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As promised, Bible Study Part 1 - Hell: What is its purpose and does God send people there? Are you sure of your answer? You may be surprised!

God is no liar. We can either believe and receive God's blessings, or doubt, and do without. There's no in between or middle ground. God is not the author of confusion. Satan is. And I would like to stick to this subject. We can discuss whether we believe the Bible is the true Word of God or not, at another time. That is not the issue at hand right now, so please respect that and try to stick to this subject. Those who are not interested, please be respectful and simply move on. Be advised, that any attempt to sabotage this Bible study, your hateful remarks shall be immediately deleted.

With that, I would like to discuss that the Bible says hell is real, though some are teaching that it is not, and that no one will go there. Let's examine that from God's perspective, in His Word.

Everything works so differently in the spiritual world. God's grace is beyond anything we could ever imagine, because when God forgives, he forgets, and the grace he saved me with, continues from the time I repented and asked the Lord to save me, until I go home to be with Him. His Word tells me so.

God is no liar. He promised to send the Holy Spirit to live in me and guide me, the second I repented and asked Jesus to forgive me of my sins. Just as he will any, who invite him into their lives as Lord and Savior.

When God saved me, it was not till then, that the Holy Spirit came to dwell in me, as God's Word promises. The moment His holy Spirit touched my dead spirit, it brought mine alive and transformed my entire life for the better. When the Holy Spirit touches our spirit , it can't help but make us whole again, and brings us back into fellowship with God the Father.

I had realized I was a sinner, that needed my sins forgiven. The Holy Spirit helped me realize that. I still recognize my sins today and try to improve each day. I will still sin, while I'm in this body, but I do love the Lord, and what I can do, is strive to be a better person everyday. I can inspect my life, and with willingness to look at my sins, I can then be genuine and work on myself, so I don't keep making the same mistakes.

If I love the Lord, I will not want to sin! I don't need to live beyond what is genuine and I have absolutely no desire to do less. I accept the responsibility of my sins. I know God well enough to know that he loves me in spite of my sins, and he's not out to beat me over the head, every time I make a mistake. I also know I can pick myself up, brush myself off, and still love myself, because I have told myself the truth and the truth always sets one free. What's sad, is when we refuse to acknowledge our sins or apologize. I am not too proud nor above acknowledging and admitting my mistakes, when I'm wrong. The best thing yet is that I can improve every day, praise God!

That's exactly why God gave us a conscience. That's how we know, amongst other ways, that God is real. He gave us our conscience, so that we could know and experience our Creator! Another reason, is so we could have fellowship with Him through our Spirit, which LONGS for fellowship with it's Maker, and that's why we feel guilty, when we do wrong things. Our conscience hurts. Especially if Jesus is our Savior, as the Holy Spirit which was placed in us, hurts his Spirit which dwells in us, as it wants to do good, yet our sinful nature for the time being, sometimes wants to give in, then caves to the temptation and LURE of sin.

Satan has had thousands of years to perfect his craft of deceiving and making sin look beautiful, innocent, and "not so bad". He doesn't want you to realize the consequences of sin. He plays it down, as if it means nothing, no big deal, so you'll glaze over it. In the spiritual sense, God doesn't look at sin the way we do. We are the ones that categorize sin. God does not. Would God really send us to hell? Are you sure of your answer? The answer may surprise you, if you've not read God's Word. Tomorrow in Part 2, we'll examine God's Word, for the purpose of hell. I hope you won't miss it, because there is much to discover. This was more of an "introductory" post, which I felt necessary, if we're going to understand why God takes sin so seriously, and the purpose of hell. It's not what you think!

