From: lfoard@hopper.virginia.edu (Lawrence C. Foard)
Subject: Re: Assurance of Hell
Organization: ITC/UVA Community Access UNIX/Internet Project
Lines: 43

In article <Apr.20.03.01.19.1993.3755@geneva.rutgers.edu> REXLEX@fnal.fnal.gov writes:
>
>I dreamed that the great judgment morning had dawned,
>     and the trumpet had blown.
>I dreamed that the sinners had gathered for judgment
>     before the white throne.
>Oh what weeping and wailing as the lost were told of their fate.
>They cried for the rock and the mountains.
>They prayed, but their prayers were too late.
>The soul that had put off salvation, 
>"Not tonight I'll get saved by and by.
> No time now to think of ....... religion," 
>Alas, he had found time to die.
>And I saw a Great White Throne.

If I believed in the God of the bible I would be very fearful of making
this statement. Doesn't it say those who judge will be judged by the
same measure? 

>Now, some have protest by saying that the fear of hell is not good for
>motivation, yet Jesus thought it was.  Paul thought it was.  Paul said, 
>"Knowing therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men."

A God who must motivate through fear is not a God worthy of worship.
If the God Jesus spoke of did indeed exist he would not need hell to
convince people to worship him.

>Today, too much of our evangelism is nothing but soft soap and some of
>it is nothing but evangelical salesmanship.  We don't tell people anymore, that
>there's such a thing as sin or that there's such a place as hell.  

It was the myth of hell that made me finally realize that the whole thing
was untrue. If it hadn't been for hell I would still be a believer today.
The myth of hell made me realize that if there was a God that he was not
the all knowing and all good God he claimed to be. Why should I take such
a being at his word, even if there was evidence for his existance?

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