Hell's Population Clock

[Olde Tymer]

.
According to Matt 7:13-14 and Matt 22:14; relatively few make it to safety in the
afterlife compared to relatively many that don't. Bear with me while I flesh this out.

According to the US Census Bureau: as of Sept 09, 2023 @ 01:55 pm New York
Time, the resident population in the United States was approximately 335,553,998
with a death rate of approximately one every 11 seconds; which translates to an
average of 7,854 American deaths of all ages, races, and genders during just one
24-hour calendar day.

According to 2009 US Census data; roughly 27.3% of America's daily deaths were
under the age of 19, which would indicate that approximately 5,710 of the current
daily death rate per 24 hours are adults.

Giving the "many" the benefit of the doubt by limiting their maximum percentage to
51%, would indicate a minimum of 2,912 American adults transferring to perdition
every day: which translates to roughly 121 per hour. That's a very conservative
estimate as Christ didn't really specify exact percentages to represent the
quantities of "few" and "many".

Using the ratio of 2,912 condemned souls per 335,553,998 population: computing
the number of condemned souls worldwide from a currently estimated global
population of 8,002,749,532 people, would suggest something like 69,450 new
arrivals in the fiery sector of the netherworld every 24 hours; which translates to
roughly 2,893 souls every sixty minutes on the clock.

Yankee Stadium's football seating capacity is 54,251. At the rate of 2,893 souls per
hour, those seats would be filled in roughly 18 hours and 46 minutes. In other
words: by 12:45 am NY time tonight the stadium's seats would be maxed if the
world's daily number of condemned souls started filing into the stadium at 06:00
am NY time this morning.

Christmas and New Year are even worse. A study done of 26 years of death
certificates shows that coronary fatalities are, on average, 11.9% higher on those
days than any other days of the year; with non-heart deaths spiking to 12.2%
higher.

The netherworld never closes; no, not at all: it's open for business 24/7/365
nonstop and indifferent to climate change, Wall Street crashes, massive layoffs,
outsourcing, high school shootings, terrorism, tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes,
storm surges, nuclear meltdowns, underground coal fires, toxic aquifers, illegal
immigration, disappearing ground water, drug cartels, human trafficking, pandemics,
air, soil pollution, a mission to Mars, freeway pile-ups, brown-outs, threatened species,
the price of oil, Falun Gong organ harvesting, election fraud, pipelines, student debt,
GMO, trade deficits, the war in Ukraine, Chinese imperialism, Antifa, Black Lives Matter,
North Korea's nukes, Federal debt, factory recalls, overpopulation, desertification,
ethnic cleansing, revolutions, civil wars, acid rain, road rage, oil spills, starter marriage,
ISIS, Hamas, LGBT marriage, blood diamonds, fracking, twerking, and/or former US
President Donald Trump's legal problems.

If standard Christianity's perception of Jesus Christ and the hereafter is correct;
then it's apparent that souls never stop cascading into the abyss in an endless
procession like the unbelievable millions of poultry broilers passing annually
through Tyson chicken-processing plants on their way to Wendy's, McDonalds,
Carl's Junior, Jack in the Box, Burger King, Chic-fil-A, KFC, A&W, Arby's, Dairy
Queen, Taco Bell, et al; and to supermarkets and restaurants all over the USA and
wherever else Tyson vends its meats. The slaughtering and the butchering never
stop.
_

 

[Olde Tymer]

.
Through me; the way to the eternal city.
Through me; the way to eternal sadness.
Through me; the way to lost people.

Justice moved my supreme maker:
I was shaped by divine power,
By highest wisdom, and by primal love.

Before me, nothing was created
That is not eternal: and eternally I endure.
Abandon all hope, you that enter here.
The Divine Comedy
Inferno: canto 3, v.1-9,
by Dante Alighieri

Dante's poetic epic is called a comedy not because it's humorous, rather, because it
has a happy ending as opposed to a tragedy; at least for Dante anyway. The souls
he and Virgil pass along the way through the Inferno portion of Dante's odyssey will
never, nor anon, have a happy ending; hence the sign above the entrance:
"Abandon all hope, you that enter here."

