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From: kiki@isieng.UUCP (Kiki Herbst)
Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc
Subject: Re: Hell (An Alienation from God?  No.)
Message-ID: <299@isieng.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 17-Sep-86 12:25:02 EDT
Article-I.D.: isieng.299
Posted: Wed Sep 17 12:25:02 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 23-Sep-86 00:13:01 EDT
Expires: Tue, 21-Oct-86 03:00:00 EDT
References: <322@mc0.UUCP> <977@unirot.UUCP> <973@hoptoad.uucp>
Reply-To: kiki@isieng.UUCP (Kiki Herbst)
Organization: Integrated Solutions, San Jose, CA
Lines: 80
Keywords: Heaven, Hell, and Revelations
Summary: Answers to questions

In article <2251@gitpyr.UUCP> cc100jr@gitpyr.UUCP (Joel Rives) writes:
>
>In article <288@isieng.UUCP> kiki@isieng.UUCP (Kiki Herbst) writes:
>>God is definitely a powerful and just God, and I think it is important to 
recognize that fact.  The Bible is instruction for man.... 
>
>Kiki, I would be the last person to deny you your right to tell your fellow
>netters about your personal beliefs. Insisting that others accept your beliefs
>as fact is another matter all together. Why should I recognize that - in you
>own words - " God is definately a powerful and just God,..."? The bible may 
>be instruction for you. It may, in fact, be instruction for a large number of
>people - I don't know. That, in no way, assures that it exists as instruction
>for all of mankind. However, to be fair, I must admit, I have read various
>versions of the Christian bible and found some sound advice in it. The Golden
>Rule is one such piece of advice that I feel very strongly about. I was first
>introduced to this concept through my Christian upbringing. I have since     
>discovered that this concept is not unique to the Christian faith. It crops
>up along many different paths. 

That is true that several faiths share the golden rule.  The difference with
Christianity is Christ.  A lot of religions are "do-it-yourself" propositions.
Follow this way of life, do this, do that, and you will gain pleasure from
God.  But in Christianity, Jesus offers the power to live as we should.  He
gives us forgiveness, cleansing, and His own righteousness, all as a free gift.
 
Paul Little writes "D.T. Niles has observed that in other religions good
works are an "in order to".  In Christianity, they are a "therefore."  In 
other religions, good works are the means by which one hopes to earn salvation.
In Christianity salvation is received as a free gift, through the finished
work of Christ, the "therefore" of good works becomes an imperative love
of God.  Or, as another has put it, other religions are "do"; Christianity
is done".

Christianity is what God has done for man in seeking Him and reaching down to
help him.  Other religions are a matter of man seeking and struggling toward
God.

> The millions (perhaps
>billions) of Buddhists in the world share just as great an opportunity to
>face eventual physical degeneration and death without fear. In fact, many
>Christians that I know harbour an inordinant amount of fear of death. This
>is largely due to the fact that they view this life on earth as a one-shot
>chance to make into heaven. Not only that, according to the Christian
>concept, an individual starts out with a stain on his or her respective 
>score card - so to speak.                                                 

In Buddhism, the ultimate goal is nirvana or the extinction of desire.  
According to Buddha's teachings, all pain and suffering come from *desire*.  If
this desire can be overcome by following the Eightfold Path to Enlightenment,
one can achieve nirvana, which is total nothingness.  Buddha never claimed to beGod or teach about life after death.  Maybe Buddhists "die without fear", but
my orginal point about death was not in the *act* of dieing, it is that we don'tfear death, because after the *act* of death, we will live for eternity.

Paul Little goes on to say, "Of the great religious leaders of the world, Christ
alone claims deity.  It really doesn't matter what one thinks of Muhammed,
Buddha, or Confucious as individuals.  Their followers emphasize their *teachings*.  Not so with Christ.  He made *himself* the focal point of his teachings.
The central question He put to His listeners was, "Whom do you say that I am?
When asked what doing the works of God involved, Jesus replied, 'This is the
work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent (John 6:29).

"On the question of who and what God is, the nature of salvation and how it is
obtained, it is clear that Christianity differs radically from other world
religions.  We live in an age in which tolerance is a key word.  Tolerance,
however, must be clearly understood.  (Truth, by its very nature, is intolerant
of error.)  If two plus two is four, the total cannot at the same time be 23.
But one is not regarded as intolerant because he disagrees with this answer
and maintains that the only correct answer is four.  The same principle
applies in religious matters.  One must be tolerant of other points of view
and respect their right to be held and heard.  He cannot, however, be forced
in the name of tolerance to agree that all points of view, including those that
are mutually contradictory, are equally valid.  Such a position is nonsense.

"It is not true that 'it doesn't matter what you believe as long as you believe
it.'  Hitler's slaughter of five million Jews was based on a sincere view of
race supremacy, but he was desparately wrong.  What we believe must be true
in order to be real.  Jesus said 'I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.  No
man cometh unto the Father but by Me" (John 14:6).  There are many ways to
Christ, but if we are to know the true and living God in personal experience,
it must be through Christ, the only Way to God."

Kiki