Posts by aqwsed12345

16

Heretic!!!

by cellomould in

after the roman church had consolidated its power in the early middle ages, heretics came to be regarded as enemies of society.

the crime of heresy was defined as a deliberate denial of an article of truth of the catholic faith, and a public and obstinate persistence in that alleged error.

at this time, there was a sense of christian unity among townspeople and rulers alike, and most of them agreed with the church that heretics seemed to threaten society itself.. however, the repression of heresy remained unorganized, and with the large scale heresies in the 11th and 12th centuries, pope gregory ix instituted the papal inquisition in 1231 for the apprehension and trial of heretics.

aqwsed12345

34 Common Errors About the Spanish Inquisition

128

Why Do JW's Believe that Hell is Symbolic When the Disciples of the Apostles believed it Was Literal ?

by Sea Breeze in

looks like the early christians believed jesus when he warned about hell over 40 times.

why don't the jw's do the same?.

from “the epistle of barnabas” (70-130ad).

aqwsed12345

The whole context of 1Cor 15 is about the body (soma). 15:53 literally: "this mortal one" refering to the body (soma), which needs to put on the immortality.

128

Why Do JW's Believe that Hell is Symbolic When the Disciples of the Apostles believed it Was Literal ?

by Sea Breeze in

looks like the early christians believed jesus when he warned about hell over 40 times.

why don't the jw's do the same?.

from “the epistle of barnabas” (70-130ad).

aqwsed12345

@Vanderhoven7

"since immortality is something we must wait till the resurrection to put on, I would say that is proof enough that human souls are not innately immortal."

Ehehe, that was a self-goal, mate, since you're quoting the Scripture wrong in the first place, which just says that the mortal body is what must put on immortality:

"For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When this perishable body puts on imperishability and this mortal body puts on immortality..." (1 Corinthians 15:54-54)

128

Why Do JW's Believe that Hell is Symbolic When the Disciples of the Apostles believed it Was Literal ?

by Sea Breeze in

looks like the early christians believed jesus when he warned about hell over 40 times.

why don't the jw's do the same?.

from “the epistle of barnabas” (70-130ad).

aqwsed12345

@Vanderhoven7

It is shocking that the neo-Sadducees look at Matthew 10:28 EXCLUSIVELY at the second half of the verse, and even there they base it on a misleading translation, because it is completely misleading to translate the verb "apollumi" as "destroy", more correctly: "perish".

Mt 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 (apollumi) both soul and body in hell."

Mt 10:6 - "Go rather to the lost (apollumi) sheep of Israel."

Mt 10:39 - "Whoever finds their life will lose (apollumi) it, and whoever loses (apollumi) their life for my sake will find it."

Lk 15:6 - "And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost (apollumi)."

Lk 15:9 - "And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost (apollumi) coin.'

Lk 15:24 - "For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost (apollumi) and is found. So they began to celebrate."

Jn 3:16 - "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish (apollumi) but have eternal life."

Jn 18:9 - "This happened so that the words he had spoken would be fulfilled: "I have not lost (apollumi) one of those you gave me."

The Greek word "apoleia" does not mean annihilation or complete non-existence, as some sects falsely teach, but rather signifies eternal punishment in the fire of hell, as unanimously testified by Greek lexicons and dictionaries. For a broader understanding of the word, see Mk 14:4; Mt 26:8; Acts 8:20. This word is also found in Rev 17:8,11, referring to the beast. Related sections, Rev 19:20 and Rev 20:10, inform us that the beast (along with Satan and the false prophet) will be tormented day and night, forever and ever. The same tragic fate awaits those who reject God (see Mt 25:41,46; 8:12; 10:28; 13:24-30,36-43,49-50; Mk 9:43-48; Heb 10:28-29; Rev 14:10-11; 20:15; 21:8). This related word, apollumi = destruction (Mt 10:28), can similarly be illustrated. Applying an exaggerated, literal interpretation of apollumi often leads to obvious absurdities (see Mt 10:6; Lk 15:6,9,24; Jn 18:9). Proper scriptural interpretation requires comparing scripture with scripture, evaluating the context, and correctly understanding Greek and Hebrew expressions.