Webster's defines "despair' as to no longer have any hope or belief that a situation
will improve or change. Well; down in the Inferno section of Dante's concept,
despair is a way of life. It's likely not much different in the real inferno.

When people first arrive, no doubt they start asking around to find out how long
they have to stay there. It must be very devastating to encounter folk who've been
languishing in the fiery region of the netherworld since practically the dawn of Man.

POP CLOCK UPDATE: 02 days have elapsed since beginning the thread. If the OP's
figures are in the ball park, then something like 138,900 new arrivals have checked
into the fiery sector of Hades since Oct 09, 2023.
_

 

[Olde Tymer]

.
Famed rock guitarist Eddie Van Halen passed away in October of 2020. He was a
Roman Catholic. I was one myself for 24 years, so I can say from personal
experience, that it's not easy to get into Heaven via that version of Christianity.

Well; if perchance Eddie failed to make the cut (not saying he didn't; only saying "if
perchance") then he will never again be allowed to even so much as see a guitar let
alone pick one up with his hands.

Can you imagine a talented, pioneering musician like Eddie never again allowed to
do the one thing in life that he loved the most? I mean never again like as in
permanently.

Hell is bad enough for ordinary folk; it must be doubly miserable for creative
people: the poets, the painters, the sculptors, the architects, the fashion designers,
the authors, the choreographers, the gourmet cooks, the engineers, the scientific
geniuses, the explorers, et al.

* According to Luke 16:19-31, people in the netherworld worry about their
surviving relatives. Well; Eddie's ex wife Valerie Bertinelli was raised a Roman
Catholic too. I've no doubt that if perchance Eddie is down there, he's wishing there
were some way to contact Vallerie and let her know where he is lest she end up
there too.

POP CLOCK UPDATE: 07 days have elapsed since beginning the thread. If the OP's
figures are in the ball park, then something like 486,150 new arrivals have checked
into the fiery sector of Hades since Oct 09, 2023.
_

 

[Olde Tymer]

.
Sit down, sit down
Cause you won't get away.
No; with us you will stay
For the rest of your days.

So sit down
As we relive our lives
In what we tell you.
Let us relive our lives
In what we tell you.
Home By The Sea
Genesis 1983
Phil Collins, Tony Banks, & Mike Rutherford

The lyrics of that song are useful for depicting how one of the few thing that some
people have to do down in the netherworld to help pass the time is tell each other
about their previous lives; sort of like a group of old guys meeting together day
after day in the park for games of speed chess. There is, of course, nothing to tell
about their lives down there since the colloquialism "get a life" is a non sequitur in
that place. Nobody has a life; nor any hope of getting one.

POP CLOCK UPDATE: 12 days have elapsed since beginning the thread. If the OP's
figures are in the ball park, then something like 833,400 new arrivals have checked
into the fiery sector of Hades since Oct 09, 2023.
_

 

[Olde Tymer]

.
Saturday, June 27, 2010, a 6-month-old baby girl was killed and her mother
seriously injured when the pair were struck by a falling tree branch in New York
City's Central Park Zoo. The girl's father was taking their picture near the sea lion
exhibit when a branch above them suddenly snapped off and fell.

Tuesday, July 3, 2007; nineteen year-old Ramiro Gonzalez was returning home to
Nyssa Oregon from a week-end honeymoon in northern California with his bride
Idalia asleep in the back seat when their 1997 Pontiac Grand Am hit a cow twenty
miles east of Burns. The Pontiac went off the road, through a fence, and burst into
flames. Idalia escaped with only minor injuries, but Ramiro died at the Ste. Charles
Medical Center in Bend the very next day.

March 20, 2008; fifty-seven year old Judy Kay Zagorski, of Pigeon, Michigan, was
sitting in the front seat of her father's boat going 25 knots on the Atlantic Ocean
side of Vaca Key in Florida, when a Spotted Eagle Ray, with a wingspan of 5 to 6
feet; leaped up out of the water-- for who knows what reason --and collided with
Zagorski, knocking her backwards onto the deck of the boat. She died from the
impact. Judy's sister, standing next to her, wasn't injured.

On a November morning in 1998, Alan Pakula climbed into his Volvo station wagon
and began the 100-mile drive from Manhattan to his Long Island house. The
acclaimed movie director of Sophie's Choice, All The President's Men, and The
Pelican Brief, had made that trip countless times with no incident.

