Percent of People Going to Hell

[GaussLaw]

Theologically, the Bible has some frightening verses about people's eternal fate.  As a Christian, or at least someone trying to be one, the book can scare me more than the most frightening horror movie sometimes. 

Certain verses, like Luke 9:23-24, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it" indicate that only people who suffer enormously can gain eternal life.  I certainly haven't suffered much for my faith, nor have the vast majority of Americans, including many hard-core fundamentalists. 

Matthew 7:13-14 is equally scary, with Jesus himself saying that the path to hell is broad while the path to eternal life is narrow.  And Matthew 13:42 says that hell will involve much "wailing and gnashing of teeth."  The idea of the vast majority, likely including myself, getting tortured for eternity is terrifying.  I've been awake at night at the very thought of it.  Even as a kid, these Bible verses shook me greatly. 

Matthew 7:21, saying that many professing Christians go to hell, along with 1 John 3:9 saying that a true Christian cannot sin really scares the heck out of me. 

Can anyone point out where I'm wrong here, assuming one takes the Bible to be true?  Can I not be saved unless I never sin again and suffer greatly for my faith(Philippians 1:29)? 

This issue is one of great gravity for Christianity.  Is there an alternative scriptural interpretation here?  Because the idea of God sending the majority of his creation to eternal hellfire is truly horrifying.

[Blue3]

Jesus didn't say you have to give your life in order to get to heaven, just that such faith is most likely to be real faith. And the path is narrow... only one person can ever make it. Luckily, that one person has chosen to carry the rest of us with him, as long as we are one with him, and he is one with us, through love.

[GaussLaw]

Jesus didn't say you have to give your life in order to get to heaven, just that such faith is most likely to be real faith. And the path is narrow... only one person can ever make it. Luckily, that one person has chosen to carry the rest of us with him, as long as we are one with him, and he is one with us, through love.

But Jesus didn't say that only him would take the narrow path, he said that few would.  And Jesus said the broad road leaded to destruction, not eternal life.  What am I missing here?

[Meursault]

You aren't missing anything.

Christianity only truly became catholic around the third century. Early Christians genuinely felt that the majority of humanity would go to Hell.

[TJ in Oregon]

While much of the world, including much of Christianity, is in an unrepentant state of serious sin, there is also the possibility that many will in fact repent. Much of the Gospel tells the stories of people who have abandoned God and his laws but return and are welcomed home. It's very easy to look across society and despair (and believe me I've done it), but that doesn't accomplish much of anything.

I can't give a percentage since I have no knowledge of what is inside of anyone else's heart, let alone all of humanity, but I do have hope, perhaps naively, that many will. If nothing else, being faced with death can warm many a lukewarm heart.

[Blue3]

Jesus didn't say you have to give your life in order to get to heaven, just that such faith is most likely to be real faith. And the path is narrow... only one person can ever make it. Luckily, that one person has chosen to carry the rest of us with him, as long as we are one with him, and he is one with us, through love.

But Jesus didn't say that only him would take the narrow path, he said that few would.  And Jesus said the broad road leaded to destruction, not eternal life.  What am I missing here?

He said it was basically impossible (that it would be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle).

Unless you go through him.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Jesus didn't say you have to give your life in order to get to heaven, just that such faith is most likely to be real faith. And the path is narrow... only one person can ever make it. Luckily, that one person has chosen to carry the rest of us with him, as long as we are one with him, and he is one with us, through love.

But Jesus didn't say that only him would take the narrow path, he said that few would.  And Jesus said the broad road leaded to destruction, not eternal life.  What am I missing here?

You're missing that while he said few would find the path on their own, he did not say that few would take it.  The ministry of Jesus was for the purpose of helping us to follow that path that we were unable to find ourselves.

[Consciously Unconscious]

According to the domination I grew up in/am growing up in, at least 91% of people are going to hell.   Most likely more are going to hell.  Personally, I don't even know if I believe in hell.

