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WhIppIng-b0y — Why don't good people go to heaven?
#belief #christ #gandhi #god #good #heaven #hell #jesus #people #salvation #spirituality
Published: 2015-09-01 10:37:08 +0000 UTC; Views: 4340; Favourites: 3; Downloads: 0
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I've been asked this question many times, and at one point I wondered the answer myself. After doing a bit of research and having took time in my Bible I think I can give an answer to this question. I am using Bible quotes and testimonies for this piece here.Now the first thing that people seem to not understand is when I'm asked this question, is what hell exactly is. If you've grown up in the USA or England or any country that's heavily Christian or Catholic or even has some of those in them, you already have a general idea of what hell is through general life and picking a few things up about it. Unfortunately, a large portion of those ideas are probably wrong. Mass media is notorious for showing exaggerated, altered, or fantastical versions of, well almost everything, and that often seeps into teachings. So first: what is hell? isn't that where the devil lives? The big S? Nope, Satan actually is out and about up here with us, probably sitting right next to you, reading over your shoulder. In the book of Job 1:7, Satan actually says "[I've been] going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down upon it." So what is hell? It's a place that was made for Satan and his angels (or demons) for they sinned against God their creator and that was made for them as their eternal punishment (Matt 24:25:41)
At this point some have scoffed at me or asked me "how do we know hell even exists?" And my first answer to this is because God says it does. It's not some figurative place nor just a another word to describe relative torment, for Jesus said "fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to kill both body and soul in hell."(Matt10:28) this verse wouldn't make much sense if hell wasn't a literal place, Jesus also described it in the story of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:23) But this answer often doesn't satisfy them, so I often have to point to the fact that there are people who testify having died for a while and having seen hell. [links below] The place that these people describe correlates with the biblical descriptions. Hell is real. Make no mistake. Some denominations try to say that hell is only a destruction of your soul, and it'll only last a moment, others try to say that it's only temporary or that there is no hell period. These are lies and have no biblical basis, and if fact have verses that prove these assertions wrong "And these shall go away into everlasting punishment"(Matt 25:46). Hell was intended for Satan and sin to separate them from God's creation, if it wasn't a literal place or was only temporary it then it wouldn't be any good for doing that, we'd be back to square one.
So why would humans go there? Why would we go to a place made for Satan and his angels? Because we are Satan's children. Adam and Eve were made sinless, but when they wilfully disobeyed God they sinned, giving sin nature to the human race and surrendering the earth to Satan. Because of this sin nature we now know right from wrong and can die, and we also commit sin ourselves. Jesus said we are Satan's children because we do his works and live in his kingdom (John 8:44) God made hell to separate sin from his holy works and his peoples. In order to do that, all of Satan's kingdom must be put there. We are of Satan's kingdom. The gospel (literally "good news") is that we can be saved through Jesus.
I've also been asked "what about people who hadn't heard of the gospel? Like the natives of the Americas before the Europeans came? Would they still go to hell? And what about babies and those who couldn't understand?" God is a merciful God, he won't allow anyone in heaven if their sins aren't forgiven by Jesus' gift, but how can they accept what they do not know? God knows his church wouldn't reach all people in time. On this matter Peter taught "For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts" (Roman2:14) God puts what's right and wrong on everyone's heart, so the atheists and devil worshippers and those of other beliefs, we all have a conscious to discern rights from wrongs regardless whether or not we believe in the God of Abraham.
If those who had no chance at all of hearing Jesus do what God wrote on their heart he will have mercy. If not they will perish, albeit not to the same degree as those who rejected Jesus' love gift of the blood. "If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin." (John15:22)"And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes." (Luke 12:47-48) Once hearing the gospel, or if they knew of it and hear of it, but still reject it, they will have sent themselves to hell. God is merciful, God puts the knowledge of his existence on the heart of all beings. "For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:"(Romans 1:20) As for children and babies, David showed us that babies go to heaven when his died in the story of Bathsheba and Uriah the Hittite. His baby died and he said that he would see him in the afterlife.(2 Samuel 12:23)
At this point I've then been asked often "But why won't he accept good people in to heaven? Why are they worthy of hell?" and this is a good question and one that often chokes many people up, even believers, hence the creation of this piece. There's a couple parts to answering this question, but I'll start by reminding you that there isn't a good deed that can cover sin. If a man murdered someone innocent out of cold blood one day, and then was caught the next day giving the money and clothes of the person he murdered the previous day to charity, would you let him go free since he caught also doing a good deed? Or would you still send him to jail? The good deed doesn't cancel out the bad, it only appears next to it. You would have to serve jail time for your crime, and would you say that it's unfair? Likewise only the shedding of blood will remove sin, although God had mercy on us and died in the form of Christ who will cleanse your sins and sin nature and allow you into heaven so that we could live and not die.