In the New Testament, 'apollumi' as opposed to 'sōzō' (to save) and 'zōē aiōnios' (eternal life) signifies ultimate failure, not simply the extinction of physical existence, but eternal sinking into Hades, the hopeless fate of death... Here too, it does not simply mean the extinction of existence, but the endless, tormenting state of death.

Therefore, based on the biblical evidence, it can be determined that "apollumi," "apoleia," and similar root forms can have a whole range of meanings: "to be lost" (Mt 10:6,39; 15:24; 16:25; 18:11,14; Lk 15:4,6,8,9,24,32, etc.); "to be destroyed" (Mt 7:13; 9:17; 10:28; 2Pt 2:1; Rev 17:8,11, etc.); "to waste" (Mt 26:8; Mk 14:4); "to kill" (Mt 2:13; 12:14; 21:41, etc.); "to die" (Mt 5:29k; 26:52, etc.). Therefore, apoleia primarily does not mean "to annihilate," but "to be lost," "to be destroyed." Apoleia means "not the loss of existence/being, but the end of good (well) being.

128

Why Do JW's Believe that Hell is Symbolic When the Disciples of the Apostles believed it Was Literal ?

by Sea Breeze in

looks like the early christians believed jesus when he warned about hell over 40 times.

why don't the jw's do the same?.

from “the epistle of barnabas” (70-130ad).

aqwsed12345

Some Current Questions in Eschatology - Point 2-5

Anthropology Of The Old Testament

The Christian Doctrine of Immortality

The Nature of Man

The meaning of the word "soul", as a component of Man

Is there life after death? - Luke 16:19-31

Ecclesiastes 9:5 -"the dead know nothing at all"

10 Extinction proof texts refuted!

After Death — What? ...according to Jesus

Ezekiel 18:4 is especally strange because the JWs often quote this verse, there is absolutely no mention of describing the substantial components of man, nor about afterlife awareness. Here, "nefesh" simply means man himself, it does not negate anything, of having a soul or not.

Adherents of Christian anthropological dualism do not understand by "soul" what they mean by "nefesh" in those places of the Holy Scriptures, when it means the whole man himself. The verses about the latter's death do not refute or deny the former, so they cannot be used for that anyway.

These expressions are simply Hebraisms, as the word 'nefesh' often can substitute for the reflexive and personal pronoun in Hebrew. Thus, expressions such as "my soul shall die" = "I shall die" should be understood in this way. The same word in the Bible can have multiple meanings, or sometimes different words can express the same thing. For example, the Hebrew 'nefesh' is often not translated as "soul" but as "living being" (therefore, when speaking of the death of 'nefesh', it does not deny the immortality of the soul, as Jehovah's Witnesses might think).

When the Bible speaks of the "soul" dying (e.g., Numbers 23:10; 1 Kings 19:14), it always refers to the whole person (in a broader sense) and never to the soul as an element of human creation (in a narrower sense). This is especially true for passages like Ezekiel 18:4, which the Watchtower Society often quotes. When the prophet says there that "the soul that sins shall die", it is obviously meant in the sense of the human being's spiritual-physical unity, since an isolated soul could neither sin nor die.

Mortality is a characteristic that, in the New Testament, applies only to the earthly body (Romans 6:12; 8:11; 1 Corinthians 15:53ff; 2 Corinthians 4:11; 5:4). The earthly body belongs to the visible and transient sphere (2 Corinthians 4:18). However, the new body, which the person will receive in their continuous existence at the last day's resurrection, is immortal (1 Corinthians 15:35-54; 2 Corinthians 5:1-10; Philippians 3:21).

Scripture describes the origin of humans and animals alike not philosophically but vividly, attributing 'nefesh' (the warm breath manifesting the principle of life) to both. When Scripture describes the creation of the first human, it mentions only the body formed from the clay of the ground and the breath of life, nothing else. This view is maintained in later texts (Ecclesiastes 12:7; Ezekiel 33:3; especially 37:7–10). Nonetheless, it leaves no doubt about the higher origin of the human soul and its nature, which is essentially different from the body: God breathes the breath of life directly into humans, whom He created in His own image, unlike the animals, among which there is none like him; only humans have 'neshamah' (a rational soul). The soul is not subject to the fate of the body; thus, it has a different kind of existence: "The dust (the human body) returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it" (Ecclesiastes 12:7; Ezekiel 37:7,10). "Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul." (Matthew 10:28; cf. 16:26) It draws a parallel with the spirituality of God: "For who among men knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so, the things of God no one knows except the Spirit of God." (1 Corinthians 2:11) The soul has the capacity for truth recognition (Job 20:3, 32:8; Exodus 28:3; Psalms 138:14), thus it is different from the soul of an animal.