As the 70 year-old Pakula neared exit 49 on the Long Island Expressway just before
noon, the tires of a vehicle ahead of him flipped a 7-foot piece of steel rod into the
air. Within seconds, the rod shot through Pakula's windshield, smashing into his
forehead, killing him almost instantly.

Death often comes when people least expect it. As a rule, they don't usually get up
in the morning planning it to be their last day on earth. The 169,752 killed, and
127,294 listed as missing in more than eleven countries by the tsunami of 2004,
were taken by surprise, and given no warning it was to be their last day on earth.

The 2,829 people who perished in a terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on
September 11, 2001, and the 189 who died in the Pentagon, didn't go in to work
expecting their lives to end before lunch that day. No, people's lives often end while
they still have obligations and commitments, aspirations, things to do, places to go,
and people to see; when a car accident, train wreck, act of nature, plane crash,
crime, heart attack, or stroke puts an abrupt end to every plan they ever made.

Tuesday, Jan 12, 2010, a 7.0 earthquake struck Port au Prince Haiti right out of the
blue subsequently causing the loss of more than 200,000 lives. A similar act of
nature on March 11, 2011, left 25,000 dead and/or missing in Japan.

Okeechobee woman Dawn Johnston, 38, was killed Wednesday June 30, 2010 after
part of a portable toilet crashed through her car's windshield. Dawn was driving
south on SR 15 shortly after 11 a.m. when two portable toilets fell from the trailer
of a pickup truck traveling north,. The portable toilets shattered when they hit the
road, and a piece of one of them crashed through the woman's windshield, striking
her. Johnston's car then veered off the road and collided with a tree.

A rain-saturated hillside above the Stillaguamish River on the outskirts of the rural
town of Oso in the State of Washington gave way March 22, 2014 leaving behind a
current death toll of 41 souls. The landslide happened to suddenly and so rapidly
that nobody saw it coming and/or had the slightest chance of getting out of the
way. Listed among the dead and missing was a four-month old infant.

Freak incidents like those listed above can happen to anybody in the form of a stray
bullet from a drive-by, lightening strike, gas explosion, choking on a piece of meat,
electrocution, earthquake, a drunk driver, a fall in the bath tub; bricks dropped
from an overpass, a school shooting, or any number of out-of-the-blue surprises.

Because of the uncertainty of tomorrow, people need to start thinking about the
afterlife today, while they have the chance; rather than risk being caught off guard
by sudden death when there will be no time to think; and they find themselves
suddenly thrust into the unseen world unprepared.

POP CLOCK UPDATE: 17 days have elapsed since beginning the thread. If the OP's
figures are in the ball park, then something like 1,180,650 new arrivals have checked
into the fiery sector of Hades since Oct 09, 2023.
_

 

[Olde Tymer]

.
According to Matt 10:28, the body and the soul are perishable. However; though
the body is perishable by any means, the soul is perishable only by divine means;
i.e. the deaths of body and soul aren't necessarily simultaneous, viz: the soul lives
on until such a time as God decides to give it either a thumb up or a thumb down.

This is interesting because if we can take Luke 16:19-31 to mean something real;
then we may safely assume souls are transferrable to an afterlife situation wherein
people retain some of their human characteristics. For example: Lazarus has a
finger, Abraham has a bosom, the rich man has a tongue; and all are sentient
beings, i.e. conscious.

POP CLOCK UPDATE: 22 days have elapsed since beginning the thread. If the OP's
figures are in the ball park, then something like 1,527,900 new arrivals have checked
into the fiery sector of Hades since Oct 09, 2023.
_

 

[Olde Tymer]

.
● Mark 9:47-48 . . If your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out. It is better to enter
the kingdom of God half blind than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell; where
the worm never dies and the fire never goes out.

The "hell" in that passage is a different Greek word than the "hell" of Luke 16:19
31. That one is haides (hah'-dace) which is an Hellenistic afterlife where all the
dead go; both the good dead and the bad dead regardless of age, race, color,
gender or religious preference. This word here in Mark is geena (gheh'-en-nah)
which is where only the bad dead will end up some day: likely the lake of brimstone
depicted at Rev 20:11-15

Anyway; Jesus didn't reveal anything new. He simply reiterated information that
had already been released by an Old Testament prophet roughly 700 years before.

