Monday, 20 June 2011
-
Scared of Going to Hell?
I'm just curious: am I the only one scared of dying and going to hell even after I've giving my life over to God? I've been trying my best to not sin and do what I think is right in life. I also believe that Jesus Christ did die for all ours sins, but I still am scared of dying and going to hell. Do you struggle with this fear? How does one overcome the fear of hell? What confirmation is there of the truth of salvation in scripture?
RecommendRelated Posts
Post a Comment
- Back to revelife's Revelife Site!
- Note: your comment will appear in revelife's local time zone: GMT -05:00 (Eastern Standard - US, Canada)
About the Author
-
- From: Impulse
Stats: This Week All Time Posts: 0 1 Views: 0 2001 Comments: 0 50 View all posts by Impulse
Comments (47)
You betcha. I have a healthy fear of God. I hate death with a passion, while agreeing that it is better than living forever in our corrupt state. I think the main reason I detest "the last enemy, death" is because in my fleshly state, I hate to give up what "control" I think I have. When we die, we are giving up control of all we have ever known after the flesh. Meditating upon death should have a very good effect upon our behavior and aspirations. I may never have that perfect love that casts out all fear as much as I would like, but I will trust Christ for my salvation, knowing that He is just, and that he loves me more than anyone else I have ever known.
Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.Why do you lack assurance?
@Chuckt - Because sometimes I slip up and do want I know i shouldn't. Then after I realize what I've done was wrong I feel guilty. I pray and ask for forgiveness but after so many times, I begin to feel like I won't be forgiven.
@Chuckt - probably because I have been taught that it is better to be a surprised pessimist than a disappointed optimist. Oops, probably not very good theology?:)
It is interesting that when many saints died at the stake, etc., in years past, that they begged Christ to take them into His eternal kingdom. Where was their assurance?@Impulse - The good thing is, your salvation and mine has utterly, absolutely nothing to do with how good we can be in ourselves and everything to do with the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
Romans 8:1-2 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.
John 6:37 All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.
John 10:28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.
I used to struggle with this hugely, so I know exactly how it feels and how terrible it is. The truth is, though, the good things we do come from Jesus in us. They don't come from us anyway, and they don't save us. Our sins cannot condemn us once we know Jesus because we are totally covered with His blood. When God looks at us, He cannot see us as dirty any more. He only sees Jesus' perfection. It's a finished work.
Once we know Christ, the Holy Spirit keeps working in us to help us sin less, do more good, and become more like Him, but those things have nothing to do with whether we are saved or not. Salvation begins, continues, and ends with one Person--Jesus Christ--the only sinless One who has ever lived.
You do not have to live with this fear. I have been there, and I am on the other side. God's best for us is to have absolute, full assurance of our salvation at all times:
Romans 8:15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.And by him we cry,“Abba, Father.”
1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
God's love frees us from all fear and unrest. (To fear God in the positive sense means to respect Him, not to doubt salvation and fear that you will go to Hell.) Christ wants to give you perfect peace, and the person making you doubt your salvation is Satan. Meditate on these verses, and say them to him whenever he brings those doubts to your mind. He will have to flee when you resist him and trust in the finished work that Jesus did for you on the cross.
If it was up to you to be good on any level, you would fail 100% of the time. The good news is, 100% of the weight rests on the shoulders of Jesus Christ, and He already made you righteous in God's sight.
Isaiah 26:3 You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.
That's what God wants for you--perfect peace and rest in His love and His provision of eternal salvation for your soul.
@Pickwick12@xanga - Amen! I like when John Piper said that our salvation was purchased outside of us. It was accomplished on the cross, and is not dependent upon our sincerity or how many times we ask for forgiveness (though we must "call upon" the LORD), but those who God has called will call on him, and will be saved, because our salvation was purchased before we were even born. God is so smart! I just love him.
You've stumbled into a problem that a lot of us have. It'd be really nice if God would give us a big, obvious sign, wouldn't it? In the meantime, I just try to pray and do good things and read the Bible and all that, and try not to think about it too much...
Not at all since the current accepted concept of Hell as stated in the Bible, came from another faith. The current "Hell" was adopted in principle by the Jews post Babylon enslavement and modified by Christianity to be even more frightening. Prior to that our souls, ALL OF THEM, would have rested in Sheol. Maybe they were wrong with this adopted concept? True the current concept of Hell in one form or another existed in other societies/faiths that predate the parent faith that the Jews borrowed from. I don't understand the current use of this concept in a book that promotes OUR father in Heaven's love for us, ( love being defined in dictionary as:
love
[luhv]Show IPAnoun, verb, loved, lov·ing.
noun
1.a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person.
2.a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, asfor a parent, child, or friend.
3.sexual passion or desire.)
as a foundation for our presence here and his presence in our lives. What would lead you to believe he would want even one of his kids away from him? In the Lords Prayer we say, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. So if you forgive others, as my 15 year old says he forgives others before he ever knew it had happened, then Hell is not an issue.
Don't put others there for ANY REASON even if they, Heaven forbid, don't believe in Jesus and you should, according to his prayer, be alright with him. But tell others that they are bound for there, by the words of the Lords prayer........Bye Bye. Just kidding.
I'm a father and I know I don't ask anything of my kids that I don't practice myself and I doubt our father in Heaven does either as I fail to believe I am better than him.
