Does Jesus love us? Does God? Does God love us even if we are not Christians? Does God love us enough to let us into heaven even if we are not Christians? Is heaven meant only for the few and not for the many? What about the billions of human beings who have lived a good and wonderful life, and who simply have been brought up in a different culture, or grown into different ideas, and do not belong to a certain religion? Will they be tortured mercilessly in hell for eternity for not coming to God along the right path? Or for not coming to God at all?

What, truly, does God want?
(For more on this particular slant see What God Wants, Atria Books, available through Amazon.com and other booksellers.)
I seem to have opened up a fascinating, exciting, and stimulating conversation here this past weekend. Over 100 people contributed to the Comment Section following that blog, participating in a vigorous discussion of what God wants. (If you want to catch up with all this, please dial back and pick up the blog entry that I posted here before the holiday weekend.)
I’m going to keep that discussion going in this space — and I invite my follow bloggers on Beliefnet to join in it, as well as any of you who may have not already posted here. Because this is an important topic. This is more than a simple theological exploration. This is a discussion that, some say, could impact the eternal life experience of your immortal soul. At the very least it could change the world as we know it.
How?
I observe that when people on this planet believe that there is only One Path to God they create, they produce, and they live a theology of separation. Then, that which was always meant to unite us (religion) does, in fact, divide us…producing exactly the opposite of what it was intended to produce.
Separation Theology inevitably produces a Separation Cosmology in the minds of many people. That is, a cosmological way of looking at all of Life that holds that everything is separate from everything else.
A Separation Cosmology produces a Separation Sociology. That is, a way of socializing the human species that separates every person from every other person by declaring their interests to be separate.
And a Separation Sociology produces a Separation Pathology. That is, pathological behaviors of self-destruction, engaged in individually and collectively and evidenced everywhere on our planet.
So, the discussion is not insignificant. It is not unimportant.
Let me ask, then. Is it true that God will condemn us to everlasting damnation if we do not come to Him through Christ? Is it even true that God is a ‘Him’? What if God is a woman? Or not a ‘person’ at all?
We’ll look at all of those questions in the days ahead. Today I would like to take a look at some of the Comments that have been posted here in response to my having opened this dialogue…
First, to Kathy, who said… “Thank you for not being afraid to constantly allow dialogue regarding your beliefs.”
You are welcome, Kathy. Thank you, and thank all the rest of you who have posted here. You have proven to me that this IS an important topic, or you would not have taken the time to post.
Now, a look at some of those Comments (with a few of my reactions to them). If we do not declare Jesus Christ to be our Savior, will Jesus and God send us to hell?
From Kristen…Will I go to hell for it? No. When I die I’m going to sit on God’s lap and ask him how he invented colours and rave about all the great music that was worth coming to earth for. He’s my Papa. What loving father would send his child to hell?
(I love this analogy, Kristen. But wouldn’t a father who loved us punish us when we do wrong?)
From Mary…You hit the nail on the head: F E A R. I grew up in a strick Catholic household and we knew alot of fear! I went through 12 years of Catholic school and they instilled in us the FEAR OF GOD!!!!! I feel if you are at peace with what you believe, then it’s right for you. If you believe because you are afraid not to, than that just doesn’t make sense. God is all loving. I don’t doubt that anymore.
(Yes, Mary, but God punishes us with everlasting torture in hell precisely because He loves us, is that not so? Isn’t “justice”, applied, the highest form of love? Do you think it pleases God to have us tortured in hell forever and ever? No! It does not. But love for all of humanity requires God to send us to everlasting torture if we do not come to Him by a certain and very specific path — otherwise, where is the justice for those who do, and did? Is there something I do not understand here? Somebody help me.)
From Mounir… I wonder why you and many other new age writers don’t write and quote Islam. Islam by translation means “Surrender to the divine” and it is the only religion that has 5 meditations per day keeping you always with a very beautiful state of mind. When one meditates once per day even for an hour or more, between two meditations many things arises and change in the self. When the meditation happens in the course of the whole day, it keeps one connected to this Divine spirit, the oneness in all things…
(Yes, there is great beauty and great practicality in the five Calls to Prayer in the daily life of a Muslim. This sacred practice does exactly that for many people. It has the potential of keeping the devout in a very beautiful state of mind, a very real feeling of connection with the Divine. And you are right, we so-called New Agers don’t talk nearly enough about Islam. Point well taken.)
From cassie d… NO, I do not need to be ‘saved’ through Jesus to “get” to heaven. But I do need to see the divine in myself so that I might save myself from the hell I could create right here, right now.
(Are you creating that hell by not allowing yourself to be saved by Jesus?)
From Paul… If you have read the Bible with an open heart, you would know that God wants all people to come to Him. If you reject Jesus, you reject God. But I am not the judge, God is. My job is to share the Good New with as many as will accept it.
Your goodness on earth has no bearing on your salvation. I firmly believe that there is only one path to heaven but I also believe that the one path has many lanes (churches) but the key is that Christ is the only fuel that will take you down that road. I also believe that God will give those who live in righteousness an opening, even at the moment of death, so that none could be denied the chance of Salvation.
(If I have this right, Mormons believe that God will give those who live in righteousness an opening even AFTER the moment of death, so that none will be denied the chance of Salvation. Perhaps some Mormons could join me here and help clarify this for me. Is it not a teaching of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints that even after death we are given one more, one last, chance to embrace Christ as our Lord and Savior…and that if we still do not, we are sent to join the Sons of Perdition in a place forever separated from God?
While we are at it, do members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints believe in hell? Is there a place where non-believers are sent to be tortured forever? Just wondering. This entire website is called “BELIEFnet”, so I am wondering what people believe.)
Please join in the discussion here. And you might even post Comments on some of the other blogs here at Beliefnet, inviting people who are there to join the explorations here. We do too much sitting in our own pews, it seems to me. We need to go over to the other fellow’s place, to the other lady’s space, to see what they are thinking, and to talk with them, no?