Do you think Rastafarians go to heaven?

[Telstra Robs]

Rastafarians are people who worship Haile Selsassie (the last emperor of Ethiopia who died in 1974, he was an Orthodox Christian) as a reincarnation of Jesus. I don't know much more about them then that, perhaps someone might know more. I am wondering if you would consider these people Christians and as the title suggests, if you think they would go to heaven.

Thankyou

[MarcusOfLycia]

Based on what you said (they worshiped what they believed to be a 'reincarnate Christ'), I wouldn't think they'd be Christians. A Christian is someone who trusts in Jesus Christ for salvation and redemption into a restored relationship with God. Worshiping some Christian, no matter how godly, means one profoundly misunderstands the entire point. God doesn't share worship, and He warns against people worshiping created things.

[jlay]

They believe that Jesus was reincarnated as another person. That being the former Emperor of Ethiopa who died in 1975. He wasn't Jesus, btw.

So, there is no way that their religion in anyway conforms to a biblical worldview of salvation.

[Seraph]

Obviously no one can say for sure, but I don't know if it can be completly discounted.

Rastafarians believe in Jesus' biblical death on the cross as well, don't they? Wouldn't that guarantee their salvation, even though they believe Jesus later manifested himself as an Ethopian Emperor?

[jlay]

You simply can't mix in other elements to the genuine. If they believe that this Ehtiopian guy is the one who died on the cross, then no. It is a contradictory religion. It would be akin to saying you believe in the biblical Jesus, but also in the one espoused in the Koran. They are contradictory, and can't both be true.

[Seraph]

Do they believe the Ethopian guy is the one who died on the cross, or that the one who died on the cross came back as the Ethopian guy?

If they think that the Ethopian emperor was a latter incarnation of Jesus (who they also believe died on the cross 2000 years prior and is the Son of God), then I think they can believe that while still beliving the truth of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross without a contradiction, even though their first belief is incorrect. If they had believed that the person who died on the cross was actually a reincarnation of an Ethopian king, then they wouldn't believe in the truth of the gospels.

[jlay]

If you don't see the contradiction on its face, then I don't think I'm going to be able to persuade. There is simply no way that one could believe this man is a reincarnation of Jesus, and hold to how Jesus is revealed in the NT.
A quick look into Rasta will show that it is a distorted cultic relgion, and not based on a fundmental understanding of the bible. All white people are demons by the way.

Haile Selassie was an Ethiopian Orthodox Christian and he explicity denied his divine status as proclaimed in Jamaica. In a radio interview with Canada's CBC news in 1967, he said, "I have heard of that idea [that I am divine]. I also met certain Rastafarians. I told them clearly that I am a man, that I am mortal, and that I will be replaced by the oncoming generation, and that they should never make a mistake in assuming or pretending that a human being is emanated from a deity."

The sacred text of Rastafarians is the Holy Piby, the "Black Man's Bible." It was compiled by Robert Athlyi Rogers of Anguilla from 1913 to 1917 and published in 1924. 4 The Holy Piby is a version of the Christian Bible that has been altered to remove all the deliberate distortions that are believed to have been made by white leaders during its translation into English.