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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]PP Catholic here.  Catholicism has a history of hermits that have left behind the rules and scandals.  Until I started meeting evangelical Christians, I have never heard about Jesus being one's personal savior, because as you noted, Jesus came to save all of us.  Nor was hell always considered sure:  because Jesus was the savior (from sin), in the Catholic church you could confess your sins and be forgiven.  In Catholicism, there is Purgatory or Limbo where further reflection and purification of one's eternal soul can take place.  This is why we pray for the dead and why we ask the saints to pray also for the souls of the dead.

In the past 60 years or so, I have heard much more about eternal damnation from evangelical Christians than in Catholic teachings. Protestant religions informed by Calvinism makes a very harsh distinction between those of the "elect" who will go to heaven.

Jesus says "Follow me". Jesus has saved us, but we have free will to follow or reject God. Your eternal life is important,but you have to work on this one on earth.

And of course, there are others who believe in different religions and they are  not choosing Christianity because of a fear of eternal damnation. [b] I think people chose to be Christians because of the Jesus' message of love. [/b]

There are other figures such as Buddha. Confucius, Mohammed, Hillel, Guru Nanek and others who are all teachers in their own right and that people admire and follow in their own faith.

[/quote]

Having been raised Catholic, the message of eternal damnation was vey clear as was the message of the various things you could (or must) do to avoid it.   The message may have been delivered differently from the way the evangelicals did it, but the ultimate message was the same - to benefit from God's grace, you needed to follow God's rules.  The reward is heaven and punishment is hell.

Many people do not "choose" to be Christians - they are born into Christian families and taught at a young age to believe certain things.  They may adapt those beliefs as they get older and may stop believing in hell or god or Jesus as the son of god.  They may focus on Jesus' message of love and disregard or minimize the punishment that awaits for those who do not believe in him. But that doesn't change the beliefs of Christianity. [/quote]

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