I don’t get the deal about the fact that people say that on JD there’ll be some people goin to hell and Heaven. And if you look at it from each religions perspective, only the followers (good ones) of that particular religion are deemed to go to heaven, and the rest to hell? so if we look at a religion like Judaism, are only the good jews (i.e about half of them which is about 9 million or so) gonna go to heaven and the rest of the 3 billion people gonna go to hell. Whats the deal with that!!
You’re obviously a clever fellow- how do you think it should be done?
Well to be honest it really throws into question the whole concept of the Judgement Day as we see it. What i mean is, that we either see JD as totally false, or we see it another way. Perhaps God doesn’t mean people to be PERFECT. I know it seems like a stupid analogy, but its the one which has popped into my head right know. Imagine you’re gonna buy some apples from the grocer. You want to obviously seperate out the good apples from the bad apples. You might be an absolute perfectionist who ONLY and i mean ONLY picks the nice ripe, most juiciest apples from the lot. But out of about 100 apples, you’ll only get fantastic perfect ones in about 10 of them. Instead a wise person would choose GOOD, but not PERFECT apples. By good i mean maybe a bit dented in some spots, but overall a positive score. So i think God should do it that way. He’ll obviously throw out the rotten apples which might have worms in them, but will let in apples that have perhaps a few bad spots. So i don’t think it’ll be the ONE RELIGION and its followers that go through. I think if you are generally a nice guy, do good stuff now and again you’ll be fine. You can’t expect everybody to be FLAWLESS…
I dunno, are you really sure God doesn’t do it that way? I mean, I can only speak for Christianity, cause that’s my thing, but I’ve never felt like I needed to be perfect.
But the thing is, heaven is pictured to be basically the place for the best. Now it depends on what exactly would you define as being best. I mean, do you think that you have to be the BEST christian to get into heaven or not necessarily.
I wouldn’t use the word ‘best’, because I’d have to spend all day trying to figure out what it means. I’d say, though, that God understands that we’re all imperfect, and that the way through heaven is through having a relationship with Him, which includes doing what you can to please Him, not so much in having to live up to some absolute standard.
LeonardoX,
I’d be interested to see what your sources are for saying that in Judaism only good Jews go to heaven. I’d also like to know what you mean by “good Jews”. I think your example is grossly simplified and doesn’t represent the complex nature of Jewish thought on Judgement Day.
The mitzvot (commandments), which some Jewish people follow, are a privilege and an obligation given by God. They are not followed for purpose of being rewarded or punished. The Mishnah (Rabbinic commentary) says, “Be not like servants who serve their master for the sake of receiving a reward”. The whole of Judaism is focused on this life and its texts on Judgement day and the afterlife are not every day reading.
The sources I have read agree that Judaism believes in a Judgement based on merit and not on religious affiliation. This means that the righteous of all nations share a place in heaven and that it is not reserved only for the Jewish people. A nice commentary I have read is that in the afterlife, no-one will be able to bend their elbows. Because of this, the wicked shall starve, while the righteous shall feed each other.
Contrast this with the Christian view of heaven and hell. The only way to heaven is through Jesus Christ; “No-one come to the Father except through me” John 14:6. Man must acknowledge Jesus as his saviour and that, coupled with the Grace of God, allows him entry into heaven. Everyone else goes to hell to burn with Satan in the sulforous lake.
“Christian theology from the earliest times has believed that a future time will come when there will be a day of judgement for all humanity. Also known as the Last Judgement, God will at that time raise all human beings from the dead and will judge them. Because of the notion of sin and Original Sin, every single human will deserve punishment, that is, eternal damnation in hell. But because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, those who believe in him and his act of salvation will receive God’s mercy and enter into an eternal life in heaven.”
Good topic!
- ben
Well to be honest with you i actually heard the thing about “only jews going to heaven” from my friend who is a jew!! Well according to him, God apparently told Moses that the people of Israel, and jews for that matter, are the so to speak, CHOSEN RACE. And furthermore he said that only jews can go to heaven, and people of other religions can never obtain the level of merit that a jew receives. Now personally i found it a bit puzzling. I think your evidence is much more convincing though. But i have a question. I have heard from another person that apparently ‘Hell’ does not exist as such in Judaism. Is this correct?
this is an interesting debate. Every religion that has a major “prophet” (even though I consider mohammed and joseph smith to be shams) believes that their religion is the one true one. only followers of that religion will go to heaven. The paradox is that by having more than one religion say "we are the one true religion the whole affair cancels itself out and there is no true religion. I’ve said this before I think the ideal way to become even a “good” apple is to follow buddhist philosophy with christian principles (not practiced by any “chrisitian” religion.)
In short I question wether there’s even going to be a “judgement day” The writer of Revelations expected christ to return before the next century turned over. christians to this day (as they did all last century) are still saying “he’ll be coming any minute” then when it happens they think because they went to church everyday and followed questionable christian principles they have a free ticket to heaven. I say, whatever.
yes that is correct, after death is only death. “sheol” the pit of death, the pit of nothing. yeah god apparently told moses all the laws in leviticus too.
(click here ilovephilosophy.com/phpbb/vi … 2&start=50
then scroll down to my quote of the Dr. Laura letter.) IMO Moses is a major problem. He started as many holy wars in ancient arabia as mohammed in the past 2000 years. The first thing The tribe of Israel did was sieze a city and “kill all of it’s inhabitants.” Personally I don’t think god is for genocide.
Wouldn’t truely righteous people feed the wicked, even though they don’t feed others?
Besides you’re all wrong, Judgement Day has come and gone and we are all living in the result. Why do some people seem happy and some sad? Why are some people rich and some poor? Why are some people slaves and others masters? Because that is what they have been judged to be by the Great Commander.
Another Judgement Day will come, any second now, and when it does you will be assigned to your new punishment, because all paths in life are punishment.
Now suffer and repent and maby you will be alowed to die and go to the land of apples where some people are ripe and delicious and others have unbending arms.
Well if that really is the deal then I’m off to hell I guess… I mean, my girlfriend, every one of my mates except for maybe like 2, and pretty much everyone else I know will be there. We’ll have a hell of a party.