Quote:
Originally Posted by Calgaryborn
My wife's Grandfather in the middle of some theological discussion with me said "You Baptists think your right and everybody else is wrong". My response was to ask him if he thought he was wrong. He didn't respond. My point is that someone is right. Maybe not on everything but, on the important things like: Who is God and what does He want from me? Now I've been told that India alone has more than a million gods. As someone has pointed out already within Christianity there is a wide variety of sects who think they are right. Each would have a slightly different answer to that question(Who is God and what does he want from me?). Ultimately all but one answer will be wrong. That should be sobering to us all. The Atheists are staking their eternity on having the right answer to the question just as much as I am as a Baptist or someone else is as a Mormon. But because the odds are against me or the next guy being right should we be silent and think we're somehow wrong? I think not. We should walk by and express what we know to be true until proven wrong. How else should a person live? Determine in your heart and head what is true and live it out. Never close your eyes to others answer to the question but, until you find a more probable answer than your own you run with what you believe. If in the end I find my self standing before God and I got the answer wrong at least I'll know I made the attempt.
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The whole idea of "right and wrong" vis a vis heaven and hell , eternal life eternal damnation are originally Christian ideas. To be more specific, if Christianity comes from Sectarian Judaism, and Islam concedes both, Christianity is the first western religion that brought this element up. In early Hebrew religion the after-life never was mentioned, and even now, isn't a widely accepted aspect of modern Judaism. In Islam of course it exists but not to the 'fire and brimstone suffering' level of Christianity. There really is an in-or-out mentality that is so black and white in CHristianity that is hard to pin-point within any other religion. DIGRESSION(anything put above Allah ie the Christian messiah is shirk which is basically unforgiveable sin. A further digression, it is interesting to note how much devotion Muhammud receives from some Muslims. This could consider be considered shirk for the same reasons, no?)
My point if i can remember it now, is that you are viewing (or at least how I have interpreted your post) religion in a predominately Christian manner. Not that I can blame a Christian for having viewpoints within his accepted constraints. But really, do the semantically small differences between say a menonnite and a pentacostal christian or you, the baptist, make the difference between heavan and hell in your eyes??? Or were you using the getting the boot from God example as between you and say a Muslim.