If hell and damnation didn't exist in Christianity, would there have been much less Christians?

I've nothing against people who are genuine Christians that believe in and worship God but I can easily see through the idiots who are following Christianity purely out of self interest, the ones that don't actually love God and just fear him.

I find this even in myself at times, maybe that why god lets satan live as well as hell.

Just from my personal experience, fear of Hell kept me in Christianity even when I knew I wanted to leave it. Luckily I came to terms with that being an irrational fear; after all, I've never been afraid of going to Tartarus for not worshipping the Greek gods.

Jesus came to give the world a dire warning that Hell was real, to try and avoid it, and went to great strides to insure us from having to go there, and, instead, to go to Heaven. Sure, as an initial matter, someone's motive for becoming a Christian is fear, just like a number of other different motives, but, once that Holy Spirit enters you, you'll start seeing things through a whole different perspective. You feel saved and rescued. You want to please God, have reverence, and respect for God. It's more to it, because it's real and alive; you're communicating with God through Jesus and the Holy Spirit, and God is understanding you; it becomes a lot about communication and understanding.

Before Jesus, we had the world of the Gentiles and, before that, the world before the Flood, and, we see how that one went for them; the concept of at least an afterlife was there by the time of Abraham, as God tells Jacob that they're going with their ancient ancestors, upon the moment of his death. It's just a fact of reality, not something being used to spook people; it's a warning. It's a special gift to be warned away from something that's going to be so eternally dire for you by simply avoiding, refusing, or seeking an excuse to not do something so easy as following John 3 and Romans 10:5-10 to get your eternal salvation. Here, you have to separate the message from just any person professing to be a leader in the Church from that of what is taught in the New Testament, and using that as an excuse for yourself, when God is giving you so much precious time of a life to avoid eternal damnation; once there, your excuses are understood and factored into the equation of your specific Judgment; this is what I sense, unsaved people either looking for an excuse, often willfully, or just profound willful ignorance, really, all for the same reasons; pretending to be so believing of the dogma of many people in science as a fact is just an excuse from seeking to learn better and that there is more to it. It's just really preposterous to seriously think the world's largest population of people aren't adult enough (and have quite a few intellectuals in their own right) to know that a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow isn't a real concept, and you are somehow apart of a small enlightened population segment who is able to discern better; maybe, it's that concept of feeling gifted and separated from everyone else; but, when God is involved, He'll bring you to places in life that will allow you to become mature, an adult, and to learn better, as many people enter old age still having not reached this level of maturity, usually, due to financial privilege and not having a struggle to go through to make you look for a vehicle to get help.

In my case, I think it also is rooted in a sense of scientific curiosity, too, as a means of understanding God, Christianity, the Bible, and the afterlife; it just shifted some, from traditional science to a science of understanding God; and God is helping along the way; God isn't just a concept to be studied, provided God has allowed a real connection for you; God just lead me to a YouTube video concerning new developments in studying a departing soul; this helps me gain a sense of peace; I want to fulfill my God given mission; now that I've been rescued, I feel that it is very important that I help as many people as possible receive their rescue, mostly for the love of God; for genuine Christians, it's not about the fear of God but the love of God, which then leads to the respect and reverence that God is entitled to receive; God is the complete opposite of a dictator, which is fear inducing.

Whenever I let God down, in the form of His Holy Spirit, by even my perception of having backslidden, I feel a sense of disappointment and guilt, sometimes, debilitating guilt, and then I feel comforted, when the Holy Spirit sends me that sense of having been forgiven, after I've confessed my sins; you feel good that God will be there to forgive you; but, despite even this, I have to fight off procrastination; I'm beginning to understand, now, that this might literally be close to a type of mental handicap for me that I have to rehabilitate myself from; I've known this for a while now.

@dshipp17: Serious question; are you here on CV to talk about comics or superheroes at all? The only times you ever seem to show up are to preach.

Well, I talk about other concepts, other than comics; I've been so busy as of late, that I've gotten some months behind in at least those Wonder Woman comics (e.g. and I recently noticed a couple of weeks ago that Dr. Psycho has made at least one appearance in the Wonder Woman comics, a great thing).

But, it's vital to prevent the spread of misinformation about Christianity to a young and impressionable audience, as it's connected to the choice to received eternal salvation or head into eternal damnation; if you're intent on soaking yourself in willful ignorance and finding misinformation about Christianity to help accomplish that goal to get away from you're parents' vital gift that they gave you about Christianity, that's another thing, but, responsible and genuine Christians should not just sit back and allow misinformation about God and Christianity to fester unopposed to a young audience.

The entire underlying message of Christianity is that man is in need of salvation and can not save himself. Are some offended by the idea that they can not save themselves and that their behavior falls short of God's standards? Sure.

@mrmonster: He barely talks about anything but his religion. He tends to ruin thread by doing that.

@baldur_odinson: Yeah, there is no topic he can't force religion onto. He even shoehorned it into a thread about Van Halen's passing.

