Heaven & Hell and the afterlife through my eyes...

Discussion in 'Your Religion & Spiritual Corner' started by Chris0515, Aug 14, 2010.

ATTN: Our forums have moved here! You can still read these forums but if you'd like to participate, mosey on over to the new location.

  1. Aladdin

    Aladdin Guest

    i understood holly...or at least i thought it was like a scarlett thing :)
     
  2. Henrysullivan

    Henrysullivan New Member

    Yes, Holly, there is a place in the Bible that speaks to this very issue. It is the entire New Testament. And I am not being flippant.

    To answer your question, yes, God does hold us to His standards. His standards require no less than He do so. But that is the exact reason He came to earth. No man is righteous in God's sight on his own merits. But God has given us grace and mercy. And all He asks is that we acknowledge that He came to earth as Jesus Christ Who died for our shortcomings and was raised from the dead.

    So we can either live under the law, which is to be judged according to God's standards, you bet, or we can live under God's grace, which is accomplished purely by asking, repenting of sin, and believing, to the extent that we can believe anything, what is written in John 3:16. That's being a Christian in a nutshell. And it is written throughout the New Testament in various ways and forms and authors.
     
  3. Steve333

    Steve333 New Member

    henrysullivan,

    that was a good explanation. i found that once i acknowledged jesus as lord, i was better able to live according to his plan and i found freedom from much of my sin. sometimes, christians get accused of using "saved by grace" to exempt them from the law but it is quite the opposite. his grace is sufficient and that grace provides the hope and peace that make us want to live in god's will and as christ would want. yes, we will still sin and still fall short but we are free from the fear the law holds against those still bound by it.

    does this make any sense to other christians here?

    and if we're living under grace and have faith, then the fruit of the spirit will produce works.

    "you will know them by their fruit" right?
     
  4. Henrysullivan

    Henrysullivan New Member

    That's exactly right, Steve.
     
  5. hollymm

    hollymm Me, 'in' a tree.

    I don't know if I'm reading from the same John 3:16 or not. Mine says, "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers." This is from the New International Version of the Bible. I did note however within John 3:15 that no murderer has eternal life in him. So, I had an abortion in my young years. I was a cocaine addict at the time and waited until it was almost to late by man's law. I feel and have felt for years as though I did commit murder and now, having read John, I would have to believe there is no way I could get to heaven no matter how much I believed or prayed. Also in reading John I found that All wrong doing is sin and there is sin that does not lead to death. This says to me there is sin that does lead to death. And I didn't get the impression that he was only speaking of those who didn't follow him. I mean to say he included everyone.

    Now I'm taking words from sentences that are within the bible and it's possible that not having read more than John, I do not understand what this means.

    How come there never seems to be any discussion about revelation? It is talked about in the new testament but there never is any discussion on it. I've never seen a topic on it anyway.
     
  6. Prima Donna

    Prima Donna New Member

    Remember the repeated theme throughout the Bible: Law and Gospel. We will be shown how time and again people have sinned and how God in His mercy redeems through Jesus.

    The law points out to us the many ways we sin - by the bad things we do, by the good things we omit to do, and by the evil we harbor in our hearts.

    The Gospel points us to Jesus, Whose redemptive power brings forgiveness for all of our sins.

    No murderer, in fact no one that has ever committed a sin (and that's everyone) has eternal life apart from forgiveness through Jesus. That is what the Bible teaches.

    I have mentioned before, that when people continually engage in certain sins, those sins can lead to the death of the Spirit in you. Those sins would be of the type that deny the deity of Christ; His death and resurrection - which are the means of redemption for you.

    God warns about our adding to or subtracting from the book of Revelations. A great deal of picture language is used. It is best discussed under the instruction of learned Bible scholars.
     
  7. Henrysullivan

    Henrysullivan New Member

    Holly, this is John 3:16 from teh NIV:

    For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

    I'm not sure what version you are reading from, but this is the meaning I hoped to convey with my remark.

    All sin leads to death. That is the law of God. Sounds pretty harsh unless you begin to understand that it has to be that way. Since God is absolutely perfect, perfection can accept nothing less. Think about it. To accept imperfection would be an act of imperfection. But God can't do that because He is perfect. That making any sense? SOOOOO, God came up with a way that man cannot be excuse from the law of sin and death. But in order to carry that plan off, God, Himself, had to come to earth as a man. He had to live a sinless life, which only God can do. And then He had to be tortured and murdered, by sinners, so that He could fulfill the law of sin and death.

