Heaven and Hell

Anyone who is faced with considering suicide as an option must realize not only that it is NOT an option, but that things are not nearly as bad or as bleak as he or she thinks they may be. I would urge anyone in such a situation to pick up the telephone right now and contact the local rectory or Catholic Church office. If there is no answer, contact the diocesian office and explain the problem. If you can not get help from any of these sources, immediately call the suicide hotline:

In the U.S., call 1-800-273-8255. Remember that there are people praying for you right now, and there are all the saints and angels in heaven doing the same. Every single person on this earth has a guardian angel assigned just to them. And one guardian angel is so powerful that they, alone, could destroy the whole world. That guardian angel loves you and has been assigned by God to nothing else then to look out for you. Say a prayer right now to whoever is your Guardian Angel, and ask for their help. Remember that they are not physical being. The help you receive will be mental and spiritual but it will be the help that you need to do the right thing - so pick up that phone!

Answer

There is really no way of knowing, but most religions feel suicide is a final end.

Biblical Answer:

Yes, to the promised judgement process:

Catholic Answer

Everybody was created to live forever, everybody "comes back to life", the question is: what kind of life do you come back to? For the vast majority of people living, from what we know from private revelations, and from Our Blessed Lord's own words in the Gospel, the vast majority of people come "back to life" in hell for an eternity of suffering.

The Catholic teaching regarding suicide is very clear: everyone is responsible for his life before God who has given it to him. It is God who remains the sovereign Master of life. We are obliged to accept life gratefully and preserve it for his honor and the salvation of our souls. We are stewards, not owners, of the life God has entrusted to us. It is not ours to dispose of.

Voluntary suicide and co-operation in suicide is contrary to the moral law. (all of the above is taken from paragraphs 2280-2283 of the Catechism.

Please do not think that God's mercy extends past your death, His justice comes into play and He must be judge, if you transgress His laws, you pay the price - eternally. As our life is not our own, it belongs to the one who gave it to us. This is difficult for modern people to accept from several angles. For instance, it is difficult to admit that our whole being is contingent on another, and is not our own. It is difficult to realize that we are asked to face our problems and that we can not just "check out" if we find the going too rough. It is very difficult to realize that this "solution" to life's problems is not only NOT a solution but actually makes things much worse as we are faced with losing our salvation, and that is not just a rough day, a rough year, or even a rough lifetime, that is an unbelievably miserable eternity of suffering.

Anyone who is faced with considering suicide as an option must realize not only that it is NOT an option, but that things are not nearly as bad or as bleak as he or she thinks they may be. I would urge anyone in such a situation to pick up the telephone right now and contact the local rectory or Catholic Church office. If there is no answer, contact the diocesian office and explain the problem. If you can not get help from any of these sources, immediately call the suicide hotline:

In the U.S., call 1-800-273-8255. Remember that there are people praying for you right now, and there are all the saints and angels in heaven doing the same. Every single person on this earth has a guardian angel assigned just to them. And one guardian angel is so powerful that they, alone, could destroy the whole world. That guardian angel loves you and has been assigned by God to nothing else then to look out for you. Say a prayer right now to whoever is your Guardian Angel, and ask for their help. Remember that they are not physical being. The help you receive will be mental and spiritual but it will be the help that you need to do the right thing - so pick up that phone!

As a Christian, I do believe that suicide is a sin (it's a form of murder). However, you don't go to hell for sinning; each and every one of us sins. That's why Jesus came to die for us, taking the punishment for what we did wrong, and rising again from the grave. God forgives us of our sins, including suicide, because of Christ's death. The only way to be sure you go to heaven is accepting Jesus into your heart as your Lord and Savior. So, I suppose if the person who committed suicide had accepted Him, he/she would still go to heaven. This raises the question of what would happen to them if they had not done this. I have sometimes wondered if people get a second chance to accept Christ after they die. There are many different opinions, but we will really only know for sure after we die. I do believe that if you don't ultimately choose to accept Christ's gift of salvation, you will go to hell. I am just not sure of the deadline (no pun intended). For more details, I suggest looking in your Bible.

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The Bible (the holy word of God that Christians follow) speaks many times about heaven and hell. Jesus mentions heaven and hell several times in the new testament and prophets of God mention heaven and hell all througout the old testament. Christians believe that people go to heaven and hell because this is what the Bible clearly teaches and the Bible is the infallible word of God.