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WolfGirlwh0r3 · 36-40, T

Well was created by the writers of the Bible to scare the faithful to listen obediently to Priests who were at the time thee only literate people, so HELL was a means of control to make the masses complient

LadyGrace ·

@WolfGirlwh0r3 Though the Bible says hell is real and even gives a description of it, it is Satan who lies to people, telling them God wants to send people there, so they will hate God, call him a liar, and miss heaven. He's got all kinds of tricks up his sleeve. He even makes people believe God is dead or else there is no God, because that way they won't think about preparing for heaven. Satan doesn't want anybody in heaven. What he wants, is for people to believe his lies, so they'll dismiss the whole thing and then end up in hell. He wants company and he'll do or say anything to get it. His goal is to convince people that God is the bad one. If he can get them to believe his lies then he knows no one will fear going to hell. But Jesus didn't come to threaten us with hell nor to send even one of us there. That's another lie of the devil. He tells people that God wants to put the fear in us. The truth is, Jesus's mission had to do with coming to warn the world that their souls were in danger, and to give us his Plan of Salvation so we wouldn't have to miss heaven. Not one of us. If Satan and hell were not real, Jesus would not have bothered. We never have to fear God. When the Bible talks about fear concerning God, it is speaking of showing him the respect he deserves, the reverence he deserves. Jesus was so sad about losing souls, he took that extra measure and died on the cross to save us from hell, not place us there. He didn't have to do that but he did. In fact, he volunteered to pay for our sins so there was no way we could miss heaven. God is perfect, incapable of lying and incapable of error. Satan wants all the souls he can get because he hates God. If he had repented, God would have forgiven him, but he is evil personified and he does not want to be saved. Does Jeremiah 29:11 sound like God is out to hurt us? If he was out to hurt us he wouldn't have given his life to save us!

LadyGrace ·

@WolfGirlwh0r3 The Bible was not written to scare people. It was written to keep people out of hell, thus, God's mission and Plan of Salvation.

WolfGirlwh0r3 · 36-40, T

@LadyGrace please dont spout your Religiosity to me, the BIBLE is a book written and EDITED by man , it may have been devinely inspired by god and the messages they sent to various people over the ages, but NO ONE has visited HELL and seen first hand what it is like, so why even assume its real, live life for good because its the right thing to do, not because some robbed pedo tells you to

WolfGirlwh0r3 · 36-40, T

@LadyGrace The writers of the Bible picked and choosed what they saw as sins, and if you do not see that you need to reassess your view of what christianity is, they did many many many bad things, did those catholics not go to hell?

LadyGrace ·

@WolfGirlwh0r3 Well I believe that's another thing Satan wants us to believe, that the Bible was written by anyone; that God entrusted His Holy Word to just anyone. Through careful Bible study, we can see that is not true. If the Bible was written by regular people who wrote down what they thought was sin, how would they know what sin was, before God even told them? Christianity and all other religions, have nothing whatsoever to do with salvation. You're thinking does not match up with God's Word. It was God who showed us what sin is and what we need to do about it. If you believe the Bible was written by mere man, without the guidance of the Holy Spirit telling them what to write, God's Word says differently. If you study God's word I believe you'll see that. Telling me what I need, it's strictly your opinion. Everything I write comes strictly from God's word, Not me, so if you can't believe God's Word, then I guess you think God is a liar, because that's what it amounts to. God is no liar. I didn't ask you to believe me. I asked you to believe the Word of God. Study God's Word, then show me where I'm wrong. This is not about what I believe. The important thing is what God said. Let's leave my character and your opinion of me out of it and study God's Word, that's what it's really about. You are slurring against Christians. What about all the Christians that were slaughtered and tortured for their faith, even back in Jesus's time. We can't leave them out.

WolfGirlwh0r3 · 36-40, T

@LadyGrace if god wrote the bible and transcribed it through man, why are there whole testiments that are now totally removed?

LadyGrace ·

@WolfGirlwh0r3 Because man is not flawless like God. There were people just like in Jesus' day, who were haters of God and His Word, and tried their best to destroy it, but they were unsuccessful. God said nobody could destroy His Word. and that's why, though some haters got their hands on it, we may be missing a few chapters, but it's still survived all these centuries later. There's so many people that have tried, you would not believe it, yet they have not been able to completely destroy it and one thing they can never destroy for sure, is its main theme and message to us.... God gave us His free Plan of Salvation, and not one of us has to miss heaven. It tells us who God is and why we need him.

WolfGirlwh0r3 · 36-40, T

@LadyGrace agree to disagree

LadyGrace ·

@WolfGirlwh0r3 ok

LadyGrace ·

@WolfGirlwh0r3 About what part exactly? Just curious.

