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I started off in Sunday school with the Baptists. After we moved away from my childhood hometown I got involved with a church of Christ with my best friend and his family. When I was 17 I had started becoming a bit desensitized to some of their core teachings and, despite being right on the verge of preaching at a church of Christ, I turned it down to embrace Orthodox Christianity, which I felt God was drawing me towards. 5 years into Orthodoxy I had become quite the zealot and pharisee and it led to a fall, and I became an atheist for four or five years.

Next thing I know, by God's amazing grace, He began to call me again. I learned that His grace carries me and my being in Christ isn't as based upon my zealotry or personal performance as I once thought. I still do struggle with that, though. Now I'm settled in a non-denominational Spirit-filled church and have finally learned to have a relationship with God, vs. simply learning a lot about Him and trying to beat people over the head with His word.

I learned so much from every avenue. I have nothing bad to say about any church I have been a part of. God taught me valuable things in every location and I wouldn't change a thing.
 
Reminder:
Discussion of Catholic doctrine is limited and will only be allowed in the One on One Debate Forum and End Times forum only. RCC content in the End Times forum should relate to End Times beliefs. Do not start new topics elsewhere or sway existing threads toward a discussion or debate that is may be viewed as ‘Catholic’ in nature.
:topic
 
KevinK said:
I'm not currently a member of a congregation...I was raised Roman Catholic, but for reasons I won't go into details about here, no longer consider myself. I would be open to joining a church, denominational or non-, but I have but one single requisite: it would have to sermonize frequently on the topic of Hell, just as Christ did. So few pastors or ministers seem to even touch this topic these days, and it's a pretty important one.

One honest question: the commandment says to "honor the Sabbath", but does that necessarily mean church service? I appreciate the benefits, but is it an actual requirement?
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You would enjoy my church, brother. My pastor preaches on Hell very often, because Jesus did.
 
Blake said:
You would enjoy my church, brother. My pastor preaches on Hell very often, because Jesus did.
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Hummmm. That means he would have to quit after a month and a half of Sunday sermons. I could be mistaken on the exact count, but as I recall, Jesus only mentioned anything that could be construed as "Hell" about six times in His ministry.
 
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Willie T said:
Hummmm. That means he would have to quit after a month and a half of Sunday sermons. I could be mistaken on the exact count, but as I recall, Jesus only mentioned anything that could be construed as "Hell" about six times in His ministry.
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I like a little bit of grace and a little bit of judgment preaching. Each has its place and season. :)
 
Willie T said:
Hummmm. That means he would have to quit after a month and a half of Sunday sermons. I could be mistaken on the exact count, but as I recall, Jesus only mentioned anything that could be construed as "Hell" about six times in His ministry.
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Isn't it widely known that Jesus spoke more about Hell than Heaven?

Hell References: Mt 3:12, Mt 5:22, Mt 5:29–30, Mt 8:12, Mt 10:28, Mt 11:23, Mt 13:42, Mt 13:50, Mt 16:18, Mt 18:9, Mt 22:13, Mt 23:15, Mt 23:33, Mt 25:30, Mt 25:41, Mt 25:46, Mk 9:43, Mk 9:45, Mk 9:47–48, Lk 10:15, Lk 12:5, Lk 16:23
 
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I grew up in the Catholic faith! I went to the school for 6 years , and believed all !
We were told not to communicate with other religions !
We never were told to use the bible !
Just prayer book , and rosary !
And the nuns talked a lot of the saints.
And I was not saved and did not know this ! Also my husband went to the same church , not the school.......
We met at work ! And got married at the Catholic church. We did grow up and hung at the same places, but
never knew each other till we worked.
Any way ! We had children and the older son got saved as a teen. And as time went on we all did........
And we all now go to bible church's , in different States.......... Mich. Wis. Ga.

All those years as a un-saved person I thought I was going to hell!
That was for 50 years..................... What a great big difference......... We now all love GOD and understand and believe! .
 
KevinK said:
Isn't it widely known that Jesus spoke more about Hell than Heaven?

Hell References: Mt 3:12, Mt 5:22, Mt 5:29–30, Mt 8:12, Mt 10:28, Mt 11:23, Mt 13:42, Mt 13:50, Mt 16:18, Mt 18:9, Mt 22:13, Mt 23:15, Mt 23:33, Mt 25:30, Mt 25:41, Mt 25:46, Mk 9:43, Mk 9:45, Mk 9:47–48, Lk 10:15, Lk 12:5, Lk 16:23
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Undoubtedly, just about any mention of anything and everything was translated "Hell" (if they could somehow make it seem so) in the KJV. As I recall, King David is even said to be happy he is looking forward to meeting his son in "hell" in that sterling translation.
 
There are actually just 9 distinct references to hell by Jesus in the book of Matthew and far too many references to heaven to count.
It's really very lopsided that heaven is spoken of far more than hell.
However, Jesus did speak of hell more often than any other New Testament writer.
 
I found this article interesting........ I wish I knew who wrote it, so I could give proper credit, but it might be Dan Wilkerson.
(Here are just the opening few paragraphs...... the full article goes into much more specifics.)

According to some well-known pastors, Jesus’ teachings are primarily about fire and brimstone. For example:

“… he [Jesus] himself speaks twice as often of hell as of heaven.”
— D.A. Carson, Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and His Confrontation with the World

“He [Jesus] spoke more often about hell than he did about heaven. We cannot get around this fact.”
— Leon Morris, “The Dreadful Harvest,” Christianity Today, May 27, 1991

“Jesus talked more about hell than He did about heaven in order to warn men of its reality.”
— John MacArthur, “The Ultimate Religious Decision”

“Jesus said more about Hell than Heaven.”
— Jerry Falwell, “Heaven and Hell”

“Obviously I do believe in hell. Jesus spoke more about hell than heaven.”
— Rick Warren, interview with John Piper

“Jesus said more about hell than about any other topic. Amazingly, 13 percent of his sayings are about hell and judgment …”
— Mark Driscoll, “6 Questions on Hell”

“Of the 1,850 verses in the New Testament that record Jesus’ words, 13 percent of them deal with the subject of eternal judgment and hell. In fact, Jesus spoke more frequently about hell than He did about heaven.”
— Robert Jeffress, How Can I Know?

Those are some very bold and very specific quantitative assessments of Jesus’ message. But are they true?

By my count[1] (with the help of some BibleWorks magic), there are 1,944 verses in the four gospels that contain Jesus’ words.

Surprisingly, only about 60 of those verses–or an unwhopping three percent of them—might be construed as either directly or indirectly referring to hell.

On the other hand, there are more than three times as many verses in the gospels in which Jesus references heaven, eternal life, or his coming kingdom: 192 verses in all, or almost 10%.

So Jesus did not, in fact, speak more about hell than heaven. But many people who should know better still seem hell-bent on insisting that He did.

How do they arrive at a conclusion so contrary to the facts? By reading hell into any and every possible passage in the Bible.
 
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