● Isa 66:22-24 . . From one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to
another, all mankind will come and bow down before me-- speaks the Lord. And
they will go out and look upon the dead bodies of those who rebelled against Me:
their worm will not die, nor will their fire be quenched, and they will be loathsome
to all mankind.

That rather ghastly scene depicts a sort of tourist attraction similar to the La Brea
Tar Pits museum in Los Angeles where the remains of prehistoric creatures,
excavated from ancient asphalt deposits, are on display.

A worm that thrives in brimstone is pretty amazing, but not unreasonable. The 4
inch Pompeii worm lives in sea water temperatures of 176° Fahrenheit; hot enough
to kill salmonella and sanitize an egg. So I guess if God could create a worm like
the Pompeii, it shouldn't be too difficult for Him to create worms that like it even
warmer.

FAQ: The human body is organic. So then, how can it survive the heat as perpetual
nourishment for those worms?

REPLY: The laws of nature are not absolute. They were created in the first chapter
of Genesis, and as such are easily manipulated by the one who designed them.

For example: fire totally incinerated the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah but left
unscathed a desert shrub that Moses encountered in the Sinai outback while
tending his father-in-law's sheep. (Ex 3:1-3)

Compare Dan 3:8-27 where a blistering hot fire didn't even so much as singe the
clothing of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego while slaying the guards that threw
them in the furnace.

FAQ: Won't the worms eventually exhaust their food supply?

REPLY: There are incidents in the Bible where small amounts of food stuffs were
miraculously multiplied. One example is 1Kgs 17:8-16 where a tiny bit of flour and
oil nourished Elijah and a widow woman, and her son, for a good many days during
a time of prolonged drought.

Another incident is at 2Kgs 4:1-7 where a certain widow's husband died and left her
deeply in debt. God multiplied her last pot of oil sufficiently to sell enough to pay off
her debts, thereby saving her two sons from slavery.

No; I'm pretty sure those worms won't need to worry about running out of human
remains with which to sustain themselves.

POP CLOCK UPDATE: 28 days have elapsed since beginning the thread. If the OP's
figures are in the ball park, then something like 1,944,600 new arrivals have checked
into the fiery sector of Hades since Oct 09, 2023.
_

 

[Olde Tymer]

.
● Eph 1:4-5 . .He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we
should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as
sons through Jesus Christ to Himself,

Predestination isn't random; it's typically always the consequence of foreknowledge.
In other words: God has always known, from the very beginning, by means of
prescience, who will, and who won't, come to faith in His son. And seeing as how
He had that information at hand early on, then it was safe and practical to go ahead
and establish their adoption in advance seeing as how it's a sure thing.

● Rom 8:29 . . For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be
conformed to the likeness of His son.

FAQ: If God predestined Christ's followers to be conformed to the likeness of His
son, then wouldn't that mean He predestined Christ's opponents to be conformed to
the Devil?

POSIT: I should think that a reasonable assumption. In point of fact, passages like
John 8:44 and Eph 2:1-2 strongly suggest that the process of conforming folks to
the Devil's likeness is the default, i.e. everybody starts out on that path.

POP CLOCK UPDATE: 33 days have elapsed since beginning the thread. If the OP's
figures are in the ball park, then something like 2,291,850 new arrivals have checked
into the fiery sector of Hades since Oct 09, 2023.
_

 

[Olde Tymer]

~
There was a time when everyone went to the netherworld when they passed away:
Jesus too because when he passed away on the cross; Jesus didn't go up, rather,
he went down. (Matt 12:40, John 20:17, Acts 7:25-31)

When we take into consideration everybody who ever lived and died on this planet
beginning with Adam; then we're talking about a very large number of people. How
do they all fit in the netherworld without overcrowding?

Well; it's evident that people exist in the afterlife as disembodied spirits. (Heb
12:22-23, 1Pet 3:18-20)

The feral man of Mark 5:1-13 and Luke 8:26-33 was possessed by a community of
evil spirits who labeled themselves Legion. Webster's defines a legion as the
principal unit of the Roman army comprising 3,000 to 6,000 foot soldiers with
cavalry.

