So you're telling me that 2/3 of the world's population is going to hell? 4 billion people?

[originalpckelly]

[ret5hd]

1. And do you know why? Because He loves you!

:rofl:

[originalpckelly]

4. And what about the Native Americans?

Aren't they going to hell? What about before the arrival of Columbus? Seems like they never had a chance, now did they?

[Richard Steele]

19. Yup. They'll all burn forever, just like Ghandi and the Buddha.

:silly:

[msongs]

2. harry potter will save you and he has MORE books nt

[Arkansas Granny]

3. And that just takes into consideration the current population.

Think how many it could be when you consider how many non-Christians have lived throughout history.

[originalpckelly]

5. Maybe this explains why hell is so bad...

too many people hanging out there, think of the mall right before Christmas.

[ret5hd]

7. is hell endothermic or exothermic?

[magellan]

18. If I had lived before Christ

...I'd be pretty damned ticked off.

[TechBear_Seattle]

6. Oh, a LOT more than that

"On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers.' "

Matthew 7:22-23

"When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left.

Then the King will say to those at his right hand, 'Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.'

Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see thee hungry and feed thee, or thirsty and give thee drink? And when did we see thee a stranger and welcome thee, or naked and clothe thee? And when did we see thee sick or in prison and visit thee?'

And the King will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.'

Then he will say to those at his left hand, 'Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.'

Then they also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see thee hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to thee?'

Then he will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me.'

And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

Matthew 25:33-46

All quotes from The Revised Standard Version

[sinkingfeeling]

8. What? You aren't a part of the 'in' group? Get thee over to Rapture Ready and repent!

[The Cleaner]

21. the RAPTURE?? I came across this site recently - enjoy! !!

http://danielgansle.blogspot.com

[unpossibles]

9. some of us are already there

I occasionally wonder if the world ended and we're all stuck in some horrible afterlife.

Then I remember that I don't believe in any of that.

What's funny is, I had a bible thumper soapbox preacher tell me once that I was going to hell for wearing shorts as I walked by. I stopped and asked, "if I am going to hell for such a mundane offense, then what is to stop me from committing a far worse sin?"

no answer of course.

[dmallind]

10. ah hell WAY more than that!

You're assuming all the Xians are genuine in their faith, that salvation really IS by faith alone (the Bible isn't quite sure...) and that some small subsect of believers like the JWs don't have it right and only some minor "elect" ever had a chance in the first place.

This really is the great downfall of mainstream Christianity's general theology IMO. Without universal salvation God must by definition be a wilful sadist who punishes entirely out of proportion by inflicting infinite torure for finite (and prearranged since even with all the free will in the world the ominiscient God must have known he was making my soul atheistic, and therefore damned, and made it anyway) "sin". If God is such, he does not deserve to be worshipped, only feared and despised. With universal salvation, we can have an ominiscient omnipotent god now who may well deserve worship, but then that removes the whole differentaition of the faithful from the faithless, and it takes an unusually noble and altruistic Christian to admit that as a likely scenario.

[sarge43]

11. The number has to be higher than two thirds.

Many of those Christians firmly believe other Christians are on the down slide. :eyes:

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

12. Who says this?

A person who hasn't a clue, especially of what hell really is. It is an emotional state that most people are in at least at some time during their lives. And hatemongering and isolationist elitism actually helps create the hellish emotional conditions under which many live. Ironically, these conditions aren't among non-believers, but members of their own groups!

A wise person strives for inner peace and tranquility, and is so busy working at achieving this in their own life that they have no time or inclination to judge others.

[malaise]

13. 2/3 of the world are living in that hell

called poverty.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

14. Most non-fundies don't believe this

Among more enlightened Christians, the belief is that there are many paths to the Ultimate, and the real question is what the effects on the seeker and society are.

"A bad tree cannot bear good fruit."

