How to get rid of my fear of hell and continue my evolution as a man?

[onmywayParticipant 502]

Good evening, brothers.
I’m a man in my mid-twenties and was raised in a conservative Christian home. My faith in religion of any kind as well as Christianity in particular came crushing down after a missionary trip abroad in my late teens where I met great people from all backgrounds and beliefs. I just couldn’t swallow the conservative Bible-based view that all these great people would be sent to hell. And I just couldn’t do all the mental gymnastics that was obviously required to do in order to make any sense of the Bible anymore.

However, I still struggle with the fear of hell. Based on the only experience I have of no life, which was before I was born, I believe that death will most probably be the same thing – no existence / consciousness. This, to me, is a very soothing and freeing thought. However, since I was raised by going to Sunday school and believing all kinds of things in the Bible, including eternal torment in hell for non-believers, I still struggle to this day with occasional fear of being sent to hell. I know this might sound insane to some of you who think hell is absolutely absurd and a man-created scaring tactic (which I also believe when I think rationally about it), but the brain-washing from my childhood still remains. And it pains me from time to time. Do you guys have any tips on what I could do here to move on?

The reason I ask this question is that I feel this fear hinders me in enjoying life to the fullest. I had an amazing personal retreat to the woods last week for five days in complete solitude and silence without any contact with anyone. No internet, no cellphones, no nothing. Just me alone in the woods of the north. And during my time in solitude I had an amazing time, as I became more in tune with nature and more in awe and amazed by the beauty of it all. As I had no interruptions of any kind, and no stimuli from laptops, TVs etc., I felt more connected to nature than I ever have felt before, and it most certainly felt like a spiritual experience to me. However, due to my background, I could feel the need for my brain to somehow make this about a God, and that I was having a personal meeting with God or something. And that I had to go back to reading the Bible, if not… You guessed it – see you in hell.
And it left me feeling down. Because I had just had a great experience alone in the woods for days, feeling at peace with the nature around me, watching the sunset, watching ants crawling around, swimming in a river. And BOOM – out of nowhere – God and hell arrived. And they ruined that great experience pretty fast, as I was very unprepared for those thoughts popping up again…
Maybe I just need more time or more knowledge or both. But if you guys have any tips, author recommendations or experiences on dealing with this issue it would be of great help. Thank you!

[Anonymous 42]

If lack of faith is a sin, and we’re forgiven for our sin, where’s the condemnation? Can’t get there from here!

[Solo MAN’S WisdomParticipant]

onmyway wrote:

However, I still struggle with the fear of hell.

Scripture speaks of at least two types of fire. There’s the fire of combustion which oxidizes organic/inorganic materials. And there’s the fire of God’s very presence which consumes sin.

Ask yourself “What is Sin made of?” It’s not like cloth or wood or even flesh & bone. Sin is ideas, attitudes, “Lawlessness” according to I John 3: 4. How can this be consumed by ordinary fire??

Consider:
— Moses at the burning bush [Ex 3: 1-6] — the bush was not consumed with God’s presence.
— Mount Sinai [Ex 19: 18] — the mountain was not consumed with God’s presence.
— Moses, when he went up on to mount Sinai and returned unscathed, but his face was glowing to the point he needed to veil it before the rest of the children of Israel.
— Aaron’s two sons, Nadab and Abihu offering “strange fire” — “So fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord.” In the following verses, Moses commands their cousins to remove them from the sanctuary still in their clothing So they came and carried them, still in their tunics, outside the camp, as Moses ordered.. This is a strange fire.
— Daniel’s vision of the throne of God with rivers of fire coming out from it.
— Elijah taken up in a chariot of fire.
— Lucifer, himself, walked among the stones of fire [Eze. 28: 14, 16]
— John’s vision of heaven in Revelation looking at a sea of crystal mingled with fire.

There are too many examples to go in to here, but consider that unremedied “Sin” is incompatible with God’s presence. Also consider that the overwhelming majority of Christianity has been deceived in to thinking the one place in the universe where pure love exists is the place you don’t want to go — God’s very presence.

This is the tip of the iceberg, and here is not the forum for a lengthy discussion on Heaven & Hell or God’s existence, etc. I appreciate your candor and wish you a better understanding of these deep subjects.

When women lead, destruction is the destination. -- Me.

[HitmanParticipant]

welcome.
look..i’m just a mortal man.
i would NEVER send you to hell.
God MUST be more forgiving than me, a mere mortal.
so hell is only what you construct,
NOT what a loving God would.
there is no hell in the afterlife.
hell, if it exists at all is HERE if you allow/fall into it.
one way out..
go your own way.
abandon the ideas that brainwashed you .
see the matrix for what it is.
LIES that rob you of your freedom.

[WallyParticipant]

I can not say it any better than Solomon’s Wisdom. I too grew up in an extremely conservative fire and brimstone church. At some point I had to come to terms with God that he is forgiving and did not intend for church to become what it is.

