ETA: I blitz-googled second hand info about a World Values Survey 2000: 50 % of Finns believe in heaven, but only 25 % believe in hell. 74 % believe in god.
In a 2012 survey done by our church only 1⁄8 believe in “the Christian promise of eternal afterlife”.
The funny thing is that Jesus is very very specific that more people will end up in hell than in heaven :-D
Matthew 7:13-14: “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”
I wouldn’t call that “very very specific”, since the words are destruction (I think it can also be “lost”) and life, rather than Heaven/the Kingdom or Gehenna/Hades/everlasting punishment. It does, however, make it abundantly clear that the overwhelming majority is doomed in some fashion.
I wouldn’t call that “very very specific”, since the words are destruction
True, here Jesus is speaking about the alternative to the everlasting life. But I don’t know—is there a branch of Christian theology which holds that it’s heaven or nothing—as in, if God doesn’t let you into heaven you don’t go to hell but just cease to exist?
P.S. As far as I remember there are mainstream Christian interpretations of hell as nothing more than absence of God’s love/grace.
Seventh-day Adventists appear to be annihilationist as well. Then there are Universalists, who insist that Aeonian in the first Century CE could not possibly mean “eternal”, so that everyone eventually gets out of Hell.
Kinda: 62% of Americans believe in heaven and 53% believe in hell (source). I bet there is more data in Pew reports.
Those silly Americans :)
It seems I live in heaven already.
ETA: I blitz-googled second hand info about a World Values Survey 2000: 50 % of Finns believe in heaven, but only 25 % believe in hell. 74 % believe in god.
In a 2012 survey done by our church only 1⁄8 believe in “the Christian promise of eternal afterlife”.
The funny thing is that Jesus is very very specific that more people will end up in hell than in heaven :-D
Matthew 7:13-14: “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”
I wouldn’t call that “very very specific”, since the words are destruction (I think it can also be “lost”) and life, rather than Heaven/the Kingdom or Gehenna/Hades/everlasting punishment. It does, however, make it abundantly clear that the overwhelming majority is doomed in some fashion.
True, here Jesus is speaking about the alternative to the everlasting life. But I don’t know—is there a branch of Christian theology which holds that it’s heaven or nothing—as in, if God doesn’t let you into heaven you don’t go to hell but just cease to exist?
P.S. As far as I remember there are mainstream Christian interpretations of hell as nothing more than absence of God’s love/grace.
Some Jehova’s witnesses who I tried to deconvert at my door seemed to believe that. It was eternal life in paradise on earth or nothing.
Ah, yes, it seems Jehova’s Witnesses do have a “doctrine of annihilation” and for them it is heaven or nothing.
Seventh-day Adventists appear to be annihilationist as well. Then there are Universalists, who insist that Aeonian in the first Century CE could not possibly mean “eternal”, so that everyone eventually gets out of Hell.
I like the Eastern Orthodox version: Heaven for everyone—like it or not.