More like European crusaders, who also did the same thing when they came across statues of Baal, and appropriated the horns and tail for the Christian devil.
No, everyone should not believe in Heaven and Hell if they do not want to. Beliefs are PERSONAL - that means that everyone should be allowed to choose their own faith, or lack thereof if they so desire. Someone telling me I SHOULD believe in something is ludicrous. I don't have to. I can pick and choose at will what I'd like to believe in.
I'm glad people who are saying EVERYONE should believe this or that don't rule the world. I wouldn't want to live here. I wonder if Mars is inhabitable yet?
I believe in Jesus christ. I am privileged to have lived the life i have so far and its all down to one man. This man is the ultimate.
There's a verse in the Bible that says "the wages sin pays is death". Meaning, we are all sinners. Not sinners because of our actions. Sin is defined as imperfect, missing the mark, fall short of. Therefore, since Adam and Eve were created perfect and were meant to live forever. When they disobeyed, they lost there perfection and became imperfect. In other words, sinners. So, the stigma attached to the word "sin" is "bad" because of this. Many have said if you "sin" you will go to "hell". Since "hell" is not a Bible teaching, then this saying is not correct. Now that I have cleared this up for you. Our actions will determine what our outcome is when it comes to judgment day. "Sin" has nothing to do with this. Our heart condition (or our intentions) plays a big part in the decision makiing. Only God can read what is in our hearts. Therefore, the decision making is left to him as he (as our creator) is the only one who has the right to decide whether or not we will exist or not exist in his new system of things (what commonly is called the "new order" or "paradise"). Check my previous posts and search for "Gehenna" to find out the real meaning of it in accordance to what many people call "hell". Hope this helps. Col
If theirs no heaven or hell, we're on this earth for no reason? bad people simply get away with their crimes? Good people don't get rewarded for the efforts they made on this earth? Humans were creaded from a drop of sperm, think about being a drop of sperm for 1 minute? isnt't that amazing? How can you not believe in ehaven and hell.
Heaven - NO Hell - NO Transformation after death - YES A God of some sort - YES I could go on lol but you get the drift lol.
If any human language is perfect, then there would be better chance that many people can agree in their interpretation of the Word. Yet another problem is that humans themselves are not perfect. So ultimately no one can know the Word of God in his best effort, even a Ph.D. in Theology won't guarantee that you would understand His word in perfection. Learning Hebrew and Greek languages help, but learning the Bible is not a matter of learning languaes nor learning history, etc. I think there is something deeper than those. So, I respect that you have mentioned those words in original languages, and knowing the meanings of these would help understand the detail of "hell". Having said that, I don't see anything that can cause a big mislead by one saying hell instead of using those as simple reference to "down there". Or do we need to go deeper and find even a tiny differences among them and discuss about them for the sake of education? By the way, I am sure you are aware of missing one more Greek word for hell. But mentioning that is also irrelevant, I suppose. Unless you are reading the Bible in original languages + from the original copies with perfect understanding, believing that's the only way to understand the Word of God, then I would take your point. I am sure one can be saved by reading the Bible in Chinese. I think God uses imperfect languages with a purpose. "He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him." If God created a perfect language, I am sure people will glorify the language itself rather than God as we are all stupid
You made some good solid points there. However, I only used what words in the transcripts (the only texts we have as far as originality goes) and what is written in Bibles. These three words are found in Bibles in many versions. The definition or meaning of these words vary greatly amongst theologians around the world. But, the problem is, why are there so many variations in meanings and how do we find out what is the correct meaning for each of these words? Only through reasoning on the scriptures we can do our best to get a clearer understanding of these and many other terms and phrases found in our Bibles. I will discuss the scriptures to the best of my knowledge with whoever wants to find out what things mean in the Bible. I am not a theologian by any means. However, my analysis, research and use of the Bible is constant and day by day. Why? Because I want to be absolutely sure what the Bible really teaches. Col