Regarding your question, I want to say that we all have opinions on the points you mentioned above, but the one thing that we should be sure about in the list you mentioned, is the need to believe in Eternal Judgment, as it is part of the foundation for true faith in God. See Hebrews 6:1-3. This verse shows us that the foundation for our faith is first of all faith in God himself, repentance, baptisms, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. The only point that you have mentioned above, that is part of the foundation of faith is the existence of Hell, as this is one part of eternal judgment. As for the other points you mentioned, we must realize that some will have differing opinions on those matters, and that we can have true faith and unity even if those opinions differ.

What matters the most is that we have true faith in God, or to put it another way, that we love God and spend time communicating with him. Note: It is also possible to know the truth about the points that you mentioned above, but not actually know God himself. Knowing God is paramount.

I can be sure about many of my beliefs because first of all, God himself has revealed these things to me personally in visions or has given me revelation or understanding. So many of these things were given to me by God, not man. In addition, the Bible backs up what I have seen and experienced, and in many instances I have experienced things that I read about in the Bible after the revelation, vision or event that lead to my understanding. So the Bible is not what I base my faith on, but rather a real relationship with the living and eternal God. The bible is a guide and the scriptures correct me when I err from the truth, but it is not the foundation of my faith. The bible is made up of 66 books written by about 40 different authors over thousands of years, and those books are in harmony with each, as they reinforce the same doctrines and truths and some books quote from other books and call them scripture. My experience in God also aligns with what these authors have written, and not just them, but I have read many other books that describe what is already deep with in me. Remember that the Kingdom of God is within us, (those that belong to God) but many times our understanding cannot comprehend what is in our heart. But scripture can explain those truths and make our minds fruitful with the knowledge of God and his wisdom. I repeat that we shouldn't base our faith on a book but rather on knowing him personally, not by knowing the letter. It is very encouraging to find that your faith draws conclusions that other great Men and Woman of God from many different centuries have reached.

In saying this though, I realize that I most certainly believe some things that are incorrect, I am sure that all humans have this problem, but just because we are imperfect doesn't mean that we cannot obtain truth, on the contrary, God gives truth to all who seek it, because he is generous and desires that we all come to the knowledge of truth. So when you read anything including this writing, you must check it out with God first hand. If we just believe things blindly, then we are lazy and have blind faith, this leads to deception. You have to constantly challenge all that you believe. Seeking truth and challenging your beliefs should go hand in hand.

You mention that religion doesn't make sense, well I actually agree with you too, I think that most religion is based on what man thinks, and is full of useless tradition and dogma. Christianity is also full of useless religious tradition, but our call has never been about serving Christendom, it is about knowing and serving God and his Kingdom. See Escape from Christendom

Christianity is a created thing and we should be looking to the Creator, not the created. I personally believe that God is shaking his people to point where all the stumbling blocks that men have created in his name will fall away, leaving only what is truly of him. He has to do this slowly lest many people become confused and not believe in the truth itself because of the failings of tradition. God is exposing tradition for what it is, but all in his time, so we can all be transformed to perfection at a pace that will not destroy us. The church is not ready yet, but Jesus is perfecting his bride, and all we need to do is hear his voice and do what he tells us to do. See Daniel 12:10. If our hearts are right before God, then he will be able to shape us and transform us into his image. Again I stress the importance of a personal relationship with God. Spend time talking to him and forget about trusting in your own understanding. If God said to me that the sun doesn't rise, then I would trust him rather than my own understanding, and guess what, the sun doesn't rise. The earth travels around the sun. The truth means that you have to think outside of the square sometimes and it also involves looking at the big picture a lot of the time.

Man's religion is full of doctrine and formula's that are designed to please lazy and luke warm people, so that they can feel righteous without actually going to the effort of having a living relationship with God. All they have are scriptures and doctrine that give them a measure of respectability and justification. So yes I think if you look at the state of religion, then you will be confused. 2 Timothy 3:5 says "having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them". However, signs and wonders will follow the true message and again I stress the importance of seeking God with all your heart. If you seek him you will find him, and you will not be confused because God is not a God of disorder.

OK I have listed each point that you mentioned and I have an explanation under each heading.

