NU169273@vm1.nodak.edu (01/22/91)
pg. 1:
NOTE: THIS DOCUMENT WILL
PROBABLY BE THE MOST IMPORTANT
THING YOU'VE EVER READ!
"What must I do to get to heaven?"
Instructions: Check below what you
think is necessary to get to heaven:
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[] 1. Trying to keep the 10 commandments.
[] 2. Giving to charity or the church.
[] 3. Doing your best; living a good life.
[] 4. Trying to obey the Golden Rule.
[] 5. Being a church member and attending.
[] 6. Praying, and reading the Bible.
[] 7. Doing good works and deeds.
[] 8. Being baptized.
[] 9. Taking Holy Communion.
[] 10. Believing in God.
[] 11. Being Confirmed.
[] 12. Having faith.
[] 13. Helping out the other people.
[] 14. Not hurting anybody.
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pg. 2:
It's a fact of life that we must all die one day. From that point
on we will be in either heaven or hell forever. If you were to die today..
where would you spend eternity?...Like most folks you feel pretty confident
that it would probably be heaven, but did you know the Bible says most
people will go to hell? (Matthew 7:13-14) and that most people who think
they're heaven bound Christians actually aren't? (Matthew 7:21-23)
THIS MAY BE SHOCKING! (please read on...)
The sad truth is that people are trusting in some of the things on
the above page to save them, (some of the very things you may have just
checked off!) but will any of these actually get you to heaven? No, not
according to what God says. You could join every church in the world,
never miss a Sunday service, be baptized in every lake and river, take
communion every day, believe in God, try and keep the 10 commandments,
pray, and do everything else on the list, and still not make it to heaven!
WHAT DOES GOD SAY IN HIS WORD, THE BIBLE?
God the Son (Jesus Christ) told us when He was on the earth 2000
years ago, that "except a man be born again he cannot see (heaven) the
kingdom of God." (John 3:3) My friend, if you cannot point to a time in
your past when you were born again, then according to Jesus Christ, you're
not going to heaven! Being born again is so important, that without it,
you will go to the furnace of fire called hell, forever! (Matthew 13:41-
42, Matthew 18:8-9)
"So how is a person born again?"
Well, first of all, it's "not by works of righteousness which we
have done, but according to His mercy he saved us." (Titus 3:5) You
cannot earn your way to heaven. "For by grace are ye saved through faith;
and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God, not of works lest any
man should boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9) That is why Jesus Christ had to come
to this planet 2000 years ago: to die on the cross and pay the price for
yours sins. As a sinner you cannot make it to heaven on your own merit or
goodness. "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God"
(heaven). "There is none righteous, no not one!" (Romans 3:23, 10)
The Bible says you must repent from your sins, (change your mind or
attitude about your sins). Jesus Christ said, "Except ye repent, ye shall
all likewise perish." (Luke 13:3) The Bible says "Repent ye therefore and
be converted that your sins may be blotted out." (Acts 3:19)
PLEASE READ ON!
My friend, you have an appointment to stand before God one day and
answer for every sinful thought, word or deed ever done during your
lifetime. (Revelation 20:11-15) God will not overlook any sin. (II.
Peter 3:9) God will judge the cusser, drinkers, the immoral, thieves,
sodomites, the greedy, dishonest, adulterers, perverts, liars, cheaters,
the proud, and every other type of sinner. (I. Corinthians 6:9-10,
Galatians 5:19-21) All sinners "shall have their part in the lake which
burneth with fire and brimstone." (Revelation 21:8)
THERE IS ONLY ONE WAY TO ESCAPE THIS FATE!
Jesus Christ is your only chance of making it to heaven. He said
"I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but
by me." (John 14:6)
If you will repent of sins and place all your faith in Jesus Christ
(Acts 20:21) God will save you. "For whosoever shall call upon the name of
the Lord shall be saved." (Romans 10:13)
Being born again is not receiving a warm or "tingly" feeling, it is
simply receiving Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. You can know for
sure that you're going to heaven when you die, (I John 5:13) and have a
salvation that you can never lose (John 10:27-28). God can change your
life (II. Corinthians 5:17) and fill that religious emptiness you have.
Please don't neglect your precious soul. It's worth more than the
whole world to God. (Mark 8:36) This life time is only a dressing room
for eternity. God loves you, (John 3:16) and wants you to be saved. If
you "mean business" with God and you're willing to let God run life, and
you would like to be born again more than anything in the world; then you
can simply pray the following prayer, and God will hear you.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
"Father, I know that I am a lost sinner. Please forgive me.
