What Denomination Will Have The Most Members In Heaven?

the bible tells us what his will is. i cant tell you certain verses right now cause i can't recall. but there are things he wants to live by and do.

rancid i can honestly say i don't know. im being honest. i don't have a theology degree or anything like because i am only in high school. that doesnt mean there isnt an explanation. because i am sure there is.

from my knowledge. we are to follow the Great Commission which tells us to preach the word of God to everyone. We are to love God and follow what he tells us in the Bible. we are to accept him as Lord and Savior. I am positive there is more but it has slipped my mind. you ever forget. well it happened to me. lol

The only thing you have to do if you are wondering is to look it up and i am positive you will find something.

I'll tell you a story vol_fan06

There was this boy, lets call him Josh. Josh used to go to church every sunday with his parents and sing praises and listened to sermons. He used to read a chapter of the bible every night and have a sincere prayer to Jesus before he went to sleep. Josh loved his family and loved the lord, just as he had been taught. He never had any reason to question anything he was taught because he knew deep down in his heart that it was the truth. Josh felt an indescribable feeling of inner peace whenever he prayed and whenever he went to church. When he did something wrong he felt guilty, but when he prayed to the lord and asked for forgiveness he felt peace again because he knew the lord was listening and would always forgive him and love him. Josh had a good upbringing and he was taught to always have good morals and keep faithful to Jesus.

When Josh was 15 some things started to happen in his life which broke the bubble he had been living in. His parents seperated, he went to live with his Grandmother, and girl asked him out. This girl belonged to another religion but still beleived in the bible. Josh knew that he was too young to have a girlfriend but being a male he just had to see what would happen. One thing led to another and Josh started going to church meetings with his new girlfriend. He was taught different things to what his parents and previous pastor taught him, things that they would actually strongly disagree with, but it was still all from the bible. Josh was confused, he didn't know what to believe.

Josh is now 21 and studying computer science at university. Josh is me. What do you think happened to my faith? Why dont I beleive everything I was taught anymore?

i can say that i have experienced what you talk about in the beginning. i think you just confused and i think you should read through scripture. because the truth is the truth and you need to find the truth from the bible.

I will pray for you. I really mean it.

Exactly the reply I was expecting.

No, I'm not confused. I know exactly what I believe and why, you however know what you believe, but you dont know why.

Some things you have to experience for yourself to understand. I hope you dont live out the rest of your life without ever questioning what the people you trust tell you.

Just because your parents love you doesn't mean they know everything and you should never question them.

Rancid, I'm curious, are you still Christian, or what do you currently believe?

I currently beleive that I am incapable of understanding everything and therefore reserve my judgement until a) God tells me what to beleive OR b) a theory about creation/evolution is proven beyond doubt.

I hope this question isn't offensive, but I am curious.

What do you now think of the feelings and experiences you used to take as proof?

rancid i do believe and i do have questions from time to time. and i use the bible to answer my questions or i ask my minister. i do know why i believe and it's because through scripture and things i have experienced that i know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God is God. and there is no other. Faith is big part.

I think they are wonderful. i just get a feeling i cant explain it but it just makes me know that there is a God.

I think Rancid's point is that he has shared your experiences, however you have not shared his.

I am glad you asked.

The 'indescribable feelings' one gets when praying sincerely or singing in church etc.. I beleive they are based on expectations. You expect to feel that way and therefore you do. For example, I was told to ask Jesus for forgiveness each time I did something bad and he would forgive me. Everytime I did something bad, I would feel guilty. When I prayed and asked for forgiveness, I knew I would be forgiven and so I felt that I was and it gave me a feeling of peace.

I am sure this happens in any religion that is based on emotion, not just charasmatic chrustianity but also Islamic religions. I've seen video footage of people in Islamic meeting places bowing heads, waving hands, and praying fervently, all these things are based on emotion - I beleive its the same emotion. This sort of emotion goes beyond reason and makes people blind to logic. Similar to when your girlfriend gets emotional about something, you just cant reason with her.