HELL
Many people do not want to believe in the existence of hell. They suggest that a loving God couldn't send humans to such a place. Yet if God is perfect and cannot fellowship with sin, then what would you suggest that he do with all the evil that exists. Do you think that God should just except everyone as is, into his perfect Kingdom. Adolph Hitler and all other murderers, all thieves and the sexual immoral and perverts. What do you think would happen to a perfect Kingdom if evil was allowed in. Can you see that it would be absolute stupidity to allow evil into heaven. Imagine if God himself was somehow able to became contaminated with those evil desires and exposed us to an infinite amount of evil and terror. I think that you would only have to imagine that this would be an absolute nightmare of an existence. We should be thankful that God is perfect and he cannot be tempted with evil and that he remains separate from it. God is love and light, there is no darkness in him. If you think about that you would know that God is good, trustworthy and sticks to his promises. Can you see that evil must be separate from good, it just makes plain sense.

Knowing full well that evil exists, what do you suggest God do with it. Should he allow evil free expression forever, so that there will always be suffering in his creation, or perhaps he should create a big rubbish tip where evil could be thrown into to be consumed, so that it cannot contaminate and destroy anymore, leaving only good or what's of him. Well this is exactly what he is doing. It is called the Lake of Fire and all evil will be thrown into there on Judgment Day. This is called the Second Death and believe it or not, it is God's mercy to the wicked. To allow evil free reign forever would be absolute torture for the wicked as they would all suffer from each others evil deeds for eternity. They would have to live forever in a world with no love, and I am sure that they would rather not exist at all. The wicked also cannot stand the presence of God because all their evil desires are exposed, they would rather hide from God. So there really is no place in God's creation where the wicked can live eternally. All those that reject God are cast into Hell until Judgment, then God casts Hell into the Lake of Fire, The Second Death.

Remember that God is Holy and he is love. All love that the wicked enjoy today, is only a reflection of God's love that comes down from heaven and is then perverted by them. The wicked have shown that they are not worthy to receive God's love, as they just use it for their perverted pleasures. When the wicked are cast away from God, they are cast away from ALL love because God is Love. The ability to enjoy (to have joy) comes from God too, and again the wicked have perverted joy by enjoying the pleasures of sin that lead to death. Some people say that Hell must a big party place because it is where sinners go, and sinners love to party right. But I have to remind people who hold this belief, that you cannot enjoy anything in Hell. Hell is separation from God, and only God gives the ability to enjoy. In Hell your ability to enjoy anything, even sin is gone. Enjoyment doesn't exist in Hell. Joy is for God's people and it is our strength. The wicked only enjoy sin now because they abuse the ability to have joy which is available to all here on earth.

Ask yourself what God should do with those that have used their free will to reject him and his goodness. Should he use his power and override their free will to choose? Ask yourself what God should do with evil. I think what God has done is just. I also believe that the picture of burning in Hell forever is wrong too. I do not believe that God is going to torture the wicked in hell forever. This belief is a Catholic doctrine that was used successfully to keep people in fear so they could be manipulated into submission to the Catholic church. The bible tells us that Hell is a temporary place where the wicked go after they die. It is only a holding place until the Day of Judgment and then Hell itself is actually thrown into the big Rubbish Tip to perish. If you want scriptures for this, then go to Revelation 20:14. Now have a look at John 3:16, Psalm 37:20, 2 Peter 3:9, and Luke 13:5. These scriptures prove that the wicked actually perish. Also Revelation 21:1-8 shows us that eventually evil will not exist at all in the new creation, but will be dealt with by being thrown in the Lake of Fire.

So Hell is just the holding place until the Day of Judgment, and yes Hell is a terrible place of torment, loneliness, regret, fear, darkness and suffering. My own experience suggests that Hell exists. Not only did Jesus talk about the place, but so did many other great people of God. I myself have actually been shown Hell through a vision from God. So it would be very hard for anyone to make me believe that Hell didn't exist. Hell is a terrible place and all who go there spend there time knowing that they didn't have to be there. God is the only source of good, and He is love, hence they are in a place of NO love, goodness, holiness and peace. They chose this state by rejecting God who is love, who is the only good, who is holy and who gives true peace. In the end we get what we ask for. We have the power of choice and God respects our choices because he gave us free will.

