Christians would agree that the above statement is wrong, so would most Muslims and Jews, from what I understand of their religions, which admittedly, is limited. Yet, yesterday I had a very interesting talk with a friend in seminary. He finds it difficult to reconcile these ideas of God being loving and accepting, and at the same time condemning people to Hell because they did not choose Him - to be fair this friend also does not believe in Hell.
The most worrying thing for me about this is that this particular friend calls himself a Christian, and as such believes he is going to heaven. This is more worrisome to me than someone who isn't a Christian, because they know they aren't going to what we would refer to as Heaven, and they are fine with that, in fact they don't want to be there.
As another friend said, Matthew 7:21, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven," clearly says that not even all those who call Jesus "Lord" will be going into heaven - how can someone say everyone will be going to heaven, and have any biblical support for such a belief? My friend, a former athiest, continued to say that it is not loving of a God at all to say "well you hate me, rejected me and want nothing to do to me, but now you're going to have to spend all of eternity with me." To her, such a God would ultimately be sadistic.
The interesting thing is that these two friends of mine are operating with different assumptions. My seminary friend is assuming that if there is a heaven, for how can there be a heaven if no hell, then everyone would want to be there, and that a loving God would allow everyone in. Whereas my former atheist friend is operating with the belief that if God was truly loving, He would allow her the choice, which He did, and if she chose to spend time with Him, then good for her, but if she chose not to spend time with Him then good for her as well. A loving God would allow her that choice, and not force her to change it.
Do you believe there is a heaven? Would you want to even be there? Do you think that everyone will be going to heaven, regardless of their beliefs?
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