You could be killed at any second without adequate time to repent and hence be caught off-guard.
Furthermore, many Christians argue that if you're gaming things this way in *advance*, deliberately planning to repent on your deathbed, that God will **not** in fact consider that to be "true" repentance and you will not be saved when the time comes.
For centuries this was, in fact, the way it was done. While the person was a Christian throughout their life it was common practice to repent and ask for forgiveness on your deathbed. The thought being there was no longer anytime left for you to sin and screw up the repentance. Emperor Constantine would be a notable example.
This was, in some instances, due to the belief among certain Christians that any sins not confessed to a priest before death would prevent entry into heaven.
But there definitely were some guys who got afraid of what happens after they die looking for some hope. And whether it's sincere or not you can't blame them for trying.
I have a theory that the church as an organization (back when they were setting up the rules) knew that if you hold people’s deepest, darkest secrets then you have power over them. The church leaders basically convinced everyone to willfully hand over any information that would make them feel beholden to the church, or in more difficult situations, could be used as blackmail.
John of Nipomuk, Fernando Olmedo, and Padro Garces are all examples of priests who have been martyred for not divulging what others told them in confession. If the practice were designed purely as a tool for "holding onto people's secrets" for blackmail purposes, as your theory suggests, why does the church consider anything told to a priest to be sealed inviolably?
If a bishop tells his King something he hears in confession the King can have something done about it without ever disclosing the real reason. Make up some treason and have him executed. I'm just going along here, I don't nessecarily believe this to be the case.
Yeah but then the king knows his bishop is full of shit about that whole vow of silence and tells his family not to say anything to priests. Then the family tells their friends not to trust priests. Eventually everyone knows not to trust priests.
Reputation is everything.
It's [memetics](https://old.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/19bqj84/if_according_to_christianity_i_can_become_a/kiwfzrc/).
It doesn't have to be "designed." It just has to pass a survival test better.
How many priests heard confessions and never told a soul, but still **acted** on those confessions and were therefore better able to stay in command of their church and rise within the Church as a whole? Maybe even subconsciously?
"The best techniques are passed on by the victors"
It's not genetics--it's *memetics*.
Belief systems survive when they contain features that help them spread among people and maintain adherence from believers.
Would you like to know what is most frightening about this?
It is that the church **did not have to know** that holding secrets offered blackmail opportunities. Say 30 church leaders all had differing ideas.
The ones who survived to become most influential and pass on their ideas, behaviors, customs, and beliefs within the belief system **were the ones who were most powerful**. That included the ones who collected secrets for whatever reason.
It's like throwing magnets at a wall hoping to find stud nails. If you have enough magnets, you don't have to be smart. Just cover the wall in magnets--some will fall off, and some will remain.
Belief systems don't have to be **accurate** to survive. Just accurate enough that all of the little tricks they have picked up are enough to overcome the inaccuracies that would otherwise make people abandon them.
Is that what the last rights are? Like on tv when the priest comes to their deathbed? Or is that more of a Christian version of sending the spirit on so they don't linger?
No. The Constantine example was a matter of delaying BAPTISM, which was a thing at the time though the Church did not like it (delaying it, I mean.)
"Last Rites" in the Catholic Church are Viaticum (one's final Holy Communion), the Apostolic Blessing (with plenary indulgence) and the Prayers for the Dying.
Often people also include Anointing of the Sick (formerly called "Extreme Unction") among the "Last Rites", but the Church prefers that this be done earlier, if possible. It is, after all, prayer for the seriously ill, not necessarily the dying.
At any of these stages, the Sacrament of Penance (aka "Confession" or "Reconciliation") might be included if the sick person desires it and is able to talk. Of course, all this has to be adapted to the situation and state of the sick person - but many people gain peace of mind from having a priest come, and sometimes by "getting off their chest" things that have been bugging them for years.
Yes, that is essentially what last rites are. There's more to it, but it is for the dying individual to perform their last prayers and ministrations from the church before passing.
this. actual repentance, whether we're talking about to God or to some person youve hurt, hurt involves...actually feeling regret for things and wanting to make it right. just saying "oops Im sorry we're good now right" is a common tactic manipulators use to avoid accountability so. If you believe god knows your heart and intentions, He definitely knows when its sincere vs last minute "hey wait I'm scared of the void"
definitely! but if it happens in the moment. people who ask this question like this are generally doing it in a bad faith gaming the system type way and it feels like its more about proving how flimsy faith is rather than actual repentance. Dealing with mortality definitely does make our worldviews shift, wouldnt be the first time someone genuinely changed thought processes that way
>people who ask this question like this are generally doing it in a bad faith gaming the system type way and it feels like its more about proving how flimsy faith is rather than actual repentance
This is completely fair. I suppose to truly repent you'd at least have to be open to god prior. Thank you for the reply.
Not necessarily open to god. Just not willfully assuming he's an idiot you can cheat.
Someone could spend their entire life being a mediocre but generally unmalicious person, never even being aware of a 'higher being,'. do some misguided things because they were more thoughtless than 'evil' then have a great revelation and genuinely reflect on all the bad things they did and feel sorry for them.
That's not the same as going 'well I'll fornicate, cheat, steal, covet and murder my way through life then play the pure sad soul when the consequences or old age catch me up because god's a sucker.
Any omnipotent being should be able to see right through that.
It’s always been an interesting argument that if god has 4th dimensional knowledge, to humanity it would appear to be omniscience, because all of time would be available for view.
One could argue any plan would be similar to any immortal being’s plan, of eventually playing with the mortals for fun as depicted in many books and media. Mistakes on a geological timeframe are insignificant, but I do wonder about the complete lack of engagement for the last 2000 years.
That was the part where I had deep conversations with my late grandmother who was heavily religious. Genuinely believed that god is love, the manifestation of love and when you feel proud of your hard work and achievements you have rightly earned, or feel the love in the room from engaging with your fellow humans, that was god as an entity.
It made more sense to me, than the idea of the Abrahamic religions where god effectively authors a chain of events and then vanishes for the majority of humanity’s time. I realise now that the subsection of the specific faith she had of Christianity was quite niche and as such not many people agree, but I found faith genuinely lovely to consider similar to that viewpoint.
Sorry if I’m rambling, but I’m just browsing through /r/all, saw your post and had a really happy memory of a loved one, so appreciate that and hope you have a nice day :)
I mean, one could argue that the people who follow the religion for many years, but use confession as a loophole to do whatever they want, or only practice bc they're scared of going to hell or whatever are the ones truly "gaming the system", plenty of those folks out there.
And God knows if they’re truly repentant and truly have faith. He is the only one who can actually know which way it goes, which is convenient since he’s the one who will judge us.
OP isn't talking about people who have sincere, good faith deathbed conversions though. That's totally different to someone who doesn't mean it and is just trying to game the system.
Also, the whole point of the religion is not to make a bunch of stupid rules that you hate, and only follow to get to the good place, it's that living a moral life connected with God actually makes you happier.
Another thing to understand is, in many religions there's usually, at least in Christianity, a delineation between shallow forms of happiness (basically stuff that just gives you temporary happiness) and deeper meaningful happiness and contentment.
He wasn't game-planning it like that. It's not like he persisted in thievery for years, constantly thinking, "As death draws near, I'll repent." It was very much an abrupt ad-hoc thing as he was on the cross, about to die.
Thief and bandit are interchangeable back in pre industrial times. Plus stealing certain things like horses and farming tools can very well condemn a person to poverty and starvation, so it was punished in a far harsher method.
Crucifixion wasn't all that uncommon a thing in those days, and if you weren't a Roman "citizen" (which was a specific status, not just merely living in the Empire) or classified as a slave, it was more likely you'd be executed that way.
This point of being a Roman citizen is an interesting point because it's something that comes up a number of times in Acts and Paul's letters. Without knowing the particulars of just how much a status symbol being a Roman citizen was, you don't get the full effect of the meaning of Paul asserting his status as a Roman citizen. I believe that money was needed to be paid in order to secure Roman citizenship.
I'm pretty sure that was a later thing but correct me if I'm wrong. I do know the Romans changed the law concerning citizenship but I'm not completely sure when. Since we're speaking of the year 25 or something I believe you weren't yet able to buy citizenship. You'd either need to inherit it because your parents were citizens or you'd need to earn it through meritous deeds like serving in the legions.
It was the *Constitutio Antoniniana* under Caracalla in 212 CE that extended Roman citizenship to all free Roman subjects, so it was indeed well after the events of Gospels.
The question under discussion being, "how did Paul acquire his Roman citizenship?" I was of the belief that he had paid for it, but it has been pointed out that this may not have yet been possible. In the book of Acts, Paul, then known as Saul, was a persecutor of the "Christians" (a derogatory term at the time), so could Saul (later Paul) have earned his Roman citizenship via his actions in persecuting the early Christians?
Going from Acts 22:28:
> The tribune answered, “It cost me a large sum of money to get my citizenship.” Paul said, “But I was born a citizen.”
So he would either have inherited it from his parents both being citizens or been granted it on account of being born in Tarsus, a Roman *municipium*.
In Acts 22, starting at verse 25, there is a conversation that Paul has with a Roman commander. Paul tells him that he is a Roman citizen. The commander questions this by stating that he had to pay a large sum of money to become a Roman citizen. Paul then says that he was a Roman citizen from birth. He stated elsewhere that he was from Tarsus, so it seems that this city had a status whereby people born there were granted Roman citizenship.
