Heaven and Hell

Originally posted by Suzianne
So most of humanity lives in a prison of their own design?

This makes complete sense on one level, but it also seems astoundingly simplistic on another. Many in the world do live in prisons of others' designs, through no fault of their own. I'm not disagreeing, mind you, I'm just trying to say that the problem has more than one dimension. Most Christi ...[text shortened]... that we should 'endure to the end', and not expect that our problems will be overcome overnight.

I think there are many things that would bind us up, our sins yes, we can wire our own
brains to behave in ways that are contrary to loving another, by being constantly critical of
others. We can get to the point that is all we see, things that we are critical of, and will
not have anything else come to our eyes.

We can put ourselves where we hate others on sight no matter if we have never met
them, and know nothing about them, but what they look like be they male, female, black,
white, from X or whatever. I'm struck how some whites were once denouncing blacks, they
didn't want them near them, they didn't want to them in their schools, their classes, and
so on. Now I'm seeing the same things from blacks towards whites, they have become
the very thing they claimed they hated. It is so sad, we can be like that!

Originally posted by karoly aczel
" it isn't always drugs that bind people .. "
lol.

Yeah , sometimes it's cults. Very hard to unbind yourself being in a cult 🙂

Seriously though, I find it important to distinguish between sins* that directly harm others and ones that only harm ourselves. Do you give more weight to some sins than others?

*I don't like this word because of the Christian overtones, however I can persist in using it for now

Cults, yes they are wicked no doubt about that. I fear for my country, because across it
many are attacking others that don't think like they do. It isn't a cult that doing this but the
culture, a culture that doesn't tolerate different views.

I do agree with you that sins vary in how bad they are, some harm ourselves more than
others, but still when you and I are weaken by sins you and I do that harm just us, we are
weaker, and are guilty, therefore we are not there for others as we should be, so even
there we harm others, when we are not what we should be for them.

All sin is a break from loving God, and loving others, and in the end would kill us. It is like
living a life on junk food, not healthy food. While we are walking out our lives in the flesh
we are filled with its desires, and that was not how we were supposed to live. We were
supposed to live our lives loving God and each other.

Originally posted by karoly aczel
You think saying things like "King of kings" makes Jesus any more appealing to modern progressive religious attitudes?

I call Jesus King of Kings, because He is. What appeals to others is and always will
be on them.

Originally posted by apathist
I think they [b]don't die with us. Our lives and opinions affect everyone around us, so there's that.

Plus I'm a great goddess fan. We rejoin. Our individuality is lost, but everything about us becomes part of all of it. I know I'm whack, but think about it. No reason for jealousy or pride. No reason to fear this great big afterlife problem. Attend t ...[text shortened]... n't do so good this time, but I progressed. I'll never be back, but I won't ever go away either.[/b]

We view reality a little differently, well actually a great deal differently. I don't believe in
lives that rinse and repeat, I believe we are born, and there is an appointed time and we
die, after that the judgment.

If this world and universe had a beginning with a purpose and a set end date, than what
what is done and said will only matter in how it's designer keeps score. The conversation
about value in an other thread got me thinking about how we value things, what we value
around us, will help judge us. When scriptures teach what does it matter if we gain the
whole world and lose our very souls should inform us, we can take no material things out
of this life. So winning 'stuff' is not a good measure of success. If we fill our lives with
material things, our chains will be all about the temporary, if we spend all our time craving
anything in this world that has nothing to do with loving God and each other, we will be
putting on ourselves chains that bind us to things, and feelings that in the end will not
matter.

So what should be our efforts and works in this life be about, if we miss the mark our lives
works will burn up as meaningless if they are not for what really matters.