Would you do this for your kids?

[Ayah5768]

For the sake of this thread, imagine that there is an eternal paradise (Heaven) and an eternal torment (Hell) waiting for us at the other end of this life. Heaven is an actual place where your every desire will happen and you will be unquestionably happy forever. Hell is an actual place where people burn alive forever with no escape, even for a single second.

If the above descriptions are not in line with your views, it has no bearing on this thread. This thread is based on the above versions of Heaven and Hell and the idea that they are real places. Please don't derail us with other possibilities of afterlife or the lack thereof.

Now, for the question...

You get to Heaven and whomever is manning the entryway tells you that your son or daughter will be going to Hell upon their death unless you trade places with them. You can only respond to this with one word--either "yes" or "no".

Will you trade eternal paradise for eternal torment and save your child?

After you've voted, please post and tell us if you said yes or no and why you chose that answer.

[Homicidal_Cherry53]

Would you rather act out of relative ignorance? Why make a commitment to Christianity if you do not know or fully understand the other options that have been presented to you? Doesn't it make more sense to gain as much knowledge as possible, then make a decision, rather than feverishly studying one option without knowledge of the others?

You have to act out of relative ignorance because omniscience is impossible. Even if your goal isn't to literally know everything at what point are you educated enough to pick a religion (or none)?

Furthermore, Scripture is clear that there will be a time when salvation is too late. Death is like a thief: it will come when you least expect it. It seems foolish to me to wait on knowledge; besides, I declare that pursuit of knowledge is only an excuse to avoid religion altogether rather than to discover more about it.

Religion is practice and to study any religion truly means to practice it and live it, not just read a book about it. I fully believe that if you embark on a quest to understand all philosophy and religion, you will come full circle back to where you started. I intend to take that quest, not because I feel obligated to, but because reading and knowledge give me joy, and, honestly, knowledge brings me closer to knowing the one, true God.

The issue is that you are still giving Christianity special attention here. If you don't know, the most logical course of action is to treat all options as equally. You have stated that practicing is the best way to learn of religion, so why are you only practicing Christianity? Should you not be practicing other religions as well?

If you are truly looking for answers about God, and you believe that the best way to learn about religion (and by extension, God) is to practice it, it is only logical to practice all major forms of worship and live each one of them before commiting yourself wholly to Christianity.

[RyanP]

I lived and breathed Christianity for over 30 years of my life. The conclusion I came to is that it is definitely not everything Christians or the bible claim it to be.

Well, maybe you never had the Holy Spirit. Maybe you were engulfed in cultural Christianity but never actually converted. This is precisely the audience Jonathan Edwards preached to, those who had been part of a culture for so long they were scarcely Christian.

Or maybe I don't have the Holy Spirit at all but I imagine it to fulfill my desire for eternal happiness. Both scenarios are plausible.

Even Buddhists submit to this idea. In fact, you're in the minority if you believe that what you see is all there is.

What you have there anyway is a logical fallacy known as Argumentum ad Populum

You're right; I concede that point.

Ok, you believe that God does not change the rules, but we see in the bible he does. It was a major change of the rules when he brought Jesus into the picture and made him the atonement for sins. Do you not agree he made some major changes to the rules there? Do you not agree that the rules changed when the sabbath law was no longer needed to be kept? Do you agree that God now allows us to eat pork? Do you agree we no longer have to follow a lot of God's others silly rules he made in the OT?

No, you're right and that's exactly the question I brought up in sunday school a few weeks back. For example, we used to be required to sacrifice animals but now we aren't. I was given a wonderful explanation that I am incapable of reproducing but it went something like the rules were "transformed" not "changed." And although that seems like semantics, it's only because I'm incapable of explaining it correctly.

Another way to explain it is God is accomplishing now through the Holy Spirit what He tried to accomplish before with the Law. The Law is still the same but God now uses a more direct approach by living in each person. I don't really know though: it's a complicated issue. Not that there isn't a simple answer but that I can't give it.

[RyanP]

I lived and breathed Christianity for over 30 years of my life. The conclusion I came to is that it is definitely not everything Christians or the bible claim it to be.

Well, maybe you never had the Holy Spirit.

I take that back. I regret what I said; it was very insensitive of me. I cannot deny your testimony and, as depressing as it is, I have to acknowledge that the same thing could happen to me.

[OnceConvinced]

I lived and breathed Christianity for over 30 years of my life. The conclusion I came to is that it is definitely not everything Christians or the bible claim it to be.

Well, maybe you never had the Holy Spirit.

I take that back. I regret what I said; it was very insensitive of me. I cannot deny your testimony and, as depressing as it is, I have to acknowledge that the same thing could happen to me.

I respect that. I appreciate that you're not one of these fundies that accuse people of not being a true Christian simply because they are now an ex-Christian.

I was a born again Christian. I accepted Christ as my savior. I rededicated my life a few times throughout the years. I was baptised at the age of 16. All these things I did because I believed Christianity to be real. I used to speak in tongues and even believed I had spiritual gifts.

Many Christians would claim that as soon as you repent and accept Christ as your saviour, that is when you are filled with the HS. Some though will have every excuse in the book why you couldn't possibly have had the HS in you. The question is, how can you guarantee you do have the HS? I think I will start a new thread on that topic.

[Cathar1950]

I think watching my kids suffer makes me suffer and I don't want to forget them.
Like someone else said, what good is living if there are no memories?
I know of atheists tha have given their lives for people they don't even know.