There's absolutely nothing wrong with being a child. Jesus said that unless you become like a little child... you'll miss Heaven. That's really paraphrased but correct. We're too jaded as adults by the painful realities of life and numbing ramblings of the intellects to realize that... sometimes...just sometimes... the best approach to living this life and viewing the afterlife... is to do so through the eyes of a child.

As a father, my children inspire great hope and joy in my life. I have no problem understanding God's perspective on us... his children. He wants to give us a great place to enjoy. The Devil hates every fibre of our existence because he knows God plans to place human judges over the angels in Heaven... and he cannot deal with it... being a former Archangel himself.

The Bible offers a great number of insights into the workings, personalities, concepts and things we can expect to see. A fascinating study I might add. In addition, I have been fascinated with near death experiences of individuals whose unrehearsed stories carry many threads of commonality that cannot be wished away or ignored.

It's easy to believe in nothing... but it takes real courage and boldness to research, understand and tell others about the confidence you have in your belief(s)... in my case... the Bible, in Jesus Christ & Jehovah God (Creator).

Don't discount fairy tales my friend... it's those precious "Intangibles" that make life fun, interesting and bearable for children. Many myths are based in facts that make for good story telling. Howevere, the Bible has proven to be more than these things by being unstoppable through 2000 years of hatedful regimes, armies, persecutions and burnings. The Bible is not a fairytale... it's free thinking, hope inspiring pages of unrelenting spiritual truth pose a serious threat to human reasoning and logic. That's why it is both loved and hated so much... depends on your viewpoint. It certainly isn't ambivalent, for sure.

Author JD Howes
www.jdhowes.com

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Isn't it wonderful how one can make money off of mainstream religions. All you have to do is give the believers what they want to hear, and they'll pay for it. Brilliant!

Heaven is in space. What you find ving up with the stars boring? Even athiest scientists strive to get up there unknowingly.

And, wars go on in Heaven, there are 10 levels of Heaven, and it's not like people or angels don't have jobs up there. Technically though, only the 3rd Heaven is reserved for humanity. Maybe you should look up hell, it's 10 levels, with people hanging by their tongues, gentials, and being roasted. Which would you prefer?

Please cite your sources

I too would turn down heaven . Its eternal happiness without sorrow , regret , hate . But without the negative you cant appreciate the positive . Accepting eternal happiness to me would be like sticking your head in the sand .

Hmm...That is quite possibly the cheeriest thing I have ever read! Thanks God for being so forgiving and understanding!

Yeesh, you were to think the Supreme Being would actually be able to prevent such a place from existing, no no!

He is incapable!

Wow Ashley, you have some of the strangest ideas I have ever heard...

But that's why we all love ya

What are your sources, anyway?

Until next time,

Is this book of yours FICTION or NON-FICTION?




LOL






Sources----Who needs stinking sources.....lol

I've been gone from this post for a bit,(and skipped page 3), but I gotta say that there's a bit of a trend in who posts what. 90% of the pro-heaven posts always states their point from using biblical examples. The only problem with that is that for some of us who don't care much for the bible, the pro-heaven bible posts are meaningless and all sound the same-in heaven u always happy, in hell u always miserable. But as some remarks said;"no other emotions, no new experiences=a boring heaven" seems very much the truth. Personally, I'd take Valhalla over heaven anytime. reunited with loved ones, free food, games, fighting(but no actual death), sexual organs still attached(and Usuable!); Valhalla sounds like a fun heaven to me.


PS-in all this discussion of the afterlife, did anyone see the SciFi channel movie RiverWorld?

Actually, in Valhalla, the warriors fight and die during the day, and are resurrected in time for the evening meal.

What better sport for a warrior that to fight with, and against heros?

Not everyone is rewarded the same in Heaven, mostly it is based on their faith and how much of their time the give to God... Perhaps, if you give little, Heaven will be an adventure for you?

I beleive people who are ressurected will inherit the Earth, not heaven. And dont worry, I'm sure there's alot we dont know. Enough information that'll take longer than eternity to learn . And of course we cant understand how things would be, we're only mortals for God's sake. We have no idea how things will be. You cant just say "It's gonna suck cuz it'll get boring". O_o......

Valhalla it is then!

OMG I definately want to grow up to be a viking! Seriously, they travel around in ships of like three hundred troops, get to a european village and kill, rape, pillage, and party and get away with it all scott free!

And when you die, your body is burned on a floating pier and you go to Vallhalla where the crazy battle party continues forever! Man,... Viking it is...

In all honest, I can't really tell if your being sarcastic or not. Either way, Valhalla sounds much cooler than the Christian heaven in terms of fun-having. Let me see-eternal neverending (and boring)happiness forever prasing God; or an eternity of eating, fighting, drinking, sex and games all with no negative consequences(no deathm no pain,no pregnancies). Now THAT sounds like an awesome heaven to me.

I am SERIOUS. I am one the great great great great great grandsons of Erik the Red... and I would definately love to grow up to be a viking.

AND RAPE PEOPLE> STEAL FROM PEOPLE>>>>>THIS IS MEAN I mean treasure hunting is cool though.

I'm sure in Viking heaven, the women would want it.

I am wondering if many of the posters here know they will die shortly, say finding out they have cancer tommorrow (not to be mean but just trying to put things in a different perspective) does it affect their choices? Death always seem to be decades away, to most of the people yet young people die everyday.

I do.. and it doesn't. I find solice and comfort with the Goddess and my other gods...

