coltsfan

My take on the standard, as given by Jesus, would be found in Matthew 25: 31-46. There is no mention of accepting or not accepting Jesus specifically mentioned, rather helping/loving/caring for others is the standard. In doing this you are helping/loving/caring for God. Rather than merely professing faith in Jesus, it is a commitment to love others, such as Jesus does, that is the road to salvation.

Machiavelli

So, according to whom? My salvation would hinge on believing YOU are right, and that the the vast majority of what the rest of the world is wrong.

Stumpjumper

Hi Machiavelli

For a well reasoned approach to salvation, I would recommend Hans Balthasar's Dare We Hope . He generally follows the Eastern Orthodox version of "hell" or lack thereof.

Ronin

How about this:

"It is better to live your life as if there are no Gods, and try to make the world a better place for your being in it. If there is no God, you have lost nothing and will be remembered fondly by those you left behind. If there is a benevolent God, She will judge you on your merits and not just on whether or not you believed in Her."

:thumbs:

Biff the unclean

It really isn't possible to "over" simplify this.
It is impossible to accept or reject God & Son because no one has ever presented us with them.
The single solitary thing we have been presented with is a story. Only a story, nothing more. I reject that story because it is unbelievably stupid.

I recieved an Email from someone saying that she was the widow of the finance minister of Nigera. She was offering me tons of money, if I would put up a moderate sum of cash "in good faith."
I never answered her. Was I rejecting tons of cash? Had my heart been hardened to the thought of being rich?
NO! I wasn't rejecting cash, I was rejecting her story because it is an obvious con. There was no cash presented to reject.
I reject the God story for the same reason.
Show me the money or show me the God and I will accept them with open arms.
Toss me a line of bullshit, be it about divinity or getting rich quick, and it's you and your con job I'll reject.

jdlongmire

Acknowledge and love the Creator God, love your neighbor.

- pax -

-JD

seebs

Sure it is.

So you may say, but I have seen people do both.

This part, I mostly agree with.

However, what is meant when people talk about "rejecting" a teacher is not necessarily claims about that teacher. You do not need to meet Keynes to accept or reject Keynesian economics. In fact, people who have never heard of him sometimes consider the questions he wrote about, and come to conclusions about those same questions.

If someone wanders off being all philosophical and declares that, having spent some time thinking, he's concluded that suffering comes from being too involved with things, and too committed to particular outcomes or states of being, and that if you could learn not to do this, you would not suffer... I say he has accepted Buddha, even though he has never heard of the guy.

There are people who accept and reject Jesus. They do so by forming conclusions on matters on which Jesus taught. Not all people who affirm the proposition that Jesus was the Son of God have accepted Jesus, and not all people who reject that proposition have rejected Jesus.

Biff the unclean

[RANT]Ach, I mean look at this thing. Salvation and the finance minister’s widow. It’s the same scam, now isn’t it.

Oooh look, shiny! I’ve got something valuable for you, something you don’t deserve, something you can’t earn for yourself. And all you have to do to get is this little something inconsequential. Trust me, have faith.
If you don’t believe it’s there you’ll miss out on the shiny.

How greedy or how stupid does one have to be? Stick your hand in the hole of this coconut, greedy little monkey, there’s candy for you inside. Have faith.[/RANT]

seebs

Well, if I start asking for people's bank account numbers, go ahead and bust me. :P

Biff the unclean

So if you reject the Christ, you are saying you can still be Christ-ian.
I say baloney.
In 1700 years the scam has spawned new scams. Ones to take advantage of those missed by earlier versions. But they are still obvious scams, jury rigged as they might be