Have you ever met a person who claimed that he was in Hell?

You should have asked him to prove it and accuse him of lying.

That was the plan but one of the congregation members asked me to l keep quiet and than he pointed out that I had now right to ask questions because every body knows that I am practicing a non Christian religion. I guess that’s the thing with small towns.

This “pastor” is either a con artist, self delusional or missing a screw. Either way, I have difficulty accepting him as a man of God. Sorry to be so blunt, but for me, this is an example of religion out of control.

Not personally but You Tube has a bunch of videos of people who claim they went to hell.
Hell raisers

I’ve met several people who claim to have been to hell and back, including former drug addicts, and veterans of the Vietnam war.

@Pachyderm_In_The_Room Roger that.
@bookish1 If Nam wasn’t hell, it’ll do till hell gets here.

I think hell is probably the bad experiences we experience every now and than.

@Pachyderm_In_The_Room well said and I agree.
@Espiritus_Corvus I read a book about the Nam war and I think that’s about the closest you’ll get to hell while still alive.

Apparently that pastor doesn’t know his Bible very well. Jesus went to hell, according to the stories.

@antimatter Well, for my generation anyway. D-Day alone made Khe Sahn and Hue look like a day at the beach. Can’t hold a candle to what those poor motherfuckers went through. But Nam was enough, that’s for sure.

@Espiritus_Corvus I respect any veteran regardless what war they fought.

Nothing beats the Nazi Concentration Camps.

@ragingloli that’s true.

Dante

Son Goku did, too. Twice.

Thanks, @antimatter and @Espiritus_Corvus. I usually avoid commenting on religion topics but I couldn’t resist this one.

Rob Bell in his book “Love Wins” said, in response to people who accused him of not believing in hell that he believes in hell because he sees it in the lives of ordinary people struggling every day.

I think we are all in hell right now. When we die if God accepts us into His kingdom then we will be in heaven. If not then maybe our souls get to wander around and then get intruded by the latest ghost hunters and their ghost hunting technology. The only possible upside of that for me is that I’d be all over Zak Bagans of Ghost Adventures, if I could have a say in it.

@ragingloli How would Unit 731 stack up against the Nazi Concentration Camps? Personally, I think Unit 731 did worse things, but not in the quantity that the Nazi’s did.

Read Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. I have never met Louis Zamperini personally, but he is a man who went through hell and lived to tell about it.

I do find it interesting that in all of the stories about people who came back from the dead they all went to Heaven. I did a Google search and did get some hits of people who say they went to Heaven, Hell, and back again! I couldn’t be bothered to watch any of them but there were some stories. Oddly enough it seemed like most of the people talking about making the full trip were kids.

I served in a combat unit in Vietnam for a year (1970 – 71). One day, a friend was pretty upset. With hands shaking and fighting back tears, he said he was considering “taking himself out” rather than finishing his required year in “fuckin’ hell”.

I told him that we weren’t anywhere near hell, and god dammit, if I was staying, HE was staying. Then I poured a beer over his head.

Magically, he was kind of OK after that, and never seemed close to “losing it” again.

I wonder if it’s too late to send him a bill. He was from Flint, Michigan as I recall…
.

Audie Murphy wrote a book and started an acting career by going To Hell and Back.

Hell is right down the road from where I live. You go through it to get to the airport. http://mentalfloss.com/article/20671/3-hells-earth

I’m inclined to agree with this counterargument to many conservative Christian accounts of heaven and hell. Many of these types of people tend to have a cynical disposition which would likely create a hellish scenerio for themselves, and this is assuming that they even had a real NDE. A good deal of these cons likely lie since they feel that the ends justify the means. Anybody on here (and I suspect that there are a few of you) who is open to the possibility of the survival of consciousness should read both of the links I’ve provided.

I’m stating the following as a person who thinks that our egos survive brain death of course, so here it goes. I’m on the side that this personal account of ‘heaven’ and ‘hell’ are likely more accurate than those of this pastor or Baxters. Mary Baxter is the subject of question in the first link above. Personal accounts of NDE’s such as certain patterns involved with them, along with empirical research holds much more water with me than personal interpretations of some religious book.

I had a college acquaintance that was from Hell, Michigan. She sat beside me in a couple of classes.

I wonder if that’s anywhere near Flint….