WolfGirlwh0r3 · 36-40, T

@LadyGrace thank you for sharing your views on here and bringing the lost into your fold as they need something to believe in

WolfGirlwh0r3 · 36-40, T

@LadyGrace i lost my connection to the Father church, not to the words of god, but i believe in the Pagan church that came before Catholics stole it all. I believe so much, just not the parts man as wraught.

LadyGrace ·

@WolfGirlwh0r3 Actually, there are no "lost books of the Bible." These so-called "lost books" were known by the Jews in Old Testament times, as well as by Christians of the New Testament era, but they were not considered inspired Scripture.

There were many legends and rumors of lost books of the Bible, but the books were not, in fact, lost. Rather, they were rejected. There are literally hundreds of religious books that were written in the same time period, as the books of the Bible.

THE MAIN REASON why Protestants rejected these biblical books was that they didn’t encourage their Protestant doctrines.... the two Maccabees supported prayer to the deceased. The 7-deuterocanonical books are Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), Baruch, and 1 and 2 Maccabees.

WolfGirlwh0r3 · 36-40, T

@LadyGrace okay if these books are rejected, why does the Vatican keep them in secret forbidding their release, could people not learn to spot the devil working in thier midst through such works?

LadyGrace ·

@WolfGirlwh0r3 I'm so sorry to hear that, many many did, because not all people who say they are followers of God, are. So many were betrayed by the Catholic Church, then found out people were being abused. That really shook so many up and caused them to lose their faith but I'm glad that you have not. Don't forget we have a mix of Good and Evil in this world and some people will do anything to make a profit. That doesn't mean of course, that all ministers are bad. However Christ warned us of false teachers.

WolfGirlwh0r3 · 36-40, T

@LadyGrace I know of the false profits of the Lord, they are the scribes and Pheracies in front of the templ with their tables making money off the faithful, those whom Jesus cast out and told to begone from his church, but so many of those same scribes and faithless have snuck in and corrupted the holy church and have become that whom many pray to. From the Tellevangelist to the priests on Sunday who act without Christly works, The church has lost its way, so i return to the early church before its corruption in the hope ot help find anew the good works and fix this broken world

LadyGrace ·

@WolfGirlwh0r3 I'll have to study on that. Could the Vatican even in this day and age, decide to keep them private as well, because they changed their mind about them, as in the days of old? Perhaps they don't want to ruffle people's feathers who may not believe in them, for fear they would lose money. I'm not saying that's true, but their motive may be questionable. It seems to me if they believed those so much, they wouldn't think of hiding them. They would bring them out to the open, but maybe they are afraid of criticism, who knows but God?

Ah! Now this is interesting! I googled this and here's what I found:

Why did the Catholic Church hide the Bible?

From a Catholic point of view, the censorship of the Bible was done both by restricting Bibles from those lacking instruction and by censoring translations thought to encourage deviations from official Catholic doctrines.

It looks like they removed or kept secret, the books they say were lost, because they didn't match up with CATHOLIC DOCTRINES.

And look at this:

Why did the Catholic Church remove the Apocrypha?

The Confession provided the rationale for the exclusion: 'The books commonly called Apocrypha, not being of divine inspiration, are no part of the canon of the Scripture, and therefore are of no authority in the church of God, nor to be any otherwise approved, or made use of, than other human writings' (1.3).

Scriptures were kept at the Temple according to Deuteronomy 31:24-26, 1Kings 22:8-13 and Josephus, down to the time of its destruction in 70 CE. But the APOCRYPHA WAS NEVER KEPT AT THE TEMPLE.

Following Jesus means accepting the same OT books that he accepted as inspired, which are the 39 books of the OT from Genesis to Malachi, but not including “cleverly devised stories” such as the Apocrypha. (2 Pt 1:16)

In fact, early Christians (and we today) were commanded not “to devote themselves to myths,” which would certainly include the Apocrypha, since it’s full of myths! (1 Tim 6:3-4)

LadyGrace ·

@WolfGirlwh0r3 Many have corrupted many churches, however not all churches are corrupt. No matter what, we can still go to God's Word and believe it's truths, without false teachers and false churches influencing us or corrupting God's Word. God's Word is truth, that's one thing we can depend on and the only thing that tells us the truth in this sinful world. God is not a liar.

