Perdition's Population Clock

[Beetow]

.
FAQ: Are animals considered unbelievers? And if so, will they go to Hell?

REPLY: Neither aqua life, winged life, nor terra life were created in the image and
likeness of God; only mankind has that distinction. And whereas we are told man
has a conscience and a sense of responsibility, we are not told the same about the
Earth's lower forms of life so I think it safe to assume the animal kingdom is
amoral; which can be defined as having or showing no concern about whether one's
behavior is morally right or wrong.

The image and likeness of God also implies a sense of justice, i.e. an inclination to
honor good by penalizing evil.

FAQ: According to Gen 9:5, animals that kill people have to be put down. Doesn't
that imply they can be charged with murder?

REPLY: Well; one can scarcely prosecute an animal for murder when the animal is
incapable of understanding what murder is. But it goes further than that:

In the beginning God said: Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and
let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and
over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth
upon the earth.

It is incumbent upon man to protect the dignity of his image and likeness of God
and if that means putting an animal down to do so, then he must or he will
regarding his image and likeness of God as something no more special than the
image and likeness of a lobster or a meerkat.

All in all, I think we have to concede that animal life was, and is, meant to be
expendable; whereas human life was, and is, meant to be revered.

POP CLOCK UPDATE: 115 days have transpired since beginning the thread. If the
figures in post No.1 are within reason, then something like 8,826,480 new arrivals
have checked into the fiery sector of Hades since Dec 15, 2024.
_

 

[Beetow]

.
Many years ago-- when I was a young single guy in his early twenties, living alone
in a cheap rental --as I was listening to a radio preacher talk about the afterlife,
something in my mind took over; and I had the strangest sensation of falling off the
earth into an abyss and nobody cared, nor did anybody miss me, nor did my
disappearance cause any alarm nor make any difference.

The freeways remained busy with frustrated drivers and honking horns, people still
got up to go to work, shoppers crowded the supermarkets and department stores,
kids caught their buses to school, birds kept right on chirping, grass kept on
growing, ocean waves went on rolling onto the beach, trains kept running, airlines
kept flying, clouds moved across the sky; and all that.

My absence changed nothing nor disturbed anyone nor anything. The world kept
right on turning, clocks went on ticking; and nature and man went right on with
their business as usual without the slightest hiccup. At that moment I realized just
how disconnected and how obscure people must feel when they exhale their final
breath and cross over to the other side.

Back in March of 2015, Andrew Getty, an heir to J. Paul Getty's oil fortune, died at
the age of 47. In life, Andrew had many friends. You know how many accompanied
him on his journey across the great divide? Nary a one.

You gotta walk that lonesome valley,
You gotta walk it by yourself,
Nobody here can walk it for you,
You gotta walk it by yourself.
(David Miller, 1927)
_

 

[Beetow]

.
There's coming a day when every knee will bend in reverence to Christ.

● Phlp 2:10 . . At the name of Jesus every knee should bow-- of things in heaven,
and things in earth, and things under the earth.

Now watch for the missing element in this next item:

● Col 1:20 . . Having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to
reconcile all things unto Himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or
things in heaven.

Every knee everywhere will bend, but not everyone everywhere will be reconciled,
i.e. "things under the earth" is missing from Col 1:20 and that's because God has
no intention of reconciling with folks down below, viz: it's game over for them.
Their feet are set in concrete and now there's no going back.
_

 

[Beetow]

.
● 1Pet 3:15 . . Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to
give the reason for the hope that you have.

Folks unified with Christ are required to be prepared, but they are not required to
always expound. In point of fact; they are commanded to avoid discussing his
religion with certain types of individuals whom he depicted as beasts.

● Matt 7:6 . . Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If
you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to
pieces.

The fault-finders, the obtuse, the skeptics, the mockers, the critics, those who
make it their mission in life to discredit and/or invalidate the Bible, and those who
amuse themselves by fishing for a reaction; fall into the beast category.

Dogs are barred from the future holy city.

● Rev 22:14-15 . . Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the
right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. Outside are the
dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the
idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

Dogs attended Jesus' crucifixion.

● Ps 22:16 . . For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have
enclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.
_

 

[Beetow]

.
FAQ: If true that mankind was created in the image and likeness of God per Gen
1:26-27; then why did Jesus tell Nicodemus in John 3:3-8 that another birth is a
must? I should think that the image and likeness of God is about as good as it gets;
so then why the requirement for a do-over?

