Fellow Christians, I have questions

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Hi
I am new to religion and church going and I have been pondering stuff in my mind. I am going to ask some things.
Some have specific answers, some may be your opinion. Opinions are welcomed, please don't be rude.
I have not been baptized or "saved". Does that mean if I die, I go to Hell?
Do my prayers "count" as much as saved people(I prayed for my troubled friend and shes not better? Why won't God help her? ) Did God give us Aspergers? Does He really know everything? Should I keep praying for my friend? Why do you need to be saved to go to Heaven, even if you don't go to church but your a really good person?

Most of the people at my church believe that you won't go to Hell just because you're not baptized, but personally I'm not sure.


I'm not completely sure, but I think that God would answer the prayers of the people he likes the best first and more often.


He probably planned out the complex chain of genetics that led to us having aspergers.


Considering that he created the universe and everything within it he probably has a great understanding of its properties and understands the psycology of people.


Praying for your friend shouldn't make anything worse so you might as well.


You need to be saved to go to Heaven because getting into Heaven doesn't have to do with virtues, it has to do with loyalty and beliefs. Everyone has sinned at some point in time and if someone has done a million good things for every bad thing they have done they will still go to Hell if they don't believe in God or aren't loyal, but on the other hand you have the opportunity to get into Heaven as long as you are loyal and believe in God. It used to bother me at first when I thought about it, but in time I learned to become more antisocial and not care as much about other people. If you agree with me you are probably extremely bothered by this like I was. Just remember that you getting into Heaven is more important than everyone else getting into Heaven and stop at nothing to get in no matter what conflicts you have or how much anguish you have to face. Nothing in life is worse than Hell and it is worth it to dedicate your life to avoiding it. I'd love to have my pessimistic views be proven wrong, but so far I have nothing to confirm that I'm wrong. My pessimistic views are driving me insane and I have developed several personality disorders including paranoid, schizoid, schizotypical, borderline, obsessive compulsive, narcistic, antisocial, histrionic, avoidant, dependent, and bipolar, although I don't have an official diagnoses I suspect myself of having them.

Last edited by Mike1 on 05 Oct 2010, 7:00 pm, edited 2 times in total.

I have an irrational fear of Hell, and I'm afraid I'll suddenly die and go to Hell. Does saving enable God to take you to Heaven, or just make Him willing to do so?
Does God not like me as much of a person? I sin, like everyone else, but not ask for forgiveness or anything like that. Is that bad? I'm paranoid that He's watching over me now. Shouldn't I feel love not fear?

You're best to break the habit early before it gets to be a problem.

Your other questions are about things that don't matter because they don't exist. Just trying to help because there are no right answers. It'd be like asking how big is a yeti's foot or what the scale pattern is on the Loch Ness monster.

/Just trying to save your mind since it's the closest thing to a soul in this one life we have.

I'm the same way. Having a fear of Hell isn't that irrational, a lot of people fear going to Hell, although most people don't fear it as much as me. I have been trying to find the answers to the same questions as you, but I have never found answers even though I have been searching for years. I just keep getting more pessimistic. I hate my own views even though I believe them. Religion is confusing to me. Years ago before I became a Christian being a good person seemed easier to me. What if my idea of being a good person is wrong? I have always tried to be a good person, but with all of the confusion I'm not sure if I am a good person.

Does saving enable God to take you to Heaven? I'm not sure I understand what you're asking, but salvation is the free gift of God through the death of Jesus on the Cross, who died as the final and ultimate sacrifice to atone for our sins. If you've accepted Jesus as your savior, then you have that free gift of salvation He offers. Consider reading the third chapter of John if you haven't already.

Does God not like you as much of a person? God loves you as a person, but it is our actions that He may or may not like. It sounds as if God's character trait of omnipresence is a concern to you? Well, also consider that He's omniscient and it is not possible for Him to misconstrue things, unlike Wal-Mart management. Humans with partial knowledge have many ways in which they can contort a case against a person out of speculation and mere possibilities, but God is not like that nor is He seeking to contort things against us. He knows our sins though, and yet He is merciful and patient with us, that we may repent and seek to emulate Christ.

Only if you don't confess your sins and turn to Him as your God. God forgives all.



From what I've seen, God answers in 'yes, no, I'll do it later'. Obviously you've either gotten one of the last replies.



Genetics gave us Asperger's as it's mostly in the family. I haven't really seen God directly influence our DNA as it all can be traced through our family. That's not to say that you've had a mutation (which God could've done) to cause Asperger's.



