Why does Christianity have only two options for what happens after you die?

Question

I know that there are heaven and hell. Purgatory doesn't exist according to the Bible, it was just made up in the Middle Ages as a scam for the Catholic Church to make money. Basically I have to believe in God and Jesus and do what God says to get into heaven. If I live as a "sinner" then Satan gets me and I'm going to hell. First off, if I live a moral and honest life (albeit not believing in God/Bible/Jesus) where am I going? If I am still going to hell, then I don't want to go to heaven if God rejects good people on the basis that they didn't believe his mumbo-jumbo (for which he offers scant proof). So assuming I'm going to hell, will Satan torture me forever? Why? What does he have to gain. Why can't there be a place for everyone else to go who is honest and moral, but doesn't believe in God where we can just chill and not be tortured or have to follow archaic rules?

Okay if you are going to make dumb statements at least qualify them/offer something in their defense.

So basically it doesn't matter what else I do, as long as I accept Jesus? What if I'm a mass murderer, but believe in Jesus?

Why do I have to be tortured for living well, but not believing in Jesus?

If Satan values reason, logic, and intellectual thinking, that sounds better to me than believing in something because you're scared.

Answer 1

Everyone is born with a sinful nature that causes us to live less than the ideals good we can possibly be. No one is perfect. This was not your fault. But like genetics that is passed down from generation to generation. This is our first parents fault, Adam and Eve. So even if you were perfect you would only be self righteous in your own eyes. But not God's eyes.

Heaven and Hell are two places for a spiritual person. Heaven is a place where God and his mercy and love is. Hell is a place where God is not there and is a place of judgment and justice.

Answer 2

God does not grade on a curve. You may believe you are a good person but that's only because you don't believe you are "as bad" as some other people (Hitler, Stalin, murderers, etc.). You may consider yourself good but... "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Romans 3:23 this says that even though you think your good, you are still a sinner like everyone else. Because sin is rebellion against God, there is a consequence for that sin... "The wages of sin is death..." Romans 6:23

The short answer is that there is no such thing as a good person. Everyone is a sinner and thus deserves Hell, it is only by the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ that someone is given eternal life in Heaven. There are only two options because you will either spend eternity with God (Heaven) or you will spend eternity apart from God (Hell), there is no halfway.

As for Satan torturing you for eternity, i would suggest some more research on Hell. Hell is a place apart from God and the things of God. In Hell there is no hope, love, contentment, joy or peace. The Bible describes Hell as full of destruction by fire and a place full of weeping and the gnashing of teeth. It is true that Satan will be there but everyone, even Satan, will be suffering for eternity.

Answer 3

If you don't believe in Christianity, why do you worry about a "Christian" heaven or hell? By the way, HOW do you KNOW there is heaven or hell or the conditions that exist in either? Maybe you just die, and there is just nothing--you're brain ceases to function, you lose cognition and sensation and that's it. You believe in heaven and hell, and that belief requires some basis, or, to use the technical term, an epistemology. I doubt that you know about heaven and/or hell based on direct experience. If your knowledge is based on what someone else told you, then you need to find out how that person (those persons) know about this. Your knowledge based on someone else's statement is only as good as the basis of their knowledge.

As a practicing Christian, I hope there is an afterlife when I see G-d in the face, to use the Biblical expression. I try to live my life well, because I believe, again to refer to the Bible, that the Kingdom of G-d is at hand. It's here now (regardless of what there is after we die), and we're responsible for what we do to make it a better place. I can only do the best I can in the here and now; what happens after that I can't control--that's in G-d's hands. I really don't have much choice but to trust His judgment, which, I guess, is a kind of definition of faith: hope in the charity of G-d.

Answer 4

Unfortunately the Catholic church has removed, and imprisoned much content that should be a part of the bible.