REPLY: In the beginning, man was immortal and capable of sinless perfection. Plus;
man's original human nature was a satisfactory impetus. Therefore God gave it all
His stamp of approval.

● Gen 1:31 . . God saw all that He had made, and it was very good.

However; due to a peculiar incident recorded in the 3rd chapter of Genesis, man
lost immortality, lost his potential for sinless perfection, and lost the satisfactory
attributes of his original human nature. On top of that, man also became a tin God.

● Gen 3:22 . . And the Lord God said: The man has now become like one of us,
knowing good and evil.

In other words; man became his own guiding light instead of seeking God's
instructions to direct his steps. Consequently, man became a disaster.

● Gen 6:5-7 . . Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the
earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in
His heart.

Ever since then, these two lights-- the real God and the tin God --have been locking
horns and butting heads over matters relative to good and evil.

● Rom 8:7-8 . .The natural mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law,
nor can it do so. Those controlled by the fallen nature cannot please God.
_

 

[Beetow]

.
● Gen 6:5 . . God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that
every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

The thoughts of the heart are somewhat different than the thoughts that go
through the mind; and are often blocked out, viz: repressed; defined as a mental
process by which distressing thoughts, memories, or impulses that may give rise to
anxiety are excluded from consciousness and left to operate in the unconscious, i.e.
the subconscious which, in Freud's opinion, is a repository for socially unacceptable
ideas, wishes or desires, traumatic memories, and painful emotions.

● Matt 15:19 . . Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts

So then, it's not how your mind works that defines you, no, it's how your heart
works that really defines you; and a man's heart is easily capable of hoodwinking
his own consciousness.

● Jer 17:9 . .The human heart is most deceitful and desperately wicked. Who really
knows how bad it is?

God is able to peer into the heart's contents. That means He will be confronting
people with things about themselves that they have kept under wraps all their
lives; and that's why I sometimes say only a fool would take their chances with
God. They have no clue the extent of the psychological tsunami they're walking
into.

POP CLOCK UPDATE: 120 days have transpired since beginning the thread. If the
figures in post No.1 are within reason, then something like 9,210,240 new arrivals
have checked into the fiery sector of Hades since Dec 15, 2024.
_

 

[Beetow]

.
● Luke 12:15-20 . . A man's life does not consist in the abundance of his
possessions. And he told them this parable:

. .The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself:
What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops. Then he said: This is what I'll
do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my
grain and my goods. And I'll say to myself; You have plenty of good things laid up
for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.

. . But God said to him: You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from
you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?

That is one of the futilities of success in this world. Everybody knows it, but moguls
like J. Paul Getty and Andrew Carnegie never seem to take it to heart until they've
got one foot in the grave.

I once heard a story about a very wealthy man who died. His surviving relatives
were all called to the reading of the man's will while the media waited outside.
When the reading was over, the media asked the man's kin how much he left. They
replied: He left it all.

Yes, of course he left it all; even the clothing he wore to his own funeral. The
paintings of Gustave Doré, illustrating portions of Dante's Inferno, depict lost souls
100% stark naked-- with nary a stitch --as they probably should be because no
doubt they are.

The Beetles once complained in song: Money can't buy me love. Well; it couldn't
buy them time either-- John is gone, and George too.

● Ecc 2:14-16 . .The wise man has eyes in his head, while the fool walks in the
darkness; but I came to realize that the same fate overtakes them both.

. .Then I thought in my heart: The fate of the fool will overtake me also. What then
do I gain by being wise? For the wise man, like the fool, will not be long
remembered; in days to come both will be forgotten. Like the fool, the wise man
too must die.
_

 

[Beetow]

.
When God is ignored; people should expect Him to reciprocate.

● Prv 1:24-33 . . I called you so often, but you didn't come. I reached out to you,
but you paid no attention. You ignored My advice and rejected the correction I
offered. So I will laugh when you are in trouble! I will mock you when disaster
overtakes you-- when calamity overcomes you like a storm, when you are engulfed
by trouble, and when anguish and distress overwhelm you.

. . I will not answer when they cry for help. Even though they anxiously search for
Me, they will not find Me. For they hated knowledge and chose not to fear God.
They rejected My advice and paid no attention when I corrected them. That is why
they must eat the bitter fruit of living their own way. They must experience the full
terror of the path they have chosen. For they are simpletons who turn away from
Me to death. They are fools, and their own complacency will destroy them. But all
who listen to Me will live in peace and safety, unafraid of harm.

