: : It's always enjoyable to watch people debate the Judeo-Christian bible.
: : Here's my question for you: according to the Bible, if man X lives a decent, charitable life but remains an atheist to the day he dies, never having been baptized nor accepted Christ as his saviour, while man Y lives a life of brutality and murder, but on his deathbed accepts Christ and begs for salvation, who goes to Heaven, and who to Hell? : It depends on the denomination and the relative importance of "works." Augustine, in City of God and Confessions argued quite eloquently for the primacy of good works, whereas Luther, in his 99 Theses argued for the primacy of faith.
: The Catholic tradition would therefore favor the good atheist over the evil believer, whereas the Protestant tradition would tend to favor the repentant sinner over the unrepentant heathen (see how the words alter the perception?) However, the Catholic Church also proposes a third alternative, in the form of Purgatory, which Lark hilariously described as a "sacred carwash." Purgatory is a state between heaven and hell where people who are too good for hell, but not good enough for heaven get to spend a few eternities absolving themselves.
: Of course Augustine had "lived the life of a sinner" before writing, so he probably had a personal stake in the answer, whereas Luther had his revelation while sitting on the toilet, so he was probably predisposed to think of the material world as less than perfect. ;-)
: -Floyd
By the way, this question is far from strictly Christian. I don't know about other religions, but I do know that the Hindu tradition has also struggled with this question without a conclusive answer, namely, what is necessary to gain liberation from the cycle of rebirth and union with God.
According to one verse in the Bhagavad Gita, "A man who dies remembering Me at the time of death enters my being...of thsi there is no doubt." and later on, "If he is devoted solely to me, even a violent criminal must be deemed a man of virtue, for his resolve is right." Which would tend to emphasize the importance of faith over works. On the other hand, contrast this with the many statements that actiosn bring inescapable consequences, and therefore only the perfectly good man can expect to reach liberation. E.g. there is a parable of a devout sage who was horribly impaled becuase he used to kill little insects and impale them on pins when he was a young child. There are also many accounst of people who were instantly called up to heaven after they did one great act of truthfulness or generosity.
Complicating this further is the older idea that your fate after death depends on random factors such as the tiem of death. According to some accounts you can only receive ultimate liberation if you die during the six months of 'the sun's northward course'.
None.
