“I’ve heard of some religious traditions that teach that all roads lead to the same place, all Gods are really incarnations of the same eternal being, that sort of thing.”

Eastern traditions are this way. The “all gods” refers specifically to Hinduism. But no, you don’t believe this because Yahweh is an Exclusionary god; yet Adonai or Elohim are supposedly Cosmic renditions- a very different feel from the personal, argumentative, essentially pagan idea of Yahweh (and i hear that there was a place for him in the Canaanite pantheon- in Athtar. El is, interestingly, the father of the gods in this pantheon, so interestingly the Elohim- him and his children- reappearing in the Torah seems very indicative that Judean religion started out from other religions. There is certainly a lot of evidence that points to this being the case, and virtually none that asserts Judaism being monotheistic from its inception.

An interesting article on this, and an introduction to the Documentary Hypothesis: http://www.georgeleonard.com/yahweh.html

More on the Documentary hypothesis: http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rs/2/Judaism/jepd.html

This verse has been used to demonstrate that all humanity has a basic knowledge of eternal truth. The law is “written in our hearts”, ruled by our consciences. I don’t know how much of that I ultimately believe, but I do believe that all people are basically good and yearn to know truth. I’ve heard of some religious traditions that teach that all roads lead to the same place, all Gods are really incarnations of the same eternal being, that sort of thing. I don’t really believe that, but I do believe that humanity’s desire to give face to it’s creator does say SOMETHING, and that all religions hold a grain of the same basic truth- do good works, be charitable, live outside yourself, make the world better. Why condemn any codex of beliefs that tries to help mankind better itself?

I’m also reminded of a character in a book (I’m such a dork) written by CS Lewis, who found himself in “heaven” despite having worshiped a different God. (This is from The Last Battle) and the “God” of that story said that all of his service to this idol was in love and with a pure heart, so He would accept this service as to Himself.

And that kind of made me wonder, because in 1st John 4, God is Love and Love is God, so if we serve Love are we serving God? I don’t mean romantic love, but real love. The love that makes a hen cover her eggs with her body so they aren’t harmed, that primal love, that love that makes giving better than receiving and skipping your meal so that someone else can eat actually a fulfilling thing. I’ve known a lot of people who have shown that love and weren’t Christians, and I just don’t GET them going to Hell. If there is a Hell, people go there because they REJECT God, they REJECT love, they CHOOSE nothingness. Choosing by not choosing, that doesn’t make sense. It’s just logically indefensible, and I happen to like a faith that I can defend.

In the Revelation of Saint John, it showed a final sorting, and it was sorting good from evil, not “those who said the sinners prayer” from “those who didn’t.”

And, yes, it does say a “new” heaven and a “new” earth, which just goes to show that however much we know, we still don’t know it all. Which I’m okay with. I don’t need to know everything, I just need to know that I serve God and He loves me. Thus I serve humanity, because God loves them to. And I will live a better life, and eternity can take care of itself. I just don’t *care* that much, which may seem strange to you if you’ve met other Christians raised in an Evangelical tradition. heh.

And as for the many names of God, he is referred to by more than 60 names in the Bible, all of which are perfectly acceptable ways to refer to him. (Jehovah Jireh- “LORD that provides” and several others I just can’t think of off of the top of my head.) Yahweh I think is the most eternal.

Just so you know- I have to write my comments in the text editor because FireFox is eating my comment fields, so as I’m writing this I can’t see your original comment. I know you mentioned something else.

Oh, the Tree of the Knowledge. That was certainly the first sign of an “otherness” interfering with human life, but I don’t believe in the creation story as a REAL thing, more as a creation Myth, which are common to all religions. There is something to be learned from it, certainly, but it’s another one of those things I don’t mind wondering about and not really knowing.

I’m really incredibly comfortable with wondering and not knowing, which may eventually drive you (and possibly myself) mad.

Who is this? Jehovah is not the name of God (and does He really care?)

A)Judges 1:19 (King James Version)

“19And [YHWH] was with Judah; and he drave out the inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron.”

Or B) Adonai.

“How is there fire with complete darkness?”-K22. Hi again, by the way!

The 1st 300,000 years of the universe was nothing but ultra hot dense hydrogen- no fusion, no stars, no cumbustion, no light. But still hot as Hell- literally! And Even light from the sun is created in the photosphere- so actually the inside of the sun is completelly dark as well.

