God only likes people who like him

According to the bible... God loves everyone, on one condition... you have to love God back. If you dont love God then according to the bible you are doomed to burn in hell for all eternity??? Seems slightly like dictatorship to me.

God is supposed to allow free will but appearently we have no choice but to love God? What if I choose not to love God? I guess Im doomed to burn in the fires of hell then arent I?

Well, personally I believe religions have probably been modified pretty heavily by man during the years in order to control and earn money from the people.

I think the golden rule is "treat others as you want to be treated". They could make an entire religion out of that if they wanted to, but I prefer to keep it simple.


[edit on 3-10-2007 by Copernicus]

yeah pretty much. i mean god gave us free will, seems fair to me. but as far as the dictatorship i dont believe that ive seen anywhere in the bible that christianity was a democracy. i could be wrong but god wasent voted god he alone created the heavens and the earth. and didnt realy ask anyone their oppinion on it. so the guide lines he set arent up to us to debate or change. they are up to us to follow if we chose, the choice is ours and he gave us that although i dont think to many dictators give you a choice.

Gods always like you if you like them back..hell,...you can pray to God for things...if you wanna..The lake of burning fire ?..humm,....If you think you might end up in hell,...then you are doing something wrong...bible or no bible..but don't worry you can justify almost anything...and then you might even get rewarded for the sames deeds,,...dogma.....hocus pocus stuff..

Gods love is UNCONDITIONAL! Where did you find that because God loves you you have to love him back or else?

The choice we have is not whether we have to love him or not but whether we want to believe in him or not. He is merciful and I guarantee you there is no such thing as hell. There IS however, eternal life or NOT. That is determined by your choices - IMHO. If you don't believe in him and you sin BIG time, you will die and not your body but your SOUL - it will die, dead, gone, not longer etc etc.

It won't go to a burning sea of fire. You will simply cease to exist. Finality. You will not be alive or enjoy eternal life. The sea of fire is simply man's way of scaring the living cr@p out of you. Nope, you won't burn - you either live or die. This body we have is simply a vessel for our soul.

But back to the point, you don't have to love him. Hell, hate him if you so wish (not making assumptions - generalizing) BUT I have to say love him or hate him, it means you believe in him if you do either of these things hehehe

reply to post by shearder

The choice we have is not whether we have to love him or not but whether we want to believe in him or not. He is merciful and I guarantee you there is no such thing as hell. There IS however, eternal life or NOT. That is determined by your choices - IMHO. If you don't believe in him and you sin BIG time, you will die and not your body but your SOUL - it will die, dead, gone, not longer etc etc.

Rev.20:12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

14.And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

15.And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.


I agree with what you stated. There is no hell, at least as we think of it. Those souls are just gone and no longer exist, "cast into the lake of fire".

However, the separation of souls during the millennium may be a type of hell, especially for Christians. Everyone will KNOW that Christ is real and yet won't be with Him. Those would be the ones that, "worshipped the beast", or, "had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands". (Rev.20:4)

My question for you is, what do you believe the following scripture means?


Rev.20:5 But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.


The first resurrection means that those that stayed true, didn't fall for the deceit of Satan and waited for the true Christ to appear, take part in the first resurrection and they will be ,"priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years."(Rev.20:6) So....their soul is now immortal and will not be subject to the "second death". In other words they have made it.

But the "rest of the dead" will have to be taught during the millennium and tested at it's end. These "dead", I believe just means the spiritually dead as they wouldn't be considered spiritually alive as they didn't make the first resurrection.

My question is, do you believe they are still in a flesh form or are they spiritual. A friend and I debate whether ALL souls at that time are spirit or just some (those that are the priests with God) and the rest will remain in flesh until the end of the millennium.

What is your thought on this?



.........Whirlwind

Originally posted by masterchief117
God only likes people who like him

“Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:7–8)

Straight to the point, don't ya think? I don't know how to make it more clear.

Originally posted by masterchief117
What if I choose not to love God? I guess Im doomed to burn in the fires of hell then arent I?

If someone throws you a life preserver and you refuse it, whose fault is it when you drown? Yes, you're free to do what you will with your life. Why you would choose to reject someone who gives you a lot for next to nothing is beyond me. What posessions will you take with you into the next life? How can you possible look at this as a losing situation? It's a win-win situation. You accept God's love, He in return gives you eternal life.

Like most gifts you have to accept them. A chocolate cake that someone forced down your throat wouldn't taste that good would it?

[edit on 3-10-2007 by dbates]

Originally posted by whirlwind
14.And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
15.And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

I agree with what you stated. There is no hell, at least as we think of it. Those souls are just gone and no longer exist, "cast into the lake of fire".

thats what i was reffering to the lake of fire. you cleared things up a little but but what kinds of people would appear in the book of death as they call it?

[edit on 3-10-2007 by masterchief117]

Originally posted by whirlwind
I agree with what you stated. There is no hell, at least as we think of it. Those souls are just gone and no longer exist, "cast into the lake of fire".

Absolutely. As mentioned, God is merciful and regardless how bad one has been, the mercy is also bestowed upon the family of that soul - imagine THEIR torment if one they love can be seen suffering in hell.

Originally posted by whirlwind
However, the separation of souls during the millennium may be a type of hell, especially for Christians. Everyone will KNOW that Christ is real and yet won't be with Him. Those would be the ones that, "worshipped the beast", or, "had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands". (Rev.20:4)

Yes, i would have to agree that they would be in their own sort of hell. Not hell as said i.e. lake or sea of fire but in a hell of understanding! But again, they would "die" and be part of the second resurrection and then the second death! (see further below)

Originally posted by whirlwind
My question for you is, what do you believe the following scripture means?
Rev.20:5 But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.

