Are we in Heaven?

Josheb said:
Define "hell". Jesus used the language of "hell" and "hades," was not asserting or teaching pagan place of the "underworld" ruled by a lesser god.
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Matt 18:8
And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire.

Matt 5:29
If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.

Revelation 20:14
Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.
 
Photine said:
Both Hell and God are eternal fires.
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God is a consuming fire. Heb 12:29/ Deut 4:24

For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. 1 Cor 3: 11 - 15
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Perhaps the afterlife as mainly a question of how our souls respond to the fire of God.
 
Photine said:
Matt 18:8
And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire.

Matt 5:29
If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.

Revelation 20:14
Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.
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That's good. Appreciate the direct and concise answer, and the scriptural appeal. Well done.

Next question: Do you think it is literally a literal fire, a physical fire, one that somehow destroys spirits?
 
Josheb said:
That's good. Appreciate the direct and concise answer, and the scriptural appeal. Well done.

Next question: Do you think it is literally a literal fire, a physical fire, one that somehow destroys spirits?
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I think it's a veiled reference to God.
 
Photine said:
I think it's a veiled reference to God.
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They're going to get tossed into God?

How about a figurative reference to decay/rot and destruction?

Matthew 10:28
Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

Galatians 6:7-8
Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

The literal explains the figurative/metaphorical/symbolic.
 
Josheb said:
They're going to get tossed into God?

How about a figurative reference to decay/rot and destruction?

Matthew 10:28
Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

Galatians 6:7-8
Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

The literal explains the figurative/metaphorical/symbolic.
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If you say so
 
Photine said:
If you say so
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No, I am not the arbiter of truth. I am asking you a set of very legitimate (and op-relevant) questions. You have said the fiery lake is "a veiled reference to God." That warrants clarification. I have suggested an alternative explanation based on specified scriptures that are literal, not figurative.

Do you mean to say those tossed into the figurative lake of fire are tossed into God? Is that what you meant for us to understand when reading your post?

If scripture, not me, indicates the end for those not in Christ is decay/corruption and destruction then why would "If you say so," be appropriate?
 
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I suspect that quite a few Gentiles are unaware that neither the kingdom of
Heaven, nor the Kingdom of God, will be established up above in some sort of
celestial sphere.

Those kingdom terms speak of Messiah's kingdom which-- as any Jew sufficiently
trained in the five books of Moses, and in the Psalms and the Prophets knows --is
right down here where we are now; on the third rock from the sun.

That being the case, then everyone today is situated in Messiah's realm. His
homeland is of course the State of Israel, but his jurisdiction encompasses the
entire globe; and one day he'll depose this world's governments and set up his
own. (Ps 2:1-12)

* It's said that some folks can't see the forest because the trees are blocking their
view. I think that saying easily applies to Messiah's kingdom.

• Luke 17:20-21 . .The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed;
nor will they say: Look, here it is!' nor: There it is! For behold; the kingdom of God
is in your midst.
_
 
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