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NASB | John 5:24 ¶ "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | John 5:24 ¶ "I assure you and most solemnly say to you, the person who hears My word [the one who heeds My message], and believes and trusts in Him who sent Me, has (possesses now) eternal life [that is, eternal life actually begins--the believer is transformed], and does not come into judgment and condemnation, but has passed [over] from death into life. |
Subject: And your question is... |
Bible Note: I was trying to draw you and Hank out of your comfort zone and motivate you to think but alas I guess I must clarify. Notice I gave a hint: God is spiritual. It is my belief and the belief of a great many christians with whom I worship that God is a Spirit and we (the whole world) are physical, finite creatures with a very limited capacity for thinking of and ability to describe things that are spiritual. As you know already, this whole universe was created in an instant, complete and fully mature just like He created Adam and Eve complete and ready for a full life as humans. (At least, I hope you know and believe in that, just as it's described in the Bible.) Now from that, we can infer that the whole universe is dependent of the Perfect Will and Design of our Lord God Almighty. That is, when He gives the word, the whole universe will burn up and be destroyed just as quickly as He created it. So with nothing physical like oxygen or any other fuel, it's difficult to support the idea of the "fires of hell" or the "streets of gold" and all the other physical descriptions of Heaven and Hell. I believe that these descriptions are symbolic for the benefit of our physical and finite minds so we could conceive of those two ultimate destinations for our souls. You see, our soul is basically spiritual by nature and when this universe no longer exists, we'll all go to meet God at the Judgment Bar on that fateful day. So how can there be weeping and gnashing of teeth when we won't have any eyes or teeth? I tried to set the stage for this kind of open minded thinking with my "parable" of the ants but that didn't seem to have to end result I was looking for, at least with some few. So, this discussion all boils down to the basic question: Is Hell a literal, physical location where the disobedient to God will go? Or is a spiritual condition without the benefit of God's prescence which will make it a very miserable place indeed? This really shouldn't be such a difficult concept. After all, there is a large group of people that take a lot more symbolic language, mainly from Revelation and Elijah and come up with some pretty fantastic ideas like Premillinalism and the Rapture. Now, do you have some specific questions on this topic? I'm afraid I don't have much in the way of scriptures to add, other than those I've cited in the past. I await your reply. God bless. --Rowdy |