Answer:

I turned them down and told them why. "The church has been lying to us," I said. "They say that all good people will go to heaven. But I have read the Bible, and I am convinced that only 144,000 persons will go to heaven. Other righteous people will live on a paradise earth."-Matthew 5:5; Revelation 14:1, 3.

True Christians don't believe that hell is real.

Our former church members had prophesied that if we became Witnesses, we would die. That was almost 30 years ago. Even if I die now, would it be because I became one of Jehovah's Witnesses? If my wife dies now, can anyone say that it was because she became one of Jehovah's Witnesses?

I have struggled to show my 17 children the way of the truth. Though many of them were adults by the time I became a Witness, I encouraged them to study the Bible and took them to meetings and conventions. It is my joy to have five of them serving Jehovah with me. One serves alongside me as an elder in the congregation. Another is a ministerial servant in a nearby congregation. Two of my children serve as regular pioneers.

When I look back, I marvel at Jehovah's undeserved kindness in helping me become his servant. How true are Jesus' words: "No man can come to me unless the Father, who sent me, draws him"!-John 6:

Yes, as long as they have committed to Jesus. As the Bible says, once you're on the right path, you can never turn back.

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There is no mention of the dimensions of God's heavenly Throne in the Bible but we do know that there are thousands upon thousands of angels who gather there before Him so it must be massive.

Concerning the 'New Jerusalem' city headquarters on EARTH for the Post Millennial Rule of God, it will be a cube of 2400 kilometers or 1500 miles square. Its walls will be 200 feet thick. A tremendous edifice surpassing one's imagination. You can read this in Revelations 21. Blessings :)

To get a better sense of just how big geographically this is, start in the northwest corner of Turkey and go down to Egypt (include Cyprus) then go east to all of Saudi Arabia then north to all of Iraq then back to Turkey taking in Jordan, Israel, Lebanon, Syria.

First and foremost I would like to state that if you are planning or even considering suicide, I urge that you get help immediately. There are hot-lines everywhere and you should definitely talk to someone.

However, in the hopes that you are like myself and do ponder such topics on occasion, however gruesome or morbid, I will give you my philosophical viewpoint on this topic.

What fun could committing suicide be? First of all, every way I can think to kill oneself would be rather painful -- be it a bullet or a cut, or even a plummet from a tall structure. Of the group, I'd personally choose the plummet but nonetheless it would be extremely painful, and that's assuming you don't die before you reach the ground (cardiac arrest usually handles this nicely, and boy oh boy is that painful). The only way one might find any part of suicide "fun" is if they were a masochist or thrill-seeker (then I guess I could understand the adrenaline rush).

Again, I do want to urge that you seek immediate help. Talk to your doctor and get a referral, call a friend, call a family member who you can trust. Do something, but don't end your life.

Suicide is merely a permanent solution to a temporary problem.

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I believe soldiers are not judged for what they have to do in war. They are judged by what they have done their entire lives before the war. The people who will be judged for war are the leaders who send their troops into battle. The leaders who are evil and seek to dominate or destroy the innocent will be the ones to be judged harshly. The leaders who send their troops to battle in order to protect their own country or for the better good are okay in my opinion.

Salvation depends not upon whether you die in battle or not. If someone where to toss a grenade at you and your buddies and you jumped on it to save the others it doesn't mean you'll go to heaven. The Bible says that we are not saved by our good works. Isaiah 64:6 "All our righteousness are as filthy rags, and we are all as an unclean thing....". If good works could save a man Jesus would have never had to come. Its because we could never be good enough to save ourselves that God , in His great Love sent His only begotten Son to suffer the cruel death of the cross. If a soldier dies as well as a cop or fire fighter, their good works could never save them. Only the Blood of Jesus can. He that knew no sin became sin for us so that we could be set free from the bondage and the penalty of sin, which is an eternal death in hell. Its not God's will that any should perish in that awful place but that all should come to repentance.

John 3:5-6 Do you remember your new birth? Romans 8:1-13 Are you walking after the flesh or after the Spirit? (IE. Is there sin in your life?) Romans 8:16 Does the Spirit of God bear witness with you when you pray or when you're with other Christians? 1 John 2:3-4 Do you follow after God(walk in the Spirit)or do you live in sin?

1Corinthians 13:5

If you will ask all the parents of those whose sons or daughters died in war, and if those parents believed in heaven, then the answer is Yes; those who died in war will go to heaven.

