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To Make Heaven

ForeverEternal

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Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again."-John 3:3

Having Jesus in one's heart is an important decision that will change one's life forever. By doing so, a person will show potential to change and improve as a person. I believe God would want His creations to serve Him and accept Him into their heart.

How can one enter into the new world without a beating heart?
 
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Shempster

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Th term "born again" simply refers to one who attains oneness with Christ and divine love.
He was making a metaphor here, like He did in all His sayings.

It's not a tag, like the term "christian". It is a state of being. One where we are open and accepting of others (like Yeshua) and dwell on the good things. It is where we overlook others faults and show them the love of the Creator.

I don't want to use a new age term, but the word ENLIGHTENMENT comes to mind. I would avoid using Yeshua's words to create religious doctrines.
 
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David Rhodes

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Th term "born again" simply refers to one who attains oneness with Christ and divine love.
He was making a metaphor here, like He did in all His sayings.

It's not a tag, like the term "christian". It is a state of being. One where we are open and accepting of others (like Yeshua) and dwell on the good things. It is where we overlook others faults and show them the love of the Creator.

I don't want to use a new age term, but the word ENLIGHTENMENT comes to mind. I would avoid using Yeshua's words to create religious doctrines.
Well, you sound more enlightened. So doing good can make one qualified for Heaven?
 
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David Rhodes

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Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again."-John 3:3

Having Jesus in one's heart is an important decision that will change one's life forever. By doing so, a person will show potential to change and improve as a person. I believe God would want His creations to serve Him and accept Him into their heart.

How can one enter into the new world without a beating heart?
Please consider those born into other religion and have been practicing their religious act from birth, will they miss heaven if not loved by Jesus?
 
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JoeP222w

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Please consider those born into other religion and have been practicing their religious act from birth, will they miss heaven if not loved by Jesus?

John 14:6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Acts 4:11-12 This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. (12) And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."

Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
 
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ViaCrucis

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Why No? I do not understand your reason

Our salvation is not found in our ability to be righteous, because we can't be righteous, not in this life. The Law condemns us in our works, which is why St. Paul says, "What the law was powerless to do because of sin, God has done by sending His Son", the Apostle also says, "there is a righteousness apart from the Law, through faith".

What saves us is the grace of God in Christ, "For it is by grace that you are saved, through faith--and this is not of yourselves, this is the gift of God--not by works, lest anyone should boast." It is not by our efforts, but God's kindness toward us in Jesus, rescuing us by His death and resurrection; and the righteousness we receive apart from the Law, through faith, is the alien righteousness of Jesus given to us as God's gracious gift. By this righteousness (not ours, but Christ's) we are freely justified, and by the promises of the Gospel in Christ we, by faith, have hope of eternal life and salvation as we look forward to the future resurrection of the dead and the life of the age to come; this is ours now as a promise, through faith, it is the reality which comes in the future at Christ's glorious return.

Our place with God is found in Christ, and only in Christ. It is Christ who reconciles us to God, makes us right with God, and in Whom, by the Holy Spirit, that we have adoption as children of God the Father.

When we are born again in the waters of Holy Baptism we are heirs of all God's promises which are attached to it: that we have received the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38), are united to Christ in His death and resurrection (Romans 6:2-10), clothed with Christ (Galatians 3:27), and saved (1 Peter 3:21).

All of this is not about "going to heaven", because it's not about some place called "heaven"; it's about our reconciliation to God in Jesus Christ, and being found in Christ, having a place in the renewal of all creation in the age to come, "a new heavens and a new earth".

This is the work of God, not ourselves.

-CryptoLutheran
 
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ScottA

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David Rhodes

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You misunderstand. Heaven is being born again. This is the new heaven and the new earth, wherein you must be a new creation - and if new, then you leave the old behind. The old you is passing away.
Thanks for your insight but I am referring to the Heaven after death (Place/ Location/Destination)
 
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David Rhodes

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Our salvation is not found in our ability to be righteous, because we can't be righteous, not in this life. The Law condemns us in our works, which is why St. Paul says, "What the law was powerless to do because of sin, God has done by sending His Son", the Apostle also says, "there is a righteousness apart from the Law, through faith".

What saves us is the grace of God in Christ, "For it is by grace that you are saved, through faith--and this is not of yourselves, this is the gift of God--not by works, lest anyone should boast." It is not by our efforts, but God's kindness toward us in Jesus, rescuing us by His death and resurrection; and the righteousness we receive apart from the Law, through faith, is the alien righteousness of Jesus given to us as God's gracious gift. By this righteousness (not ours, but Christ's) we are freely justified, and by the promises of the Gospel in Christ we, by faith, have hope of eternal life and salvation as we look forward to the future resurrection of the dead and the life of the age to come; this is ours now as a promise, through faith, it is the reality which comes in the future at Christ's glorious return.

Our place with God is found in Christ, and only in Christ. It is Christ who reconciles us to God, makes us right with God, and in Whom, by the Holy Spirit, that we have adoption as children of God the Father.

When we are born again in the waters of Holy Baptism we are heirs of all God's promises which are attached to it: that we have received the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38), are united to Christ in His death and resurrection (Romans 6:2-10), clothed with Christ (Galatians 3:27), and saved (1 Peter 3:21).

All of this is not about "going to heaven", because it's not about some place called "heaven"; it's about our reconciliation to God in Jesus Christ, and being found in Christ, having a place in the renewal of all creation in the age to come, "a new heavens and a new earth".

This is the work of God, not ourselves.

-CryptoLutheran
Thanks. This is wonderful and Inspirational. But you said, one can be saved by Grace and also that its a gift. Gift is an act of love, so once you like Jesus and accept that gift either openly or secretly (for the fear of those around you) then we are qualified for heaven.
 
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ViaCrucis

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So Heaven is not REAL?

I believe Butch5 believes in a doctrine called "soul sleep", which teaches that at death there is exists no consciousness until the resurrection of the dead.

This isn't what most Christians believe, as most Christians believe that there is a conscious existence between death and resurrection.

But it is important to understand that "heaven" isn't what Christians hope for, we are not looking forward to some kind of blissful afterlife in a place called heaven as ghosts strumming harps on fluffy clouds, such an idea has far more in common with ancient heresies than traditional, orthodox Christian teaching. Instead our hope as Christians is that even as God has raised Christ from the dead, He will raise us up as well, bodily, and that we will dwell here on the earth in God's new, restored creation. "Going to heaven" describes what is called the intermediate state, the interlude between this mortal life and the future, resurrected life; Scripture itself says almost nothing about it (in fact no where in Scripture does it actually say we go to heaven when we die). What Scripture does indicate is that between death and resurrection we will be with the Lord, in His presence. We can call that "going to heaven" if we like, but it's something Scripture itself says virtually nothing about. Scripture is far more interested in talking about the resurrection of the body at Christ's return, and our life with God in the future world, what is called the Age to Come.

Because Christianity doesn't hope in the "salvation of souls" but in the salvation of all creation, and so we hope in the redemption and restoration of our bodies in the future resurrection of the dead. The idea that only the "soul" is saved and goes on to be with God in some purely spiritual existence is, simply put, heretical; that's what the ancient Gnostics and Manicheans believed, as they believed the physical world was evil and the product of an evil or ignorant false god. Whereas Christians confess, "We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things seen and unseen." Or as Genesis 1:1 puts it, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" and later in Genesis 1, "And God saw all that He had made, and declared it to be exceedingly good." Since this physical world is God's good creation, we believe it is God's purpose to save it, restore it, and heal it.

-CryptoLutheran
 
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