Did Jesus speak of a Literal Hell?

The issue of Hell is one of great contention. Its eternal, painful and a place of punishment. But is it real? If reality was based on opinion the answer would be no; most people don't want to believe that members of their own families and perhaps even themselves will suffer for all eternity. They would rather there be no proper justice for those who sin against God so they say; this isn't difficult to understand for they neither recognize how much they have sinned against God nor how holy and just He is.

But for this blog I will try hard not to use rational argumentation that reaches out to all people (although such arguments exist and I hope you'll take time to consider them); but for this post I'm addressing those who call themselves Christians, by which I mean follows of Christ, not the Jesus of society, your church or your biases but the One Who can be found in our earliest records: The Gospels.

Here are five references Jesus makes to Hell, I hope you'll keep in mind that the truth of this matter depends not on emotions or feelings but on the transcendent reality. For if Hell is real in the literal sense no matter how much we want to deny its existence it will still exist after our death.

1.) "Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come! If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of Hell."-Matthew 18:7-9

2.) "And you say, 'If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.' So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Go ahead, then, and complete what your ancestors started! "You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to Hell?"-Matthew 23:30-33

3.) "In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire."-Luke 16:23-24
(Even if you take this as a parable one must conclude that it is a greater story for all people who are selfish in this life, will suffer in the afterlife.)

4.) "Then He will say to those on His left, 'Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels."-Matthew 25:41, in the context Jesus views Himself as the very King Who is damn certain people to Hell, which we can note is called eternal fire. Matthew 25 is especially difficult for those who hold what I call the "hippie-Jesus" view; this is because Jesus's ethical statements about taking care of others are tied to His warnings about Eternal damnation.  

5.) "Then you will say, 'We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.' "But He will reply, 'I don't know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!' "There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out."-Luke 13:26-28

These are only a few examples, but they are nonetheless clear. C.S Lewis famously made the point in his popular book Mere Christianity that Jesus was either Lord, a lunatic or a liar. If you claim to be a Christian you must believe that He is Lord, and if you accept Him as Lord you are obligated to believe His words (and not to sooner follow your own feelings or who you want Jesus to be.)

Why 66? Why Christians consider 66 books inspired by God

If you look at The Books of The Bible separately you may find it odd, especially if you're not a Christian; there's one including Law Codes from 2500 years ago, a poem dealing with suffering, and a romantic Song with sexual imagery--what are these doing in The Holy Book? How did they get there? Well their are three reasons we have the Bible that we have today and that other books weren't accepted: (1) Jesus, (2) first century Christians and (3) Christian tradition.

Jesus

Jesus, the head and founder of Christianity was a Jew Who believed in the Jewish scriptures, we know what books He believed in specifically because He often quoted from the Hebrew Bible. In fact more than half of all Jesus's teaching are based off the Hebrew Scriptures. But what books did Jesus believe in? Well, here's a chart:

What Book He used	Reference
Deuteronomy	Luke 4, Matthew 4
Isaiah	Luke 4, Mark 4
Exodus	Matthew 5
Leviticus	Matthew 5
Numbers	Matthew 5
Hosea	Matthew 9, 12
Micah	Matthew 10, Luke 12
Malachi	Matthew 11, Luke 7
Genesis	Matthew 19, Mark 10
Jeremiah	Matthew 21
Psalms	Matthew 21-22, 27, Mark 12,
Daniel	Matthew 24
Zechariah	Matthew 26, Mark 14

 Jonah                                                                         Matthew 12       

The bold ones show the Books that would be accepted solely based on Jesus's words:

Genesis 

Exodus 

Leviticus 

Numbers 

Deuteronomy

Joshua 

Judges 

Ruth 

1 Samuel 

2 Samuel

1 Kings 

2 Kings 

1 Chronicles 

2 Chronicles 

Ezra 

Nehemiah 

Esther 

Job 

Psalms 

Proverbs 

Ecclesiastes

Solomon's Song of Songs 

Isaiah 

Jeremiah

Lamentations 

Ezekiel 

Daniel 

Hosea 

Joel 

Amos 

Obadiah 

Jonah 

Micah 

Nahum

Habakkuk 

Haggai 

Zephaniah 

Zechariah 

Malachi 

The Early Church

The early church (by which I mean the Christian community living between 33 and 100 AD.) discovered that the Hebrew scriptures such as Isaiah (chapter 53) were about Jesus, in making speeches and in their letters they understand certain other books to be inspired by God Himself. 

