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Dear John,
I believe that Jesus provided great incite to Judaism. Following his teachings is a way into heaven, but perhaps not the only way. His greatest contribution to Judaism is that humans can go to heaven. Unfortunately most Jews still do not believe that is possible and all their good works are done without expecting ANY HEAVENLY REWARD. In my mind that just amplifies the value of their work as viewed from heaven.
The fundies claim that belief in Jesus is necessary to get into heaven. That may be. But Jesus said exactly what was sufficient (perhaps not necessary) to get into heaven, to keep all the laws of Moses. He did add a couple himself, like loving your enemy and only praying in private (specifically in a closet), and not saying the same thing over and over (like mantras). His summation of the laws of Moses, to love god and love your neighbor as yourself, had already been stated by Moses, as written in both Leviticus and Deuteronomy.
My personal belief is that most of us go to heaven regardless of belief or good works. Some of us get stuck on earth as apparitions. Some may be so evil that they go elsewhere, but even they seem to play a role in the cosmic scheme of things. My belief is also that most of will be born again on earth in order to get enough experience with life to not need to have any more physical life. However, some of us will develop sufficient love and trust and wisdom and intelligence to be useful in maintianing the connection between heavenly life and earthly life. These, I believe, will then get a job in heaven and not need to return unless they wish to.
I try to follow the teachings of Jesus. I do not go to church or temple as he suggested. I am working on removing lust from my heart and in dealing with other humans as I would want them to deal with me. I am not quite up to loving them all yet.
My present vocational endeavour is to elucidate a consistency between God and Science, and more specifically between physics and the possibility of afterlife, something I think Jesus would advocate. And frankly I think that this forum is one of the best places to arrive at a consensus based on a consistency between the Truth of both God and Science. Thank you for providing us this splendid opportunity.
Respectfully,
Richard Ruquist aka yanniru |
