Do Christians really believe most of us are going to hell?

[Dystopia]

Christ is not a figurative position. You can't "figuratively" believe that jesus was christ. It's pretty much an all-in man. You can certainly believe that christ is a metaphor...but you no longer believe in -christ- at that point... you're just expressing a belief in metaphors.

What if you believe Jesus was just a strong-willed, thoughtful, loving, dumb zealot whose good teachings can be extracted from the large pile of crap his later disciples compiled as "biographies"?

I read a book that mixed fiction and novel with historical studies and the conclusion of the author was that Jesus was merely a Jew (not a Christian) that preached about judgement day all the time (the revelation was judgement day according to Judaism, an event that supposedly was about to happen), just read the scriptures thoroughly and you'll see Jesus refers constantly to judgement day or the day of judgement. Secondly, Jesus wasn't born from a virgin, he was born from sexual intercourse just like anyone else, the author also concluded Jesus probably had 2 siblings and married with Maria Magdalena, both had 1 kid. Thirdly, a lot of episodes in the bible are made up and this is identifiable by the date of the evidence and literary style used by authors, such as the adulterous woman episode, this one is clearly made up to support the Christian view of things.

Pretty much, Jesus was a Jew, ultra conservative, and a son of reasonably wealthy people (this is easy to conclude since he could read and write, few people could) that never intended to create Christianity, therefore Christianity is based on lies since it's foundation.

I think there is a book called 'The Historical Jesus' that speaks about this idea. The book I read has no translation to english I think so it's not worthy to say the title.

[The Grand Nudger]

What if you believe Jesus was just a strong-willed, thoughtful, loving, dumb zealot whose good teachings can be extracted from the large pile of crap his later disciples compiled as "biographies"?

I would struggle to consider that person a christian, as there's no christ in their jesus, as stated. In the same way that one might believe the buddha lived and had some decent teachings -without- being a buddhist, someone might believe that jesus lived and taught without being christian.

or

We don't call it Jesusianity, do we?

[LastPoet]

If everyone called themselves a true scotsman, how do we go about finding the true ones?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_JS5WCO31Y

[GrandizerII]

What if you believe Jesus was just a strong-willed, thoughtful, loving, dumb zealot whose good teachings can be extracted from the large pile of crap his later disciples compiled as "biographies"?

I read a book that mixed fiction and novel with historical studies and the conclusion of the author was that Jesus was merely a Jew (not a Christian) that preached about judgement day all the time (the revelation was judgement day according to Judaism, an event that supposedly was about to happen), just read the scriptures thoroughly and you'll see Jesus refers constantly to judgement day or the day of judgement. Secondly, Jesus wasn't born from a virgin, he was born from sexual intercourse just like anyone else, the author also concluded Jesus probably had 2 siblings and married with Maria Magdalena, both had 1 kid. Thirdly, a lot of episodes in the bible are made up and this is identifiable by the date of the evidence and literary style used by authors, such as the adulterous woman episode, this one is clearly made up to support the Christian view of things.

Pretty much, Jesus was a Jew, ultra conservative, and a son of reasonably wealthy people (this is easy to conclude since he could read and write, few people could) that never intended to create Christianity, therefore Christianity is based on lies since it's foundation.

I think there is a book called 'The Historical Jesus' that speaks about this idea. The book I read has no translation to english I think so it's not worthy to say the title.

Are you referring to Bart Ehrman by any chance? I like a lot of what he has to say about Jesus and the NT.

[Dystopia]

I read a book that mixed fiction and novel with historical studies and the conclusion of the author was that Jesus was merely a Jew (not a Christian) that preached about judgement day all the time (the revelation was judgement day according to Judaism, an event that supposedly was about to happen), just read the scriptures thoroughly and you'll see Jesus refers constantly to judgement day or the day of judgement. Secondly, Jesus wasn't born from a virgin, he was born from sexual intercourse just like anyone else, the author also concluded Jesus probably had 2 siblings and married with Maria Magdalena, both had 1 kid. Thirdly, a lot of episodes in the bible are made up and this is identifiable by the date of the evidence and literary style used by authors, such as the adulterous woman episode, this one is clearly made up to support the Christian view of things.

Pretty much, Jesus was a Jew, ultra conservative, and a son of reasonably wealthy people (this is easy to conclude since he could read and write, few people could) that never intended to create Christianity, therefore Christianity is based on lies since it's foundation.

I think there is a book called 'The Historical Jesus' that speaks about this idea. The book I read has no translation to english I think so it's not worthy to say the title.

Are you referring to Bart Ehrman by any chance? I like a lot of what he has to say about Jesus and the NT.

The book I read is not by Bart Ehrman.

I don't know who the author is and I'm not even sure (about the other book I mentioned and never read called the 'historical jesus' - I don't even know if this is the book's name) - But this is a view that some historians have corroborated

[Brian37]

It doesn't matter what Christian believe, the book says most people will go to hell. Revelations even says only a certain amount of Jews, but not all Jews will get in.

Cherry picking is how liberal Christians avoid the xenophobia and bigotry.

The other absurdity is that billions have lived in the past who are now dead and 7 billion of us are alive today. If we all get in why would a God need that many friends? If we don't all get in who is to blame for starting all this in the first place?

God is an immoral concept, it teaches humans to accept servitude and then blames humans for what he did not have to set up in the first place.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Did you think much about hell during that time? How young were you?

I was eleven or so when I was at my most fervent. I thought about Hell sometimes, mainly when reading Scripture, which I did with some regularity. It didn't help that my youthful prurience drew me to books like Revelation which were of course loaded with terrifying imagery.

