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Originally Posted by LabRat
If God isn't vengeful or jealous, and is supposed to love us no matter what, why send us to hell if we choose not to believe in him/break his rules?
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If you have a child, you know that being a parent ain't easy. You have rules. They are there not to get your kids in trouble, but to protect them. You tell them "these are the rules and this is what happens if you break the rules". If they then choose to break the rules, willfully and defiantly, just because they don't feel like following them, is it wrong to be consistant and stick to the rules and consequences?
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Originally Posted by LabRat
One problem of taking the bible for word for word truth is that it's been translated multiple times, and thusly lots of things have been slightly changed...creating potentially new meanings for different passages...
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Man, if you only knew how many times I hear this argument....Agreed, translating from one language to another (and in some cases two languages into another) is ALWAYS difficult.
As far as accuracy, we have MULTIPLE surviving copies of all of the books in the bible. Don't you think they've been checked and rechecked against each other for accuracy? When there is a problem with translation, we are given notes in the text to compare the word or phrase against another portion of text, sometimes in a different book. That's what those little notations are.
Now accuracy and interpretation are two different things. That's why there are so many different bible interpretations. KJV, NASB, NIV, etc... Just because they have different words, generally, the verses mean the same thing.
Edit: Hell isn't all fire and brimstone. Hell is the eternal absence of God.