I was having a hard time with my faith well before my mom passed. It is weird, in a way, that after her passing, I seem to have lost more faith, but gained a different faith at the same time. I will be honest with you, I don't see myself ever praying to a god again. Ever. There was one time when I reached out to "him" when I needed him most, and I got nothing. My mom was the greatest human being I have ever known. I challenge any man to watch their moms deteriorate in front of their own eyes and still keep a strong faith in the god you begged for help. Not only begged, but asked to switch places! I know this is getting a little personal, but this is a sensitive subject for me. I did not care if it was me sick, or hurt, or killed, so as long as my mom got to live. The only question I have is, why?
At the same time, I have never felt strongly about seeing someone after death. Until my mom passed. If there is anything I believe strongly in, it is that I WILL see my mom again. Somewhere and somehow. She is watching over me and waiting for me to come home.
Sounds brutal, Jimbo. I do wonder how I'll feel when inevitably my parents pass away. Maybe that will change my perspective? Sucks you have to watch her suffer through something like that. And I hope you do get to see her again. I really do.
I can't answer with authority, but I've never felt like God was intentionally smacking us with serious issues, such as a chronic illness, just for the hell of it. I think he merely permits these sufferings, knowing that our bodies decay over time. He knows there's a heckuva lot of trials we'll all have to endure, and most of those challenges will occur naturally. It's not him imposing harsh things on us, so much as it is him simply not intervening. Free will and eternal development would be stifled if we wished or prayed away all of our problems. Can God prevent those tragedies? Yes, I believe so. Though, I tend to think that happens only on rare occasions. Christ being sparred, having his stepfather inspired, through a dream, to take the small family to Egypt to avoid the baby massacre was a darn good reason to have an intervention.
That brings me to my next and last point for now. I find Christianity to be the most sane and logical of the world religions. But there is one glaring hole I can't get past, and that is, being accepted for believing. Allow me to explain. I have such a hard time grasping how a person could dedicate their entire lives to doing good, helping people, donating, yet they aren't accepted to heaven because they didn't go to church and accept Jesus. At the same time, you could have Hitler repent right before he died, and by Christian logic, he's getting into heaven.
Its basically god saying "do as I say, not as I do" which is pretty bullshit.
Belief by itself is futile. That's why I said previously that death bed repentance isn't a real thing. Paul says that faith without works is dead. Gaining knowledge, or truth, and becoming more Christlike are two aspects of a single process. Hitler's words would obviously mean nothing.
Paul described knowledge without application as becoming, “as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. (1 Cor 13:1)” When I read that verse, I imagine a marching band, and you hear the ring of one of those tiny triangle cymbals (ding). It's an annoyingly high-pitched sound. In the spiritual sense, that's what our voice sounds like when we believe something, but our actions don't match our words. Our voices should resonate and should reach others, like a trumpet. Not a triangular cymbal.
Jesus himself said, "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven (Mat 7:21)." Belief is not enough. Another scripture says it this way: "The just shall
live by faith." Faith is a principal of action. It's not lip service.
As far as different eternal destinations, I couldn't possibly sort through all of that. It would be an impossible task. But read through Corinthians and you'll find that it's not simply a matter of heaven and hell. Paul is speaking about the resurrection throughout Corinthians 15. "There is one glory of the
sun, and another glory of the
moon, and another glory of the
stars: for
one star differeth from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead." From these verses, it's apparent that there are different degrees of salvation. And that idea is amplified when you consider the "third heaven" that Paul also cities in 2 Cor 12:2. Heaven and hell, with no where in between, is a commonly held belief by many - but it is a false belief. So yes, there would be a middle ground for those that are mostly good people, but perhaps not committed to following Christ.
And I as mentioned previously, the teaching of the Gospel is taught to those who were never able to fully receive it. Revelation 20 indicates that the period of time is for roughly 1,000 years. I suppose when you're waiting for the resurrection and you don't have a body, it takes a heck of a lot longer to truly repent of bad habits. Perhaps it takes many close to a 1,000 years before their mind and body could be reconciled to a state of true repentance?
I can appreciate the fact that there are many reasons to be discouraged. Many reasons to doubt. Nothing is abundantly clear. Just feel like people are really starving for truth - and for meaning in their life. Especially young people that are fed the lies of relativism, that no belief system is superior to any other. These people are starving for meaning and purpose in their life. There are so many people that are working all day long, and doing something that is deeply unsatisfying. Soul Killing. You're stuck in traffic. Doing a never-ending cycle of chores. Watching television is the highlight of the day. Or maybe having a bowl of ice cream? And the cycle continues. You feel stuck. No hope, no light at the end of the tunnel. Are people better off without God? Are people happier? Is their mental health better? Absolutely not.
People are starving for truths. I believe that’s because we are fundamentally designed to be religious. If we do not seek it through Christ himself, we’ll seek some other form of religious worship. Sports. Books. Movies. Music. Science/Secularism. And while all of those things can be great and wonderful, they are missing something. They are missing the pinnacle of ultimate truth. Some of the brilliant minds in the scientific community learn a great deal about the physical characteristics of this planet earth, but yet may be ignorant, completely ignorant, of why it was created in the first place. It reminds me of the scripture in Timothy, “Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (2 Timothy 3:7)
I'm all for pursuing truth in whatever capacity you can. I love to learn new things. I just find when I study the gospel it just seems to speak to me in a way that no other form of secularism ever could. The voice inside screams, "Yes! Yes! That's true. And I know it's true!"