I am afraid of going to hell

I've been thinking about this for some time now... I don't believe the christian story, bible, ect. I can't force myself to believe, so what do I do? I'm in a real pickle here. Will God know that I just didn't believe, would like to (and boy would I), but just didn't? Or would I be cast into hell? I'm fairly humble, i know that i do and have done bad things and I don't really feel like I would deserve to go to heaven at this point.

So what should I do? What would you suggest? Keep in mind that I cannot force myself to believe something, if I could I would believe at this moment. Do you think that that fact will have any bearing on my final destination?

-not

Simple,

Accept Christ as you unquestioned lord and savior and devote your life to him, or go to hell.

C'mon man, it's not rocket science.

reply to post by Hellish-D


But i don't believe... That would be a lie and that was the whole point of the post.

Basically, God knows that I do not believe, will he hold something that I have no control over against me? Sorry if I was as clear as i could have been.

-not

Of course he will. That's why he sent his son to us. We either believe, or go to hell. How can you believe in Hell and not believe that Jesus can save you? C'mon man, get with the program.

reply to post by n0tsan3

I have heard it said that religion will get you sent to hell quicker than anything! Gods word has been cut and edited and misinterpreted over time and you take 10 avid Bible readers and you will get 10 different interpretations. God loves all of us! He looks within us. I believe that there will be alot of shocked people come judgement day! Jesus himself said that not everyone that says Lord Lord will get to heaven. Some of them will cry but we preached your word and we cast out demons in your name and Jesus will say get away from me I do not know you. I was paraphrasing, but you get the idea. I think we will be judged mainly on the way that we treat our fellowman while on this earth. Did we love and help or hate and destroy...just my opinion of course.

I don't believe in hell, but there are a ton of people that do. That makes me think that there might be some credit to it and i'd be pretty bummed out if it does turn out to exist. So, for the record I do not believe in hell, but if there is one I really donot want to go there. So is it my fault that i do not believe? Because it doesn't seem to be something that i have any control over.

Again, very simple, if you have a feeling that it exists, then you must have a feeling that Jesus is the Christ. That feeling is Jesus tickling your feet. Believe in him and be saved.

reply to post by Greenize


Thanks, that helps. It makes sense and all, so hopfully that is the case. If any of it happens to be true.

Have faith...

Start with prayer...begin your relationship with Jesus and slowly build faith from there. Read his word in the bible...start with the New Testament and pray.

And be sure to spread the word. Jesus's word, and your own soul mean nothing unless you let others know that they will burn too, unless they believe.

Christ be with you.

don't worry bud. try to get a bigger perspective on things. read up some western Buddhism: Alan Watts and some Wei Wu Wei. (just google 'read alan watts online'). you ain't going to hell . it's all about perspective and recognising futility in your thought process, learning that the mind is a dumb motherf$£ker and that we shouldn't pay thoughts like this no mind. (ie thoughts do not reflect reality, but only process a small subset of what is and could be. As illustrated, for example, by the Catholic concept of the Son,The Father and The Holy Ghost all being one and the same thing. Paradox.)

as an exercise to show how dumb a person's mind is and how futile most of our thoughts are, try to imagine what was 'before' Creation. play with that concept a bit, and see how your brain deals with it. If you're lucky, you'll get a kinda synaptic crash: a minor brain meltdown for a moment. Playing with paradoxes like that shows up the weaknesses of purely logical thought, and illustrate the fact that we shouldn't take highly abstract religious concepts like 'Heaven' or 'Hell' too seriously, as it's completely off our conceptual radar-- we have no frame of reference to consider what those terms acrually mean (even if we did believe in them)

and watch out for the bible-thumping brigade on this site. Their minds are usually closed-- it's a waste of time asking most of them about something like this.

peace out...

Well, Will Rogers said it best, I think: One man's theology is another man's belly laugh.

Originally posted by kinglizard
Have faith...

Start with prayer...begin your relationship with Jesus and slowly build faith from there. Read his word in the bible...start with the New Testament and pray.

Thanks, I just am not sure that prayer does anything and it might just me time that I've wasted and never get back. Not that I do nto waste time a lot. I'll give it a shot, I did when i was a little kid and nothing really came of it. But do you think that if i just start doing that I'll start to believe? I'm not sure if it will and if it does, does that mean that i can make myself believe other things that I currently do not? I like bigfoot as an example. I'll give it some thought and thanks for the responce.

Hellish d - I'm trying to be a little serious at the moment.

It is my opinion that if you start walking and acting in faith you will start to find just that.

As am I. I just think I'm moving a bit fast for you. That's fine, take your time. Just remember that Jesus and I love you.

Wasn't Jesus just a myth designed to enslave and control our populace? If anything he was just the one who rebelled against the Money Changers...

I would pray, even if you do not believe in God, but because you wonder, I would pray and say that you are willing and ask him to reveal himself to you.

Originally posted by n0tsan3
I don't believe the christian story, bible, ect. I can't force myself to believe, so what do I do? I'm in a real pickle here.

It'd be far better to be once dead than twice dead. Do not allow anyone to brainwash you into believing with your lips and not with your heart.

What you do, if you give a flying hoot, is seek him out. You are instead reaching out to man, and man is not the creator. Although many desire to be.

He doesn't live in a book, the book and every other thing lives in him.

If you think a thought he knew it from before the foundation of the world, he's not hard to find.

Don't let 'religion' put you off of it, it doesn't take any special mumbo jumbo. Just talk to the lord, he's listening and the office is always open. I think you'll be surprised.