What Book they used	Reference
Joel	Acts 2
2 Samuel	Acts 2
Joshua	Acts 7
Amos	Acts 7
1 Kings	Acts 7
1 Samuel	Acts 13
Hanukkah	Acts 13
Nehemiah	Romans 10
Job	1st Corinthians 3
Confirms Ezekiel’s visions	Revelations 5

Which means that at the end the first century the following books were accepted as inspired by God (specially The Holy Spirit):

Genesis 

Exodus 

Leviticus 

Numbers 

Deuteronomy

Joshua 

Judges 

Ruth 

1 Samuel 

2 Samuel

1 Kings 

2 Kings 

1 Chronicles 

2 Chronicles 

Ezra 

Nehemiah 

Esther 

Job 

Psalms 

Proverbs 

Ecclesiastes

Solomon's Song of Songs 

Isaiah 

Jeremiah

Lamentations (Assumed because Jeremiah is accepted as a Prophet)

Ezekiel (Assumed because his visions relate to those in Revelations.)

Daniel 

Hosea 

Joel 

Amos 

Obadiah 

Jonah 

Micah 

Nahum

Habakkuk 

Haggai 

Zephaniah 

Zechariah 

Malachi 

At the end of the first century it is unclear that the twenty-seven books of the New Testament were written. Certainly those letters of Paul (an important Christian evangelist), Peter (an Apostle), John (another Apostle) and James (Jesus's human brother) as well as any verifiable records about Jesus would be deemed as sacred, but not necessarily inspired by God in the same sense that God spoke through the Prophet Isaiah for example. 

Christian tradition 

Christian tradition over the next two hundred years would allow the inclusion of Judges, Ruth, Ezra, Esther, Ecclesiastes, Solomon's Song of Songs, Obadiah, Nahum, Haggai, Zephaniah along with the twenty seven books of the New Testament. (Although it is very likely that many Old Testament books were accepted because the early church was mostly Jewish.)

Christians then began to believe that Paul's words in 2 Timothy 3:16-17: All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." Even though it is very possible that Paul was only thinking of the Hebrew Scriptures when he wrote this. 

Books such as the Song of Solomon was argued against canonization because of it's sexual content, and the protestant Reformer Martin Luther expressed concern about the book of Esther (which never mentions God's Name even once) and Reformer John Calvin hardly wrote about it in commentaries.

To this day Esther is hardly preached on.

Top fifty secular YouTube channels (Gender statistics)

*Please note: For mixed certain channels are deemed mixed because they contain males and females but not necessarily around 40-50% as was the case for the Religious statistics.

Out of the top fifty most subscribed YouTube channels: 27 were male-dominated, 9 were female-dominated and 14 were mixed.

Which means:

54% were male-dominated.
18% were female-dominated.
And 28% were mixed.

You can see a pi-graph here: https://www.meta-chart.com/share/untitled-4489

Top Fifty Religious YouTube Channel Statistics

If your looking for the top 50 list, click here.

Part A: Divided by religion
Part B: Gender

Part A

64% of the top fifty YouTube channels defined as religious was from Christian Evangelicals.
22% was from Muslims.
6% was from Mormons.
6% was from Catholics.
2% was from Buddhists.

No Jewish, Sikh, New Age or other religious channels made the list.

It is interesting the to note that the percents generally match the pressure to spread their beliefs. Furthermore this gives us an idea of how willing followers of the faith are willing to subscribe to major YouTube channels that tend to focus on or represent their faith.

A Pi-graph can be viewed using this link: https://www.meta-chart.com/share/untitled-4451

Part B

Also interesting to note is the percentage of channels that are predominately male, female or mixed. Mixed is defined as having at least 40% of the opposite gender. Channels such as Jefferson Bethke is considered male dominate because most people who watch his videos watch them when he`s in them.

82% were male dominated.
12% were mixed.
6% were female.