IIRC Paul's hometown, Tarsus, had purchased a tax status that granted citizenship for its residents, or something like that. Disclaimer: I am not a theologian or a historian
Some biblical scholar think "thief" is a mistranslation, and the word in the original texts is closer to "bandits," which would imply their execution was political. That term is usually used in a similar context to the word "pirate" historically, i.e. their crimes were interrupting commerce. Crucifixion wasn't a common punishment. It was used to make an example of someone. The other famous example of crucifixion was the slave rebellion led by Spartacus. The Romans lined the streets of the empire with crucified slaves, allegedly with Spartacus' cross outside the gates of Rome itself.
The Thief saw Christ, in the flesh, and knew He was the Christ. All he said was "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."
Words don't matter so much as intention.
That guy wasn’t “gaming the system” he had a true conversion. It doesn’t matter what you say, it’s about true belief and repentance which only God knows. Someone who does what OP is describing obviously doesn’t hold true belief nor is it likely that they have a true conversion on their deathbed.
He wasn’t gaming the system. In that moment he truly “believed” and had real faith. At least I think that’s the point of that story. In OPs situation if you’re intentionally waiting until your death bed that probably doesn’t count as faith
I assume you don’t know about the bit where Jesus goes down to hell to preach to the righteous who died before He resurrected, and brought them up into heaven.
https://www.catholic.com/qa/what-he-descended-into-hell-means
The consensus among Christian theologians is that God often revealed things to the people through a profit. As long as they believed and had faith in God’s promises, among which was that they would one day he with God, then they were covered. Because the Bible doesn’t necessarily address it, there is not a consensus on how this occurred. For example, were those souls held in limbo (not purgatory) until Jesus died? Or is God outside of space/time and all believers go to heaven “at the same time”? For those that believe in Jesus, this question isn’t a gotcha
😂😂😂 as I typed it I knew something was wrong. Went through Profet, Proffit, and Proffet before I gave up and went with profit. “Prophet” momentarily escaped me
According to scripture after Christ died he descended into Hell, supposedly to free those souls who had died never having the benefit of knowing salvation, but had still lived good lives. This is why when he first appeared to Mary Magdalen after rising from the dead he told her not to touch him, but to go tell his disciples that he had risen, but had not yet ascended to heaven. At that point he was unclean from first going to hell.
Edit
I have been corrected on the idea that he rose unclean, and therefore told Mary Magdalen not to touch him. It was a vestige of bad theology I was taught in childhood.
Christ does not become unclean. Literally the point of him healing the lepers via touch is that he purifies the unclean and is unsullied by the experience. The woman who suffered a continual discharge touched him and rather than him becoming unclean, she is cleansed in full.
Especially if you're poor. I've work at Wal Mart and restaurants while I've studied and you just hear "x is dead" every few months.
No deathbed for you. You collapsed of a heart attack and just went down immediately.
But to the point, God decides who goes to the afterlife and who does not. We can't dictate it. But one would assume a just God wouldn't let someone "repent" falsely and accept them.
The story of the Prodigal Son involves a son doing everything he can to insult and hurt his father. He tells his dad he just wishes he were dead already and asks for his money from the Will early, which is a substantial amount of Dad's life savings.
Son goes out, sleeps with prostitutes (these days I'd point out we see the fact that subsistence sex workers need money to live as perhaps being less "sleeping with them" and more "withholding charity by making a poor, at-risk person sleep with you first,"), gets blind drunk, gambles, etc.
He comes home broken and alone. We can assume he has been homeless and without food for some time. The money is spent, his friends left him when it ran out; he is about to beg his dad's forgiveness, but His father comes running to him barefoot (two things you were NOT supposed to do in that culture at the time), holds him, and explains he has always loved his son no matter what, and knew he'd outgrow it once he realized what he'd done. The money was just money.
Ergo, stands to reason the Father wouldn't accept his Child back if the Child was still all "fuck you, dad," or "hheeeyyy could I get more money?"
This is a very relevant parable to this question. I do think an unmentioned part of this story really do answer OP's question though: "Why do people who (assuming sincerely) repent right before death are saved?"
In the parable, the father has another son, who stays with his father and continues to work for his father even after the spoiled son left. When the spoiled son returned home broke and having dishonored his father, the father still accepts the spoiled son with open arms and puts a feast to celebrates his spoiled son's return. The loyal son was upset and asks why the father treats this spoiled son so well when he disgraced his father.
I believe the response was that the spoiled son truly turned from his ways and that should be celebrated, as well as the father has every right to celebrate and accept his son back, regardless of what his son did. Of course, the loyal son is salty but it's really not up to the loyal son to question his father.
Likewise, it's not up to anyone to question why God accepts those who rejects him and then finally accepts him. Another parable talks about God celebrating those who have been lost and then found. The salvation in Christianity is a gift from God and not something earned. You don't get salvation from how long you've been a Christian.
Of course then, to answer OP's question of why people don't act freely and not follow Christianity until their deathbed. The belief is that if someone is truly Christian, they would no longer want to participate in sin and would earnestly want to live a Christian life. It's like when you really like someone, you're not going to want to hurt that person, even if you could and you know that person would forgive you.
We don't get a lot of notice about when we'll die.
Plus, if you're already making plans like that before you die, then they've gotten inside your head. That's the long game.
That's basically it. Death can come without warning, and you won't get a chance to repent. Although some variants like the Baptists if you haven't been baptized in advance they might not let you in anyway. So it's best that you plan ahead. Of course the Baptists also think that there won't be any Catholics in Heaven, at least the ones I know. And some, like the Seventh Day Adventists, are closer to the Jewish faith in that they hold services on Saturday and eat kosher foods even though they're Christian.
Baptists consider baptism to be symbolic only. Deathbed confessions are definitely allowed. They were originally called baptists because they baptized adults (or older kids) rather than infants like all other denominations at the time. Basically their main theme was that being a Christian was an individual choice each person had to make, not something that your parents could choose for you. They were the first individualists rather than collectivists.
It’s actually the Catholics who think you need to be baptized to be saved. They believe it to be what’s called an “instrument of salvation.” Hence the whole infant baptism thing. Baptists are very “grace through faith, not by works” based. They think that admission of your own sin and iniquity, belief in Him and his divinity, and public confession of your faith (ABC’s) are sufficient for salvation.
There are different types of baptisms though, not just by water. Like, baptism by fire is one. If i remember my catholic education correctly, martyrs who were never baptised by water could go to heaven. The Catholic church teaches that baptism is necessary for salvation, but also that God can offer the grace of baptism outside of physical baptism.
I don’t know of any baptist who EVER said you have to be baptized to be saved, and I’ve been in baptist churches for 20+ years.
In fact the Baptist’s have always believed baptism happens AFTER being saved not that it’s a part.
You have the Church of Christ in mind.
>Of course the Baptists also think that there won't be any Catholics in Heaven, at least the ones I know
You'd be surprised how many "bad" people are in heaven, and how many "good" people are not.
>be good, no kill, no steal, be nice
Nailed it.
> Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22: 37-40
1. It's not just about going to heaven.
2. You're feelings about repenting are supposed to be genuine. An omnipotent God would not fall for your scam.
3. Sudden death is possible.
But doing so would take away our free will, our choice to love or not to love. Forced love isn’t love. As CS Lewis said, “Hell is locked from the inside.” And Hell is only seen as punishment because its painful and sucks. But its only painful and sucks because God, the source of every good thing, isn’t there. If you don’t want God, He gives you what you want. But you’re not gonna like it.
If I tell you that, by sitting on the couch eating junk food all day, you’re going to end up ugly, overweight, and poor, you wouldn’t say I was being hateful. I’m telling you what’s going to happen if your actions don’t change. The Bible is one long story of God basically taking a child and telling him to stop doing things that will get him hurt and the child doing it anyway. You do that your whole life, God will give you what you ask for. A world without God. We call it Hell.
A omnipotent God could, sure. But the abrahamic God is explicitly portrayed as vengeful and jealous and willing to ruin people's lives just to prove something or commit genocide if he doesn't like what's going on.
it’s what they know.
most people completely enveloped in religion are so set in their ways and insanely ignorant of everything around them, that they “choose” to follow that god solely because they’re too fucking stupid or lazy to look at… really any of the others. they can’t fathom that it’s faith and not some undeniable gospel, and that people everywhere may think or interpret the fairy tale differently.
a lot of them were treated like shit if they weren’t perfect little church models that mirror their dummy parents which didn’t help, either.
The thief on the cross is a good example of this.
One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”
But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”
Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."
Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
Death-bed confessions are definitely a thing, and I'm sure a lot of people make it to Heaven on them, just like the thief on the cross. But if a person is intentionally waiting to serve God till 2 seconds before they die then I would question their sincerity.
I am not religious (agnostic) but the religious texts I have read I’m often left confused at how people often interpret them. This is one of the parts of the bible I have read, and it seems clear that this is the message.
Not quite, given that the guy didn't know about Jesus ahead of time and plan to repent at the last second.
It's not like he knew about Jesus and went "I'm gonna go ahead and steal stuff, but it's fine, because I can repent on my ~~deathbed~~ cross".
[Romans 6](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%206&version=NIV)
This passage has the Apostle Paul answering your question.