Case in point is Jacob's brother.

"Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. For you know that even
afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found
no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears." (Heb 12:16-17)

The Greek word translated repentance basically means to change one's mind; viz:
to reconsider.

Esau was an okay guy, but he was secular to the bone. He "got religion" right quick
when he saw his way of life costing him the blessing; but alas, the poor slob was a
day late and a dollar short; so to speak.

Lesson to be learned: The time for people to be thinking about Hell is not when
they get there, rather, before they get there because indifference in this matter is
lethal.
_

 

[Beetow]

.
It's believed by some that Luke 16:19-31 is a parable; which of course implies the
story is fiction; and some would even say fantasy. But the parable theory has some
fatal flaws.

For one: whenever Jesus told a parable, he eventually took his disciples aside and
explained its meaning. (Mark 4:34) I would've liked to been on hand when Jesus
expounded his defense for quoting Abraham saying things that the patriarch didn't
really say; which in my judicious estimation is especially despicable due to the fact
that Abraham is one of God's buddies. (Isa 41:8)

All I'm saying is: if we can't trust Jesus to tell the truth about his Father's friends,
then how are we supposed to trust him to tell the truth about one of us? This is a
serious question because Jesus is the one and only mediator between God and Man
(1Tim 2:5) Well; I would not be comfortable with someone unfaithful to me
speaking on my behalf.

One other point: nothing Jesus taught originated with him. He was, in fact, quite
micro managed. (John 8:26, John 8:28, John 12:49, John 14:24, John 3:34-35,
Heb 1:1-2) In other words: Jesus' teachings were God-given. Well; I cannot
imagine someone as famous for honesty as God directing His own son to tell us
things about people that aren't true; especially about His friends.

● John 17:3 . . You . . the only truthful God

● Heb 6:18 . . it is impossible for God to lie

If God's integrity is really as reliable as the Bible presents it; then I should think it
completely safe to assume that all of Jesus' parables, every one of them, from the
shortest to the longest, are 100% true stories taken from real life rather than yarns
spun from a fertile imagination.
_

 

[Beetow]

.
FAQ: Can a Christian be a Buddhist?

REPLY: Buddhism, like Falun Dafa, is basically peaceful. However, some of classic
Buddhism's components are incompatible with conventional Christianity.

1) Buddhism has no supreme being.

2) Buddhism's goal is nirvana. However; the nirvana that Siddhartha Gautama
taught isn't a destination: it's a state of mind; and Buddhists who achieve nirvana
live it here as mortals; not somewhere else as immortals.

3) Buddhism has no afterlife. When those who achieve nirvana pass away, they go
completely out of existence. But the ones who fail to achieve nirvana have to go
thru a process called samsara wherein they undergo serial reincarnations; which
are quite a bit different than a resurrection.

4) Reincarnation doesn't return one's soul to their body, primarily because there is
no soul in Buddhism; instead, reincarnation reassembles the karmic matter that
was once a particular individual. The complete teaching is a bit complex but in a
nutshell, Buddhists expect to return as either gods, asuras, hungry ghosts, hell
beings, animals, birds, and/or humans.

In contrast; Christ taught that everyone's original dead body will be restored to life
and they will come back as themselves. He also taught that there is but one
resurrection allotted per person instead of an endless cycle of birth and death. (Dan
12:2, John 5:29, Rev 20:5-6[

POP CLOCK UPDATE: 125 days have transpired since beginning the thread. If the
figures in post No.1 are within reason, then something like 9,594,000 new arrivals
have checked into the fiery sector of Hades since Dec 15, 2024.
_

 

[Beetow]

.
● Eph 2:3 . .We were by nature objects of wrath.

The wrath of God is interesting. For example:

● Isa 13:9 . . Behold, the day of Christ comes-- cruel; with both wrath and fierce
anger

The Hebrew word for "wrath" in that verse basically indicates an outburst of
passion. In other words: the wrath of God won't be weeping big wet crocodile tears
while it's slamming the dead at the Great White Throne event depicted at Rev
20:11-15; no, they will be terminated with extreme prejudice. (cf. Isa 63:1-6, Rev
19:15)

Webster's defines "fierce" as a behavior exhibited by humans and animals that
inspires terror because of the wild and menacing aspect of fury in attack. There's
neither sportsmanship nor sympathy in ferocity; only sheer terror, brutality, and
blood lust.