I want to repent of my sins and put all of my faith in Jesus
Christ to save me here and now, in Jesus name I pray, Amen.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
If you have sincerely prayed the preceeding prayer, then you have
made the most important decision you will ever make. Now that you've been
saved you should read your Bible and pray everyday. You should find a
church that really preaches the Bible, so that you can grow spiritually as
a new Christian...God bless you.
K. Paulson
222 Stockbridge Hall
N. D. S. U.
Fargo, North Dakota 58105ramsey@fieldofdreams.npirs.purdue.edu (Ed Ramsey) (01/29/91)
> It is just this kind of dogmatic belief and fundamental fear of death and > the unkown that has made Christianity such a historicaly cruel religion and, > in my eyes, entirely moraly corrupt. This is an interesting position. Since christianity is based on a living relationship with Jesus Christ, and since everything about Jesus Christ is focused on loving, caring for, and ministering to others to the point of ignoring oneself, and since for many of us who came from, at best, a-moral backgrounds and learned human, other-centered morality at Jesus' feet, I find it hard to understand this position, and must assume it is itself based on fear and misunderstanding. You may, if you chose, call light darkness and darkness light, but that doesn't make it so. -Ed -- Ed Ramsey ramsey@NPIRS.Purdue.Edu 317/494-6616 FAX 317/494-0535 "There is nothing more important to me than knowing Jesus as he really is." [The comment was "historically". Certainly lots of wars have been fought in Jesus' name, and lots of people persecuted. I don't consider the people who do such things proper Christians, but it has been prevalent enough that at some point it becomes hard to completely ignore. Certainly this sort of thing would be less likely with religions that consider all religions more or less equivalent, or with agnostic beliefs. It does seem to be connected with the Christian idea that we are *right* and everybody else is going to Hell. From there it seems not far to the idea that other people don't matter. --clh]
billy@tcom.stc.co.uk (Billy Khan) (01/30/91)
Well i thought the previous article on 'how to get to heaven' was correct. I'm afraid people like Mr. Lindberg (lindborg?) are the ones who need the prayer. By saying that christianity is morally corrupt you imply that God i s too. Now, God went out of his way in the accounts of the old testament to supply the people of israel with what they needed during the quest for the promised land. He gave them simple guidelines to follow. What happened? They disobeyed and ended up making gold idols and worshipping them. He destroyed Sodom and Gommorrah because there was not one righteous person there. He has everyright to wipe us from the planet, because we have. a: Disobeyed him in just about everyway imaginable b: Made a complete mess of his planet. Now, being hypothetical, if you had had the earth and its people and allowed them free will showered good things on them and then they did that what would you think? Anyone less than a real loving person would probably wipe it out and start again. But God said, unless you obey my laws you cannot be with me. This leaves us God with a quandary. If loves every single one of us (no exceptions) but he must punish us for what we have done against him. So instead of just leaving us to face our punishment he sends his son down to earth to pay for the sins of humankind (because he was the only one left who could pay the price, there was no other good enough) so that if you believed in him you might be saved from the punishment that you RIGHTFULLY and MORALLY deserve!! Jesus offers a lifeline. We all stand accused because we break Gods 'Moral Code' if you like. And his morals are far more 'good' than yours. The ten commandments laid out the groundrules and no-one in the world can say they have kept these to the letter. Your only way to heaven, my friend, is to bring your life before the cross of Jesus, recognise and accept that you have failed, ask sincerely for repentance and accept the GIFT of salvation. For there is no way that you can earn it. Gods grace is as infinite as his love. Remember, you are free to do what you wish in this life, but you are not free to escape the consequences. Drew... - What use is having a saviour who can walk on water, If you don't follow in his footsteps? [Saying that Christianity is morally corrupt does not necessarily say that God is. Perhaps God didn't really order all those crusades, inquisitions, and pogroms? --clh]
lieuwen@mycella.cs.wisc.edu (Dan Lieuwen) (01/30/91)
That is nonsense unless all that is meant is that wars will be fought but not in the name of religion. War is the natural state of man--and if people don't use religion as the excuse for what they'd do anyway for political reasons, they'll find some other reason: like ethnicity or for some secular religion, like communism. Dan
