going to heaven via last minute confession of sincere faith

[steve2470]

I'm just going to relate what my ex-pastor (she moved) told me:

You can be Adolf Hitler. But if you confess your sincere faith in God before you die and wish to follow God's ways, and accept Jesus Christ and God into your heart, etc, you WILL go to heaven.

You can be a wonderful person for 99.9999999999999% of your life. You have also confessed your sincere faith in God, etc. You will go to heaven.

I'm sorry fellow Christians, but that has always bothered me. Ok, let ********* Hitler into heaven but put him in the BASEMENT or somesuch. Godwin's law violated in OP


Was she wrong ? Is this the widely accepted faith in confession and going to heaven ? Ok, I'm going to sit back and read and get educated, thanks in advance.

Steve

[classof56]

1. Steve, I grew up Baptist and that's what I was always told by pastors, etc.

It was called "deathbed confession" and Hitler was the prime example of how that worked. It came to bother me greatly, and I no longer give it credence. Actually, I've pretty much stepped away from Christianity and in fact, from my belief in heaven, hell and even God. Since I accepted Christ as my savior and followed the Lord in baptism when I was 10, depending on one's view of eternal security, it could be I'll find myself in heaven when I exit this earth, in which case all my doubts will resolved. I generally avoid theological discussions since I know a lot more scriptures than most Christians I encounter nowadays, but I will say, in answer to your question, your ex-pastor is correct according to her beliefs, but not according to mine.

Blessings and peace.

[steve2470]

2. thanks! nt

[Lydia Leftcoast]

3. If Hitler had made a such a confession, I doubt that it would have been sincere,

rather a matter of hedging his bets.

Remember the evil King John of Robin Hood fame? He actually existed and is buried in Worcester, England, and the story about him is that as he was dying, he asked to be buried in a monk's robe so he could sneak into heaven. Yes, not only mean but dumb!

A genuinely sociopathic person (as Hitler clearly was--I've just read The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich) would be incapable of true repentance.

In the early church, there were people who refused to be baptized until they were dying because they believed that baptism cancelled all their sins and they wanted to make sure they wouldn't commit any more.

[Thav]

4. I do believe it works that way, however

I feel as some of the other posters do with the "hedging of bets" and "sincerity" of it. It seems like a wasted life if you are a despicable human your entire life, then come to Christ in your last hours. I believe that, if they're sincere, they'll face Jesus and he'll say, "Why did you wait so long to come to me? I had great plans for you, but they never came to be."

However, I do believe that a person can get saved last minute, because I believe in the salvation that Jesus's blood bought us. As much as we say that evil people do not deserve salvation, remember we don't deserve it either. We are all sinners. God places no hierarchy on sin, only man does that. When we are reborn in Christ, all of our sins are washed away and we're instructed to go and sin no more. To say that death-bed rebirth in Christ is not possible is the same as saying it's not possible early in life either.

I feels to me that end-of-life conversion is a last ditch effort to atone for a life of sin, and it feels like it lacks sincerity. To speak the words is one thing, to believe them is another.

When we get to heaven, will Jesus tell us "Well done," or will he say, "I had so much planned for you." For me, I hope it is the former.

So, is Hitler in heaven? I doubt it. He believed in himself, not Jesus.

[Andy823]

5. Not really sure

About what any church pastor may teach on this, but I believe the Bible said it was not for men, or women, to judge others, only God can do that. My personnel belief is from Romans, not for sure which verses, but it said that it's between you and God, and not to push your beliefs on others as to what to eat, if one day is more important than another etc. I think when it comes to salvation it's pretty much the same. It's what you do in life that matters, the kind of person you are, and if you repent and are sincere, you shouldn't have to worry, but if you are not sincere, you God will know.