What do you think of this quote?

Question

"Religion is for those who are afraid of hell. Spirituality is for those who have been there." I credit discovering this quote via another member or YahooAnswers. I resonated with this quote on another level which helped me out of my fundamental Christianity. I will not go into the details but once in my Christianity I felt damned to hell. For an instant I truly knew what it theorectically would feel like to be in hell. It was shortly after that moment I had compassion for those who were the theoretical damned. It was so horrible I knew a good God would not send even one soul into an eternal hell, no matter what they did. It was not too long after that moment that I opened myself to other possibilities of returning to God. I rediscovered the concept of reincarnation & found it to be conceptually good. If I & others could have thought of this reasonable & compassionate way to return to God how much more could a wise and loving God have constructed this Highway back to his/her heart?

Georgia918, read the details and you then you may understand how this quote pertains even more to your beliefs.

Santa's Helper, thanks for the advice. i remember that and stick to the one I have found. By the way the one I have founds continues to evolve. That's the nice thing about believing in a faith that tests itself. It is very helpful in preventing myself from becoming a mindless drone. I'd hate to bore everybody by going all borg on you.

KnowhereMan, Jesus also said destroy this temple and I will rebuild it in three days. They did not understand him then and you do not understand him now.

beekay, whatever you send out into the universe will return to you threefold. That is punishment enough. And you can still believe that Christ washes away sins and still believe in reincarnation. You receive this Grace when you not longer need the lessons karma is meant to teach. Many Christians believed in reincarnation in the past but most were killed off by the catholic church.

Columcille, both subjective and objective truth exist. But I know this, the belief in an eternal ever lasting hell is an evil concept. I have said it a million times and not been struck down by lighting. God is not a mindless brute. And if you get your head out of the bible and listen to your heart once and a while you might have realized this by now. Please stop trying to make God what God is not. You are in product of centuries upon centuries of manipulation. Read up on the Cathars in which a half million of them were killed to represses their theology. Do you not think this genocide still has an impact on today's world?

Mr Toooo Sexy, A judge gives a criminal a finite punishment for his/her crime. The best of the material world mimicks the truth of the spiritual world. Everybody would speak out if criminals we purposefully tortured. Their punishments are meant to protect society as well as have them reflect and hopefully change future behaviors.

MAVEN, actually the user that gets the credit is Wright Sense. Who knows maybe she got it from you. Knowledge is knowledge so i try not to get too caught up in giving too much credit. It was already out their to begin with. Somebody just found it before another, and another spead the knowledge to another, and another to many other others, etc.

AJK, though i think your theology is not as compassionate as it could be you seem very sweet. This is more important than all theologies put together. But if you allow the sweetness of your heart to meditate on this subject and know truly what the concept of hell is i doubt you could, nor should accept it. Look at MAVEN's links. They look most enlightening especially for one with a Christian ethos.

mystic_turtyl, interesting answer in which you obviously put a lot of effort into. In the least we can agree that there are temporal hells right here on earth created by our own selves. As for reincarnation, it used to be much more widely accepted by many different Christians and was forced out as a possible doctrine of belief via Emperor Justinian. In fact "Pope Vigilius refused to sign a papal decree condemning Origen's teachings on reincarnation. As a result of his disobedience, the Emperor had the Pope arrested and put into jail. In 543, Justinian convoked the Fifth General Council of the Church"

http://reluctant-messenger.com/reincarnation-pope.htm

Answer 1

Did you stumble on this quote through me? If so, Let me be a witness 2 your salvation. May GOD be with you.
This quote is true for the most part.
It relates to this site:
http://www.near-death.com/origen.html

References to reincarnation in the bible view on this site:
http://www.near-death.com/reincarnation.html

Answer 2

Without getting into why I don't believe in reincarnation, I am always part of the theoretically damned according to "orthodox" Christians.

However, oneness Christians like me will get more numerous as the church is reformed and throws off the dogmas and doctrines of the middle ages. Primarily three divine persons that you are supposed to call one and faith alone need to be warred with and vanquished.

http://www.mechanicsburgnewchurch.org

Answer 3

I'm sorry you felt damned to hell when you were a Christian. That's not the way it's supposed to work. Part of being a Christian is knowing that you are going to spend eternity with God in heaven. Yes, it is horrible to know that some people are going to hell. The thing is, we all deserve hell! Only perfect people can live up to God's requirements (because He made us perfect and then we sinned). God is so good that He sent His Son to die for us so that we can go to heaven, even though we don't deserve it. And His son defeated death. By accepting Jesus as our Savior, and admitting our sin (that's a hard thing to do, I know), and asking forgiveness for our sin, then we can receive God's grace. God did provide a way for us to come back to Him after we fell away. But it's all about God, it's not about us.