    Matthew 5:18 (King James Version)
    18For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.


    Jesus fulfilled the law of sin and death. He was therefore entitled to life, not death. He lived a sinless life, but was put to death by man, which was therefore death by error. For this reason, in fulfilling the law and all the prophecies of the Old Testament, Jesus was resurrected, restoring the wrongful death at the hands of mankind to life, thus undoing the sin against Him.

    But on the cross, and this is important to understand, Jesus' last request, by prayer, was that he asked that those who murdered Him, them being mankind, be forgiven. That is Jesus' wish, that man be forgiven for His death, the most egregious act of sin mankind will ever commit. Before He died, Jesus' last wish was that all mankind be forgiven. Do you know where the custom of granting last requests came from? Jesus on the cross. The scriptures say that God will grant anything prayed in Jesus' name. Well, that was Jesus' prayer, Himself. So it must be granted. Because of Jesus Christ onthe cross, mankind is forgiven, not by the law, but by God's grace. The law is still intact, fulfilled, and Jesus gets His last request, that all men be forgiven.

    But that leaves open one consideration. For God's grace to cover our sin, man must simply believe that what the scriptures tell us is so. We must simply believe in Jesus Christ, and that He died so that He could have His last prayer answered, that men be forgiven of their sin. That is what John 3:16 is all about.

    Now there is a specific manner in which this forgiveness occurs. Because Jesus is the One Who earned life for mankind, Jesus is the judge of who believes and who does not. Because the Spirit of Jesus lives, and contains no contamination of sin, Jesus can use that Spirit to cleans anyone's spirit He chooses. So He established a rule. He will cleans the spirit of anyone who asks, and all they have to do is repent from sin, which is to be sorry for the wrongs they have committed in life, and turn away from sin, while trying earnestly to live a life according to Jesus' pronouncements, which, Holly, is all good and admirable stuff anyway.

    So this is what it is all about. And it does not matter what sins we have committed. You mention an abortion. It sounds as if you already repent from that, just like anything else you think you have done wrong. So all you need to do is believe that Jesus died for your sins, that one included, and the scriptures promise that you are covered by the blood of Jesus Christ. You are forgiven, Holly. All you have to do is accept the gift, the gift of life from Jesus Christ. He wants you to have this gift of all gifts. Somewhere the scriptures tell us that the worst sin we can commit to reject a gift from God. The gift of life is a gift from God. To reject the gift of life is sin against the Holy Spirit, the sin against receiving the Holy Spirit in communion with our own. Without the Holy Spirit to convey life, death is certain. So all we have to do is accept the gift of life, simply accept it, nothing more.

    I pray this makes sense, dear friend Holly.
     
  8. Chris0515

    Chris0515 New Member

  9. egross

    egross New Member

    That looks awesome. What a feeling that must be.
     
  10. hollymm

    hollymm Me, 'in' a tree.

    I do understand, I just gotta get there...
     
  11. Henrysullivan

    Henrysullivan New Member

    Great. Thanks for reading and giving my comments a chance to sink in.
     
  12. Caribbean

    Caribbean New Member

    I have seen this also more then once, I think that non believers want to hedge their bets just in case...
     
  13. Chris0515

    Chris0515 New Member

    I have just seen that people are mighty brave and bold when there's a low flame and they feel like there's 20 or 30 years ahead, but alot of things can change once you're looking at a week or less left of your life and the heat is turned all the way up at that point.
     
  14. CarrieOakey

    CarrieOakey New Member

    It's not a good idea to generalize. I sat with my dad while he died and he knew he was dying. He didn't hedge his bet or become an instant believer. It may happen with some people, but I know one person that wasn't afraid to die being a non believer. My dad wasn't brave or bold, just had his ideas and stuck to them.
     
  15. Chris0515

    Chris0515 New Member

    Carrie I was only speaking of the people that I have seen this happen to, and I have also seen non-believers that freaked out when something went wrong with their kids and the doctors couldn't help, and they then began praying for devine intervention because they were scared to death for their kids(and who could blame them).
     
  16. CarrieOakey

    CarrieOakey New Member

    I understand, Chris. I have seen it too. I just think we should be careful to say "some people", "some non believers", "some Christians" so as not to tar everyone with the same brush.
     

Share This Page