I grew up Catholic...I dont remember a vengeful god but I do remember
lots of guilt. So I guess it not just fear but fear of feeling
guilty.lol

Awwww, how sweet, a baptism!

Well I will be following right behind the two of you when we
are called.

Dej I don't know where you heard that catholics believe in a
vengeful God. That is not true we are never thought that. We are thought
about a loving and forgiving God. Faith in him is one of the most important
thing that keeps me going when I am on that downhill run.



Jappy

Along the lines of this post I must tell you about my then four-year-olds (he's 41 now) take on religion.

He and two of his friends were playing in our basement and he asked one boy what his religion was and he said Catholic. Gary said he was a Christian and when he asked the other and he said Baptist so then Gary said..

Okay you guys there are three kinds of religions; Catholic, Christians and Baptists!!

I had a Near Death experience, just thinking about it..

anyone who is sincere and wants guidence,,please dont hesitate to pm me ,,,salvation is crucial

I was an RN for almost 30 years and was at the bedside for many who died. I can tell you that for my patients that I knew were born again Christian they had such a look of peace on their face when they died. That's what I want. I know that not only my God but my Dad and sister are there waiting with open loving arms.

I'm not afraid of being dead, I just don't know what the process will be. It could be due to my MS. It could be a massive heaert attack due to my lifestyle. Or it could be an auto accident. That's what I have apprehension about. I just know that my Lord is holding my hand through it.

Lol. "Kids say the darndest things!"

~ Faith

What an interesting discussion. Personally, I have accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior and KNOW that I will be in heaven with Him when my time comes. My prayer is that it will be a quick passing and not dragged out -- a Living Will is a necessity to help prevent that. After watching my mother die a slow, horrible death from cancer, I pray that won't be my fate. A sudden, unexpected death is so hard on the survivors, but a blessing to the one passing on.

As a Christian and a Baptist, I do believe salvation is necessary as others have said. If we believe that just being good gets us there, the Bible says otherwise. Anyway as the Scriptures say,"Even so, come Lord Jesus." I'm ready whenever He calls me home.

This isn't far from the old school Catholic church, how I was raised. My mom wasn't hard core like that - but then, she wasn't born Catholic - my dad was.

Everything was a sin. Just thinking about committing a sin was a sin. Hanging around with someone who thought about committing a sin was a sin.

George Carlin had some good routines from all this....



Original sin - if a baby dies before he's baptised, he goes to purgatory? I never understood that. What did he do?

Anyhoo, off topic, I know...

I am not religious. I thought a lot about all of this, trying to make sense of it. But now I'm more spiritual, more at peace.

I have much more faith without the church than I ever had with it. Have faith that I am where I'm supposed to be, and that everything is happening exactly the way it should. That even the crummy things are for a reason. That we are never really gone. Although our bodies cease to function our spirits live on. I have as much faith in these things as I do that Monday follows Sunday.

Recently when I took my first plane ride, my brother - who is afraid of flying - commented how there are no little accidents in mid-air. One thing goes wrong and down you go.

I tried to explain that for me, it'd be better that way than in a car. I'm seriously more afraid to end up injured in a hospital than dead. I hate driving.