If he wasn't omnipresent, why call him a God?



Depends, from personal experience it'd be better to directly help her in some way. Talk to her doctor, take care of her. I don't know. It just seems that either God isn't helping or he'll do it later, so it seems direct interjection can help at this point.



Hitler could've turned Christian and confessed at the last minute and made it to Heaven. It's a weird world. God forgives all Christians. However, people who don't believe in God will go to Hell.



This is an odd question as there's tons of religions out there all with their own Hell, if you're wrong and Christianity isn't the correct religion, you'll go to Hell. There's no way of knowing which is the correct religion, so it's really a leap of faith.

I would say that baptism in water is a formality. what matters is baptism in the holy spirit, Which I interpret as self-identifying as a Christian. As long as you're doing that, you're plenty baptized. I'd to go through with the watery ritual though, because watery rituals are fun.



I would yes yes.



In a sense, yes.



As he created everything, I would assume he knows everything about what he created.



couldn't hurt. Prayer is something you sometimes have to keep at. While many people on this forum sneer at the idea, I've seen prayer do some... unexplainable things. The thing you need to remember though is that sometimes bad things happen for the greater good. That doesn't mean God isn't listening or that prayer doesn't work, it means we humans are arrogant, stubborn creatures and sometimes we have a smack to the face coming to us, and ultimately we're better off because of it, or that the physical word ultimately isn't all that important, we mourn our dead when perhaps we should be glad for them.



The bible mentions multiple times that God has a system for determining wether or not people who never hear the word get into heaven.

Madness! Madness!

ruveyn

I'm sorry to hear about your friend and more disheartened to hear the confusion and questions you have. I hope the following helps...

There is no hell. Eccl. 9:5, 10 says: “The living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all . . . All that your hand finds to do, do with your very power, for there is no work nor devising nor knowledge nor wisdom in Sheol,* the place to which you are going.” If they are conscious of nothing, they obviously feel no pain.

So why is there confusion as to what the Bible says about hell? “Much confusion and misunderstanding has been caused through the early translators of the Bible persistently rendering the Hebrew Sheol and the Greek Hades and Gehenna by the word hell. The simple transliteration of these words by the translators of the revised editions of the Bible has not sufficed to appreciably clear up this confusion and misconception.”—The Encyclopedia Americana (1942), Vol. XIV, p. 81.

Translators have allowed their personal beliefs to color their work instead of being consistent in their rendering of the original-language words. For example: (1) The King James Version rendered she’ohl′ as “hell,” “the grave,” and “the pit”; hai′des is therein rendered both “hell” and “grave”; ge′en·na is also translated “hell.” (2) Today’s English Version transliterates hai′des as “Hades” and also renders it as “hell” and “the world of the dead.” But besides rendering “hell” from hai′des it uses that same translation for ge′en·na. (3) The Jerusalem Bible transliterates hai′des six times, but in other passages it translates it as “hell” and as “the underworld.” It also translates ge′en·na as “hell,” as it does hai′des in two instances. Thus the exact meanings of the original-language words have been obscured.

What is this sheohl and haides?

The word “hell” is found in many Bible translations. In the same verses other translations read “the grave,” “the world of the dead,” and so forth. Other Bibles simply transliterate the original-language words that are sometimes rendered “hell”; that is, they express them with the letters of our alphabet but leave the words untranslated. What are those words? The Hebrew she’ohl′ and its Greek equivalent hai′des, which refer, not to an individual burial place, but to the common grave of dead mankind; also the Greek ge′en·na, which is used as a symbol of eternal destruction. However, both in Christendom and in many non-Christian religions it is taught that hell is a place inhabited by demons and where the wicked, after death, are punished (and some believe that this is with torment).

So if hell doesn't originate with the Bible then what is the origin of the teaching of hellfire?

In ancient Babylonian and Assyrian beliefs the “nether world . . . is pictured as a place full of horrors, and is presided over by gods and demons of great strength and fierceness.” (The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, Boston, 1898, Morris Jastrow, Jr., p. 581) Early evidence of the fiery aspect of Christendom’s hell is found in the religion of ancient Egypt. (The Book of the Dead, New Hyde Park, N.Y., 1960, with introduction by E. A. Wallis Budge, pp. 144, 149, 151, 153, 161) Buddhism, which dates back to the 6th century B.C.E., in time came to feature both hot and cold hells. (The Encyclopedia Americana, 1977, Vol. 14, p. 68) Depictions of hell portrayed in Catholic churches in Italy have been traced to Etruscan roots.—La civiltà etrusca (Milan, 1979), Werner Keller, p. 389.



