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Heaven and Hell?
Hi, I'm 19/f
my whole life, I have been to maybe 5 different churches, and for some reason, I just feel as if church isn't for me. I find it very boring.
I believe in God to the fullest, but sometimes I have my questions, and of course, everyone's answers are going to be different depending on their beliefs.
But within the 5 churches I have been too, I have got many different answers regarding the following question:
DO YOU HAVE TO BE BAPTISED TO GO TO HEAVEN?
I have heard, Yes, you do; and I have heard no you don't, as long as you believe you have a right into God's Kingdom.
Personally, I believe that IF God is as mightly and loving as others make him out to be, than shouldn't he know who believes in him, and who doesn't? Why does baptism give you the pass to Heaven? Why can't believing just be enough??
I have never been baptised, but I have been saved. I pray to God; not just when I want something, but to let him know that I appreciate the things he has given me, and letting me live another day.
Everyone tells me to 'read the bible' but personally, I don't want too. How did God write the bible when he didn't have anything to use? Idk where it came from, who really wrote it, or even if it is true.
Is it wrong for me to have all these questions and these doubts? Does that make me a non believer?
My father told me to talk to a priest, but honestly, I won't get a solid answer, and I feel as if I'll be wasting my time. No one knows the REAL truth about any of it.
Sometimes I question if there is a Heaven or a Hell. How do we really know if they are real; has anyone died and came back and said, 'Man, Heaven is amazing; or Hell is hot as fire!"
I feel so guilty questioning this- but I'm just curious.
SOrry for the length.
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Want to answer more questions in the Miscellaneous category?
Maybe give some free advice about: Spirituality?
Ok, so starting with your 1st question about Heaven,Jesus says in Matthew 25:41- 46; ""Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into
everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
For I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:
I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison,
and ye visited me not.
Then shall they also answer him, saying Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, or athirst, or
a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as you did it not to one of
the least of these, you did it not to me.
And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal."
The above quotes speak for themselves how much "love" Jesus had for sinners. There is no
room for any doubt that according to Jesus, there is a category of people who would face
everlasting hell for not doing service to the needy, poor and strangers.
Jesus says,""Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your
Father which is in heaven.
Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but
to fulfill.
For 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.
Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men
so, he shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach
them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the
scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven."
(Matthew 5:16-20)
Not only did Jesus himself practice Mathematical Righteousness by urging his
followers to exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, but he also
urged them to follow the Law of Moses in order to be able to attain the kingdom of
God (heaven)!
About your second question, of who wrote the bible, It was the Jewish scribes that took note of all the things that Jesus said, If you have the access you can google for the "Red-letter Bible" in which you will find the teachings of Jesus, marked in red. if you read them they will hardly be half a page length. read it, Jesus never mentioned that you have to be baptised in order to enter the kingdom of heaven, but he says something else. There is a difference between what Jesus said, and what Churches say.
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No you don't HAVE to be a Baptised. Believing is enough. As long as you are saved.And have doubts does not make you a non- believer.Being a non- believer. Being a non- believer means you don't believe. yes there is a heaven and hell. if you read your bible some has went to heaven and came back. don't ask who. it been a long time since i heard that story. no you don't have to go to church
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I always go to church with my grandparents and honestly I always have the moments where nothing made sense to me. Bibles were written by some important people like Mose, Peter and Paul or Jesus' desciples. Anyways, totally I can never enjoy reading the Bible, but I always read a proverb or two each day and I connect to Jesus. I don't go to church much often because I'm far too busy with babysitting gigs and I'm not with my gradnparents I'm on an Island. No, not Hawaii. I'm in Guam. Pretty Island I do go to church whenever I can, it's always believing you know. I disagree that you HAVE to be baptised. You don't have to, just pray to Jesus that he's your savior and that you give him your soul and you want to be with Him. I agree with Andrew, his answer is accurate.