[GaussLaw]

It's interesting that even though the majority of Americans believe hell exists but it is only for a minority of "really bad" people, most people on Atlas believe there is either no hell or one the majority go too.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

This is a terrible question to ask, the religious equivalent of concern trolling at best, and a prideful and presumptive one to answer.

[Del Tachi]

Certain verses, like Luke 9:23-24, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it" indicate that only people who suffer enormously can gain eternal life.  I certainly haven't suffered much for my faith, nor have the vast majority of Americans, including many hard-core fundamentalists. 

I've never interpreted this passage as having anything to do with physical pain or "suffering for one's faith".  I've always understood this verse in conjunction with Galatians 2:20 - 

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From my understanding, it has much more to do with forfeiting one's life completely to Christ (in fact, it means becoming Christ to a certain extent), not necessarily having to endure pain or discomfort on his behalf.   


FWIW, I said >91%.  Which isn't that much of a stretch if you consider, like I do, that, first of all, only about 30% of the world population claim Christianity even nominally.  On top of that, I believe in the doctrines of baptismal regeneration and believer's baptism which knock out a healthy majority of Orthodox Christians, Catholics and Protestants.  Add to that that I don't believe the doctrine of "Once saved, always saved", so I imagine that a lot of people are never truly saved (even if they are Baptized properly) or that they lose their salvation somewhere along the way.  So...yeah...     

[7,052,770]

Hell is a fairy tale (Christian)

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Can anyone point out where I'm wrong here, assuming one takes the Bible to be true?  Can I not be saved unless I never sin again and suffer greatly for my faith(Philippians 1:29)?

Philippians 1:29 is one of the Bible verses that suffers translation difficulties. The Greek verb "πάσχω" that is translated as "suffer" does not always have a negative connotation. Nor did the English verb "suffer" when that translation was first made always have a negative connotation. It means to experience strongly.  From a related word we get the English word passion, as in the passion of Christ. However, the verse isn't calling on Christians to be crucified but to strongly experience their faith.  True faith is not something one experiences only on Sunday morning, but all the week long.

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

Throughout my life I've had quite an evolution on the Hell issue.  For most of my life I've been a firm believer in the existence of Hell, but that was before I decided to truly engage myself in prayer, reflection, and what influences my beliefs more than anything, independent and open-minded study.  Eventually, Hell began to gradually shrink in importance to me and then I started to doubt whether it's a literal, factual place.  At the moment, I suppose I'm on the fence.  That is, while I don't proclaim to believe in Hell, I do not try and insist that as fact.  I am 'agnostic' on the existence of Hell.  But, the deeper my knowledge of Christianity becomes and the more my own beliefs develop, the harder I find it to reconcile Hell with the rest of my theology and that what I know of Christ, let alone to entertain the mere possibility of it.  So, I guess you could say I'm in the middle of those two understandings, but slowly yet surely drifting toward complete disbelief.  Universalism as an idea is something I've always been very skeptical of but open-minded to and I have yet to truly focus my studies on that, but the more I read by its proponents, the friendlier I've become to it.

So, for the purposes of this poll, I voted option one.  But as others said, this is a terrible question to ask and an impossible one to answer.  Not even the most literal interpretation of Scripture can give you the vaguest idea of how many people are going to Hell, assuming it actually exists.

[Deus Naturae]

To Christians who don't believe in Hell: What do you guys think Jesus was referring to when he talked about the "road to destruction," the "unquenchable fire," the "fiery furnace," "eternal punishment," "Gehenna," etc?

Also, what do you guys think about the reference to the "fiery lake of burning sulfur" in Revelation?

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

To Christians who don't believe in Hell: What do you guys think Jesus was referring to when he talked about the "road to destruction," the "unquenchable fire," the "fiery furnace," "eternal punishment," "Gehenna," etc?

Also, what do you guys think about the reference to the "fiery lake of burning sulfur" in Revelation?

I've already pointed out the annihilationist position.  The punishment is eternal in the sense that once evil has been consumed in the eternal fire, it will never be reconstituted, not in the sense that its consumption will never be completed.

[bore]

You aren't missing anything.