Even in the 19th century, many rationalist historians of religion believed that the older books of the Old Testament do not speak of the soul's life after death (some modern scholars think they are silent on this matter only to avoid endorsing the animism that was extremely widespread among Semites). In this matter, we must establish that:

The entire Old Testament is directly and immediately focused not on the afterlife but on God. Yet, in this focus is implicitly included the belief in immortality, as the Savior indicates: "He is not a God of the dead, but of the living, for to Him all are alive." (Luke 20:38)
It is also certain that God, in this matter too, gradually led His chosen people to a higher religious standpoint. He did not bypass the normal spiritual development Deus ex machina-style, but incorporated His revelations about the afterlife and thus about immortality into the phases of this development.
Finally, it should not be overlooked that Scripture does not treat immortality as an abstract philosophical proposition but presents it in a tangible form, associated with the resurrection of the body.

In the first phase of revelation, due to the vagueness of concepts and perceptions regarding the afterlife, the sacred writers were influenced by the impression of experience: this present life, with its definite forms, joys, and colors, speaks to man; compared to it, the existence in the afterlife seems colorless, joyless, shadowy (Job 10:21, Psalms 88:12 114:17, Isaiah 38:18, etc.); although it is not the same for the righteous and the wicked (Deuteronomy 32:22). And the passing of this earthly life, the seemingly uniform march of all living into death, tunes the Old Testament contemplator to melancholy (Job 14:7–14, Ecclesiastes 2:14–16, 3:11–22, 6:6 9:4–6, etc.).

Yet, even the oldest books of Scripture are aware of the soul's life after death:

Jacob refers to his and his fathers' earthly life as a pilgrimage (Genesis 47:9; cf. Hebrews 11:9),
descending into Sheol, being gathered to one's ancestors, often does not simply mean burial (Genesis 15:5, 25:8, 35:29, 37:35, 49:32),
evidence includes the prohibition and fact of conjuring spirits (Leviticus 19:31 20:6.27; Deuteronomy 18:11; 1 Samuel 28:7-9).

EOB footnotes:

HELL AND HADES
The King James Version caused confusion by translating both Greek words ᾅδης (hades) and Γέεννα (gehenna) as “hell”. This is often reflected in older Orthodox liturgical texts which say that “Christ descended into hell”. Properly speaking, “hell” is theologically equivalent to gehenna or to “the lake of fire” of the “second death” (Rev. 20:14; 21:8). On the other hand, hades is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew שְׁאוֹל (sheol) – the common place or state of the reposed. Paradise (Luke 23:43) or Abraham’s bosom (Luke 16:22) were understood as places or conditions within hades-sheol. Hence, the spirits of the righteous of old, as well as that of the repentant thief and of our Lord went into hades, but not into hell (gehenna or “the lake of fire”). The EOB makes this important distinction.

According to the NT, everyone will be resurrected, that is, physically brought back to life, and not for the purpose of getting a second chance. It is important to know that the New Testament Greek uses two different terms for "life": one is βίος (bíos), and the other is ζωὴ (zōḗ). The word 'bíos' is used to describe mere biological functions or existence, from which the word biology is derived. In contrast, 'zōḗ' suggests some kind of surplus or additional quality.

When Jesus speaks of the "righteous" receiving "eternal life" (zōḗ aiṓnios, ζωὴ αἰώνιος), it is important to clarify, that "eternal life" is not equivalent to mere infinite temporal existence: eternal life is not simply life that lasts forever or infinite existence, nor merely an extension of life. The distinctive quality of this life, zōḗ, is a lasting relationship with God and His beloved Son, therefore something much greater and richer than simple infinite existence.

'Zōḗ aiṓnios' means infinite temporal existence in an unending relationship with God, not just temporal existence. However, every soul has infinite existence, even if it does not have 'zōḗ aiṓnios'. "Eternal life" (zōḗ aiṓnios) is indeed a gift. But there is an existence (bíos) that is not a gift, which is so tormenting that people would rather seek death instead (Revelation 9:6).