WolfGirlwh0r3 · 36-40, T

@LadyGrace But may i ask why the PRIESTS are thus the ones to tell us the faithful of the Lord what is and is not cannon to the Lord. Just cause They told the Lord that such Scriptures are not cannon can The Lord themselves not tell us the faithful to follow them to challenge the Clergy?

WolfGirlwh0r3 · 36-40, T

@LadyGrace Correct The WORD of god is not corrupt, but some of his followers even in the sacred church are corrupt, so I have left the Church because i see too much Corruption in its ranks and i can not follow the teachings of a leader so influenced by the Devil. I Know for my Very Soul that Judas was tasked by Jesus and The Lord to do what was most brutal and to take on the sins of those lost, but that they too can be saves, cause the Lord wishes to save all his disciples and see none sent to the fires of hell, for he is to raise us up on the last day.

LadyGrace ·

@WolfGirlwh0r3 Back in those days it seemed that most religious leaders were against those books and saw them as not being inspired, so they cut them out. Could what I just found in the following, be the answer we are searching for?

Many Christians are surprised to learn that the Catholic Bible is different from the Bible used by Protestants. While all 66 books found in Protestant Bibles are also found in the Catholic Bible, the Catholic Bible also contains other books, and additions to books. The Catholic Bible contains a total of 73 books, 46 in the Old Testament (Protestant Bibles have 39) and 27 in the New Testament (the same as Protestant Bibles).

The additional books in the Catholic Bible are known as thedeuterocanonicals/Apocrypha. They are Tobit, Judith, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, Wisdom, Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), and Baruch. The Catholic Bible also includes additions to the books of Esther and Daniel. Should the Apocrypha be included in the Bible? There was significant debate in the early Christian church, with a majority of theearly church fathersrejecting the idea that the Apocrypha belonged in the Bible.

However, under tremendous pressure from Rome, Jerome, the translator of theLatin Vulgate, included the Apocrypha, despite Jerome’s insistence that the Apocrypha did not belong in the Bible. The Latin Vulgate became the dominant and officially sanctioned Catholic Bible, and remained that way for around 1200 years. Thus, the Apocrypha became a part of the Catholic Bible.

The Apocrypha was not formally/officially made a part of the Catholic Bible, though, until theCouncil of Trent, in response to theProtestant Reformation. The early Protestant Reformers, in agreement with Judaism, determined that the Apocrypha did not belong in the Bible, and therefore removed the Apocrypha from Protestant Bibles.

The most popular English translations of the Catholic Bible today are theNew American Bible, theNew Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition, and theNew Jerusalem Bible. Aside from the inclusion of the Apocrypha, each of these Bible translations is reasonably good and accurate in how it renders the biblical text into English.

In summary, the Catholic Bible is the version of the Bible promoted by the Roman Catholic Church and used by the majority of the world’s Catholics. Aside from the inclusion of the Apocrypha, the Catholic Bible is identical to Protestant Bibles in terms of the canon (the books belonging in the Bible).

LadyGrace ·

@WolfGirlwh0r3 I have seen in God's Word, the remedy for this.

Hebrews 10:25 Notforsakingthe assembling ofourselvestogether, asthemannerofsome is; but exhorting one another: and so muchthemore, as ye seetheday approaching.

God said there would be hypocrites everywhere in this world, not just church. That's a given. However, he said, to mind that we watch our own sins, not the hypocrites. As we are responsible only for ourselves. I believe if we let every little thing bother us about the church, Satan will use that to keep us from going to church. Satan it's not concerned about us going to church or reading our Bible...as long as we don't apply it to our lives.

We really need the Word of God and to read our Bible more. There will always be Hypocrites anywhere we go. I'm not going to concern myself about what hypocrites are doing. I just want to make sure I'm doing the right thing before God, myself. The church is defined as "a body of believers, who want to gather to glorify and worship the Lord and learn from the minister, who is inspired by the Holy Spirit in what to say and teach us." It's important we go to church so that we can learn and grow and hear what God has to say to us directly through the Holy Spirit. There, we can also study together, encourage each other, pray together, learn together, help each other, and so many more things.

God's Word says the way to find a good church and true church, is to listen to the minister and if his sermon does not exactly match up with the Word of God, we need to get out of there and find one who does. That's God's advice.