eternal Torture

by Dirk Waren

Eternal Damnation: What does the Bible Really Teach?

Traditionally, the most prominent view regarding eternal damnation is that the people cast into hell—the lake of fire—will suffer fiery conscious torments forever and ever. Depicting the horrors of this belief was a favorite subject amongst artists in medieval times, resulting in all manner of imaginative and ghastly portraits of people suffering unending agony. Some have since tried to modify this position a bit, suggesting a more metaphorical view, that the unending pain experienced probably refers to the mental anguish of eternal loss and “separation from God;” but it makes no significant difference as both views involve the notion of eternal torment.

This may indeed be the traditionally prominent view regarding human damnation, but is it biblical? That is, do the Judeo-Christian scriptures really teach it? Will the multitudes of people who reject God, and hence are rejected by God, really be subjected to never-ending conscious misery—with no merciful pause to their agony?

One might contend that it is heretical to even question such a long-standing, widely accepted Christian teaching, but if this doctrine is truly scriptural then its proponents have nothing to worry about. Furthermore, it is only proper that all doctrines, no matter how traditional or popular, be questioned in light of what the bible clearly teaches, for it is the God-breathed scriptures alone which we must look to for truth, not popularity or religious tradition. This is the theological principle of sola scriptura, Latin for “by scripture alone,” which maintains that the bible is the final authority regarding all judgments of Christian doctrine and practice.

Because of this sound principle many traditional doctrines and practices have proven to be false over the years and have properly been discarded. Needless to say it’s a very positive thing for Christians to periodically reevaluate their beliefs and practices because it helps prevent Christendom from straying from the biblical model. Since reevaluating official church teachings is very much a part of the Christian heritage, and is indeed a healthy practice, there should be no problem presently in simply entertaining the possibility that tradition may be in error regarding this belief of perpetual conscious torment.
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Eternal Torment in Hell: The Silent Subject of the Church

I recently read in a major news magazine that this teaching of hell as eternal torture has all but disappeared from the pulpit ministry in both mainline and evangelical churches. Why is this so? Why are Christians who are committed to this doctrine so reluctant to openly and honestly preach it? Why do they mask what they really believe by saying that the unredeemed will ultimately “perish” or be “destroyed” or suffer eternal “separation from God?” Yes, you’ll hear ‘hell’ brought up now and then, but you’ll rarely, if ever, hear anyone explain what He or she really means when using this term—that is, suffering fiery conscious torment forever and ever with no merciful respite from the misery.

If this is so true, why is everyone so timid about spelling it out loud and clear? The answer is obvious: they’re ashamed of it. They’re ashamed of it because, as Clark Pinnock so aptly put it, this doctrine of eternal torture makes God out to be morally worse than Hitler “who maintains an everlasting Auschwitz for his enemies whom He does not even allow to die. How can one love a God like that? I suppose one might be afraid of Him, but could we love and respect Him? Would we want to strive to be like Him in His mercilessness?” Let’s be honest here and tell it like it is: The doctrine of never-ending conscious torment makes God out to be a cruel, unjust, merciless monster. Who would possibly want to accept salvation from such a God?

Although there are many good reasons for questioning this teaching, the most important reason is the simple fact that the bible does not teach it. Contrary to the loud claims of its staunch supporters, it is not a scriptural doctrine, and this is being realized by a growing number of biblically faithful Christians today. The bible gives strong, irrefutable proof to any honest reader that hell, the lake of fire, signifies literal everlasting destruction for ungodly people,1 not eternal conscious torment. This is the main reason why so many Christians of all persuasions are embracing the doctrine of everlasting destruction not because they’re “going liberal” as supporters of eternal torment claim. In other words, it’s a case of going biblical, not going liberal.

For clear proof that literal everlasting destruction is what the bible really teaches, let us simply turn to the pages of scripture; after all, a thorough, honest study of the bible will always reveal the truth.