GreenEyedLady_MOD wrote:
I'm not a Christian but I respect my Christian friends' faith. I don't believe in heaven or hell. I believe we move on to another plane or consciousness. Hell is here on Earth. I think you friend's father wasn't evil, he was sick. He may not have been allowed to cross over right away because of his addiction, but I don't think he would be forced into limbo because of it. He obviously still has lessons to learn.
The early Catholic of definition of limbo was not what it is conceived to be today, it was, in fact, a paradise in itself. This was for all spirits who have not had the opportunity to be introduced to God in no fault of their own. They went to limbo and lived in a forever peaceful paradise it was just away from God. And also, from some post i read about Christians and reincarnation, many early christians did believe in reincarnation and there is a very interesting metaphysics from Ireneus (i think, though i could be wrong on the philosopher) that deals with reincarnation and every soul moving towards God. Not much different from the idea of purgatory. Actually eternal hell, which is not outright stated in the Bible and the Bible is very fuzzy on the realm of hell, was not really standardized until St. Augustine around 1200 B.C. Christianity, when first started out, and more like its Hebrew predecessor, is a very interesting religion to research and find out about.