Are you convinced of that, or are you still debating with yourself?

Its just a theory.

Seriously though, I've been to allot of different churches and its always comes down to the same thing. Protestant christian faith is based more on the 'feeling' that people get than the words of the bible. I could get more doctrinally specific if you'd like.

I have had lengthly discussions with Mormons and they aren't much different. Their faith is based more on their writings, but they always come back to 'the feeling'. For example, after telling me the story about Joseph Smith and his meeting with the Father and Jesus Christ they asked me "how did that make you feel?" I asked them "how is it supposed to make me feel?" They said that after hearing the story for the first time themselves, they felt the presence of the holy spirit. I however, felt nothing...

In my experience Jehovah's Witnesses have the most reasonable and logical beleifs. Their teaching is always backed up with scripture, and no question is unanswerable. After about a year studying the Jehovah's Witness faith, I was baptised as a Jehovah's Witness. I was 18 at the time. 6 months later I left because I felt like they were trying to control my thoughts. They have literature to cover every topic, noone can have their own opinion about anything because everything the books say is unquestionable.

Thats as far as my religious experience goes.

I find your experience interesting.

Actually I wouldn't mind hearing specific doctrines.

I myself am actually Mormon, and that experience does sound very typical of us. I do take a lot of meaning from feelings.

I think God is pleased with any steps we take towards him, which is how I explain people of all denominations having the same convincing feelings. But they are still just feelings, will will never be concrete, and we all have a tendency to use our feelings to force others to believe the same as we do.

And it comes down to something you said earlier, which reminded me of the parable of the blind leading the blind. As soon as someone gropes around in the dark for long enough, they're bound to run into something, and as soon as they familiarize themselves with it they presume they know enough to lead others through the dark.

Which isn't necessarily bad. I mean, that's the same process that brought science as far as it is. But at the same time it does cause a lot of contention.

I hope I'm not rambling, it's late at night and I can't sleep. Don't hold it against me if I meander a little.

I'm fairly opinionated, and have a tendency to get angry when someone disagrees with me. Unfortunately, I'm opinionated far more often than I am correct.
So I end up being the blind one, trying to lead someone else who may or may not be blind themselves.

Of course, we all think we're the only one who sees clearly. Can you relate?

I better get some sleep, good night.

Some things I have trouble dealing with is that mormons believe everything that happens is meant to be (correct me if I'm wrong). For example, a person who is born with a handicap was 'meant to be' that way because they were very righteous in heaven before becoming human. Also there is the issue of always wearing white undergarments. Can you explain? I think your religion is one of the least judgemental of all religions because you believe there is truth in all religion. Mormons are also encouraged to think about things for themselves which is better than my experience with JWs.



Yes, sometimes I find myself questioning my own logic for that very reason. I always wonder, if two people have all the exact same life experience and same information, would they both think exactly the same way?

Actually, Christians have the least chance of getting into heaven. They've been responsible too many of the sins described in the bible. If I had to bet my last dollar, I'd choose the buddhist. You see, a Buddhist can become Buddha, but a Christian can never become god - and that's been proven over the ages.

There is no doctrine that everything is meant to be, but a lot of members come to that conclusion themselves, however our leaders constantly say it is not the case.

Most notably, Jesus himself said "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven," which there would be no need to pray for if it was already the case. Well, that's debatable, but I doubt you'll disagree with me if I say that God's will is not always done on earth.

As far as the handicapped thing, Joseph Smith was troubled on the subject, because it seems so sad that some people aren't able to experience this life to its fullest, and he said he thought it might be the case that God was sparing them the troubles of this world that come with higher intelligence. That's in my own words, but he didn't preach it as doctrine. It was just something he wondered about.