A sinner in hell does not have zōḗ aiṓnios, only an endless bíos. This distinction is forgotten by the JWs when they argue from the biblical statement that "eternal life," or zōḗ aiṓnios, is the privilege of the saved, then how "the wicked" can exist forever. However, this contrived opposition lacks the requirement of scholarly exegesis and is obviously an eisegesis born out of a compulsion to conform to the annihilationism adopted from Adventists. The opposite of "eternal life," zōḗ aiṓnios, is not "eternal non-existence" in the sense of annihilation, but "eternal death," where "death" does not mean annihilation but separation from God. Thus, damnation is eternal 'bíos', mere existence without true "life" (zōḗ), i.e., without a relationship with God.

128

Why Do JW's Believe that Hell is Symbolic When the Disciples of the Apostles believed it Was Literal ?

by Sea Breeze in

looks like the early christians believed jesus when he warned about hell over 40 times.

why don't the jw's do the same?.

from “the epistle of barnabas” (70-130ad).

aqwsed12345

The Existence of Hell

Isaiah 33:11,14 - "You conceive chaff, you bring forth stubble; your breath is a fire that will consume you... The sinners in Zion are afraid; trembling has seized the godless: 'Who among us can live with the devouring fire? Who among us can live with everlasting flames?'"

Sirach 21:9 - "The assembly of the wicked is like a bundle of tow, and their end is a blazing fire."

Matthew 8:12 - "but the children of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

Matthew 25:41 - "Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.'"

Matthew 25:46 - "And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

Matthew 3:12; Luke 3:16-17 - "His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."

Mark 9:43-49 - "If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire."

Romans 2:6-9 - "For he will repay according to each one's deeds: to those who by patiently doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; while for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth but obey wickedness, there will be wrath and fury."

2 Thessalonians 1:6-9 - "when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, separated from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might."

2 Peter 2:4 - "For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of deepest darkness to be kept until the judgment;"

Revelation 14:11 - "And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image and for anyone who receives the mark of its name."

Revelation 20:10,15 - "And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever... And anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire."

The Pains of Hell

Deuteronomy 32:22 - "For a fire is kindled by my anger, and it burns to the depths of Sheol, devours the earth and its increase, and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains."

Judith 16:17 - “Woe to the nations that rise up against my people! The Lord Almighty will take vengeance on them in the day of judgment; he will send fire and worms into their flesh; they shall weep in pain forever.”

Psalm 21:9 - "You will make them as a blazing oven when you appear. The Lord will swallow them up in his wrath, and fire will consume them."

Sirach 21:9-10 - "An assembly of the lawless is like a bundle of tinder, and their end is a blazing fire. The way of sinners is paved with smooth stones, but at its end is the pit of Hades."

Isaiah 33:14 - "The sinners in Zion are afraid; trembling has seized the godless: 'Who among us can live with the devouring fire? Who among us can live with everlasting flames?'"

Isaiah 34:9-10 - "Its streams shall be turned into pitch, and its soil into sulfur; its land shall become burning pitch. Night and day it shall not be quenched; its smoke shall go up forever. From generation to generation it shall lie waste; no one shall pass through it forever and ever."

Matthew 8:12 - "but the children of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

Luke 13:28 - "There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrown out."

2 Thessalonians 1:9 - "These will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, separated from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might,"

Revelation 14:10 - "they will also drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured unmixed into the cup of his anger, and they will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb."

Revelation 21:8 - "But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, the murderers, the fornicators, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death."

Eternal Damnation

Isaiah 66:24 - "And they shall go out and look at the dead bodies of those who have rebelled against me; for their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh."

Daniel 12:2 - "Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt."

Matthew 25:41 - "Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels;"

Matthew 25:46 - "And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

Luke 3:17 - "His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."

1 Thessalonians 4:13 - "But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope."

2 Thessalonians 1:9 - "These will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, separated from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might,"

Revelation 20:10 - "And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever."

Revelation 20:15 - "And anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire."

Revelation 21:27 - "But nothing unclean will enter it, nor anyone who practices abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life."