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Well, you asked a great question, one that i have asked before, but now, i know better. The truth of the matter is that only you can find the answer to this question and the many more questions that you have within you. The archeologists have declared the bible to be the most correct book, in short, everything is spelled within it, let this erase any doubt you have within you about the bible. Start reading the bible from the new testament, by the time you finish reading John, i am sure you will have a good part of your questions answered. If you really want those answers, give me a benefit of doubt, and try that out
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There's nothing wrong with having questions at all. We wonder about things all the time. I used to go to church, I had similar questions too. Now I no longer affiliate with any religion anymore. I still believe in a God, but it's a MUCH different God than the religious God I was basically raised to believe in. As for Heaven and Hell, I don't believe in them. I do believe we still exist in a different form after death though. We cannot really know weather this Heaven and Hell are real. I'm an Agnostic theist, I have a weird God philosophy, but I always argue with my Atheist friends and even some religious ones. The reason I'm not Atheist or religious is because there is no point in claiming something and devoting lots of time to them when they can never be proven (For the Atheist and the Theist), no side will reach a solid answer. So instead of saying a God is impossible, or saying that there definitely is a God, I consider a God as a possibility, this leads me to try and come up with my own God ideas, and those are the ones that I believe in. As for the after death thing, I believe we exist in an abstract form after death. The reason behind this is simple. If energy and matter cannot be destroyed, and that is what we are made of, AND it allows this consciousness, then we are technically eternal. What makes up our body, our being, has existed long before the Earth even formed. And any scientist could agree with that.
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Sorry it's a bit long.
This is a great question. Now you don't need a pool of water to be baptized. You can pray to God and tell him that you commit your life to him and that you want to be baptized in the blood of jesus and he can do it just like that. But you have to believe that he will do it and you have to mean what you say. Now about the bible. God spoke to people and some of those people wrote it down and it became part of the bible. I have a King James Version bible and it gives me an introduction to each book of the bible and tells you how that book came to be. For example, the book of Genesis was written by Moses. In the book of Song of Solomon, it is composed of speeches between two lovers, Solomon and a Shulamite girl. I know you said that you don't want to read the bible but it really does answer some questions. I felt the same way you did once. I would read the bible and understand none of it. I would try to schedule days to read but they never happened. But I made a decision for myself that I want to be closer to God.
You also said, "No one knows the real truth about any of it." Well that's where believing comes in. If you believe in God, then you have no doubt that he is real and what he says is true. It's hard to describe. We believe because we feel that it is true.
Christianity is a very spiritual and emotional thing. When it comes to God, you can't think with your mind. You have to think with your heart. That is what God speaks to. I'm sorry if I don't sound to convincing. But Jesus said let the children come to me. So you have to go to him of your own free will. Nobody can force you. When you decide to open your heart to Jesus Christ, it will be because you chose to do it willingly.
I really hope this helps.
~Andrew~
P.S. If you ever have any more questions about religion, just ask me.
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You say you're been to five churches, and gotten many different answers. Go to ten more churches, and you'll get ten more answers. Go to a hundred churches, and you'll get about eighty more answers (some of them will probably agree with each other just by coincidence).
The inescapable conclusion is that the churches have no idea what they are talking about.
The Bible won't be much help either; its lack of consistency and clarity is one of the reasons why there are so many different religious opinions on the matter, and they all can point to the Bible for justification.
You already have your answer, insofar as the Heaven/Hell question: No one knows the REAL truth about any of it.
The simple fact of the matter is that we have no idea what happens after we die. Those who say they do are basing their beliefs on nothing factual. It is nothing but pure speculation.
We have exactly one thing to go on when considering the question of what happens to us after we die, and that is to consider what it was like for us before we were born. For me, it was a timeless oblivion; I recall absolutely no sensations of any kind, no thought, no activity, no feelings, no existence of any kind. Before I was born, I experienced absolutely nothing. I suspect that the same is true for all of us, even those who claim otherwise. And therefore, the only fact-based conclusion we can draw is that it will be the same after we are dead: a total end to any and all consciousness.
