(September 28, 2010 at 1:31 pm)tackattack Wrote: Do you even read what you're quoting? I'll give you Matthew 25:46 is a little difficult to understand. It's very clearly contrasting the finality of destruction and the promise of ressurection.
What passage are you reading, cause it's not Matthew 25:31-46, if you want greater context.
It speaks of "Jesus" returning from the heavens with a barrage of angels and taking lordship over the earth, it speaks of him dividing the sinners and the righteous into groups with some crude sheep and goat analogy.
Then he speaks of Jesus telling the righteous to take their places in the kingdom, telling them that by helping others they have helped him.
Then he says to the sinnners "'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels." This is only 25:41, it continues...
Jesus blames them for not aiding their fellow man, not being pious.
and it ENDS with Matt 35:46
"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.""
So you see, Mr condescending, I know perfectly well what I'm talking about, and I know exactly what I'm reading, and your bible explicitly sentences people to eternal hellfire.
Quote:Whatever the punishment is is eternal but it doesn't specify WHAT that punishment is.But no where does it say what will happen during your punishment(in your quoted scriptures). Yes, your punishment is eternal/forever. When you sentence someone to the death penalty it is a permenant solution. When God sentences someone to go to Hell, where your destruction is clearly stated, and the punishment lasts forever you're confounding the how with the where.
What a crock Tack, Punishment that results in fatality/destruction is NOT eternal, not by the very definition of the word:
Eternal:
1. without beginning or end; lasting forever; always existing ( opposed to temporal): eternal life.
2. perpetual; ceaseless; endless: eternal quarreling; eternal chatter.
3. enduring; immutable: eternal principles.
4. Metaphysics . existing outside all relations of time; not subject to change.
Eternal punishment is punishment that goes on forever, to say it means descruction is to copletely rape the definitions of both punishment and eternal.
And you also have quite a double standard here in your use of eternal, in regards to this afterlife you think you are going to have, after all, if your use of the word was anything but nonsense it would mean your "eternal life" is of the same nature.
Quote:Matthew 10:28
"Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell."
I take it you aren't aware that you've pointed out one of the most well known contradictions?
Firstly, it's never clear who this passage is addressing, this part of Matthew is a rather disparate collection of sayings from Jesus so aside from the obvious contradiction there is no contextual aid in determining why the passage may seem to contradict the latter passages like in 35:31-46 where it is explicit that people are to be punished for eternity. This passage, because of the context that establishes clearly who is to go to hell and what is to happen to them and that Jesus was addressing these people at the end times, has far more credence that the fragmentary passages in contradiction.
Quote:If you chery pick the ones that support your claim instead of looking at all of them I can see where you think you get tortured forever. I implore you to objectively reread your selections though because they're incomplete and you're assuming the outcome.
You are far more guilty of that that I am! You were the one not only insisting that there is no eternal punishment even when there clearly is reference to it, but then accusing me of cherry picking while failing to acknowledge your own cherry picking (which was worse, because i only intended to demonstrate that there were passages supporting the idea, not insisting upon the opposite conclusion as you were!) even though I used far more substantiated passages with more context and clearer direction as opposed to your fragmented little sound bite. And even worse, to get around the contradiction you made up a completely bogus defintion of "eternal punishment" all because you can't concede that you were wrong.
And don't patronise me with your "objectivity", I've read your bible extensively, especially the gospels, and i know the context in which these contradictions occur.
Maybe you should get off your high horse and see your silly little desert manifesto for what it is, rather than accusing everyone else of reading it wrong.
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