We have a question about heaven. What happens in a family, when two members of the family die, if one goes the heaven and the other does not? How can the person who went to heaven be completely happy without the member of the family who isn't there? After all, the other person was a loved one of the person who went to heaven, no matter how many sins they committed. And since perfect happiness is supposed to exist in heaven, how can they be happy without one another? This situation seems not to make sense. We hope that this post will give our followers something to think about and we also hope that the people who read this post will post a comment or solution to this most puzzling of thoughts.
I consider myself a Christian, and have belonged to United Methodist communities lately (though I am not certain exactly where my ideas and thoughts fit in yet). I believe in God, Jesus, Heaven and Hell.
ReplyDeleteThat's where I am coming from, so here is my opinion on Heaven/Hell.
In the bible, I've learned about how God created us and absolutely and completely loves every one of us no matter what (how's that for a mood boost :]). He gave us free will (because he wanted us to love Him because of Him, not because He made us) which was shown in the garden of Eden story (Adam and Eve eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil after God asked them not to so they found out about sin). God had to ask them to leave because His garden (I believe) was created to be a place without sin. God could have just decided not to make a tree, but He wanted all options available to us.
THAT said, it brings me to Jesus. God saw we were living in sin and the bible mentions sinners going to Hell. God could not stand losing any of us (because remember, he loves us) so he sent his child, his son Jesus, to try to teach us to be more like God. Jesus then died for us. He died for our sins. I personally can not see the point if after all that, we still go to Hell. I think Jesus died for us so that when we die, our sins get wiped away as if they were never there. I believe God wants us all to be living with him.
Now, I am still undecided on some of this because my knowledge and research is very shallow.
There could also be a possibility that instead of us all being sinless at death maybe when we die some of us DO go to Hell...but I believe God would never stop until He brought us back to him.
I totally agree with you. I could never be happy in a heaven where people I love couldn't be. That would never be paradise for me, especially if I knew they were suffering somewhere else. I would rather go in their place if it was between them and me going to heaven (once again...I think that's what Jesus did for us...he traded places with us).
I'd love to hear other religion's opinions on this. I once got into a great discussion with a few people of different religions about it.
Also, my opinion on all of these things is subject to change as I broaden my knowledge :)
ReplyDeleteDear Brooke,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your thoughtful comment on this article! We really appreciate your views, since we like to see that someone is reading and thinking about our posts.
After reading your post, we had a question: Do your beliefs include purgatory, which is the Catholic belief that after one dies, one goes to a place of purification for some period so as to clear their soul of all sin. As God has said in the Bible, Hell is an eternal place...so it is our opinion that whatever you did in this life to go to Hell must have been pretty bad!
Please let us know what you think...again, we really appreciate your comments.
--Soklabi :)