Yet another question *sigh* about Christianity and homosexuality, hell, judgment, punishment, etc.?

Being homosexual has absolutely nothing to do with heaven or hell.

While there is much confusion on this topic, there really needn't be.

Homosexuality (the practice of) is sinful. There is no grey area about this in the Bible.

Here is where the problem comes. People wrongly believe that some sins are worse than others. This is not scriptural in any way.

All sins are equal. If I judge a homosexual and tell them that they are going to hell I have just screwed myself because I just messed up big time. I have no right to sit on God's throne and be your judge.

You were totally correct when you said, "I always thought that entrance into heaven was as simple as accepting Christ as savior . . . "

For the believer, (one who has done what you said above) the sins we commit after have nothing to do with Heaven and Hell. That means: greed, gluttony, pride, violence or any other sin (including sexual sins).

What sins do at that point is damage the relationship with God. We live our lives in a way that pleases him because he died to take our punishment. When we sin after that we kind of rub in his face like an ungrateful child that he will take us back.

Just like we don't cast aside our children when they are self centered neither does our father cast us aside.

e-mail me if you want to discuss this more.

BTW: Yes hell is eternal.

1. Most likely would go to Heaven. As I've heard "all sin is equal in God's eyes", so unless someone telling a little white lie would send them to Hell, i'm sure a gay Christian would be fine.

2. "Do not judge less you wish to be judged" - Matthew 7:1 "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone" - John 8:6. Those two quotes show Christians are NOT suppose to judge, so they're as sinful as a non-believer. Do you mean why God must judge? I do not know, and I am sure no one does.

3. Who knows. The Christian God is a confusing one.

4. I would assume it would be "one size fits all", but Christian philosophy varies between individuals. For some, acceptance of Jesus saves you, for others that is simply the first step to redemption.

1. If the a person is saved they will go to Heaven.

2. There are two judgments. One for Christians for the sins we committed after we were saved. (rewards for the things we did right are then too, and then we enter in to Heaven) One for lost people for the sins they committed while being lost. (they'll then be cast in to Hell.)

3. Entering Heaven is as simple as accepting Jesus as your Savior. Judgment for the saved involves the works whether they're good or bad being either things that can be laid at Jesus feet in praise or burned as worthless. Punishment is not involved in the judgment for a christian. Jesus died and took all of our punishment.

4. There are different types rewards mentioned in the Bible a christian can receive. For example there's a martyr's crown, a crown of life, and a crown of faithfulness. All these rewards will be laid at Jesus feet by the recipeints though because He's the only one worthy of any praise, honor, or glory! Punishment for the lost not accepting Jesus Christ as Savior is Hell.

1. I wish I could answer this question with a simple yes or no. A "faithful Christian" submits his will to God's. A "faithful Christian" does not blatantly disregard ANY PORTION of scripture. When you ask Jesus to be Lord of your life, that means complete submission.

2. Christians do have different rewards in Heaven. I am NOT an expert on this, but we receive different crowns based on our service to God.

3. At Judgment, because an unsaved person's sins are not covered by the Blood of Christ, they will be shown everything they are guilty of. It isn't simply acceptance or non-acceptance, it is being held responsible for all the ways you have fallen short of God's expectations for your life.

4. "Punishment" is hell ,separation from God. We do receive different rewards in Heaven. If I can contact a fellow church member of mine who knows a little more about eschatology than I do, I'll elaborate.

No offense but, there are 2.1 billion of us, i would assume you would know by now that the only things ALL of us agree upon are that God exists, Christ is the son of God, He died for our sins, and he was resurrected, everything else varies.

Just like if you took all of the muslims together, they wouldn't all agree on the same things, same with hindus and so on.

Edit: Conflicting details? there are conflicts in everything known to man, Science, Health, Economics, Government, everyone thinks they're right and everyone has a different way, when was the last time we had a diet that was healthy and made you look like a sex bomb? it's never existed because there are so many conflicting views and no one seems to know what is right, the only things Christians know to be completely true for all are... God Created man, Christ has died(for our sins), Christ has risen, Christ will come again.

1. According to 'Christianity', yes. According to the Bible, no. There is no literal hell, but a symbol for the grave.

2. God will ultimately judge hearts. This is tied to His Kingdom, and who will 'enter'. Humans are poor judges, imperfect judges, since we cannot 'walk in a person's shoes'. According to the Bible, God will show 'undeserved kindness'.

3. False. Each person is an individual, with different strengths and weaknessess, different experiences and traumas. There are many people who 'have accepted Jesus' in their hearts solely because they do what is right towards others. Jesus didn't desire worship, but he wanted people to love their neighbour as themselves.

As I said before, there is no literal hell. It goes against everything God stands for. He is a perfect judge. Imperfect Finite Lifetime does NOT equal an Infinite Punishment.

