If there really was no hell, then we've all been wasting our lives with this religion stuff.

Basically, if there's not...then we're good either way. If there is, then some of us are boned.

I think I'll just play it safe until I die.

~Zoo

If there really was no hell, then we've all been wasting our lives with this religion stuff.

This is definitely a most logical conclusion!

I think I'll just play it safe until I die.

A good thing to do! I don't think we should chance it!!

The way I see it, if there is no hell, WONDERFUL!  What's the worst that could mean?  If you read my Plan of Salvation article, you might notice there wasn't a place called "hell" in the whole thing.

The thing is, if this whole "Jesus Religion" is a lie, or "God is not real", I still say it's been a great way to live.

You raise some very stimulating thoughts, and being as it is a topic I have been studying for five to seven years, I will grant you some of my own.

I've always been told, or understood that good people go to heaven and the bad people go straight to hell!

The classification 'good people' and 'bad people' is an idea that is often misleading. All of us deserve to go to hell, because we break God's law. We are in our core rebels and children of wrath. If someone ends up in heaven it will not be because of being good or bad, but because of the grace of God.

I believe that is what is known as purgatory right?!

This idea originates from Greek Mythology and Egyptian ideas, which are expressed quite well in Dante's Inferno. It however is not a doctrine of Christianity, but rather one that came out of Roman Catholicism.

Hell, the place of fire and brimstone, where the devil lives, where anything that is evil dwells, where exactly is this bottomless pit?

It is quite easy to confuse Hell (Hades/Sheol) with the Lake of Fire (Gehenna/Tophet), many do. Satan does not live in Hades. He was cast down upon our planet and is God's worst enemy and should be ours to. He will eventually be cast into the Lake of Fire, but it is only Hollywood who places Satan in Hades/Sheol. The other crazy thing I have seen in the movies, especially Scary Movie (which is a spoof), is to damn satan to hell, and to damn demons to hell. Jesus taught that when they go out they go to dry places (wildernesses seem to be places that devils like.) and then when they have linked up with their brothers they try to come back into the home (body of a person).

Don't you think it probably takes a long time for people who die to actually get to heaven, I mean, it's not like it's around the corner right?

You need to remember that our world is bound by time and space and function. Yet the world we are going to is infinte and therefore everything is wound up already. Those who are in the Lake of Fire are there arleady, those who are in Heaven are all there already. It might be strange to think it but you and I are already at our chosen destinations. Is this stretching it a bit to far? I don't think so. Great question for a Tuesday.



.A.

I still say it's been a great way to live.

Ted,
Pascal's wager has always fascinated me too.

If we have the Spirit of Christ in us, we are definitely HIS and wherever He is we will be. Whether we are changed or we die, we will ever be with the Lord. Those who have not the Spirit of Christ are none of His, and will go to a lonely place out of the presense of the Lord.

.A.

No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

------john lennon, "imagine"

john lennon

Have you read the biography by his ex-wife and son Julian? It is an eye opener and changed the way I look at songs like this.

.A.

"There's a lot of cruelty (his) and bitterness (hers) in this book by the late Beatle's first wife and mother of his elder son, Julian Lennon. A rehash of the Beatles' beginnings from the wife's point of view, the book reveals that Lennon was a pretty messed-up guy who preached universal love for the world and ignored his own family. Saddest, of course, is the effect of all this on Julian, who writes the introduction and praises Mum for her courage and love. Three marriages later, though, Cynthia still burns with anger — mostly at Yoko Ono, whom she believes brainwashed John. When asked if she was sorry she'd fallen in love with the singer-songwriter in the first place, she writes, 'If I'd known as a teenager what falling for John Lennon would lead to, I would have turned round right then and walked away.' If only she had let him be." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Kingbee (smoking da blues ay),

I got a chance to read the introduction while I waiting for the mixes of my new album, and it was actually quiet startling. I don't think I will ever look at pictures of John Lennon the same.

The book was simply called, 'JOHN' by Cynthia Lennon, with the forward by Julian. (...they loved John, but the question is...did John.... all that 'Love, Love, Love' stuff was rooted in the Shakespearian myth of falling in love, plus John so heavily into himself.) What am I saying, John was the best...he wrote such great songs...but...oh, man, I shoudn't have read that book...it spoiled the illusion.)

As Neil Young sings, 'It was a HIPPIE DREAM'...all that LSD and TM really screwed up so many young minds. I read something lately about George Harrisson's reaction when he arrived in the US, to view psychedelia and it's apparent revolution and all he saw was burned out drug addicts, losers on the human highway, vegetable carnage...not all the stuff that had been broadcasted as art, music and love, peace and joy...it was all just a HIPPIE DREAM....power to the people, imagine there's no heaven, no hell below us, above us only sky...oh please.

.A.

I hate that hymn to the slave state of Communism... but I have to admit, Lennon was one heckuva song writer.

It's pretty much the business card of Saturn. ('Our money says in God we trust, but it's against the laws to pray in school, they say we beat the Russians to the moon, and I say you starved your children to do it, they say all men are equal all men are brothers, but tell me why are the rich more equal than others, don't ask me for the answers, I've only got one, that a man leaves his darkness when he follows the Son.' - Larry Norman).

.A.

The question of hell is basically the same as the question of God.  If there is none, then no problem.  If there is one, best to walk the straight and narrow. For in the end, we will all leave this life.  And if there is no God or Hell, then we are no worse off than the people who live evil lives.  If there is, we may be better off.

If you read my Plan of Salvation article, you might notice there wasn't a place called "hell" in the whole thing.

I'll have to go seek it out!

The thing is, if this whole "Jesus Religion" is a lie, or "God is not real", I still say it's been a great way to live.

Can you imagine if it wasn't, seriously?! I don't want to think about that!

The classification 'good people' and 'bad people' is an idea that is often misleading. All of us deserve to go to hell, because we break God's law. We are in our core rebels and children of wrath. If someone ends up in heaven it will not be because of being good or bad, but because of the grace of God.

Yeah, the definition on who is good and who is bad would be according to what each of us have learned.

No hell below us Above us only sky Imagine all the people Living for today

I love this song! It does delve into the realm of imagination. It goes to show how many people have wondered at the same thing!


I haven't read that book.

If there is none, then no problem. If there is one, best to walk the straight and narrow. For in the end, we will all leave this life. And if there is no God or Hell, then we are no worse off than the people who live evil lives. If there is, we may be better off.

What if we were all actually angels who got caught up and blind-sided by the ways of Lucifer and were kicked out of heaven to live our lives as humans until we get it right? Those of us who repent and live the way God wants us to live find our way back home, those of us who don't still get a chance to try and try again.....God's grace. And if we don't repent then hey, we're thrown in to the fire! How's that for imagination?! Not to mention how that would mess up the idea of the Creation story! Of course this is all just my imagination at work!lol!

Ah, Pascal's wager in modified form.

But is a faith based on Pascal's wager a genuine faith? I can't decide this, I'll have to leave it up to the individual.

I thought gambling was sinful?

Depends upon who you are. I mean, Catholics-Bingo? No restrictions on us!