AMANDA: Jesus died and conquered our sins on the cross.  Once in hell He could not be kept there because He had lived His life a sinless man.  Would you be happier if Jesus had to suffer in hell for all eternity for your sins?  Is that the only thing that would make you believe in Him again?

BRUCE:  This is so silly.  You completely missed the point, Amanda!  According to my copy of the Oxford Essential Dictionary, Sacrifice is defined as "a voluntary giving up of something valued."  But if Jesus is the eternal being you claim he is, then what did he "give up" in exchange for our "sins" that he didn't already possess before, during, and after all the accounts as laid out in the NT?  He's God-on-high up in heaven with daddy before, and after it's all said and done he's right back up on-high with daddy again, playing Go Fish with all his loyal sheep!  If the "wages of sin" is in fact "death," and Jesus was sacrificing his "life" for the "sins" of mankind, then in order for it to be a true "sacrifice" Jesus would actually have to suffer the same fate he has reserved for the nonbelievers; namely eternal pain and suffering in Hell with no possibility of reprieve!  If not, then why should mere mortals be assessed a penalty that Jesus himself was not willing to "suffer" in our place? 

Presumably, if Jesus wanted to, he could continue appearing "in the flesh" from here to infinity, like putting another quarter in the video game and getting "three more lives," but if each time you already know that your death is not really death, but just another {ho-hum} trip back up to heaven, then where is the risk?  What is the worth?  What is the sacrifice?  And for that matter, what is the reward?

Value comes with rarity, and that is precisely what we have in "life" in the here and now.  I advise you to live it to the fullest, because it's the only one you're ever going to have, Amanda! 

Bruce Monson