Does Hell Have a Population Clock?
-
According to Jesus Christ's testimony as a credible expert witness in all
matters pertaining to the afterlife; most of the world's responsible souls
haven't been making it to safety when they cross over to the other side.
â€*. Luke 13:22'24 . . And he went through the cities and villages, teaching,
and journeying toward Jerusalem. Then said one unto him, master, are there
few that be saved? And he said unto them: Strive to enter in at the strait
gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.
â€*. Matt 7:13'14 . . Enter through the narrow gate. For 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.
â€*. Matt 22:14 . . For many are called, but few are chosen.
Webster's defines "many" as consisting of, or amounting to, a large but
indefinite number; while "few" is defined as consisting of, or amounting to,
only a small number; viz: relative to many then, few is the lesser. Bear with
me while I flesh this out.
According to the US Census Bureau: as of Jan 15, 2015 @ 11:57 am EST,
the resident population in the United States was approximately 320,169,297
with a death rate of approximately one every 12 seconds; which translates
to an average of 7,200 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
are under the age of 19, which would indicate that approximately 52,344 of
the current daily death rate of 7,200 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 2,669 American adults transferring to
perdition every day: which translates to roughly 111 per hour.
That's a very conservative estimate as Jesus Christ didn't really specify exact
percentages to represent the quantities of "few" and "many". But just think:
by the time CBS completes its half-hour evening news report, a bare-bones
minimum of 55 Americans become new arrivals in the fiery sector of the
netherworld.
Using the ratio of 2,669 condemned souls per 320,169,297 population:
computing the number of condemned souls worldwide from a currently
estimated global population of 7,218,071,033 people, would suggest
something like 60,171 new arrivals in the fiery sector of the netherworld
every 24 hours; which translates to approximately 2,507 souls every sixty
minutes on the clock.
That rate would fill the 51,800 seats of the new Yankee Stadium to capacity
in roughly 20 hours and 40 minutes. In other words: if the world's daily
number of condemned souls started filing into the stadium at 06:00 am this
morning, then by 02:40 am tomorrow, the stadium would be full to capacity.
Christmas and New Year's 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.
Traditional Christianity's hell never closes; no, not at all: it's open for
business 24/7/365 nonstop and indifferent to global warming, Wall Street
crashes, massive layoffs, outsourcing, high school shootings, terrorism,
tsunamis, earthquakes, nuclear meltdowns, air, water, and soil pollution,
freeway pile-ups, brown-outs, threatened species, gasoline prices, student
debt, GMO, trade deficits, Federal debt, factory recalls, overpopulation,
desertification, genocides, revolutions, civil wars, acid rain, road rage,
conscious decoupling, ISIS, gay marriage, Obamacare, blood diamonds,
fracking, twerking, Oprah's millions, and Letterman's retirement.
If traditional Christianity's perception of Jesus Christ and the hereafter is
correct; then it's apparent that souls never stop cascading into the pits of
hell 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, In'n'Out
Burger, 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.
========================
Re: Hell's Population Clock
-
Quote:
Originally Posted by
AlwaysLoved
Traditional Christianity, what is taught in the Bible, teaches that Hell will
eventually be permanently closed. None can get in and none can get out
after the millennial kingdom.
No doubt hell's population will eventually become static; but I don't think
that precludes the possibility of hell becoming a museum.
†. 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.
Jesus Christ's safety tip about the fire and worms didn't reveal anything
new. He simply reiterated information that had already been released by an
Old Testament prophet roughly 700 years before Christ was born.
†. Isa 66:22-24 . . All humanity will come to worship me from week to week
and from month to month. And as they go out, they will see the dead bodies
of those who have rebelled against me. For the worms that devour them will
never die, and the fire that burns them will never go out. All who pass by
will view them with utter loathing.
The human body is organic. So then, how can it survive in eternal flame as
perpetual nourishment for those worms? Well; supernatural fire's properties
are adjustable. For example: supernatural 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. But
even if eternal fire's properties were dictated by the laws of physics; those
laws are easily suspended by the one who created those laws. Compare Dan
3:8-27 where a blistering hot fire left totally unscathed Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abed-nego.
A worm that thrives in flame 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. Fortunately the bodies of the condemned will be
dead so they won't feel the worms at work on their remains.
Anyway, point being: the roasting corpses, infested with fire-proof worms,
will be open to the public like the skeletal remains on display in the museum
at La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles.
An interesting concept associated with hell is the necessity of sanitary
disposal; which is really what landfills and dumps are designed to accomplish
in order to prevent the spread of disease.
When Jesus Christ returns, the first order of business is a thorough Spring
cleaning followed by a trip to the dump.
