Things You Need to Know?

                                           Check the Scriptures.

                                Were Adam and Eve merely allegorical (fictional) persons?

Is it unreasonable to believe that all of us descended from the same original parents?
“Science now corroborates what most great religions have long been preaching: Human beings of all races are . . . descended from the same first man.”—Heredity in Humans (Philadelphia and New York, 1972), Amram Scheinfeld, p. 238.

“The Bible story of Adam and Eve, father and mother of the whole human race, told centuries ago the same truth that science has shown today: that all the peoples of the earth are a single family and have a common origin.”—The Races of Mankind (New York, 1978), Ruth Benedict and Gene Weltfish, p. 3.

                       Is there a spiritual part of a person that survives the death of the body?

Ezekiel chapter 18 verse 4 and verse 20:-    Look! All the souls—to me they belong. As the soul of the father so likewise the soul of the son—to me they belong. The soul that is sinning—it itself will die 

Psalm chapter 146 verses 3 and  4:-   Do not put your trust in nobles, nor in the son of earthling man . . . His spirit goes out, he goes back to his ground; in that day his thoughts do perish.”
Scientists and surgeons have found no evidence of any conscious, living part of humans that survives when the body dies. The origin of the myth of an immortal soul or spirit that lives on after the death of an individual can be traced back to ancient Egypt and Babylon, and is not supported by the Bible!

                                                                     what is the soul?

Genesis chapter. 2 verse 7: -   Jehovah God proceeded to form the man out of dust from the ground and to blow into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man came to be a living soul     (Please notice that this scripture does not say that man was given a soul but that he became a soul, a living person). 

A centuries old nursery rhyme as known by most English speaking persons reads in part:-    "Old King Cole was a merry old soul and a merry old soul was he".    Please note that the old king did not have a soul, he was a soul! This rhyme illustrates that in the fairly resent past people were aware of this fact ..... It is mainly the teachings of the Catholic church that has distorted the truth!

                                 How does God view images that are objects of worship?

Isaiah chapter 44 verses 13 to 19:-  13 The wood-carver stretches the measuring line, tracing out the pattern with red chalk. He works it with a wood scraper and traces it with a compass. He patterns it after a man, With the beauty of a man, To sit in a house. 14 There is one whose work is to cut down cedars. He selects a certain type of tree, an oak, And he lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a laurel tree, and the rain makes it grow. 15 Then it becomes fuel for a man to make fires. He takes part of it to warm himself; He builds a fire and bakes bread. But he also makes a god and worships it. He makes it into a carved image, and he bows down before it. 16 Half of it he burns up in a fire; With that half he roasts the meat that he eats, and he is satisfied. He also warms himself and says: “Ah! I am warm as I watch the fire.” 17 But the rest of it he makes into a god, into his carved image. He bows down to it and worships it. He prays to it and says: “Save me, for you are my god.” 18 They know nothing, they understand nothing, Because their eyes are sealed shut and they cannot see, And their heart has no insight. 19 No one reflects in his heart Or has knowledge or understanding, saying: “Half of it I burned up in a fire, And on its coals I baked bread and roasted meat to eat. Should I, then, make the rest of it into a detestable thing? Should I worship a block of wood from a tree?”

Idols can be seen throughout the world of religion, statues used in worship, Icons (pictures and images), Relics (items supposedly associated with ancient individuals), and any item used to enhance prayer or worship in any way is condemned by God in the Bible without exception, this would include Crosses, Saint Christopher medals and Rosary Beads or any other items that have a direct connection with worship !

                                              What is the origin of the Trinity doctrine?

The New Encyclopedia Britannica says: “Neither the word Trinity, nor the explicit doctrine as such, appears in the New Testament, nor did Jesus and his followers intend to contradict the Shema in the Old Testament:   ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord’ (Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 4)  . . .   The doctrine developed gradually over several centuries and through many controversies. . . . By the end of the 4th century . . . the doctrine of the Trinity took substantially the form it has maintained ever since.”—(1976), Micropædia, Vol. X, p. 126.

The New Catholic Encyclopedia states: “The formulation ‘one God in three Persons’ was not solidly established, certainly not fully assimilated into Christian life and its profession of faith, prior to the end of the 4th century. But it is precisely this formulation that has first claim to the title the Trinitarian dogma. Among the Apostolic Fathers, there had been nothing even remotely approaching such a mentality or perspective.”—(1967), Vol. XIV, p. 299.

The evidence is clear that the Trinity doctrine has no place in the life or worship of a true Christian, in fact you can claim to be a Christian but Trinity worship would condemn you without exception in God's eyes as an idol worshipper!

                                          Does such a spirit person as Satan really exists?

