“Fire” is a metaphor here, I hope?
…regeneration, resistence to weapons with less than a +1 enchantment, immunity to ray spells…
Me too. Though I worry that, like nuclear fusion, that sort of thing will “always be 50 years away”.
In the meantime, healthy living, improvements in medical understanding and technology, cybernetic implants and possibly even genetic restructuring should keep me going.
If you mean that we get a big bonfire going and toss in all the new Christians so that they will receive the Holy Spirit then you could consider it a metaphor. It is better though of in terms in the spiritual world. The water baptism is the rebirth, the old person has died away along with his sins, the new person is born (commonly called born again). The fire is the spirit of God indwelling him.
I find it also helpful to think of the 4 elementals wind/earth/water/fire. Man is earth (clay), breathed into by God (wind). The 2 baptisms complete the person.
Actually I could make a case for this regeneration = gift of healing, resistence to weapons with less than a +1 enchantment = spiritual warfare/armor of God, immunity to ray spells = well this one was taken care by Jesus on the cross, transfer of any curses to Jesus and taken to (and left in) death.
Well I can perceive the Flying Spaghetti Monster because I believe in him… you should really give him a chance.
You must have missed the part of the gift of discerning the spirits. Also I don’t think the FSM requires belief in him.
That about sums it up. 
As Woody Allen said, I want to achieve immortality not through my work, but by not dying.
So … Disneyworld. 
So if God loves everyone, why does he does endow some people more than others with the capacity to see him?
I think it’s in reference to vainglorious love. The prideful man who so loves his life he spends all of his energy avoiding death, thereby wasting his life. Those who lose themselves in the rapture of the divine will find that they are still there, even if they let go of their ego attachment to things. We cannot hold on, we are transient matter. You can spend your time worrying about death, but that will only hasten its onset.
It’s not about us, it’s about Him (God). He will do and give to His glory, not ours. God’s order and plan is ‘righteousness’ In this divine order it is right and just for us to worship/glorify/magnify our God. He will endow people as needed to accomplish this. Some people need less to accomplish this, and it is hinted will be rewarded ‘more’.
Neat! And there was I thinking I was in for a rough time under kanicbird’s beliefs.
So why does he reward and punish people as though they have free will, if he controls who can see him and who can’t? 
I’ll look for you on Hell’s message board.
That’s wrong in so many ways. First, and most obviously, worrying about death doesn’t hasten it; it might make life less pleasant, but the odds are someone who worries about death will live quite a bit longer than someone who doesn’t. Second, what does loving life have to do with being “prideful” ? And why is enjoying life wasting it ? And finally, how is someone who decides to “lose themselves in the rapture of the divine” better than someone who doesn’t ? It sound a lot like claiming that someone who blisses out on drugs is superior to someone who doesn’t.
So God is an egomaniac jerk ? That sounds like somebody I wouldn’t deign to talk to, much less follow.
Both of you seem to be saying that the more self destructive, self hating, life hating, and spineless you are, the more God will reward you.
Look at it this way: An artist is nothing without an audience.
You go into deep topics here, I don’t know how good I can explain the parts that are known.
God doesn’t ‘punish’ in the sense that you are using it. God does correct those who he loves, sometimes that correcting is very painful. The eternal destruction is not so much a punishment but a result of what we are. There is nothing we can do on our own that can avoid this - whatever we do on our own it will eventually lead to destruction.
The reward, well the eternal one, is purely a gift.
As for who can see him or not, my take, is that God will make Himself known whenever it advances His glory. The supernatural/spiritual gifts of the Holy Spirit are only given to those who have already accepted Jesus as Lord, so their reward is already almost* certain. God will also make himself known to others (Saul/Paul of the NT is a example - Jesus came to him and demonstrated supernatural powers). Saul/Paul seemed to be given virtually a free pass into his reward as he knew Jesus is Lord, but that went to God’s ultimate glory, as Saul/Paul is the writer of most of the NT letters and responsible (well God is) for much of the early church. We have to stop thinking about ourselves, everything it to God.
- Almost certain because there is a debate if works are needed along with faith, or if faith produces works, also salvation can be lost via the unpardonable sin, accepting the mark of the beast (Rev), or once accepting the Holy Spirit falling away from the faith, which may be a version of the unpardonable sin.
As much as I would like to go “somewhere” when I die, I just don’t see a mechanism for it. If there is something after death, I don’t think it would be anything that could be described using the ideas or words to describe the physical universe because it would be something outside the universe. Not that I believe something like that exists, but I notice that a lot of people tend to talk about the afterlife in terms of physical realities, when supposedly, you leave your physical self behind. Simplistic example: the simple processes of seeing, tasting, hearing are all based on needs by our physical bodies, therefore why would anyone expect to see, hear or taste anything once your physical self is no longer around?
And an artist who requires an applause sign and a captive audience is nothing but a hack.
Back to the subject at hand. Assuming that as an atheist I fall under your definition of “secular”, I will tell you that if I have not sat on my ass for the last (almost) fifty years I will live for as long as my ideas continue through those I converse with, my ethics are useful to those I have raised, and my friendship is remembered by those I have walked with.
Besides, my uncle Woody says I’ve got quite a few years left. I just hope that when I get to be his age I’m just as lucky with the ladies as he seems to be. What they see in a large-nosed red-headed know it all like him beats the hell out of me, though.