The legion of spirits that Christ exorcised from the man went out and possessed a
herd of about 2,000 swine. That's a pretty good example of how spirits take up no
room in the physical world; nor do they crowd each other. All 3,000-6,000 of those
spirits managed to fit inside the bodily cargo area of just that one man.

That being the case, then the netherworld need not be a void. People can exist
down there in solid rock because spirits don't need space, they just need a place.

NOTE: Any attempt to drill down to the heart of the Earth in search of the
netherworld would likely be futile because it isn't a natural world, rather, it's a
supernatural world, i.e. in another dimension. Drilling could, and would, pass right
through the very center of the netherworld and still not find it.

POP CLOCK UPDATE: 38 days have elapsed since beginning the thread. If the OP's
figures are in the ball park, then something like 2,639,100 new arrivals have checked
into the fiery sector of Hades since Oct 09, 2023.
_

 

[Olde Tymer]

~
OBJECTION: Hell doesn't make sense that a loving God would torment people in a
fiery prison forever and ever.

REPLY: I fully agree that it makes no sense at all. But then human intelligence is
produced by a 3-pound lump of flabby organic tissue; and not even all three of
those pounds are devoted to cognitive processes. On top of that, those three
pounds are 60% fat. That fatty, flabby, organic tissue can alter one's personality
with little more than an aneurysm or a blow to the head.

Just how bright can a fatty, flabby, organic intelligence really be compared to the
IQ of a supernatural being with enough intelligence to invent, design, and construct
a fully functioning cosmos with all of its forms of life, matter, and energy? A fatty,
flabby, organic intelligence isn't even a dunce in comparison: it's the IQ of a
termite; if even that.

● 1Cor 3:20 . .The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are empty.

Well; that's certainly not a very flattering evaluation. It's as much as saying that, in
God's opinion, the smartest among humanity basically consists of air heads; and if
that's His evaluation of the best and brightest, then where might God be ranking
John Que and Jane Doe pew warmer?

POP CLOCK UPDATE: 43 days have elapsed since beginning the thread. If the OP's
figures are in the ball park, then something like 2,986,350 new arrivals have checked
into the fiery sector of Hades since Oct 09, 2023.
_

 

[Olde Tymer]

~
● 2Thess 2:11-12 . . God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe
the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had
pleasure in unrighteousness.

In other words: there's coming a time when God's patience will reach its reasonable
limits, and He will purposely, willfully, and deliberately make sure that a certain
category of people have no chance whatsoever to be spared the wrath of God.

Back when Noah was preparing the ark, no doubt his neighbors all mocked and
poked fun at him as if he were a deranged soul going around with a sandwich board
that reads: Repent; The End Is Near! But when the rain started, I bet those very
same neighbors panicked and tried to get Noah to open up and let them in. But
even had Noah wanted to; he couldn't. The hatch of the ark was sealed from the
outside: and God was the only one on earth who could open it-- He chose not to.

● Rev 1:18 . . I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive
forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.

● Rev 3:7 . .These are the words of him who is holy and true: who holds the key of
David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.

POP CLOCK UPDATE: 48 days have elapsed since beginning the thread. If the OP's
figures are in the ball park, then something like 3,333,600 new arrivals have checked
into the fiery sector of Hades since Oct 09, 2023.
_

 

[Olde Tymer]

~
FAQ: Doesn't the Bible say that God's mercy endures forever, e.g. Ps 100:5, Ps
106:1, Ps 107:1, and Ps 118:1, et al?

REPLY: God's mercy is very durable; but His good sense knows when to say
"when". Examples of that are the people swept away by the hand of God in the
Flood, and those burned to death by the hand of God in Sodom and Gomorrah; and
the firstborn of man and beast slain by the hand of God on Passover night in Egypt.

It's possible to push God too far. For example:

● Hos 4:17 . . Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone.

In other words: God instructed the prophet Hosea not to bother preaching in
Ephraim because He was fed up with them.

Down at the end of all with which we are familiar, the announcement below will be
made.

● Rev 22:11 . . Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the
righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.

