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That's fiction, and in the real world there is no giving away salvation.
. . . if we were truly interested in following jesus's example, we would have no problem giving our salvation to someone else, like in the movie Constantine.
That just means that we are allowed to be members of the church, not by being born to a particular tribe, or following all the laws of the Mosaic covenant, and the church itself is not the work of ourselves but exists through the works of Jesus, and the demand for admission is belief.
By grace you are saved in faith and that not of yourself ...It's a gift of God ...peace
AfterInfinity
reply to post by WarminIndy
But how can you both be right? There is only one narrow path, blah blah blah, and thousands of confusing descriptions of what that path entails. In the end, only one denomination will get it exactly right. Or does the denomination not matter? Do you get what I'm saying here? There's more margin for error than there is a narrow path. There's almost no point to getting the right answer if kissing jesus's ass gets you a free pass.
DeadSeraph
reply to post by OpinionatedB
I really don't. Enlighten me. Why are 99% of Christians going to hell?
There is the modern pop-culture religion version that says,
You say one thing, do another, your friend says something different and expects to go to the same place, your pastor is convinced you're both damned because his version says something else, and no one agrees even though they're all going to the same place according to the "same" rules.
jmdewey60
reply to post by AfterInfinity
There is the modern pop-culture religion version that says,
You say one thing, do another, your friend says something different and expects to go to the same place, your pastor is convinced you're both damned because his version says something else, and no one agrees even though they're all going to the same place according to the "same" rules.
"Oh, thanks Jesus, for paying for my sins so now I am saved, meaning going to heaven, all the while not worrying about things like the world and what happens to it, or whether or not we need to be righteous, since that is why you died, right?"
Then there is the biblical way that says that Jesus came to save the world, meaning to bring it into conformity with god's standard of righteousness, so people can have decent lives and can end most of the fixable misery in the world.
edit on 23-3-2014 by jmdewey60 because: (no reason given)
"Hell" basically is death.
Why should anyone be "going to hell"? Why should non-believers be told that they're going to hell?
I don't think it is too off to say that not many will make it to heaven.
You're upset because someone told you that they think you're not going to make it heaven? How many people do you give the impression that they won't make it because they don't believe what you believe?
"Hell" basically is death.
You don't need to believe in it because it is self-evident, that people die.
The "belief" part comes in with the question of whether or not that a soul survives the death of the physical body.
FlyersFan
reply to post by BELIEVERpriest
That's just a bunch of thinly veiled anti-Catholic stuff that fundamentalist preachers spew from their pulpits. You know .. the fundamentalist preacher types that the OP is talking about ... **we are going to heaven and everyone else is going to hell. guess what .. those preachers are wrong.
An " illusion" that in most cases seems irreversible.
I don't believe in death. Death is an illusion. I believe in reincarnation. I believe the soul survives the death of the physical body, but "heaven" isn't part of the equation.
I think that despite evidence of reincarnation, there still could be a sort of stopping place in the process, where you essentially are not "here".
This isn't the writer of this "letter" giving a lecture on believing, but the universality of the offer of salvation.
This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. . .
I think so, and this is of course a very broad deffinition of the word.
Is that place, "not here" hell, in your opinion?
Yes, the Knowledge of Salvation does enable us to serve Christ, IF we believe He died for your sins. But, if we refuse to believe that, then the Knowledge of Salvation is ignored, and doesnt help us.
BELIEVERpriest
But, since my answer was derived from the word of God, makes Christianity anti-Catholic too.
DeadSeraph
why don't you tell me and everyone else here why you are going to Heaven and the rest of us are going to roast for eternity?
windword
reply to post by BELIEVERpriest
Yes, the Knowledge of Salvation does enable us to serve Christ, IF we believe He died for your sins. But, if we refuse to believe that, then the Knowledge of Salvation is ignored, and doesnt help us.
Doesn't that make Jesus and his magical works ineffective? Can we only save Tinker Bell IF we believe in fairies?
How can one believe something that goes against their mental abilities because it defies their common sense? No one can force themselves to believe something that clashes with their inner compass. Or, are we all supposed to be tamed by God like Shakespeare's shrew, and agree to the claim that the sun is really the moon?