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Exactly.

This is also an example of the classic "blame God" mentality some have. It also exposes a deep-seated, unconscious tendency for human arrogance that presupposes that man's wisdom is superior to God's wisdom and that man's sense of justice is superior to God's justice. We understand these things to varying degrees among ourselves since we ARE made in God's image--whether anyone actually believes in God or not. But the effects of a fallen world are such that we don't understand or know these things perfectly. It's unfortunately very easy to make those assumptions, but until we're fully able to know the mind and heart of God, there will always be those, even believers, who struggle against God's will. The sad part about "God is a jerk" and "Blame God" is that God already took the blame for our sins and there is no longer any need for thinking that way even if it were true.

As to the nature of Hell--a good Bible translation will footnote "Hell" and "hellfire" so that a good reading of the Bible will show that "hell" was never in the original language manuscripts of the Bible. "Hell" is just a word that crept into the English language to represent what Jesus talked about. The actual words used were "Sheol" (from the Hebrew, which meant "grave"), "Hades" (Greek, could be a general term for the underworld/afterlife like "Sheol" OR a place of punishment depending on context), and "Gehenna," which referred to a ceremonially unclean place outside Jerusalem reserved for garbage disposal and for a poor-man's grave. In Gehenna ("Valley of Hinnom"), there was real "wailing and gnashing of teeth" and the smoke did seem to "rise up forever and ever." Jesus often referred to it as a picture of what we call "Hell" was like. "Hell" is also referred to as a place of "outer darkness." If "hell" really were a place of fire and brimstone literally, than there would be a contradiction with it being a place of darkness, since fire produces light and there is no light in Hell. Christians do not believe that the Bible contradicts itself, so the best interpretation of what Hell is has to be a place set apart from God for those who reject Him. Because it is a place beyond God's care, it is inherently a place of torment and eternal decay.

I don't think this makes God a jerk at all. People who live a life of persistently rejecting God obviously do not want to be with God in the afterlife. Quite simply, if you want no God, you get no God. It is both providing justice for those who come to faith in Christ and accept God's will AND providing mercy for those who'd just be miserable in Heaven anyway. I'm sure for the residents in Hell, it would be better to never have existed at all. However, when God creates life, annihilating a soul would be like admitting to a mistake. If God doesn't make mistakes, which we believe, then there's nothing to admit to. Annihilation would then be illogical. It is God's justice tempered with God's mercy that allows the soul to continue to exist. Once a human makes that final choice to reject God, there is nothing left for God to do but to grant him what we wants.

Forty days and nights. Not four months which is nearly 120 days and nights.

ruveyn

Well, the first 40 days and nights was the first giving of the law, apparently ALL of the law and not just the Ten Commandments. When Moses descended the mountain, the Israelites had been worshipping the golden calf. Moses broke the tablets, reascended the mountain, and sought forgiveness on behalf of the Israelites for 40 days. After that, Moses was given the Law a second time, so yet another 40 days. It would have been a total of 120 days, or roughly 4 months.

That might be what she was talking about.

The "golden calf" is now known as "American Idol".

I used to be a church goer and such but most of my experiences have not been pleasant people talked behind my back greet me with fake smiles etc. But I guess if god is real he hates my guts because I am different, no matter how much I was dedicated and prayed and such he always sent me misfortune my way and bad people. I dont have problems with people who believe however they seem to hate me so I decide to stray. Also this [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tvdljss2WWU[/youtube][youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiVGsfinzeU&feature=related[/youtube]

Well, yeah, sure...

But "if God exists" then He created you and is responsible for the way you are. God isn't going to hate His own handiwork. But God did not choose a sinful predisposition for us. Because of our fallen nature and the world around us, bad things happen. That doesn't mean God doesn't see or understand. Those of us who have placed our faith in God's grace believe that something better awaits us. Devotion to God is of primary importance. What this world brings and what people do to us doesn't matter, neither for good nor for evil.

I'm very sorry for your unpleasant experiences with people who claim to be followers of Christ and who haven't lived it out. Some of those people, sadly, just don't understand, and others probably do not have a genuine faith in Christ--or if they did, they'd act differently. I've had near-tragic encounters with people like that who tried to split up my family. We decided to hold on and not let those people force us away from our church, and all those people ended up leaving eventually. We still feel that we have to constantly look over our shoulders, and there are still painful remnants from those times that haven't completely faded yet. But things ARE better. By holding your faith higher than all other things, you'll find that things ultimately will get easier as time goes by.

My wife, incidentally, who is responsible for keeping this household up and running, recently lost her job after having a baby. This is the second time this has happened to her, though in this case her employer had been planning on scaling back for a long time and just didn't tell us because my wife was pregnant (when she could have been looking for another job prior to termination). We groused about it for a day or two, as people tend to do. And as we do with everything else, we left the matter in God's hands. Without really making any kind of effort, she got a phone call in which she got leads on two different jobs, at least one of which hadn't even been made public yet. Her paid maternity leave isn't even up yet and she's being considered for another job. Sure, my wife is a friendly person that makes a point of getting to know people she sees on a regular basis. But I have difficulty believing that the confluence of my wife's natural show of character, her strong (though unconscious) networking abilities, and making the right friends/connections with an extreme scarcity of jobs she's qualified for in a desperately impoverished region is any accident. I don't think these things would happen without divine intervention at exactly the right time. And we're just celebrating getting her foot in the door...she doesn't actually have a job YET. So consider how grateful we'll be if she DOES get the job!

And if she doesn't get it, no big deal. It's at least a sign of what God does NOT have in store for us. Perhaps even better things are on the way that we didn't expect.

We know from our experiences God hasn't given up on us, nor has He given up on anyone. So we've chosen not to give up on Him, for better or for worse.

but....but.......goD is love!!

sarc/

It is in my opinion that being a Christian is a choice AND not a result of being forced to believe. Even Jesus said so(if someone's not willing to listen pick up your sandals and walk away or something along those lines).

*As such I find churches base the whole organization of church on maybe one or 2 books of the bible and skip the rest,and I seem to have noticed this is what turns those who don't believe away?(i'e they ask them questions that the church isn't knowledgeable about and or doesn't want to answer and thus turn them away which is something GOD/JESUS doesn't want?)

In my opinion I don't care what faith you are (or lack of faith). Basically put you can choose to believe what you want as-long as you don't start attacking me or forcing me to be apart of whatever belief you are. I have plenty of Atheists/Catholic/Hindu(and other religion people that I get along with(dare I can say call them "Friends") and as such we respect each other and can asks questions to each other about our faiths but not in attacking matter.

Oddly enough because of these beliefs of mine (up above) I don't seem to get along with most Christians(ironic huh)?

As for the Bible reading though I take it as a challenge to understand NT's(it is in my opinion that the bible was written for pretty much everyone in general but the STYLE is for NT's(with all its changing of laws, figures of speech etc) and as such I challenge my brain to think like they do that way I can at least try to understand where their coming from or where they might be wrong in some Bible teachings, and thus challenge them(not downright fight though)?(see above *)

On a last note I admit I don't know everything about the Bible or life in general and as such I will be a student forever.

No man or woman is going to hell...this has been rehashed several times.