The Bible is the chief source of evidence. There he is repeatedly referred to by name (Satan 52 times, Devil 33 times). Eyewitness testimony as to Satan’s existence is also recorded there. Who was the eyewitness? Jesus Christ, who lived in heaven before coming to earth, repeatedly spoke of that wicked one by name.—  Luke chapter 22 verse 31 also Matthew chapter 25 verse 41.
What the Bible says about Satan the Devil makes sense. The evil that mankind experiences is far out of proportion to the malice of the humans involved. The Bible’s explanation of Satan’s origin and his activities makes clear why, despite the desire of the majority to live in peace, mankind has been plagued with hatred, violence, and war for thousands of years and why this has reached such a level that it now threatens to destroy all mankind.

If there really were no Devil, accepting what the Bible says about him would not bring lasting benefits to a person. In many instances, however, persons who formerly dabbled in the occult or who belonged to groups practicing spiritism report that they were at that time greatly distressed because of hearing “voices” from unseen sources, being “possessed” by superhuman beings, etc. Genuine relief was gained when they learned what the Bible says about Satan and his demons, applied the Bible’s counsel to shun spiritistic practices, and sought Jehovah’s help in prayer.—See pages 384-389, under the heading “Spiritism.”

Believing that Satan exists does not mean accepting the idea that he has horns, a pointed tail, and a pitchfork and that he roasts people in a fiery hell. The Bible gives no such description of Satan. That is the product of the minds of medieval artists who were influenced by representations of the mythological Greek god Pan and by the Inferno written by the Italian poet Dante Alighieri. Instead of teaching a fiery hell, the Bible clearly says at:-   

Ecclesiastes chapter 9 verse 5 and 6:-    5  For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing at all, nor do they have any more reward, because all memory of them is forgotten. 6  Also, their love and their hate and their jealousy have already perished, and they no longer have any share in what is done under the sun.

                                               Why has God permitted Wickedness?

2 Peter chapter 3 verse 9:-    Jehovah is not slow respecting his promise, as some people consider slowness, but he is patient with you because he does not desire any to be destroyed but desires all to attain to repentance.  

Because his patience has extended down till our day, we have the opportunity to demonstrate that we are repentant and that, instead of making our own decisions as to good and bad, we want to submit to Jehovah’s righteous rulership.

Romans chapter 9 verses 14 to 24:-   What shall we say, then? Is there injustice with God? Never may that become so! . . . If, now, God, although having the will to demonstrate his wrath and to make his power known, tolerated with much long-suffering vessels of wrath made fit for destruction   [that is, he tolerated the existence of wicked people for a time],   in order that he might make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory   [that is, he would use the time to extend mercy to certain ones, in harmony with his purpose],   namely, us, whom he called not only from among Jews but also from among nations, what of it?   (Thus God put off the destruction of the wicked so as to allow time to select people whom he would glorify with Christ as members of the heavenly Kingdom Government. Has God’s doing that been an injustice to anyone? No; it is part of Jehovah’s arrangement for blessing people of all sorts who will be favoured with the opportunity to live forever on a paradise earth.  

                                          What is the origin of the teaching of hellfire?

In ancient Babylonian and Assyrian beliefs the “nether world . . . is pictured as a place full of horrors, and is presided over by gods and demons of great strength and fierceness.” (The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, Boston, 1898, Morris Jastrow, Jr., p. 581).

Early evidence of the fiery aspect of Christendom’s hell is found in the religion of ancient Egypt. (The Book of the Dead, New Hyde Park, N.Y., 1960, with introduction by E. A. Wallis Budge, pp. 144, 149, 151, 153, 161).

Buddhism, which dates back to the 6th century B.C.E., in time came to feature both hot and cold hells. (The Encyclopedia Americana, 1977, Vol. 14, p. 68) Depictions of hell portrayed in Catholic churches in Italy have been traced to Etruscan roots.—La civiltà etrusca (Milan, 1979), Werner Keller, p. 389.

But the real roots of this God-dishonouring doctrine go much deeper. The fiendish concepts associated with a hell of torment slander God and originate with the chief slanderer of God (the Devil,  the meaning of which  name means “Slanderer”), the one whom Jesus Christ called   “the father of the lie.”  at    John chapter 8 verse 44.

                                                         Time to Put Out the Fire!

To sum up, the teaching of Hellfire is not a Bible teaching and has no place in true Jewish or Christian worship, the early Catholic church used this pagan idea to instil fear into their followers in order to control and make them obey the Catholic doctrines without question, and as only the priests had access to the Bible at that time it was impossible for the uneducated laity to examine the Bible because the only copies available (apart from the privileged few) were written in Latin and the church leaders actively prevented and even killed anyone who dared to translate the Bible into the languages of the common people in order to hide their lies and false teachings! 

                                                         John chapter  8 verse 32.

       "and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."