Probably, but God's been good to me so I can't complain

@mrmonster: Likewise, I only tried to get into Christianity once in my life, I was 16, realised pretty quickly that it's just not me. No matter how much I try to force myself by going to church and praying, I knew in my heart that I am not devout nor am I happy with it so I moved on.

@rawsos: Yeah, I find it as ridiculous to say you love a God because he threatens to damn you as saying you actually want to give a mugger your money because he'd shoot you if you don't. It's not genuine.

@ghostodoofus2: "Likewise, I only tried to get into Christianity once in my life, I was 16, realised pretty quickly that it's just not me. No matter how much I try to force myself by going to church and praying, I knew in my heart that I am not devout nor am I happy with it so I moved on."

That was me until I was 15-16. The last couple of years prior, I only went to church because of a best friend who I loved til we parted ways. Then I only went back a couple times during celebrations.

PM me this pls

Wait I thought you believed in norse gods

@dshipp17: If you want to preach so bad, ComicVine just isn't the best platform.

Well, the whole idea of religion is to present you with a certain code of right and wrong for living, and without an afterlife or some consequence for selecting the "wrong" way, no one would really take religions seriously.

Yes.

@baldur_odinson: @ghostodoofus2: You guys made the right decision. Christianity (and all religions) will consume your life and convince you that you're better off because of it.

I'm not so sure the answer is an obvious yes. Do some live Christians live in fear? I would say yes but it's not the way they're supposed to live.

According to the Bible, Hell was not created for people but rather for Lucifer and the angels that followed him in rebelling against God. The creation of Hell predates the creation of humanity.

Matthew 25:41

41 “Then he [God] will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels"

Humans were intended to please God out of love and nothing more, this is still God's intention towards mankind even today. Most genuine Christians dedicate their lives to God and following the parts of the Bible that apply to them not with their main focus being escaping from Hell but rather being able to go to Heaven when they die.

And let me clarify that this does not mean that salvation is earned through works. The Bible makes it clear that salvation is a free gift from God with no strings attached and is achieved by faith alone. The Bible teaches that when a person accepts this salvation, they will have a desire to live for God on their own from a perspective of gratitude rather than fear of punishment.

1 John 4:18

18 "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love."

Hope this helps.

I think some people who left Christianity would have stayed if they didn’t feel that fear was being used to control them.

Hell is not eternal.

Hell is God.

It’s going to hurt getting used to his presence. The less you get used to him now the bigger the shock then.

@rawsos: "Wait I thought you believed in norse gods"

Haha, nah.

Im a Christian and Hell never even enters my thoughts. I guess it depends your denomination or how you came to it.

I think the idea of some to throw damnation at people or use it to keep people in fear is wrong and is not what Christianity is about.

My explanation was a response to the thread title. You can view as preaching or you can view as a response to the question that you purported to be seeking an answer; otherwise, the question isn't based in reality and, so, lack any logical response. It's like asking how things would be, if all living organisms on earth didn't breath the elements that are in the earth's atmosphere, in order to try to divorce from this reality to validate what you want to believe; and, now, you're acting like a child in that very vein, after receiving the response, as you don't like the response; that's really how I should have given the initial response, I just wanted to provide a more polite answer for you.

some1 who lets you decide where you end up based on your life as a human and at the same time teaches you whats right and wrong and to be right , is a million times more honest And kind to you than every1 who runs any government on this planet.

and pls tell me why the criminal offenses are made up of things god also teaches to be sins yet ppl live by governments that exploit you from the moment you are born? exactly because they are born in that country, run by these governments. a question that is also a answer at the same time.

you have work to pay the rent and have a home

you believe to end up in heaven.

i wonder what a alien would choose if he got a alien to human language translation device.....

To some degree, probably, but not excessively. There are already denominations of Christianity that don't believe in a hell

Probably not much less, but I would say Less. I think if Christianity did not have a Focal Point on Hell it could shift it's Focal Point to the Power of the Holy Spirit and Gifts of Eternal Life in comparison to just Ceasing to Exist. I mean if we actually saw People in this Day using the Power of the Holy Spirit like Jesus supposedly did. That would at least draw a Healthy Intrigue about what the Christianity thing is About even if there was No Concept of Hell.

“like how many times can god forgive me?”

Yes, God is faithful and just and will cleanse you of all your unrighteousness, once you allow Him access to you through His Holy Spirit. Jesus is the only conduit to God, see John 14:6. Thus, God is faithful and just to cleanse you of all unrighteousness, once you've become Christian, 1 John 1:9. You can become a Christian, right now, if you follow the steps laid out for you in John 3:14-18 and Romans 10:5-10; from there, any time that you can go to a local church and go up doing alter call, you can follow the next steps, which involves being Baptized. But, if you can repeat out loud, talking to God, referring to John 3:14-18 and Romans 10:5-10, that you believe the Lord Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you will be saved. Notice the Holy Spirit come over you. In reference to forgiving you countless times, Jesus will forgive you 70 times 7 everyday, as a figure of speech, Matthew 18:21-22, for Christians. It means that, if you confess your sins, God is faithful and just to cleanse you of all your unrighteousness.

“can you tell me more?”

I'm ready to try and address and answer all of your concerns.

Probably be more tbh