I always worried about that...until I stopped believing in hell.
i have better things to worry about... like, you know, the universe i'm living in right now. i couldn't care less what happens when i die, so long as i live this life to the fullest. i've seen too many people waste their lives worrying about death the possibility of an afterlife.
besides, i've never understood the cognitive dissonance necessary to simultaneously accept a belief in Hell, while being afraid you might go there. as any parent could tell ya, the easiest way to end a child's fear of the dark is to show there's nothing to be afraid of in the first place. death is a reality of existence. every other living thing on the planet dies without getting an afterlife. it's pretty egotistical of us to think we're any different.
Um.....kind of. Its difficult since I am simply agnostic about such things. I don't necessarily believe in hell nor do I deny its existence. So of course, given the gravity of the situation, I do feel a small level of fear. I think most non-Christians don't consider the implications of hell. If they don't think its gonna be one huge frat party....they think of it as a bad place forever.....without a good understanding of "absolute suffering" or "forever" or "eternity". Given the implications of hell...I actually think its extremely foolish to have no fear of hell.
It's similar to the idea of Pascal's wager. If you have a 100 sided die (dice?) and if you roll the number 100 you lose. Obviously, a 1% chance isn't great...but your fear should go up as the "penalty" goes up....lose $10, lose $1000, $100,000, life in jail, death, tortured everyday for a year and then death, etc etc. If you've played enough poker, you know 1% chance is very small....but not THAT small. (I've lost tens of thousands of dollars on hands where I was a 96 - 98% favorite =) ). So unless you have evidence to the point where you are 99.9998472% chance there is no hell....I think you should at least be a tiny bit worried.
@Impulse - 1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins, and to cleanse us from **ALL** unrighteousness.
Isaiah 1:18 ¶ Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
John 5:24 ¶ Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
John 11:26 And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?
Hebrews 7:25 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him (Jesus), seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.
@Chuckt - is there a reference to Hell you can find prior to Issiah - pre Babylon? Why is that?
"is there a reference to Hell you can find prior to Issiah - pre Babylon? Why is that?"
Why is what? The reason the Bible doesn't make sense to you is because it wasn't written to you. Once you are a believer, it will make sense to you because then it will be written to you.
Have you read the book "The Doctrine of Everlasting Punishment" by William G.T. Shedd?
Deuteronomy 32:22 For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.
Job 26:6 Hell [is] naked before him, and destruction (abyss) hath no covering.
Job 28:22 Destruction and death say, We have heard the fame thereof with our ears.
Proverbs 15:11 Hell and destruction [are] before the LORD: how much more then the hearts of the children of men?
I quit worrying about hell around the time I turned ten and found it to be such a hilariously silly idea.
I used to feel the same way back when I was a Christian. Though, considering that even then I found the notion of heaven being just one eternal church service to be mind numbingly dull, it definitely eliminates the fear of going to hell. Also, hell is essentially the punishment for daring to think for yourself instead of being a robot / zombie and just doing what you're told by a pastor / priest / the Bible - and considering that I highly value people's right to make their own decisions, that means that I'd gladly take hell over being what amounts to a slave.
Without the brain, you do not perceive. When the brain dies, you cease perceiving. If you lose part of your brain, your capacity to perceive shrinks. If your brain is divided into its hemispheres unable to communicate directly with each other through the corpus callosum, there is evidence 'you' become two beings controlling the one body. Don't even get me started on conjoined twins connected at the brain, who are able to perceive each other's senses and read each other's thoughts. Perception is a completely physical process. All 'near death experiences' can be explained by physical processes. Do not fear hell. It does not exist.
I do not fear going to Hell. I do sometimes fear that I will not go to Heaven, but I do not fear that I will burn in Hell for eternity. Because Hell does not exist (but Heaven does).
I think my life would be plenty hellish if I wasted it on superstition.
So glad I don't believe in god.and, for the record, I don't think I'm better than everyone else. maybe you, perhaps. but that conclusion has nothing to do with you being Christian. some of the most admirable people I have ever known (family, friends, instructors) are Christian. I don't think any less of them for their decision to believe in God...mostly because they don't think any less of me for my decision to question God.
also, my dear, I'm agnostic...not atheist. I can't reject what I don't think I've yet to be offered. if you're going to gossip about me, at least gossip truthfully
Your fear of going to hell can be eased a lot by reviewing what people who have had a Near Death Experience. About 10% of the population have experienced NDEs -- that's a lot of people. Very few come back with any experience of a "hell". The few that do can be summarized as saying "hell" was only a place they went when they were too ashamed to face God / Being of Light / Christ / etc. and it was totally their choice as to whether they stayed there or not. As soon as they wanted to be in the presence of the light, they were.
Having faith in something you believe is a wonderful thing, but there's a lot of data about people who have experienced death available. Read it and regardless of your religion you will conclude life is about love and so is the afterlife.
If you have lived a rich full life, death is but the conclusion to your story. Is there a sequel called Afterlife, I do not know. What I do know is how I have lived my life will be echoed in the memories of those who shall remember me. Have I been a good person? Did I do right by those I've loved? Am I leaving behind a world I've help contribute to for the better so that the next generation can prosper? If yes than death is a just a chapter and my story will continues on as part of their story. In that sense, I will have never died and am in no need of such things as heaven and hell.
Lol nope.
Hell does not exist as a place, but as a state of being.
@thisiswhereItellyoueverything@xanga - agreed.