Jesus didn't come here preaching all about love. He spent most of his sermons berating the religious leaders of that period for their hypocrisy, and telling sinners to repent or they would end up in Hell. Jesus preached on Hell more than He preached on any other subject. Jesus made it clear that there is no way that any man or woman could achieve enough purity to make it to heaven on his or her own, but only through Him. (John 14:6) No matter how many good things we do in this life, we are all miserable, rotten sinners with no chance of being with our Creator in the afterlife, "except ye repent." (Luke 13:5)
That is an interesting observation however, it leaves room for one's own interpretation.
Neither you nor I were present when Jesus walked this earth so, we only have the word of "others" as to what Jesus preached, or didn't preach.
I firmly belive, what our lives are like on this earth, has a tremendous amount of influence as to how, and when we will rejoice in heaven, if ever.
Something I have learned through my studies has opened my eyes to the never ending effort on the part of the soul to seek redemption.
I want to share what, for all intense and purpose, could very well be the enlightenment of that struggle.
For those of you who have no belief in an afterlife, what I am about to put forth, will have no meaning what so ever, and may prove to be an object of skepticisim for even those that do belive in the after life.
As I stated in a post before, I have read much on the subject, and some if not all, is open to interpretation.
I happen to belive in what I am about to say here, but that in no way may be the case with some of you that read it.
My belief is based on what I have read, and experienced, as well as what I see around me.
You can read this, and then ask yourself, ""could this perhaps be lodigical?"
To begin, this posting may be long, and may have to be finished in another post.
If it does, please bear with me.
Based on what information I have at hand, and a formidable understanding of Dr Cardec"s book that I mentioned above, we are all born with a soul.
Regardless of one's religous commitment, I think it safe to say, most belive that.
Ok, so ask yourself, how does this come about, and more importantly, why?
For the answers we need to take ourselves beyond the restricted boundaries of our "being " (as in human) here on earth.
Study this sanario, and see if it makes some sort of sense to you.
Your life just ended here on earth, and you have found yourself in the life hereafter.
While on earth, you led a less than desirable existance, and now that you are in the land of judgement, you find you don't score too well.
You know,because as a soul,it is imbedded in your entire being, that purity is the only hope you have of being admitted to the golden palace , and you also know that loving and beliving in the son of God is the only way you will ever acheive that ultimate goal.
There are ways for some sort of penance on your part, to proove that you are sincere in your desire to acheive that ultimate goal.
Your love and beleif for Jesus in not in question but, you must show that you can be made worthy of the final prize.
As a soul(who by the way, spends more time in limbo in this place before being seated next to God almighty) you are aware that you will do penance.
How does a soul do penance?
That depends on what is to be acheived by the soul.
Judgement day finds that you as a human being killed another while on earth.
You asked for forgiveness, but never sure it was granted.
As a human, residing on earth, how would you know you had been forgiven?
Frankly, there is not a living human on the face of this earth that could answer that with any authority.
Judgement day will have your answer.
I have decided at this time to continue this in the next post.