But your question will remain unanswerable until such time that there is proof that there really is heaven.

All conjectures that soldiers who died in war will go to heaven, are nothing but idealism.

This is strictly my opinion and I am a Christian. Yes, I do believe they go to heaven. They are warriors protecting their country and their loved ones and I certainly can't see why God would turn his back on such bravery.

You asked an excellent question because religion comes up more often than people realize when it comes to our fighting men. Some young soldiers (more than you will ever know) have actually refused to fight because of their belief system and have been placed under arrest and faced court martial for it.

Luke 10:26-28 He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live.

John 5:29 And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.

Romans 2:6, 13 Who will render to each one according to his deeds. ... For not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified.

2 Corinthians 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

2 Corinthians 11:15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.

Philippians 2:12 "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling."

James 2:14 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?

James 2:17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

James 2:21-25 Was not Abraham our father justified by works? You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only. Likewise, was not Rabab the harlot also justified by works? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

1 Peter 1:17 The Father, who without partiality judges according to each one's work.

Revelation 2:23 I will give unto every one of you according to your works.

Revelation 20:12-13 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

If they know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour, they will go to heaven.

Another View:

Sin can not enter the presence of a Holy God. Only absolute Holy perfection can go to Heaven(where God is). Jesus is the only one who lead a perfect life. Jesus came to provide a way for us to be cleansed by His blood so we may also go to Heaven. Like all of us who have ever sinned, soldiers also need to place their trust in the finished work of the Saviour and repent from our sins. Not our own works. A true Faith in Christ will produce good works in us by Him working through us.

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Think about it. If a person were condemned by G-d for fighting in a war then G-d would have contradicted himself by telling the Israelites to fight for the promised land.

On the other hand you have to be careful what you are fighting for...

Additional Comment:

Well,most important is obviously that he believes in God,but it's not that simple,if a soldier enjoys killing his enemy,of course he isn't going to make it to salvation,you have to make sure you are actually fighting for something,know what your fighting for,know who your fighting for,when you kill another soldier in war,your not supposed to enjoy it,your not supposed to see it as "killing someone",your supposed to see it as"Doing Your Job","Fighting For your Country","Fighting for the people at home","Fighting for the soldiers next to you","And saving yourself",pray to God while out in the battlefield,repent once your out of it.

I believe the idea of judgement day reaches back to the Old Testament concepts of divine judgement and the Day of the Lord. The New Testament teaches that divine judgement is a present and future reality and that no one will escape it (Acts 17:30-31). Chief future events include Jesus' return, the millennium, the last judgement, the final resurrection, and heaven and hell. As part of what I believe about the coming judgement, I do not believe in a pretribulation rapture or dispensationalism. That is to say, I do not believe that Jesus will return secretly to rapture His church and come again 7 years later with His church to establish a thousand year age replete with temple sacrifices. That is not what the Bible teaches. I believe that the second coming/bodily return of Christ and the rapture/resurrection of believers are simultaneous events.

Another Answer:

Speaking within Christianity, there are many 'interpretations' as to what this 'Great White Throne Judgment' will entail. Many in mainstream Christianity wrongly interprets this event to be a 'condemnation' of millions if not billions of human beings who never converted to 'their' Christianity during their lifetimes. These they tell others are condemned to eternal hellfire. But this is not Scriptural and may indeed be more in line with Dante's Inferno of literature.

It is contrary to the God presented in the Bible to allow the wholesale condemnation of billions of human beings. Consider this from Paul:

3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Think for a moment of all those souls who died - past, present and future - without ever hearing of Jesus Christ, or those who may have heard but never fully understood biblical truth. How about all those of other faiths who may have heard of Christ but follow another as their one and only Way. Will a just God of the Bible simply condemn all these - NO, is the answer from the Bible.

There are many places that describe the approaching judgement process - not a trial and sentencing as some teach - and there will be those who will perish in the second death - those unrepentant incorrigibly wicked people - but the vast majority will be changed into sons and daughters in the God Family as is our Father's Plan with His only currently begotten Son. And death here is not merely separation from God as some teach:

5 For the living know that they will die;

But the dead know nothing,

And they have no more reward,

For the memory of them is forgotten.