128

Why Do JW's Believe that Hell is Symbolic When the Disciples of the Apostles believed it Was Literal ?

by Sea Breeze in

looks like the early christians believed jesus when he warned about hell over 40 times.

why don't the jw's do the same?.

from “the epistle of barnabas” (70-130ad).

aqwsed12345

In the books of the Old Testament, from an eschatological perspective, the underworld was initially not distinguished separately. They only implicitly express the truth that the wicked cannot stand before God. The doctrine of damnation takes on more definite contours in the prophets: they speak of the eternal fire of divine wrath (Jer 4:4, 17:27, 21:12, 23:19, Ez 21:3); they declare that the wicked will be faint and powerless before God forever (Jer 51:57, Hab 2:13, Prov 9:18, Wis 3:2, 4:15, 5:24). Moreover, in form: "Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." (Dan 12:3; cf. 2 Macc 7). Therefore, there is no basis for the thesis of the new rationalist school of the history of religions that "the Old Testament does not recognize eternal damnation; it was later adopted by Judaism from Zoroastrianism". This is contradicted by the fact that eternal damnation is a fundamental teaching of the New Testament. The Savior's teachings were not inspired by the history of religions. The Savior's teachings are the clearest and most definitive. "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food..." (Mt 25:41–46). He had often spoken of the unquenchable eternal fire, where the worm of the wicked does not die, and their fire is not quenched (Mt 5:22, Mk 9:42–47); warns against those who can throw both soul and body into Gehenna (Mt 10:28); speaks of the sin for which there is no forgiveness, neither in this age nor in the age to come (Mt 12:32). He emphasizes this in parables: the foolish virgins are locked out of the wedding feast into the outer darkness (Mt 25:10–12); the worthless servant is thrown into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Mt 25:21–39); talks about the harvest where the weeds are thrown into the fire (Jn 15:1–6), and the barren vine that is thrown into the fire (Mt 13:30,40). The apostles naturally teach the same. Saint Paul says: "Those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord" (2 Thes 1:7–9; cf. 2 Cor 5:10, Rom 2:5–9, 6:4–23, Phil 3:19, Gal 6:8, Heb 10:27). According to Saint Peter, the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah awaits the ungodly (1 Pet 4:18, 2 Pet 2:4–8, 3:9, Jude 6). "But the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur; this is the second death" (Rev 21:8; cf. 19:3,20, 20:6–10, 22:15).

Difficulties: 1. "Eternal" in Scripture does not always mean endless, but simply a very long period of time. However, a) "forever and ever," which is often a descriptor of damnation, always means endless (Cf. Rev 1:19, 11:15, 15:17, 19:3, 20:10, 22:5, 1 Tim 1:17, 2 Tim 4:18, Gal 1:5.). b) Scripture also calls the eternal fire unquenchable (Mt 3:12, Mk 9:43, Lk 3:17.). c) Saint Augustine emphasizes strongly that Scripture speaks of eternal life and eternal damnation in a connected way; thus, either both are eternal or neither is. Otherwise, those who have moved beyond modern Protestant dogmatism, so-called historians of religion, conclude: "the gospel knows as little of the deliverance of the damned or of the restoration of all things as it does of their final, eternal annihilation" (Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart (1st edition) V 1584). Therefore, when Scripture speaks of the death, destruction, or perishing of the wicked, it is meant in a moral sense, in the sense of spiritual death, or in a privative sense, sharply contrasted with eternal life.

2. God does not remain angry forever (Ps 103:9, Is 57:16). However, this is understood, in the context of the aforementioned and the general context, only as pertaining to the time of trial. Saint Augustine interprets this in contrast to the so-called "merciful ones".

3. Scripture occasionally speaks of the restoration of all things, of complete renewal. But, in the context of the text and the analogy of the New Testament, this refers to the restoration of the kingdom of the Savior, a new heaven, and a new earth (Acts 3:21); sometimes about the resurrection of the body (1 Cor 15:52), or the state of final glorification (Rev 21:5), which, however, does not exclude the second death.

