Heaven

Shane · Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 7:37 pm Post subject: Heaven

(If this question belongs in another subgroup I apologize and will remove it)

I was talking to my friend about the concept of heaven the other night. She is a Christian and I am agnostic. After we got past the standard line about how in order to go to heaven you have to accept Jesus as your saviour, a few things occurred to me, but I will try to narrow it down to one problem.

Hypothetically lets say I convert to Christianity and accept Jesus. Now when I die I am going to heaven. But what if the rest of my family, my friends, remained atheist/agnostic and went to hell.
How am I in heaven if I am separated from the people I care about for all eternity?
Would where I go still be considered heaven or is it hell?

What if my family and friends all go to heaven, but I go to hell...will they be happy in heaven while I burn in hell?

Absurdism · Post 11: Mon Sep 14, 2009 11:00 pm Post subject:

What happens if you're masochistic.

Wouldn't hell be good and heaven bad.

Or what happens if you go to heaven where you're supposed to be happy.

Atheist · Post 12: Tue Sep 15, 2009 2:20 am Post subject:

haha, glad somebody used that argument about masochism and hell. I used that a couple days ago I think and I'm still thinking about it.

but to get to the question, the bottom line is this. From a strictly Christian stand-point, the presence of loved ones in heaven or hell is not something to be in consideration. Obviously this is hard for an atheist to grasp sometimes since I had trouble with this too. But in a sense, you are ultimately in heaven worship God forever. I will put it in the Christian way since this involves Christianity. And this is exactly how it would or should be answered by any pastor/preacher.

There is nothing that is greater than the love of God. There is no love that can be greater than that of you loving God.

In fact, I think the Bible specifically states that compared to loving God, loving family and loved ones on earth is secondary. Here's the quote. I'm not sure if the location is right tho

Matthew 10:37
“He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me."

hope that kind of helps answer your question. It's not an answer many people like hearing or can deal with but it's how the Christian way is. God is #1. End of story.

Agnostic · Post 13: Tue Sep 15, 2009 3:31 pm Post subject:

It's one thing to love God more than anything else. But you don't stop loving others. And you don't love them any less because of it. It won't stop you living in torment if your other loved ones are suffering intensely.

Atheist · Post 14: Mon Sep 28, 2009 8:28 pm Post subject: Re: Heaven