I feel like I'm always looking for trouble when I post in here. I'm actually bringing up topics that I wonder about.

So. What is the purpose of hell? If I remember right from my religion classes, the Bible says that everyone is forgiven. If there is always forgiveness regardless of how evil a person is, what is the point of hell? Right now, I'm thinking it's just an empty threat to keep people in line.

I don't mean any of this in a rude way. I can't stress that enough.

BNuge : i suppsoe what most christians would say is that if you are truely sorry and seek forgivenes you will get it,and god would know if it was true

If your religion class actually says that everyone gets forgiven, someone needs to check that curriculum.

We all deserve hell, but Jesus died on the cross to take the punishment that we deserve. Because of this, everyone in the world is offered eternal life, His death is the only thing that would eliminate sin and He offers as a free gift.

However, not everyone takes this free gift. If they don't, they would have to pay for their sins on their own, which no one is able to do so. Because of this, those people would go to hell because of their sins.

The point of hell is for God to practice justice, to defeat evil. But God loves us so much, that He became a man to die for us. The question is whether we receive the free gift.

play4fun :

Keep in mind the religion class was back when I was 12 or so which is almost 10 years ago. There is probably a mix of them leaving out a few things and me not remembering them.

My general guess was that you had to ask for forgiveness to get it. I didn't know that everyone was automatically going to hell if they didn't ask for forgiveness.

Well, like I said, everyone deserve hell because of sin. Not just from original sin that was inherited by Adam and Eve, but also the actual sin that you do in your life. That is why it's called grace that saves us, because really don't deserve heaven, yet God saves us anyways.

And asking for forgiveness is part of it. But the main thing is repent (change of mind from sin to God) and trust in Jesus in your salvation. It is committing your life to Christ.

A better question would be: Why does God allow hell to exist (couldn't he eliminate it?) or created it in the first place (he created Satan) ? He made us imperfect so naturally we're going to do something dumb. And by what criteria are people sent to hell? so many questions.

It's hard to come up with one specific answer and even harder to tell someone that they're right or wrong.

Some of my outspoken thoughts.

mr.ripley : i think the bible states hell is a creation of fallen angels.something like "and satan took with him a quarter of all heavens angels"
Maybe satain is supposed to be more powerfull?who knows.

The purpose of hell or at least the original purpose of hell was apparently hold the devil and his angels for all eternity. "Then the King will turn to those on the left and say, 'Away with you, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons." Matthew 25:41. This section for about 6 or 7 perhaps 10 verses is speaking of Judgement. I suppose this this verse could simply be implying that this is their place of punishment as well. But I tend to see it and other biblical commentators seem to agree with my interpretation of hells first intent.

Hey thenumberone,

Satan is a clever figure but powerful than God? I have to disagree. God created everything. I think he can wipe out hell. He wiped out humans (the Noah's ark tale). But this is just exploration, searching for answers.

If He lets hell exist, He's letting evil exist? That's the million dollar question. Hell can be viewed as to distinguish good and bad. But what is good or bad? I think this thread is going to be a lot of people giving their possible answers but not coming up with a definite one. It's good dialogue. 

  

You have a very good point there. I'm not sure what the point is...
Hmmmmmm, this is a brain puzzler.

mr.ripley : well i dont know,maybe its supposed to be that god cant just make people disapear after death so he dosent want the bad ones corrupting the good ones?

thenumberonee: "well i dont know,maybe its supposed to be that god
can't just make people disapear after death so he dosent want the bad
ones corrupting the good ones?"

That's the problem. God is supposedly limitless. He is perfect. And like my previous post, He created everything.  If can crreate everything,  doesn't that mean He has the power to un-create?

Also, if you think about it, He does allow corruption occur or He would have made us all good. But if He made us all good, we won't be different. On top of that, how can you ensure someone to do good? One way is through control. The alternative is by trusting the person to do good. I say He choose the later.

Being threatened with Hell doesn't have a strong affect since many people don't believe in it. 

The subject is very complicated.   