The testimony of the early Church Fathers is unanimous and very decisive against opposing views. Against the Gnostics, who read only mercy from the New Testament, they emphasize that those who despise Christ's grace deserve eternal punishment all the more. Only Origen held the view that the teaching of the eternity of damnation is tailored to the understanding of the average Christians and is very salutary for them: it effectively deters from sin. However, those who have reached the standpoint of Christian enlightenment (the "gnosis") can attain a deeper understanding. The purpose of all punishment is purification, healing; and once this is achieved, often after incomprehensibly long periods, the punishment of damnation also comes to an end. These foundational thoughts were adopted by Athanasius, Didymus, and especially Gregory of Nyssa; though they did not draw from them the outright denial of the eternity of damnation as Origen did. The rest of the Greek Fathers and the Latins, especially Saint Augustine, take a strong stand against the so-called "merciful ones" (misericordes), who teach that over time every person, or at least every Christian, will be freed from damnation. Particularly decisive was Gregory the Great, who defends the eternity of damnation with the weapons of reason and strives to define the nature of the torments of damnation in detail. The practice of exorcisms, which assumes the conviction that there are irrevocably damned spirits, also sufficiently expresses the faith of the ancient Church.

16

Heretic!!!

by cellomould in

after the roman church had consolidated its power in the early middle ages, heretics came to be regarded as enemies of society.

the crime of heresy was defined as a deliberate denial of an article of truth of the catholic faith, and a public and obstinate persistence in that alleged error.

at this time, there was a sense of christian unity among townspeople and rulers alike, and most of them agreed with the church that heretics seemed to threaten society itself.. however, the repression of heresy remained unorganized, and with the large scale heresies in the 11th and 12th centuries, pope gregory ix instituted the papal inquisition in 1231 for the apprehension and trial of heretics.

aqwsed12345

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhlAqklH0do

128

Why Do JW's Believe that Hell is Symbolic When the Disciples of the Apostles believed it Was Literal ?

by Sea Breeze in

looks like the early christians believed jesus when he warned about hell over 40 times.

why don't the jw's do the same?.

from “the epistle of barnabas” (70-130ad).

aqwsed12345

https://www.bible.ca/H-nature-man-definition-death.htm

https://www.valde.com.br/public/fileadmin/user_upload/The_Hell_-_Mons._de_Segur.pdf

https://www.scripturecatholic.com/hell/

16

Heretic!!!

by cellomould in

after the roman church had consolidated its power in the early middle ages, heretics came to be regarded as enemies of society.

the crime of heresy was defined as a deliberate denial of an article of truth of the catholic faith, and a public and obstinate persistence in that alleged error.

at this time, there was a sense of christian unity among townspeople and rulers alike, and most of them agreed with the church that heretics seemed to threaten society itself.. however, the repression of heresy remained unorganized, and with the large scale heresies in the 11th and 12th centuries, pope gregory ix instituted the papal inquisition in 1231 for the apprehension and trial of heretics.

aqwsed12345

Most Protestant fundamentalists live with the belief that more people died during the Inquisition than in any war or epidemic. Huge numbers circulate among them, based on nothing but their own concocted statistics. Interestingly, these numbers keep growing, as if they are trying to outbid each other, to surpass one another. What started as several thousand victims per year has become five thousand, then ten thousand, one hundred thousand, and then it continued to the point where now there are 25 million, 50 million (as Milton Carroll says in "Trail of Blood… 1931"), and even one popular fundamentalist book (Jack T. Chick's "Smokescreens. Chick Pub. 1983.") attributes 68 million victims to the Spanish Inquisition alone, and if we add his other claims, that amounts to 95 million!

These million figures are so grotesque that they cast doubt on the sanity of their authors, but let's just consider it a case of demographic ignorance.

The total population of Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries was about 45-60 million people, and it only reached 100 million by the end of the 17th century (this can even be verified in a high school textbook). Moreover, there was no Inquisition in Northern Europe, Eastern Europe, or the British Isles. The Inquisition primarily affected Southern France, Italy, Spain, and certain areas of the Holy Roman Empire.

Furthermore, historians can point out signs of every major population decrease in social, societal, and demographic structures, as well as in archaeological excavations, such as plagues, wars, etc. However, no such evidence has been found in the territories affected by the Inquisition, and there can only be one reason for this: the small number of victims. This is also supported by the documents recording the Inquisition proceedings (which was mandatory in every case). Based on these and other historical research, the current position of historians (independent of the Catholic Church) is that the number of victims can only be placed in the thousands.