What kind of people does God want to populate Heaven with?

Cieza said:

Suppose there is a god who is watching us and choosing which souls of the deceased to bring to heaven, and this god really does want only the morally good to populate heaven. He will probably select from only those who made a significant and responsible effort to discover the truth. . .Therefore, only such people can be sufficiently moral and trustworthy to deserve a place in heaven — unless God wishes to fill heaven with the morally lazy, irresponsible, or untrustworthy.

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You have to prove that morally good people are people who've made a responsible effort to discover the truth.

A desire for truth is a virtue, but certainly not the only virtue. You should be careful of the age-old error of confusing your opinions with God's will. You may feel that a desire for truth is the only virtue worth considering; you may feel it strongly; but that doesn't make it God's will.

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AlexBP said:

You should be careful of the age-old error of confusing your opinions with God's will.

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HAH!

Cieza said:

Would God prefer to populate heaven with people who are gullible and can be easily manipulated? Or would God prefer to populate heaven with people who are free thinkers & who are interested in reality?

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This, I believe I've already answered. Your particular desire to split up the human race into categories and make a judgement based on those categories is not relevant to God's judgement. According to Jesus Christ, God will judge all peoples based on the standards of their love and their charity. [Matthew 25:31-46]

Ps. 15:1-5 answers the question about why type of person will be in Heaven:

[[A Psalm of David.]] LORD, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. [He that] backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour. In whose eyes a vile person is contemned; but he honoureth them that fear the LORD. [He that] sweareth to [his own] hurt, and changeth not. [He that] putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that doeth these [things] shall never be moved.

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All of them.

Of course there is a God who created the universe. He also created each of us. We are all a part of Him and must not be lost for eternity. None of us, no matter how bad, are condemned to an eternity separate from God. Before the end we will have been purified and return to the fold. This is necessary. Just like the parable of the lost sheep. No one is abandoned.

We all go to heaven, even the worst of us. But heaven is in graduations; areas sorted out by compatibility. We seek our proper levels in heaven. Here the process of healing begins. We review our faults and get busy learning better. Then we try again with a new earth lifetime. This is the way of it and if we think about it explains all those questions that seem so difficult such as why this and why that. Why is life so unfair etc.... Each personal scenario is custom tailored with lessons and choices for us. Does a baby die and not have any chance at all? No of course not. The soul is given another chance. God is not unfair nor is He/She blind to our needs.

Heaven then is the inevitability which awaits us all. The reason scripture teaches differently is because of the usefulness of fear as a motivator to humans. When we are spiritually young we need such admonishments.

JYJ said:

Of course there is a God who created the universe. He also created each of us. We are all a part of Him and must not be lost for eternity. None of us, no matter how bad, are condemned to an eternity separate from God. Before the end we will have been purified and return to the fold. This is necessary. Just like the parable of the lost sheep. No one is abandoned.

We all go to heaven, even the worst of us. But heaven is in graduations; areas sorted out by compatibility. We seek our proper levels in heaven. Here the process of healing begins. We review our faults and get busy learning better. Then we try again with a new earth lifetime. This is the way of it and if we think about it explains all those questions that seem so difficult such as why this and why that. Why is life so unfair etc.... Each personal scenario is custom tailored with lessons and choices for us. Does a baby die and not have any chance at all? No of course not. The soul is given another chance. God is not unfair nor is He/She blind to our needs.

Heaven then is the inevitability which awaits us all. The reason scripture teaches differently is because of the usefulness of fear as a motivator to humans. When we are spiritually young we need such admonishments.

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Hehe, this would be a beautiful scenario.

Cieza said:

Suppose there is a god who is watching us and choosing which souls of the deceased to bring to heaven, and this god really does want only the morally good to populate heaven. He will probably select from only those who made a significant and responsible effort to discover the truth. . .Therefore, only such people can be sufficiently moral and trustworthy to deserve a place in heaven — unless God wishes to fill heaven with the morally lazy, irresponsible, or untrustworthy.

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No, no, no.

God want those people, smart or dumb, who listen to Him. That is the only requirement.

JYJ said:

Of course there is a God who created the universe. He also created each of us. We are all a part of Him and must not be lost for eternity. None of us, no matter how bad, are condemned to an eternity separate from God. Before the end we will have been purified and return to the fold. This is necessary. Just like the parable of the lost sheep. No one is abandoned.

We all go to heaven, even the worst of us. But heaven is in graduations; areas sorted out by compatibility. We seek our proper levels in heaven. Here the process of healing begins. We review our faults and get busy learning better. Then we try again with a new earth lifetime. This is the way of it and if we think about it explains all those questions that seem so difficult such as why this and why that. Why is life so unfair etc.... Each personal scenario is custom tailored with lessons and choices for us. Does a baby die and not have any chance at all? No of course not. The soul is given another chance. God is not unfair nor is He/She blind to our needs.

Heaven then is the inevitability which awaits us all. The reason scripture teaches differently is because of the usefulness of fear as a motivator to humans. When we are spiritually young we need such admonishments.

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That's not biblical. No offense, but I hope you don't call yourself a Christian.

TomZzyzx said:

That's not biblical. No offense, but I hope you don't call yourself a Christian.

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That is the trouble with religions brother. They draw boundaries around what one is allowed to believe that are not supposed to be crossed. When I consider the source of gospels and other scriptures I see men who are no different from any one else and I ask, "why are they privy to information that no one else is?". The answer is that they are not. Just because they lived a long time ago doesn't mean what they say is the total of all there is to know about God and heaven and all the rest. And, regarding Jesus, He came no where close to divulging everything. Why should He? People need things to be kept simple and within the needs of the times. No. I do not believe in limitations. Further I do not believe that any human soul can be forever lost to God. That would be like a part of God forever missing. Furthermore evil exists only by leave of God, for reasons having to do with the need for us to exercise choices in life. When all is completed there will be only heaven. God's purpose is to eliminate all evil but the plan is that we have to do it right here. In the end evil will be banished. So, you see, proclaiming that hell will last forever is like saying that God cannot achieve His great purpose which is for All of mankind to eventually succeed.

I left Christianity for these very reasons. They concentrate on telling people about sin. We already know that of course and do not need to be continually told the same old things. It is as though Christianity, without sin, is a dead end belief system with absolutely no knowledge of anything in the vast spiritual realms which overlay and will outlast the physical universe. What does Christianity know about the origins and destiny of humanity? Just to "be saved"? Is that all? Is there nothing else? Sorry. That is far to simplistic to be the sum total of God's ideas.

Each of us has equal access to all knowledge. In this we are no different from any of the original disciples or any prophet of old. It is the ability to discriminate information that makes the difference.

The Bible is an incomplete story. It is only the tip of the iceberg. Only a teaser of what there is to know. If Christianity does not update it's methods to keep pace with the evolution of God's consciousness in man then it will diminish and be replaced by a new religion that is capable of serving the people and leading them home to God. A lot of people feel the same as I do. They are tired of Christian sources being so ignorant and repetitive.

God gave each of us a brain and intends that we use them to reason truth from ignorance. This is part of His purpose. Simply believing by rote is not good enough.

Only Mormons go to heaven, I saw it on South Park.

Tuddrussell said:

Only Mormons go to heaven, I saw it on South Park.

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I'm pretty sure that the Westboro Baptist Church are the only ones going to heaven.