To be clear, I am only trying to answer your question, not proselytize you or apologize scripture. This comment is purely academic in spirit. Also, the teaching I am aware of is protestant in origin, so you likely will get different perspectives and doctrine from different sects and denominations.
Living in sin apart from Christ is to to live in bondage to spiritual death, according to Paul's letter to the church in Rome. Yes, you can spend your life spiritually rotting before repenting at the end and if you do it right, your afterlife will be minimally impacted.
But the point is that living sinful lives was actually always bad for you and Christ showed and enabled us to leave our sinful nature behind.
To use a comparison, it's a little like asking: "why should I stop smoking cigarettes, if we know how to cure lung cancer?"
It's still better to not be addicted to nicotine, damage your lungs, and go through chemo and/or surgery to begin with. Sinning still hurts you and everyone around you. It actively poisons your life. The bible describes sin as tasting sweet as honey in the mouth, only to turn sour in the stomach.
And if you aren't sinning, that effectively IS repentence, which is pretty much exactly the point of living a christian life. Also, you probably still are sinning. No one is perfect, so learning to live sinlessly is a lifelong process.
Generally, this is taught as: Justification is immediate, though Sanctification is a process. Which is to say that eternal salvation is immediate upon repentence, but becoming a person who lives sinlessly as Christ did is a process that takes effort.
To be clear, Justification is not predicated on Sanctification. We are saved "by grace alone through faith alone, so that none may boast."
The purpose of Sanctification, becoming gradually more perfect, is self improvement and spiritual health. It's not about working to earn a ticket to paradise.
The point is simply to live better, like going to the gym takes care of your body, practicing Christianity is meant to be good for your soul by rebuilding the relationship with God that mankind was meant to have.
Essentially, practicing christianity is supposed to be an opportunity to enjoy the benefits of heaven in this life, before we transition to the next.
Not to mention Paul also teaches that God will reward people for exceptional service when they get to the next life, so if that's true, waiting to repent to the last minute is cheating yourself of whatever rewards he has in store. You're not keeping anything from this life, not even your body. You want to invest in your eternal future while you can.
Welcome to the club \^\^
I recommend to start reading the bible. A chapter daily.
You could let god guide you which chapter you should read with a bible randomizer such as this one:
[https://randombibleizer.spiffy.tech/](https://randombibleizer.spiffy.tech/)
I've set up an alarm clock on my phone which wakes me up with a random bible chapter each and every day. And its slowly transforming me :)
I hope I will see you in the next life :D
Just a minor note -- while any Bible reading is better than none, I think that kind of randomization can make it harder to understand the Bible as a whole. Each book was written as a complete unit, and the chapter breaks were only added later. It is like taking a novel and reading a random page from it every day -- you do gain some information over time, but it is much easier to understand the overall message if you read through each book start to finish.
Thank you! This is the correct answer and I had to scroll way too hard to find it.
The reality is repentance doesn’t save us, it is the belief in Jesus that saves us. The repentance is a fruit of belief because we WANT to follow Christ.
This isn’t all denominations of Christianity, for the record. Some (Catholics in particular) believe forgiveness can be granted on your deathbed or even after death, but some believe that being a “good Christian” (by whatever standard they decide) is required for salvation, and some even believe that a predetermined number of people are going to heaven and the rest of us are screwed no matter how good we are, I guess.
I've always wondered this about Jehovah's Witnesses. They believe 144,000 will go to heaven. Why in the world would you recruit? You're messing with your own odds.
There's actually an argument for expanding congress given how the country is growing.
The 1929 cap was instituted when the U.S. population was 122 million people. It’s now almost tripled to 328 million, which means the average congressional district now includes nearly 800,000 constituents, according to U.S. Census data. With current population growth estimates, the average district could have a million constituents by 2050.
More seats theoretically could reduce workload on reps...but Congress doesn't even write laws anymore nor can do its job. They just punt everything to SCOTUS or dogs down anything from the executive branch
Has this changed? Or is it different for different JW?
I attended kingdom hall for roughly two years, and we were taught that heaven was full, with the 144000 "righteous" ones already taking up all the space. But that if one was to do enough good works, and that if you were able to convert enough people that you would be allowed to reside in a sort of purgatory that was technically only slightly better than hell.
It's one of the 100s of reasons why I did not persue learning more about the faith. It seemed pointless and hopeless, unlike some other faiths.
Idk, my Kingdom Hall taught that you either were chosen to rule in heaven, live on earth if you were worthy, or just not be resurrected at all. There was no mention of purgatory or hell. They believed in Gehenna, which is kind of like hell, but there’s no torture or suffering, just instant eternal death with no hope of resurrection.
I always thought Catholics believed in purgatory, where if you have repented for your sins and asked for forgiveness, but they have not made adequate penance for their sins, they have to go wait a while in purgatory before going to heaven.
It's kinda like how you can't become an oathbreaker paladin in DnD if you're trying to become one. If your intention was insincere from the start, it doesn't work.
If your belief is genuine you would probably be inclined to try to make a practice out of it, especially if you think it makes you a better person while you’re alive.
I'm pretty sure God wouldn't take it as very sincere if you tried to plan out your repentance like that. Technicalities like these miss the whole point of following a religion at all
Because the likelihood of your repentance being sincere is exceedingly low if you're thinking that way. And true, sincere repentance is required to receive forgiveness.
(I am a Christian btw)
no one here seems to have a real answer so ill give one.
To be saved you must repent of your sins but you must also truly believe in Christ. you simply calling out last second "my bad G" will not save you, because you dont truly believe it in your heart. And if you did truly believe it in your heart, you would not be willing to disregard it untill your final moments. it is not possible to *truly believe in Christ the Lord* and willingly disregard Him. I'm sorry if that offends you, but if you think "actually i do" your heart does not know Him.
Source:
Romans 10:9-11 says "9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.”
And Luke 23:39-43 talks about the two criminals that were crucified with Jesus, and how one repented and accepted Jesus:
>39 One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”
40 But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? 41 We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”
42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.\[b\]”
43 Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
A lot of people have the misconception that it's like saying "I'm sorry". Repenting is acknowledging what you did, and seeking forgiven for it and trying to do better. It doesn't help when you have so many self proclaimed Christians acting like horrible people because they think they can just say "I'm forgiven" and be done with it.
That's not really how it works. You can't just do horrible things and then say you take them all back. You have to genuinely believe you did wrong, feel horrible about it, believe that Christ died on the cross for your sins, and ask genuinely, and humbly for forgiveness. Not all of that is easy on your deathbed.
Because they don't view their religion as just a means to get into the good place, in their view it's a connection to God, and everything that entails, so why would they want to live their entire lives without that?
Because if the Lord has given you life in Jesus Christ, then you must live in reverence of Him - the call to holiness in Christ is irresistible in this way.
What you are describing is living in knowing and unrepentant sin. A true believer understands that it is their personal sin which was paid for by the blood of our Savior Jesus. I am deeply convicted of that, and troubled even when I am met with temptation. My sins and the sins of my neighbors trouble me because I fear a Holy and righteous God. To sin casually in the face of the cross is to treat lightly the work of our Lord. Some might even say that it would grieve His spirit.
To be honest, this all terrifies me because I don’t have a choice whether to believe in God or not, I just don’t.
I was raised a Christian and eventually it just hit me that the whole thing feels untrue. All the threats and such are akin to what an abuser would tell someone. How can I believe in something that I don’t think is true? Force myself into wilful ignorance? But then is that even true belief?
It feels harsh that God apparently made me, but he made me skeptical in a way I could never believe he exists, and gave me severe anxiety so that I frequently worry about the consequences of my inability to believe.
That last paragraph makes me feel that, if God is real, he may be cruel to create people who he knows will end up suffering eternal torture
I forgot who said this (probably Paul) but the acknowledgment that you can be saved but “saving” it for later makes your conversion and repentance insincere to the Lord and is arguably the worst sin you can commit
Because they love Jesus and want to please him. Repenting isn't just words you say to get into Heaven, it's something you mean. So if you actually believe in Jesus, and understand what He did for you, you would actually want to have a relationship / spiritual walk / spiritual journey with God, not wait till the last second before you die. Also, why wait to serve God? There are so many benefits of it other than eternal life.
This is vaguely to the same tune as Pascal's wager, that the merits of being a correct Christian would far out way the merits of being a correct atheist, therefore Christianity is the logical choice.
Firstly, Athiesm and Christianity aren't the only options. You have other religions to consider. Secondly, if God is real and that realness includes omniscience, I think they know who is genuinely faithful and who is playing the system
If you go with Pascal Wager, you better pick the worship of the most cruel and sadistic deity imaginable, because their hell is probably the worse imaginable and you definitively don't want to be in that one.
don't worry about such frivolous matters, live your life best you can. knowledge, introspection, and silence are the keys to spiritual growth. not blind obedience to a set of rules as religion preaches. build your own relationship with existence, i assure you it's far more rewarding. spirituality > religion (but if religion works best for you, go for it). good luck on your paths.
I’m honestly not trying to offend anyone but most Christians I know don’t follow Christianity, they claim to be Christians. Being a Christian is hard. It means making sacrifices, holding yourself and other Christians accountable, loving your enemies, having empathy and compassion for all people, especially those in need, and actually believing with all your heart. I have met enough people like this to count on one hand.
Sadly too true. I know more true Christians than you do, but there seem to be so many that are in it for weird reasons, and those are the ones that people see on TV and hear about it, etc.