The second part of this answer is basically this: There are no good people. Maybe I shouldn't say it like that, there are no righteous people in the sense that all have sinned (Romans3:23). We were born in sin nature, and commit sin so regularly in our lives by ourselves, and God will not let one sinner whose sins aren't paid for (by Jesus) into heaven (1Cor.6:9,10). Why won't he just forgive those who aren't bad people? Mainly because if they don't believe in him, how can he save them? Faith is what saves one, and one can't have faith in something they don't believe to be there. He won't force his love gift on anyone who denies it otherwise it is no longer a gift, and he would no longer be just. Another thing is if he let someone in whose sin wasn't covered by the blood, that would corrupt heaven the same way Adam and Eve's sin corrupted earth, and we'd be right back where we started. God also cannot lie, "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father[in heaven], but by me." If he let someone who didn't believe in heaven simply because people on earth thought they were a good person, he'd be a liar, and God is not a liar. Universalism teaches that all go to heaven regardless of belief, this is false, and is a lie to lead people away from Christ.
Now about the fact that there aren't any truly good people, many people I've talked with brought up Gandhi. What about him? Would he go to heaven or hell? I can't say for sure, for only God knows absolutely, but I'm pretty sure he's in hell. He was a man that was a racist, he was a hypocrite, wife beater, and an abuser of his position, and a pedophiliac molester [link below] Sure, he did some good things, but doing some good things doesn't cancel out the bad; God punished Eli even though he was a good judge because of his abusing of the power he had(1 Sam 3:13)I will judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not.", Gandhi was lucky he was born in the age of grace, there's a small chance that he could have been saved in the last moments of his life. All humans are sinners with our best qualities being as "filthy rags" compared to the Lord's,(psalms 51:5) "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me." (Proverbs 21:2, 20:9, 16:25, Isaiah 64:6, Ephesians 2:1-5) and it's only by Jesus' blood that those sins can be removed, there's nothing we can do to cover our sins. We have sin, and as long as we have sin we are Satan's, so as long as we deny Jesus, we deny our own souls and condemn ourselves to hell with Satan.
Clearly no one would want to go to such a place, but we're all heading there. God loves us, even after we sin, and he didn't want us to suffer and burn forever, so how does he get us out? With his blood. The bible says that "For the wages of sin is death"(Romans 6:23) "And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission." Blood purges sin since "the blood is the life"(Hebrews9:22, Deu. 12:23) Before Jesus people would have to sacrifice a goat or lamb or other cattle on an altar in Jerusalem, but "it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins." The Law of the Old testament was set up as a substitute until Jesus came down and became the last sacrifice for all sins, fulfilling the law (For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices...make the comers thereunto perfect.)(Heb 10:4 & 10:1, Matt. 5:17) Jesus being God himself was the only one able to completely purge our sins so that we could enter heaven (before Jesus believers went to a place called Abraham's bosom, or paradise) All one must need to do is believe in Jesus' words, that he is your Lord, and that by him are you saved. No baptism or circumcision or any other ritual is needed i>"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. (Eph.2:8,9)
So the summary of all is this: We are all sinners, and therefore we are Satan's, and God will throw all sin into hell to separate it from his perfect new world and kingdom so that he may keep his promise to his beloved children. God being kind, loving, and merciful towards us wanted to take as many people as would come out of hell so that they could escape hell and live forever. His way for that to happen is Jesus, for if one truly repents of their sinful ways and goes to Jesus with all his heart, obeying and believing all, he will be saved from hell. Some have mistaken this for "worship me or perish" saying that God is forcing people to convert or he will cast them into hell, but that's foolishness. God is righteousness, he cannot accept sin, but he has given you a way out so that you won't be cast out with sin. If he was forcing you to worship, he wouldn't have needed to threaten you, he would've made you a worshipping robot from the womb with no free choice, thought, will, or say. God loves you "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."(John 3:16) He values your soul so much that he puts it above all his creations in earth "For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"(Matt 16:26) He isn't speaking this out of his own fear, for death and hell cannot hold him (Acts 2:24) He says this so that he can show us that we are precious in his sight, every single one of us. He loves everyone so much that he and his angels throw a party whenever one soul is saved. ("joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth...there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.) Believe in Jesus, the only true God out there, and he will save you.