In short then, I believe what the Scriptures tells us, especially here:

New King James Version (NKJV)

1. Revelation 20:12 NU-Text and M-Text read the throne.
2. Revelation 20:14 NU-Text and M-Text add the lake of fire

I just wanted to make a point here from what is said above:

It is really true from what Apostle Paul said in:

3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Yea, God desire is to see all men being saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. But that does not mean that if a billion or trillion of them are not being saved and come to the knowledge of the truth, they wouldn't be punish or throw into the lake of fire.

Additional Comment:

Based on what is said above by a brother that: Think for a moment of all those souls who died - past, present and future - without ever hearing of Jesus Christ, or those who may have heard but never fully understood biblical truth. How about all those of other faiths who may have heard of Christ but follow another as their one and only Way. Will a just God of the Bible simply condemn all these - NO, is the answer from the Bible.

I will like to comment to this by using Romans 2:12;

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.) For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law;

Thus, the simple truth is that all those who died in the past, present or in the future without even hearing of Jesus Christ will be judge and condemn by that fact and all those who have hear of Him will also be judge and condemn by what they know of Him and did not follow.. Those of other faiths, that have heard of Jesus Christ but decided to follow their one and only way will still be judge and condemn by their act and did. Everyone will be judge either by the law or out of the law.

One religion's view:

Yes they do go to the hell.

Another view:

I am a Christian, and I truly do not believe transsexuals will go to hell for that. I believe if you live your life according to your religious beliefs, just as God instructs us to do, that becoming a transsexual will not condemn you to hell.

Some believe that being gay is automatic condemnation to hell, and they often believe becoming a transsexual is the same as being gay - it is not. Being a transgender is simply a surgical procedure where one feels they have been born in the "wrong" body, or have the genitalia of both sexes.

But I don't believe being gay is automatic condemnation to hell, either. True, the bible does say "a man shall not lie with another man", but we all sin, and sin does not come in degrees. God forgives all sins and transgressions if we sincerely ask for forgiveness.

Being gay or a transgender is not a choice as many think it is. No one would 'choose' to live a lifestyle where they would be treated so badly by society. Medical research has shown it is a genetic mind/body mismatch where their mind does not 'match' their body.

In the bible it mentions Sacridovos so maybe it's that.

John Milton gave a name to the capital of Hell in "Paradise Lost" (1667). He called it "Pandaemonium" (pandemonium) meaning the dwelling of all demons. The word has come to mean a noisy or chaotic place, or a state of general uproar.

Catholic Answer

Hell is not a place, thus it has no capital. Hell is the state of being eternally separated from God, the state of being eternally in pain and despairing of ever having relief.

There are so many mysteries out there. It is natural for people to "make-up" Heaven and Hell as a way to calm them in life, so when somebody hurts them they can think "well, when that person goes to Hell they will regret what they did to me." Or it could very well be true to. I personally believe in reincarnation because it makes so much more sense to me. It's hard for me to believe that a God who loves us will send us to Hell for stupid mistakes. "Hell" actually comes from the Greek word "Hel" which simply means "away from the light". Preists started making "Hell" sound worse and worse because people were "sinning" more and they feared they would leave Christianity. There are two main emotions that humans have and they are love and fear.The fear of going to Hell and the love for your family and fearing not to see them in heaven combines to create the Hell fearing God fearing religion of (really strong) Christianity (very very strong Christianity not to insult anybody). I am still a Christian and I go to church but it's very hard for me to believe in a cruel God. I believe in Christianity, (especially) Native American, Eastern, the Jewish story and much more. I am very open and love learning new things. You should really look up Karma (Bhuddism) and Native Americans beliefs, I live by them day by day. My advise to you and to anybody who may be reading this is to follow your heart and listen to what it's telling you. Only YOU know. Everything that I have just said was in MY personal opinion, I don't want to offend anybody because we are all allowed to believe what we choose.

Answer

Apparently some Christians continued to believe in reincarnation even after the Council of Nicaea, because in A.D. 553 the Church found the need to single out reincarnation and condemn it explicitly. At the Second Council of Constantinople the concept of reincarnation, bundled together with other ideas under the term "pre-existence of the soul", was decreed to be a crime worthy of excommunication and damnation ("anathema"):

Answer

I like a previous answer that hell is the absence of light. Light is awareness. Heaven on earth can be produced by bringing forth into the conscious mind the spirit of the superconscious mind which houses the blue print for us to become whole. Hell is what we create for ourselves by doing otherwise. Heaven or hell is not some far off place at some other time. It is now. We initiate with our intention to seek first the kingdom of heaven and this is within.