You know, if John of Patmos’ Revelations was indeed accurate- then the 2nd Earth implies that Heaven isn’t eternal either. But then the concept of the eternal Lake of Fire comes into play- and i’m not entierly sure what that is. Let me look…..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_of_Fire

No, nothing sound can be derived from That; i’m still not sure what the words were in Greek that identify the Lake of Fire. Note also that this is a heavily disputed book throughout Christianity, and given the nature of its writing (and its likely inspiration- halucinations), it is very very dubious indeed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Revelation

But here’s a cool list of “Apocolyptic literature”:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocalyptic_literature

Back to eternity…What the heck are we supposed to do with ourselves after the first 50,000,000,000,000 years? I can’t think af anything anyone could do that would make that immense amount of time managable-psychologically, socially, or practically. Hell and Heaven are exactly the same in this respect.

Which brings up a consideration: God may have reveiled himself differently to the peoples of the world, and seen different aspects of His nature and existance. If we view the Bible- or indeed, other religions as a slowly unfolding series of discoveries and changes in the theories man has about God, then it all makes a great deal more sense.

Even considering the possibility of demonic corruption of the other religions- even demonic rule itself of the dieties- we can still garner truths from lies. If i’m not mistaken, the Tree of Knowledge was the 1st act of corruption that demons had on humankind (for the Serpant was actually the creation god of Ugaritic beliefs, if i’m not mistaken); So, in a way, Man’s continual attempts to know God are simply being manifested continually throughout history or other foreign religious traditions. What do you think of that interesting idea?

Do I associate with people who have a “worldly” view? Absolutely- I minister to them. That is the purpose of this blog. One of the subjects I blog about the most often is homosexuality and the churches relationship to homosexuals. Because I am emphatic in my stating that gay people should be ministered to, I have a great deal of openly gay readers, and
I am proud of the fact that for several of them I am the only Christian to whom they relate on a regular basis. Well, proud because that means that they are hearing about God’s desire to know them, but also ashamed because it also means that Christians as a whole have overlooked them or already rejected them.
I sincerely apologize if you’ve been offended by a link you clinked from my blog.

As Christians we are supposed to call each other out on this kind of stuff, and you, my friend, need to re-evaluate your walk with God. Distance yourself from the world and sin. We are aliens in a strange land. We are not of this world, but we are in it. We are to be a light and salt of the world. We can’t do that by promoting and reading pornography… especially not being ashamed by it.

But to not believe in hell puts one at risk. If we are to believe that we have a second chance to confess God when we die, why live for Him in this life? For me it is because I have a personal relationship with Him and I love Him, but what of those that don’t yet know Him but believe in Him… why not just wait until they die to confess? That way they can live as they choose here.

Your question of why would anybody chose hell is a common one. We choose hell because of our depraved human nature. Free will and sin cause us to choose this route. If we didn’t choose hell or sin, Jesus’ sacrifice wouldn’t be necessary.

Please rethink your view of hell. God doesn’t punish us. He gives us a choice. We choose Him or we choose ourselves… God is a loving god, but He is also a righteous and just God. Sin and turning away from Him require justice. Every Scripture breathes this. To pick and choose what we want to believe in Scripture and what we don’t want to believe because it doesn’t fit in with our human view of an eternal/infinite God is a mistake. We will never completely understand Him in our current state. But if He states there is a hell, you can rest assured, there is a reason.

I’ll check out the post that you linked to when I get time.

Hell exists. It’s scary to think about, but there’s no room for interpretation, no matter what we feel and want to believe. Jesus Himself spoke about it 11 times (Matthew 5:22, Matthew 5:29, Matthew 5:30, Matthew 10:28, Matthew 18:9, Matthew 23:15, Matthew 23:33, Mark 9:43, Mark 9:45, Mark 9:47, Luke 12:5). The word He used is indeed Gehenna, and it is not hard to interpret what it means: the unquenchable fire. The way I look at it, if Jesus says Hell is real, I find it hard to think otherwise, no matter how hard I try.

You said, “The concept of a loving and embracing God that has kept me in my faith seems at odds with the idea of eternal condemnation.” The question is not, “Why would God condemn anyone to Hell?”, rather, it is, “Why would anyone voluntarily choose Hell?” Because that’s how people get there.

Why does Hell exist at all? Hell is really an issue of justice, something I talked about in a post of mine called The only way into Heaven is by Jesus, or by your own perfection!

How many will be in Hell? No way I can know, but this verse haunts me: “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Matthew 7:13-14

Remember: the Bible is the Word of God, ALL of it, and if we pick and choose what to believe, then we have no foundation to stand on – if we say that some of the Bible isn’t true, how can we be absolutely sure that the other parts we like are true? It has to be either all true, or it’s all just words.

Life is good.
Death is too.
There are reasons for everything to end.

Kind regards!