Many a time people have asked me or concluded to me "(what if) I just don't believe(?)" If you don't believe, you're counting Jesus a liar, and that in itself is a sin, but Jesus will not judge you for it. "And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world." but to reject Jesus is to reject life. " but he that believeth not is condemned already" "and he that believeth not the Son[Jesus Christ] shall not see life" (John 3:18 & 3:36) and if you're not in heaven or the new earth for eternity, then you'll end up in the only alternative, eternal hell, regardless whether or not you're a "good person". A judge isn't condemned for sentencing thieves and murders to prison, because it was the thief's or murder's own actions that sent him to prison. It is the same with God, but someone already served your prison time if you accept it. You're sins make you dead, Jesus offers life, to reject it is to cast yourself into hell. God doesn't send good people to hell, they send themselves, but he did everything in his power to lead you out of hell. "For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die." Jesus died for you, not anyone else, not Allah, not Mary, or any other idol under the sun. Many may not count themselves worthy because they know they are not good people, or many think they have to clean up their act before accepting Jesus; come as you are, Jesus considered the sinners to be good enough in his day when he was on earth, he stills does now, he will do the cleaning. Come to him earnestly, he won't reject you. "him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." You have only one chance, one life, one soul. "And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment" there are no second chances, and life is short, you don't know if you'll die 20 years from now or 20 seconds("Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee" Luke 12:20), "choose you this day whom ye will serve" make sure your one shot counts, it's all you have. If Jesus were to be wrong, you'd lose nothing in believing, but if he is right, you'll lose everything in non belief. I praise the Lord my God for his great mercy and everlasting righteousness! Amen and amen!
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Comments: 6
I think you would benefit highly from travelling the world. It is easy to believe such things when truth is black and white, but what is truth, really? Is it something that society dictates? Did Gandhi beat his wife, molest children? Did Rasputin? Look deeper into who is it that says such things, and what would be their incentive to. At the time Gandhi was threatening strong industry powers in the first world countries through his revolution for a free India, so of course mainstream media (especially that of the English Empire) would be doing their best to discredit him to the public eye. They had a lot to lose (for an example of that, I recommend you watch The Wolf of Wall St )— especially Alexander Lebedev, who was a billionaire at the time of that article’s publishing in "The Independent" (which he owned).
At the same time, the Indian's had a lot to gain by making him look a saint. So, what really happened? Only Gandhi and his closest friends would know, and maybe not even then.
The bible is the words of humans writing for God. Although they may have been following their hearts and trying to create a better world, they were never referenced by common historians of that era. I have even heard theories going so far as to say that Jesus was a fiction created by the senate of Rome as a means to transfer their power before Julius disbanded them. Whether this is true or not, again, people can only guess (although it would be eerily similar to today's current manipulation of society by the media).
Look at the current Vatican and the pope (the Godfather III is a great, sad example of this); they've publicly apologised for atrocities committed in the past , but what's he doing signing this agenda? “[It’s] far, far more dangerous than Agenda 21 ever was, and it is a giant step forward into a one world system governed by bureaucratic control freaks.”- Michael Snyder
It’s just like Game of Thrones (which is part of the stories success); plots within counterplots. Everyone has incentives, reasons, motivations, and because of it the pages of history are as blurred as the muddied waters of the Nile.
Please don’t take my posting this as an attack, as I don’t mean it as such. I write this because I can see that you’re a smart person trying to follow their beliefs in what they know is right, and help others along the way. The universe is a beautiful place, and there perhaps is a higher power (although evolution explains the perfection of life, it does not explain that of atoms, or things as we understand them now which do not apply). But you have to question everything.
