How to Avoid Hell

Who did Jesus come down hardest on? The pharisees, saducees, experts in the law--those who thought they could achieve acceptance of God through works, and having achieved this, felt the liberty to avoid/withhold love and compassion for others. To them, it had become a game of ''kick as many people down as you can, heaven has limited occupancy, and the more of 'them' I can 'out-holy,' the better MY chances are of getting in.'' As well as ''following rules is what God wants, He is demanding, strict, judging, and merciless. I esteem this image as God, and so emulate it, myself, since I'm an expression of God, and this is what I understand and perceive God to be.''

How many times have we heard/read ''God is love?'' No, really, God is love. Were they just speaking in metaphors? ''A new command I give to you'' Jesus said, for the benefit of those who regarded the fulfillment of commandments as the only way to attain ''righteousness'' ''a new command I give to you: that you love one another; that as I have loved you, you also may love one another.'' and ''Love is the fulfillment of the law.''

Jesus said ''he who would save his life will lose it, but he who loses his life, for my sake, will find it.'' and ''It would be easier for a camel to enter through a needle eye than for a rich man to enter into heaven.'' It's not only about wealth. He was talking about those who put something-anything of such great importance that it overshadowed the greatest two commandments. These experts in the law were fighting tooth-and-nail to try to get into heaven with observance of the law to the letter; building riches up in heaven. They were still ''rich men,'' but their currency was a sense of pride, self-sufficiency, and self-righteousness. Even if there was no monetary ''wealth'' involved, it was still a rat race.

Doing good deeds (or even believing in Jesus as the son of God, for that matter), just to try to avoid hell, doesn't make me good or moral in any way. It means I'm self-seeking and afraid of hell. It means I'm striving to build up securities to ensure my own survival. It means I'm still trying to become rich. ''I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the father, but by me.'' At that instant, look at Jesus' life. What does he do? He has NOTHING to do with building up any riches. Giving--all he did was give. At all times, he was always giving. Love, the chief ''commandment,'' is not love until it is given.

That is the ''way.'' That is the truth of who we are, since we are expressions of this divine love. That is how to fully embody and exemplify the life manifested by the divine love in the physical realm as ''us,'' because it is the nature of the author of such life.

Hate is nothing more than the chosen cultivation of the void of love. The feelings that hatred bring are the frustrations we feel when our true nature, as expressions of divine love, is denied expression by our mislead logic. Thank God for frustrations, or we might never have any ''wake up call'' to the notion that something's amiss. You've heard the saying ''God-shaped hole,'' maybe even heard the song? It points to the fact that we, as expressions of the divine, have a nature intrinsic to the divine from which we have been expressed. Greed, fear, hatred, all these go hand-in-hand with many others. They never satisfy because that is not what/who we truly are.
All the commandments see their fulfillment in love. Fulfilling ''the laws'' devoid of love only ''kills'' us, because it is ''discipline,'' forced on us from outside, rather than the discipline of our own true nature of love, being expressed from the inside.

God isn't Good, Hate is a Logical Misconception

Good needs bad to define it. If God is good, then he can't exist without ''bad.'' If God is synonymous with ''good,'' then he needs the struggle between good and evil in order to exist. God simply ''is.'' God can be described as the principle which has no opposite. Living things are expressions of God in the physical realm.

1.) ''God is love,''
2.) Hate is the void of love.

If God is love, and God simply ''is,'' then that which is the void of love is the void of what is.

If God is omnipresent--fully present everywhere, then the ''void of God'' is an impossibility.

Hate isn't so accurately described as ''a void,'' as it is ''a logical misconception,'' It is regarded as something, when really, it doesn't exist, except in the mind. Hate's existence is contrived through logical means based on false premises.

I Want to Hug Every Gay Person--Ever

Today, someone told me ''homosexuality is a detestable sin.''

Even if that is true, what sin wouldn't be ''a detestable sin?'' (to God, I mean) Which sin shall I abstain from that I might earn myself eternal life?

Are we not all trapped by a sinful nature? I don't see the point in separating ''them'' from me by treating them as though they have a disease to be ''cured from.''

So, if it is a sin, it still harms nobody. Not like lying, stealing, murdering, or smoking. If it hurts no one, how is it my business, whatsoever? Am I God's CIA agent?

And about making it illegal for gays to marry, that's just full-on backward movement for conservative Christians. Did Jesus say ''the greatest commandment of all is this: vote against same sex marriage and make sure you fulfill the law TO THE LETTER, and make your governments into a theocracy because I'm coming to reign here on earth right now. Let's break all the bruised reeds and snuff out all the glowing cinders.'' I see you scratching your head. Jesus said ''the greatest commandment is to love your neighbour as yourself.''

No Christian will likely have any success telling a gay person ''God hates homosexuality.'' So how is it going to win anyone over if they try to pass legislation that removes the rights of gays to marry?

Love, or legislation? Decisions, decisions.

I think I need to find a gay church...




Then, a conservative gallie said:

'Matthew 7:21-23 not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father, which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful ... See Moreworks? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity."

Luke 13:5, "I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish."

2 Chronicles 7:14, "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."

1 John 2:4, "He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him."

Some people may believe they will go to heaven, but they will not because they are not doing God's will. In order to know Jesus, we must keep his commandments.

It is true that we can't control all our thoughts. But there are certainly things that we can control. The Bible says we should have self-control in our lives. That is the Fruit of the Spirit.

Galatians 5:22-23
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.




To which I responded:

So you're saying these verses are talking about me being able to earn salvation for myself, by my actions.

I thought it was by faith, not works, that no one may boast.

Indeed, which of my righteous acts (which are as filthy rags) will get me into heaven?

I like that verse from Luke that you used.

Luke 13:3 says the same thing as 13:5. I think it's quite fitting, actually. It's talking about some Galileans whom Pilate had put to death while making a sacrifice. Jesus asked them ''Do you think those Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, since they suffered such things? I tell you no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.''

In this instance, Jesus is referring to a physical catastrophe, not hell. The notion at the time was that those who suffered a particularly harsh calamity were guilty of a more serious sin. Jesus is not denying that calamities can be the fruit of certain sins; but more importantly, Jesus was challenging the notion of those present that they were morally superior to those who suffered such calamities.

1.) According to the classical christian interpretation of the bible, any single sin, no matter how small or grand I may think it as (and what's it matter what I think, anyway. It's not like God's begging me for MY opinion), earns me an eternity in hell.
2.) Sooner or later I'll have a sinful thought that will earn me hell.

So, really, I'm not morally superior to homosexuals. Surprise, surprise. No matter how much abstaining from evil I THINK I'm doing, I still can't live up to God's commands. This is the crux of Christianity: that I'm not good enough to do it on my own. Those who thought they had earned their salvation through their superior obedience to the law were most sharply rebuked by Jesus.

So, what you're saying is that I'm going to hell, too, since I can't stop sinning, just like gays?