A quick question...

Hi. My understanding is that, yes, if you are a protestant you believe that if a person does not believe in Jesus, then he or she goes to hell.

Believe in Jesus and also that you believe in the Trinity, that is the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, the three-in-one are GOD, and that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary. And in Jesus' resurrection and in the resurrection of the believers.

Quote:

Book of Common Prayer

I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth:
And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary, Suffered under Pontius Pilate, Was crucified, dead, and buried, He descended into hell; The third day he rose again from the dead, He ascended into heaven, And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost; The holy Catholick Church; The Communion of Saints; The Forgiveness of sins; The Resurrection of the body, And the life everlasting. Amen

.

Apostles' Creed

I think the Nicene Creed differs on some major points, but I forget what they are. There's a link at the end of the article to other creeds.

http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:t8TPu_FQ0EMJ:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostles%27_Creed+%22I+believe+in+god+the+father%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1

BTW, the use of the word "Catholic" above does not refer to the Catholic Church organization. It refers to the use of the word Catholic, such as to mean, I believe, one body of believers or that type of thing.

The above creed is used by one of the Episcopalian sects. And probably others, too.

0 Replies

oh right...
Thanks very much, I just wanted that cleared up.

0 Replies

I'm not a practicing Christian, but I believe there is considerable latitude about just who qualifies for damnation. Some sects are willing to let almost everyone else burn in hell. Others are much more lenient.

0 Replies

Ben Franklin pointed out the 2 different protestent religious philosophies over 200 years ago. They still exist today.

One group thinks good deeds are required to make it to heaven. (They believe non christians can make it to heaven.)

The other thinks that deeds don't matter. You can be as good or as bad as you want. Believing in Christ is the only criteria that will get you there.

0 Replies

Yep. I still have a few seats open in my handbasket if anyone would care to join me. Cool

0 Replies

Thank you everyone. I certainly hope its the good deed one for most of my friend's sake...:S

0 Replies

hephzibah wrote:

Yep. I still have a few seats open in my handbasket if anyone would care to join me.

You cut that out, hep. Ya' hear?

Ain't nobody goin' to hell, damn it.

0 Replies

If such a wacky place existed, I'm sure they'd take me before any o you's!

0 Replies

My feet burn at night... hell of a job to get to sleep, does that have some deep religious meaning??

0 Replies

If good deeds are all that is required....how many?

How good is good enough?

"Good" by whose standard? By God's of course.

I say good luck with that and address this to any who reads.

I know of only one who has met the standard.

No one can go to the the father but by him.

0 Replies

parados, Your statement brings up whole new issues about people born in countries whose religion is not christian. It seems their place of birth has damned them without a prayer just because they never heard about christianity or their culture believes in some other religion.

0 Replies

Re: A quick question...

bendragonbrown wrote:

Is it true that Christian Protestants believe that if you do not believe in Jesus then you go to hell, regardless of how good a life you live?

This quetsion has been preying on my mind for a while and I can't find a proper answer...

Much appreciated!

Altho this is not directly responsive
to the question, the REPORTS of folks who have died
r that the applicable Criteria on Judgment Day
r:

1 ) Love
and
2 ) learning ( see: www.iands.org )
David

0 Replies

Bartikus wrote:

If good deeds are all that is required....how many?

How good is good enough?

"Good" by whose standard? By God's of course.

I say good luck with that and address this to any who reads.

I know of only one who has met the standard.

No one can go to the the father but by him.

Why does he have standards on us? It's pretty obvious that most don't live up to them. Why couldn't he just make a good enough plan where we don't end up burning forever?

0 Replies

thunder, first you must know that humans make mistakes but we are forgiven even before we ask. Whatever we do "wrong" we can forgive ourselves and move on. Nobody burns, ever. You just get another chance, the chances never end.

While good deeds may be good because they keep us busy, that's all it is - busy work. Mostly, it's all in what we are thinking, and we can learn to control our mind -- change our thinking from negative to positive. Thought always precedes action, so you are going to be what you think you are..

