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, Jesus said 'Verily verily I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of spirit, he shall not see the kingdom of God." (the "new birth" or "born again" passage)
This passage seems to indicate that not everyone is going to heaven. How do you counter this point?
Jesus is talking about the "Kingdom of God on earth as it is in Heaven" so it is NOT referring to going to Heaven but about being saved here and now in this life and NOT after death.
And very many people do not get the earthly salvation in this lifetime as they live and die within spiritual blindness and denials.
The examples of the Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Theresa are 2 who appeared to reach the Kingdom of God in their lifetime as that Biblical quote is referring to.
Many are called but few are chosen.
If there is no hell of any kind and no one would go there anyway, why does Jesus speak of it and talk of a man going to hell? (Lazarus and the rich man).
Luke 16:19-31
Jesus spoke in parables and that is not meant to be taken as some literal meaning.
Jesus explains that parable in the last verse 31 = "And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead."
Jesus was not trying to frighten people but to teach people about life and about living.
To prove that your interpretation of Scripture is correct, you must prove it with Scripture. If your hypothesis is solid, you should be able to refute these points using other scriptural references.
Can you?
Some times we can use scripture to prove other text of scripture but that is not the only way.
In most cases as I have done in this posting - I am simply correcting the interpretation.
There are many bible passages that seem to be in direct contradiction to this assertion.
2nd Peter 2:4
Revelations 1:18 and 20:13-14.
In 2 Peter 2:4, For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;
It tells that the "hell" means "chains of darkness" and not real fire as the Hell doctrine claims, and even more-so that verse tells that the Angels are "reserved unto judgment" which means the Angels are to be saved too on the Judgment Day.
Revelations 1:18, I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.
In this text the word "hell" literally means the grave as in dead bodies, and having "the keys" means to open and unlock the grave and death and NOT souls burning in a fire - no.
Revelations 20:13, And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
The word for "hell" in this text is obviously means the grave as in "hell delivered up the dead which were in them" see it says "them" instead of it because "them" means many graves, and it says in them are "the dead" as in dead DEAD dead bodies.
It is only human fear and religious confusion which sees some monster of a God burning people in those text when that is not what it says.
Revelations 20:14, And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
Again it is saying "death" as in DEAD and not alive. It is talking about dying and not living forever in some mystical place called "Hell".