A pi-graph can be viewed here: https://www.meta-chart.com/share/untitled-4484

The popularity of male-dominated channels isn`t entirely surprising when you consider that in Evangelical Christianity the vast majority of women aren`t pastors, in Islam imams can`t be female, and in Catholicism women can`t be priests.

Even the most popular Buddhist channel features a male monk. The few channels that are female-dominated are Evangelical music channels.

The top male-dominated channels are: Jerferson Bethke (1st), Anthem Lights (3rd) and The Merciful Servant (4th). 


The top mixed channels are: SkilletBand (2nd) and Mormon Channel (5th). 

The two female-dominated were KariJobeVEVO (18th) and FrancescaBattistelli (36th)

While the statistics may be surprising to some, the fact is that even in the secular realm of YouTube `Male-dominated` channels top the charts. 


For example out of the top fifty most subscribed YouTube channels PewDiePie (4th), HolaSoyGerman (8th) and Smosh (9th) are all male dominated. Whereas female-dominated channels such as RihannaVEVO (11th), KatyPerryVEVO (12th) and JennaMarbles (15th) always fall behind. Still, it`s clear that the ``gender balance`` between the popular secular channels and the popular religious channels is significantly different.

To see the statistics for the top fifty secular channels click here.

Fifty Most Popular "Religious" YouTube Channels List

I was wondering what the most popular YouTube channels are when it comes to "religious channels" 

I define a religious channel as one that has the majority of its videos dealing with God, Christianity, Islam, Catholicism, Mormonism, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism and Sikhism to some extent. This list excludes atheist channels, majority-comedy channels and channels with non-English names.

1.) Jerferson Bethke whose channel was formerly called bball1989 has 536, 838 subscribers as of June 3, 2015. His most popular video is "Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus|| Spoken Word" which has 29,582,466 views. Its a Christian Evangelical channel.

2.) SkilletBand has 392,194 subscribers. Its Evangelical. 

3.) Anthem Lights has 351,250 subscribers. Their most popular video is a music video called "As Long As You Love Me--Justin Bieber" which has 4,693,362 views. The channel Christian Evangelical. 

4.) The Merciful Servant has subscribers 342,425 subscribers; its a Muslim channel. 

5.) Mormon Channel has 339,417 subscribers. As you say have guessed, it`s a Mormon channel. 

6.) Reach Records that features raps from popular Christian rapper Lacrea as well as others has 280,388 subscribers. The channel is Evangelical. 

7.) Hillsong Worship has 260,886 subscribers. Its an Evangelical channel. 

8.) NewsboysVEVO has 258,677 subscribers. Its Evangelical. 

9.) Bethel Music has 257,969 subscribers. Its Evangelical. 

10.) The Daily Reminder has 257,729 subscribers. Its Muslim. 

11.) Talk Islam has 257,151 subscribers. Its a Muslim channel. 

12.) ChrisTomlinVEVO has 233,337 subscribers (even though its not his `official` channel.) Its Evangelical. 

13.) DigitalMimbar has 204,308 subscribers; its a Muslim channel. 

14.) Jesus Culture has 202,583 subscribers. Its Evangelical. 

15.) TobyMacVEVO has 180,245 subscribers. Its Evangelical. 

16.) Islamic Guidance has 180,140 subscribers. Its Muslim. 

17.) Muslim Speakers has 161,747 subscribers. Its Muslim. 

18.) KariJobeVEVO has 156,292 subscribers. Its also Evangelical. 

19.) TheAnimaSeries has 138,442 subscribers. Its Evangelical. 

20.) LivingWaters with host Ray Comfort has 122,689 subscribers. Its also an Evangelical channel. 

21.)P4CM (which stands for "Passion for Christ Movement") has 122,349 subscribers. Its an Evangelical channel. 

22.) RELEVANT has 120,866 subscribers. Its an Evangelical channel. 

23.) LoveAllah328 has 117,303 subscribers. It's a Muslim channel. 

24.) vatcan has 115,299 subscribers. (It`s Catholic.) 

25.) TheProphetsPath has 113,780 subscribers. Its a Muslim channel.

26.) The Skit Guys has 112,224 subscribers. Its Evangelical. 

27.) TheDeenShowTV has 107,479 subscribers. Its a Muslim channel. 

