Figured someone here might know this

A quick perusal of my own extensive collection of biblical lore* reveals that the answer is: "they have no soul."

*: Prophecy 1-3 and Dogma

 

Well, I think the "one strike, you're out" rule applies. Disobey the Lord once, and spend the rest of eternity in the absence of His warm loving light.

 

Well, they were created for that purpose, weren't they?

 

It is their job isn't it? Wouldn't their existence be completely and utterly futile unless they don't torture, rape etc.

 

Yay, torture.

 

The idea of demons tormenting people in hell is not biblical, nor is the idea that Satan is in charge of hell. Satan and the other fallen angels have power in this world to cause us grief, but they'll all be cast into the lake of fire along with the unsaved in the end. There is also no indication of different levels of hell. There does however, seem to be a distinction between hell and the lake of fire, hell being the place where the unsaved go before the final judgement. After the final judgement all the demons and the unsaved "shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death."

Also, demons were created as angels, their purpose being to serve God, but they rebelled against this purpose and were therefore expelled from heaven and damned to spend eternity in the lake of fire.

There may be contrary teachings about hell in the Apocrypha, but I couldn't tell you since I've never bothered to read it.

 

Wait, so can the unsaved get to heaven even if they are brought to hell first, like after the final judgement?

 

No. The final judgement is not so much a trial as a face-to-face reckoning between God and man. The unsaved, who do not have the atoning blood of Christ to cover their sins, will not look so good standing in front of a perfect holy God.

 

Wait so hell exists basically so God can have an uber finale as He condemns everyone to the lake of burning sulfur?

I would have thought a perfect being would be more modest.

 

Yes, Garm. You are the first one to have thought of that. Man, once this revelation gets to the ears of the world, we might actually see people convert away from Christianity for that reason, or some unexpected thing.

 

Hell doesn't and cannot exist. An all forgiving god is incapable of damning man to torment and will always accept even the most heinous into heaven.

 

You obviously haven't read the bible. Try the old testament.

Heh, "all forgiving god". Heh.

 

OT is a Jewish recounting of history. Christians should only care about the NT since it's the part their faith is built upon.

 

I hope you are joking, because that's the most ignorant statement I've read on these forums in some time. The NT is the fulfillment of the OT, and cannot be fully understood without the context of the OT. And God is not all-forgiving, he is perfectly just. Perfect justice demands atonement for transgressions, and "the wages of sin is death." And because "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God", all would be damned but for the intercession of Christ on our behalf, that "whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life". Christ's death was sufficient to atone for the sins of all mankind, but efficient only for those who believe in him.

The rest get to burn for eternity.

 

I'd just like to point out one thing about the whole fallen angel debacle.

God created the angels to serve him and to follow what essentially boils down to his every bloody whim. So... either he gave them free will and they decided to rebel because they didn't like being his peons, OR he actually made them rebel for some bizarre reason.

Either way, I'm not overly enamoured of a god who causes beings of pure light and good to be that fucked up.

 

Pure light and good? That's not biblical either.