Notice: religious post. Play nice or scroll on by, please. I’m genuinely interested in what people have to say, but keep trolling out of it. Just don’t participate if you don’t have anything valid to add.

I’m not a practicing Christian, that’s no secret. But I was raised in church and I have a reasonable understanding of the bible. I think that if there’s a verse more quoted than any, it’s John 3:16. It’s what we first memorized in Sunday School, and probably the simplest explanation of what it requires to get into Heaven. In essence, if you genuinely believe that Christ came to Earth as a man and died on the cross as a symbol of God’s forgiveness of man’s sin, you get a pass. You’re not required to live a perfect life. You’re not required to follow a specific list of rules in order to get through the “pearly gates.” You believe. It’s that simple, right?

So, we all sin. And sin is sin is sin. Sinners get into Heaven because they place their trust in God.

Here’s what I’ve thought about today- I’m curious about others’ thoughts. I have no doubt that the people of Westboro Baptist Church believe that their version of God is THE Christian God. However, they practice and peach the teachings of an angry, unforgiving version of this God rather than the forgiving Jesus man. Do they fall into a category of false prophets even if they genuinely believe that they are worshipping the Christian God? I can’t bring myself to do a great deal of reading their site because it hurts my heart, so I’m not sure they use any Jesus references on a regular basis or if they rely solely on the Old Testament wrath. I’m not even trying to judge what they do right now. I’m just curious what others might think about it.

Belief in any god is a very personal thing. You may not understand the bible to mean the same thing as the Christian standing next to you, but you likely agree that you believe in the same God, and that belief is enough to get you into Heaven. How do you know that your interpretation is leading you to believe in the correct version of God? And if all variations if the Christian God can be accepted as true based on personal meaning, wouldn’t the Westboro God still be the same deity?