Maybe God inspired you to write this so that I would respond in course.
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Oh no, I'm not offended, I'm actually pleased that you are actually commenting and not just disregarding this. I'm just a person trying to obey God, thank you though.
Although yes, we can't really know for sure about the things that have happened, I think that some of the things we hear may have credence. The info about Gandhi for example, I would've likely wrote it off if it wasn't for all the things surrounding it. The various sources I looked at myself showed quotes of Gandhi's letters, testimonies from those who worked with Gandhi, feminists in India who were complaining about how Gandhi treated certain females around him, and other such things. I know this all very well could be just some very intricate and well executed plan to mar Gandhi's image, however slight, but it all seems a little too suspicious for me. I know all too well about people with secret agendas trying to change the truth, but something must happen if there are those trying to change what had happened. I'm faced with that time and time again in my own faith, trying to see what's real, what's fake, and so on. I however try to find the best answers I can to the best of my abilities, and I also pray to my God that he would lead my searches, and feel that I can get a good idea of certain things.
The thing about the bible is that even though yes, man physically are the ones who sat down and put the ink on the paper and sometimes even wrote their own words, that I and a great many believe that God directs all of our actions. God, the Lord of Abraham, speaks in the bible of how he used people who didn't believe in him for his own purposes. He used the Assyrians to conquer his chosen people, the Jews, for being wicked even though he made it clear that he'd also judge the Assyrians for their own wickedness and pride. biblehub.com/kjv/isaiah/10.htm (Verses 5-19) and in the same way, he uses those who believe in him to do his good works, including the bible. As for those historians, remember that the church faced great persecution, many of the most ardent biblical scholars can't even find a transcript dating any earlier that 400AD (Don't quote me there on the exact date, but it was close to those times if not on those times.) does that mean the church simply didn't exist before those times? Potentially, but I don't believe it to be. If the romans burned anything that had to do with Christ or Christians, it's very likely they burned the historians' accounts concerning Christ as well. It could go either way from our viewpoint, I know, as it was a very long time ago and we can't truly know what happened, but as I said before, we who believe believe our God is Omnipotent, Omnipresent, and Omniscient. "For we walk by faith, not by sight." (2 Cor. 5:7)
What if it's all just a lie? A fabrication? Or at the very least partially made up for someone else's agenda? Then I believe that if that is the case, I would've lived a life trying to find a perfect ideal and trying to do good for the world according to my belief, and if there is no afterlife, then I feel that still would've been worth it. If it is true however, if there is a man named Jesus who died for my sins, and I don't believe, I would've been tricked out of eternal salvation, so I see it as a win-win situation regardless. But I earnestly believe the bible to be God's word written by man but spoken or inspired by God. I question everything I hear of man, but God is not a liar, lies are contrary to him. I find it kinda funny that you asked what truth was, and I believe God is truth, and I seek him as best as I'm given. I know this may sound rather illogical to those who don't believe, but it isn't logic that faith and spirituality in general is based on. Man are always liars, I question anything I hear from a human (even those things I list I accept that they may be false, but I put them anyway since I think there's more compelling info to the contrary) even things like the theory of evolution has too many lies, suspicious things, and flaws around it for me to even consider it real that humans came from single celled organisms, or at least in the way the theories suggest. I believe the bible was put in my hands by God and therefore I should trust him. That's why I am quoting the bible so much, and is why I am what many would call a "bible thumper"
I'm glad you are being more open about this, I am starting to believe very much that God indeed intended for us to meet and have this discussion.
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I appreciate the way you think, you have a keen mind. True, as there was great incentives on both sides of the story. But rather than being a "intricate and well executed plan", I see it more as lots of different, capable individuals trying to change the outcome of events to suit themselves. There would also be a lot of social stigma involved for people to say or not say things within their friend circles and such (think of modern-day celebrities and everything that can be found around them). But you're points are valid
Many different churches existed before those times (and still do), but not the new testament. Referring to Jesus and the historians of that era was more to point out the possible motivations mortals would have had to write The Bible and hopefully lead you to question their intentions. I believe in free will as much as I do destiny; that we have choice and may deviate from our paths, but in the end what will be and what should be will always be. I think the universe constantly guides us towards happiness and our fates at every opportunity, and that it loves compassion. But I also believe that our perceptions interact with these things and the way we lead our lives, and eventually too, their ends.