In other words: the people to whom those words pertain, will be stuck with who
and what they are with no chance of ever being any different. That's good news for
the righteous and/or holy, whereas really bad news for folks who end up on the
wrong side of things. The ones in Hell will be forever unfit to be anywhere else.

POP CLOCK UPDATE: 53 days have elapsed since beginning the thread. If the OP's
figures are in the ball park, then something like 3,680,850 new arrivals have checked
into the fiery sector of Hades since Oct 09, 2023.
_

 

[Olde Tymer]

~
The human soul is relatively sturdy, but not indestructible. It can be rubbed out,
and apparently a number of souls are on track for exactly that.

● Matt 10:28 . . Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul;
but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in Hell

FAQ: If somebody is already dead, then how can Hell kill their body?

REPLY: The current Hell (a.k.a. Hades) isn't for killing the human body because for
now when people die, their bodies stay here rather than going there. But out ahead
in the future; people in Hades will be resurrected to face justice at the Great White
Throne event depicted at Rev 20:11-15. Should the judgment go against them,
their bodies will be terminated yet once again in another place called the lake of
fire, i.e. an impoundment consisting of brimstone.

POP CLOCK UPDATE: 58 days have elapsed since beginning the thread. If the OP's
figures are in the ball park, then something like 4,028,100 new arrivals have checked
into the fiery sector of Hades since Oct 09, 2023.
_

 

[Olde Tymer]

~
FAQ: Do you not know it is the kindness of God, rather than fear and threats of
fiery justice, that leads men to repentance? (Rom 2:4)

REPLY: If the Bible's God weren't so kind, then He wouldn't bother with giving His
creatures advance notice of the horror in store for them in the afterlife.

● Luke 12:4-5 . . And I say unto you my friends; Be not afraid of them that kill the
body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom
ye shall fear: Fear Him, which after He hath killed hath power to cast into Hell; yea,
I say unto you fear Him.

Was Christ wrong to instill a fear of God within people's hearts? No; I think he was
110% justified. For example: when I was working as a professional welder for the
US Army Corps of Engineers, we had weekly and monthly safety meetings wherein
we were shown some grisly photographs of real life industrial accidents involving
burns, chain saws, punctured eyes, explosions, falls, crane collapses, suffocation,
crushing, and the like.

Let me tell you: those safety meetings got our attention, and really made a sharp
distinction between the fool and the wise. Somebody like Billy Graham needs to get
out there and let people know that they're up against a celestial despot far more
dangerous than the CCP and/or North Korea's Kim Jong-Un.

A Danger Foreseen;
Is Half-Avoided.
(Cheyenne Proverb)

● Prov 22:3 . . A prudent person foresees the danger ahead and takes precautions;
the simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences.

The kindness of God has given the world fair and adequate notice of what to expect
in the afterlife. Those who don't care about it one way or the other would be well
advised to use what time they have remaining to begin preparing themselves for
the worst when they cross over to the other side.

POP CLOCK UPDATE: 65 days have elapsed since beginning the thread. If the OP's
figures are in the ball park, then something like 4,514,250 new arrivals have checked
into the fiery sector of Hades since Oct 09, 2023.
_

 

[Olde Tymer]

~
FAQ: The Bible thumpers say it's a "must" to believe in Christ in order to be spared
the wrath of God. How is that fair to peoples of the world who were never afforded
an opportunity to know about him?

REPLY: According to Ps 19:1-4, Rom 1:19-20, & Rom 2:14-15; the realm of nature
+ conscience, becomes the basis upon which God judges people who've somehow
gone through life without ever hearing the Bible taught or preached.

And seeing as how the justice of God is described as righteous (Rom 2:5) then no
doubt their punishment will be quite a bit more lenient than the punishment in
store for the gospel's detractors. (cf. Luke 2:47-48 & Heb 10:29). Unbelievers are
immediately condemned-- no delay and no waiting period. (John 3:16-18)

POP CLOCK UPDATE: 70 days have elapsed since beginning the thread. If the OP's
figures are in the ball park, then something like 4,861,500 new arrivals have checked
into the fiery sector of Hades since Oct 09, 2023.
_

 

[Rockson]

.
According to Matt 7:13-14 and Matt 22:14; relatively few make it to safety in the
afterlife compared to relatively many that don't. Bear with me while I flesh this out.

