Aineo, you ignore all kinds of verses in the Bible. You are such a big hypocrite. I'm doing my best to do what God and Jesus would have me do and you have no right to tell me that I am cultish.
Jesus wants us to be divided on our thinking because God says different things to everyone.
Luke 12:51- "Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division."
I don't even ignore verses. I take the Bible as a whole. I know there is a hell but I do not know exactly what it is. I do not know exactly what the lake of fire is either. I think that they are spiritual. Jesus and God never went into detail about what these things are.
Honestly, I think that some people need to hear that hell is a literal real place and other people need to hear that it isn't.
Jude 22-23- "And of some have compassion, making a difference: And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh."
It really blows my mind how youcan take verses like John 6:53-54 "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood , ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day."
And it is so easy for you to say that eat my flesh and drink my blood is not literal but spiritual.
But then in verses like Mark 9:43- "And if thy hand offend thee, cut if off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched."
And then you can say that Jesus doesn't literally mean to cut off your hand, that that is spiritual, but then, when it gets to the part about hell, you say that that part is literal.
Do you know why I I emphasize so much that I do not think hell is literal- it is because I am so sick of people who think hell is literal turning so many people off to God and the Bible-
It doesn't make sense how so many Christians have so little faith in love. Love, forgiveness, mercy- they are the most powerful forces there are.
Romans 2:17-21- "Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God, And knowest his will, and approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law; And art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness, An instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law. Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest not thyself? thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal?"
I know that there are people who do need to be scared into believing by the concept of hell being literal- but there seem to me to be many more who need to hear that it is not.
There are some people who do not really know anything but the physical- but these days there are so many people who know spiritual and emotional abuse that the concept of hell being literal makes it impossible for them to accept Christ. I makes it impossible for them to trust him.