Entering Christian heaven isn't easy, too
Reply #3 - February 12, 2015, 05:52 AM
Well, I have heard Christians say that the 144,000 number is not about total entrants to heaven, but entrants to the highest of the heavens, which they call Zion. (Most Christians haven't really thought about it but their Bible does say that there are at least 3 heavens: 2 Corinthians 12:2.) Castration is an interesting subject, because God clearly did not want people with defects in his temple in Leviticus: it says that a person who "hath any thing maimed" or "hath his stones [testicles] crushed" can't enter the tabernacle (Leviticus 21).
But in Isaiah, the one passage that does say that non-Jews can be made holy and enter heaven, it mentions eunuchs (probably because of the subjugation of Israel and the fact that many Jewish young men were carted off to foreign nations and castrated to be servants in royal households). Isaiah 56 says, "Neither let the alien, that hath joined himself to the LORD, speak, saying: 'The LORD will surely separate me from His people'; neither let the eunuch say: 'Behold, I am a dry tree.' ... Also the aliens, that join themselves to the LORD, to minister unto Him, and to love the name of the LORD, to be His servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath from profaning it, and holdeth fast by My covenant: Even them will I bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer; their burnt-offerings and their sacrifices shall be acceptable upon Mine altar; for My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples."
So according to that, the gentiles who want to be accepted by God must keep the Sabbath and keep the rest of the covenant too. Also, on the virgin thing, it's an interesting quandary. The epistle authors often rail against sex WITHIN marriage, and think it is the lesser of two evils (the greater evil being unmarried sex). But in the gospels, some of the disciples were married. There is one story including Peter's mother-in-law, which is particularly interesting since Catholics consider Peter to be the first pope.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for I have a sonic screwdriver, a tricorder, and a Type 2 phaser.