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scooper
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Subject: Going to Hell
One thing that held me back from leaving atheism/agnosticism to rejoin Christianity was the idea that to be a Christian, I had to believe that all my ancestors and relatives were going to hell because they were/are Jewish. It was liberating to hear my Pastor say that I didn't have to believe such a proposition, and that he didn't believe it either.
It turns out that in Jewish interpretation of the Fall of Man in Genesis, "The Lord created the Evil Inclination, and gave us the Torah as the remedy." This is quite distince from the interpretation that Adam and Eve doomed us all to hell by eating the Forbidden Fruit - an interpretation given by the Jews who were part of the Jesus Movement in the middle of the first century, A.D. This difference of interpretation probably accounts (at least partially) for some Jews following Jesus, and other not doing so. It was only much later that Judaism and Christianity split into distinct monotheistic religions.
Of course, dispensing with the Christian version of literal interpetation of Genesis re-opens the question of what God was doing by allowing Jesus to be crucified, and then resurrecting him, which we celebrated this Sunday morning. But then, that is perhaps a subject for some of our other subforums.
For now, I simply state that I think that who is going to heaven or hell is "above our pay grade." It is not our job to decide. It is our job to be faithful, to "do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with [our] God." Or, paraphrasing slightly, to love the Lord with all our heart, with all our soul, and all our strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. We'll just have to trust God for the rest.
It turns out that in Jewish interpretation of the Fall of Man in Genesis, "The Lord created the Evil Inclination, and gave us the Torah as the remedy." This is quite distince from the interpretation that Adam and Eve doomed us all to hell by eating the Forbidden Fruit - an interpretation given by the Jews who were part of the Jesus Movement in the middle of the first century, A.D. This difference of interpretation probably accounts (at least partially) for some Jews following Jesus, and other not doing so. It was only much later that Judaism and Christianity split into distinct monotheistic religions.
Of course, dispensing with the Christian version of literal interpetation of Genesis re-opens the question of what God was doing by allowing Jesus to be crucified, and then resurrecting him, which we celebrated this Sunday morning. But then, that is perhaps a subject for some of our other subforums.
For now, I simply state that I think that who is going to heaven or hell is "above our pay grade." It is not our job to decide. It is our job to be faithful, to "do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with [our] God." Or, paraphrasing slightly, to love the Lord with all our heart, with all our soul, and all our strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. We'll just have to trust God for the rest.
Because there is more to Religion than pleasing your Imaginary Friend.