Are you saved? Are you going to heaven?

[tycho1572]

I’m a good guy who doesn’t respect the behavior of gays or others with deviant sexual proclivities.

I’ll be welcomed into heaven.

 

[ding]

As for individual consciousness, I don't see it as evolving, more like accumulating experience

Of course your consciousness is evolving. Evolution occurs when anything moves from a less advanced state to a more advanced state.

You gaining knowledge is a more advanced state.

You call it evolution, I call it getting old. All evolution is change, not all change is evolution.

Like I said before it’s not always a straight line but the beauty of lessons is that they will keep being brought back until they are learned.

So if you are arguing that some never learn their lessons, that would be true. It would also be true that they would be exceptions.

What I am explaining to you is how progress occurs. It occurs because we live in a logical universe and error cannot stand. Eventually error falls.

So while you would like to believe that the progression from sub atomic particles to beings that know and create is an accident and that things are the way they are because of random luck, the reality is that everything which has unfolded was subject to cause and effect and followed the laws of nature up to and including your evolution as a person. Furthermore, the evolution which has occurred could only occur because the potential for beings which know and create existed before space and time itself.

 

[Kilroy2]

Are you a child of God? Isn't everyone ?

How do you know? There is only one way to find out but you can believe

 

[ding]

I call it the conflict and confusion process and this process repeated itself over and over again until matter and energy reached its potential. Which in our present state is beings that know and create.

It doesn't get any better than this? A depressing thought. What happened to evolving, won't we continue to change?

That depends entirely on you.

Why is this a depressing thought to you?

How much better do you want it to be? Haven’t you already won the cosmic lottery?

 

[Hollie]

Are you a child of God? Isn't everyone ?

How do you know? There is only one way to find out but you can believe

With all the various gods running around, how do you know you weren’t an illegitimate child of some good ole’ fashion gawdly, ummmm, boinking?

 

[ding]

Are you a child of God? Isn't everyone ?

How do you know? There is only one way to find out but you can believe

With all the various gods running around, how do you know you weren’t an illegitimate child of some good ole’ fashion gawdly, ummmm, boinking?

There’s only one Creator, Hollie. I would have thought you being Jewish and all that you would have already known this.

 

[Kilroy2]

Are you a child of God? Isn't everyone ?

How do you know? There is only one way to find out but you can believe

With all the various gods running around, how do you know you weren’t an illegitimate child of some good ole’ fashion gawdly, ummmm, boinking?

Is that what you believe?

 

[Hollie]

Are you a child of God? Isn't everyone ?

How do you know? There is only one way to find out but you can believe

With all the various gods running around, how do you know you weren’t an illegitimate child of some good ole’ fashion gawdly, ummmm, boinking?

Is that what you believe?

I don’t need a belief to know that there are hundreds of conceptions of gods. There are many versions of holy scriptures and still more general spiritual texts besides. The essential uniqueness of the Abrahamic Gods is nothing more than the claims of its uniqueness made by its adherents. Yet the largest branch of Abrahamic gods worshipping claims their unique god is actually three-in-one. The second largest branch claims 9 billion names for the same divinity leaving the third leg of the tripod to mutter "Oi vey" under their collective breaths.

If there is one thing we know for certainty, it is gods have a tendency to breed when placed in philosophical discourse with men. So how are we to discover those gods, if any, which hold universally?

 

[HenryBHough]

JESUS SAVES!

Well he would have if there had been such things as IRAs or 401Ks when he was busy assembling cabinets in a way Obama never could do.

 

[alang1216]

It doesn't get any better than this? A depressing thought. What happened to evolving, won't we continue to change?

That depends entirely on you.

Why is this a depressing thought to you?

How much better do you want it to be? Haven’t you already won the cosmic lottery?

I'm guessing every creature has thought, "it can't get any better than this". That would include Australopithecus, homo erectus, Neanterthals, etc.

Personally, I think it can and will get better. Even in my short lifetime I've seen some progress.

 

[ding]

It doesn't get any better than this? A depressing thought. What happened to evolving, won't we continue to change?

