Stephen Hawking Succumbs 14 March AD 2018

Agreed! And let us not forget - the changes that may have occurred in the last 3 months, the last 3 days, or even the last few minutes or seconds.

But it's easier to condemn than to leave it to God.

 

If you would act your age, discussions might be pleasurable, and you might have some valuable input. . .

 

No one is condemning him, as if we were his judge, at least in the posts I've read. One man has no power or authority to condemn another. What we do have the ability to do is to judge a man's actions and words, either for good or bad.

You are judging in your post. Are you aware of that?

 

You are trying your best to do condemn him despite everyone else simply making the truthful and honest statement that they dont know. I know this confuses you beacause you wouldn’t recognize a statement of humility and modesty if it bit you in the face.

 

You seem angry, and angry people can be irrational. You are accusing me of things that I have not done, and you are hurling insults at me based upon that. Read my posts. If you find something disagreeable in what I said, please make a case against them. I'm always willing to learn.

 

Well I certainly don’t expect you to admit it. You aren’t willing to learn. The responses in this thread are quite simple. They are unsure if he ever accepted Christ before the end. That’s it. It’s not even close to a controversial statement. Yet you keep harping on how you know his PUBLIC life and judge him on that.

You say this in post 39.

“I know only what he put forth, and I judge according to that.”

You are presumptuous to the point of blasphemy when assuming your judgment means anything at all regarding his salvation.

It almost feels like you are hoping he didn’t accept Christ. How bizarre.

As for me being angry. Nah, that is just a smokescreen to make me seem irrational. A common and transparent message board tactic.

 

We don't know what happened before he died. I hope for a deathbed conversion.

 

Again, find something that I've actually said, not what you imagine I've said, and agree or disagree with it.

Also, do you see the irony in condemning me? Do you imagine you are standing on safe ground condemning a Christian?

 

Save the word games. Everybody is clear on this in here except for you. I haven’t condemned anybody. That is your MO. We’ve all seen it and nobody in here is buying it. I even posted your own words. Talk to me when you are willing to be honest. I have to get in line though. You have to face up to your ducking of Tom’s question first.

 

You've completely misunderstood my posts, and likely because you've jumped to conclusions. Read them again, carefully, and perhaps you will have a direct opinion. See post #34.

 

I’ve read them. Stop backpeddling. You sure aren’t shy about forming your own opinions about others so don’t complain to me.

 

This is a tragedy beyond words. That man lived such a pained and accursed life to go to perdition in the end. Not only that, his death, such a miserable end that belies speech to describe the horror, will be used by unbelievers for decades to come to lead many, especially young people, into the same exact fate.

 

I don't think that believers realize how we come across to each other and those outside off us. After reading Hank's post, I had to check myself and exit the self-righteous attitude I was feeling.

I don't know where Hawkings is, only our Savior knows for sure.

 

The question I've posed here, without answer is: If you don't know that fate of one who boldly proclaimed, "There is no God", and has never made a public profession of faith, to our knowledge, then how do you know the fate of those who have placed their trust in Christ? I don't think you can have one without the other. Do you?

Can you, with confidence, tell someone that if he trusts in Christ that he will be forgiven and reconciled to God? If so, why can't you say, for certain, that anyone who does not trust in Christ will not be forgiven or reconciled to he Father? That seems like two sides of the same coin to me.

From the evidence of one's life and the profession of his mouth (or keyboard) I am confident that we do in fact know, if we trust what we have been told by Christ.

Self-righteouness is a poison, so I am glad you "checked" yourself, but there is a way in which to discuss what we do know, without being self-righteous. Self-righteous, as far as I understand it, is looking to our own righteousness, rather than Christ's, for our justification. I don't see any evidence of anyone doing such a thing in this thread, unless they are on my ignore and I missed it. I for one would never imagine myself being more worthy than any man of Christ's forgiveness as I am truly a wretched sinner deserving of condemnation. The gospel tends to make one immune to self-righteousness.

 

"It's easier to condemn than to leave it to God,."

Where does anybody get the idea that any of us have any power to condemn, and even to cross God's prerogative? Take someone from long ago, such as T. Jefferson, and look at his nonchristian ideas, and saying he's most likely tormented in Hades doesnt arouse much emotional debate. But Hawking, whose ideas are at least as unchristian, gets all this "you don't know he didn't have a deathbed confession and repentance." Do we even know that about Judas Iscariot? Hitler? Stalin?... What is it about Hawking? Because he was a nonbelievers but 'didn't hurt anybody??' Just that it's so recent? just that he's a real face and mind who is most likely in hell? Is the idea too hard to bear? What?

 

It seems very important to you that Stephen Hawking is in hell. You will continue to assume while repeatedly eliminating the possibility of a late conversion. There is nothing wrong with saying, I don’t know. Don’t sell the grace of God short. It is powerful.

 

I believe most of us hear know we don’t have the power to condemn.

 

Two things:

First, I suspect we don't have the stomach for it, and it is indeed a horrible thought that has given me a nightmare or two, I will admit.

Second, many don't know how to separate proper judgement from improper judgement. They don't realize there is a distinction between the two. They don't realize that there are two!

The irony is that some have (improperly)venomously judged me for my (proper) judging.

Some of this thread is indeed reaching. I mean who is to say that Hawking isn't doing cartwheels on Mars right now? Can anyone argue that he isn't? Who are you to say he isn't?! That's what this thread has devolved into.

 

There are no statistics of death bed conversions.

In my step-fathers case it would have been unknown had I not been there.