Today we celebrate Christ's ressurection, showing he really was who he said he was!
Imaginine all the discouragement and doubt the disciples felt- and the joy they experienced at the ressurection of Christ!
My Bible Study church will do a fascinating sermon today and I'll get the pastor to send me notes- the ressurection actually points to the certainty of judgement- Chat GPT this (make sure to include from a reformed perspective) and you'll see the case!
For those of us with non Christian family it can be a very spiritually heavy day- it is like any other family gathering day of the year to them.
And further to the above point this is why I'm passionate about discernment- I'd be tempted to live in la la land and pretend my family are saved but that is not the case.
On this point well done to Justin Peters for pointing out a man that is spoiling people's discernment because they do not want him to have a false proffesion and want to pretend he's saved. All I'll say folks is if your bias slips for one person, it will slip for many more!
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A genuine question. If you went to heaven, but your family were tortured in hell for eternity, because they lacked faith, would you be happy in the afterlife, knowing your parents souls burned in hell?
@Richard65 Not just because they lacked faith but because they had no sacrifice for their sin.
The most well read theologian who wrote the most amount of volumes cannot even begin to touch the surface of experiencing God's glory in eternity.
The Bible makes very clear that there will be no suffering, sadness or tears in heaven for the above reasons.
Even minor things won't distract us from the glories of God like there is no marriage in heaven- that Luton lass in the faux fur coat who stole my heart at church with her beauty and is my now wife- we won't be distracted in heaven as nothing compares to God's glory.
@BritishFailedAesthetic what about your mother, the woman who gave birth to you and nurtured you through life? If your mother was condemned to hell, would God's glory enable you to forget her, to not care about her eternal torment?
@BritishFailedAesthetic so, you're saying your mother's soul is burning in hell for ETERNITY, but you're basking in God's glory and she's utterly forgotten? That's effectively what happens. God's glory is SO great that the suffering of your mother for ever has zero effect on you. What about your adult daughter or son? Their eternal suffering means...nothing? So, the ULTIMATE experience of all encompassing, glorious, heavenly love involves having no care for the eternal suffering of your parents and children. Thanks for clarifying that 👍
@graphite so, even if your parents and children DON'T believe in God and have NO faith, they will still go to heaven too, so long as one person in their household believes? That's a new one to me, and I'm a lapsed Catholic. What does BritishFailedAesthetic have to say about that, is that correct? An atheist can enter heaven?
@BritishFailedAesthetic as I said, I'm a lapsed Catholic, so this took up a fair amount of my life and I'm entitled to ask. You saying you don't have adult children is just disingenuous, as was your deflection about the Luton lass. Why do you guys love proclaiming the glory of your faith, but you chicken out of a difficult discussion about the very heart of the issue? My question is perfectly legitimate. God thinks so much of the importance of parents that He literally included them in one of the Commandments. Yet He expects you to completely forget your parent's damned souls in the afterlife and care nothing for their eternal torture? It's a tricky question you don't want to face on this special day. I understand. Enjoy your night.
@BritishFailedAesthetic my point was that if your wife was condemned to hell and damnation for eternity, you wouldn't care because you were in the presence of God. You completely understand my point. God's eternal love wipes away any concern for your wife's soul being eternally tortured. What kind of glory is that? All earthly concerns are gone for you, but your beloved wife, the woman who might be your soul mate, the woman who literally might have created a child for you, is in hell, but you don't care one iota because you're in the presence of God and your wife, your soul mate becomes completely irrelevant, as do your parents, and possibly your adult children. None of them mean anything to you at all. That's the point I'm making. Do you think that's acceptable? That your earthly love and concern for your own family is rendered irrelevant by God and you just bask in His glory for ever, as your loved ones burn in hell forever?
@Richard65 All our loved ones have free will. And here's another Bible verse: 2 Corinthians 6:14 "Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?" ...In other words, Christians are not supposed to be marrying up with unbelievers. Says it right there. Hope this clarifies things for you....Where'd did I meet my wife? At a church event. Not some nightclub. I already knew we had the same Christian beliefs.
@graphite forget marriage, let's concentrate on parents. Do you honestly think every family member of every family has faith? My friend is a devout Christian, but his mother and sister aren't. They aren't bad people, they just lack faith. But, according to your faith, my friend will go to heaven, but his mother and sister (both of whom he loves dearly) will undergo eternal torment in hell. So, you say that my friend, once he's in heaven, will completely forget his own mother and sister and disregard their eternal suffering? That's your position? Is that the meaning of God's glorious love? Is that what it means to be rewarded in heaven - that you're given the ability to forget your mother and her suffering? My own mother has faith, but I don't, so do you think she'll just forget me and live in bliss in heaven whilst I burn in hell?
@Richard65 That's why we're supposed to spread the Gospel. "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:15). ...We're all sinners and God has made it very easy to get forgiveness. Your friend's mother and sister have an easy choice to make. I once heard a Christian musician say, you go to Heaven because you asked to. You go to Hell because you didn't want to go to Heaven. Simple enough.
@BritishFailedAesthetic your endless deflection, along with graphite's speaks volumes. You just string this out because you can't face an uncomfortable issue. Let's say he's an absolute 100% Christian, who completely believes in eternal salvation and glories every day in God's grace. The guy is a genuine God-fearing individual, so his place in heaven is pretty secure. His mother is a good woman, but she has no faith, she's atheist, she simply doesn't believe in any God. So, she burns in hell for eternity as one who turned away from God, but her son joins you in heaven to glory forever in God's incredible, depthless love. Does he completely forget his mother and her suffering? Does his own mother become completely irrelevant to him so he doesn't even give her eternal suffering a second thought? Is that what God's love entails? A son completely abandons his own mother, even in his thoughts and feelings? Why can't you just answer that simple question? I think we both know why.
@Richard65 Yes. God's glory for all eternity will include no more pain and that includes thoughts about loved ones.
The problem is your friend's mum (like me and you) has sinned against an eternal, infinitely holy God and she has no sacrifice to atone for her sins, sin against a Triune thrice holy God is more serious than anyone can imagine.
@BritishFailedAesthetic I'm a lapsed Catholic, so of course I believed in the first place. I probably know as much about this stuff as you do. But, again, you offer me a disingenuous reply and refuse to engage in the actual debate. It's okay, you answered my question by not answering it, just as I expected. Instead of hiding from the uncomfortable aspects of faith, these are the questions you should be asking instead of avoiding them as you have here.
