jla,

Afterlife claims are contaminated by so much self-delusion, wishful thinking, and gullible fluff.
So it is very important to seek out insights that find independent corroboration from multiple sources that are very different from each other both in terms of overview and method of discovery.  Bruce's insight about the annihilation of some souls finds independent corroboration in both NDEs and the Bible.  During atheist Howard Storm's NDE, "Jesus and the angels" inform him that some souls elect the option of soul annihilation to escape their postmortem misery.  In the Biblr this option is verified by Romans 9:22 and Philippians 3:22 where the Greek noun "apoleia" connotes soul "annihilation." 

Don

Don-

I think it was Ruth Montgomery who said that some souls elect to "wink out" as the phrase her guides used.  The question related to Hitler, the condition of his soul, although the answer didn't directly apply to him as I recall.

Of course her guides also predicted the earth would shift on its axis causing worldwide upheavals and mass deaths, and it would happen before Y2K.

jla wrote on Feb 25^th, 2008 at 2:04pm:



  I'm not completely sure, but in my other life explorations and regarding one particular personality i have a fairly strong hunch that this possibly happened to one of my selves. 

   The Planet Saturn is said in the Edgar Cayce readings, to represent this kind of Soul death experience.   Not the physical planet that we see with our eyes, but the nonphysical dimension and consciousness within its form. 

  My sense of it, agrees with what you quoted Bruce as saying, i feel its thankfully pretty rare.

Ian and Griffin,

Welcome to the board.  Here contrasting opinions and experiences are welcome.  However, simple dogmatic assertions contribute nothing to discussions unless they are backed up by some sort of justification or illustrated by your experiences.  We really want to know why you feel the way you do and/ or how your views have been shaped by your experiences.

Don

Hi Blink Dear,

Yes, absolutely the concept of non-ceasing everlasting existence is indeed very frightening when one thinks deeply about it. However, we have the equal horror that most people fear is cessation of existence.

Everlasting existence where time does not exist is not nearly as frightening to embrace, is it


alan

Your Quote

Quote:


alan

[Alan:] "My reply is based on your selective reading of the bible.  I simply do not agree that we can ever cease to exist, as we are made in the image of God and are thus eternal spirits that will exist somewhere forever. There are everlasting consequences for both good and depraved acts done in this mortal school we call life.  The words of Jesus carry the real authority not Paul...Read what he said again. Jesus was emphatic about both eternal life in heaven or eternal banishment in hell."
____________________________________________________________

Actually, Paul is more authoritative than Jesus because the earthly Jesus assumed our human limitations in power and knowledge, but Jesus was restored to full divinity by His resurrection and exaltation and the Risen Jesus authorized Paul to preach His updated Gospel that takes the redeeming significance of His death and resurrection into account (see e. g. Acts 9; Galatians 1:11-15).  I thought you respected revelations from Jesus during NDEs.  During atheist Howard Storm's NDE, Jesus instructs him that some souls are annihilated and this fits what the Gospels imply about Jseus' teaching [see below).  

In any case, I think you are wrong about "eternal dam-nation" on 2 counts: (1) Like Paul, Jesus uses the term "apoleia" which connotes "destruction through annihilation" to designate the fate of the wicked (Matthew 7:13; cp. Romans 9:22; Philippians 3:19).  This fate need not apply to all of the wicked.  Your reference to "eternal" dam-nation ignores that original meaning of the Greek and the underlying Aramaic, a dialect of Hebrew.


(2) In both Greek and Hebrew, the words translated eternal do not mean "forever" in the modern sense of the term.  The Hebrew "olam" simply means "for a long duration."  The Greek "aionios" is the adjectival form of the noun "aion" (age) from which we get our English word aeon.  Thus, "aionios" like the Hebrew "olam" merely means for an indefinite period of time.  In the noncanonical literature from the biblical period, both terms can denote a finite period that permits inquiry into the next phase!  Thus, Jesus uses the term "debt" for sin and can employ the image of a debtor's prison for "Hell" from which release is possible once the "debt" is paid (e. g. Matthew 5:25-26; 18:34).  Like His Jewish contemporaries, Jesus does not view Gehenna as a realm of eternal punishment.  The rabbis viewed Gehenna as a realm in which spiritually mediocre Jews might be confined for a year or so.  Jesus uses the image of "few stripes" to express the fate of the hellbound who committed sins without really knowing any better (Luke 12:47-48).  "Few stripes" implies a finite duration with ultimate release.  Thus Peter, Paul, and John point to the possibility of soul retrievals from Hell; and the next generation of Christians graphically celebrate the possibility of retrievals.  I shall document such cases in future posts in my Heaven thread.

Even New Testament allusions to "eternal life" do not mean this because the language will not permit this implication.  But in the case of the fate of the righteous, the intention seems to be an allusion to life without end.  

Don