But, David (the one who uses the bright colored oversized type) is right, it only takes love and learning. We reach God through education. Get the best education you can, then you will be ready to understand when you find the right material to read and learn from. Choose a career wisely, do your best at it without walking on the heads of others. All the things you need to know will find their way to you if you don't become obsessed with the negative -- you know, like power, money, sex, etc. Even should you fail, get up and try again.

Hope you are into reading.

Wishing you well. Sorry I messed up your other thread.

Sunlover

0 Replies

thunder32 wrote:

Bartikus wrote:
If good deeds are all that is required....how many?

How good is good enough?

"Good" by whose standard? By God's of course.

I say good luck with that and address this to any who reads.

I know of only one who has met the standard.

No one can go to the the father but by him.

Why does he have standards on us? It's pretty obvious that most don't live up to them. Why couldn't he just make a good enough plan where

we don't end up burning forever?

A small minority ( suicides & atheists )
of people who have died
have reported " hellish " circumstances,
but no one that I 've heard of has ever reported any burning

( not even if u use oversized colored fonts )

It is a foregone conclusion that everyone
who uses fonetic spelling goes to Heaven

0 Replies

If we are forgiven before we ask, why do we have to bother with anything? Why wasn't his plan good enough to where we would "want" to do good? By burning, I mean, Hell. Why use scare tactics to get people to change?

0 Replies

cicerone imposter wrote:

parados, Your statement brings up whole new issues about people born in countries whose religion is not christian. It seems their place of birth has damned them without a prayer just because they never heard about christianity or their culture believes in some other religion.

Actually, I think ignorance gets you a pass as well.

My Mormon friend tells me that only the worst of the worst go to hell... everyone else is just vying for position in Heaven. The better you spend your time on earth, the further ahead you'll be.

I like Pauli's assessment:

Paulie: You didn't go to hell. You went to purgatory, my friend.
Christopher: I forgot about purgatory.
Paulie: Purgatory--a little detour on the way to paradise.
Christopher: How long do you think we've got to stay there?
Paulie: That's different for everybody. You add up all your mortal sins and multiply that number by 50. Then you add up all your venial sins and multiply that by 25. You add that together and that's your sentence. I figure I'm gonna have to do 6,000 years before I get accepted into heaven and 6,000 years is nothin' in eternity terms. I can do that standing on my head. It's like a couple of days here.

0 Replies

thunder32 wrote:

If we are forgiven before we ask, why do we have to bother with anything? Why wasn't his plan good enough to where we would "want" to do good? By burning, I mean, Hell. Why use scare tactics to get people to change?

You're not forgivven before you ask, you must ask for forgiveness in true repentance for the sins you committed. Not only via the tongue, but more importantly via the soul (sincere intentions). Your actions are judged by your intentions.

It might be scare tactics, but it's more of a warning. God is giving you chance after chance to finally repent and to follow the Straight Path he ordained for you to follow. Follow it and you'll be among the winner in the Hereafter. Of course it is not easy, the soul loves to sin and that's part of the test of Life. You overcome your inner passions, desires and lusts.

"O my Servants who have transgressed against their souls! Do not despair of the Mercy of God: for God forgives all sins: for He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful." Turn to your Lord (in repentance) and bow to His Will, before the Penalty comes upon you: after that you shall not be helped. (Az-Zumar, 53-54)

Similar to how the Prophet (pbuh) upon returning from one of the Battles told his Companions, we've just finished the small war and now we're returning to the bigger war. Puzzled, they asked him how is that so when we just saw blood and death, what can be more difficult than that? He replied: The war against one's soul is more difficult.

0 Replies

Look at the big picture. Get all your ideas of original sin, repentance, and all that out of your head, and ask yourself, why would this perfect creature have a plan where most of the creation will end up in hell. Let's be honest, if even close to the majority of the entire population sincerely repented their 'sins', we would probably live in a better place. Everyone else is gonna die forever. Forgiveness is a great thing, but the root of my idea goes deeper than believing that forgiveness from God is even necessary or exists at all.

0 Replies

A quick question...

Related Topics

Quick Links

My Account

able2know