Heaven.

[MissSJ]

Hi everyone,

In the name of balance I thought I would post a similar thread but about heaven.  I am hoping you will share with me your religious viewpoint on this (or if there is a similar place in another religion).

Who decides if you go there?

How do you get there?

When do you go there?  If you don't go there immediately after death, what happens to you during that time in between?

Is it forever?  Can you get out?

What is the basis for this belief in your religious tradition?

How moved are you to help others get there, to what extent would you go?

When in heaven are you aware and saddened that someone you loved and cared about is not there?

Is the basis for going to heaven based off of grace, works, what type of person you are, all of these?

What does your tradition say about those of other traditions?

If your tradition teaches that only those who adhere to your religion goes to heaven, what about those who have never heard of your religion?  what about those who died before your religion was even practiced?

Does your tradition agree with death bed conversions regardless of the life lived?

I hope to hear from a variety of religions as well as from the different Christian traditions.
 

SJ

[christianmomof3]

I was raised in Reform Judaism, and never was taught anything at all about any afterlife.

I just thought you die and that is it.

I am a Christian now, but still not sure about the whole heaven concept.

For one thing, the Bible never says " dead people go to heaven."  I can see some verses that the concept is built around, but they never really say that. 

And the commonly accepted view of heaven - that it is the place with pearly gates and streets of gold does not agree with what the Bible says.  According to the book of Revelation, the place with the streets of gold and pearly gates is the New Jerusalem which is not heaven - it is a holy city that comes down out of heaven from God after the millenium.  And it never says that dead people go there. 

As far as who gets to go to heaven - that is not spelled out in the Bible either that I have seen.

[cappuccinosmom]

In our faith:

Who decides if you go there?

How do you get there?

God "decides" by giving us a choice.  Heaven is open to all, through Jesus.

When do you go there?  If you don't go there immediately after death, what happens to you during that time in between?

When the spirit departs the body, it goes immediately to it's eternal home.

Is it forever?  Can you get out?

Yes it's forever.  Get out?  Well, you don't come back to earth.  I don't know if you can leave heaven and go to hell, or why anyone would want to.

What is the basis for this belief in your religious tradition?

 Here's a good article with the basic Scriptures: http://christianity.about.com/od/whatdoesthebiblesay/a/deathandheaven.htm 

How moved are you to help others get there, to what extent would you go?

Hmmm, very moved.  The extent?  All I can do is tell them.  The choice is theirs.

When in heaven are you aware and saddened that someone you loved and cared about is not there?

Aware, yes.  I don't know about sad--I don't think "sad" like we experience it as humans.  Seeing things from the eternal perspective, we will have a more perfect understanding of justice, grace, and the like.  But the Bible said that even God can be grieved, so yes we probably will have that capacity in heaven too, just not in the same way we experience it now.

Is the basis for going to heaven based off of grace, works, what type of person you are, all of these?

Grace.  Only grace.

What does your tradition say about those of other traditions?

If your tradition teaches that only those who adhere to your religion goes to heaven, what about those who have never heard of your religion?  what about those who died before your religion was even practiced?

I believe God will give everyone the opportunity to choose to spend eternity with him, or not.  The "gate" to heaven is still Jesus, but God is not limited to our understanding of how a person recieves that choice--it may be through evangelism, or it may be through dreams, or it may be something that happens after the soul leaves the body.

Does your tradition agree with death bed conversions regardless of the life lived? 

Yep.

[Llyra]

I am deeply agnostic about the nature and existence of the afterlife. I belong to a religious tradition that is not too terribly focused on salvation-after-death. We do not require belief in one particular doctrine about afterlife. Our members tend to be all over the place, in terms of what they believe about the destiny of the individual soul. Many of us believe that living life to attain a particular "place" in an afterlife causes us to devalue one another, and THIS world, the possibility of a strong relationship with God here while we are still living, and the responsibilities we have to to one another. It's difficult for me to answer your questions, because they just don't seem to apply. In any case, I know I don't believe in Heaven as a literal place, nor do I believe that there is some sort of literal "sorting" of human beings based on their adherence to a particular doctrine, obedience to a list of commandments, or an emotional experience of conversion. I do believe that "salvation" is what happens when we and the Grace of God meet one another, and that it can lead to a transformation, both for individuals, and for us collectively as fellow human beings. But I don't believe that salvation is only available to members of my own religious group. The notion of collective salvation is important to me.