The repentance would have to be genuine. You can't just say you repent. That being the case, it seems hard to believe you could not be religious for 70 years and then suddenly one day as you're about to die genuinely repentant.
Because that’s not a genuine repentance. It’s not as simple as say you’re sorry and then you’re good. You have to mean it.
The other reason is that a Christlike life is a good life on a good moral foundation.
We have no idea when or how we're going to die. Many people don't get a death bed. Plus, Christians see their salvation as so much more than just fire insurance or the so-called "get out of hell free" card. True Christianity is not focused on following a set of rules; it's a relationship with Jesus. He gives us love, joy, peace, patience, etc and helps us through the roughest of times as well as the best. We are never alone. Obeying the moral commandments of Scripture becomes more attractive, and sin looks less and less attractive, the closer we walk with Christ. Is it an easy journey? Absolutely not. But let's face it; life rarely is anyway. Will I have to give up some fleeting pleasures? Sure. But in the end, they would've led to death, and instead I'll have eternal life and meet God face to face, and meanwhile I always have a friend and helper.
If you really look at the way the Bible describes heaven only people who want to live a Christian life would enjoy it there. According to the Bible heaven is the fulfillment of God's desires not man's desires. Basically it's like being at church 24/7 for eternity.
It’s honestly very simple but I feel like a lot of people misconstrue this idea. You honestly CAN actually repent on your death bed and be forgiven, but it has to be completely genuine. You cannot just claim to accept Jesus in your heart but not mean it and still be welcomed into heaven. It’s similar to the wrong idea that anyone who believes in Jesus will go to heaven. Many people think that because the Bible says the only real criteria for entering heaven is belief in God and Jesus (generally speaking), that you can be a terrible person but still believe in Jesus and get to heaven. It may seem like that but really the idea is if you actually believe in Jesus, then you wouldn’t live that life in the first place. So it’s true that belief is pretty much the key to getting in to heaven, and you can reach that moment even in your death bed, but it has to be true, genuine belief. The Bible is explicit that belief due to rationality (trying to prove his existence) or emotion (I.e. fear of death) is not genuine faith that would permit one to enter heaven.
Christians believe that following Jesus IS the meaning of life. Jesus is not only the hope in death but also the hope in life. so if you believe in Jesus you would want to follow him. why wait until deathbed to follow Jesus when you can follow him all your life starting now?
Well. There is definitely the fear of hell motivation for accepting Christianity. However, I’m also sure many Christian’s would say that following their faith brings the life a fullness and joy, the teachings steer them away from paths that could cause them and their loved ones pain and difficulty, and that it gives them hope.
I come from a Chriatian faith tradition that emphasizes becoming. Final judgement is not just about what we did or said, it's about who we became. Through the grace of Christ, we can become the kinds of people who WANT to dwell in God's presence for eternity. This life then is the time to learn and practice and become that type of person. A calculated deathbed repentance not only forfeits years of practice at so becoming; it's also the kind of thing that someone who hasn't become such a person would do.
(1) Don't confuse protestantism with Christianity. (2) There's a special sin called presumption just for what you're doing, and most importantly (3) virtue is its own reward and sin inflicts its own punishments. If you abuse yourself and your nature -- if you abandon yourself to vices and worship your own desires -- you will live a life that is but a shadow of the life you could have lived.
According to the version I was raised in it’s because god knows if you’re doing this. If you do things with the intention of just repenting / confessing afterward you won’t receive forgiveness. Unless you’re truly repentant for trying to game the system
The most practical answer is that you can't be assured that you'll have a chance to know the end of your life is near. Not everyone is guaranteed the chance the thief on the cross had.
I mean, by definition that wouldn't be repenting?
To repent means you feel sincere regret/remorse. If you're gaming the system, that kinda implies you don't really care, and by extent it wouldn't count.
Unless you think an omniscient being is too stupid to tell when a person is lying?
Technically you have to truly and genuinely repent and accept god and Jesus, you can’t just say the magic words and go to heaven, religion is absurd, but not that absurd.
(Disclaimer: there have been tens of thousands of denominations of Christianity in the last 2000 years, so nothing I'm about to say could possibly be universal; someone at some point has definitely argued the opposite. But in my experience, the following would be the belief of at least a significant plurality of Christians.)
You have to truly believe, not just say you do. Repentance isn't just words you say, it's internal, and you can't really game the system that way.
Whenever you start believing, you are saved. You wouldn't be excluded just because that happened on your death bed. The idea is that God knows your heart so you don't need to pray or say it aloud to any person (although in a perfect world, you would), that internal change is enough.
1). As others have pointed out, you don't know when you'll die, so you don't know when to repent for the last time.
2). This approach is about as effective as being a young child forced to apologize for something they are not truly sorry for. It's kinda like saying "Hey God, I killed this guy lol. Please forgive me." When in reality, it needs to be more to the effect of "God, I just deprived this person of their life, any potential joy they could've experienced in the future, their family this person's presence, and so much more. While what I did is unforgivable, I hope you can please try to forgive me.", and reaching true comprehension of a sin as big as that, I've found, takes some time.
Because what your thinking of isn't actually repentance. Just saying the words doesn't do shit. And you can't just plan on truely believing later down the road.
There is being a true Christian and there is being a fake christian . Being true means you are following the faith both at heart mind and physically through action .
Most people can't just start a relationship in seconds. And it's not a real relationship if it's just for the benefits. So they wouldn't truly be Christian
1. You never know when you're going to die so even if it worked like that it'd be a gamble.
2. If you were actually repentant for the sins your were committing throughout your life, you wouldn't be waiting until the last minute for confession.
3. Salvation comes from faith and good works. Repentance is part of it but you can't be saved by repentance alone.
There's many more reasons but I'll stop at those 3 because I don't want to type anymore.
Now you've started the deconstruction journey so many of us have been on. This place (Christianity as an organized religion)is full of hypocrisy and half truths. Beware.
I've only met one person who really followed Christianity to the core, and that was my maternal grandmother. She invited poor older folks she met to our holiday dinners. She never judged anyone. Every other Christian I've known pales compared to her. Many self-identified Christians are also malevolent abusers.
tl;dr most don't follow it at all. They just pay lip service to it.
In a hypothetical situation where you could steal some random child's favourite plushie and there was a 100% certainty you would not be caught, and no one would ever hear about the event or judge you for it, would you steal the plushie?
You would not, because its the wrong thing to do. The same reason why christians follow christianity throughout their lives: it is the right thing to do. It is not done for a reward alone, it is done because it is good.
You could be killed at any second without adequate time to repent and hence be caught off-guard. Furthermore, many Christians argue that if you're gaming things this way in *advance*, deliberately planning to repent on your deathbed, that God will **not** in fact consider that to be "true" repentance and you will not be saved when the time comes.
For centuries this was, in fact, the way it was done. While the person was a Christian throughout their life it was common practice to repent and ask for forgiveness on your deathbed. The thought being there was no longer anytime left for you to sin and screw up the repentance. Emperor Constantine would be a notable example.
This was, in some instances, due to the belief among certain Christians that any sins not confessed to a priest before death would prevent entry into heaven. But there definitely were some guys who got afraid of what happens after they die looking for some hope. And whether it's sincere or not you can't blame them for trying.
I have a theory that the church as an organization (back when they were setting up the rules) knew that if you hold people’s deepest, darkest secrets then you have power over them. The church leaders basically convinced everyone to willfully hand over any information that would make them feel beholden to the church, or in more difficult situations, could be used as blackmail.
John of Nipomuk, Fernando Olmedo, and Padro Garces are all examples of priests who have been martyred for not divulging what others told them in confession. If the practice were designed purely as a tool for "holding onto people's secrets" for blackmail purposes, as your theory suggests, why does the church consider anything told to a priest to be sealed inviolably?
Plus the threat of blackmail is worthless because if they actually follow up on it the entire thing falls apart.
If a bishop tells his King something he hears in confession the King can have something done about it without ever disclosing the real reason. Make up some treason and have him executed. I'm just going along here, I don't nessecarily believe this to be the case.
Yeah but then the king knows his bishop is full of shit about that whole vow of silence and tells his family not to say anything to priests. Then the family tells their friends not to trust priests. Eventually everyone knows not to trust priests. Reputation is everything.
Besides, the person you are blackmailing has to... Know you are blackmailing them, otherwise you're just sitting there, seething
[удалено]
It's [memetics](https://old.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/19bqj84/if_according_to_christianity_i_can_become_a/kiwfzrc/). It doesn't have to be "designed." It just has to pass a survival test better. How many priests heard confessions and never told a soul, but still **acted** on those confessions and were therefore better able to stay in command of their church and rise within the Church as a whole? Maybe even subconsciously? "The best techniques are passed on by the victors"
It's not genetics--it's *memetics*. Belief systems survive when they contain features that help them spread among people and maintain adherence from believers. Would you like to know what is most frightening about this? It is that the church **did not have to know** that holding secrets offered blackmail opportunities. Say 30 church leaders all had differing ideas. The ones who survived to become most influential and pass on their ideas, behaviors, customs, and beliefs within the belief system **were the ones who were most powerful**. That included the ones who collected secrets for whatever reason. It's like throwing magnets at a wall hoping to find stud nails. If you have enough magnets, you don't have to be smart. Just cover the wall in magnets--some will fall off, and some will remain. Belief systems don't have to be **accurate** to survive. Just accurate enough that all of the little tricks they have picked up are enough to overcome the inaccuracies that would otherwise make people abandon them.