That depends entirely on you.

Why is this a depressing thought to you?

How much better do you want it to be? Haven’t you already won the cosmic lottery?

I'm guessing every creature has thought, "it can't get any better than this". That would include Australopithecus, homo erectus, Neanterthals, etc.

Personally, I think it can and will get better. Even in my short lifetime I've seen some progress.

It gets better because of the conflict and confusion process not in spite of the conflict and confusion process.

It is diversity coupled with the fact that error fails that leads to progress. It’s not a pretty picture. It’s messy. Change occurs only when acted on by an outside force. An object at rest tends to stay at rest so to speak. That outside force is a reaction to error. Progress is a cyclical process.

So it’s not going to get better by itself without conflict and diversity but there is a law of compensation at work that seeks equilibrium and order and uses diversity and conflict to achieve it. That’s God’s plan. Which is why they say that all things work for good.

 

[LittleNipper]

I’m a good guy who doesn’t respect the behavior of gays or others with deviant sexual proclivities.

I’ll be welcomed into heaven.

By GRACE are ye saved lest any man should boast.

 

[alang1216]

So it’s not going to get better by itself without conflict and diversity but there is a law of compensation at work that seeks equilibrium and order and uses diversity and conflict to achieve it. That’s God’s plan. Which is why they say that all things work for good.

So what has gotten better since Jesus' time?

 

[ding]

So it’s not going to get better by itself without conflict and diversity but there is a law of compensation at work that seeks equilibrium and order and uses diversity and conflict to achieve it. That’s God’s plan. Which is why they say that all things work for good.

So what has gotten better since Jesus' time?

Pretty much everything. Of course it hasn’t always been a straight line. There have been ups and downs; ebbs and flows. Sometimes it’s been two steps forward and one step backwards.

But if you need specific examples, the sanctity of life, justice and mercy to name a few.

 

[ninja007]

Are you a child of God? How do you know?

I'm an agnostic/atheist but, if there is a heaven, I think I'd be welcomed in. It may be very crowded since I've never met anyone who didn't believe they were going to heaven.

Doesn’t my not knowing my fate count as someone who doesn’t believe he’s not going to heaven?

A triple negative! Very impressive but unclear. I think you're saying you don't know your fate and on a conscious level I'm sure that is true. I believe you consider yourself a devout Christian, a believer in Christ, etc. I also think that in your heart you believe you're following the rules and that means heaven. You'd never presume to say it out loud but... Of course, I could be completely off. Who knows what's in your heart? Do you?

Yes, it was most impressive. Yes, you did seem to get it.

As to your belief that I secretly know my fate, that’s wrong.

You might try reading the catechism. Because it teaches that we do not know our fate or anyone else’s fate.

 

[ninja007]

So am I supposed to be in the same Hell as Hitler and Gandhi simply because I don't believe in a fictional book?

THERE ARE different levels of punishment in hell, and all who deny Jesus as their personal Savior will go to hell.

 

[ninja007]

DING-

John 5:13
Verse Concepts
These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.



Acts 16:31
Verse Concepts
They said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household."


Romans 10:9-10

that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.


Romans 8:1
Verse Concepts
Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

John 3:16
Verse Concepts
"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

 

[Blues Man]

If you're sure you're going to heaven you probably aren't.

 

[ding]

DING-

John 5:13
Verse Concepts
These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.



Acts 16:31
Verse Concepts
They said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household."


Romans 10:9-10

that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.


Romans 8:1
Verse Concepts
Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

John 3:16
Verse Concepts
"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

Better to err on the side of caution. Lest one think Jesus knows him when in fact he does not.

 

[Taz]

DING-

John 5:13
Verse Concepts
These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.



Acts 16:31
Verse Concepts
They said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household."


Romans 10:9-10

that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.


Romans 8:1
Verse Concepts
Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

John 3:16
Verse Concepts
"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

Better to err on the side of caution. Lest one think Jesus knows him when in fact he does not.

Worried whether a dead guy knows him.