There is no Hell

Before commenting on my opponent's response, let me present another piece of evidence. Let's examine the parable of Lasarus and the rich man, found in the New Testament, Luke 17:19-31. "There was a rich young man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat wha fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came to lick his sores. The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side (heaven). The rich man also died and was buried. In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus on his side. So he called up to him, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.' [Read on, here's where it gets interesting.] But Abraham replied, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is in comfort here and you are in agony. **AND besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that who want to go from here to you cannot, nor anyone cross over there to us.**'" Read the last sentence again. First of all, GOD should be able to cross from one place to another, since he is said to be almighty in the Bible countless times. However, since "who want to go from here to you CANNOT", God is not almighty. So, we have two possibilities. Either: 1) God is not almighty, and therefore we have been officially fooled. Also, the Bible therefore contains lies, and since the Bible is the word of God and God cannot lie... We are faced with a dilemma. Maybe God is not loving. Maybe God is not just. Maybe God is not this and that. 2) There is no hell. The passage goes on to say that rhe 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.]? [quote]First of all I have a personal question for you that doesn't relate to this debate: Are these views your own or do they represent the beliefs of the Lutheran church?[/quote] The Lutheran church has nothing to do with this. These are my own views. You could say I'm a rebel ;) [quote]First of all, I totally reject the statement that God is vindictive. If God is so vindictive then why doesn't he just destroy the world for all of the sin that is in it?[/quote] He will, as is established in the Revalation of John. And let me rephrase the statement. "If my daughter is in Hell because she did not get "born again" then I'd rather go to Hell and be with her than to be with your God." [quote]It is just and fair because we all have the capacity to believe in Jesus Christ. Like if you see a child that's been run over by a car, and you do not stop to help him or her you are just as bad as the person driving the car. And plus, some people don't deserve eternity in paradise.[/quote] 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? Could you? No. Then how could god, who is said to *be* love? "God IS love." 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. "Thou did not believe in me." "I know, but please, give me another chance, I don't want to go to be tortured forever!" "You did not belive in me. After death, you have no chance of changing your fate (as established in the parable of Lasarus and the rich man) after you die." *He is thrown into hell.* Is that a loving god? 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? "It is irrelevant how many sins you have committed. As it says in John 3:16: "For God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son and whoever believes in him shall never die but have eternal life." So the requirements for entering Heaven is not walking the straight and narrow: It's a belief in Jesus Christ as the son of God." 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. Or maybe we're all saved and there is no hell. [quote]I would like to disagree. We all know we only have so much time on this Earth. So, if we choose not to follow Christ in the only life we have, what other option does God have?[/quote] For one, he could take us all into heaven [supposing there is a hell]? I don't belive a single human AFTER SEEING hell would seriously rather go there. [quote]God is a loving God. However, he is also a just God. There are several examples of this in scripture. The first is the story of Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve did something they were told they couldn't do. Therefore, they were kicked out of Eden. So this proves that God is a just God. I believe that God is just as human as the rest of us and he gets angry, sad, happy, etc. That's like your mother doesn't love you because she's grounded you a couple of times.[/quote] Being kicked out of heaven and an everlasting trip to a "lake of fire", filled with sadistic demons wanting to make every second of your eternity a nightmare are hardly comparable. [quote]Why didn't he tell Adam and Eve that? Because he didn't know if they would eat from the tree of good and evil.[/quote] The Bible says countless times that God knows our lives, from our first cry to our last breath, thorougly before we are even born. And secondly, if god is almighty, don't you think he could see into the future? [quote]No, first of all Jesus was only dead for three days. He was resurrected and 40 days later ascended to HEAVEN. A first grade Sunday school class could tell you that...[/quote] 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. [quote]That was the OLD testament. The NEW testament (which is the basis of Christianity, and aren't we debating about Christian Hell; not Jewish Hell) makes several references to Heaven and Hell. And I thought you were trying to prove that Hell doesn't exist, well you just contradicted yourself. And I believe that when Christ returns a 2nd time, those who died before his death will be able to ascend to Heaven.[/quote] 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. [quote]Christians are people. People don't always get everything right.[/quote] 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 christia