Well if i think about it, it is a confusing verse to say the least, but I would have to say that when the Antichrist comes those that do not "convert" to evil will be killed. Those souls will be of the first resurrection and they will rule with Christ for a thousand years. Then Christ will rid the world of evil and then resurrect the "rest" of the "dead" to judge. Yes and i agree they will be spiritually dead i.e. their souls will be dead too. He won't resurrect corpses - it will be souls IMO.

I doubt at all that there will be "bodies" living for 1000 years. There will still be the usual dying of the body and souls will either go to heaven as normal OR they will die (souls) if they have the mark and be resurrected to be judged. And that's when he will pull out the book of life and that's when he will judge the "dead" - those souls that did not qualify for eternal life. That will be the second resurrection.

like verse 5:12 says "12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works"

So to recap, we will have eternal life IF we believe in him. If we don't believe in him when we die our souls will ALSO die. NO eternal life. BUT on the second resurrection the DEAD souls will stand before him and be judged AGAIN in order to see if there is anything in the book of life that can justify them getting eternal life. Not dead bodies. Based on the book of life there will be a second death if eternal life cannot be justified.

Those that live thereafter will be given a NEW earth.

Hope i made sense. It is a confusing book to say the least.

[edit on 4/10/2007 by shearder]

Originally posted by whirlwind
14.And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
15.And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

I agree with what you stated. There is no hell, at least as we think of it. Those souls are just gone and no longer exist, "cast into the lake of fire".



thats what i was reffering to the lake of fire. you cleared things up a little but but what kinds of people would appear in the book of death as they call it?

Most of the scriptures that document all of what I am telling you are found in Revelation. Instead of typing them I'll refer you to the verse:


At the end of this age Satan will appear pretending to be Jesus and many will believe it is Christ and follow him and he is mainly coming for Christians - they are his goal (Rev.12:17).


God's elect have been planting seeds of truth about that time so when they are taken before Satan and allow the Holy Spirit to speak through them, those seeds will sprout and those souls will realize they have been following a fake.(Luke 21:12-15)


Then the true Christ appears and we are all changed into a spiritual body - all (1 Corinthians 15:51-53). He judges us, not to hell, but as to where we will spend the millennium. (Rev.19:11, 20:5-6)


We will be on one side of the gulf or the other, with Him or without (Luke 16:26). All are taught during that time without Satan's influence but he will be released at the end of that time (without as much power as he had during this age) to test the souls on the side of the gulf that are without Christ. Unbelievably, there will be many that follow him again (Rev.20:7-9).


Then Satan and his followers are thrown into the lake of fire - they are gone, finished, blotted out of our memories (Rev.20:10, 14-15). At the end of this age we are judged on our faith, as well as works for "faith without works is dead". In the next age we will be judged on our works for no faith is required because He is with us (Rev.20:13, 15).


So....to answer your question, after taking the long route.....we will be judged as to whether we are in the book of life by the works we do in the millennium. What I work for in this life is to be with those that make it on the first go-around. If I do I won't have to pass that second test (Rev.20:6).


The "kind of people" that don't make the first resurrection (Rev.20:5) are those that followed the fake Christ, knowingly or unknowingly believing him to be the true Christ or are those that didn't repent of their sins and believe in Christ in this age.


The "kind of people" that don't make the second and will be thrown in the lake of fire, it appears, are those that don't care about Christ and prefer to "do their own thing" and follow Satan when he pops out again.



.............Whirlwind

masterchief117


This is an addition to my previous post (I can't seem to use the Edit feature properly so must edit with another post).


God goes into greater detail about those that will be thrown in the lake of fire here:


Revelation 21:7 He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be His God, and he shall be My son,

8.But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcereres, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone; which is the second death."



Strong's Concordance:

Fearful - #1169 deilos, (dread) timid, faithless, fearful

Abominable - #948 bdelusso, (to stink) to be disgusted, esp. of idolatry, abhor, abominable

Whoremonger - #4205 pornos, to sell, a (male) prostitute (as venal) i.e. by debauchee (libertine) fornicator, whoremonger

Sorcerers - #5332 pharmakeus; from pharmakon, (a drug i.e spell-giving potion); a druggist (pharmacist) or poisoner, i.e. (by extens.) a magician - sorcerer.

Idolaters - #1496 eidololatres, from #1496, #1497 and the base of 3000; an image - (servant or) worshipper; an image (i.e. for worship); by impl. a heathen god, or the worship of such


So....Those that will be thrown in the fire are those involved in worship of other gods, those dealing in drugs (illegal drugs) or occult practices, prostitution (male and female) and the fearful.



............Whirlwind

Originally posted by whirlwind

Sorcerers - #5332 pharmakeus; from pharmakon, (a drug i.e spell-giving potion); a druggist (pharmacist)


So....Those that will be thrown in the fire are those involved in worship of other gods, those dealing in drugs (illegal drugs) or occult practices, prostitution (male and female) and the fearful.

Your source doesn't make a distinction between legal and illegal drugs, so why do you? This seems like a distinction driven by religion as politics, not a true interpretation of the passages you've provided here.

A pharmacist, according to your source, should also burn in hell.

And why on earth should someone fearful go to hell? That strikes me as insane -- everyone is afraid once in a while.

and people wonder why I say religion is nonsense. :shk:

Originally posted by whirlwind
masterchief117

This is an addition to my previous post (I can't seem to use the Edit feature properly so must edit with another post).

God goes into greater detail about those that will be thrown in the lake of fire here;:
Revelation 21:7 He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be His God, and he shall be My son,

thanks! you really got your religion covered that cleared things up.