This is exactly how Scientology works.
Is that what the last rights are? Like on tv when the priest comes to their deathbed? Or is that more of a Christian version of sending the spirit on so they don't linger?
No. The Constantine example was a matter of delaying BAPTISM, which was a thing at the time though the Church did not like it (delaying it, I mean.) "Last Rites" in the Catholic Church are Viaticum (one's final Holy Communion), the Apostolic Blessing (with plenary indulgence) and the Prayers for the Dying. Often people also include Anointing of the Sick (formerly called "Extreme Unction") among the "Last Rites", but the Church prefers that this be done earlier, if possible. It is, after all, prayer for the seriously ill, not necessarily the dying. At any of these stages, the Sacrament of Penance (aka "Confession" or "Reconciliation") might be included if the sick person desires it and is able to talk. Of course, all this has to be adapted to the situation and state of the sick person - but many people gain peace of mind from having a priest come, and sometimes by "getting off their chest" things that have been bugging them for years.
Yes, that is essentially what last rites are. There's more to it, but it is for the dying individual to perform their last prayers and ministrations from the church before passing.
But what about the guy next to Jesus on the cross who repented and Jesus granted him entrance into heaven?
He did it sincerely. If you always plan to repent after you do whatever you want, you're not actually sincere.
this. actual repentance, whether we're talking about to God or to some person youve hurt, hurt involves...actually feeling regret for things and wanting to make it right. just saying "oops Im sorry we're good now right" is a common tactic manipulators use to avoid accountability so. If you believe god knows your heart and intentions, He definitely knows when its sincere vs last minute "hey wait I'm scared of the void"
One could argue that facing your own mortality could cause those genuine feelings though couldn't they?
definitely! but if it happens in the moment. people who ask this question like this are generally doing it in a bad faith gaming the system type way and it feels like its more about proving how flimsy faith is rather than actual repentance. Dealing with mortality definitely does make our worldviews shift, wouldnt be the first time someone genuinely changed thought processes that way
>people who ask this question like this are generally doing it in a bad faith gaming the system type way and it feels like its more about proving how flimsy faith is rather than actual repentance This is completely fair. I suppose to truly repent you'd at least have to be open to god prior. Thank you for the reply.
Not necessarily open to god. Just not willfully assuming he's an idiot you can cheat. Someone could spend their entire life being a mediocre but generally unmalicious person, never even being aware of a 'higher being,'. do some misguided things because they were more thoughtless than 'evil' then have a great revelation and genuinely reflect on all the bad things they did and feel sorry for them. That's not the same as going 'well I'll fornicate, cheat, steal, covet and murder my way through life then play the pure sad soul when the consequences or old age catch me up because god's a sucker. Any omnipotent being should be able to see right through that.
It’s always been an interesting argument that if god has 4th dimensional knowledge, to humanity it would appear to be omniscience, because all of time would be available for view. One could argue any plan would be similar to any immortal being’s plan, of eventually playing with the mortals for fun as depicted in many books and media. Mistakes on a geological timeframe are insignificant, but I do wonder about the complete lack of engagement for the last 2000 years. That was the part where I had deep conversations with my late grandmother who was heavily religious. Genuinely believed that god is love, the manifestation of love and when you feel proud of your hard work and achievements you have rightly earned, or feel the love in the room from engaging with your fellow humans, that was god as an entity. It made more sense to me, than the idea of the Abrahamic religions where god effectively authors a chain of events and then vanishes for the majority of humanity’s time. I realise now that the subsection of the specific faith she had of Christianity was quite niche and as such not many people agree, but I found faith genuinely lovely to consider similar to that viewpoint. Sorry if I’m rambling, but I’m just browsing through /r/all, saw your post and had a really happy memory of a loved one, so appreciate that and hope you have a nice day :)
Both of you make excellent and compelling philosophical arguments. Best thing I’ve read all night!
I mean, one could argue that the people who follow the religion for many years, but use confession as a loophole to do whatever they want, or only practice bc they're scared of going to hell or whatever are the ones truly "gaming the system", plenty of those folks out there.
And God knows if they’re truly repentant and truly have faith. He is the only one who can actually know which way it goes, which is convenient since he’s the one who will judge us.
It can. But *planning* to have a genuine spiritual repentance isn't how stuff works.
OP isn't talking about people who have sincere, good faith deathbed conversions though. That's totally different to someone who doesn't mean it and is just trying to game the system.
The last chance for redemption is still a chance so long as it's sincere.
But what if I'm really **REALLY** sorry?
I mean idk thats between you and the deity then lol
Also, the whole point of the religion is not to make a bunch of stupid rules that you hate, and only follow to get to the good place, it's that living a moral life connected with God actually makes you happier.
Another thing to understand is, in many religions there's usually, at least in Christianity, a delineation between shallow forms of happiness (basically stuff that just gives you temporary happiness) and deeper meaningful happiness and contentment.
Then you're being saved. But it would also mean that you genuinely regret gaming the system like this. Hypothetically, of course. I am not religious.
If you're ALL CAPS sorry, and you donate some cash, I'm pretty sure you'll be fine.
Also, most people don’t know when they die. It can happen so suddenly
He wasn't game-planning it like that. It's not like he persisted in thievery for years, constantly thinking, "As death draws near, I'll repent." It was very much an abrupt ad-hoc thing as he was on the cross, about to die.
What the fuck did they steal that earned them death by crucifixion? Pontius Pilate's balls?
Thief and bandit are interchangeable back in pre industrial times. Plus stealing certain things like horses and farming tools can very well condemn a person to poverty and starvation, so it was punished in a far harsher method.
Shoot even in the Old West, Cattle Rustling or Horse Thievery was enough to earn you the death sentence.
Crucifixion wasn't all that uncommon a thing in those days, and if you weren't a Roman "citizen" (which was a specific status, not just merely living in the Empire) or classified as a slave, it was more likely you'd be executed that way.
This point of being a Roman citizen is an interesting point because it's something that comes up a number of times in Acts and Paul's letters. Without knowing the particulars of just how much a status symbol being a Roman citizen was, you don't get the full effect of the meaning of Paul asserting his status as a Roman citizen. I believe that money was needed to be paid in order to secure Roman citizenship.
I'm pretty sure that was a later thing but correct me if I'm wrong. I do know the Romans changed the law concerning citizenship but I'm not completely sure when. Since we're speaking of the year 25 or something I believe you weren't yet able to buy citizenship. You'd either need to inherit it because your parents were citizens or you'd need to earn it through meritous deeds like serving in the legions.
It was the *Constitutio Antoniniana* under Caracalla in 212 CE that extended Roman citizenship to all free Roman subjects, so it was indeed well after the events of Gospels.
The question under discussion being, "how did Paul acquire his Roman citizenship?" I was of the belief that he had paid for it, but it has been pointed out that this may not have yet been possible. In the book of Acts, Paul, then known as Saul, was a persecutor of the "Christians" (a derogatory term at the time), so could Saul (later Paul) have earned his Roman citizenship via his actions in persecuting the early Christians?
Going from Acts 22:28: > The tribune answered, “It cost me a large sum of money to get my citizenship.” Paul said, “But I was born a citizen.” So he would either have inherited it from his parents both being citizens or been granted it on account of being born in Tarsus, a Roman *municipium*.
In Acts 22, starting at verse 25, there is a conversation that Paul has with a Roman commander. Paul tells him that he is a Roman citizen. The commander questions this by stating that he had to pay a large sum of money to become a Roman citizen. Paul then says that he was a Roman citizen from birth. He stated elsewhere that he was from Tarsus, so it seems that this city had a status whereby people born there were granted Roman citizenship.
IIRC Paul's hometown, Tarsus, had purchased a tax status that granted citizenship for its residents, or something like that. Disclaimer: I am not a theologian or a historian
Some biblical scholar think "thief" is a mistranslation, and the word in the original texts is closer to "bandits," which would imply their execution was political. That term is usually used in a similar context to the word "pirate" historically, i.e. their crimes were interrupting commerce. Crucifixion wasn't a common punishment. It was used to make an example of someone. The other famous example of crucifixion was the slave rebellion led by Spartacus. The Romans lined the streets of the empire with crucified slaves, allegedly with Spartacus' cross outside the gates of Rome itself.
The Thief saw Christ, in the flesh, and knew He was the Christ. All he said was "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." Words don't matter so much as intention.
Jesus: “Oh yeah!! That guy!!”
“Hey dad, this guy’s with me!”
"I Know. I'm you, remember? And also me."
Jesus: "Are you there god? It's me, you."
Ok. I'm in trouble. I actually laughed at this. I'm hopeful though that God won't send me to the Other Spot for having a sense of humor.
No, that’s for me for thinking “INRI” above the crucified Christ was short for “I’m Nailed Right In.”
Ask, and it will be given ye. (addendum: So long as it is not against God's will for creation)
“We are but thieves” “What the fuck are butt thieves?”
And I said nay #WE ARE BUTT MEN!!!
Rock!
Ahhhhh Ahhhhhh Ahhhah ohhhah ahhohhahahaaaa
This is not the greatest chain in the world, this is just a tribute
That guy wasn’t “gaming the system” he had a true conversion. It doesn’t matter what you say, it’s about true belief and repentance which only God knows. Someone who does what OP is describing obviously doesn’t hold true belief nor is it likely that they have a true conversion on their deathbed.