But maybe there is something else. The important thing to remember is that those who say that they know what the "afterlife" is like are deluding themselves. They have NO IDEA what it is like. All they can do is make stuff up or repeat what others have made up. No one has ever come back from real death, and those who have "near death experiences" invariably report exactly what they expected to experience, depending on the belief system in which they were brought up.
The good news, if you can call it that, is that eventually we're all going to find out on our own.
Where does that leave us? Well, it strikes me that there is one way in which we live on after our deaths: in the memories of others, and in the words and deeds which we leave behind. So, we must all consider what we want the nature of those memories, words, and deeds to be, and strive to make them that way. For myself, I want the memories to be good, the words to be meaningful, and the deeds to be beneficial; and I think the world would be a better place if everyone made that a priority instead of performing meaningless rituals like splashing water on their heads and mumbling nonsense.
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This question is going to get you a lot of different answers as religion is a very personal subject. If ever there is one subject that will start a heated conversation, even among friends it is religion.
I am what is called an Agnostic; someone that believes in a higher power, we will call that power a god for lack of a better term, but does not believe in organized religion. I was raised in a faith that does not believe in a heaven or hell so I really have no idea if there is such places.
My faith in organized religion was destroyed long ago when I was still a teenager. I see organized religion as a business with a profit and loss ledger. Yes, some churches, Mosques & Temples do to good work with in their communities helping the sick and the disadvantaged. On the whole though they are still a business. At least that is the way I see them.
I believe as a people we need a belief in a high power to exist to thank or to blame for whatever happens here on earth. To a certain extent I believe that this higher power is responsible for a lot that has unfolded for we as man are really are not capable of some of the things we have accomplished.
So to answer your question: You wish to believe in god and say you have been saved. That is your right and you find comfort in this. You don't need to read the Bible to believe or to have faith. Neither to my mind does one need to be Baptised I see that as mans not gods requirement.
As for their being a Heaven or hell. Frankly none of us will ever know for sure until we get to either one ourselves. When that happens their is no way to send a message back to say if it does exist. So belief is blind faith an option of your individual choosing.
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Don't feel guilty about questioning it. I've been going to church my whole life and there were times when I questioned everything. A lot of people do.
I don't believe that you have to be baptized to go to heaven. Baptism is actually supposed to be showing that you are saved and accepted Jesus as your savior. Like for example, wedding rings. You get married, the rings are an outward showing that you are married. If you aren't wearing the ring, it doesn't mean you're not married right? So yeah, that's what baptism is like.
I believe that getting saved is what gets you to heaven. I just believe the Bible. Actually, if you do look in the Bible in Romans it talks about being saved to get to heaven.
Romans 3:10-Pretty much we all make mistakes and do wrong. God doesn't like it so we don't get to go to heaven.
Romans 6:23-The price for our sin is death and hell.
Romans 5:8-Jesus already paid for our sin so now we can go to heaven.
Romans 10:13-Then all God asks is that we stop trusting ourselves and trust him to take us to heaven.
So that's why I believe what I believe about heaven and hell.
With the whole Bible thing, God used people to write it. Like I think Peter and Paul. I'm not completely sure. But different people wrote the different books.
I try to read it sometimes but yeah it's hard to enjoy it. If I were you, I'd just read a chapter in proverbs every day. It's more relatable for me since I can get bored easily since I'm still a teenager.
Believing is just faith. That's all it really is.
During the time I was doubting everything, I'd question God and how everything came to be. I would look around and be like, "How in the world could any of this be true?" Then I look around again and then I realized, "How could any of this not be true?" Since then I couldn't look outside and think that things just formed that way and God didn't exist. But that's just me.
Everyone has their own views and opinions on everything.
My advice is to just keep praying and have faith.
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