If you love God, God will reward you for that love by blessing you with an eternity filled with joyous bliss.
If you do not pledge to God your loyalty and fealty, God will punish you by cursing you with an eternity filled with horrendous physical torture.
Die a Christian? Up you go to heaven!
Die a non-Christian? Try to make sure that before it closes shut someone tosses a bag of marshmallows into your coffin. (And then -- what with where you're going -- prepare to never find a stick.)
And don't think it will matter why you died a non-Christian, either. Because it won't. Maybe you were born and raised a Muslim, Jew, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Native American, Baha'ist. Maybe you were raised by dingoes in the aboriginal wilds. Maybe you decided there is no God, and became an atheist. Maybe you decided you just couldn't decide, and became an agnostic. Maybe you just didn't care all that much, and figured you'd know soon enough anyway so why pick a lane you don't have to?
Yeah, none of that will matter. All that matters is that if you die anything but a Christian, then no heaven for you!
That's what being a Christian boils down to: Be one -- or else!
And that, friends and fellow earthlings, is the Christianity in which so many believe.
And that is the Christianity that's responsible for so many people today leaving church--and for so many others refusing to ever go near a church in the first place.
And that's the Christianity that has just got to go.
"Love me, because I love you. And if you don't love me, I'll torture you forever." What would that be, from the Stalker line of Hallmark cards? What kind of sickness is that? And what kind of unhealthy relationship must it produce?
What sane person wants to be in a relationship they're afraid not to be in?
The model of Christianity upon which that kind of relationship is predicated needs to go the way of the dodo bird, slavery, and blood-letting. God is still talking -- and he's telling an awful lot of us to grow up already, and stop treating him like some big mean Daddy in the sky who'll whip us all real hard forever if we're not good little boys and girls. That's not who God is. That's not how he operates. Those aren't his values.
That kind of Christianity belongs to a mentality that feeds on the fears and resentments of men, not the love and acceptance of God.
That kind of Christianity is mad about naming who exactly is and isn't with it, and why.
That kind of Christianity needs enemies to give it focus and purpose -- and the more enemies it has, the happier it is.
That kind of Christianity swaggers, preens, points, scowls, judges, and with its confident, braying bravado opportunistically and purposefully strikes fear into the hearts of perfectly decent people who want nothing more than to know that, in some real and lasting way, their human frailties are forgiven.
That kind of Christianity revels in pointing an accusatory finger with what it dares declare the hand of God.
Do you know that in the Bible Jesus never says a word about the ultimate fate of anyone who dies a non-Christian? Not once does it come up. We have no idea who does and doesn't get into heaven. None.
Apparently Jesus didn't think that was anything we should be worried about. Apparently he didn't think that what happens to anyone in the afterlife is any of our business.
He sure was clear about how we should live in this life, though, wasn't he? No waffling there, was there?
'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.
There. That's our mission.
That's who God is.
That's who God wants us to be.
Follow John Shore on Twitter: www.twitter.com/johnshore
Shore seemed to miss the parables particularly of the talents, the tenants, the wedding feast; the narrow gate, the repeated mentions of Gehenna and the place of outer darkness, John 14:6, 3:17 and on and on.
Its time someone said it -- Shore espouses non-biblical theology, and worships a God of his own creation, just as surely as if he carved it from stone.
Obtained The Observations Are Of My Own Opinion And Only After Complete And Total Spiritual Awareness And Observation
Their is lot of discussion out and about, concerning the Wrath of God, and hell:
The misunderstanding is, an overwhelming amount of souls believe God Created hell.
This knowledge could not be possible, it is impossible for God to have Created hell.
Yes, God does take “Wrath” upon the sinners and the evil doers as He sees fit.
Each and every soul, individually, create their own hell, by not Repenting of their sins, and asking God for Forgiveness, Grace and Salvation.
When we walk away from the True Light of God, and live a life of sin, and when we fail to Repent and continue a sinful existence, we walk away from the Grace, Salvation, and the Light of God.
We create and fall into our own hell, a reality that exists apart from the Light and Grace of God.
Hell is forever separate from the Light of God.
To claim God created hell is to claim God is a sinner.
Their are two realities God can never commit to.
God can never sin, never. God is sinless; God could not ever have Created the world and reality for our Salvation if God was a sinner.
God will never disrespect our freedom, our free will, never.
Remember Satan is a Fallen Angel, as such he appears as an Angel not some hoofed, horned beast, he will do good to later do a greater evil.
Hitler had an ability to galvanize and lead his people, had he chosen good over evil he would have been a hero, instead he committed unspeakable evil and he and his people paid the price for it.
That's what the Bible says.
Each and every soul, individually, create their own hell, by not Repenting of their sins, and asking God for Forgiveness, Grace and Salvation.
When we walk away from the True Light of God, and live a life of sin, and when we fail to Repent and continue a sinful existence, we walk away from the Grace, Salvation, and the Light of God.
We create and fall into our own hell, a reality that exists apart from the Light and Grace of God.
Hell is forever separate from the Light of God.
I’ve come to believe that salvation is a path—a path of loving God and loving your neighbor. In Luke 10, Jesus said, “Do this and you will live”
This path is walked by all the sincere-of-heart in all religions.
Read and compare Psalm 22 to Our Lords Last Words On The Cross, you will realize the Meaning, that being Our Lord was reciting the words of King David, hundreds of years prior to Our Lords Birth.
Our Lord was not indicating God had forsaken Him. Our Lord Went to the Cross Willingly to reverse the curse of Adam, and Save us from our sins.