Reincarnation is necessary because we must come to an understanding of the 144,000 parts of ourselves, or ways of thinking. Can anyone imagine doing all this in one lifetime?

Answer

According to the Bible hell is a place of torment forever removed from God's presence. Reincarnation is forbidden, "For it is appointed once for man to die, then the judgment" and Heaven is God's dwelling place and only he decides how you must qualify to go there.

Now if man was their own god then perhaps they could choose what "existence" they would have after death, however GOD is the one that created the "spirit realm" and governs it his way.

Since "eternity" wasn't created by man but GOD then I will accept GOD'S answer over man's.

Men ARE they're own god.... And we DO choose which existence we choose to actualize into physical reality..... So not only is there reincarnation, but multiple INCARNATIONS...... Many different aspects of our soul focused in different areas....

Answer

There is no evidence from the texts or normal observation that reincarnation exists. I think the reason for making up this theory was that human can't simply get the fact that when his body decays and becomes earth again (transforms into its 1ry components which are then reused by plants in the normal life circle) that his very 1ry components could be collected again to bring him back to life after death, or because man believes that his soul and body are one compartment and can't be separated apart, so he assumed that every part of his decayed body carries part of his soul as well.

Answer

Without the Quranic scriptures I woldn't get the understanding of this whole issue.

According to what I got from the Quran, man consists of a physical body and a soul, a soul of his own, that soul was present there befor the man's birth, Allah brought all the soules before Him and witnessed them that He is their only God.., they were then preserved there to be placed in bodies when time comes for them to come to life..

172. And (remember) when thy Lord brought forth from the Children of Adam, from their reins, their seed, and made them testify of themselves, (saying): Am I not your Lord ? They said: Yea, verily. We testify. (That was) lest ye should say at the Day of Resurrection: Lo! of this we were unaware;

173. Or lest ye should say: (It is) only (that) our fathers ascribed partners to Allah of old and we were (their) seed after them. Wilt Thou destroy us on account of that which those who follow falsehood did ?

when human gets sleep, his soul is partly taken out of his body, so some see visions that may come true in real life for they have clear transparent souls, and this is why we should wake the sleeping person calmly, otherwise it would affect his internal organs, and weakens his heart.

42. Allah receiveth (men's) souls at the time of their death, and that (soul) which dieth not (yet) in its sleep. He keepeth that (soul) for which He hath ordained death and dismisseth the rest till an appointed term. Lo! herein verily are portents for people who take thought.

As for the 1st answer, I'd like to make a comment.. it's God's justice that obliges questioning every human for all he did, small or big, all is being written in files, but being questioned means punishment, coz when God forgives, He never asks. But, concerning faults done towards others, God would bring the two conflicting humans and urge both to forgive each others and win extra place in heaven, but if this was a big sin, like killing, or accusation of prostitute... etc, the doer of such sins will pay for them some of his good deeds as a price to the other party, but if his good deeds didn't fulfil that price, the remainder would be some bad deeds of the other party to be added to his, that means his fortune of good deeds is out, he'd then dwell to Hell.

All precisely weighed, Subhan Allah!

ANSWER

The idea that resurrection isn't possible isn't a new one. It was something which was even challenged by the Arabs of Prophet Muhammad (Pbuh) time. Quran addresses this issue in various ways. Firstly it asks man with a counter question? To give you an example;

Have they not seen that God, Who created the heavens and the earth and was not wearied by their creation, is able to give life to the dead? Surely He has power over every-thing. (46:33)

Does man think that he will be left to himself uncontrolled (without purpose)? Was he not a drop of fluid which gushed forth? Then he became a clinging clot; then He shaped and fashioned, and made of him a pair, the male and female. Is He then not able to raise the dead to life? (75:36-40)

It reminds humans that you were created from a drop of semen, it ask us to reflect as to what is a more difficult process, creating you from a drop of semen or giving you life when you were dead or just collecting all the remains (minerals, bones etc) and bringing you back into life again.