The Gospel of Saint Thomas which was an account of Jesus seeming to be the closest to his actual words, was denounced by the Catholic Church because it made them look bad, and then they locked it up in the vault, because it made it clear that the church was misled. There is much documentation of this artifact.
see it here:http://users.misericordia.edu//davies/thomas/Trans.htm

There are many other documents and artifacts in The Vatican Vault. Some of them elude to re-incarnation. A lot of them refer to other gods. Have any of you ever wondered why god refers to "us" in Genesis 1:26? And before anyone goes spouting off about God being the one and only god, the bible doesn't say that... it only says not to place any god before Him.
Also, the bible doesn't refer to hell as a place where people go. The Bible talks about hades, and describes it as a place of the dead. (if you ask me that doesn't sound necessarily bad) So, have heart, maybe you won't sit at the right hand of Jesus, but you don't really care for that option anyhow right?

And now I must ask you a question: If you don't believe in the Bible, then why do you care what it says about where you are going?

Answer 5

According to the Bible, Satan is not said to torment anyone in Hell. He might be the weakest one, God curses the worst the worst, I think.

Yes, there is no Purgatory, there were Christians and persecutions of them before the Roman Catholic Church, we are all sinners, so not being a sinner isn't any good, we are all counted as 'bad' people and it says that we are not 'good' because we are not God, and only He is good, moral depends upon perspective - there are none moral in the eyes of God and I think that counts, if you don't want to go to Heaven, no one is stopping you from doing what you want, and there are only two places to go to after we die because God told us that was the way it is.

I mean, make it all up if you want to, I am just telling you what the Bible says since you got much of it wrong.

Answer 6

A new non-believer, I assume?

Well, God and Satan and heaven and hell are all supernatural concepts. Supernatural because their properties go beyond what is natural--what is worldly. When we say God or Satan, heaven or hell, we don't really know what it means since we're dealing with things we have no proper representation of. (Think of counting to infinity. Although we can conceive of it in theory, there is no way we can know what infinity truly is.)

My point is, it's useless to think about what the nature of any of these things are because their Truth is inconceivable to our limited minds. Those who believe in a God will tell you this as a proof of how God's ways cannot be understood or boxed in using our minds, also how God's existence cannot be disproved rationally.

For me, the whole God question is misdirected. Again there's no point arguing about it because we can't perceive the Truth of God--it's always simply an approximation and is therefore always incomplete and is therefore NOT the Truth. If so, then likewise with these beings' natures and their devices, heaven and hell.

We can't do anything about these things because they are beyond us anyway--we can't do anything about how this God judges us, whether we are for heaven or hell. To think otherwise is a human conceit which we still haven't shaken off (to think that this omnipotent being is like us is a bit conceited).

What's left then is to simply live what we have--our mortal earthly lives in the best way we know how. And that's to live it well. I don't mean live like a fuckingpig without restraint or moderation--I mean LIVE WELL. What happens after that is out of our control.

That's my take. Hope I was able to share some relevant thoughts. Happy soul searching.

Answer 7

First of all the devil won't be torturing people in hell. It's not in the Bible. He's one of the ones being tortured.

But as for going to hell - hey if you're a "good" person you've got nothing to worry about. Of course the Bible says, "There is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins." Ec 7:20 But hey - maybe you're the exception.

Answer 8

That's great that you try to be honest and moral, but the Bible says the only way to go to Heaven is to Accept Christ as your Savior, Believe that He is the Son of God and He died on the cross for our sins, and Confess that you are a sinner and have nothing without God in your life and you want to live for Him. And you have to really mean it. There is a saying "Good people go to Hell and bad people go to Heaven." People may be good yes but that doesn't even begin to compare to God. Do you think you measure up to the Creator of the Universe by being honest and moral? The only people that know what's in your heart is you and God.

Answer 9

Satan believes in God and he's still going to Hell in the end. There are only two options because there is only two choices to make. Like for instance right and wrong. We either follow one or the other. And, we can't "straddle the fence". You are either on one side or the other.

It's that way because God made it that way. It's our choice, one or the other.

Answer 10

"*Other beliefs based on other books do not promise anything after this life. It might be discussed, but they are not promises." You should do some research before making a statement like this. Many other religions make promises about an after life. So the wager comes to "which god(s) or prophets or spirits to believe". There are many choices, not just two. Odds of getting it right are single digit. And I think, based on the number of choices, that "none of the above" is correct