(November 17, 2017 at 12:34 pm)Catholic_Lady Wrote: In Catholicism we don't have anything about a loyalty/reward scheme.
With that being said, some protestant denominations believe that all you need to do to "go to Heaven" is to believe in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, and if you are not a Christian you go to Hell. They believe faith alone will get them to Heaven.
We believe it is much more involved/less simplistic than that, and we do acknowledge that a person who is Christian *may* go to Hell, and one who isn't *may not*.
Basically, it depends entirely on the state of your soul. If you are in a state of mortal sin, you go to Hell. That sounds simple enough, but the tricky part is that we have no way of knowing whether or not a person's soul is in a state of mortal sin. We can't even officially say that about Hitler, Stallin, or Mao, for example. Because in determining the state of someone's soul, every single thing about that person is taken into account. And since we can't read minds and see a person's entire life experiences, we can't make any judgements on their soul.
What?
First of, your sect was NOT the first Christianity. It was the first biggest marketer to be successful, but they were NOT the first group of Christians.
Secondly, EVERY religion has a threat bribe motif.
Jews like to claim they don't have a hell, and depending on interpretation and sect you'd have to half to ask the individual Jew.
But the promise of eternal life is still a bribe, and even if you want to claim a hell does not exist, you are still left with the concept of "missing out" on the cosmic Studio 54 party. So that really is no different than telling a kid that they wont get to go out for ice cream after school if they do something stupid at school.
If you want to claim a hell exists, we don't care. What we argue is the immorality of such a concept.
It is one thing to capture and detain someone who has committed a crime, it is quite another to torture them after they are detained.
"Hell" is not an act of containment or rehabilitation, it is a motif of revenge for not being loyal to the leader.
Even the old Hebrew Scriptures tell you what to do with the captured. They tell you to leave them to rot, or take their women and children as prizes in war.
POINT IS, "hell" is nothing more than our human reflection of revenge. It is not motif of fact finding or problem solving.
