The pleasures of sin……

[Starise]

13 hours ago, Sower said:

As a born again believer of many yrs, and a smoker for over a half century, I also had to give it to God.
I tried for many yrs every method to quit save hypnotism. I could not quit, and never did.
But I have not smoked for nine yrs now.  God delivered me.
The fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
God gets the glory, and gratitude to the man who prayed over me.

Same thing, different vice.

10 hours ago, Vine Abider said:

As you probably know, the word "hell" is something of a construct, translated from four actual words that are used in the Bible: Sheol, Gehenna, Tartaurus and Hades. I think we shortchange the word when we just use the rather simplistic term "hell" for all of these (usually referring to eternal, conscious torment), when they mean somewhat different things.  

Words often translated as hell (espcially in KJV & NKJV):

Sheol: used in 65 times in OT - considered the place or state of all the dead

Hades:  used 11 times in NT - same basic meaning as Sheol (literally means "not to see")

Tartaurus: used 1 time in NT - is stated only as applying to fallen angels

Gehenna*: used 12 times in NT - an actual place of burning trash and condemned people's corpses . . . a valley near Jerusalem.  THIS IS THE TERM THAT MOST CLOSELY RESEMBLES "HELL" IN MODERN THEOLOGY.

* Gehenna, of these four words, is the term that most closely conveys eternal, conscious torment.  Yet it is only used 11 times in three gospels (Mathew, Mark & Luke) and once, metaphorically in James 3:6.  If this is such an important doctrinal concept of the New Testament, why does Paul, Peter and John not mention it in any of their writings? 

So I'm not saying Gehenna isn't a real picture of what may happen to some souls if they are unrepentant and judged to be eternally tormented.  But I suggest that we Christians may use the term "hell"  (meaning eternal, conscious torment) too frequently - more frequently than the Bible does.

 

Hell probably isn't emhasized because God is aiming us all AWAY from the place. It seems like a cheap swap to an atheist until they realize the extent of God's love. God is not willing that ANY should perish. He didn't come here to tell us about hell. He came here to deliver us from it, for if we are delivered there no need to go into those details. Hell is a default position for those who didn't care. This is why I often pray God flips that care switch in some people. If you know and don't care, then the responsibility rests on them. 

We pay our debts, we care enough to celebrate birthdays and we often care about what concerns our myopic view of the world, but for some reason folks would rather die like an animal and forfeit a future that's a million times better than here because they think they are giving up something. The "I care" switch only works when they want it to work.

[JohnD]

The pleasures of sin are pleasures only to the flesh. Not the spirit.

In Christ we are a new creation in that while we still possess a human (flesh) nature, 

we also possess a spirit nature in which we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God who

gives light and life and direction to our spirit ← through which we are admonished in the

New Testament to live by (rather than by the flesh).

Nurture and play to the flesh = only sin and death come of it.

Nurture and play to the spirit = life and peace and joy and contentment.

The same lust that the flesh thrives on turns the stomach of the spirit within...

but most folks' spirits are so emaciated from lack of nurture (as opposed to the fatted calf of our

flesh natures by the choices we make daily in preference to the flesh) that we are quite out of touch

with our spirit / conscience and we plunge into dissipation with what seems to be impunity... but is 

rather a seared conscience.