I don't know if your use of the word here is referring to my reference of the 2030 Agenda or not (that's more a law to pass a world government and take away the rights of people globally), but your reasoning is a good one. It's nice to hear that you're following your heart and morality, but along the same line of thought, what about all the other religions? Many of them have laws which contradict the others, which means that if any one of them is actually true there would most likely be a breach somewhere.
The theory of evolution strikes a chord within me. I think it explains a lot of the magnificence in the realms we see around us, and if there is a God, would only give them all the more of my reverence for the perfection of the universe. What we know now, we can only glimpse at, and yet it's made all the more wondrous for that we cannot truly understand it's complexity. It would be a shame to see such beauty simplified to that which we can comprehend.
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Thank you, I also find your open mind to be refreshing
Indeed, many churches did exist before Christianity, but at the same time they didn't. Christianity is actually a name that wasn't conceived until many many years after the people who would come to be called "Christians" started their church. The church members were called such because they went around the world preaching the 'good news' salvation of Christ's sacrifice for our sins. In that regard, Christianity didn't exist before certain ancient religions. However, the very first Christians were members of a different church, or rather synagogue. Jesus Christ, the very namesake of the religion, was a Jew, his 12 disciples were Jews, and most of the first believers were Jews. Judaic beliefs go back even before the Jews were even a people. I also believe that we have free will and a destiny at the same time, I believe we have the free will to choose what we will, whether Jesus or Gandhi or Muhammad or what not, but I also believe in destiny, since I believe my God is in control of what we do. I've heard testimonies of people who were completely atheistic, but have had their spiritual lives turned around due to some miracle they witnessed or some other experience which may not have neccesarily been "supernatural" but was powerful enough to convert them. I think their is a plan for all, whether they choose one direction or the other.
Uh...I'm sorry, but I'd haven't had a chance to look at all of your links 
True, according to the bible, even if the theory of evolution was true, it would still be God who had done it, I don't think it would give him greater glory. In the older world, explorers from europe came back from africa claiming to have seen unicorns, now these unicorns happened to actually be rhinos, a far cry from the common ancient depiction of a unicorn, yet they were mistaken nonetheless. I suppose in any ancient people they wouldn't know what else to call microorganisms (they wouldn't know what those were) other than dirt since they're so small and everywhere(if they could see them that is, not possible by the naked human eye), so I think it's possible that when the bible says that Adam was made from the dirt, that it could've been micro-organisms in some way, but I don't believe it to be. The name Adam comes from the word Adama which means earth or dirt. I think it was literally meaning God turned dirt to a living being, which to me seems more a grand feat than using already present living organisms (which he still would've created I suppose, so just as grand in that sense) I believe the theory of evolution doesn't directly oppose religious belief, but it does show some strange things about it. Many times people use carbon dating to get how old some bones or such are, and especially in certain areas concerning the theory of evolution, but carbon dating was laughed at from the start for its complete unreliability, putting thousands of years difference between two parts of the same frozen animal they found (a mammoth I think it was) and a lot of other evidence shows that it's impossible for the Earth to be millions of years old as suggested. Also the thought that we share common ancestry with monkeys is bonkers, there's no concrete fossil evidence suggesting this. I personally find the theory of evolution to be the simplification of things, as it tries to make things seem as though they were created because of gravity behind it all. I know that they get some things right, the ancient earth was in no way the same as the one we know today, and we can only speculate as to how things worked back then as the bible doesn't say yea or nay to very many things. Christian scientists believe that the dinosaurs did exist due to certain parts in the bible, but they think they walked with man rather than 65mil years ago due to certain things like Egyptian and other ancient civilizations wall paintings, carvings, etc. Many theories involved with evolution may very well be true to some extent, as they don't necessarily go against the biblical facts, but some of the bigger ideas, like us sharing ancestry with primates, doesn't make any sense.
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I respect your beliefs, it's clear that you've put a lot of thought into them 
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Why thank you, I am glad to find someone who does 
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