sc1u+@andrew.cmu.edu (Stephen Chan) (02/03/91)
ramsey@fieldofdreams.npirs.purdue.edu (Ed Ramsey) writes: > [The comment was "historically". Certainly lots of wars have been > fought in Jesus' name, and lots of people persecuted. I don't > consider the people who do such things proper Christians, but it has > been prevalent enough that at some point it becomes hard to completely > ignore. Certainly this sort of thing would be less likely with > religions that consider all religions more or less equivalent, or with > agnostic beliefs. It does seem to be connected with the Christian > idea that we are *right* and everybody else is going to Hell. From > there it seems not far to the idea that other people don't matter. > --clh] Christianity is no different from any other belief system where there is truth and falsehood, right & wrong. Marxism is a fundamentally atheistic system of beliefs, yet there have been wars for and against communism throughout much of this century. "free access to markets" was a mercantilist idea which caused many invasions during the previous century. How about the idea of "National Socialism" in Germany during the 1930's? In American history, how about "manifest destiny" or the "Monroe Doctrine" as ideas which justified gross abuse of other human beings? How about "state's rights" as the issue during the Am. Civil War? Any time that there are strong convictions of what is right and what is wrong, conflict will occur. For Christians, the solution is not to water down our convictions about how we should behave or what is true, but to rather to develop our senses of compassion and tolerance towards other people. Without these faculties, we're not capable of correctly representing Christ. "Take the log out of your own eye first, and then you will see clearly enough to take the splinter out of your brother's eye" Stephen Chan
murphy@mips.com (Mike Murphy) (02/03/91)
Our moderator wrote something which troubled me: >[The comment was "historically". Certainly lots of wars have been >fought in Jesus' name, and lots of people persecuted. I don't >consider the people who do such things proper Christians, but it has >been prevalent enough that at some point it becomes hard to completely >ignore. Certainly this sort of thing would be less likely with >religions that consider all religions more or less equivalent, or with >agnostic beliefs. It does seem to be connected with the Christian >idea that we are *right* and everybody else is going to Hell. From >there it seems not far to the idea that other people don't matter. >--clh] First of all, I think more wars have been fought for nationalistic reasons than for religious reasons. This gets tricky to measure because it is common to invoke religion after the war is started, but from my own study of history it seems that the root reasons of most wars, especially modern-day ones, have very little to do with religion. An obvious example of how nationalism and religion get mixed is the current war with Iraq, where both sides have claimed God is on their side, and Saddam has tried to declare a holy war, but the real reasons for the war have very little to do with religious beliefs. Christianity gets blamed for a lot of stuff via "guilt by association", but that's ignoring the real causes. I'm also not convinced that more tolerant religions produce fewer wars or persecution. I would consider Asia in general to have a more tolerant religious viewpoint (e.g. Buddhism and Confucian thought are more inclusive than Christianity), yet they have not refrained from wars and bloodshed. Another point of reference is that despite Christianity having declining influence in the Western world, we can't really say that we have any fewer wars or bloodshed than back in the "golden days" of Christian political influence. On the Christian side, the fact that I may believe someone is going to hell doesn't necessarily mean that "other people don't matter", to quote clh. Although you could make that link, I think the more common response to the idea of hell is to increase evangelism efforts because such people "do" matter. In fact it can be argued that the absence of religious values has also led to the belief that "other people don't matter". My real point in all of this is that I think most wars and persecution are caused by our "sinful" desires (James 4:1-2); we want something and get angry when we don't get it so we fight (a little simplistic, but I'm trying to keep this short). It is anger, pride, fear, hatred, greed, etc. that cause fighting, not religious beliefs about heaven and hell. There's a separate issue here of "just wars", where it may be appropriate to fight, e.g. in self-defense, so I don't think things are as simple as saying that all fighting is wrong. But I don't think there is really anything special about Christianity that causes "more" fighting.
