When you were Christian...

[IWMP]

... Did you ever feel like why do these later converts get to go to heaven when they've spent all their life sinning and I've worked hard much longer?

(I don't see it like this and I've adapted this to be relevant here). The evangelists I have met with recently have this view and I felt alien when they were discussing it because I don't know see it like that at all.

Edit: or even now, if you still are Christian do you think like that?

[drumdude]

Yes, as both a Catholic and a Mormon I bought into that kind of guilt. But as I got older I grew out of it. Mostly because of the reasoning you lay out here- it makes zero sense to punish anyone for living a life where they happen to have special access to knowledge and increased responsibilities because of that.

Mormons say we must have made choices in the pre-existence to explain it away. That rings incredibly hollow to me.

[ceeboo]

Hi IWMP

... Did you ever feel like why do these later converts get to go to heaven when they've spent all their life sinning and I've worked hard much longer?

(I don't see it like this and I've adapted this to be relevant here). The evangelists I have met with recently have this view and I felt alien when they were discussing it because I don't know see it like that at all.

Edit: or even now, if you still are Christian do you think like that?

No, I have never thought like that. Such a thing has never even crossed my mind.

From my view, such thoughts are largely created from and by work-based religions - where those who belong feel superior to those who do not belong - Resulting in those who belong feeling highly righteous, typically seasoned with various degrees of arrogance - while really being trapped in bondage that often results in personal exhaustion, and the crippling fear of being discovered by others as to what we all truly are - broken human being that have many personal struggles, anxieties, doubts, and challenges.

[huckelberry]

Ceeboo is correct. It would be dreadful living in some way feeling differently. I thought joy was to be added not worn away.

[Gadianton]

... Did you ever feel like why do these later converts get to go to heaven when they've spent all their life sinning and I've worked hard much longer?

(I don't see it like this and I've adapted this to be relevant here). The evangelists I have met with recently have this view and I felt alien when they were discussing it because I don't know see it like that at all.

Edit: or even now, if you still are Christian do you think like that?

So if Adolf Hitler hurried and accepted Jesus right before he died (you don't know one way or the other) and ends up in heaven along with you, but then most of the Jews he murdered wind up in hell because they were Jews not Christian, that wouldn't bother you?

[huckelberry]

So if Adolf Hitler hurried and accepted Jesus right before he died (you don't know one way or the other) and ends up in heaven along with you, but then most of the Jews he murdered wind up in hell because they were Jews not Christian, that wouldn't bother you?

Gadianton, I feel pretty sure, well quite sure that all parts of your scenario are nonsense. I have no fear that anything of the sort will happen.

[Bond]

... Did you ever feel like why do these later converts get to go to heaven when they've spent all their life sinning and I've worked hard much longer?

(I don't see it like this and I've adapted this to be relevant here). The evangelists I have met with recently have this view and I felt alien when they were discussing it because I don't know see it like that at all.

Edit: or even now, if you still are Christian do you think like that?

Yes. I thought it was stupid that God created everything including people who could murder and rape and whatever and then those people got to recant on their death beds or after multiple crimes and go to heaven.

[drumdude]

To clarify, I think the scenario is something like this:

1) Born in the church and punished for every sin, constantly trying to atone for all of them after they happen.
2) Deathbed baptism/conversion with no time to sin, because the person died 1 minute after being saved.

[Gadianton]

https://www.chick.com/products/tract?st ... vUQAvD_BwE

This is an important Evangelical teaching as indicated in the Chick Tract Holy Joe.

(spoiler alert for Shades)

Holy Joe is a new army recruit and a Christian, shares his faith with everyone, and his sergeant is furious, persecutes him, but Joe keeps a positive attitude. Joe also preaches to another soldier throughout the story, who ultimately tells Joe he isn't interested, that he thinks he lived a good life and will be okay. Joe's unassailable faith pushes his sergeant to the breaking point, and he sends Joe into a combat situation way above his skill level in order to get him killed.

Joe falls to the trap and is killed immediately. The Sergeant and the other soldier go in to find him dead, but then find themselves surrounded. The soldier tries to escape while the sergeant is struck by the look of peace on Joes face and instead of running, falls to his knees and accepts Jesus just before he his killed as is the soldier who ran. The soldier who ran, who lived a good life but wasn't interested, is dropped into hell. The sergeant who set up Joe to be killed is welcomed into heaven.

IWMP -- you should share this Chick tract with your friends.

[msnobody]

... Did you ever feel like why do these later converts get to go to heaven when they've spent all their life sinning and I've worked hard much longer?

(I don't see it like this and I've adapted this to be relevant here). The evangelists I have met with recently have this view and I felt alien when they were discussing it because I don't know see it like that at all.

Edit: or even now, if you still are Christian do you think like that?

I don’t, but my beliefs are different from those taught by TCoJCoLDS. I feel thankful instead. Just between us, I’ll be sinning up until my last breath.