Christianity simple explained

I don't believe Christian theology necessarily believes in faith without evidence.

But not all evidence falls under the banner of scientific evidence or absolute proof.

It can still be perfectly logical to believe something from evidence that does not fall under the category of scientific evidence or proof.
It's true of course that for something as life altering as religion, you would want to have some strong evidence. However, sometimes evidence does not immediately come all at once. Sometimes you have to start the investigation and start walking down the road before you have any sense of whether you may be on the right track.

 

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen

Hebrews 11:1

.

 

It might be more productive to look through the first four Gospels to answer that question.

(John 12:47-48 for example, and even the reply in John 1:38-39. Most people are not going to know what they mean unless they think about them)

 

Hell is from the Bible and Dante's "comedy" is based on the Bible.

If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out.

Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels;

whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.

It is better for you to enter life with one eye, than to have two eyes and be cast into the fiery hell.

Who have transgressed against Me.
For their worm will not die
And their fire will not be quenched;

And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

This is the second death, the lake of fire.

he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.

 

It's more of an expression of speech, but is somewhat literal at the same time.
Obviously body parts typically do not cause people to go to hell, or people cannot know that they will.

No Christian theologian throughout history has ever advocated chopping off body parts.

 

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. Usually in my experience people get around their inability to provide any proof by claiming some personal knowledge/experience with Jesus, the Holy Spirit, etc. which of course cannot be verified in any way. Curious how these "personal experiences" generally align with culture and upbringing.

 

Why should anyone believe anonymous writings such as John?

 

You're missing the point.
The point is the message and the argument in the message.

 

That is basically correct. But what you may not understand is that this religious faith does not require "proof", not in the sense of the word that you are attaching to its meaning.

You are demanding one type of evidence, while not seriously considering the validity of the other type of evidence.

Let's talk about the concept of logical belief rather than the concept of absolute certainty and universal proof.

 

Hell = grave

Death by fire does NOT equal eternal punishment

As for the book of Revelation it is symbolic prophecy and should not be taken literally.

.

 

How does one know what parts of the Bible are symbolic and what parts are literal? Isn't Revelations supposed to be a revelation received from Jesus. Why would Jesus be using symbols?

 

Even in the Old Testament Biblical prophecy will incorporate imagery and symbolism. Take the often misinterpreted Isaiah 14:9-20... "Lucifer falling from heaven" is symbolic imagery of the fall of the king of Babylon. Isaiah 14 is a taunt against the king of Babylon as the beginning of the chapter tells us. Ironically, Isaiah 14:9-20 also contains "hell" translation of the word, sheol, which means grave - that is the only place the evil king of Babylon went = hell = grave.

Btw... Isaiah 14 comes on the heels of Isaiah 13 which refers to God's army coming from the ends of heaven [Isaiah 13:5] This is symbolic imagery of Cyrus' Median-Persian army conquering Babylon [Isaiah 13:17 & 19] Cyrus was God's anointed king [Isaiah 45] who God had chosen to be the symbolic Shepherd to God's Israelite people [Isaiah 44:28, Ezra 1]... that is why the "coming from heaven" imagery is used.

Jesus also used symbolism and imagery in His parables. Many times Jesus would speak to the people only in parables then later privately explain the meaning to His disciples. When His disciples asked him why He spoke in parables to the people, Jesus said because it is for you to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God, not them [Matthew 13 and Luke 8.]

The story the Bible tells is AWESOME! Unfortunately, most only know part of the story..

.

 

Jesus identifies the punishment for failure Matthew 25:41. That passage quotes Jesus identifying the punishment as follows:

That doesn't sound like just death to me.

That was the KJV. But, if you look around (or read my early post where I site other major translations) I don't believe you will find a significantly different translation.

 

Not all Christians agree on that point.

 

That does not claim that there is no way for you to revoke your citizenship.

 

As far as I can find, all major translations of the words of Jesus in Matthew 25:41 indicate everlasting torture as was created for Satan.

That's not "death".

 

The issue you are bringing up now is one that not all different Christian sects agree on.

It is a big theological issue. It would be difficult to explain here.

However, if you want to start a separate thread about it...

 

I do not see room for debate when it comes to whether the punishment stated in Matthew 25:41 is serious. It's serious. And, it applies to his followers, those who believe in him.

That's good enough for any point I'm interested in making.

I'm not nearly so interested in the exact nature of the punishment for ignoring the message of Jesus as identified in Matthew 25:31-end as I am in the actual message of Jesus - the philosophy or directive that Jesus is teaching his followers.

What Jesus is teaching, both in this chapter and throughout the claims made concerning his life are of direct applicability and are of critical importance today in America.

For just one example, you can't follow the message of Jesus while also following the message of the nativist movement in America.

 

not to keep trying, to keep growing and learnign as a spiritual being

 

Christians believe in the concept of a "spiritual death" (although they do not all agree on exactly what that means).

Meaning you might not keep on growing and learning, that is not necessarily inevitable.

I don't think Christianity necessarily absolutely rules out the possibility of reincarnation, especially only in certain limited specific cases, but that is generally not something they believe in.

 

it would be interesting to see how religion evolves in the next 1000 years

"What Dreams May Come"

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120889/

 

Sadism.

 

Like the people say in the video...."that's not fair!"
Christians (most) believe good works won't matter when getting into heaven if you don't have your Jesus card punched, so all those good people in other religions are SOL.
A great marketing tool, but unfair and Christians don't care.
The human imagination can and has come up with all sorts of scenarios for the afterlife as demonstrated here, but having a philosophy that excludes good people from their "heaven" seems ethically suspect.

 

First of all show us the place in the Bible talking about Santa?

 

You shall read the entirely Bible and don't warp the Truth.
Unfortunately there are too much 'storytellers' who spread nonsense about Christianity