22
The Catholic Church is very explicit in its teachings that "all salvation comes from Christ the Head through the Church" (CCC 846). The only way to enter the Church and become part of the Body of Christ is through baptism. Thus, baptism is necessary for salvation (CCC 1257).
This is not meant to be interpreted as only Catholics can attain salvation. ...
21
I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but the bible calls this necromancy and describes it as an "abominable practice":
Deuteronomy 18:9-12 (ESV): 9 “When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. 10 There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or ...
20
We don't know
The Bible doesn't tell us. The only answer I can give is a tautology - if they were saved, then they went to heaven. But the Bible doesn't tell us whether they were saved.
However, it should be noted that the nature of their punishment does not rule out the possibility of their salvation. Consider 1 Corinthians 5:1-5 (NASB):
It is ...
20
I'm reminded of the story of two twins inside a mother's womb. They are discussing what things might be like on the other side of "birth". One wonders if there really is a "Mom". Neither can conceive of what life will be like, though, since neither has ever been there. They've heard that it's a painful trip, but that there's a wonderful world of ...
20
Technically, a couple of different terms are being confused in the question.
Conditionalism is the teaching that immortality / eternal life is conditional upon a right standing with God.
Annihilationism is the teaching that anyone who is ultimately unrepentant will cease to exist, usually after a period of torment that accommodates to the amount of evil ...
17
Per Scripture, the only way to heaven is by putting our trust in Christ and accepting His free gift of salvation.
The question you pose is based on a common misunderstanding of the relationship between how "good" we are and whether or not we are "good enough" to get to Heaven. The problem is that not one of us has ever kept the Ten Commandments, much less ...
16
I will risk an answer, though I too hold these things to be very sacred. I will also offer this disclaimer: This is my understanding, having been a life-long member of the LDS church. If a lack of references and citations means this answer needs to be deleted, I fully understand.
My question is, according to LDS teaching, when does a person have to use ...
12
As Mason Wheeler mentioned, LDS members consider the answers to these questions sacred, and thus you're probably not going to find much "official" information on this subject. However, there is one quote that comes to mind, and my responses will be in light of this:
Let me give you the definition in brief. Your endowment is, to receive all those ...
11
Memories:
Romans 14:12 So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to
God
I am under the impression that yes we will have memories of our lives (because without such memories how could we give account?). We would not be able to give an account if we did not have consciousness.
Conscious Experience:
I think that this Scripture gives us a ...
11
The mainstream Christian answer is that there is no chance for repentance after death. The Scripture used to support this is Hebrews 9:27 which says
And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that
comes judgment
The protestant answer goes further saying this:
(From http://www.gotquestions.org/second-chance-salvation.html)
While the ...
10
The three degrees of glory are the telestial, terrestrial, and celestial. Each kingdom is on the order of the law it represents: Telestial law is the law of the world, effectively lawlessness (in the scriptures, this is compared to the glory of the stars), Terrestrial law is a "middle" law (compared to the glory of the moon), and the Celestial law is God's ...
10
Many passages from the Bible have been used as the basis for people seeing and hearing from heaven. I think that I have now rounded up all the major points. I could be wrong, perhaps there are even more. Below I give the 7 major biblical points that I have seen brought up as supporting this view. Some of these points are related, but they all approach the ...
10
That death and "sleeping," are often conflated in Scripture is perhaps a useful metaphor here. Notice how, in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul likens those who have died to those who have "fallen asleep in Christ."
And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19 If ...
10
Man, though made of body and soul, is a unity. Through his very bodily
condition he sums up in himself the elements of the material world.
Through him they are thus brought to their highest perfection and can
raise their voice in praise freely given to the Creator. For this
reason man may not despise his bodily life. Rather he is obliged to
regard ...
10
Within Christianity, the belief that humans become angels seems to stem from a misinterpretation of Jesus' words:
For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. (Matthew 22:30)
And Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy to attain ...
10
The problem with this kind of question is that, at least within the context of Mormon Doctrine, there has never exactly been an authoritative treatise on any sort of relation to these concepts in our physical realm. I can, however, present the various theories laid forth by various 'philosophers,' so to speak, within Mormonism.
