Arvel Joffi

Do you go to heaven for (1) being a good person or (2) for surrendering to Jesus?

(1) If it’s for being a good person, then burn your Bible and ignore Jesus; it won’t matter: you’re a good person.

(2) If it’s for surrendering to Jesus, then, and please be clear on this, what about all the wonderful billions who have lived their whole lives without word or rumor of Christianity? In the last 2000 years, how many have gone to hell because they weren’t born in the right place?

Think about this, Jesus died in what, 33 A.D.? (I’m not sure.) Did the Celts in what is now the British Isles all automatically go to hell from the date that Jesus was crucified, or was there a grace period? Maybe heathens all around the world are safe from eternal damnation until a missionary arrives to tell them about the Word. After that, if they understand that they’re hearing the Truth, but ignore it, they deserve to go to hell.

Of course, if the heathens around the world don’t go to hell until they reject the wonders of Christ, then why is Christ needed to begin with? They would’ve gone to heaven without it, right? Or should they just have known better?

Maybe, in 33 A.D., a man in what would one day be America should have awakened one day and said, “You know, I’m going to leave the Great Plains that my people have lived in for 10,000(*) years and travel across the Big Water to a land I don’t know exists to hear the words of a man I don’t exists because I get the weird feeling that my immortal soul is in danger. I’m nervous about the trip, but I get an undeniable feeling that if I pray to the gods that have always been a part of my people’s lives that I’m committing some sort of, I don’t know...sin. Well everybody, quit looking at me funny and wish me luck, er, I mean, pray for me. But not to our gods. Damn. I’m leaving now.”

Well...which is it? Or is it a mysterious combination of the two? If so, what’s the formula?

(*)It is interesting to note that man is obviously uninformed here - or maybe mislead? - as, at the time, the world was only 4037 years old.

[ November 19, 2002: Message edited by: ArvelJoffi ]

[ November 19, 2002: Message edited by: ArvelJoffi ]

[ November 19, 2002: Message edited by: ArvelJoffi ]</p>