You can still be a follower of Christ if you wish, not necessary to be a churchian, and being in nature and in solitude is in my opinion the best way to connect with him. The church has been corrupted by the state and feminism that shove the idea of marriage down out throat.

"what a waste of a life, to marry, give up your freedom, just for the hope of not dying alone. Don't get married Son."

[Jan SobieskiParticipant 28791]

Would a loving God punish you forever for some minor thing. Don’t murder, real rape, worship Satan , and you should be good, IMHO.

Love is just alimony waiting to happen. Visit mgtow.com.

[Hombre LibreParticipant 261]

It took me a few years to unravel the ETERNAL HELL brain washing… It destroys the christer’s self esteem, confidence & self respect! The GOOD NEWS: there is no eternal lake of fire — and even better news is there is no eternal dictator (God)… Meditation and adjusted brain chemistry can unravel the emotional damage that belief in eternal hellfire has created in your subconscious mind. It usually takes a weekend to accomplish that. I wish you well sir!

[CaliParticipant 753]

I’m sorry I can’t write more at this time, as I’m becoming more busy with college approaching. Just know that the Bible teaches that Hell is real, and if you are questioning the Bible’s reliability, then I would look into multiple different opinions, including those of Christian apologists.

The questions you logically would ask are: A. Is there a God? B. Is He just? C. Is He merciful as well? D. Under what circumstances does God grant mercy?

It doesn’t sound like you were taught the truth about what the Bible teaches: that if you believe on (and trust in) Christ, then you will be saved. The Bible teaches that Christ died for each and every person’s sin, so that everyone can have the chance to avoid hell.

If you accept Christ, then all your sins are forgiven, even though you might stumble in the future, and you don’t have to worry about Hell. All He asks in return is that you try to help His cause by serving Him where you are led, but voluntarily.

TL,DR: Read the Bible, and trust in Jesus, and you don’t have to worry about it. Just find a trusted non-baptist pastor to explain the parts you don’t understand.

God bless, and I hope you find the RIGHT answers.

Just a misogynist virgin hiding away in his mother's basement. Nothing to see here...

[DarkRyuParticipant 2354]

I was raised Christian as well. I still don’t know if I believe. However, rationally religion makes absolutely NO sense.

First of all, HOW THE F~~~ does ANYONE know what happens after we die? Unless you die and are somehow brought back to life, there’s no way to know. The near death experiences can be explained by all the conditioning we experience as a child. Religion is brainwashing, and it’s likely that these thoughts come to the surface as you’re dying.

Secondly, why is God supposedly a HE? The ONLY reason for different sexes is for sexual reproduction. Since God theoretically is immortal and has always existed, why would he need to be a he or she at all?

Jesus dying for our sins makes absolutely no sense at all. So because he came to Earth in a human body and allowed himself to be crucified, we can now just ask for forgiveness and all is forgiven? How does that work? Why was that necessary? What did that supposedly do that changed things? If God is supposedly all powerful, then couldn’t he forgive sins without having to kill himself or demand that we murder animals in mass? ??? WTF ???

If God is supposedly 100% good and perfect, why would he create Satan? Shouldn’t he have known that Satan was going to be a bad deal for all of us, and therefore never have created him in the first place?

If God actually existed, why would he come to Earth as a human and instruct all these humans to write all these books that would later become the Bible? Wouldn’t it be better to deliver the Bible directly to us, like he supposedly did with the 10 commandments? And why were these books of the Bible mostly written 100+ years after Jesus’ death? Why did Jesus leave after being resurrected rather than stay and teach more people?

The Bible is absolutely cram packed with inconsistencies and things that make no sense. It reads like ancient oral stories that were passed down for generations until they made no sense, then written down to preserve what was left of them. Or a bad collection of stories that were created by primitive humans that weren’t very well thought out.

Is the Bible true? Does God and hell exist? I don’t know. But if it is all true, then the majority of people in existence today, and the majority of people that have ever existed in human history are all going to rot in hell forever, all because they didn’t believe in this collection of books called the Bible that have absolutely NO empirical evidence, and all because God didn’t give a s~~~ about his “children” enough to actually provide any evidence and expected us to all have blind “faith” in what these books say.

Personally, I look at the Bible as a historical document. As with all historical documents, it will have some elements of truth, and some of the information is going to be lost with time. Some of the information is going to be deliberately covered up by those in power, and some of it is going to be made up for the benefit of other people.

Basically, unless God shows himself to me LITERALLY, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to have true faith. And I don’t mean when I’m unconscious either as it could just be a dream or hallucination. Unless God himself comes down from heaven and begins chatting with me and a few other witnesses, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to fully believe.

[onmywayParticipant 502]

Thank you guys for the many and varied answers.
I will keep on reading and researching. I’m currently going through books by Dawkins, Hitchens and Sam Harris. Will look into books from “the other side” (i.e. religious defenders) as well, and see how my beliefs will turn out in the end. All I know is that I can’t choose my beliefs. They just are, based on my understanding, knowledge and intelligence…

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