As an observant Jew, I have only a rudimentary knowledge of Christianity. I must admit that I’ve learned a lot from perusing various posts and discussions on the SDMB. Therefore, I would appreciate an answer from anyone “in the know” out there about the following:
I was reading another thread yesterday concerning witnessing. Here is a quote from jenkisfan:
**"There are four things that God wants you to know in order for you to go to Heaven when you die.
That you have sinned.
Someone must pay your sin debt.
Jesus Christ died, shed His blood, and rose from the grave which paid your sin debt.
Jesus Christ wants to save you!"**
Suppose Hitler had a priest/reverend with him before he died, and he confessed his sins and expressed his belief in the above items. Would he have gone to heaven? According to Christian belief, are there any crimes so great that one simply cannot confess his/her belief in Jesus and end up in heaven?
The short answer is that it depends entirely on what particular Christian denomination you’re looking at. There is a great amount of variation therein, to the point where it’s virtually impossible to say “Christians _____”.
The long answer I shall leave to our more learned GD citizens.
I suspect most churches that suscribe to the above ritual would say, “Yes”. BUT, Hitler would have to be sincere in his repentence. And that’s not likely.
I remember before Ted Bundy was executed, he gave an interview saying that he had accepted Jesus as his saviour and had been forgiven all his sins and would be going to heaven.
I thought, “Most New York nightlcubs have a better door policy than this heaven place!”
So basically, the Catholics there are saying “We don’t know who’ll wind up in heaven, because we can’t tell what a person is thinking or feeling We just know they did something wrong”?
Every sin shall be forgiven. You and I have no knowledge of the heart of Adolph Hitler. He does not seem to me to be given over to love. But it is not my office to judge his heart. If he denies the Holy Spirit, then he is lost. He places himself beyond redemption.
Do not trouble yourself over the issue of divine justice. You don’t want justice. You can’t handle justice. What you want is mercy. And mercy is what you are offered.
Hitler got the offer too. Even Satan can be reborn, if he willingly accepts the Lord as savior. It is pride that enslaves him, and will destroy him.
Well, I suggest you read the Catechism of the Catholic Church for yourself, but as I understand the last bit I underlined, while you may judge that an act is by nature wrong, the judgement of persons must be entrusted to God. You may know an act is wrong, you may even witness someone doing such an act and thus know they have done something wrong. However, you are not then allowed to judge the person.
Well, he might have- but he couldn’t have. Why- becuase, being Hitler, he was incapable of the act of sincere repentance that salvation requires. Note- he did not even ASK for salvation. If Hitler had been capable of that sort of sincere repentance- he would not have been “Hitler”. Hitler is currently enjoying a molten sulfur hot tub as we speak.
I also doubt that Bundy, who was a sociopath, was also capable of “repentance”. Altho he was certainly capable of LYING about repentance.
Eve- no doubt there are folks who also have lied about getting into Studio 54(or whatever).
All of this comes down to “Intentions”. If Hitler belived that he was doing the “Will of God” (see; The Crusades, Inquisition, and Manifest Destiny). Then he would have nothing to be forgiven for. His acts were an abomination against Man. But if he felt he was saving Man, then what he did was justified. We are unqualified to judge his Intentions only his Actions. But you cannot judge one without the other. Lo and Behold, the Bane of Law.
We would like to think that in a similar situation we would behave differently, but would we really?
Situation: You discover that a person in a major American city (pick the one you are most familiar with) has contracted an airborne strain of Rabies/Anthrax/Ebola/whatever. It is incurable, it is 100% fatal, and the prevailing winds will carry it worldwide in five days even if the city is sealed.
Your Options:
A. You can sterilize the city with a thermonuclear detonation. Death toll 3 million
B. You try to help the dying, find a cure, hold a telethon. Death toll 6 Billion +/-
Your Intentions-
If you chose “A”, you are a hero and savior of the world.
If you chose “B” you are the “Bringer of Death” and the destroyer of the world because you could have stopped the plague but chose not to.
It is the Intentions of our Actions that define the purity of our souls.
DOes this come from some denomination’s official theology? I have never heard of such a thing from any mainstream Christian denomination, and in fact it sounds more than a little circular.
From your post I take it you are asking what happens to a former Christian turned atheist. (If not, I’m sorry I’m reading this into your post.)
A person will go to Heaven if they at one point in their life became a true Christian. If we believe not, yet he abideth faitful: he cannot deny himself. Second Timothy 2:13.
Once we get saved we become a part of the body of Christ (The entire Book of Romans stresses this point) and Christ isn’t going to send Himself to Hell. Our salvation doesn’t depend on our faithfulness or our righteousness, but rather on God’s faithfulness and His righteousness. So a true Christian goes to Heaven regardless if s/he deserves to or not.