There is no Hell

Thanks for that round! Your whole story about Lazarus is full of flaws. Read the last sentence again. It says Nor ANYONE cross over there to us. The definition of the word anyone is "Any person at all". Is God a person? No. God is all powerful. Is any person all powerful? No. So therefore God isn't a person. Therefore God, who isn't a person, has the ability to cross between Heaven and Hell. However, he chooses not to. Opponent: The passage goes on to say that the rich man begged god to send someone to warn his brothers about hell, but god declined. So, god had a chance to save five plus people from eternal flame and torture, but he CHOSE not to. Again, is this a loving god or is there no hell [this passage could've been added as a scare to make people behave or maybe it was a mistake in translation.]? He didn't send any warning? The whole story of Lazarus and the rich man is a warning about the horrors we'll face in hell if you do not believe in God. Opponent: He will, as is established in the Revelation of John. Actually, the destruction of the world is never established in Revelation. The creation of a New Heaven and a New Earth is though. Opponent: "Okay. If I were your child [or best friend] (as humans are god's children), could you, as a loving father, send me to a place of torture, and pain? If you did that, would you also make me immortal so that I could not simply die, but would have to endure the pain and who knows what for an eternity" First of all, I believe that God doesn't WANT us to go to Hell. However, I believe that he allows us to. God didn't create Hell (it's never stated in the account of creation recorded in Genesis); however when he disbanded Satan from Heaven, he kicked him into hell. God gets his power from those who believe in him. If no one believed in God, then he would be powerless. We are his tools, his work is reflected in us. That is called the Holy Spirit and it is a widely accepted component of Christianity. So, I believe that God is helpless to help someone who doesn't believe in him. That person's soul belongs to the devil, so therefore it is controlled by Satan. Opponent: Here is my logical problem with hell. Why does God only allow those who believe in him into heaven, regardless of what they did? Is believing in something a good enough basis to send someone into *everlasting torture*, aka. Hell, aka. lake of fire. Second, why doesn't god just take all people into heaven, regardless of whether or not they believed in him? That would be loving (saving the creatures HE CREATED from everlasting torture.) Let's suppose there a guy dies, is an atheist, and goes up to heaven and before god. God doesn't expect us to be perfect. But, he does expect us to try. That is why non-believers go to Hell and believers go to Heaven. No one deserves to go to Heaven, we only get there by the Grace of God. Opponent: And why did god create creatures that were destined to go to a place of everlasting torture and pain unless they did something? Isn't that sadistic/cruel? So God should create a bunch of robots who have no choice other than to love him? If you're forced to love something or somebody or some God, is it a true love? Opponent: Indeed. This is not logical. Why does God value *belief* in something more than actions? Using this logic, we can put Hitler, Mao, and Stalin into heaven if they believed in god, while Mother Theresa could be in hell if she became an atheist during her last minute alive. Yes. God doesn't expect us to be perfect, he expects us to believe. We can't be perfect, God isn't going to hold us to a standard so high that no one on Earth can ever meet it. Opponent: For one, he could take us all into heaven [supposing there is a hell]? I don't believe a single human AFTER SEEING hell would seriously rather go there. Part B is true. However, Part A doesn't make any sense. But, he doesn't have any authority over it. We decide for ourselves if we are going to Hell or not. Opponent:I was trying to prove the illogicality of hell. If hell is separation from god, then why does the Bible say "Thou I make my bed in hell, thou art there." And yes, OT is a part of the holy book of Christians. We can't just dismiss the whole OT and only look at NT. The only reason the New Testament is included in the Christian Bible is for 2 reasons. 1) For our education. 2) To show the contrast in the world before and after the coming of Christ. Therefore, to modern day Christians, the Old Testament has no relevance to today because of the coming of Christ. Opponent: Well, if "the wage for sins" is eternal torture, then either 1) There is no hell 2) As we are writing, Jesus is being tortured in hell. Since number 2 is not possible, we end up with number two. BUT JESUS WAS DEAD FOR ONLY THREE DAYS!!! He rose from the dead and ascended to HEAVEN. This is described many times in the Bible in Mark 16:19-20, Luke 24:50-53, and Acts 1:9-12. Opponent: Okay. During the 4th century, most of the people believed everyone was going to get saved. Now most believe in hell. What happened? A faulty translation? Someone wanted to scare people into being good/becoming christians? None of the above things happened. They simply discovered the scripture that proved the existence of hell.