LIES ABOUT HELL

 The Bible continually warns of a place called hell. There are over 162 references in the New Testament alone which warns of hell. And over 70 of these references were uttered by the Lord Jesus Christ! 

People say that the work Hell is not in the bible but that is not true. What they are really saying is that the english word "hell" is not found in the Hebrew or Greek text. What they fail to mention (on purpose) is that there are four words for Hell found in the original Hebrew and Greek text.

 The 1st one mentioned is the Hebrew "Sheol" which meant "pit or grave". Next came "Hades" which in Greek also meant pit or grave. Followed by "Gehenna" meaning "fire that destroys the soul" also from Greek. Lastly-also from Greek- came "Tartarus" which applied only to fallen angels or confinement of fallen angels. 

Here is what the four words refer to in the Bible:

• Sheol: Grave, death, realm of the dead, place of punishment. It depends on the context. The Old Testament did not give a lot of detail concerning the afterlife.
• Hades: Temporary place of punishment for the wicked (definitely more than pit or grave). Greek word used in the Roman world with all kinds of elaborate thoughts concerning the afterlife. In the Bible it refers to a temporary place of punishment until the inhabitants are cast into the lake of fire.
• Gehenna: Lake of fire, eternal place of punishment for the wicked. Originally this referred to a local garbage dump outside Jerusalem that continuously burned, but it became a symbol of the place where unrepentant sinners will go to experience eternal, conscious torment as punishment for their sins.
• Tartarus: Temporary place of punishment for wicked angels. It is only used once in the Bible and is fairly vague, but those angels put here will eventually end up in Gehenna.

The quickest response to this belief is the fact that you have to read and believe the whole bible. You can't just read in between the lines or pick the scriptures that talk about love. Jesus was certainly very loving and cared so much about children, women and his disciples. Even atheist would have to agree but that very same Jesus spoke of Hell and it's eternal judgement more than anyone else. More than all the prophets of the old testament and more than all the apostles of the new testament. Why? Because Jesus had seen Hell and knew of its' horrible consequences. He knew how bad it is and because of His love He wanted more than anything for people to choose life and to avoid Hell at all cost. You can see Jesus's love and mercy when He begs people in Matthew 5:29-30 to do anything you can to stay out of Hell.

 Matt 5:29-30 If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell. 

Believe me I wish this was true but the bible is very clear that Hell is forever. God has His reasons and I am sure they are just and righteous. I and people who wish this was not true are finite and we do not know everything God knows.

Scripture is quite clear that hell is indeed everlasting. Yes, Scripture speaks of hell as “death” and “destruction” but defines these in terms of a place where “they will be tormented day and night forever and ever” (Revelation 20:10). Why must this go on forever? There are at least two reasons. 

1. Sin is more serious than we realize.

First, the revolt against God is more serious than we think it is. An insurrection against an infinitely worthy Creator is an infinitely heinous offense. We know something of this intuitively. This is why, in our human sentences of justice, we sentence a man to one punishment for threatening to kill his co-worker and another man to a much more severe punishment for threatening to kill the nation’s president.

2. Sin does not disappear.

Second, and more important, is the nature of the punishment itself. The sinner in hell does not become morally neutral upon his sentence to hell. We must not imagine the damned displaying gospel repentance and longing for the presence of Christ. They do indeed, as in the story of the rich man and Lazarus, seek for an escape from punishment, but they are not new creations. They do not in hell love the Lord their God with heart, mind, soul, and strength.

Instead, in hell, one is now handed over to the full display of his nature apart from grace. And this nature is seen to be satanic. The condemnation continues forever and ever, because the sin does too. Hell is the final “handing over” of the rebel to who he wants to be, and it’s awful.

1. Avoid the truth.

Attempts to navigate around the truth of hell as everlasting punishment show us something of our complicity in the Edenic sin: the substitution of human wisdom and human justice and, yes, human notions of love for the authority of God.

