Hi crazyheart:

I called out to Jesus and God in my middle age, so I won't have to do it when I'm old and feeble and on my death bed..

Better sooner than later, eh?

Arminius    Your Quote  :I called out to Jesus and God in my middle age, so I won't have to do it when I'm old and feeble and on my death bed..

Great Answer---- I'm with you .  My Uncle is going through that now --he was never a believer . Then one night he couldn't breath and it scared him so bad he started wondering about what happens after death . He now is not sure what he believes.He is asking questions which is more than he was doing before.     

The Bible makes it very clear in John 3v3 that one must be Born Again to enter God's  Kingdom so if one is not and receives the Last Rites what happens then. 

Blessings

in your opinion, unsafe.?

What is my opinion crazyheart --your words are confusing please clarify for me ---thanks 

unsafe, if you would preface your comments with "in my opinion" or" these are my thoughts" , they would be easier to read. it's what you think but not what everyone thinks.

Hi crazyheart

Maybe it is just me but I'm still not sure what your meaning ---My comments don't warrent an opinion ---I agreed with what Arminius said ---I talked about my Uncle and I stated what The Bible says to see the Kingdom Of God --none of these need my opinion --belief maybe but I'm still not clear on your comments about opinion, 

This is what I found for the difference in an opinion and a belief ----

There is nothing surprising about the fears of a dying man leading him to question his faith. The consistent Christian message has been to accept Jesus, or else. The early indoctrination of a child can come back later in life, just like the chicken pox virus can come back as shingles after lying dormant for decades.

I take a pretty dim view on scaring the dying, but religion can't get enough of it. Even if you don't repent on your deathbed, you can count on the religious to claim that you did. It has happened to numerous atheists and agnostics.

That has never been "the consistent Christian message." It has been the consistent message of some Christians (perhaps many, perhaps even most) but never "the consistent Christian message." That leaves no room for the wide diversity that has always existed in Christianity on the issue of salvation and who is saved. There have always been Christian universalists, for example.

Jesus emphasized the need for belief and faith not as some kind of entrance exam but because of what it allows us to do here and now - how it empowers us. The kingdom that he refers to is not just that after death but just as importantly (or perhaps more so) in our current lives ("the kingdom of heaven has come upon you" doesn't imply that you have to die to be part of this kingdom).  Even Chansen lives on the basis of faith - faith that he will live to see the end of the day, otherwise, why get up in the morning?  And the stronger and richer one's  faith is, the more you are empowered to do.  In the end, I don't think what you believe matters in and of itself. What matters is what you believe enables you to do. Being "Christian" is far less important that living as a Christian in its impact on ourselves, our relationships and our society. And God is relationship. So if a deathbed conversion allows you to meet your death with greater dignity and assurance, it has served a function. Not as much as it would have had it occured years earlier, but in the radical world of God that Jesus gave us a glimpse of, small efforts are on par with big ones.  The widow's penny matters just as much as the big giver. That's not the message of the secular world.

If you believe " feed the hungry, tend the sick, love neighbour as self, love God . Jesus read God's heart better than anyone" and act on it - even in a small way, you will not have "gotten it wrong".  Perhaps you could have done better, but then so too could all of us.  If belief and faith is just about "hedging bets", then in waiting for that bet to "pay off" you will have missed out not on some promise of future glory, but on having a very different life here and now.

Actually, Steven, I stand corrected.  The has been no "the consistent Christian message."  It's been all over the board.  But a common Christian message is that those who repent are somehow "saved".  The irony, is that it is the same Christians who are inventing the torture from which dying people need to be "saved".

Thanks for the correction - and I agree with you about the irony!

This is a good question.  Jesus/God.  That is what I always believed.  But what if Jesus is a great teacher like Ghandi?  I don't think that God would hold it against us for deifying one of His great followers.  Yet it is possible that Christians have it "right" that Jesus is God's only Son.  Yet if I was God I would have more than one child.

It is also possible that Jesus is one path to God and there are others so it is still not wrong to deify Jesus.  I think that God is so far beyond our understanding the concept of Jesus may help us understand the Divine better.  If deifying Jesus (whether it is "right" or "wrong") helps us along on our path to the Divine then it must be right somehow.