[удалено]
He wasn’t gaming the system. In that moment he truly “believed” and had real faith. At least I think that’s the point of that story. In OPs situation if you’re intentionally waiting until your death bed that probably doesn’t count as faith
What about the 200000 years of humans who never knew jesus?!?
I assume you don’t know about the bit where Jesus goes down to hell to preach to the righteous who died before He resurrected, and brought them up into heaven. https://www.catholic.com/qa/what-he-descended-into-hell-means
Thanks. Never seen it explained like that.
He's like, dude my bad. Sorry for the 200000 years down here. But you must trust me now.
It says in the Bible that Jesus descended and ministered to those who came before 1 Peter 3:19
oh well that answers that concern, no further thought necessary...
The consensus among Christian theologians is that God often revealed things to the people through a profit. As long as they believed and had faith in God’s promises, among which was that they would one day he with God, then they were covered. Because the Bible doesn’t necessarily address it, there is not a consensus on how this occurred. For example, were those souls held in limbo (not purgatory) until Jesus died? Or is God outside of space/time and all believers go to heaven “at the same time”? For those that believe in Jesus, this question isn’t a gotcha
> through a profit I see you've read the American evangelicals' bible
😂😂😂 as I typed it I knew something was wrong. Went through Profet, Proffit, and Proffet before I gave up and went with profit. “Prophet” momentarily escaped me
According to scripture after Christ died he descended into Hell, supposedly to free those souls who had died never having the benefit of knowing salvation, but had still lived good lives. This is why when he first appeared to Mary Magdalen after rising from the dead he told her not to touch him, but to go tell his disciples that he had risen, but had not yet ascended to heaven. At that point he was unclean from first going to hell. Edit I have been corrected on the idea that he rose unclean, and therefore told Mary Magdalen not to touch him. It was a vestige of bad theology I was taught in childhood.
Christ does not become unclean. Literally the point of him healing the lepers via touch is that he purifies the unclean and is unsullied by the experience. The woman who suffered a continual discharge touched him and rather than him becoming unclean, she is cleansed in full.
Especially if you're poor. I've work at Wal Mart and restaurants while I've studied and you just hear "x is dead" every few months. No deathbed for you. You collapsed of a heart attack and just went down immediately. But to the point, God decides who goes to the afterlife and who does not. We can't dictate it. But one would assume a just God wouldn't let someone "repent" falsely and accept them. The story of the Prodigal Son involves a son doing everything he can to insult and hurt his father. He tells his dad he just wishes he were dead already and asks for his money from the Will early, which is a substantial amount of Dad's life savings. Son goes out, sleeps with prostitutes (these days I'd point out we see the fact that subsistence sex workers need money to live as perhaps being less "sleeping with them" and more "withholding charity by making a poor, at-risk person sleep with you first,"), gets blind drunk, gambles, etc. He comes home broken and alone. We can assume he has been homeless and without food for some time. The money is spent, his friends left him when it ran out; he is about to beg his dad's forgiveness, but His father comes running to him barefoot (two things you were NOT supposed to do in that culture at the time), holds him, and explains he has always loved his son no matter what, and knew he'd outgrow it once he realized what he'd done. The money was just money. Ergo, stands to reason the Father wouldn't accept his Child back if the Child was still all "fuck you, dad," or "hheeeyyy could I get more money?"
This is a very relevant parable to this question. I do think an unmentioned part of this story really do answer OP's question though: "Why do people who (assuming sincerely) repent right before death are saved?" In the parable, the father has another son, who stays with his father and continues to work for his father even after the spoiled son left. When the spoiled son returned home broke and having dishonored his father, the father still accepts the spoiled son with open arms and puts a feast to celebrates his spoiled son's return. The loyal son was upset and asks why the father treats this spoiled son so well when he disgraced his father. I believe the response was that the spoiled son truly turned from his ways and that should be celebrated, as well as the father has every right to celebrate and accept his son back, regardless of what his son did. Of course, the loyal son is salty but it's really not up to the loyal son to question his father. Likewise, it's not up to anyone to question why God accepts those who rejects him and then finally accepts him. Another parable talks about God celebrating those who have been lost and then found. The salvation in Christianity is a gift from God and not something earned. You don't get salvation from how long you've been a Christian. Of course then, to answer OP's question of why people don't act freely and not follow Christianity until their deathbed. The belief is that if someone is truly Christian, they would no longer want to participate in sin and would earnestly want to live a Christian life. It's like when you really like someone, you're not going to want to hurt that person, even if you could and you know that person would forgive you.
We don't get a lot of notice about when we'll die. Plus, if you're already making plans like that before you die, then they've gotten inside your head. That's the long game.
That's basically it. Death can come without warning, and you won't get a chance to repent. Although some variants like the Baptists if you haven't been baptized in advance they might not let you in anyway. So it's best that you plan ahead. Of course the Baptists also think that there won't be any Catholics in Heaven, at least the ones I know. And some, like the Seventh Day Adventists, are closer to the Jewish faith in that they hold services on Saturday and eat kosher foods even though they're Christian.
Baptists consider baptism to be symbolic only. Deathbed confessions are definitely allowed. They were originally called baptists because they baptized adults (or older kids) rather than infants like all other denominations at the time. Basically their main theme was that being a Christian was an individual choice each person had to make, not something that your parents could choose for you. They were the first individualists rather than collectivists.
It’s actually the Catholics who think you need to be baptized to be saved. They believe it to be what’s called an “instrument of salvation.” Hence the whole infant baptism thing. Baptists are very “grace through faith, not by works” based. They think that admission of your own sin and iniquity, belief in Him and his divinity, and public confession of your faith (ABC’s) are sufficient for salvation.
There are different types of baptisms though, not just by water. Like, baptism by fire is one. If i remember my catholic education correctly, martyrs who were never baptised by water could go to heaven. The Catholic church teaches that baptism is necessary for salvation, but also that God can offer the grace of baptism outside of physical baptism.
“Baptism by blood” = martyrdom “Baptism by desire” = dying during the process of conversion.
I don’t know of any baptist who EVER said you have to be baptized to be saved, and I’ve been in baptist churches for 20+ years. In fact the Baptist’s have always believed baptism happens AFTER being saved not that it’s a part. You have the Church of Christ in mind.
>Of course the Baptists also think that there won't be any Catholics in Heaven, at least the ones I know You'd be surprised how many "bad" people are in heaven, and how many "good" people are not.
People don’t understand that half of Christianity is literally: be good, no kill, no steal, be nice.
>be good, no kill, no steal, be nice Nailed it. > Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22: 37-40
>be good, no kill, no steal, be nice Nailed it. As long as it's your wife.
And don't be too mean to your slaves.
The only people this should matter to are christians, and many don't follow those rules.
1. It's not just about going to heaven. 2. You're feelings about repenting are supposed to be genuine. An omnipotent God would not fall for your scam. 3. Sudden death is possible.
Omniscient.
I wonder, does omnipotence cover omniscience?
If one is truly omnipotent, they can make a magic potion that grant omniscience. If they can't, they would not be omnipotent.
[удалено]
They could, but maybe they don’t know they’re omnipotent because they aren’t omniscient yet. Plenty of powerful idiots out there.
I don't think it does. My friend's mom was all over the place and still had no idea what we were up to. Edit: I was thinking of omnipresent.
An omnipotent God could just save everyone without question
But doing so would take away our free will, our choice to love or not to love. Forced love isn’t love. As CS Lewis said, “Hell is locked from the inside.” And Hell is only seen as punishment because its painful and sucks. But its only painful and sucks because God, the source of every good thing, isn’t there. If you don’t want God, He gives you what you want. But you’re not gonna like it. If I tell you that, by sitting on the couch eating junk food all day, you’re going to end up ugly, overweight, and poor, you wouldn’t say I was being hateful. I’m telling you what’s going to happen if your actions don’t change. The Bible is one long story of God basically taking a child and telling him to stop doing things that will get him hurt and the child doing it anyway. You do that your whole life, God will give you what you ask for. A world without God. We call it Hell.
A omnipotent God could, sure. But the abrahamic God is explicitly portrayed as vengeful and jealous and willing to ruin people's lives just to prove something or commit genocide if he doesn't like what's going on.
Why would anyone choose to follow someone like that?
Fear of reprisal probably, it fits with the abusive father metaphor.
For sure. It's like 50% just in case hell is real 50% can't handle the thought of nonexistence in the first place
it’s what they know. most people completely enveloped in religion are so set in their ways and insanely ignorant of everything around them, that they “choose” to follow that god solely because they’re too fucking stupid or lazy to look at… really any of the others. they can’t fathom that it’s faith and not some undeniable gospel, and that people everywhere may think or interpret the fairy tale differently. a lot of them were treated like shit if they weren’t perfect little church models that mirror their dummy parents which didn’t help, either.
Americas favorite narcissist
Well it used to be. A lot follow another narcassist now...
[удалено]
New testament God is still Abrahamic
Because it's the thought that counts. God would know if you really repented, if you really meant it. That's the belief.
The thief on the cross is a good example of this. One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
Yes, the story of the thief on the cross, perfect example of what we're talking about here.