This is a pretty unusual post trying to dissect percentages, and thousands and thousand of people.....On the other hand perhaps it can awaken us all to something we need to know and consider.....are we spending way too much time talking about some speculative thing about God when we should be discussing about how to get more people saved?

Maybe a Titanic analogy might work. Thousands and untold thousands ore in the water screaming for help to be saved and the ones in the life boats are playing checkers pretty much deaf to their pleas. Granted many unsaved aren't really screaming out to be saved in this life but their spirits have a silent cry within them.....something is just not right. They feel empty but just don't know why. We should consider that IS a real crying out. So how about we don't just talk about the problem but focus on the solutions.

 

[Olde Tymer]

~
Heaven is sometimes depicted as a mountain with any number of roads around the
base heading towards the top. Well; classic Christianity accepts only one of those
roads reaches the top; viz: the rest are dead-ends, loops, terraces, circles, and cul
de-sacs, i.e. no outlets and nowhere to go except round and around or back down
the mountain

Hell is depicted as a colossal pit, deep and wide, with many roads around the rim
heading towards the bottom. Well; classic Christianity accepts that every one of
those roads eventually merge into one big super expressway to the bottom.

● Matt 7:13-14 . . Wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction,
and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to
life, and only a few find it.

How many people are we talking about? Well, according to my sources, as of mid
2020 there were approximately:

50,000 . . . . . . . . Scientologists
16,500,000 . . . . .Mormons
8,200,000 . . . . . .Practicing Jehovah's Witnesses
8,531,000 . . . . . .Baha'i
545,584,000 . . . .Buddhists
468,411,000 . . . .Chinese Folk Religionists
8,606,000 . . . . . .Confucianists
269,498,000 . . . .Ethnic Religionists
1,062,595,000 . . .Hindus
6,135,000 . . . . . .Jains
14,779,000 . . . . .Jews
1,893,345,000 . . Muslims
64,549,000 . . . . .New Religionists
2,788,000 . . . . . .Shintoists
28,000,000 . . . . .Sikhs
14,851,000 . . . . .Spiritists
9,078,000 . . . . . .Taoists
1,757,433,000 . . .Non Religious/Atheists/Agnostics

The grand total of just those categories is 5,710,522,000

If those figures are in the ball park, and if classic Christianity is the truth; then at
least 73% of the world's 2020 population was on a road to perdition; and quite
possibly some of them were people we know: our BFF, our loved ones, and our
associates.

POP CLOCK UPDATE: 75 days have elapsed since beginning the thread. If the OP's
figures are in the ball park, then something like 5,208,750 new arrivals have checked
into the fiery sector of Hades since Oct 09, 2023.
_

 

[Olde Tymer]

~
It's natural to assume that only really bad people are in Hell. But according to Matt
7:23-27, John 3:3-8, John 3:14-20, John 3:36, and Rev 20:11-15, anybody can be
there; both the good, the bad, and the not so bad-- bikers, bakers, lawyers,
welders, actors and actresses, housewives, bankers, heavy equipment operators,
loggers, convicts, celebrities, homeless bums, clergy, prostitutes, drug lords,
postmen, Presidents, Kings,

. . . statesmen, astronauts, school teachers, scientists, nurses, doctors, chemists,
machinists, carpenters, waiters, hotel managers, cops, judges, nuns, priests,
Popes, deacons, salesmen, Miss Americas, news anchors, weathermen, and
birdwatchers, Vegas show girls, et al --people from every walk, every career, every
religion, every culture, every language, every ethnic, every craft, and every status:
they're all in danger of the sum of all fears.

● Rev 20:12 . . I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and
books were opened.

Because when you strip away their gender, their titles, their distinctions, their
privileges, and their entitlements; and stand them before God naked; people are
only flesh and blood creatures-- naked apes, just human beings; and human beings
are intrinsically sinful beings whether inbred or bred to perfection.

● Gen 8:21 . . Man's thoughts and actions are bent toward evil from childhood.

● Ps 58:3 . . Even from birth the wicked go astray; from the womb they are
wayward and speak lies.