Answer

Aha. You are very clever to ask such a subtle trick question. Neither reincarnation nor heaven/hell make any sense at all, and that is a crucial point, for both people of faith and for skeptics and non-believers in general. Such concepts belong to a realm that is outside of 'sense'; they are not nor can they be part of our sensory or experiential world. They belong to the realm of faith which is unassailable from the point of view of believers, and irrelevant/unprovable from the point of view of non-believers. These concepts are part of the unseen things hoped for by believers; the essence of faith. If they were provable, and they are certainly not, then faith would be utterly meaningless.

Answer

For time immemorial mankind want to find answers for the unanswered questions. Relegions had come forward and tried to provide an answers to such questions. All relegions are started/ by humans intellegent, Charisnatic and Great people ( though almost all claim that they have reveleation from GOD). To all such questions the answer is all powerful, all pervasive GOD. It fills the gap. But it does not satisfies the intellegent mind.So it was natural to show some kind fear and reward( Carrot and stick) . Hell and heaven are these carrot and stick. When asked for proof the answer invariably in all the relegions more or less is " Those who have faith (The Believers) do not question and those who do not have faith (Non Believer) will never get the answer".

Answer

I think that it would be a bit of both, because I believe in god and stuff but I don't believe that you could stay in one place for all eternity, because even if you did everything possible to do there it would only be a fraction of a percent of your time there. I think that when you die you get punished for your sins or rewarded for your goodness but when your time is right you return to earth again to keep the cycle growing. You see, if you believe that you have a soul, like many people do, then it would be an energy, which couldn't be destroyed OR created, so you have probably lead many lives before this both in heaven, hell and on earth.

Answer

In my opinion, reincarnation makes much more sense. On the other hand, I don't disbelieve in Heaven and Hell. Instead, I believe in a bit of a combination of the two. The idea of karma determining what your next life is like helps this idea, because it would make sense that those who build up a large amount of bad karma spend their next life in a different plane containing "Hell", and if they complete the reincarnation cycle you end up in "Heaven". On the other hand, the Christian/other major religions idea of Heaven and Hell makes less sense, giving you one lifetime to live as you should and if you don't, you are doomed to an eternity of suffering in hell

Answer

Well, I bet to Hindus reincarnation. and to Christians (and many other religions) Heaven and Hell. Neither can be proved by science, so neither make much sense. but I like the idea of going to Heaven better than being reincarnated. I mean, I've been on this world once, and once is enough for me. I like the thought of going to someplace so much better than earth better than living on earth again and again.

Answer

There's some questions you'll never get the answer for, just believe in what your heart tells you. Also, not to make the last reply sound incorrect(everyone is entitled to there own opinion)but he/she said, "because even if you did everything possible to do there it would only be a fraction of a percent of your time there". Think more positive, like maybe there is an unlimited amount of things to do. If you believe in god then believe that he's active and in positive ways.

Answer

Which number is bigger: 100 trillion trillion trillion, or 100 trillion trillion trillion plus one? One number might in fact be bigger, but does the difference mean anything at all? Neither of these approaches to life/death makes much sense at all; if there is any difference in sense it is meaningless. It is a matter of faith, and what you have been taught, what you believe, what you have experienced in life and what you hope for. But if you are looking for something 'sensible', these choices will not do it.

Answer

Heaven and Hell, according to the most Biblically-based Christian beliefs, indicate that after death, there are two possible destinations. Either a person's soul goes to join with God, or it doesn't.

Consider the Bible also teaches that each man and woman's soul comes from God, and it seems rather simple to say that the soul comes from God, lives on Earth, then returns to the immaterial super-nature from which it came. It's a single round trip, so to speak.

Reincarnation, according to some Eastern religious beliefs, suggests that a soul starts life as an insect or other tiny creature. It lives and dies, then either moves to a more sophisticated creature or a more humiliating creature, depending on how it lived its life. Eventually, the purest souls are incarnated as humans. If they die having lived a good enough life, they make the final move up to whatever is next. Theories vary, but generally it's a land of gods or pure joy or nirvana or other places that'd be nice to be.

The prospect of Heaven and Hell rely, essentially, on how God deals with His creation (much like how a parent deals with an unruly child).

The prospect of reincarnation rely on the assumption that all souls are trying to better themselves out of some forgotten but instinctually necessary desire to move up in the cosmic ladder of goodness.

Or, to put it in a much simpler way, reincarnation assumes people are generally good while Christianity acknowledges that people are inherently bad.

So look at the world- all of it, from love to hate to greed to selflessness- and decide. Are most people good or bad at heart?

