Count wrote:
Let me guess. You think the older brother had every right to complain and be jealous, didn’t you? 
Huh?
I cannot tell you how tired I am of reading Damnation! Damnation! Damnation! from some people around here! You say you are only condemning people who don’t follow God’s law. I say that God’s law given by Christ himself is “‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” as stated in Matthew 18:39. How is damning someone loving them? By the standards of Fundamentalist Christianity, anyone who accepts Christ as their Saviour is not damned. That includes Catholics, Mormons, and homosexuals, drunkards, thieves, and yes, even that twit who keeps handing you Jack Chick tracts. That’s the minimum.
Telling someone “You cannot get to heaven unless you accept Christ as your Saviour but God hates what you do or what you are” is not loving them. It’s driving them from the grace you so zealously embrace.
I cannot tell you how fervently I pray that you may never walk into a room and get looks which say “What’s she doing here?” I pray that you may never be continually damned, condemned and outcast because you cannot choose to reject someone you know to be a good honorable and decent person. I pray that you may never experience the cruelty that some who are proudest of their relationship with Christ show, and by that I mean ordinary, small town people.
I have been in the position I described. The person I loved was not a homosexual, a drunkard, and she was certainly not an adulterer. She was a girl I befriended back in kindergarten who had handicaps. She used leg and back braces and had a speech impediment, and the kids who fancied themselves popular or respectable would not associate with her. Instead, she was called all sorts of vile things to the point where to this day, over 20 years later, she is still afraid of “mean people.” This girl was insulted in church, for heaven’s sake. If there is no respite from cruelty, from being outcast even in the House of the Lord, where can there be respite? She is still, despite the actions of others, a Christian, and right now she’s probably a better one than I am.
I’m confessing to God; I may as well do it here at the same time. Forgive me. I lost my temper just now and I let my anger overwhelm me to the point where it eclipsed my love of God and the love I am required to show to my fellow man. I was overwhelmed by my pain at being outcast and my anger at seeing that done to someone who did nothing to deserve it beyond being born. My plea will, I have no doubt, fall on deaf ears, and I have no doubt there are a couple of people gearing up for a good flaming even as they read this, but please, try to understand. Every time someone says “There is no room for X, or Y, or Z in heaven” I hear “There is no room for you.” When you condemn my brother, you also condemn me, for I will not choose to abandon him. The girl I described did not finish high school. The abuse and the insults got to the point where she had a nervous breakdown and had to leave school. She was, I think, 16 when this happened, too young to commit the sins some rail against. I could not support her to the end. I know now I did not abandon her, but nevertheless, my choice freely given before God Himself remains. I will not abandon my brothers and sisters. If that means I am condemned to worse tortures in Hell than human minds can begin to conceive of, so be it.
Sorrowfully,
CJ
I understand your feelings, cjhoworth.
But hateful people abound in this world.
It doesn’t matter whether they, themselves, think they are true Christians, or true Muslims, or true atheists, or true whatevers.
Hate is hate.
Lots of self-proclaimed true Christians practise it.
Christ, of course, would urge me to turn the other cheek. But I can’t resist calling them hateful assholes.
Jesus continued: "There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.
"Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
"When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.’ So he got up and went to his father.
"But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
"The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
"But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.
"Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’
"The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
“‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”
Luke 15:11-32
God’s word says there will be no sin in Heaven.
God is just.
Yes, He forgives totally, but you (the sinner-we all are)
must repent, meaning turn from sinning.
Anyone can get into heaven, even mass murderers, IF they have repented.
God forgives anyone-but they must repent.
Am I clear? maybe I’m not, but I hope the point gets through.
To see what Jesus said to sinners, I’m skimming the NT here, starting with the Gospel according to Matthew. After His baptism and temptation, the first sinners Jesus encounters are Peter, Andrew, James, and John. (Ch.4) Jesus says to them: “Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
Second specific encounter (Ch.8) is with a leper. Jesus heals him.