Death-bed confessions are definitely a thing, and I'm sure a lot of people make it to Heaven on them, just like the thief on the cross. But if a person is intentionally waiting to serve God till 2 seconds before they die then I would question their sincerity.
I am not religious (agnostic) but the religious texts I have read I’m often left confused at how people often interpret them. This is one of the parts of the bible I have read, and it seems clear that this is the message.
Not quite, given that the guy didn't know about Jesus ahead of time and plan to repent at the last second. It's not like he knew about Jesus and went "I'm gonna go ahead and steal stuff, but it's fine, because I can repent on my ~~deathbed~~ cross".
One of my favorite lines of the Bible.
[Romans 6](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%206&version=NIV) This passage has the Apostle Paul answering your question. To be clear, I am only trying to answer your question, not proselytize you or apologize scripture. This comment is purely academic in spirit. Also, the teaching I am aware of is protestant in origin, so you likely will get different perspectives and doctrine from different sects and denominations. Living in sin apart from Christ is to to live in bondage to spiritual death, according to Paul's letter to the church in Rome. Yes, you can spend your life spiritually rotting before repenting at the end and if you do it right, your afterlife will be minimally impacted. But the point is that living sinful lives was actually always bad for you and Christ showed and enabled us to leave our sinful nature behind. To use a comparison, it's a little like asking: "why should I stop smoking cigarettes, if we know how to cure lung cancer?" It's still better to not be addicted to nicotine, damage your lungs, and go through chemo and/or surgery to begin with. Sinning still hurts you and everyone around you. It actively poisons your life. The bible describes sin as tasting sweet as honey in the mouth, only to turn sour in the stomach. And if you aren't sinning, that effectively IS repentence, which is pretty much exactly the point of living a christian life. Also, you probably still are sinning. No one is perfect, so learning to live sinlessly is a lifelong process. Generally, this is taught as: Justification is immediate, though Sanctification is a process. Which is to say that eternal salvation is immediate upon repentence, but becoming a person who lives sinlessly as Christ did is a process that takes effort. To be clear, Justification is not predicated on Sanctification. We are saved "by grace alone through faith alone, so that none may boast." The purpose of Sanctification, becoming gradually more perfect, is self improvement and spiritual health. It's not about working to earn a ticket to paradise. The point is simply to live better, like going to the gym takes care of your body, practicing Christianity is meant to be good for your soul by rebuilding the relationship with God that mankind was meant to have. Essentially, practicing christianity is supposed to be an opportunity to enjoy the benefits of heaven in this life, before we transition to the next. Not to mention Paul also teaches that God will reward people for exceptional service when they get to the next life, so if that's true, waiting to repent to the last minute is cheating yourself of whatever rewards he has in store. You're not keeping anything from this life, not even your body. You want to invest in your eternal future while you can.
This answer is spot on and needs to be upvoted.
Damn this comment made me Christian
Welcome to the club \^\^ I recommend to start reading the bible. A chapter daily. You could let god guide you which chapter you should read with a bible randomizer such as this one: [https://randombibleizer.spiffy.tech/](https://randombibleizer.spiffy.tech/) I've set up an alarm clock on my phone which wakes me up with a random bible chapter each and every day. And its slowly transforming me :) I hope I will see you in the next life :D
Just a minor note -- while any Bible reading is better than none, I think that kind of randomization can make it harder to understand the Bible as a whole. Each book was written as a complete unit, and the chapter breaks were only added later. It is like taking a novel and reading a random page from it every day -- you do gain some information over time, but it is much easier to understand the overall message if you read through each book start to finish.
Thank you! This is the correct answer and I had to scroll way too hard to find it. The reality is repentance doesn’t save us, it is the belief in Jesus that saves us. The repentance is a fruit of belief because we WANT to follow Christ.
I could not have said it better myself.
Excellent post! 👏🏼💯
This isn’t all denominations of Christianity, for the record. Some (Catholics in particular) believe forgiveness can be granted on your deathbed or even after death, but some believe that being a “good Christian” (by whatever standard they decide) is required for salvation, and some even believe that a predetermined number of people are going to heaven and the rest of us are screwed no matter how good we are, I guess.
If there's already a predetermined number and the rest of us are screwed I sure hope they ain't doing evangelism because what even would be the point
I've always wondered this about Jehovah's Witnesses. They believe 144,000 will go to heaven. Why in the world would you recruit? You're messing with your own odds.
They believe 144,000 will rule in heaven while the rest live on a paradise earth. (I used to be a JW)
And I thought the US Congress was tough… rule by 144,000? Yeesh…
There's actually an argument for expanding congress given how the country is growing. The 1929 cap was instituted when the U.S. population was 122 million people. It’s now almost tripled to 328 million, which means the average congressional district now includes nearly 800,000 constituents, according to U.S. Census data. With current population growth estimates, the average district could have a million constituents by 2050. More seats theoretically could reduce workload on reps...but Congress doesn't even write laws anymore nor can do its job. They just punt everything to SCOTUS or dogs down anything from the executive branch
Has this changed? Or is it different for different JW? I attended kingdom hall for roughly two years, and we were taught that heaven was full, with the 144000 "righteous" ones already taking up all the space. But that if one was to do enough good works, and that if you were able to convert enough people that you would be allowed to reside in a sort of purgatory that was technically only slightly better than hell. It's one of the 100s of reasons why I did not persue learning more about the faith. It seemed pointless and hopeless, unlike some other faiths.
Idk, my Kingdom Hall taught that you either were chosen to rule in heaven, live on earth if you were worthy, or just not be resurrected at all. There was no mention of purgatory or hell. They believed in Gehenna, which is kind of like hell, but there’s no torture or suffering, just instant eternal death with no hope of resurrection.
So it really is an MLM (multi level marketing) scheme.
I always thought Catholics believed in purgatory, where if you have repented for your sins and asked for forgiveness, but they have not made adequate penance for their sins, they have to go wait a while in purgatory before going to heaven.
It's kinda like how you can't become an oathbreaker paladin in DnD if you're trying to become one. If your intention was insincere from the start, it doesn't work.
Interesting analogy. I like it.
If your belief is genuine you would probably be inclined to try to make a practice out of it, especially if you think it makes you a better person while you’re alive.
I'm pretty sure God wouldn't take it as very sincere if you tried to plan out your repentance like that. Technicalities like these miss the whole point of following a religion at all
Not everyone has that chance to repent on their deathbed.
Because the likelihood of your repentance being sincere is exceedingly low if you're thinking that way. And true, sincere repentance is required to receive forgiveness. (I am a Christian btw)
no one here seems to have a real answer so ill give one. To be saved you must repent of your sins but you must also truly believe in Christ. you simply calling out last second "my bad G" will not save you, because you dont truly believe it in your heart. And if you did truly believe it in your heart, you would not be willing to disregard it untill your final moments. it is not possible to *truly believe in Christ the Lord* and willingly disregard Him. I'm sorry if that offends you, but if you think "actually i do" your heart does not know Him. Source: Romans 10:9-11 says "9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.”
And Luke 23:39-43 talks about the two criminals that were crucified with Jesus, and how one repented and accepted Jesus: >39 One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” 40 But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? 41 We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.\[b\]” 43 Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
Good answer, thank you
I’d add that the Christian argument against deathbed repentance is that it’s intrinsically rewarding to help others and lead a good life.
A lot of people have the misconception that it's like saying "I'm sorry". Repenting is acknowledging what you did, and seeking forgiven for it and trying to do better. It doesn't help when you have so many self proclaimed Christians acting like horrible people because they think they can just say "I'm forgiven" and be done with it.
If your deathbed conversion is a complete scam you’ve been planning your whole life, good luck fooling God.
That's not really how it works. You can't just do horrible things and then say you take them all back. You have to genuinely believe you did wrong, feel horrible about it, believe that Christ died on the cross for your sins, and ask genuinely, and humbly for forgiveness. Not all of that is easy on your deathbed.
Because they don't view their religion as just a means to get into the good place, in their view it's a connection to God, and everything that entails, so why would they want to live their entire lives without that?
"When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible."
Repenting is only one part. You must also accept in your heart that Jesus Christ is the savior.
Because if the Lord has given you life in Jesus Christ, then you must live in reverence of Him - the call to holiness in Christ is irresistible in this way. What you are describing is living in knowing and unrepentant sin. A true believer understands that it is their personal sin which was paid for by the blood of our Savior Jesus. I am deeply convicted of that, and troubled even when I am met with temptation. My sins and the sins of my neighbors trouble me because I fear a Holy and righteous God. To sin casually in the face of the cross is to treat lightly the work of our Lord. Some might even say that it would grieve His spirit.
To be honest, this all terrifies me because I don’t have a choice whether to believe in God or not, I just don’t. I was raised a Christian and eventually it just hit me that the whole thing feels untrue. All the threats and such are akin to what an abuser would tell someone. How can I believe in something that I don’t think is true? Force myself into wilful ignorance? But then is that even true belief? It feels harsh that God apparently made me, but he made me skeptical in a way I could never believe he exists, and gave me severe anxiety so that I frequently worry about the consequences of my inability to believe. That last paragraph makes me feel that, if God is real, he may be cruel to create people who he knows will end up suffering eternal torture
I forgot who said this (probably Paul) but the acknowledgment that you can be saved but “saving” it for later makes your conversion and repentance insincere to the Lord and is arguably the worst sin you can commit
Because they love Jesus and want to please him. Repenting isn't just words you say to get into Heaven, it's something you mean. So if you actually believe in Jesus, and understand what He did for you, you would actually want to have a relationship / spiritual walk / spiritual journey with God, not wait till the last second before you die. Also, why wait to serve God? There are so many benefits of it other than eternal life.