"cruel" is defined as: disposed to inflict pain or suffering; viz: devoid of humane
feelings

● Heb 10:27 . . A certain fearful expectation of . . . fiery indignation

"fiery indignation" is quite a bit more severe than ordinary indignation. It speaks of
someone who is seriously ticked off; and so angry that they're actually red in the
face.

There are people out there warming pews all around the world who have been so
coddled by sappy versions of Christianity that they have no concept of the
magnitude of the lethal tsunami of rage and violence coming their way to get them.
_

 

[Beetow]

.
Heaven is sometimes depicted as a mountain with any number of roads around the
base going up towards the top. Well; conventional Christianity accepts only one of
those roads makes it; viz: the rest are dead ends, loops, terraces, circles, and cul
de-sacs, i.e. no outlets and nowhere to go except round and around or back down
the mountain.

Hell is depicted as a colossal pit, deep and wide, with many roads around the rim
going down towards the bottom. Well; conventional Christianity accepts that every
one of those roads eventually merge into one big super expressway to the bottom.

● Matt 7:13-14 . . Wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction,
and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to
life, and only a few find it.

What number might the quantity "many" represent? Well, according to my sources,
as of mid 2020 there were approximately:

50,000 . . . . . . . . Scientologists
16,500,000 . . . . .Mormons
8,200,000 . . . . . .Practicing Jehovah's Witnesses
8,531,000 . . . . . .Baha'i
545,584,000 . . . .Buddhists
468,411,000 . . . .Chinese Folk Religionists
8,606,000 . . . . . .Confucianists
269,498,000 . . . .Ethnic Religionists
1,062,595,000 . . .Hindus
6,135,000 . . . . . .Jains
14,779,000 . . . . .Jews
1,893,345,000 . . Muslims
64,549,000 . . . . .New Religionists
2,788,000 . . . . . .Shintoists
28,000,000 . . . . .Sikhs
14,851,000 . . . . .Spiritists
9,078,000 . . . . . .Taoists
1,757,433,000 . . .Non Religious/Atheists/Agnostics

The grand total of just those categories is 5,710,522,000

If those figures are in the ball park, and if conventional Christianity is the reality;
then at least 72.4% of the earth's 2020 population of 7,887,001,292 people were
on a road to Hell; and no doubt some of them were folks we cared about: our BFF,
our loved ones, and our favorite celebrities.[/fonnt

NOTE: Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons are Christians in accordance with
Webster's definition; but not in the conventional sense.
_

 

[Bruce.Leiter]

.
Heaven is sometimes depicted as a mountain with any number of roads around the
base going up towards the top. Well; conventional Christianity accepts only one of
those roads makes it; viz: the rest are dead ends, loops, terraces, circles, and cul
de-sacs, i.e. no outlets and nowhere to go except round and around or back down
the mountain.

Hell is depicted as a colossal pit, deep and wide, with many roads around the rim
going down towards the bottom. Well; conventional Christianity accepts that every
one of those roads eventually merge into one big super expressway to the bottom.

● Matt 7:13-14 . . Wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction,
and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to
life, and only a few find it.

What number might the quantity "many" represent? Well, according to my sources,
as of mid 2020 there were approximately:

50,000 . . . . . . . . Scientologists
16,500,000 . . . . .Mormons
8,200,000 . . . . . .Practicing Jehovah's Witnesses
8,531,000 . . . . . .Baha'i
545,584,000 . . . .Buddhists
468,411,000 . . . .Chinese Folk Religionists
8,606,000 . . . . . .Confucianists
269,498,000 . . . .Ethnic Religionists
1,062,595,000 . . .Hindus
6,135,000 . . . . . .Jains
14,779,000 . . . . .Jews
1,893,345,000 . . Muslims
64,549,000 . . . . .New Religionists
2,788,000 . . . . . .Shintoists
28,000,000 . . . . .Sikhs
14,851,000 . . . . .Spiritists
9,078,000 . . . . . .Taoists
1,757,433,000 . . .Non Religious/Atheists/Agnostics

The grand total of just those categories is 5,710,522,000

If those figures are in the ball park, and if conventional Christianity is the reality;
then at least 72.4% of the earth's 2020 population of 7,887,001,292 people were
on a road to Hell; and no doubt some of them were folks we cared about: our BFF,
our loved ones, and our favorite celebrities.[/fonnt

NOTE: Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons are Christians in accordance with
Webster's definition; but not in the conventional sense.
_

Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons are not Christians in the biblical sense since they began and continue with a rejection of the Trinity, who is the real biblical teaching of who God is (three Persons in one God), especially and clearly in the Gospel of John.