Christianity only truly became catholic around the third century. Early Christians genuinely felt that the majority of humanity would go to Hell.

Oh really?

[afleitch]

Who cares.

And no I'm not trolling here. Who the hell (pun excused) should care? If you're going to concern yourself with fantastical notions of the destination of your consciousness (sans energy and matter) because you think your own consciousness is worthy of continuing, then why not fantasise about something a little jollier for people?

No 'crime' or 'sin' or any other masochism is worthy of the infinite punishment of an infinite consciousness. As I've said before, given that 8 seconds or 80 years or 8 million years as fractions of infinity are effectively of the same value (i.e, they are nothing), it is an eternal condemnation of a consciousness that has had no time in which to think, develop or grow with respect to itself, including reaching the 'right conclusion.' It’s a punishment of the ungodlike for not possessing the capabilities of a god. It’s capricious and malicious.

Whether you think it's literal or metaphorical, hell isn't worth your time thinking about.

[Cassius]

I think putting percentages on it is silly and pointless, but if I were to do that, I'd go for something like 1-5 percent (which is about the same as the percentage I'd give for people going to Heaven). The remainder of us (and, I hope, I'd put myself in this category), will end up doing a variable amount of time in purgatory, because, quite simply, very few people are so bad or good that they'll end up in either Heaven or Hell immediately following their death. Of course, this is speculation, but then this question does ask for speculation.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

It's interesting that even though the majority of Americans believe hell exists but it is only for a minority of "really bad" people, most people on Atlas believe there is either no hell or one the majority go too.

Yes, Atlas isn't famed for its demographic similarity to America as a whole.

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

Who cares.

And no I'm not trolling here. Who the hell (pun excused) should care? If you're going to concern yourself with fantastical notions of the destination of your consciousness (sans energy and matter) because you think your own consciousness is worthy of continuing, then why not fantasise about something a little jollier for people?

No 'crime' or 'sin' or any other masochism is worthy of the infinite punishment of an infinite consciousness. As I've said before, given that 8 seconds or 80 years or 8 million years as fractions of infinity are effectively of the same value (i.e, they are nothing), it is an eternal condemnation of a consciousness that has had no time in which to think, develop or grow with respect to itself, including reaching the 'right conclusion.' It’s a punishment of the ungodlike for not possessing the capabilities of a god. It’s capricious and malicious.

Whether you think it's literal or metaphorical, hell isn't worth your time thinking about.

I read your previous comments on the subject and that actually had a profound influence on my thinking.

(I'm mostly telling you this because I know you often think your contributions here are ignored, but I assure you they are not. )

[Antonio the Sixth]

Yeah, Afleitch is 100% right. It seems to me absolutely impossible to reconcile in any way the idea of a benevolent God with hell's existence. It should offend the moral sense of any good Christian.

[Small L]

I think putting percentages on it is silly and pointless, but if I were to do that, I'd go for something like 1-5 percent (which is about the same as the percentage I'd give for people going to Heaven). The remainder of us (and, I hope, I'd put myself in this category), will end up doing a variable amount of time in purgatory, because, quite simply, very few people are so bad or good that they'll end up in either Heaven or Hell immediately following their death. Of course, this is speculation, but then this question does ask for speculation.

Nobody goes from Purgatory to Hell.

[Cassius]

I think putting percentages on it is silly and pointless, but if I were to do that, I'd go for something like 1-5 percent (which is about the same as the percentage I'd give for people going to Heaven). The remainder of us (and, I hope, I'd put myself in this category), will end up doing a variable amount of time in purgatory, because, quite simply, very few people are so bad or good that they'll end up in either Heaven or Hell immediately following their death. Of course, this is speculation, but then this question does ask for speculation.

Nobody goes from Purgatory to Hell.

Of course, my comment was just poorly expressed.

[Meursault]

Again, these concepts are meaningless.

The Christian assumes the continued existence of his current sense of the subjective. Why should this be so?

What if your Heaven is most analogous to the subjective experience of the color 'blue'? What if being in Hell is like being 'red'?