[raelize]

yeah, this is similar to what i was always taught (i think you are also a Quaker, Llyra?)  

i can tell you what i have experienced in my life, which has led me to believe there is some kind of afterlife.  Prior to that, I hadn't really thought about it.  My brother died almost a year ago, and since then, he has visited me many times in my dreams and also during the alpha dream state, when you are almost awake or asleep.  Once he appeared next to my bed and he asked me to take care of his snake.  in an actual dream, he told me that he liked where he was, that he felt better there.  that he was ok.  he also once told me to check my daughter's IGA blood levels which led to her epilepsy actually being related to celiac and now she is seizure and med free. this is pretty rare and i never would have thought of it on my own, even the neurologists didn't know about this.  he also once stepped out of a dream and then shifted into my bedroom and walk out my bedroom door.  really pretty bizarre stuff.

there is a book called Hello from heaven.  i read it after my "dream" where my brother was standing over my bed and told me to check my daughter's blood levels.  the book documents hundreds of people's experiences with people visiting them from the afterlife.  its really interesting. 
 

Originally Posted by Llyra 

I am deeply agnostic about the nature and existence of the afterlife. I belong to a religious tradition that is not too terribly focused on salvation-after-death. We do not require belief in one particular doctrine about afterlife. Our members tend to be all over the place, in terms of what they believe about the destiny of the individual soul. Many of us believe that living life to attain a particular "place" in an afterlife causes us to devalue one another, and THIS world, the possibility of a strong relationship with God here while we are still living, and the responsibilities we have to to one another. It's difficult for me to answer your questions, because they just don't seem to apply. In any case, I know I don't believe in Heaven as a literal place, nor do I believe that there is some sort of literal "sorting" of human beings based on their adherence to a particular doctrine, obedience to a list of commandments, or an emotional experience of conversion. I do believe that "salvation" is what happens when we and the Grace of God meet one another, and that it can lead to a transformation, both for individuals, and for us collectively as fellow human beings. But I don't believe that salvation is only available to members of my own religious group. The notion of collective salvation is important to me.

[love4bob]

 

I am Catholic...

Who decides if you go there? God is the judge, but most everyone will make it to Heaven. There is no way to know who's sins are actually bad enough to not be aloud in, but I like to think that people such as Hitler and the like would fall in to that category. Almost everyone will make it to heaven no matter what. We are all God's children, and we will all come back to him eventually.

How do you get there? By living to be the best person you can be, and trying to limit sin in your life. After death you will live in purgatory until your sins are purged, then you will enter heaven.

When do you go there?  If you don't go there immediately after death, what happens to you during that time in between? You go after your purged of your sins in purgatory.

Is it forever?  Can you get out? Yes, it's forever.

What is the basis for this belief in your religious tradition? It's a combination of my own thoughts and instincts and of the Bible and the position of the Catholic church. I was raised Protestant, so I always knew there was a heaven, but we didn't believe in purgatory, and there was no real clear idea on who goes to heaven/hell. I did know that there spirits on earth/ghosts do exist based on personal experience, so that made me wonder. As I started learning about the Catholic faith everything just sort of clicked in to gear. It all made sense to me. Spirits/ghosts can so easily be explained to me by purgatory. It just makes so much sense to me. And it didn't make sense to me that so many people on earth would be doomed to Hell just because they never were able to learn about or accept Christianity as many Protestant sects believe. When I learned about the Catholic view of collective salvation(after individual purgatory), it also, made so much sense to me. Everything clicked, and I knew this was the faith for me. I love being Catholic.

How moved are you to help others get there, to what extent would you go? I do share my love of the Catholic faith because I believe that it is the quickest way to heaven, and that it is the one true church. I don't however think that if others aren't Catholic that they won't go to heaven, so I don't dwell on it. If someone asks I share, but other than that I don't say much.

When in heaven are you aware and saddened that someone you loved and cared about is not there? No, because if they are not there yet, I assume they would be in Purgatory and on their way. But, also when in Heaven we will be in full knowledge with God, so I would know where they were and why they aren't there.

Is the basis for going to heaven based off of grace, works, what type of person you are, all of these? I think it is based on a combination of all because it all goes in to the kind of person you were. You just need to try to live your life to the best way possible with the least sin.

What does your tradition say about those of other traditions? Other traditions will go to Heaven also after purgatory.

If your tradition teaches that only those who adhere to your religion goes to heaven, what about those who have never heard of your religion?  what about those who died before your religion was even practiced? See above.

Does your tradition agree with death bed conversions regardless of the life lived? See above. Even if you weren't converted before death you still have a chance for salvation.