This life is so minor in the whole scheme of things. Live for God, who was gracious enough to provide a way for His fallen people to return to Him.

Answer 4

I think religion/spirituality is something more than whatever we feel like it ought to be at a given time. There are plenty of evidences of spiritual entities in the world that go beyond the control of our personal desires and such. My understanding of the spiritual realm comes from the Bible because I believe in its authority. By believing in something I, along with many others contend is a proven document I have the hope that by following God as He is described therein I can know him. I don't understand why people can philosophize freely with spirituality and expect their feelings to be 'true to them'. No offense intended in saying this, but if I theorize or feel that 3 and 3 is 10, it still isn't true to me. If there is an absolute truth, then the saying 'true to me' is false. Something is true regardless of the person. If there is no absolute truth then 'true to me' is an absurd statement because there is no truth anyway. Hope this helps. cheers.

Answer 5

I've been to hell. If you've ever been to the point I am talking about you'd understand what I am saying. And, yes, I am a Spiritualist, not a religionist. I believe there is a God, He helped me and there is NO doubt in my mind about that. I think religion is part of Spirituality, not the other way around. God Bless
Peace and Love

Answer 6

Your missing the point though that God is a JUST God.
If a judge never convicted criminals and said to everyone "your free to go"then he would be unjust.God Is a Just judge .He judges all sin but through Jesus made a way for mankind to escape from hell.All we need to do is make him our Lord and Savior.

Answer 7

If your wife and child were kidnapped, raped and brutally murdered and they caught the man who did it would you think a good judge couldn't possibly punish him?,Your way of thinking only allows men to live in wickedness and refuse to turn and be healed. How much more should God punish those who not only sinned against Him but also refused His way of mercy and made up stories like this to ignore His warnings?

Answer 8

My friend do not distrust your heart. One gift we all have but take for granted is intuition. Does hell exist? Yes and no. Hell wasn't created by God. It was created by us. We are powerful spiritual beings, but this whole planet is so manipulated and mind controlled that so much of our co creative gifts given by God have been directed at negative. Even the self talk in our heads is always taking our fragile confidences to task. "I can't do anything right! I'll always be sick! I can't change." Thus we become what we think. Remember what Jesus said, "be it unto you according to your faith." What is faith? Belief. What you say, you believe. What you believe you become. We are so busy living in fear and ego that we are crippling ourselves leaving us wide open to be attacked and manipulated by world leaders under the dictate of Satan. Believe it. click on the propoganda matrix link below,and a screen with a video of a cia agent 27 years in the field will pop up. He found proof of the cia shipping missing children to different parts of the world for satanic rites. Hell? God didn't need to make it even if he wanted to. It was made for/ by souls that at death couldn't forgive themselves, to stay til they learn they are already free. The hell spoken of in the Bible is physical death. Sodom and Gommorah were said to go into hell, yet their remains lay scattered in this world. But never were re-inhabited.

Also don't forget that our version of the Bible came from the Holy Catholic Church. An organization whose evil fruits are easily visible, from before the inquisition to today's pope who hid evidence of child sexual abuse in the archives of St. Petersburg. Many gospels left out. How do you know that what we call the word of God hasn't been altered? Never settle for dogma. If you read the book of Daniel it says that the anticrhist would change the times and the laws, and the Catholic changed the time of worship commanded by God (the sabbath or saturday) to sunday (a pagan day of sun worship). What did Christ say about the kingdom of God? It is like a treasure, search for it. Keep your mind open, or you close yourself to it. Did you know that by the original christians, Jesus wasn't considered divine? He was voted as divine 400 years later by the Niacene councel (ever hear of the Niacene Creed? This was a Catholic meeting. But Jesus is a child of God, as are you and I Because if you think about, spirituality says their are 4 elements for life. Scientists agree. Earth, fire, water, air. But since science is limited by its iinsistence in dogma (just as religion) it (science) leave out the fifth element: spirit. And, as science confirms, these elements sprang from nothing (or actually God's word,) then, wether through atoms and molecules, or spirit we are all related! That means earth, 4 legged, winged, rock, all life, and that life is entitled to good life. Where are the good stewards today with all dying from pollution? don't blindly believe your political leaders to be "Christians." After all, faith is a virtue, but blind faith is a deadly sin. that goes for blindly following pastors too. Peace, I end now, and pack up my soap box, and lastly say to Catholics, I know there are many of you who seek truth, and live good lives, please forgive me if I offended you. I don't desire to use truth as a weapon, only to promote open mindedness in my humble way.

Oh! yeah, I too accept reincarnation.

Answer 9

You have been given free will. The way back to The Almighty's heart is your struggle. But, you are always welcome home to the Father. Faith is the rock you walk and the Spirit is the light at the end.

Answer 10

I'm a spiritualist but I don't believe in hell so it wouldn't really make sense for me to agree with the quote. :)