TRINITY
Many think that the trinity doctrine is a foundation of true faith. But this is not so. The trinity doctrine is not actually taught as a doctrine in any biblical book. The doctrine knowingly first appeared about the year 180 AD in Theophilus of Antioch, but it wasn't officially recognized until some four hundred years after the death of Christ. It wasn't even formulated at the Council of Nicea as many think. The Council of Nicea asserted that Jesus was equal to God the Father with no mention of the Holy Spirit. This was decided upon by Constantine who's supposed motive was to stop the division and arguments about the nature of Christ to retain unity of the Roman Empire. He called a meeting of some 300 bishops, of whom only a fraction attended. He (Constantine) then decided what would be truth. He actually laid the foundation for the position of a Pope, someone who has absolute man-made power to decide what is truth. It is assumed that Constantine had no idea about the questions being asked him as he was supposedly not a Christian, but converted later in life. Anyway it wasn't until the Council of Constantinople where the Holy Spirit was mentioned as being God and equal to the Father and Son. But even then it was bitterly opposed and often those in opposition were violently persecuted. The trinity doctrine was clearly defined in the Athanasian Creed, many scholars agree that Athanasius didn't compose this creed, and that it came into existence about the 5th century. So it took many centuries for the trinity doctrine to become widely accepted, but what guided this doctrine, the leading of the Holy Spirit and scripture, or politics?

I think that history shows us clearly that the doctrine was created by man and his attempt to describe God whilst remaining politically correct. This doctrine could be described as a formula, and I think that we do better by trusting in the Word of God and the scriptures, rather than the word of man and his creeds. Tell me what the difference between an idol and the trinity formula is? Are they not both used to create an image of God with human hands or the mind of man. It is God who has revealed himself to man, not man who reveals God. These creeds have lead to many traditions including the worship of Mary, the Saints and idols or images. You could say that Christianity itself is built on these creeds and doctrines. These doctrines are not the basis for the foundation of true faith. Traditions including traditional institutions actually nullify the power of God. The early church certainly didn't teach the trinity nor did Jesus himself. On the contrary Jesus taught that God is greater than himself and he (Jesus) is subject to God and that he wasn't good, only God. It is written that there would be a great falling away from the truth, so this has/had to happen, and the Apostle Paul warned us that when he died, many deceivers would come amongst us and spare us not. They are the wolves in sheep's clothing.

Some people may call me a heretic because of what I say, but heretics are those by whom the Religious Institutions decree as enemies of their ideals, beliefs and laws. We shouldn't worry if we are heretics, this is based on the fear of man and man's judgment. Rather we should test ourselves and see if we really love and know God. Do we have a relationship with a set of rules, an institution or God himself ? Do we fear God or man? The trinity doctrine is definitely not a requirement for true faith and is not actually taught by Jesus any of the Apostles.

HUMAN SOUL

I myself believe in the existence of the human soul. It would be hard to accept a lot of the scriptures if you didn't believe in the human soul. For example , Jesus died to save our soul. If we didn't have a soul, then what part of us is saved. Our body? The bible is very clear that our present bodies will perish and will be raised as a spiritual body. If our present carnal body is beyond salvation, and we are our body, then when we receive the spiritual body, it wouldn't be us but a completely different creation as the old body (you) would be completely destroyed. It makes sense that we are a soul or that we are at least separate from our body. I think that our body is a machine that our souls uses as a vehicle or cocoon that helps us to interact with the physical realm whilst blocking out the spiritual realm. When we are free from our body (death) we will not be subject to the physical realm anymore. Physical laws like magnetic fields, gravity or time will not have power over you. This is why Jesus was able to walk through walls after his death and why we enter eternity when we die.

Our bodies cells change all the time. The body that I have now is definitely not the body I had when I was 10 years old. The cells that made up my body when I was a child have long gone, and they have been replaced with new cells. Cells like skin, are continually being regenerated. There are some cells in our brain that as far as I know are with us for life, maybe we are those cells. But I doubt that because too many people have actually died and returned, and they describe an experience where they have left their body and returned to their body. They have come back to life after being pronounced dead. This is a medical fact and there have been many testimonies written about these experiences. Many of these people completely changed their way of life after the experience and see things in a completely different way after the experience.

Do we just ignore these testimonies? I think not, especially when the only thing these people had in common was the death experience itself. These testimonies have sometimes been from people that adamantly did not believe in God, but changed their belief based on their death experience. Some people say such out of the body experiences are the result of lack of oxygen to the brain, but I think it is difficult to believe that these people all had the same hallucination. Hallucinations should never be the same because they are like dreams. But if something is consistent, then I think you may have to accept that it could be real. Life and consciousness outside the body means that you are not your body, but something else.

SUMMARY

The truth is that faith in God has very little to do with most religions. There are 2 types of people living on earth, many think that it is Christian and non Christian, but the truth is that there are only the righteous and the wicked. See Mathew 13:24-30 and Matthew 13:36-43. Abraham and Elijah weren't Christians and the man who had the most faith in the whole of Israel that Jesus came in contact with, wasn't a Christian or a Jew, but rather a Roman Centurion. See Matthew 8:5-11. Its not about religion and opinions, it's about a true living relationship with God regardless of who you are.