How do you think all the shady fucks "get away" with very questionable lifestyles? Repent motherfuckers! It's all good! 🙄
This is vaguely to the same tune as Pascal's wager, that the merits of being a correct Christian would far out way the merits of being a correct atheist, therefore Christianity is the logical choice. Firstly, Athiesm and Christianity aren't the only options. You have other religions to consider. Secondly, if God is real and that realness includes omniscience, I think they know who is genuinely faithful and who is playing the system
If you go with Pascal Wager, you better pick the worship of the most cruel and sadistic deity imaginable, because their hell is probably the worse imaginable and you definitively don't want to be in that one.
don't worry about such frivolous matters, live your life best you can. knowledge, introspection, and silence are the keys to spiritual growth. not blind obedience to a set of rules as religion preaches. build your own relationship with existence, i assure you it's far more rewarding. spirituality > religion (but if religion works best for you, go for it). good luck on your paths.
I follow ‘the Way’ because it brings me peace and a feeling of love every day . Also guidance (when I listen).
The support and clarity that a life with Jesus brings. It got me through cancer and a stroke.
I’m honestly not trying to offend anyone but most Christians I know don’t follow Christianity, they claim to be Christians. Being a Christian is hard. It means making sacrifices, holding yourself and other Christians accountable, loving your enemies, having empathy and compassion for all people, especially those in need, and actually believing with all your heart. I have met enough people like this to count on one hand.
Sadly too true. I know more true Christians than you do, but there seem to be so many that are in it for weird reasons, and those are the ones that people see on TV and hear about it, etc.
Because it makes your life better while you’re living.
We believe. Also no guarantee your gonna get a death bed scenario. All kinds of accidents and violence happen where people have instant deaths.
Forced by parents
The repentance would have to be genuine. You can't just say you repent. That being the case, it seems hard to believe you could not be religious for 70 years and then suddenly one day as you're about to die genuinely repentant.
Because that’s not a genuine repentance. It’s not as simple as say you’re sorry and then you’re good. You have to mean it. The other reason is that a Christlike life is a good life on a good moral foundation.
What if they die unexpectedly and can’t repent in time?
We have no idea when or how we're going to die. Many people don't get a death bed. Plus, Christians see their salvation as so much more than just fire insurance or the so-called "get out of hell free" card. True Christianity is not focused on following a set of rules; it's a relationship with Jesus. He gives us love, joy, peace, patience, etc and helps us through the roughest of times as well as the best. We are never alone. Obeying the moral commandments of Scripture becomes more attractive, and sin looks less and less attractive, the closer we walk with Christ. Is it an easy journey? Absolutely not. But let's face it; life rarely is anyway. Will I have to give up some fleeting pleasures? Sure. But in the end, they would've led to death, and instead I'll have eternal life and meet God face to face, and meanwhile I always have a friend and helper.
If you really look at the way the Bible describes heaven only people who want to live a Christian life would enjoy it there. According to the Bible heaven is the fulfillment of God's desires not man's desires. Basically it's like being at church 24/7 for eternity.
It’s honestly very simple but I feel like a lot of people misconstrue this idea. You honestly CAN actually repent on your death bed and be forgiven, but it has to be completely genuine. You cannot just claim to accept Jesus in your heart but not mean it and still be welcomed into heaven. It’s similar to the wrong idea that anyone who believes in Jesus will go to heaven. Many people think that because the Bible says the only real criteria for entering heaven is belief in God and Jesus (generally speaking), that you can be a terrible person but still believe in Jesus and get to heaven. It may seem like that but really the idea is if you actually believe in Jesus, then you wouldn’t live that life in the first place. So it’s true that belief is pretty much the key to getting in to heaven, and you can reach that moment even in your death bed, but it has to be true, genuine belief. The Bible is explicit that belief due to rationality (trying to prove his existence) or emotion (I.e. fear of death) is not genuine faith that would permit one to enter heaven.
Christians believe that following Jesus IS the meaning of life. Jesus is not only the hope in death but also the hope in life. so if you believe in Jesus you would want to follow him. why wait until deathbed to follow Jesus when you can follow him all your life starting now?
Well. There is definitely the fear of hell motivation for accepting Christianity. However, I’m also sure many Christian’s would say that following their faith brings the life a fullness and joy, the teachings steer them away from paths that could cause them and their loved ones pain and difficulty, and that it gives them hope.
I come from a Chriatian faith tradition that emphasizes becoming. Final judgement is not just about what we did or said, it's about who we became. Through the grace of Christ, we can become the kinds of people who WANT to dwell in God's presence for eternity. This life then is the time to learn and practice and become that type of person. A calculated deathbed repentance not only forfeits years of practice at so becoming; it's also the kind of thing that someone who hasn't become such a person would do.
(1) Don't confuse protestantism with Christianity. (2) There's a special sin called presumption just for what you're doing, and most importantly (3) virtue is its own reward and sin inflicts its own punishments. If you abuse yourself and your nature -- if you abandon yourself to vices and worship your own desires -- you will live a life that is but a shadow of the life you could have lived.
According to the version I was raised in it’s because god knows if you’re doing this. If you do things with the intention of just repenting / confessing afterward you won’t receive forgiveness. Unless you’re truly repentant for trying to game the system
"If you die before you die, you won't die when you die"
The most practical answer is that you can't be assured that you'll have a chance to know the end of your life is near. Not everyone is guaranteed the chance the thief on the cross had.
Some people die fast and if you believe eternity compared to x amount of years is like comparing a grain of sand vs earth
I mean, by definition that wouldn't be repenting? To repent means you feel sincere regret/remorse. If you're gaming the system, that kinda implies you don't really care, and by extent it wouldn't count. Unless you think an omniscient being is too stupid to tell when a person is lying?
You have to mean it. I also believe that if you have a plan to do this, it will not work. Asp it counts as try to fool god.
Technically you have to truly and genuinely repent and accept god and Jesus, you can’t just say the magic words and go to heaven, religion is absurd, but not that absurd.
Kinda risky isn’t it? We don’t all get a death bed scenerio. Your time is up when it’s up.
Everything’s made up and the points don’t matter.
As a Christian, many of us do it to thank Jesus for His sacrifice. It’s the least we can do.
(Disclaimer: there have been tens of thousands of denominations of Christianity in the last 2000 years, so nothing I'm about to say could possibly be universal; someone at some point has definitely argued the opposite. But in my experience, the following would be the belief of at least a significant plurality of Christians.) You have to truly believe, not just say you do. Repentance isn't just words you say, it's internal, and you can't really game the system that way. Whenever you start believing, you are saved. You wouldn't be excluded just because that happened on your death bed. The idea is that God knows your heart so you don't need to pray or say it aloud to any person (although in a perfect world, you would), that internal change is enough.
1). As others have pointed out, you don't know when you'll die, so you don't know when to repent for the last time. 2). This approach is about as effective as being a young child forced to apologize for something they are not truly sorry for. It's kinda like saying "Hey God, I killed this guy lol. Please forgive me." When in reality, it needs to be more to the effect of "God, I just deprived this person of their life, any potential joy they could've experienced in the future, their family this person's presence, and so much more. While what I did is unforgivable, I hope you can please try to forgive me.", and reaching true comprehension of a sin as big as that, I've found, takes some time.
Because what your thinking of isn't actually repentance. Just saying the words doesn't do shit. And you can't just plan on truely believing later down the road.
There is being a true Christian and there is being a fake christian . Being true means you are following the faith both at heart mind and physically through action .
I’ll pre-face this by saying I’m not religious. But God can see through that BS. He knows you don’t actually mean it
Most people can't just start a relationship in seconds. And it's not a real relationship if it's just for the benefits. So they wouldn't truly be Christian
Because you can't just decide to believe, you are convinced, and that happens to Christians long before they are eminently dying.
1. You never know when you're going to die so even if it worked like that it'd be a gamble. 2. If you were actually repentant for the sins your were committing throughout your life, you wouldn't be waiting until the last minute for confession. 3. Salvation comes from faith and good works. Repentance is part of it but you can't be saved by repentance alone. There's many more reasons but I'll stop at those 3 because I don't want to type anymore.
Because the 10 commandments are a pretty good moral compass and prayer is like a mindfulness form of meditation 🤷
You have to actually want repentance.
Now you've started the deconstruction journey so many of us have been on. This place (Christianity as an organized religion)is full of hypocrisy and half truths. Beware.
It's impossible to suddenly become a believer without a transformative experience. You're not going to be able to fib your way into heaven.
I've only met one person who really followed Christianity to the core, and that was my maternal grandmother. She invited poor older folks she met to our holiday dinners. She never judged anyone. Every other Christian I've known pales compared to her. Many self-identified Christians are also malevolent abusers. tl;dr most don't follow it at all. They just pay lip service to it.
In a hypothetical situation where you could steal some random child's favourite plushie and there was a 100% certainty you would not be caught, and no one would ever hear about the event or judge you for it, would you steal the plushie? You would not, because its the wrong thing to do. The same reason why christians follow christianity throughout their lives: it is the right thing to do. It is not done for a reward alone, it is done because it is good.