What happens to despots/dictators/evil people after death? (birth control, America, Islam)
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If they repent and trust Christ they are welcomed into Heaven. If not, they're like anyone else that doesn't. They will be judged and go to hell.
Reincarnation is a fairy tale.
Not all of Christianity believes in Faith Alone theology, or the “once saved, always saved “ dogma.
In saying that, it is highly unlikely that any of these Dictators suddenly “found God”, and repented just before they died.
It’s almost like trying to get a deathbed confession out of a career criminal or murderer.
A rare event in other words.
Not all of Christianity believes in Faith Alone theology, or the “once saved, always saved “ dogma.
I've never met a Christian that didn't believe faith alone saves.
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In saying that, it is highly unlikely that any of these Dictators suddenly “found God”, and repented just before they died.
It’s almost like trying to get a deathbed confession out of a career criminal or murderer.
A rare event in other words.
Yes. I agree. Doesn't mean they couldn't have. But that's between them and God.
I think the latter. There is no heaven/hell paradigm or judgment. There's just seeing our life in review and learning how we hurt others and experiencing their hurt. That's our punishment. This is what hundreds of people who have had these so-called NDE's say. Myself, I"m starting to disbelieve they're even real.
The NDEs are spiritual experiences in an altered state and can be misleading without the ability to test them to see which can be changed by their will. Experiences in altered states that can NOT be altered by our will are the only ones that can be relied on as real. Regardless, what you say is true. It is the actual experiencing of whatever you have wrought. Thankfully, it is corrective and temporary, NOT eternal.
The same thing that happens to good people - Judgment.
Not judgment as our ancestors interpreted it, but consequences as the wheat and tares are separated from our Spirits.
In Matthew 13, Jesus taught the parable of the wheat and the tares. Tares are weeds that resemble wheat. In the parable, a wheat field had deliberately been polluted by an enemy who sowed the seeds of the weeds intermixed with the wheat. Only after the plants were partly grown did the problem become apparent.
But that does not refer to different people. It refers to the intermixed character of our individual Spirits over our lifetime that grew together and must be refined of the dross.
Not judgment as our ancestors interpreted it, but consequences as the wheat and tares are separated from our Spirits.
In Matthew 13, Jesus taught the parable of the wheat and the tares. Tares are weeds that resemble wheat. In the parable, a wheat field had deliberately been polluted by an enemy who sowed the seeds of the weeds intermixed with the wheat. Only after the plants were partly grown did the problem become apparent.
But that does not refer to different people. It refers to the intermixed character of our individual Spirits over our lifetime that grew together and must be refined of the dross.
Which other scholars/theologians/etc. hold to your interpretation, specifically the bolded?
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Originally Posted by BaptistFundie If they repent and trust Christ they are welcomed into Heaven. If not, they're like anyone else that doesn't. They will be judged and go to hell.
Reincarnation is a fairy tale.
Just like having to accept Jesus for your salvation from the fires of hell?
Thank you for pointing that out. I didn't say christianity was the cause. I see the same thing in the Buddhist world. For example, one day I was talking with the abbot of the Thai Buddhist temple I often attended here in the States. I asked him if he had ever been to Tibet, and he had. I asked him what his impressions were, and he said that half the time he had no idea what the monks were doing. Now some of that is a language problem, but anyone who has been in a Theravada Buddhist temple, and a Zen temple, and a Mahayana temple knows that what goes on in each is drastically different.
The problem I see in christianity is a bit more disturbing, however. For a while when I lived in Colorado Springs I visited several different churches just to see how different they were. One of the churches I visited was the First Congregational Church (loved the architecture). As I sat there taking it all (both in terms of architecture and the service), I couldn't help but wonder why a Methodist or a Presbyterian couldn't comfortably worship here. Why all the separation over minor, petty things. It's not a very good example that Jesus' flock can't worship together on a regular basis.
If Christianity had not borrowed from the Greeks and Zoroastrians this nonsensical sick notion of people burning in hell for eternity, Christianity might have turned out to be a decent religion, along the lines of Buddhism. But foisting on dumb ignorant people this idea you'll burn in hell for not accepting Jesus was purely political--"club 'em over the head and keep clubbing them until they acquiesce and accept Jesus" is what shot the religion's credibility to pieces.
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