2. Evangelize the lost.

Yes, hell is horrifying. God deems it so. Our response to such horror should not be denial, but the fervent evangelism of the nations. Knowing the terror of it all, we should plead with people, as though Christ himself were pleading through us, “Be reconciled to God”

The idea of Purgatory is not limited to the Catholic church but they teach it more than anyone else.

A short description of purgatory is;

When you die and you have not done enough good works (or do not belong to the Catholic church), you are sent to a holding tank (similar to Hades). While you are in this holding tank your friends and family can do good works and pray for you and eventually God will let you out.

First, no one, no one, no one goes to Heaven by doing good works. Salvation is a free gift of God and you are free to choose to believe and accept Jesus atonement or reject it. Accept it and you go to Heaven, reject it you got to Hell. 

Two scriptures below explain two important things the Bible has to say about this

1. That there is one way to Heaven and one way only. Any other attempt to go to Heaven in any other way will not only be rejected by God but will be punished severely.

 John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” He is not a way, as in one of many; He is the way, as in the one and only. No one, regardless of reputation, achievement, special knowledge, or personal holiness, can come to God the Father except through Jesus.

2. No one can make this decision for you. You alone make the decision.

  Ezekiel 18:20 The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself. 

Soul Sleep is the idea that when you die in sin (unsaved), you will cease to exist. Some people teach that you will be raised to be judged by God and then you will cease to exist again at some time. This is a misunderstanding of scripture which clearly teaches that when your body dies your soul goes to either Heaven or Hell.

2 Corinthians 5:6-8

 So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord. 7 For we live by believing and not by seeing. 8 Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord. 

Luke 23:46

 Then Jesus shouted, “Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands!”* And with those words he breathed his last.

Other biblical events make clear there is no soul sleep for believers but rather a conscious, immediate presence with God after death:

• The stoning of Stephen (Acts 7:54–59)
• The transfiguration (Matthew 17:1–8; Mark 9:1–8; Luke 9:28–36)
• Rachel's soul departing when she died (Genesis 35:18)

 The past two decades have witnessed a resurgence of Calvinism among American evangelicals. This resurgence is especially evident within the Southern Baptist Convention, which historically has been and still is divided over the issue. However, it has also made its presence felt in Pentecostal denominations such as the Assemblies of God, which do not have historic ties to Calvinism.

By Calvinism, I mean specifically the doctrine of salvation that is commonly explained by means of the acronym, TULIP:

• T = Total depravity
• U = Unconditional election
• L = Limited atonement
• I = Irresistible grace
• P = Perseverance of the saints

In the seventeenth century, Jacob Arminius—a Dutch Reformed theologian—set forth a different understanding of salvation that has been called Arminianism after him. It is sometimes explained by means of the acronym, FACTS:

• F = Freed by grace to believe
• A = Atonement for all
• C = Conditional election
• T = Total depravity
• S = Security in Christ 

In Does God Love Everyone? Jerry L. Walls—an evangelical philosopher—outlines an argument against Calvinism and for Arminianism. Its strength is that it focuses on the central point of the disagreement between them. Walls writes:

The deepest issue that divides Arminians and Calvinists is not the sovereignty of God, predestination, or the authority of the Bible. The deepest difference pertains to how we understand the character of God. Is God good in the sense that he deeply and sincerely loves all people?

According to Walls, the answer of Arminianism is “Yes.” The answer of Calvinism is “No.” As Calvinist author Arthur W. Pink put it in The Sovereignty of God: “When we say that God is sovereign in the exercise of His love, we mean that He loves whom he chooses. God does not love everybody…” Walls argues that Pink’s statement is characteristic of Calvinism, even if it’s stated with a bluntness uncharacteristic of most Calvinists.

Atheist believe God does not exist and we came into being when two rocks ran into each other (who made the rocks?). I know I am simplifying their beliefs but that's what they believe. We evolved from sludge then monkeys so when we die we simply go back to being sludge. The Big Bang "Theory" and evolution have been proven to be false over and over again (see this website and this video)