Regulations For Entry To Heaven? Pssh

[Mitch]

'Christians' say that to get into Heaven, you need to do the following:
-Read Your Bible
-Repent
-Go To Church
-Pray
-Believe In God
-Accept Jesus As Your Lord And Saviour

If God was perfect, like they say he is, I'm 100% certain, that is not at ALL how you would be judged for entry to heaven.

I'm sure he would much rather accept:

A person who is: Nice, friendly, generous, loving, caring, open minded, whether or not they believe in God

-Over-

A person who is: A 'Christian', who goes to church every Sunday, gives a few dollars for offering, for the pastors paycheck (only because they want their money multiplied back to them tenfold) then goes home and beats their kids, cheats on their spouse, swears, steals, lies, then repents the next week

And, if God does accept the second person over the first, send me to hell immediately, because that is wrong.

[AndrewTheSinger]

As you will see, most people here believe in God not as a person, but as a manifestation of life and existence, a manifestation of consciousness and creation. A source of everything, not bad nor good, like a fountain, it's water drops are pure, but it can't be blamed if they get polluted along the way.

Your words remind me of Chief Hatuey's. He fought agaist the invasion of his people's lands by the Spanish conquerors.

'Here is the God the Spaniards worship. For these they fight and kill; for these they persecute us and that is why we have to throw them into the sea... They tell us, these tyrants, that they adore a God of peace and equality, and yet they usurp our land and make us their slaves. They speak to us of an immortal soul and of their eternal rewards and punishments, and yet they rob our belongings, seduce our women, violate our daughters. Incapable of matching us in valor, these cowards cover themselves with iron that our weapons cannot break...'

On February 2, 1512, he was tied to a stake and burned alive.
Before he was burned, a priest asked him if he would accept Jesus and go to heaven. Hatuey asked "Are there people like you in heaven?" When the priest assured him that there were, Hatuey replied that he wanted nothing to do with a God that allowed such cruelty to be perpetuated in His name.

excerpt from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatuey

[Beth]

Mitch,

I fully understand the concerns listed in your post.

While I am not a Christian (never have been able to be one) I was raised to be one and have lived in the Buckle of the Bible Belt all of my life.

In an effort to understand the religion of my roots, I also academically studied the religion for over ten years--learning the original languages of the bible and studying the development of the early church--and the best that I can tell, Christianity--in general--does not require itself to 'make sense' or 'to be right or fair' according to anyone but their own doctrines and their own scripture.

There are some fringe sects (outside of the mainstream) that some people here at the Pulse adhere to, so maybe they would like to respond to your post.

Other than this, all I can say is that after 40+ years of trying to understand it, I still don't get it. I guess it has to "speak to you" -- or not.

~Beth

[Beth]

On February 2, 1512, he was tied to a stake and burned alive. Before he was burned, a priest asked him if he would accept Jesus and go to heaven. Hatuey asked "Are there people like you in heaven?" When the priest assured him that there were, Hatuey replied that he wanted nothing to do with a God that allowed such cruelty to be perpetuated in His name. excerpt from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatuey

Very interesting Andrew! Thanks for sharing that...

~Beth

[kai wren]

I'm definitely not a christian (hail Eris) but my best friend is a Catholic, and he says this is exactly the reason he is a Catholic and not a Protestant- if you beat your kids, cheat on your spouse, lie, steal, and generally do a million and one things that Aren't Christian, you have to actually be sorry about it, sure, you can repent, but if you don't truly repent on a deep and personal level, you are damned.

As for good people who aren't Christians at all, the way I've always seen it is that the church pretty much has to say that, or they wouldn't have any followers- "Worship our God! It... doesn't matter if you don't, if you are good you'll still go to the good place but, it'd be really nice! Uh... please?"

[pip]

'Christians' say that to get into Heaven, you need to do the following:
-Read Your Bible
-Repent
-Go To Church
-Pray
-Believe In God
-Accept Jesus As Your Lord And Saviour

If God was perfect, like they say he is, I'm 100% certain, that is not at ALL how you would be judged for entry to heaven.

I'm sure he would much rather accept:

A person who is: Nice, friendly, generous, loving, caring, open minded, whether or not they believe in God

-Over-

A person who is: A 'Christian', who goes to church every Sunday, gives a few dollars for offering, for the pastors paycheck (only because they want their money multiplied back to them tenfold) then goes home and beats their kids, cheats on their spouse, swears, steals, lies, then repents the next week

And, if God does accept the second person over the first, send me to hell immediately, because that is wrong.

If you like to be a mindless slave be my guest ...

The christianity IS based on fear and stolen , manipulated material , taken from ancient times . That IS the fact.

Not to mention church as an institution ...

[thesickmoon]

'Christians' say that to get into Heaven, you need to do the following:
-Read Your Bible
-Repent
-Go To Church
-Pray
-Believe In God
-Accept Jesus As Your Lord And Saviour

If God was perfect, like they say he is, I'm 100% certain, that is not at ALL how you would be judged for entry to heaven.

I'm sure he would much rather accept:

A person who is: Nice, friendly, generous, loving, caring, open minded, whether or not they believe in God

-Over-

A person who is: A 'Christian', who goes to church every Sunday, gives a few dollars for offering, for the pastors paycheck (only because they want their money multiplied back to them tenfold) then goes home and beats their kids, cheats on their spouse, swears, steals, lies, then repents the next week

And, if God does accept the second person over the first, send me to hell immediately, because that is wrong.

Naw! If everyone could get into heaven by works alone, there wouldn't have been a need for a sacrifice. Without the need for sacrifice, there wouldn't've been a need for that whole crucifiction / resurrection bit Xtians are so fond of going on about on Sundays. See, they'd like everyone to think they're guilty of original sin, and since they're guilty, they need to be covered in the blood of the Christ. Once they get that far with you, they'll tell you they don't want you to neglect the assembly. What they mean by that is you've gotta go to church regularly. It's all downhill after that, unless you get in on the scam and start your own Xtian enterprise.

Oh! And church is sometimes good for business. You can join one of those big assed super-mega churches and network with all the business people there. Play golf, have barbques, crap like that. Unless you run a strip club or something. Then it's bad for the ol' image-- then no amount of golfing with those types will help you.