†. Matt 13:41-42 . . I, the Son of man, will send my angels, and they will
remove from my kingdom everything that's offensive, and all who do evil,
and they will throw them into the furnace and burn them. There will be
weeping and gnashing of teeth.
†. Mal 4:1 . .For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all
the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that
cometh shall burn them up, testifies Yhvh of Legions, that it shall leave them
neither root nor sprig.
According to Rev 21:8, included in the "all that do wickedly" are liars. I
guess we all know what that means for unscrupulous social networking
moguls, crooked investment bankers, dishonest ratings companies, Ponzi
schemers, con artists, Wall Street barracudas, and predatory lenders.
===============================
Re: Hell's Population Clock
-
Judas goats are trained for use in slaughterhouses and herd control. In
stockyards, they lead sheep to slaughter; and are also used to lead other
animals to specific pens and on to trucks. The term is a reference to the
biblical traitor Judas Iscariot.
The phrase has also been used to describe goats utilized to locate feral goats
targeted for eradication. They're usually outfitted with a transmitter, painted
in red and then released. The goats then locate the remaining herds of feral
goats, allowing hunters with tracking devices to find and exterminate them.
The red paint marks the goat with the transmitter so the hunters know
which one not to shoot.
You know what can be even worse than going to hell? Your own children
following you there: and they trusted you.
Here's a sort of cute story I heard once. I don't know if it's true but I guess
it sure is pertinent.
A boozing farmer went out to his barn in the dead of night after a snowfall to
sneak a pull from his liquor bottle. Just as he got to the barn door he heard
something behind him. Turning, the farmer recognized his little boy coming
towards him. In amazement he asked the little guy how he ever managed to
find his way out to the barn in the dark. His son replied: It was easy; I
walked in your footsteps.
Can you just imagine the anguish that parents feel in the netherworld
knowing that they actually raised their children to follow mom and dad down
there? For some families, the only thing they have to look forward to in the
afterlife is a sad reunion in fire and despair; for example:
â€*. Luke 16:27-29 . . Then he said: I beg you therefore, father [Abraham]
that you would send [Lazarus] to my father's house, for I have five brothers,
that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.
That poor man had no way to contact his surviving kin and let them know
his whereabouts; but his biggest fear was that he knew them all well enough
to know that all five were coming down where he was-- there was nothing
he could do to prevent it. Imagine that man's sorrow had those five been
his children.
BTW: the man's five brothers have long since joined him.
===============================
Re: Hell's Population Clock
Quote:
Originally Posted by
AlwaysLoved
Matt. 25.31-46 talks about the sheep nations and the goat nations when Jesus returns. He will destroy the goat nations.
The destruction appears to be pretty grim.
†. Matt 25:41 . .Then he will also say to those on his left: Depart from me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels
But of course if the Lord's statement is all just figurative language; then it's anybody's guess what he meant by eternal fire and/or the devil and his angels.
=====================================
Re: Hell's Population Clock
-
Quote:
Originally Posted by
AlwaysLoved
Aren't you contradicting yourself? because in your profile you claim you agree that Hell is that place of eternal separation from God where you will never cease to exist, but here you seem to be pleading ignorance.
I'm not the one who believes hell's fire is figurative; you are.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
AlwaysLoved
The idea of Hell where the worm never dies is figurative for those who go to Hell they never cease to exist, and there is no rest day or night for eternity in Hell. The fire is not a physical fire that burns out, but a figurative fire of eternal judgment.
Seeing as how I have no good reason to believe otherwise, I feel confident that the everlasting fire the Lord mentioned in his statement at Matt 25:41 is real fire; while you appear to feel confident that it's not; which is why I said "if the Lord's statement is all just figurative language; then it's anybody's guess what he meant by eternal fire and/or the devil and his angels." Note the little conjunction if.
=============================
Re: Hell's Population Clock
-
I was baptized an infant into the Roman Catholic Church; and was eventually enrolled in catechism where I completed First Holy Communion and Confirmation. Although catechism did a good job of instilling within me the reality of hell's eternal fires; it wasn't until I saw a painting by Gustave Doré depicting a scene from Dante Alighieri's Inferno that I realized the degree of despair gripping the minds and hearts of people in hell.
People down there know it's permanent; that's what makes hell so much worse than any other source of misery one can possibly imagine. If only they could see a light at the end of the tunnel; but that's just it: there is no end of the tunnel; it loops, like a donut within which they just go round and around and around. They say hope springs eternal in the human heart. Well; not down there. No; down there hope is futile. The fires are bad enough; but it's the permanence of hell that I would imagine hurts the most.
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
by Dante Alighieri
Inferno: canto 3, v.1-9
Dante's Divine Comedy is called a comedy 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 to the netherworld: "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 of the netherworld, despair is a way of life.
FYI: I renounced Rome in 1968; and later underwent baptism as a Protestant by a Conservative Baptist minister.
