Accepting people

What if a few thousand years ago the writers of the world religious texts of the Old and New Testament had felt inspired to write a very different tradition? Something different might have been written other then a long tradition of characters being supernaturally guided to build an ark, part the red sea, go to the mountain for the ten commandments, be swallowed by a whale, and behead a giant.

 

That different tradition created might have still lead up to the slightly more believable time where nature was still offered a miraculous serious of events. Those miraculous events were when Jesus was born and wise men seen a star and traveled to where He lay in a manger. Jesus then gave the incredible moral teachings that were so challenging and often contradictory to our own instincts and logic. This was a story of all stories and much more then a story I think anyway.

 

Suppose though however, just suppose for consideration sake, that the Christian religion didn't subscribe to the notion of Hell. I realize Christianity is built around Christ's death on the cross. I actually except this sacrifice as something very profound and true and I put my faith in it.

 

Suppose however that instead of Hell emerging as a consequence and Faith in Jesus as being our salvation that another kind of plan had been revealed to us. This alternative plan, for speculation sake, would have been recorded back then and passed along through the ages. This plan could have, might have, lasted scrutiny and wars and ideological shifts in loyalty and personal convictions of people like Christianity had.

 

Suppose this view in a religion was one that taught that there was no Hell but only degrees of good to be realized in the afterlife. Suppose Jesus was instead a path to the greatest of all possible good while alternatively Hitler was an ugly path to the least of all possible goods. Suppose our lives were lived not casually so but with this deeply entrenched in our minds and there was no Hell.

 

What If we were people constantly considering whether we’re good people or not good people with more then just an occasional consciences doubt raising a self-analyses of ourselves. Suppose then we were believers in the good of our lives leading to degrees of reward. Would we have more compassion, more charity, be more willing to forgive the trespasses of others and erase from our needs the retaliation of others that effect us negatively?

 

Jesus taught about compassion and charity and forgiveness of course. Suppose instead of Christianity every instinct we had was acting to work our way into the highest eternal good of the after life we could reach. Would that have been a more motivating system for us to nurture and inherit along through the generations then? Now we have to wrestle with the current system that’s thousands of years strong in the modern era. To those familiar with Jesus I think He’s much more then a "system" or just one of many religions this is all purely supposing something.

 

The problem we face as humanity is finding the truth in ideas. Ideas in civilization are competitive and in modern societies other theories spring up and challenge the legitimacy of truth. Many alternative theories are grounded in the natural and observable world and are based on reason instead of faith. These theories do not point to miraculous events in breaks of reality not witnessed  that are rumored to have miraculous effects. These other theories  are taught in modern Universities. Of course the world in it’s orbit in space is more miraculous then any myth or exaggerated story, as are the oceans, the animal kingdom, the unusual human being and our communities etc..

 

Secular countries produce more secularists then adamant Bible believers. So then because of these facts basically then most of the world is being won over by alternative thought. If only 1/4 of the world was lost to the wrong kind of thought it would be atrocious to think they all were destined to an eternity without God.

 

Unfortunately however given all the different beliefs in the world the number of "dammed" is way larger then 1/4 of the Earth. Can we wrest content at this or if not content can we instead fearfully tremble at Gods wrath acceptingly while knowing this? Do we accept this with our knees quivering to be the plan of our God? Do we just shrug off the people of India or Pakistan or China or Saudi Arabia?

 

The pursuit of being a good person is best left up to God’s plan and not a new religion I think. Belief in Jesus does motivate continuously a person to be a good human being. I was simply trying to imagine if history could have given a different more inclusive embrace of humanity capable of changing the trajectory of wondering minds. There are so many minds that have damaged hearts and live amid the immoral and the illegal. Knowing Jesus I wouldn’t want another system. I just wish people to familiarize themselves with Him.

 

Surrounded by calls to war and reasons to hate other human beings life moves all of us now forward toward our end. Where that end will completely lead all of us who can fully tell. A system of religion is  just a system if not motivated by something that transcends our world. As time progresses we know that world and its struggles for ideas more clearly. Thought should then challenge us to try and be more understanding of that reality.