Post by B.G. KentPost by BobI'm not concerned about where or what heaven is like. I'm more
interested in who will be there. (Matt about Bren, inside the pearly
gates): "My word! Who would have thought she'd have made it to heaven?
And a tour guide at that!" ;>)
Bob S.
B - Hehhe...I like that Bob...but doesn't that mean I'd have to go before
him? Oh I'll be there....I totally believe that.
thanks.
love Bren
Okay. Suppose we make it and we are hoping to see all our childhood
friends, but we never thought to look them up on classmates.com where
we could have discovered they are old like us and have grandkids who
are older than they were when we knew them? Does this awareness
pretty much throw the "meet up with old friends and relatives" out the
window or will we see them at every stage in their past existence as
they simultaneously see us at every stage in our past existence?
Also, how will people be treated who killed in the name of war,
because their leader "made them" do it? Will they be heroes in God's
eyes even though the former enemy may now be on equally good standing
with God. Do leaders of countries have a God given right to tell
others to disobey the ten commandments in the name of the political
agenda of the day even though the agenda may be entirely different in
ten, twenty, fifty, or one hundred, five hundred, or even a thousand
years?
I have a lot of trouble getting used to the idea that all leaders will
go to heaven simply because they went to church and believed they were
doing the right thing. If I see someone stab my brother and I stab the
person that stabbed him, in the law's eyes I am as culpable as the
person who drew the knife first. But if a national leader does it or a
police officer does it, does that make it right in God's eyes even if
the Law says it was right. Is God the Supreme Being or is anyone in
power the Supreme Being? And does God recognize their supremity for
all time? Not just for today but forever and ever and ever.
I will be able to believe more devoutly when I get answers to the many
questions I have which I have not found believeable answers for in the
Bible. Sometimes I even think portions of the Bible were edited for
the benefit of mortals in power at the moment those portions were
written. What man needs is a Bible that comes directly from God, not
just one that was written by "inspired" men of God. How do we know
that starvation from wandering in the desert for forty years didn't
lead them to believe with all their hearts and souls that they saw
things that didn't really exist? Afterall we believe that Timothy
Leary never *really* saw God because we know he was on LSD quite a
bit. But what if we didn't know what LSD was and what if Timothy Leary
was one of a limited number of scribes who could put their ideas on
paper (or papyrus) for the generations to come? How would the later
generations ever come to know Timothy Leary just saw visions conjured
by his own mind?
Yes I want to believe. I wanted to believe in Santa. I wanted to
believe in the Easter Bunny. I wanted to believe in the Tooth Fairy. I
even wanted to believe that cancer and AIDS would be cured by the end
of the 20th century and Christ would be back here as well. Now that I
am a LOT older I don't know what to believe anymore and just because
it is written in a book that COULD HAVE BEEN edited by self-serving
MEN makes be wonder about almost everything that I was told when I was
younger. Sure there are a lot of fascinating theories which people
claim are the truth but every generation has many unalienable "truths"
which they only take seriously until someone proves them wrong.
What I want to know is what present truths are going to remain truths
5000 years from now and will our souls be punished if it is later
discovered we were worshipping the wrong things just as we now believe
the ancient Greek and Roman and Egyptian beliefs are now all
classified as mythology, just a nicer word for total fantasy?
Jan