That is bullshit
NOBODY deserves heaven. It is only by the grace of God. Nobody knows who goes where.
I am a Christian. I refuse to believe that heaven is an arrogant country club full of people that think exactly alike. If we get there, we will be stunned when we see some people there who we would least expected. In short, nobody knows exactly who is going where.
When in heaven, all that are there WILL think exactly alike.
It is absolutely forbidden for us to think we can judge another person's soul. That is why the Church canonizes but does not demonize.
It is good to honor people by name for living faith-filled lives with heroic virtue, dedicated to the Good Lord and receiving the gift of Himself.
But it is never permitted to say "I know that this (named) person is damned to hell." Nobody knows that. The Church doesn't have a "doctrine" on the damnation of anybody, not Hitler, not Stalin, not Judas.
Why? Because none of us knows the heart.
And He who knows the heart, judges justly. Did you ever notice that ALL the people in Matthew 25 at the Final Judgment, seem suprised?
Bless you.
No, that's not true. While it may be best left as a mystery with many, many people, a person who openly rejects even the concept of God is not going to get access to grace. Who was it that said "No one comes to the Father but through me?" Who was it that Christopher Hitchens rejected? Same person, right?
I am a Christian.
Then why don't you believe Jesus?
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
And why are you approving--not tolerating, ignoring or politely taking issue with--a post that calls your Lord an imaginary friend and calls the realtionship you have with Him "kowtowing?"
I refuse to believe that heaven is an arrogant country club full of people that think exactly alike.
Good. But you seem to be missing that it is a place that can only be entered by those who have a relationship with Christ. There's a question many evangelists ask people: "If God asked you, 'Why should I let you into Heaven,' what would be your answer?" The only acceptable answer to that question is "Because I have accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior." There will be liberals and conservatives who can answer it that way, people who married their high school sweetheart and people who had eight divorces, people who died virgins and people who did every perverted act they could think of before they got saved, doctors and drug dealers, war heroes and peace activists, Olympians and couch potatoes, homeless people and billionaires.
But those who say there is no Savior, no relationship and no Heaven to get to will not be able to answer that question that way, will they?
As for arrogant, it is the opposite. I'm saying nobody...NOBODY...deserves to get in. We're all scum. Some of us are saved scum.
If atheists are going to Heaven, why are you trying to convert your wife?