And so a hindu who recants on his death death bed, confesses and accepts christ will go to heaven…those that haven’t heard the word of christ and confess will go be banished to hell for eternity?
Damn! There must be 10m hindus damned to hell every year because of your god.
Why do you worship something like that? Don’t you consider him a bit of an a-hole?
This confession on the death bed is something that happens, but surely not something that anyone strives for. It is not about hearing the word of Christ. It is about hearing the truth, living the truth, and treating others as you want to be treated. Why do you think Pontius Pilate said ‘What is the truth?’
I don’t subscribe to this. Pope Francis has brought up this subject numerous times. If you have peace and love and service toward others for acts of charity, who is God to say that you do not belong in Heaven? We in this world cannot see who gets into heaven and who does not; only God can judge. But, we do see the people that genuinely care for others and contribute to positive social welfare. If these good hearted people aren’t getting into heaven because of the semantics of their beliefs versus positive actions, then heaven is not a place I would like to enter. It is much worse when one suffers from lack of service to others, lack of chairty, and lack of general kindness to have a lofty belief system with outspoken faith to live up to the words of James: ‘faith without works is dead’.
That’s what the word faith means.
I wish all religions would disappear. I am pretty sure there are fundamental, empirical truths about the human ‘spirit’ we could learn if we didn’t have to deal with all the nonsense associated with it. Seeing conversations like the above just make me sad (both sides contribute to my sorrow lol)
If you sin, for example you steal, and you don’t reconcile the wrong, return the loot, can you be forgiven? Should I confront a Sunday school teacher that has stolen money in the past but has made no attempt to reconcile? The teacher acknowledges the theft.
There are two types of consequences. The first is eternal punishment where you don’t get into heaven. To avoid this, there is the forgiveness of sins. However, there are still effects from the sin committed in this world (ie teacher who steals as said above - effect is the money is gone). Because this money is gone, reparations must be made to fix this, which is temporal punishment (second type). Temporal punishment remains until you expiate your sins. If you do not expiate your sins before death you must be purged of them in purgatory before you go to heaven.
You can confront this teacher if you feel inclined to do so. If she did steal something and is a Sunday school teacher … well … that really sounds horrible. She is definitely in the wrong though (obviously right?). She needs to give that money back or be fired or something.
I’m fairly well versed , but I am not an apologetic. There are a ton of apologetics on here if you want to ask all sorts of deep questions (biggest forum in world): http://forums.catholic.com/index.php They have a water cooler as well, lol.
Just an FYI - not all Christians believe the mortal/venial/temporal sin thing. In fact, I think that’s an exclusively Catholic belief.
Not opining on whether it’s right or wrong. Just clarifying.
Sure, but I think we (Christians) agree that breaking any of the 10 commandments is a grave sin.
What did you put on your dog tag greenman? (ie belief) I put “Christian” on mine. I could have chosen Catholic, but prefer to identify as Christian first.
Agreed. IMO, and I don’t want to offend anyone here, religion is something I do not agree with. In the past, it was used to explain the unexplainable. Science and technology have advanced enough to PROVE whether something is true or not. Religion was used as a tool for control and to make people feel better about themselves. You have sinned? Oh, go to a church and you will be forgiven.
In terms of spirituality, I do believe that exercises such as meditation and yoga helps with alleviating stress. Relaxing with nature, for example, is good for health.
I dont understand how you can pick and choose what to beleive in your religion or not.
For example, creationism…most people know it’s total rubbish, however for hundreds of years people thought it was the absolute God given truth ‘the word og God’. Now you know it to be rubbish (or at least far removed from the original story) do you still beleive everything in the book? Doesn’t the proof that one story was made up, make you question all other stories in that book?
Personally, if I read a book that was supposed to be 100% true and the first story turned out to be lies, then I would question the validity of the rest of the book? Do you not come to the same conclusion?
Let me rephrase.
We’ve already discussed logic -> philospohy -> theology. Faith requires all those steps to get to God. Having 99% confidence that God doesn’t exist is not theology, it stops at logic hence why I am not of faith.
I’m logical, therefore don’t need proof. You’re theological therefore need proof.
To be honest, I don’t really remember.
But just FYI, I consider myself a Baptist. (For those who don’t know what that means, Baptists are a subsect of Protestants, which are a subsect of Christianity.)
There are gospels and testaments that were not true. These were deemed unsuitable in the 4th century. I agree with you. If one story was lies it would make me question the whole book. However the church has gone through much effort to make sure these books are legit. Out of all the books, Revelation is the one I have the most questions about. I really had no clue what was going on until I read “The Lamb’s Supper” by Scott Hahn (protestant to catholic convert). But Revelation really goes into some crazy stuff that is hard to imagine. Just because it is hard for me to grasp doesn’t mean its a lie or affects my faith in general.
So for 400 years people knew them to be true but were proven wrong. But now the church says those were lies but this…this right here is true, you’re happy with that conclusion?
You read those gospels, realise it’s difficult to understand, submit yourself to not fully understanding it, but believe what you don’t understand without questioning it further?
How can you believe in something you don’t understand and no longer question? I get the point that your preist may tell you its all correct…and you beleive that person who has higher knowledge than you. But you should also understand that this theological stance requires questioning. Why do you stop questioning? Do you believe just because the church told you too?
Couple questions worth asking: (1) Bible makes no mention of evolution…but it would be hard to say that process never occurred; (2) Why do “bad things” happen to good and innocent beings…like babies, for instance; (3) Dinosaurs were here on Earth before humans – correct?
Besides… if you’ve seen Caddyshack, and can recall the scene when Bishop is playing his best round if golf in the heavy rain, then the answer is painfully obvious.
#ThereIsNoGod
Dear Ace,
One item I’ve always wondered is why Jesus calls his mother Woman. He does this at the Wedding at Cana and as he passes away on the cross. Is Jesus being disrespectful and rude to his mother?
This is something I have wondered as a Chrsitian.
I don’t think he’s using the term “woman” in the same way we use it in 2015. I don’t think it’s meant to be disrespectful or rude at all. I imagine that if you spoke native Hebrew or Greek, you would understand it perfectly. Something probably got lost in translation.
What makes you think that the first story is a lie?
I don’t know how God created the heavens and the earth; it appears that He did so through evolution. I’m cool with that.