Phelps to picket Miners funerals

[Asher]

Originally posted by MrFun


Really? I learn something new everyday. Tell you what, I will make an arrangement to find some way to get Phelps into Canada and you guys arrest him, ok?

He started http://www.godhatescanada.com/ as a result of the law.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by MrFun
You're treating Christianity as a monolithic group -- a gross, and unfair oversimplification.

I'm unaware of any Christian group that believes that non-Christians are going to Heaven. I could just be ignorant here, but I honestly don't know of any sect or denomination that believes that.

And once you start believing that God tortures, for all eternity, people who aren't Christians, you're on a slippery slope that leads straight to Phelps.

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by Rufus T. Firefly
And once you start believing that God tortures, for all eternity, people who aren't Christians, you're on a slippery slope that leads straight to Phelps.

The Catholic Church does not believe that. Nor, as far as I know, has it ever believed that, though at one time they did believe that the souls of the damned were tortured by Lucifer (which they do not any more).

[Jaguar]

Originally posted by Agathon
FTR: if Phelp's and his mob picketed Asher's house, I'd send them donations.

[Berzerker]

This mine disaster was not God’s judgement on West Virginia.
“God was with those men in that mine before their deaths,” Flynn said.

then why didnt he show them the way out? thats about as silly as phelps et al claiming god did this to them.

[Berzerker]

You can still be Christian and rub the two braincells togather and realise that sometimes (all times) natural disasters are the result of a complex geological or meterological system we still have a poor understanding of.

Are you leaving open the possibility some disasters are God's wrath? The OT would support that, so aren't Christians left in the position of deciding which disasters were sent by God?

[Jon Miller]

Originally posted by Rufus T. Firefly


I'm unaware of any Christian group that believes that non-Christians are going to Heaven. I could just be ignorant here, but I honestly don't know of any sect or denomination that believes that.

And once you start believing that God tortures, for all eternity, people who aren't Christians, you're on a slippery slope that leads straight to Phelps.

Umm, I think there are some.

I know that I don't beleive in a literal hell (Definitely not one for all eternity, and if there is a hell, it is this earth, right now), and do believe that there will be some non Christians in heaven.

I beleive that these beleifs of mine are in agreement with the SDA church (or at the least, a significant portion of the SDA church).

I know that a fairly large portion (definitely a majority) of the Christian community believes that there will be non Christians in heaven. And I am not including people who think Christ had some good ideas as Christians.

JM
(There is also a significant portion of the SDA church that basically beleives that only SDAs will go to heaven (and a few others))

[Lonestar]

Originally posted by Berzerker


Are you leaving open the possibility some disasters are God's wrath? The OT would support that, so aren't Christians left in the position of deciding which disasters were sent by God?

I suppose that if, say, an asteroid struck Mecca repeatibly I would chalk that up to Divine Providence.

[Jon Miller]

Originally posted by Rufus T. Firefly
Phelps isn't representative of other Christians? What is he doing except voicing the belief that God punishes those who disagree with Him -- a belief Christians of all stripes give voice to?

God punished those poor miners because America is full of sin? Okay, nobody believes that except his nutjob followers. But what about the idea that...

various natural disasters are God's wrath?

or that AIDS is God's judgement on gays?

or -- the biggie -- that good people who don't worship Jesus are going to burn in hell forever?

Phelps' Christianity is, at bottom, pretty much exactly like most people's Christianity. His interpretation of scripture is just a little more unorthodox, and his enthusiasm for spreading the Word a bit stronger.

You really don't understand all, or most, Christians.

JM

[Sava]

Originally posted by Agathon
FTR: if Phelp's and his mob picketed Asher's house, I'd send them donations.

[Winston]

Jon, what does SDA stand for?

[Berzerker]

if there is a hell, it is this earth, right now

Hell = sheol = grave

But its the celestial imagery I find interesting. When Judaism met up with Greek mysticism to produce the Book of John, we got a story that ended up with Dante but started with Homer and his literary predecessors. How did the Greeks know Mars had 2 satellites?

[Jon Miller]

on hell

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annihilationism

JM

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by Jon Miller


You really don't understand all, or most, Christians.

JM

I know the Christians I know. Almost all of them, at one time or another, have attributed some instance of human suffering to God's will -- just like Phelps.

[techumseh]

Originally posted by Lonestar


Or it could be that you lead a righteous life and are rewarded in Heaven. Whatever.

That's not a Christian view. Accept Jesus as your saviour or burn in hell. There's no middle ground.