The Mormons teach that God is three gods and that we can become gods too if we are really good Mormons.

The Jehovah's Witnesses teach that the Father is the only true God, while Jesus is a lesser spiritual being, and the Holy Spirit is God's power, not a Person.

We know God as a Mystery whom we can never figure out completely in this life with our fallen brains. Christian churches in the 1800s, when those two groups began, taught the Trinity. However, those groups' rationalism rejected such teaching and still reject it.

I think that we have all the more reason to praise God because of his mysterious, Trinitarian, divine nature. We also need to accept the mysteries of the Bible because of our limited reasoning powers as God's creatures.

 

[Beetow]

.
Back in 1968 I was a young 24 year-old welder just starting out in the metals
trades. One of the first real welding jobs I landed was with a manufacturer located
in one of the buildings that were at one time used for knocking together liberty
ships in the old WW2 Kaiser shipyard on a waterfront of the Columbia River in the
State of Washington.

One day the manufacturer's production designer was strolling through the shop. He
stopped where I was and casually asked me, right out of the blue: Are you ready
for Christ's return?

Well, the only information I had up to that point as regards Christ was what I
learned from nuns in catechism. They had never mentioned Christ's return; so that
man's question made no sense to me whatsoever. So my initial reaction was alarm.
And my secondary reaction was anger. So I asked the layout man, in a rather
indignant tone: Why would Christ want to come back here?

You see; I was in no hurry to meet Christ because I instinctively knew the interview
would not be pleasant. Even at only 24 years-old I already had a lot to answer for;
and I especially did not want to be confronted with my behavior in private when I
thought nobody was looking.

● Heb 4:13 . . Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight Everything is
uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

POP CLOCK UPDATE: 130 days have transpired since beginning the thread. If the
figures in post No.1 are within reason, then something like 9,977,760 new arrivals
have checked into the fiery sector of Hades since Dec 15, 2024.
_

 

[Beetow]

.
The conventional Christian doctrine of Hell isn't developed in the old testament
except possibly for Isa 66:23-24 wherein is written:

"The Lord says: From one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another,
all mankind will come and bow down before Me. And they will go out and look upon
the dead bodies of those who rebelled against Me; their worm will not die, nor will
their fire be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind."

Now although the conventional doctrine of Hell isn't developed in the old
testament's writings, I think it would be a mistake to assume folks back then
weren't fully aware of it. That mistake would be akin to a logical fallacy called an
argument from silence; which basically posits that if something isn't in writing, then
there was nothing to report.

The old testament's writers didn't record everything they knew. According to 2Pet
1:20-21 they only wrote what they were inspired to write rather than what they
would've liked to write.
_

 

[Beetow]

.
Heaven's criminal justice system requires eye for eye, tooth for tooth, burning for
burning, hand for hand, foot for foot, wound for wound, and stripe for stripe.

Where does that leave people like Ted Kaczynski who killed and/or maimed 26
people with homemade bombs; or Stephen Paddock who indiscriminately sprayed a
music concert in Las Vegas with a rifle equipped with a bump stock resulting in 471
dead and/or wounded; and the numerous serial killers that are in and out of the
news from time to time? How are those murderers supposed to balance the scales
of justice for all the illegal deaths they've caused?

Well; the fact of the matter is: they can't balance the scales because they simply
don't' have enough lives of their own with which to atone for their victims' lives.

This makes me suspect that perdition isn't uniform, i.e. there's one Hell, but its
circumstances may be something akin to the nine levels of Inferno in Dante
Alighieri's Divine Comedy. Wouldn't that be something?
_

 

[Beetow]

.
● Jonah 4:9-11 . . God said to Jonah: Do you have cause to be angry about the
vine? I do; he said. I am angry enough to die. But The Lord said: You have been
concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up
overnight and died overnight. But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty
thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as
well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?

Had not the adults of Nineveh responded to Jonah's preaching, 120,000 small
children would've perished through no fault of their own. They would've been
collateral damage due to their parents' decadence.

Though the city was spared in Jonah's day, a hundred years later in Nahum's day it
was destroyed by means of war and conquest; whereby a whole new generation of
pre-schoolers died before their time.