Answer

The concept of heaven and hell, as well as reincarnation, both make sense and both exist.

Most early Christians actually believed in reincarnation. An early Christian leader in the third century named Origen espoused it. In the sixth century, the head of the Christian Church was Emperor Justinian, who could and did overrule the papacy. Pope Vigilius and Emperor Justinian had a disagreement as to whether the teachings of Origen should be part of official Christian theology. Justinian condemned Origen, had Pope Vigilius arrested and put in jail for refusing to sign a papal decree condemning Origen's teaching on reincarnation, and ordered all references of reincarnation omitted from the Bible - including an entire chapter devoted to it.

From that point on, anyone caught teaching the doctrine of rebirth faced governmental prosecution. However, minor references to it still remain in the Bible. With the Church desiring greater control over the masses, they wanted people to think that they only have one shot at salvation - only through the Church - and that there is no chance to have another life later on. Free-thinking individuals who espoused reincarnation were thought of as a threat to Church control and were suppressed. This is the real reason why reincarnation is not part of official Christian theology and is not taught in Christian Sunday school and in seminary today. Not because it was ordained that reincarnation doesn't happen but because a long-dead emperor wanted to gain more control over the masses.

Evidence for the validity of the doctrine of rebirth is found in past-life regression studies as well as within near-death experience research. It is suggested to do an online search on these topics.

As is confirmed by near-death experience research, when we cross over into Spirit, we face a nonliving, infinite, higher power known as The Breath of God, The Light of God, and simply The Light. This higher power judges us according to our application of The Golden Rule, our selflessness (or lack thereof), and by our ability to love genuinely and deeply. How we have lived our life dictates how far we can go into The Light. The higher the plane, the greater the expansion of consciousness and the more powerful the dimension of energy.

Within Islam, Judaism, Catholicism, Hinduism, and other metaphysical philosophies around the world, there is the concept of seven heavens or seven planes. The basic idea is that the more spiritually principled after death ascend to the higher planes while those who are on a path of evil are indirectly forced to reside on the lower planes as inferior spirits. The first plane is thought of as the most emotionally painful place to exist while the seventh plane is where individualistic saints reside in The Light.

Past-life regression studies point to everyone having a choice to incarnate and that there is a period in-between lives whereby the soul exists as a disembodied spirit. This is in contrast to the Hindu conception whereby the soul automatically incarnates into another body right after death. What really happens is that there is a period in-between lives whereby the soul has a chance to heal and learn. The more advanced souls take time to reflect and prepare for their next incarnation. Most do not come back for the noble reasons of serving others and spiritually evolving, which is why the world is the way that it is - for now anyway.

Another contradiction of past-life regression studies to the Hindu paradigm is that souls who were human do not go back to being an animal. I recall a past-life regression case whereby a person was regressed back to being a pampered large house cat in an Egyptian palace. But not everyone can be regressed back to having been an animal. Generally speaking, the more intelligent souls prefer and stay humanoid in their incarnations.

Regression studies and near-death experience research also point to cosmic justice panning out not in the flesh but in the Spirit. Reward and punishment is traditionally not found in a future life. Evil people are not forced to become insects. What really happens is that the soul is forced to emotionally feel the pain and suffering that was unfairly caused to one or more innocents. For example, suppose a murder is committed and not one that was conducted out of self-defense. The perpetrator, after death, will be forced to feel all the pain he caused, not only to the victim but also to those left behind: the widow, children, etc. Thus, the true nature of cosmic justice is to directly experience on an emotional level the ramifications of one's actions, and emotional pain can be much worse than physical pain. No one ever truly gets away with anything. It only appears that many do on This Side because we do not see what they go through on the Other Side.

Thus, heaven and hell, as well as reincarnation, are both valid metaphysical concepts that have been in operation for eons.

Not everyone who dies just ascends into heaven. The Bible describes very few of these. 2 Kings 2:11 describes an awesome scene where Elijah was taken up in a whirlwind. Jesus, son of God ascended into Heaven, after being dead for 3 days. He came back to life, appeared to many witnesses, and later ascended into Heaven to be seated at the right hand of the Father. Genesis 5:24 tells of a man named Enoch, who walked with God for 300 years, and then God simply took him. He was no more after that. Call that ascension if you will. With these examples, we are talking about people who were alive, and then made their way to Heaven.

