If you believe in heaven...

[mark clemson]

Latterly she'd talk about how she didn't care about other people's judgements of her, as God would judge her. I'm pretty sure that when people say things like that, it's with some degree of confidence that on account of them being believers God will see them as a good person.

 

 

It's not (at the risk of stating the incredibly obvious) my call to make, but certainly there are those that feel if something doesn't pass a sanity check/common sense test there is reason to doubt it. IMO there are many issues like that in the bible.

 

I think there are many people of various denominations that feel if one's "repentance" of evil deeds is genuinely insincere or purely for convenience or a "technicality", then it probably means little.

 

Here's something CS Lewis (a devout Christian) wrote in a fictional piece that shows he thought about similar issues. (Aslan is a character representing either Jesus or God, I'm not entirely sure, and presumably Tash is a stand-in for the devil.)

 

"For I and he are of such different kinds that no service which is vile can be done to me, and none which is not vile can be done to him. Therefore if any man swear by Tash and keep his oath for the oath’s sake, it is by me that he has truly sworn, though he know it not, and it is I who reward him. And if any man do a cruelty in my name, then, though he says the name Aslan, it is Tash whom he serves and by Tash his deed is accepted..."

 

 

Of course that's fiction, not scripture.

 

But in the bible there is Matthew 7:21 - 23, which claims to quote the words of Jesus: "Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'"

[Libby1]

I think there are many people of various denominations that feel if one's "repentance" of evil deeds is genuinely insincere or purely for convenience or a "technicality", then it probably means little.

 

Here's an article that asks the pressing question of the day. "Do you want to see Jeffrey Dahmer in Heaven?"

 

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/sharing-heaven-with-serial-killers/

 

The person who wrote it does want to see Dahmer in heaven, on the basis that this means there is hope for anybody.

 

I'd think anybody committing such evil acts who really did repent would be a soul in terrible torment, since genuine repentance would surely involve having some genuine insight into just what a terrible thing they'd done and feeling the intense guilt that their pre-repentance status as a psychopath prevented them from feeling.

 

It's not hard to picture some of these serial killers discovering God and repenting for their wrongdoing while nibbling contentedly on cake and basking in the adoration of whatever man (or woman) of God they've managed to scam into visiting them regularly. A lot harder to imagine them putting much time or energy into thinking about and empathising with all the people whose lives they ruined.

 

Here's something CS Lewis (a devout Christian) wrote in a fictional piece that shows he thought about similar issues. (Aslan is a character representing either Jesus or God, I'm not entirely sure, and presumably Tash is a stand-in for the devil.)

 

I think Aslan was definitely meant to symbolise Jesus, given the horrors he went through on the Stone Table, and his subsequent resurrection.

Edited October 30, 2019 by Libby1

[SumGuy]

...

I think there are many people of various denominations that feel if one's "repentance" of evil deeds is genuinely insincere or purely for convenience or a "technicality", then it probably means little.

Repentance is not repentance if it is not sincere. Repentance means to be truly sorry for what you did, not sorry that you won't get in heaven because of it. As you give a good example below.

 

Alas, many people fool themselves that if they say some magic words on their death bed all is good...do you think you are going to fool god with words?

 

If that is your belief I say you are better off studying the Egyptian Book of the Dead...it is all about magic formula to get you to the good afterlife.

 

Of course that's fiction, not scripture.

 

But in the bible there is Matthew 7:21 - 23, which claims to quote the words of Jesus: "Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'"