And when I started losing my faith, at thirteen and fourteen, part of me was for a while scared shitless because I knew that my doubts would damn me.

It was sometime before my fifteenth birthday that I realized that no matter what, I had no faith, and that nothing would change that except for evidence of the highest order. I guess you could say at that point that I decided to stop worrying about Hell, and instead focused on finding my way through the thicket of philosophies, woo-merchants, and self-delusions to discover the real meaning of rational thinking. Oddly enough, the strongest kick in that direction was taking Euclidean Geometry in high school. The exacting reasoning required by that course was good training for understanding how antecedents and consequents interact.

So, the short answer is, yes, I thought of Hell quite a bit, until I realized it probably wasn't real.

[ThomM]

What if you believe Jesus was just a strong-willed, thoughtful, loving, dumb zealot whose good teachings can be extracted from the large pile of crap his later disciples compiled as "biographies"?

I read a book that mixed fiction and novel with historical studies and the conclusion of the author was that Jesus was merely a Jew (not a Christian) that preached about judgement day all the time (the revelation was judgement day according to Judaism, an event that supposedly was about to happen), just read the scriptures thoroughly and you'll see Jesus refers constantly to judgement day or the day of judgement. Secondly, Jesus wasn't born from a virgin, he was born from sexual intercourse just like anyone else, the author also concluded Jesus probably had 2 siblings and married with Maria Magdalena, both had 1 kid. Thirdly, a lot of episodes in the bible are made up and this is identifiable by the date of the evidence and literary style used by authors, such as the adulterous woman episode, this one is clearly made up to support the Christian view of things.

Pretty much, Jesus was a Jew, ultra conservative, and a son of reasonably wealthy people (this is easy to conclude since he could read and write, few people could) that never intended to create Christianity, therefore Christianity is based on lies since it's foundation.

I think there is a book called 'The Historical Jesus' that speaks about this idea. The book I read has no translation to english I think so it's not worthy to say the title.

Just the fact that you brought up a book that said the christ was a Jew - and much of what is claimed by the religion is not true leaves a dilemma.

Since there is NOT a single document from the supposed time of the christ - that even mentions his name - and since we do not know who wrote the bible - when they wrote the original documents upon which it was based - and how much those documents were edited - there really is NO provable basis for claiming ANYTHING is true about the christ. Historical studies could only be based on religious writings - which as ALL religious writings - are baseless beliefs - nothing more.

Which brings us back to the question - do most xtians really believe that most of us are going to hell. Since the existence of a "hell" itself is a contrived item - not thoroughly covered even in the bible - and not believed by the Jew upon which the religion is based - does it really matter.
It would not be their decision who would go to such a place - anyway.

[The Grand Nudger]

-another reason that I doubt that hell is somehow intrinsically dissonant. There's just no real dilemma for someone who believes in hell to address. They might disagree, but it will be a dilemma of their own making, ultimately, if one exists. That's actually the crux of another anti-theist sort of claim. That theistic beliefs (and hell qualifies) like this are always shitty -even when people aren't actively using them to be shitty to each other- if only because normal people can believe in them, and their horrible contents - without any issue whatsoever. If only nutjobs could hold such sinister thoughts in their heads as true without problems....I wouldn't have a problem. I'd say "round up the nutjobs and take em to the shed". Nope, normal, "gentle" people are capable of harboring a sort of neutral sadism that cuts to the core of what we might think is a decent moral outlook. It encourages us to at least accept our own obvious capacity for apathy and appetite for disaster rubber-necking...at the very least.

[Dystopia]

I read a book that mixed fiction and novel with historical studies and the conclusion of the author was that Jesus was merely a Jew (not a Christian) that preached about judgement day all the time (the revelation was judgement day according to Judaism, an event that supposedly was about to happen), just read the scriptures thoroughly and you'll see Jesus refers constantly to judgement day or the day of judgement. Secondly, Jesus wasn't born from a virgin, he was born from sexual intercourse just like anyone else, the author also concluded Jesus probably had 2 siblings and married with Maria Magdalena, both had 1 kid. Thirdly, a lot of episodes in the bible are made up and this is identifiable by the date of the evidence and literary style used by authors, such as the adulterous woman episode, this one is clearly made up to support the Christian view of things.

Pretty much, Jesus was a Jew, ultra conservative, and a son of reasonably wealthy people (this is easy to conclude since he could read and write, few people could) that never intended to create Christianity, therefore Christianity is based on lies since it's foundation.

I think there is a book called 'The Historical Jesus' that speaks about this idea. The book I read has no translation to english I think so it's not worthy to say the title.

Just the fact that you brought up a book that said the christ was a Jew - and much of what is claimed by the religion is not true leaves a dilemma.

Since there is NOT a single document from the supposed time of the christ - that even mentions his name - and since we do not know who wrote the bible - when they wrote the original documents upon which it was based - and how much those documents were edited - there really is NO provable basis for claiming ANYTHING is true about the christ. Historical studies could only be based on religious writings - which as ALL religious writings - are baseless beliefs - nothing more.

Which brings us back to the question - do most xtians really believe that most of us are going to hell. Since the existence of a "hell" itself is a contrived item - not thoroughly covered even in the bible - and not believed by the Jew upon which the religion is based - does it really matter.
It would not be their decision who would go to such a place - anyway.

The book I raid had basis in certain studies, but since it was a novel I can't really quote. Yes the author mentioned the documents, none of them are from the original prophets/christ followers but copies translated mostly into greek if I'm not mistaken. I got surprised however when I realized about 80% of the bible is forged. Not that I thought the bible is genuine, but I never thought so much would be forged. If Jesus existed, he probably never intended to create a new religion anyway.