28.) imad07 has 98,723 subscribers and yet he hasn`t uploaded a video for three years (as of June, 2015) Its a Muslim channel. 

29.) Mormon.org (which includes the popular "I'm a Mormon" advertisements) has 97,233 subscribers. 

30.) Paul Begley has 94,629 subscribers. He has an Evangelical channel. 

31.) CastingCrownsVEVO 89,735 subscribers. Its Evangelical. 

32.) Mormon Tablenecle Choir has 87,812 subscribers; it`s Mormon. 

33.) Ill Be Honest has 84,662 subscribers. It's Evangelical. 

34.) Ravi Zacharias International Ministries has 83,042 subscribers. 

Its an Evangelical Christian channel. 

35.) Desiring God has 82,447 subscribers. Its another Evangelical channel. 

36.) FrancescaBattistelli has 79,599 subscribers. Its an Evangelical music channel. 

37.) ComeToTruth has 68,399 subscribers. Its a Muslim channel. 

38.) MandisaVEVO has 68,323 subscribers. It features songs from Evangelical singer Mandisa. 

39.) MercymeVEVO, which features songs from the Evangelical band has 63,827 subscribers.

40.) NickVujicicTV has 63,414 subscribers. Its yet another Evangelical channel. 

41.) Fr. Robert Barron has 59,681 subscribers. Its a Roman Catholic channel. 

42.) EWTN has 58,275 subscribers. Its a Roman Catholic channel. 

43.) BuddhistSoceityWA has 58,127 subscribers, it`s a Buddhist channel. 

44.) Grace to You has 57,469 subscribers. Its an Evangelical channel. 

45.) chaseGodtv has 57,209 subscribers. Its an Evangelical channel. 

46.) Wretched has 56,006 subscribers. Its an Evangelical channel. 

47.) ThirdDayVEVO has 51,044 subscribers. It features song from the popular Evangelical band Third Day. 

48.) JeremyCampVEVO has subscribers 48,324. Its Evangelical. (There is also a channel called ``JeremyCampMusic`` which has 43,296 subscribers.) 

49.) BDWmusic has 43,476 subscribers, it features songs based on the Evangelical Christian band Big Daddy Weave. 

50.) Acts17Apologetics: The ever controversial David Wood's channel takes 50th place with 42,594 subscribers. His most popular video is Of Mosques and Men: Reflections on the Ground Zero Mosque which had 3,604,631 views. Its Evangelical Christian. 

Best to Worse Provinces for Abortions

The following is a list of Canadian provinces and territories from the lowest reported abortion rates to the highest. It was created using 2013 data.

1.) PEI: No abortions were reported in 2013. 

2.) Newfoundland: With a population of about 528, 000, 223 abortions were reported in 2013. 0.04% of children are aborted. Please note: Private abortion places did not report their numbers; they were the only ones in Canada not to.

3.) New Brunswick: With a population of 755, 464, 1,036 abortions were reported. 0.13% of children are aborted. 

4.) Saskatchewan: With a population of 1,106.200, 1,921 abortions were reported. 0.17% of children are aborted. 

5.) Ontario: With a population of 13,550,900, 25,108 abortions were reported. 0.18% of children are aborted.

6.) British Colombia: With a populations of 4,582.600, 9,574 abortions were reported. 0.20% of children are aborted. 

7.) Nova Scotia: With a population of 942.900, 2,077 abortions were reported. 0.22% are aborted. 

8.) Nunavut: With a population of 35.400, 96  abortions were reported. 0.27% are aborted.

9.) Manitoba: With a population of  1,265,400, 3,873 were reported. 0.30%  are aborted. 

10.) Quebec: With a population of 8,154.000, 25,253 abortions were reported. 0.309% are aborted.

11.) Yukon: With a population of 36.400, 121 abortions. 0.332% are aborted.

12.) Alberta: With a population of 4,007,200, 13,376 abortions were reported. 0.333% are aborted.

13.) Northwest territories: With a population of 43.800, 211 abortions were reported. 0.48 of children are aborted. 

Sources:

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/dailybrew/abortion-in-canada-its-legal-but-is-it-184327430.html 

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/demo02a-eng.htm