# Estimates on the numbers of heaven and hell bound? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 18, 2015, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/estimates-on-the-numbers-of-heaven-and-hell-bound/715293 "2015-03-18T14:47:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/estimates-on-the-numbers-of-heaven-and-hell-bound/715293/21 "2015-03-19T11:22:58Z")
God’s plan is perfect. God desires all to be ‘saved’ (Add that God planned this all out, and God knew everyone before God creating the world) So everyone will be ‘saved’. This does not mean that some people will not spend some time in hell. Scriptures only speak of 3 that will be in torment for ever and ever (which is really ages of ages - so not even forever for them). As for the term ‘heaven’ if used for the ‘good after life’ or ‘paradise’ you can substitute ‘go to heaven’ for the term be saved. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/estimates-on-the-numbers-of-heaven-and-hell-bound/715293/22 "2015-03-19T12:40:06Z")
I dunno, it sounds like popping them in the freezer. Just yesterday I ‘saved’ some ice cream for dessert today. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/estimates-on-the-numbers-of-heaven-and-hell-bound/715293/23 "2015-03-19T17:36:55Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Are you talking about some kind of purgatory/waiting room where we contemplate our faults, or re-living lives until we learn, or what? Don’t know. What I do believe is that God loves us all too much to give up on any of us. And ultimately, his love will prove stronger than anyone’s ability to resist or refuse it. Having come to that conclusion, I don’t feel a need to sweat the details, especially when they’re unknowable anyway. To me, the idea of bringing a race of sentient beings into existence, only to send most of them to eternal perdition, is exactly the sort of thing a genuinely loving God would never do. Nor would such a God be playing ‘gotcha’ games with us, a la the evangelicals’ “what if you got hit by a bus tomorrow and hadn’t given your life to Christ?” nonsense. ---
**Author:** ![Find\_Friends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@Find\_Friends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Find_Friends)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/estimates-on-the-numbers-of-heaven-and-hell-bound/715293/24 "2015-03-19T17:39:35Z")
Just for the sake of information about the Universalist doctrine, this [Wikipedia site](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universalism) gives a run-down on passages in the Epistles which certainly seem to use “all” a lot. There is also a section on whether the Greek word αιών (Lit. aion) is correctly translated. The piece is just a good place to start, and has useful links. I don’t need to tell folks that this hardly ends the controversy among Bible-oriented folks. (The article also covers Universal Salvation as regards other faiths.) ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/estimates-on-the-numbers-of-heaven-and-hell-bound/715293/25 "2015-03-19T17:43:16Z")
The 47%. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/estimates-on-the-numbers-of-heaven-and-hell-bound/715293/26 "2015-03-19T17:47:18Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > The 47%. Are they in or out? ---
**Author:** ![Find\_Friends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@Find\_Friends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Find_Friends)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/estimates-on-the-numbers-of-heaven-and-hell-bound/715293/27 "2015-03-19T18:13:11Z")
“IN” if you’re a Liberal Democrat! “OUT” if you’re a Conservative Republican! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Recusant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@Recusant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Recusant)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/estimates-on-the-numbers-of-heaven-and-hell-bound/715293/28 "2015-03-19T18:40:59Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > There are over a billion people in the world who profess to be Christians, and doubtlessly a huge number in the past as well. Even if only 1% of them are “true” born-again saved believers who went to or will go to Heaven, that still, mathematically, works out to a far greater number than 144,000. There are over a billion and a half Roman Catholics alone; the total number of _Christians_ is well over two billion, and likely closer to three. To answer the original question, it depends on who you ask, natch. According to Zarathustran theology (I’ll see if I can dig out an exact quote), _everybody_ gets in to heaven… eventually. Their version of Hell basically serves the same function that Purgatory does for Catholics. ---
**Author:** ![Find\_Friends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@Find\_Friends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Find_Friends)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2015, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/estimates-on-the-numbers-of-heaven-and-hell-bound/715293/29 "2015-03-20T22:06:57Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > What, nobody “sealed” (saved?) from the Tribe of Dan? While there have certainly been entertaining speculations on the omission, it’s really clear. It’s a Bible ERROR! It’s really one VERY SHITTY book! (Referring to a tribe of Joseph, instead of Ephraim side by side with Manasseh, is another part of the error. You really wind up with _ **13** _ tribes, 12 with land, and the Priestly tribe, Levi.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/estimates-on-the-numbers-of-heaven-and-hell-bound/715293.md?page=1)