An interesting book I came ...
9
Fundamentally, Christianity doesn't believe that anything you do gets you into heaven. You can do good things, and not be saved. You can do bad things, but be forgiven. Who you are, and what you do is, sad to say, irrelevant. From God's perspective, "even our righteousness is as filthy rags." To believe that our poor power to add or detract is a ...
9
First of all, Christianity doesn't teach that some get to go to heaven because they are "smaller sinners" than everybody else. Likewise those in hell are not their because they are "bigger sinners" than anyone else. In fact as humans we all stand on pretty equal ground as far as that is concerned, and if that were the standard we'd all be in hell.
Secondly, ...
9
The Bible says nothing about this. The closest you can come in Scripture is Luke 16:19-31
19 “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and
lived in luxury every day. 20 At his gate was laid a beggar named
Lazarus, covered with sores 21 and longing to eat what fell from the
rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his ...
8
Preparing for Exaltation Teachers Manual - Lesson 41: Eternal Marriage
Explain that in the temple, through the power of the priesthood, Chris and her husband could be married for eternity, not just until death. Their children would then be “born in the covenant,” which means that they could be sealed together as a family forever.
If you are married in an ...
8
In Heaven: A History (1995: Yale University Press) the authors, Drs. Colleen McDannell and Bernhard Lang, state that Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) had a pivotal role in bringing about a changed view of heaven, including the idea that angels are humans who have died and gone on to heaven, rather than a separate race of pre-created beings as mainstream ...
8
There is actually very little LDS doctrine on the subject of the specific details of how Exaltation will work. (Most of the doctrine is devoted to the weightier matter of how to attain it in the first place.) But it is explicitly said that it will be a life of the same kind that God enjoys, so answers can be inferred by examining LDS cosmology on the ...
8
Reincarnation is not an orthodox Christian idea. Resurrection is.1
The most long standing articulation of this belief among Christians can be found in the Nicene Creed:
I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.
Nicene Christians (includes all mainstream traditions, excludes some sects) believe that we live once, die ...
8
The statement of "choosing to go to hell" is an over-simplification that really is an example of intellectual laziness, and is a great example of the difference between the "true theology" of a group and the type of pop-theology that springs up and causes great confusion.
Looking at it from any side, saying that people choose to go to hell does not make ...
8
Yes according to the Catholic Church the bodies of the saints and martyrs in heaven rise again on judgment day.
St Thomas Aquinas states in his Summa Theologica:
The saints in heaven, since they are blessed, have no lack of bliss, save that of the body's glory, and for this they pray. But they pray for us who lack the ultimate perfection of bliss: and ...
7
That hell is a literal place as is understood by Western Protestants is far from settled. Byzantine (Greek) Orthodoxy, for example, adheres to a conception of Hell very similar to that espoused by Bell: Hell not a physical place but the state of not experiencing God's love, one can leave it at any time by accepting God's love, and those who live a righteous ...
7
First off, eschatology (the study of last things) is rarely subject to a definitive answer, because there is simply a wide range of opinion on how to interpret these things. The best that I can do is repeat theories I have seen before. The answer below presumes a pre-milennial dispensationalist reading, meaning that the timeline is what Tim LaHaye ...
7
Catholics don't believe in a second chance doctrine, as you phrased it.
But some do believe that Jesus can come to you at the very last second of your life. St. Faustina continually was visited by Jesus in dreams wherein she came to learn that God's greatest attribute it His Divine Mercy.
One thing alone is necessary: that the sinner set ajar the door ...
7
The origin of limbo is actually the place where the Saints that came before Jesus “waited”. This is what the Apostles' Creed speaks of by calling it the dead:
He descended to the dead.
And the CCC clarifies this and uses the term abode of the dead:
Scripture calls the abode of the dead, to which the dead Christ went down, "hell" - Sheol in Hebrew or ...
7
I fully agree with @depperm's answer. But just to have fun with the question, let's assume Joseph made no corrections. What could the verse possibly mean from the LDS perspective?
We believe nobody was resurrected before Jesus Christ. From Acts 26:22-23 (see also Colossians 1:18)
Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day,
...
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