Just exactly how God is able to engineer such things is a bit of a mystery; but does
make one wonder where else this terrifying work of His goes on. Did God somehow
have a hand in the American civil war, and the first and second world wars, and the
Holocaust, and in Korea and Vietnam, and in the so-called Arab Spring, and in the
pandemics, the ethnic cleansings, ISIS, the housing bubble, and the genocides of
the last century, and in natural events like mighty earthquakes, tsunamis, and
super storms?

I really have to wonder sometimes because Jonah's God is still out there
somewhere; and so-called acts of God are still taking young lives. (cf. Nahum 1:1-6)
_

 

[Beetow]

.
When people neglect to think about the hereafter; they become like a frog boiled to
death by starting it out in cold water.

● Mark 4:3-19 . . Hearken! Behold, there went out a sower to sow: and some fell
among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. These
are they such as hear the word, and the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness
of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh
unfruitful.

Well, hello there
My, it's been a long, long time
How am I doing?
Oh, I guess that I'm doing fine

It's been so long now
But it seems now that it was only yesterday
Gee, ain't it funny
How time slips away?
(Billy Walker, 1961)
_

 

[Beetow]

.
FAQ: What might Hell's culture be like?

REPLY: Seeing as how nobody down there has any more reason to be civil, then I
think new arrivals can expect to be ill treated in that world.

Also, folks down there are deprived of the regeneration spoken of per John 3:3-8 so
they are there as they were here. Well; human nature tends to deteriorate, sort of
like the decay experienced by road kill and spoiled fruits and vegetables. I'd expect
that the lost get badder and badder and badder as time goes on so that even a
saint like Mother Teresa would eventually become so evil that her conduct in Hell
would be disturbing to behold.

And then it's certain that a number of seasoned inmates from prisons all over the
world are down there and those folks tend to form gangs and control structures.

* According to Matt 7:21-23, not everyone talking the talk will make the cut; for
example:

There are no guarantees in the Catholic religion, not even for the hierarchy; which
has me a bit concerned about my eldest brother. He served Rome as a Catholic
priest for 53+ years before passing away as a Friar back in 2018.

Well; I would not want to be him because if perchance my brother ended up on the
wrong side of things in the afterlife, he will surely be mocked cruelly and without
pity by some of the ugly folks imprisoned in the netherworld. I can just hear their
giggling and their taunts:

Hey Christian! How's about sharing the gospel with us ay? Tell us about the love of
God and how that's working for ya. Awwwww-Haw-Haw-Haw-Hawwww!

I'd rather end up in perdition as a Bernie Madoff than a failed priest because ol'
ponzi schemer Bernie is sure to be given far more respect down there than a man
of the cloth.

POP CLOCK UPDATE: 135 days have transpired since beginning the thread. If the
figures in post No.1 are within reason, then something like 10,361,520 new arrivals
have checked into the fiery sector of Hades since Dec 15, 2024.
_

 

[Beetow]

.
I think most folks would agree that monsters like Kim Jong-Un, Xi Jinping, Robert
Mugabe, Muammar Gaddafi, Saddam Hussein, Pol Pot, Mao Zedong, Ho Chi Minh,
Osama bin Laden, Joseph Stalin, human traffickers, drug cartel kingpins, mass
murderers, and serial killers belong in Hell; but why are decent folk down there?

Well; obviously humanity's moral compass points to a different north than their
maker's, viz: sometimes what's tolerable in human reasoning is unacceptable to
God. Why is that?

In the beginning; humanity was created with a conscience patterned after its
maker's conscience.

"And God said: Let us make man in our image, after our likeness . . So God created
man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female
created he them." (Gen 1:26-27)

Then came the forbidden fruit incident, whereby humanity's conscience lost its
innocence and became humanistic.

"Then the Lord God said: Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good
and evil." (Gen 3:22)

In other words; Man became a tin God conducting himself in accord with his own
moral values.

* There's a rather humorous scene in Dante's Inferno where these two guys who
knew each other in life are quarreling over who deserves Hell more than the other;
which is pretty silly when it's considered that both are condemned to the same
level.

I rather suspect that quite a few folks sincerely believe God has made a big mistake
sending them down there. In their judicious estimation; others deserve it for sure,
but not themselves.

For example: it's my guess that most folks are far more tolerant of dishonesty than
they are of sexual immorality yet both the liar and the deviant are on track for the
very same fate. (Rev 21:8) In point of fact, I'd wager that more folks are in Hell for
dishonesty than those in Hell for the naughty stuff, e.g. adultery, fornication,
incest, and the lifestyles of the gay & lesbian.
_