Many Christian sects that teach about going to heaven if you're good or going to hell if you're bad, observing Christmas, Easter Sunday, the Trinity and so forth are all worshiping forms of paganism. Did you know the origins of all of those doctrines goes all the way back to Babylon and Nimrod? But these indoctrinations into Christianity didn't happen until the 3rd century A.D. It's true. In Rome pagan emperors, fearful of religion division in their empire, wanted to stem the growing tide of Christianity. So what did they do? They forced the clergy of the Vatican to incorporate pagan beliefs as Christian beliefs so that the religion would be more acceptable to Roman pagans. You can ask any religious historian and they will tell you these are all historical facts.

The fact that you see hellfire as a god-dishonoring doctrine shows you are learning about what the bible teaches and doesn't teach. I would encourage you to pray to Jehovah and ask him to help you know about the truth of the Bible. If you are sincere he will make the way possible.

Satan the Devil is called the “the father of the lie” believe he was the first one to lie to Eve in the Garden of Eden.



Of course. But you need to know the correct way to approach God in prayer. First you should approach him respectfully. He is, after all, the sovereign of the universe. Should he not receive the same level of respect that a King or President would receive? Next you should use God's personal name. In fact he wants you to use his person name. The name he calls himself is unique and is found over 7,000 times in the Hebrew scriptures alone. His name is Jehovah (Ps. 83:18; Leviticus 11:44; Numbers 3:13; Judges 6:10). Jesus gave the model pray during his sermon on the mount in Matthew 6:9-13. I'm sure you heard that prayer many, many times. Jesus said in John 14:6 “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." So when you conclude your prayer it must done through Jesus Christ's name to acknowledge his random sacrifice (or life he gave on our behalf). Finally conclude your prayer with "amen."

A sample prayer to say: "Dear heavenly father Jehovah, I humbly come before your throne to ask for your assistance in helping me learn about the truths found in the bible. I really would like to know if what I am learning in my church is true. Please open a way for me. I leave this pray in your care and keeping through your son Jesus Christ, amen."

That is a prayer he will not only hear but will likely act upon because you want to know the truth. :)



No he does not give people aspergers. In Romans 5:12 Paul writes, "That is why, just as through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because they had all sinned." Death, pain and aspergers are all part of an imperfection we inherited from Adam. :(



Yes he does. Of course he does. He loves humans so much that the moment Adam and Eve sinned he made a way possible for future generations to gain salvation through his son's ransom sacrifice. See Jesus, and only Jesus, was perfect like Adam. He was born perfect through Jehovah's holy spirit (or his active force). Jesus' life was the exact counterpart to Adam's. And when Jesus died he took upon himself all of mankind's sins as the ultimate long-lasting sacrifice so that through faith in Jesus we could gain salvation.



Pray to Jehovah to learn the truth about the bible especially a bright future free of sickness. (Revelation 21:3, 4) Then share this good news (Matthew 24:14) with your friend so that both of you can be there to enjoy it! :)



The only people that go to heaven is a set number of 144,000 extremely faithful, spirited anointed Christians to serve with Jesus Christ as kings and priests. Well who do they rule over? Those on paradise earth!

Why can God only take you to Heaven if your saved?

Quite.

There's more important things to worry about. Like if it's even worth it to try and purchase gold at this point in the game.

It is. Other than that most people have the fear because they've had it drilled into their head during the "Santa-eligible" time and no one ever pulled back the curtain on it so it got locked in. It's rational in that you've been brainwashed to fear something that doesn't exist. It's irrational in that there's absolutely no given reason to even consider it other than a book of myths.

Exactly and they are all from Israel too. It says so in the book of revelation. Considering that the world population is about 6,700,000,000 people 144,000 isn't that many. That means that less than .003% of people will go to Heaven.

Last edited by Mike1 on 06 Oct 2010, 2:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.

kxmode, Can you tell me more about the concept of Christ and the New Testaments? Why are Matthew and Mark and Luke and John so similar? (Its like the same words but worded differently) What are the acts of the Apostles? Who are the Apostles?
What do you suggest people new to this like me to read?
Where did you find that 144000 people go to Heaven?
BTW I didn't write the second thing you quoted me on. You must have made a mistake.

Book of revelation, Jesus and the 144,000.