Originally posted by Chairboy
It's my understanding that no matter what you do, if you truly and honestly repent and cry for forgiveness with all your heart and not a lick of guile... you get into Heaven.
So, technically, Hitler COULD get into heaven, no matter what he did before that final day, so long as he follows the above formula. One of the many reasons that I am not a christian. That's just so at odds with my concept of justice that the whole idea implodes in on itself, but since I am an adult with a higher standard of evidence then a child (where most of the religious types are indoctrinated), that's not that surprising.
Good day!
Hi Chairboy,
Actually as a child I was indoctrinated as an anti-theist, but as you pointed out being a child my standards for evidence where fairly low then, so I ate it up.
Just a quick comment, as I've posted before, the teaching of the bible is that while there is no sin so small that it does not qualify as cosmic treason deserving of death, there is no sin so great that God's grace is not greater still. As Romans rather grimly spells it out "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" - so the scriptural question is who will pay for your sins, you in Hell or Christ on the Cross? No sin goes completely unpaid for.
Christianity however, is not merely fire insurance, it is not a case of "I'm gonna live a horrific life giving ample evidence of a heart of stone intending at the end to mumble something about faith in Christ. "
Believing in Christ involves a monumental change, it involves being, as Christ put it in John 3,
genethenai anothen literally, "born again." The old and stony heart is removed, and a new one inclined towards God is given. The believer is thus indwellt by the Holy Spirit and the evidence of this profound change comes about in the way he lives, so for instance. David Berkowitz, the Son of Sam, following his conversion has shown a profound change in the way he lives, speaks, works, and uses his time. The change is so profound that he acknowledges his guilt and the need for punishment and has thus
refused parole on several occasions.
Where before one had an irresistable inclination to sin, evil, and selfishness, the believer will have an increasing inclination towards good works and self-denial.
While there is always the possibility of a deathbed conversion following a life of evil (the Spirit working where and when He wills) they are extremely rare and even fewer of those are genuine. In most cases a man hardened in his evil continues in it to the very end, and he passes on to receive the terrible rewards for his deeds.
In the atheistic system of course, the evil man winks out of existence, and no real justice is ever done.
- SEAGOON