Third (Ch.8) is with a Roman centurion who asks Jesus to heal his servant. Jesus says he will heal the servant, then compliments the centurion on his faith.
And so it goes. When Jesus encounters the paralytic in Ch. 9, he doesn’t say, “have you repented?” before he says, “Your sins are forgiven.”
How Jesus treated sinners is well documented in the Bible. Are we supposed to use a different approach than He did? Aside from the limitation that we only have the power to proffer forgiveness for sins committed against us, I doubt it.
Yes, and after He forgave them, they repented out of gratitude.
Cite?
no cite.
Wouldn’t you?
Actually, counter cite. Luke 17:11-19
The tenth beggar showed gratitude, not repentance, and there is no mention of what happened to the remaining nine.
CJ
So his faith-in coming back and thanking Him-made him well.
I am sure he was grateful.
Do you give gifts only to people who show sufficient gratitude? Do you forgive only those who ask you to?
I know. And it is so satisfying too!
Now that’s the pot calling the kettle black.
Joe, Jersey, et al -
I know that you can find many, many scriptures that point out some rather stringent restrictions on who can and who cannot “go to heaven”, but I wonder how you reconcile them with more expansive expressions of grace found in that same book?
and
And a follow on -
How can someone “know God” and be “born of God” and “live in God and God in him”, and yet be turned away from this same God’s heaven? 
sigh. I guess I knew why it was here. It’s just…unfortunate that this turned out to be the right place for it.
I was taking the broader view that the heaven in the story was a metaphor for a life well lived. I did not realize that we were to take it literally. If you guys are arguing over how to get into a place that I don’t believe exists, then I must bow out. I do not accept however that unrepentant thieves, drunks and adulators belong grouped with gays, Muslims and atheists. I understand that the point of the op was “everybody’s beautiful in their own way” but this sentiment is both false and trite.
Do you know what the book was about or who it was to, or did you just do a search on love?
John is writing to various churches. Johns was providing direction for thoses Christians who faced new challenges.
Johns goals was to get Christians to have a deeper fellowship with God.
Let’s see: It’s about:
----walking in the light-----
If we say that we are followerers of God but we do not tell the truth or follow the truth, we are walking in darkness and do not know the truth.
If we follow God and walk in the truth together, we have true fellowship with each other and God.
----a believer’s assurance----
We know God if we keep His commandments.
Whoever says they know Him and do not is a liar.
Who ever keeps the word of God has His perfect love.
----exhortation of brotherly love----
The word of god is in you.
love your brother, because you cannot have light and hate your brother. if you hate your brother, you are in darkness.
----not loving the world----
If you love worldly things, the love of God is not in you.
Worldly things are not of god.
----the promise of eternal life----
Tells of the coming of false teachers and the antichrist.
Tells us that the Holy spirit guards believers from error and guides him to the truth.
If we do this, we can be confident when christ returns that we will go with him and have eternal life.
----living as a true believer----
If we abide in God, believers are adopted into God’s family and are called His sons.
if you do right in God, then you are righteous, like Christ.
When you keep sinning, you belong to the devil.
If you do not obey god’s commands and does not love other Christians, does not belong to God.
----to love in deed and truth-----
do not love just by saying I love you to your brother. Love your brother by good deeds. Love by not lying.
----try the spirits----
Do not believe everyone that claims to speak by the spirit. They must be tested to see if they are of God!!!
People who belong to this world speak from this worlds point of view, and the world listens to them.
People who know God, recognize people who speak the truth, and they listen. Others will refute the truth.
Mars Horizon, this is the verse you were particularly fond of, right? Now that you know a little about what John was writing about and who he was writing to, what is you take on it (without changing anything)?
----God is love and love one another----
1 John 4:7:
I will only go on to say this:
1 John 5:13 KJV— These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.
1 John 5:13 NIV— I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.