To those that believe in the Abrahamic concept of the afterlife: Do you believe Mahatma Gandhi is in heaven?

I was raised catholic and went through all the ceremonies and lectures and such, and there;s one thing I’ve noticed: the message of Jesus we are meant to understand Is this: being a good person gets you in. From what I can tell, all the rules and ceremonies and extra stuff was just randomly thrown in to the bible by assholes. There’s an entire book in the bible that Catholics are supposed to read but not take seriously.(The one that states you can eat pork and other such dumb rules strangely, this is the same one that says no gay sex) So he would get in. Jesus never said anything(to my knowledge) about having to be catholic to get in.

God is bigger than any one religion.

If there is a good place to go after you die, Gandhi is there.

I wish to be granted the ability to Believe. Instead, I am just staring into the void, believing only in annihilation.

Most of Christianity believes that the only way to get to heaven is by faith in Jesus sacrifice on the cross. Not doing good things, so if he believed, which i doubt he did, he would be in heaven. If not he would not be in heaven.

@jaketheripper Welcome to Fluther. Lurve.
You got the answer correct. Even an asshole who accepts Jesus as their savior can go to Heaven.
I would like to believe Bapu is in Heaven.
Here is a quote from him:
“Jesus occupies in my heart,” said Gandhi, “the place of one of the greatest teachers who have had a considerable influence on my life. I shall say to the Hindus that your life will be incomplete unless you reverentially study the teachings of Jesus… Make this world the kingdom of God and his righteousness and everything will be added unto you. I tell you that if you will understand, appreciate, and act up to the spirit of this passage, you won’t need to know what place Jesus or any other teacher occupies in your heart.”

@filmfann

Hey thanks for that quote. May I ask where to reference it? Outstanding!

Bob, I personally believe that we author our own eternity. Heaven being a place built with bricks of forgiveness. Hell being a place built with bricks of accusation.

Well versed in the bible, I know of no conversation that God had with Abraham about heaven or hell. Abraham was even pre-10 Commandments. As well, there were groups of Jews who did not believe in an afterlife at all. I think traditional concepts of heaven and hell came much later, especially out of the new testament teachings.

One clue however, that speaks to Hindu reincarnation and Jesus’ comments on hell is…
”...there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

This suggests that Hell is actually manifest in our physical realm of reality, and perhaps we return to this earth to live through it until we attain Nirvana.

Nothing solid here. Just pondering…

I found the quote here , and I remember reading quite a lot about his feelings towards Jesus and his teachings in the many books I have on and by Gandhi.

@filmfann

That’s so cool! Thanks…

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies God didn’t talk to Abraham about the afterlife but almost all of the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) believe in an afterlife and that is what the question is about.

@jaketheripper

Sure I get it. I tried to qualify that in my comments. Thanks though for the reminder.

For some reason, the concept of the Jewish afterlife gets lumped in together with what Christians believe, even though there is a significant difference: eternal damnation is the exception, not the rule.

Judaism does not exclude anyone from heaven that did not commit a particularly heinous crime, like murder. If you were good, you go to heaven, if you were bad, you get punished and then you go to heaven.

Since it wasn’t Gandhi’s belief, why would he be there?

@pdworkin haven’t you ever heard, be careful what you wish for, you just might get it?

Why would Christians have exclusive rights?

@mattbrowne rights to what?

@jaketheripper – Right to an afterlife in heaven. My point was that heaven should not only be open to Christians. I don’t believe in the concept of one and only one true religion. Many ways will lead to God.

@mattbrowne well thats fine but he asked according to Abrahamic religions one of the largest of which is Christianity. Also i feel like most religions claim to be the only way to God not just Christianity.

@jaketheripper – Religions do evolve. More and more religious leaders give up this antiquated claim. And it makes sense. Worldwide interaction increases every day. The planet is getting smaller.

they’re all bonkers anyway! ;-) I’m with @mattbrowne on this one! x

@mattbrowne yes but those who hold to their beliefs of exclusivity (including myself) dont do so because they like it. We don’t chose to believe that way just cause it tickles our fancy. We believe that because it has been made evident to us. I really do hope that when I die I find out that everyone is there. I will continue to examine my beliefs all my life and im sure my positions will change over time when the evidence leads me to, but i will never and nor should anyone change their beliefs just to because its unpopular