4. I don't think so. Our imperfection is punishment enough. We do bad things, we make mistakes, and we often pay for them at some point. The Bible states that the price of sin is death. Once you die, you are CLEAN. You have paid up. And since Jesus lived and died for ALL humanity, everyone is considered for ressurrection.

The only down side to the whole thing, is those that die in God's judgement, are not considered for ressurrection. For example those that died in the 'flood' or Sodom and Gommorah etc. Which means that those who die in Armageddon (God's day of judgement) are basically screwed. But there I go again, thinking I know the mind and will of God.

(((((RedQueen))))

1. Does a homosexual who is a faithful Christian -- and yet who continues to engage in homosexual acts -- go to heaven or hell? Please, keep this simple. Yes or no?

hell

2. Why the term "judgment?" What exactly does this mean? If a person has accepted Jesus as his savior and is accepted into heaven, why the need to judge? What is being judged? Isn't acceptance pretty much the end of it?

no, sins are judged, punnished and then forgiven

3. Punishment. If one does not accept Jesus as savior, then he is sent to hell. That is his punishment. Correct? So why all the judging to determine punishments?

to determine the length of time you spend in hell

. Are there different degrees of punishment and reward? Or is it a sort of "one size fits all" kind of thing?

length and type is dependant on the sin. According to Dante.

EDIT : there is no such thing as eternal only for god. time has no meaning if you are dead. the gays go to hell, do their punnishment then heaven.

Romans 1:27; ' ... and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.'

1 Corinthians 5:12,13; '... for what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? But those who are outside, God judges ...'

I don't have time to answer all your questions, but let me address the first one. You cannot be engaging in homosexual acts and be a faithful Christian. It says so in the Bible. Just the same way that as a divorced woman I cannot have sex with a man and be considered a "faithful Christian" Neither can I remarry. That is the price one pays for the privilege of following Christ. Sorry, but that's the rules.

Red Queen,

Your asking things no human knows the answers to.

Over time popular humans set policy, today we call this steering a ship, maintaining the course and other nautical analogies. But policies start from the popular and filter down to everyone.

So humans think rewards and punishment are going to be dealt by GOD - in a totally human way.

WRONG.

GOD will do things her/his way. (humans fight over gender of GOD too.)

So then there are popular schools of thought in each religion, and not popular thoughts. A thought that I heard and sometimes restate in various answers here in R&S, is that a terrible man is alive to test the community. She/he kills or worse and lives to be caught to be a test of that community. This thought suggests GOD is testing everyone in that community by the actions of the bad one. This person dies and gets his/her punishment/reward as GOD deems - not humans. All the humans that were affected by the acts of the monster (for want of a better term) die and are then punished or rewarded as they lived, from cause and effects of others in their community. Those that fought to prevent other monsters from forming or cared for people stronger probably get rewarded, while others that thought the monster was cool and lived as they did, or hated everyone and closed themselves off from others and felt no love for their community probably failed.

People that memorized books and laws of men do not know what GOD will do, but their caring and wanting a better community probably means good in the balance while haters are tipping the scale against themselves.

To reduce GOD to a scale, which is a limiting tool we humans have to do. Limit GOD to human understanding.

It's terrible to read or listen to over passionate people condemn and/or belittle others, and think they may know something others don't about GOD.

I heard the bible can be used by both sides in any debate on any subject. Probably other religious books and teachings can also. Which if true cancels each other, then one looks for the most love on either side, unconditional love of others - is the side of the scale that is probably correct. Any action without love could not be an act GOD would agree with.

To love your enemy is the hardest - I heard. So humans not loving should be easy to see are wrong. Except adult humans mask themselves and rarely are true as a child. So no human shows their true selves to others. So this means finding loving actions between humans is beyond rare. Finding humans with schemes and agendas is the norm.

Will good people be hurt - yes forever. Will the guilty be caught - sometimes. What your community does for the living is key - do they/we rally around the victims and in control of our emotions punish the guilty. Do we educate or medically care for criminals to reduce there being repeat offenses. Are all the tools being used by comminutes to live better fairly for all.

Tolerance and education. Exposure of facts over gossip in open forums. The strength of comminutes is love. Comminutes die when mistrust and gossip rule.

I would suggest not listening to humans unless one is so over powerful to not be ignored. Then check this person against your person code and if your comfortable follow that human. I know as humans die their course drifts from the missing strength of the leader that died. As the drift gets worse the teachings get fuzzy then slowly rot. So be careful whom you hitch your wagon to - um mixed metaphor - tie your dingy to (better).

You could pick and choose human policies that are in your code, and ignore the ones that are against it. It's difficult.

As a hypocrite life isn’t too bad. No one knows of my duel being except here. In real life I'm a normal sinning human that happens to be Roman Catholic. And no one knows. Peace.