I have been working through some health issues, so I am now just catching up. Sorry for the flood of posts today. Steve
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Being laid up a bit, I have been binge watching one of my favorite BBC shows, The Repair Shop. Virtually every person appearing on that show, looking for a repair, seems to believe that deceased loved ones are looking down on them from above. You see, Christians developed this strange idea that when they died, they would go up to Heaven, but this is patent nonsense. Christianity grew out of Judaism. Jesus was a Jew and when he referred to scriptures, he was referring to the Hebrew Bible, the scriptures of the Jews. In those scriptures, when Jews died, they went to Sheol (look it up), not Heaven.
And, as is almost never pointed out, the New Testament was also written by Jews (Saul/Paul was a Jew, etc.). Why Jews would all of a sudden switch from millennia believing in Sheol to “all God’s chillen goes to Heaven,” is beyond me (a miracle?).
But Christians firmly believe that when they die they go to Heaven. And, Christian Mothers and Grandmothers refer to their deceased children as “little angels looking down on us.” I can almost guarantee that some angels are looking down on you. Do you know, that according to those same scriptures, there was a war in Heaven, between angels that objected to the favoritism Yahweh was showing his newer creation, human beings, and angels who were in acceptance of Yahweh’s will? I am sure there are still some angels who were on the winning side of that war, and not cast out of Heaven, who resent Humans, looking down on them for sure, for causing that schism.
So, why would angels and the gods and demi gods want a bunch of smelly human beings dirtying up a pristine Heaven? Answer: they did not.
Consider the so-called “Lord’s Prayer:”
“Pray then like this: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.’” (gMatthew 6:9-13)
So, “our Father in Heaven” refers to God being in Heaven, his proper place, and “your Kingdom come” refers to God’s Kingdom on Earth, as “on Earth as it is in Heaven” refers to. The rest of it refers to things that should not apply in Heaven: debts, daily bread, temptations, evil?
Jesus’s message was simple:
Step 1 Repent That is confess your sins.
Step 2 Get baptized This is just a cleansing ritual to prepare you for your new life, and
Step 3 Obey God’s Commandments That is start over in life as a god-fearing person.
If all of the people in Judea at the time were to have done this, they would have ushered in a new theocracy. A country of righteous, god-fearing believers who did God’s will each and every day.
There was no promise from Jesus of elevation into Heaven when you died.
So, where did that nonsense come from?
Answer: Paul’s cult.
Paul message was “faith, not works,” all scripture to the contrary (“For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.” —Matthew 16:27, emphasis mine). “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.” —Revelation 20:12. Of course, those were not yet written in Paul’s time, but what are God’s commandments except dictates as to how to behave, not think, and well, carrots and sticks were needed, so Heaven and Hell became the abodes of the dead, no longer Sheol, otherwise what would motivate people to follow Paul’s plan?
And, you will notice, there aren’t a lot of theologians running around trying to correct this misconception (because it supports the party line, don’t you see). In fact, they are busy supporting the idea that beloved pets will joining Christians in Heaven. So, not just smelly humans dirtying up Heaven, but smelly pets, too. Please leave some money on the collection plate on your way out. (God is all-knowing, all-powerful, all-loving and al-ways in need of money. (George Carlin) So, no monay from Heaven for you!
Feed your mind, feed it!
Uncommon Sense 