lindborg@cs.washington.edu (Jeff Lindborg) (02/08/91)
In article <Feb.2.22.49.40.1991.27042@athos.rutgers.edu> murphy@mips.com (Mike Murphy) writes: >Our moderator wrote something which troubled me: [...] > >First of all, I think more wars have been fought for nationalistic >reasons than for religious reasons. This gets tricky to measure because >it is common to invoke religion after the war is started, but from >my own study of history it seems that the root reasons of most wars, >especially modern-day ones, have very little to do with religion. This may be true for "modern day wars" but it was certainly NOT the case in earlier history. The difficulty stems from the fact that the Christian Church was, in essence, the political power of the land throughout the middle ages (after the crumbling of the feudal system and other reasons). Its difficult, then, the separate the actions of the "state" and the "Church" durring this time, bucause they were one in the same. >Christianity >gets blamed for a lot of stuff via "guilt by association", but that's >ignoring the real causes. Certainly true. Although the religious wars, the inquisition, and other persecution insituted BY the CHURCH cannot be said to be "guilt by association"... >I'm also not convinced that more tolerant religions produce fewer wars >or persecution. I would consider Asia in general to have a more tolerant >religious viewpoint (e.g. Buddhism and Confucian thought are more inclusive >than Christianity), yet they have not refrained from wars and bloodshed. Because Buddhism never really had the POWER the Church here did. (see above). Hence the wars were waged by the state and not by the Buddihist 'church' as it were. Buddhism has a VERY good track record when it comes to tyrany and repression. I believe this stems from the idea that they believe ANYONE can obtain enlightenment (ie be a 'Buddah' or enlightened one). They accept the validity of all religions and systems of beliefs etc... This is a tolerance that the Church will never be able to claim. >Another point of reference is that despite Christianity having declining >influence in the Western world, we can't really say that we have any >fewer wars or bloodshed than back in the "golden days" of Christian >political influence. Certainly not more bloodshed in the name of God anyway... >On the Christian side, the fact that I may believe someone is going to hell >doesn't necessarily mean that "other people don't matter", to quote clh. I'm not sure I agree. What about the slaughtering of the priests of Baal and the killing of 'pagans' in the name of God throughout the 'Old Testament'? Its clear that God does not grant non Jews with the same rights as humans as he granted to the Isrealite nation. I see no attempt to convert these people to their belief system, they were just killed with God's blessing. Someone who beleives this to be the inspired word of God must surely believe that non Christians are viewed as being less "worthy" or life and hence "don't matter" as much. >In fact it can be argued that the absence of religious >values has also led to the belief that "other people don't matter". It could be? Oh, please do. I'm interested in hearing your arguments because I heartily disagree. Jeff Lindborg
marlatt@spot.Colorado.EDU (MARLATT STUART WARREN) (02/27/91)
>Ed Ramsey writes: >Belief systems are about philosophies and ideas. Christianity is >about a person and our relationship *to* that person. >That, sir, is an idea. > >And if you observe that idea methodically, you have something like >a philosophy. Substitute, for a moment, 'marriage' for 'Christianity' in the above posting. Certainly, we might construe that the subject of marriage may be a focus for philosophy, but if I were to say that my relationship with my wife was simply a philosophy I follow, I think she might object. Christianity _is_ relationship. Communication. God and man in communion with one another. A lifetime of learning to know this _Person_ with whom you are bonded. Perhaps not so equally as marriage - Lordship is still there - but certainly far, far more than just a set of rules and ideas to be methodically implemented. -- s.w. marlatt <>< and *(:-)
henning@acsu.buffalo.edu (Karl cut Henning) (03/05/91)
MARLATT STUART WARREN writes: >karl henning writes: >>Ed Ramsey writes: >>Belief systems are about philosophies and ideas. Christianity is >>about a person and our relationship *to* that person. >That, sir, is an idea. >And if you observe that idea methodically, you have something like >a philosophy. >Certainly, we might construe that the subject of marriage may be a focus >for philosophy, but if I were to say that my relationship with my wife >was simply a philosophy I follow, I think she might object. Is philosophy "simply something one follows"? Apart from the odd bias of this phrasing, I don't think there's anything to which the average person would object, in describing marriage as a topic of philosophy .... >Christianity _is_ relationship. Communication. This statement _is_ a simile, not a statement of equivalence. The notion of xianity being "communication", is at least as curious (to me) as describing the television as a "communications device"; neither is as clearly demonstrable a medium of mutual intercourse, as (say) a telephone call. >... certainly far, far more than just a set of rules >and ideas to be methodically implemented. Different people, through the ages, and from different cultures, entertain different ideas about god, and man's relation (or non-) to him/her/it/them. But religion /is/ simply philosophy, albeit clouded (<-- biased word betraying author's opinion) oftentimes by anthropomorphic conceptions of a deity. Personally, I can have no tenable objection to a fellow person's choosing to "personalize" as it were his philosophy with a projected deity. Rationally, I understand too, that while a philosopher has no ground to lose by characterizing religion as a sub-branch of philosophy, an important part of the psychological need to impart philosophical weight upon a projected deity, is lack of trust in "mere abstraction" (part of it, too, is the mythopoaeic tradition of attributing natural phenomena to a Big Person, or Little People). kph -- "The shrewder mobs of America, who dislike having two minds upon a subject, both determine and act upon it drunk; by which means a world of cold and tedious speculation is dispensed with." -- Washington Irving