Chances are, if a person knows they are dying, their opinions will change. Humans as a self-aware species are afraid of Death(most anyway) Religion helps people cope with their impending death and gives them hope of future happiness. Although I agree with what you say, I personally don't think I'd change my personal view on religion much. Death is Death. My only hope is that scientists invent a immortality drug before I die(an preferrably before I get TOO old).

That gives me an idea...

Here's a question for most of you-If you could chose from dying and going to heaven, OR being eternally young(With the ability to travel through time) which would you chose.

I'd personally chose the 2nd option.

You would probably be able to do everything you spoke of in the first idea anyway. Plus, you wouldn't have to worry about dying.

Nope. For Vikings, its only wrong if you get caught.

Plus Vikings didn't think of women as their "soulmates" or something fruity like that. Women were property, and came along with claiming their new territory.



Exactly!


Yeah, you say that now. Seriously, older people have a much better understanding of the world, life, and death then anybody else, which is kinda sad because punk teenagers such as ourselves don't listen to them enough.

Life and death isn't so simple as you might think.

My sources come from several Biblical and non-canon texts, Enoch, Baruch being two of the many, plus personal NDE experience and dreams of such places BEFORE I read or knew the existence of such non-canon texts (such as Enoch). So, I have enough personal proof to say it's all real and as it says it is, you don't have to accept it, but I do.

well, even though i am not old, i have seen death several times and it has not changed my view on life. (my mother died when i was young, my father when in my late teens, and I almost died)

All NDEs are different.

Some of them have surprising similarties.

Almost every NDE is different for various reasons: Different needs, beleifs, emotion, etc.

How did you "almost die" Hyperactive?

"environmental reaction" is the best the medical/naturalpathic professionals could come up with. in other words something in the air or the water (they eliminated food via alergy testing) caused my liver to almost completely shut down. If it had not recovered on its own i would have been dead, or so they say. They couldn't do anything except monitor because they could not understand what was happening (and even now after the fact nobody can figure out what happened, which is quite scary in its own way. it would be better to know that "item X" is something my body can't handle.)

So you don't know what "item X' is? Man, thats scary. Could it have been something you ate?

it might have been. the best they could do after the fact was food alergy tests which came back negative. indeed it is scary because it could happen again.

I agree with the dude, I don't care what realm I'm in- I don't think being completely happy with no worries and no troubles, never ever, ever ever, would be sooo weird for me.

The whole exciting part of life is the ups and downs and ups and downs- if I was always happy then I wouldn't even appreciate it, I wouldn't even realize I'm happy when I am.

Besides, I'm not even sure if there is one definite heaven. Everyone's idea of heaven is different. There's a joke where an angel is leading this dude around heaven and showing him all these "rooms" and as they are walking by the catholic room or whatnot, the angel says, "shh, you gotta be quiet around this room.", "Why?", "Cause they don't know anyone else is up here."

Anyone else heard that, or something similar or whatnot? My point is-well there is no point. See the logic behind that? Come on everyone, ramble with me!

Yeah but my experiences are backed up by non-canon texts that I found AFTER. Anyway, that's proof enough for me, sometimes people have to experience it to understand it. Like I've said, wierd things happen after NDE's.

Oddly.. I don't remember anything you said that people see in a NDE...

Agreed.

Almost every person that has had a Hellish NDE has become religious, or happier, more spiritual, etc.

What NDEs say about hell is that it is a place of purification, instruction, and some people a warning.

I, and probably most Christians, do not see heaven as simply a place of eternal happiness or whatever the dozens of posts here have called it.

Honestly, we do not know what heaven will be like.

The thing is, we are looking at it from a completely human perspective. When we go to heaven we will no longer have physical bodies which succumb to physical needs. We will be recreated as spiritual beings. The best the Bible can do is give an earthly analogy - that of a big party. But again, this is only being seen on a human leve.

The only thing we know about heaven (and hell) from the Bible is that it is real. Anything on top of that is being viewed through the human complex.

Until next time,

Well said.

heaven is utopian

This is EXACTLY my point I tried to make at the beginning of this topic.

Actually when Jesus comes back our bodies will be raised from the ground, the sea and wherever else where. It says he raises the dead to be judged accordingly to what they have done. And if they are sinners then they are thrown in a lake of fire, body and all and if they are good then they will go to heaven with they're bodies. Cuz God states in bible that if you are blind, unable to walk-paralyzed, whatever your illness then that will too go with you. But if you get to go to heaven then any illnessess or defects or hurts will be cleared from your body and heart. But until that judgement day then yes we are spiritual. Cuz when God judges and sends the sinners to hell then he will be wiping the earth clean of wrong and making it into the new heaven.

both of those assumptions on Heaven assume the bible is right, and on whether it is or not we have no evidence.

Isn't all forms of "If you do good..." afterlifes?

didn't the greek believed you were going to hell no matter what you did? I'm sure O'm wrong, but I seem to remember hearing about that once.

they have two.. Tarterus.. where you were tortured or set to do some job that could never be finished for your disobediance against the gods.. or Elysian fields, where you went if the gods showed favour to you...

I cant say, I havent studied all religions. But in general, that would be correct.

Most have "good places" however, there are many that do not have a "hell."

Even Hell for the christians was taken from the Norse goddess of the underworld.. Hel...

Those crazy Christians and their crazy way of stealing almost everything about their religion from other,older religions...when will they learn...

"we are the christians, prepare to be assimilated. we will add your distinctivenss to our own. you will service us. resistance is futile."

(sorry, i could not resist)

I Tee Hee 'd X)

!!