As far as the garments, they are just a reminder of our religion. I would relate it to all of the ordinances and practices God had the Jews perform. For example, what was the purpose of having them sacrifice animals. It certainly didn't accomplish anything physical. In fact, it offering the best of your flock would be detremental from a physical perspective. But it kept God on their minds. Also it was symbolic of the sacrifice of his son.

The idea was, that the more they actually acted on their religion, the more worthy they were to feel the spirit. I would assume that the more diligently you studied the scriptures and prayed the more you had the feelings we were talking about earlier. Well, to try to keep it short, the garments we wear serve the same function as tying a string around your finger to remember something that might not otherwise be on your mind.

Yes, sometimes I find myself questioning my own logic for that very reason. I always wonder, if two people have all the exact same life experience and same information, would they both think exactly the same way?[/quote]

I've thought that too. If for example, I was born in place of a criminal. If I had the same abusive parents, grew up in the same bad neighborhood, and had the same poor role models, and low income, or whatever other factors, would I end up in prison too?

My opinion is that I would definitely be more likely to, but I can't convince myself that it would always play out the same.

I don't know if you believe or ever believed in an existence before life on earth, but I think we all had the opportunity to develope some character before we came here.

There are so many factors to account for. I've heard the argument, similar to what you said earlier, that the feelings we mistake for the spirit have been proven to simply be chemicals released in the body for various reasons. But then I could counter on the other end, if God knew he was going to put us in bodies, and knew he wanted us to feel his spirit, wouldn't he need some medium to accomplish it?

Whether or not God is bound by physics, it is apparently the way he has chosen to operate. If there weren't a physical reason why we were feeling the spirit, it would just be magic.

Obviously, you've analyzed the spirit just as I have, and came to a different logical decision.

An omnipotent God would have to realize how difficult it is to find truth in this world. Hope he gives us all some credit.

Well, enough for my ramblings. What do you think will happen after death? The atheist perspective seems scary.

Interesting, I'll have to think about some of the things you said.



If God uses chemical reactions in our brains to make us feel things wouldn't he need a physical medium to perform the physical act of making the reaction occur (otherwise it would still be magic). Also, there a drugs (not all illegal) you can buy that cause these chemical reactions. If you believe that we all have a spirit inside us, it would be more reasonable to conclude that God would influence the spirit rather than the actual brain. However science has shown that emotion and feelings are result of actual physical chemical reactions/imbalances. Thats why there are anti-depression drugs and other drugs that alter the brain's chemical balance.



I dont have a strong view on what happens after people die (because I dont know). If I was to pick a single theory and say I beleived it, then I would say that when you die, you are dead (Having lost life; no longer alive. - http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=dead). I dont beleive in a 'spirit' inside us that lives on after death. It is proven that our brains contain our memories, personality, thinking ability etc... so it makes no sense that after losing our physical brain we could continue to exist as a person.

In my opinion this theory does not conflict with the bible.

Want to feel good and happy? Take dope.

Well, look at it this way. If we assume (I realize this may be a big "if") that there are spirits, and that they can see and feel like we do, then what about blind people? If the spirit is capable of sight, but their physical eyes are damaged, then why can't they still see? Apparently the body can hamper the spirit. Just as if I wore a suit of armor without slits cut in the helmet for my eyes. Well, that's a silly example, but how could a spirit meet it's functions if it wasn't in a body capable of the same functions?

So, when something goes wrong with the body, say chemically in the brain, it might prevent the spirit from acting in its natural capacity. This isn't doctrine, I'm just playing around with the logistics. Of course, if you don't believe in a spirit, then it sounds silly no matter how I try to word it.

Something that is doctrine in my church, is that God doesn't do "magic." Spirits are actually physical, that is, made up of the same stuff we are, however they simply operate in a way we don't understand or see.

If I were able to travel back in time with a couple of cell phones, no one would understand how they could hear me when I wasn't physically there. I'm just using principles they aren't aware of, but it would seem as if I were defying physics.