[The Magistrate]

23. Which Is Just Another Way Of Saying, Ma'am

That many people who call themselves Christians do not really adhere to basic Christian dogmas, and so do not really count as Christians, 'enlightened' or otherwise. That the Christ is the sole means of salvation for mankind is as basic as the resurrection, and status as begotten son of the diety. A person claiming there are many routes to salvation is no more a Christian than a person saying it is fine to slap your father now and then is a Confucian.

"A man born on forged papers may prove hard to track."

[Lydia Leftcoast]

31. Actually, it's a bit more complex than that

but I have work to do today and no more time to stay on DU and explain what I've learned in my Biblical studies.

[The Magistrate]

32. Any Bible Study Course, Ma'am

Will necessarily be conducted by persons with a theological axe to grind, and so what one may be 'taught' in such a class-room will fall far short of a dispassionate and disinterested analysis concerned with only what is actually said, and not its implications for whether Christianity can actually be ranked as an enlightened, or even coherent, body of thought. My teeth were sharpened for this subject in demolishing students of a Jesuit seminary for the amusement of a striking young seperatist Lesbian who occassionally graced my table at a cafe across from the school, back in the days when not very many knew the name of a Labrys....

"The art of secrecy consists in being so open and above-board about so many things that the items one wishes kept concealed are not even suspected to exist."

[LanternWaste]

39. Some of the classic and a few contemporary apologists...

Some of the classic (and even a few contemporary) apologists have inferred/interpreted that there are indeed particular dispensations (for lack of a better word) for many who have not worshiped Christ, among them Gilbert Chesterton and Gordon Clark both of whom have their positions accurately and succinctly summed up in Geisler's 'Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics.'

[The Magistrate]

40. People Can 'Infer' All They Want, Sir

That is simply the measure of their devotion to identifying their particular creed as synonymous with all things good and beautiful as they conceive them, divided by the affront its plain letter poses to their personal ideals of the good and beautiful. Elements of their creed affront them; they cannot let go of the idea it is identical with all good things; and so they concoct something to smooth over their distress, rather than honestly dealing with the matter, which would require acknowledging their creed does not live up to their own view of what is right....

"Never send a ferret to do a weasel's work."

[JVS]

15. My estimate is higher

[shadowknows69]

16. Wouldn't that pretty much mean that Satan won?

I mean the best the almighty can do is one-third? I guess if the cosmos is a big baseball game .333 is a good average.

[originalpckelly]

24. And you forget what someone posted upthread...

what about all the people who've ever lived? A far larger majority were almost certainly not Christians.

[tekisui]

17. God gets the 29 percenters.

[Mountainman]

20. I don't consider Buddhism a religion because it is not based on deity worship.

It is more a way of living, a path to enlightenment. There is no heaven or hell to go to for Buddhists.

[kineneb]

28. exactly

Buddhism is about "practice", not "belief".

The "practice" of compassion towards all living beings.

[Tom Joad]

22. think of the implications!

i think eventually hell will reach the breaking point.
It will burst.
It will lose all its heat.
meaning... hell would freeze over.
therefore... I still have a chance with Linda!

[originalpckelly]

25. Either that or it will take an eternity just to get in to the damned place.

That is, by the way, a pun. Get it hell = damned. Ahahahaha!

[Tom Joad]

29. yeah, with all the overcrowding, i expect all hell to break loose.

[L. Coyote]

26. You forgot that almost everyone who has ever died is already there!!

:rolf: Imagine the carbon footprint of burning all their unholy arses for eternity :rofl:

[Chovexani]

38. They better build some more condos on the Lake of Fire

[porphyrian]

27. I'm not telling you that. -n/t

[KansDem]

30. 4,000,000,000?

Guess I'd better get my reservation in...

[bobbolink]

33. That's where the good times will roll!

:evilgrin:

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

34. "Heaven for the climate, Hell for the conversation" - Mark Twain

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

35. It's a start

[NMMNG]

36. As long as there are no fundies there,

I'm in. :evilgrin:

[madokie]

37. maybe the waiting list is whats keeping me here

anyways if I gotta go somewhere I'd rather go where I might know someone and all my friends are gonna be well where ever the hell hell is