P.S. I'm not here to persuade people to leave Christianity or join (it's not my right to tell someone what's right or wrong). I'm a Christian and still believe in God even with all these unanswered questions. I just like thinking about stuff. And, I believe it's good to know both sides of a debate. Furthermore, I'm not the most intelligent person on this topic. This is all my opinion so you can disregard it whenever you want.  

mr.ripley :

Your comment made me think of Bruce Almighty. I doubt it stuck to the Bible as well as it should have, but there is one thing that relates to what you said. When Bruce had God's power, the only thing he couldn't do was affect free will. God was not capable of forcing anyone to do anything that went against their free will.

So if that was accurate, then God would not be able to force everyone to be good because that is the one thing that is not within his power.

BNuge : and with those words bnuge went off and created the b almighty church.heh.
mr.ripley : well you wont effect me anyway because i dont believe in god,i was just atempting to answer the questions as a christian would.i certainly hate the idea of hell because torturing people for all eternity,that would be worse than hitler since hd at least killed his victims.
I dont know though,i mean the original hell was a conception of the greeks.they invisaged it to be an endless misty landscape,barren and empty.there were other humans but they couldnt communicate with you,and you would go crazy from the isolation.
Then at some point it became a fiery chasm of death,perhaps a fright tactic to expand the christian numbers?who knows.

BNuge : I remember mentioning free will to a college professor in a conversation and she just told me to forget about it since I didn't know what it meant. lol. Nevertheless, didn't God give humans free will?  Not sure. However, if he gave free will, couldn't He take it away? I could be totally wrong but, I'm thinking out loud.

thenumberone : I just mentioned it as a precaution in case someone else thought I was. Christianity is based off Greek religion. Jesus was copied from Dionysus. The whole body and blood from the Greeks. Remember, the bible is a collection of stories written at a specific point in history. They were going through alot of stuff than what we are. In addition, the church edited the bible.

And Bruce Almighty is a movie. They most likely changed a couple of things to fit the storyline. 

mr.ripley : what?holywood changed something to make a better movie?no way!lol.
Well catholicism became dominant by killing other christians and forceing there bible on people so yeh,i expect a lot changed.

Bruce Almighty is a bad movie. Now for Mr. Ripley. God created Hell to give us a choice. We could choose to love him or reject him. Adam chose to reject him and ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which God told him not to. So, by definition, sin is anything that displeases God, whether it be murdering someone, or simply having pride in your heart. My problem with discussions like these is that people ask these questions, have silly answers, but don't think enough to read a Bible. The Bible answers all these questions that pretty much everyone has asked. So, God gave man a choice to choose Him or the world, and since Adam sinned, we are born into sin. So we must choose to accept God as our Lord and Saviour and ask for his forgiveness. He will give it to you. I would also start going to church to get some answers as well.

BNuge : I think there are certain sins you can't be forgiven for example if you kill one of gods creatures you cant apologize to the creature or bring the creature back(now thinking about it creature might be the wrong word)

cold+hot7 : When Christians say you need to ask for forgiveness, we don't mean from the people you hurt or affected. It means to ask God in prayer for forgiveness. Prayer isn't anything super-mystical that only Christians can do. Prayer means to talk to God. But first you need to ask for forgiveness and for God to enter your life and become your Saviour. Only then can you go to heaven. Let me put it this way: Life is like a cup of water. If there is no contamination (sin) you would be perfect. However if there is just one drop of sewage (sin), then you wouldn't want to drink it. The only difference is that God can get rid of the sin in our life. Hell is an unimaginably horrible place, where there is no hope. It is life in flames and darkness and pain and anguish. Then it gets worse. After the Great White Throne Judgment, then all those who died in their sins will be thrown into the LAKE OF FIRE, where they shall be in flames burning forever and ever. Trust me, its not a happy place. So ask God for forgiveness today. I had a friend who died this past Saturday in a terrible car accident. He went to my church, and he was saved, so I know he's in heaven. But I don't feel bad. It's because I know he is in heaven with the almighty Lord Jesus. I kind of went off on a tangent there, but I felt it was needed.

I think the point of hell comes from the idea that God is love, but God is also justice.  No one likes to hear that they are wrong, and no one wants to hear that following God is difficult.  I think a main idea behind hell is a place where God simply isn't involved anymore.  A place where He doesn't look out for you, or interact with you, or relate to you anymore.  I believe He's involved in everyone's lives, whether they want Him to be or not (and that's a good thing).  I would get jumped on by people for saying it, but I think hell is  a final "Okay, you rejected me this whole time, so finally I reject you."