There is no Hell or eternal torment
Well, I can’t agree...at least technically. God is our father and a God of love, compassion and mercy. To think he will throw us into a pit of never-ending fire, I think, is a sin in and of itself. First, God does not create places of torture. Second, everything he does create for man is remedial; it serves a purpose, and that purpose is to bring man closer to him. In the majority of in-depth near death experiences, people indicate that man is primarily his own tormentor between the time they die and the time they’re resurrected. The real suffering is by murderers, rapists, those who abuse their fellow man, the greedy, and so forth. Not for joining the wrong religion. Progression is made by life reviews, in which one has a perfect recollection of their thoughts and actions, and are shown the effects they had on themselves and others.
Origen, one of the early church fathers, writes: “After death, I think the saints go to Paradise, a place of teaching, a school of the spirits in which everything they saw on Earth will be made clear to them. Those who were pure in heart will progress more rapidly, reaching the kingdom of heaven by definite steps or degrees.”
In commenting on this, LDS (Mormon) apologist Hugh Nibley adds: “For Origen, according to Father Danielou, evil is nothing else than refusal to accept progress. This recalls a statement from the Pistis Sophia that hell is what lies in the opposite direction from that of progress, a state of inert and helpless being. Hell is not lively; it is the opposite of action, energy, purpose, and motion. The devil has no real purpose; all he is trying to do is thwart someone else’s purpose. He has no principle of action within himself. He is apolyon, the destroyer; satan or diabolos, the accuser.” (See entire article here.)
Jesus is God’s only begotten son—not part of a trinity.
Although Jesus is not the Father, he is Jehovah, the God of Israel, the great I AM. When Jesus said, “Before Abraham was, I AM,” this so enraged the Jews that they sought to stone him. The first century Christians did not have the concept of the Trinity (as Protestants define it), and though they believed that Jesus was God in the flesh, they did not believe he was the Father. Throughout the New Testament scriptures, they refer to “God” and “Jesus” as being two distinct personages. (Example: When Stephen was being stoned, he said he saw Jesus on the right hand of God, meaning, of course, metaphorically that he was standing to the right of the Father.)
In Genesis, God is clearly speaking to at least one other when he said, “Let US make man in OUR image, after OUR likeness,” and “man has become as one of US, knowing good from evil.” Even the name “God” (or “Eloheim”) is plural, meaning “Gods.” Thus, when Nimrod was building his tower, Moses writes that God said, “And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men [had built]. And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language.... Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.” (See Genesis 1 and 11)
Two interesting points. Not only was the term for “God” the pluralized form, Eloheim, we get a clue as to how the trinity really works. The scripture, above, states that, “Behold, the people is one.” We’re also told that God is one; only in this apostate form of God being one we’re told it is an unknowable mystery—yet we can understand the people being one!
Finally, in Psalms 110:1-2, King David writes: “The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool. The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. ... The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.” So who was David’s Lord? Jehovah. Thus, the scripture could be rendered: “The Father said unto Jehovah (Jesus), Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.”
It was Jesus who was to sit at the right hand of the Father. It was Jesus who was the great high priest after the order of Melchizedek. And it was Jesus who prayed to the Father that his apostles “may be one, EVEN as WE are one.” Thus, again, we see how Jesus is one with the Father, and it’s no mystery. He’s one in purpose, not substance, with the Father.
Jehovah and Jesus expect his followers to live by righteous standards according to [the best of] their best imperfect abilities. (Sorry gay guys.)
Although most Protestant scholars today believe Jehovah and Jesus to be the same, I can’t fault you on the rest.
So for those of you that are sincere, where else is there to go? That’s why most of us stay in the Borg...that’s right I said Borg.
There are places to go with far more sound theologies. The Jehovah's Witnesses base their entire legitimacy on the assumption that God inspected all the world’s religions and chose them. But Amos wrote, “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.” (Amos 3:7) Where have the prophets revealed God’s grand decision? Many Jehovah's Witnesses fall back on the position of process of elimination. “If not us, who? Who else has such a perfect theology, scriptural exegesis and eschatology?” Actually, the theology isn’t so perfect. Many doctrines, such as man not having a spirit are demonstrably incorrect. (See PM)
As someone with a Bible trained conscience you wind up being caught in the middle. How many feel this way?
I’m not sure I catch your meaning on this one, partner! Caught in the middle of what? Are you referring to cognitive dissonance and your religion?
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