=========================================
Re: Hell's Population Clock
-
I sometimes wish there were tour buses to hell so people could see what's in store for them down there; and not only the degree of suffering that people can expect in the next life, but also hell's impact upon the human mind.
People have been filtering into perdition not only since the time of Christ, but since before the Step Pyramid of Djoser, and even before the Flood. I won't speculate how many years that might be, but Man is thought by some to have achieved full behavioral modernity something like 50,000 years ago. Whether that extends clear on back to Adam and Eve I have no clue; but just think: if it does, then Cain and others from his era have been down in the netherworld all this time.
It's difficult for the human mind to appreciate 50,000 years. I've been on the Earth for just 70, and I've noticed that my childhood is so far in the past to me now as to seem more like a fantasy than a memory. But you know; when you're talking about eternity, 50,000 years isn't even a drop in the bucket. If it were a drop in the bucket, it would be a bucket with no bottom; which is roughly akin to the futility of a gnat attempting to drink up the Atlantic ocean. It would also be akin to Forrest Gump thinking he could fill a sieve with water faster by dipping it into a bucket instead of using the tap.
But just think: time stands still in hell: it's for the now; it's an existence. People who arrived there yesterday didn't begin doing time in jail like Lindsay Lohan expecting to get out some day; nor is perdition a temporary tour of duty like shipping out to Afghanistan. No, people in hell are in it as perpetual residents; they're in a rut.
They go year, after year, after year, after year, with no relief from the pain and discomfort: no vacations, no recreation, no reading materials, and no hobbies— there's absolutely nothing to do but reminisce and writhe in fire. The mental atrophy, and the boredom that must result from that kind of mindless existence is beyond estimation.
In life, everybody enjoys God's blessings; even the really bad people. We're all breathing fresh air, basking in sunshine, drinking cool water, savoring tasty foods, listening to birds chirp, star gazing at night, throwing snow balls at each other in winter, river rafting, fishing, snow skiing, tending gardens, pruning shrubs, greeting friends during the holidays, spending days with grandkids; and all that sort of thing. In the Bible's hell, there are no blessings of any kind at all: only perpetual sadness, vexation, despair, and want.
In hell's unruly society; it's reasonable to expect quarrels, bickering, hard feelings, vendettas, rivalry, selfishness, insensitivity, irritation, aggravation, and ugly words exchanged between people. Is there really any good reason to be courteous and/or respect your fellow man's human rights in the Bible's hell; or to be kind, forgiving, affable, genial, courteous, cordial, charitable, altruistic, tolerant, generous, and patient?
And the din: think of the volume of noise down there with all the wailing and sobbing, and the screams, shrieks, yelps, howls, and gnashing teeth. Conditions are really bad, and everyone is sad, blue, and lonely. After a few years of the conditions I'm describing, I should think most folks break, and go mad from the stress.
But just imagine bringing with you a craving for tobacco with none available. Or longing for a cocktail with no liquor in sight. A desire for music, with no way to produce it. A skill for writing, with no pen and paper. Yearning for a walk out in nature, with no world to do it in.
People in the Bible's hell will never again smell a sea breeze, sit in the shade of a tree, take deep breaths of mountain-fresh air, play at sports, hear a bird chirp, see a sunset, watch a lunar eclipse, jog in the park, strum a guitar, enjoy a Christmas dinner with loved ones; nor make little pigs of themselves gobbling barbecued spare ribs and corn on the 4th of July.
Sports and recreation are gone: no more World Series, no more Super Bowl, no more Olympics, no more Las Vegas, no more Indian casinos, no more lottery, no more Lego World, no more Sea World, no more NASCAR, no more golf, no more surfing, et al.
No baths, no showers, no sleep, no TV, no radio, no iPods, no computers, no Twitter, no texting, no FaceBook, no YouTube, no MySpace, no internet, no clean sheets, no breakfast, no lunch, and no dinner. No snacks, no gum, no candy, no flowers, no parks, no rivers, no snow, no seasons, no picnics, no malls, no fast food, no trades, no careers, no trendy fashions, no jewelry, no cosmetics, no concerts, no operas, and no hobbies; absolutely nothing of this world that brings people the pleasures and the satisfactions of just being alive.
No pets are allowed in the Bible's hell and no flowers or vegetation of any kind. The absence of birds, fish, and animals of course precludes the citizens of hell ever again spending a day at the zoo. The one advantage of the lack of pets and vegetation in hell is the absence of fleas and allergies. I suppose you could say that's at least one good thing about it. There's a bright side to everything I guess; even to that place.
Pop Clock Update: 3 days have elapsed since beginning the thread. If the figures in post #1 are within reason, then something like 180,513 new arrivals have checked into the fiery sector of hades since January 15, 2015.
