(May 13, 2014 at 3:55 am)Godschild Wrote: This life is not a test to get into heaven and there is no risk of hell, it's chosen just like heaven is.Are you saying that once you choose heaven, you are guaranteed to go there? Or is there an ongoing effort involved?
Quote:I see that your thinking would end the human population in one generation, denying future people their choice for heaven or hell.I am pointing out that in the scenario you described, it's the best option for each individual. It guarantees heaven without risk of hell, and the only price to pay is a short and imperfect life on Earth.
Quote:Jesus did not say the path to heaven was long, and He did not say it was hard to find. Christians who say other Christians may not be saved comes from what we know scripture says about how Christians can be identified, that certain actions come from an unchanged heart. You can't do anything to gain salvation other than to accept the offered gift of grace from God.Yes, you are correct about what Jesus said. The path is narrow and difficult and few will find it. The point being that Jesus acknowledges that few will be saved. In another verse he also says that not everyone who claims to have served him will achieve salvation. Which means that gaining salvation is not easy and few will do so, including many who believed that they were following Christ.
If that is the case and few people will ever be saved, then those who get to skip the process are lucky, it seems to me. Compared to an eternity, this life is so brief that it will seem like the blink of an eye. Skipping it really does seem like the best option to me.
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
-Stephen Jay Gould