● Eph 2:3 . .We were by nature objects of wrath.

POP CLOCK UPDATE: 80 days have elapsed since beginning the thread. If the OP's
figures are in the ball park, then something like 5,556,000 new arrivals have checked
into the fiery sector of Hades since Oct 09, 2023.
_

 

[Olde Tymer]

~
● John 6:37 . . All that the Father gives me will come to me

FAQ: What percentage of those the Father gives him would you suppose Jesus
expects to lose?

REPLY: None

● John 10:9 . . I am the gate; whoever enters through me shall be saved.

Were Christ a common ranch hand; then he wouldn't dare say "shall be saved"; no,
he'd have to tone it down a bit and say "shall be safer". That would leave him some
room for error. But when Christ says "shall be saved" he's claiming a 0.0% failure
rate.

● John 10:27-28 . . No one can snatch them out of my hand.

FAQ: Why can't the sheep of their own free will take themselves out of his hand?

REPLY: Because the Father's free will trumps the sheep's free will.

● John 6:39 . .This is the will of the one who sent me; that I should not lose
anything of what He gave me.

So then, were Christ to allow even one of the sheep to walk away, he would fail to
accomplish the will of one who sent him. But Christ never fails to satisfy his
Father's expectations.

● John 14:31 . . That the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father
gave me commandment, even so I do.

● John 8:29 . .The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I
always do what is pleasing to Him.

Were Christ to lose even one of the sheep given to him by the Father, he wouldn't
be able to say that he "always" pleases the one who sent him. He might claim some
of the time, or even most of the time, but never all the time. And besides: Jesus'
miracles demonstrate that he has all the powers of the supreme being at his
disposal to keep the sheep right where he wants them.

** When people insist that it's possible for Jesus to lose sheep; they are actually
casting a vote of no-confidence in his Father's approval rating.

● Matt 3:16-17 . . As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water.
At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like
a dove and lighting on him. And a voice from heaven said; "This is My son, whom
I love; with him I am well pleased."

POP CLOCK UPDATE: 86 days have elapsed since beginning the thread. If the OP's
figures are in the ball park, then something like 5,972,700 new arrivals have checked
into the fiery sector of Hades since Oct 09, 2023.
_

 

[Olde Tymer]

~
FAQ: Isn't Judaism equally as useful as Christianity for sinners seeking God's
forgiveness? Isn't that the whole purpose of Yom Kippur, a.k.a. the Day of
Atonement?

REPLY: Pinning one's hopes on the Day Of Atonement is futile. For one thing:
there's no one to perform the ritual seeing as how there is neither a Temple nor a
fully functioning Aaronic high priest on duty in Jerusalem at this time. In point of
fact, neither of those two essential elements of the Day of Atonement have been in
Jerusalem since 70 AD. But that's not the worst of it.

The original sacrificial system was effective-- to a point --for addressing the
peoples' actions, and for sanitizing their bodies, but totally ineffective for
addressing the people themselves, viz: the core of their being.

When Adam tasted the forbidden fruit, his perception of decency relative to
sex and the human body underwent a radical adjustment. Whereas before, he
was comfortable seen undressed; afterwards he was uncomfortable seen naked
even by his wife.

The thing is: Adam's moral compass went awry, i.e. his sensitivities became
humanistic, that is: cultural instead of divine.

● Gen 3:22 . . And The Lord God said: The man has now become like one of us,
knowing good and evil.

In other words: Adam began looking to his own intuition for moral direction instead
of looking to his maker, viz: Adam became a tin God.

Point being: none of the Levitical system's rituals address the corruption inherent
within the human conscience that came about by means of the forbidden fruit
incident.

● Heb 9:13-14 . .The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on
those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean.
How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit
offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to
death, so that we may serve the living God.

The Greek word translated "consciences" basically pertains to mental activity
especially as it pertains to moral perception. So we're not talking about outwardly
sinful behavior here. (cf. Rom 2:16 & Heb 4:12)

POP CLOCK UPDATE: 91 days have elapsed since beginning the thread. If the OP's
figures are in the ball park, then something like 6,319,950 new arrivals have checked
into the fiery sector of Hades since Oct 09, 2023.
_