Awful news from Pennsylvania, where George Sodini shot up a gym, killing four people (and injuring many others) before turning the gun on himself.
To make it creepier, he left an online diary detailing his politics, his depression, his sexual dry spell, his previous failed attempts at mass murder, and his religious beliefs:
Tetelestai Church in Pittsburgh, PA – “Be Ye Holy, even as I have been Ye holy! Thus saith the lord thy God!”, as pastor Rick Knapp would proclaim. Holy shit, religion is a waste. But this guy teaches (and convinced me) you can commit mass murder then still go to heaven. Ask him.
I think we can agree that that’s not the wisest thing to teach the mentally-unhinged.
Sodini elaborates in his chilling last entry:
Maybe soon, I will see God and Jesus. At least that is what I was told. Eternal life does NOT depend on works. If it did, we will all be in hell. Christ paid for EVERY sin, so how can I or you be judged BY GOD for a sin when the penalty was ALREADY paid. People judge but that does not matter. I was reading the Bible and The Integrity of God beginning yesterday, because soon I will see them.
Now, it’s certainly possible that Sodini lied and this isn’t what he actually believed. Nonetheless, it’s pretty standard Christian doctrine that deathbed confessions count regardless of previous actions:
What about my original question – is the deathbed too late? In a word, “No”. As long as we still have breath on this side of eternity, God is faithful and redeems the prodigals who finally see their need for forgiveness and mercy.
You might object that it’s not “fair,” and that such a murderer doesn’t deserve to go to heaven. There’s a pretty standard answer for that, too:
The short answer is “No” – such a person does not deserve to go to Heaven. But guess what: neither does anyone else. I don’t deserve it, you don’t deserve it, Mother Teresa didn’t deserve it. Nobody. “All have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).
Christianity makes a number of repugnant claims, but perhaps none more than “[because the first woman in the world was tricked into eating a magic apple by a talking snake] everyone is the moral equivalent of George Sodini.”
[...] More info at Your Religion Is False. [...]
LD$ Inc. (the Mormons) goes one step further and gives people the chance to repent and convert even after they die (hence that whole “baptism for the dead” creepiness). As long as you are in good standing on Judgment Day, you’re golden.
(In fairness to the Mormons, this does seem more humane to me than the idea of someone burning in hell for all eternity just because they never heard of Jesus… and Mormonism also has the good sense to reject the whole “faith over works” doctrine that absolves people of personal responsibility… now if only the “works” they were promoting didn’t involve meddling in the politics of another state in an attempt to suppress human rights…)
The LD$ still has the same loophole, though. Because of their claim to be able to save people who have already died in (horrific) sin, they make it allowable for people to do whatever they want, as long as they have someone who will “pray” them to safety. Additionally, they don’t even teach a hell; they teach that the worst that one can aspire to is the “lowest” of three heavens–a perfect earth-like existence. Catholics have the same infinite “get away with it” loophole as the LD$ version–purgatory, along with the praying- for and buying-out-of.
However, almost ALL modern “christianity” does not teach Christianity; they violate clear and often repetitive teachings of the Bible in their attempt to justify “getting away with” doing whatever they feel like. This guy just took it a little more extreme than most. Prior to this mass murder, I recently did an interview with 3 church leaders, from two campus ministries, for mainstream Protestant religions, at one of the largest schools in our country, and was given the EXACT same responses as this killer was given–once saved, alway saved. The EXACT same question was even asked, basically, “Couldn’t one then do whatever one wanted, even mass murder, and get away with it?” With the definite and immediate answers being, “Yes.”
In the tens of thousands of “christians” I have met or heard, I have only encountered a very small HANDFUL who do not teach nor ascribe to this false antichrist doctrine. Sin is NEVER acceptable in the Bible, and the reward is ALWAYS the same. The hypocritical justifiers of sin and self, use little to no Bible to support their position, and the Bible which they do use is ALWAYS out of context or does not even say what they claim it says. For example, if I read that “The dog bit Johnny,” but SAY that it says that Johnny bit the dog, then I am either crazy or a liar. THIS is the state of nearly every single “christian” today (as well as throughout history). Christianity is about following God and being good; mainstream “christianity” (“hypo-christianity”) is about creating a religion to gain power through self-justification and preaching the same to those who crave self-justification, and cares NOTHING for God or what He wants; hypochristians have NO interest in truth, fairness, or being good, and ALWAYS seek self-satisfaction, stopping at nothing to achieve all bad and wicked things. And so on…