A Biblical Perspective:

There are many religions and religious beliefs that don't stem from the Bible. And most of these, also, foster their own beliefs in "ascending into some sort of heaven or other" [assuming the question is asking about "people" going to this sort of place]. Some speak of a Valhalla... some of a Nirvana. There are all kinds of religious variations of belief in ascension into some sort of heaven.

This answer will limit itself with the biblical perspective of the question.

The Bible speaks of "three heavens" [II Corinthians 12:2] -- the "third one" being, according to Paul, where God's throne is; whether it's a literal "place" or "dimension" or whatever else it may prove to be beyond the comprehension of the finite human mind.

The key to understanding this third heaven, right off, is in believing what man's Creator, Jesus Christ [John 1:3], says about it -- which most folks don't seem to, by the way.

"...NO MAN HATH ASCENDED UP TO HEAVEN, but He [Jesus Himself] THAT CAME DOWN FROM HEAVEN, even the Son of Man which is in heaven." (John 3:13)

According to Jesus Christ, whose Words the Bible is: the Words His Father gave Him to speak, which were written down and recorded for us, today [see Acts 7:38] -- He is the ONLY MAN who has ascended into the "third heaven" of His Father's throne. Because He CAME FROM THERE!

As stated before, few people truly "believe what Jesus says"... even those who "believe on Him!" [see John 8:30-31]. Jesus even confronted these "believers-on-Him" who, yet, somehow, couldn't bring themselves to believe what He said:

"...ye seek to kill Me, BECAUSE MY WORD HATH NO PLACE IN YOU." (John 8:37)

"I speak that which I have seen with My Father... But now you seek to kill Me, a man that hath told you the Truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham." (verses 38-40)

"Why do ye not understand My speech? Even BECAUSE YE CANNOT HEAR MY WORD... And because I tell you the Truth, ye BELIEVE ME NOT." (verses 43-45)

And so it is that few people believe what Jesus says regarding those who have ascended into the "third heaven" of His Father's throne. Which He reveals to be NO ONE!

And He further reveals to us: "Ye shall seek Me, and shall not find Me: and where I AM, thither YE CANNOT COME." (John 7:34)

That's the biblical perspective on any kind of ascension into the "third heaven." Believe it or not.

The "first two heavens," however, are a different story.

The first heaven is the breathable air of the earth's atmosphere where clouds form and birds fly. Elijah was carried away into this heaven by a "chariot and horses of fire" [some sort of "vehicle" or conveyance: the Literal Bible with Strong's Definitions].

The only thing a "believer" can know for sure, as asserted by Jesus Christ over a thousand years later, is that Elijah didn't ascend into the "third heaven."

The same goes for Enoch, according to Jesus. Plus the biblical fact that in none of the biblical accounts regarding Enoch is "any of the three heavens" mentioned at all. Most likely, like the disappearance of Moses, God "took Enoch, also" TO BURY HIM; because the Bible tells us:

"THESE ALL DIED IN FAITH, not having received the Promises..." (Heb.11:13).

In other words... all the Faithful of God [of whom Enoch and Elijah were two] are dead in the grave waiting for Jesus' return and their turn in the First Resurrection of God's Faithful from the dead!

"...This is the First Resurrection. Blessed and Holy is he that hath part in the First Resurrection: on such the Second Death hath no power, but they shall be Priests of God [the Father] and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years." (Rev.20:5-6)

"...even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But EVERY MAN IN HIS OWN ORDER: Christ the Firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's AT HIS COMING." (I Cor.15:23)

But then... Elijah isn't the only person [biblical or otherwise] to have ascended into the "first heaven." This world is crisscrossed with airports and airfields today, from which over the past couple centuries or so, millions of people have ascended into the first heaven. Only to come back down somewhere else on the earth; beit successfully or unsuccessfully.

The "second heaven" is "outer space" beyond the earth's breathable atmosphere where the planets, stars and galaxies reside. While this isn't a place where man absolutely "cannot come"... it is an inhospitable heaven that requires meticulous and precise equipment and preparation to ascend there... and to reside there for any prolonged period of time. In any event, the "second heaven" is a most temporary place for man to ascend.

Needless to say... relatively speaking, a mere "handful" of people have ascended into the "second heaven."

So, to answer the question from the biblical perspective... the numbers of [people?] who have ascended into heaven are:

The First Heaven: millions.

The Second Heaven: hundreds (?)

The Third Heaven: ONE!