You are right, Jesus didn't say anything about the fate of those who didn't believe in Him because He didn't have to. Those who don't believe were and are already condemned.
John 3:17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
For God so loved the world that He sent his only son, that whoever believes in him will have eternal life.
Only those who believe in him will receive eternal life.
Obtained The Observations Are Of My Own Opinion And Only After Complete And Total Spiritual Awareness And Observation
God is Love that endures for ever. Love Everlasting. Opposed to evil, and damnation, that flows from a sinful earthly existence that man creates and refuses to acknowledge, and replace with the Grace And Love of God.
1 Tim 4:10 For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.
1 Tim 5:8 But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.
Who are "his own" who are not "of his own house", for which a man MUST provide? Those same, in kind or quantity (who and how many others outside the family did your daddy support?), are the possibly saved non-Christians.
In 1Timothy 5:8 you must look at this verse in the context in which it is written. In the previous verses the apostle Paul was talking about taking care of the widows in the church and he concludes by saying, and I'm paraphrasing, that if you take care of your own family and not those in the church who need help the most, you are faithless.
Obtained The Observations Are Of My Own Opinion And Only After Complete And Total Spiritual Awareness And Observation
Only a few of us break away from ignorance, and start to understand God’s Love for us. Some of us flatly refuse to believe in God’s Love altogether, because we want to continue a sinful earthly existence.
How convenient!
I came to know Jesus, not out of fear , but because I finally realized that He is the way, the truth, and the life. The way, because He is not just the person who shows the way, but He, personally is the way. No church ceremony can bring you to God. He is the way. The truth, because in this world there is so much uncertainty, speculation, and outright lies, that I find peace in Him because He is the truth. He isn't saying that He tells the truth, although He does do that. He is the truth! The life, because He is the source of life both physical and spiritual.
Jesus said,"No man cometh unto the Father but by me." That may sound awfully dogmatic, and not all dogmatism is truth--there is a lot of ignorance that masquerades as truth. However, that which is true, has to be dogmatic.
Obtained The Observations Are Of My Own Opinion And Only After Complete And Total Spiritual Awareness And Observation
To Believe In God, we must understand God Created a Glorious and Endless “Well”, Filled with Glory and Love, an Endless Fountain, Filled with Grace for Our Salvation.
To Believe In God, We must diminish every ridiculous thought that we are alone. God’s Love is Eternal and always present in our Life, whether we chose to Love God or not.
To Believe In God, is to understand that we will “Not”; go to the grave in darkness with our souls.
To Believe In God, is to understand Life is not some sort of chemical reaction, feeling, or dream.
To Believe In God, is to Rejoice in the Glory of an immediate Everlasting Existence with Our Lord Jesus.
To Believe In God, is to Believe our present Creation, the stars, the planets, and everything and as far as we can see with our eyes, is one of the “Infinite” Creations, Created for our Salvation, By and Through God.
http://www.truechristianityevangelism.org/hell.html
Obtained The Observations Are Of My Own Opinion And Only After Complete And Total Spiritual Awareness And Observation
We experience abandonment only when our Faith diminishes; the required amount of Faith toward Loving God is 0. God never Abandons us; we abandon God, and sin more than a thousand times a day. We betray Jesus.
The solutions toward our feelings are easily resolved with constant Prayer, when we knowingly and willingly abandon Prayer toward Our Lord Jesus, we loose communication with our savoir, and fall victims to sin.
If our Souls are not able to visually see the suns rays, does not mean the sun does not exist. {Emphases added;}
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGm9G8qXjn0
The gospel message remains clear, if painful: we are corrupted sinners, every one of us, and unable to rescue ourselves from the penalty that we deserve. Salvation has two pre-requisites: repentance (recognition that God is a moral being Whom we have offended by our immoral thoughts and unethical actions), and acceptance of the fact that Christ paid our penalty on the cross.
what a great philosphy!
You paint an ugly picture of your god and your faith where being born human is the LAST thing you want to be. Being born human means God finds you disgusting, useless, worthless and wants nothing to do with you unless you promise to love it and do what it says. Failure to do so will mean your life and your soul are useless and you are damned to hell, forever.
I find such a view to not only be absolutely callous and incredibley ugly but complete wrong.
Why would anyone want to view themselves in such a way? Why would anyone want to 'love' a god who has no need or want of you otherwise? Coupled with being born gay and your god's disgust is incomprehensible where your defense of it heartless and cold. For me to be a Christian would mean I would only be doing so out of sense of not being loved and terrorfied of going to hell.
That is NO way to view one's self or live your life. EVER. I am not interested in your god or you religion for your gospel is one of condemnation and damnation. I have no need for any of it.
Yet, the true travesty here is you, like so many others, simply refuse to hear any of what I just said. Thus, you not only fail, but you fail those you believe are damned.
Nobody goes to hell for believing in the wrong religion (or none at all). I know that I personally had earned every bit of hellfire that I'd've received. I was guilty of a thousand acts of cruelty and thoughtlessness. The gospel is simply that God loves us enough to have created a way for us to escape from the consequences of our actions.
The cruelest curse in the whole world is "May you get exactly what you deserve." Assuming that there is a God, and that s/he is a moral being who will judge us on our thoughts and actions, then I am hardly failing "those [I] believe are damned" by giving them the message of hope and release and salvation.
In general, Jesus identified the fate of those who would choose the broad road to destruction or the narrow road to life. You can get off either road anytime you like because Jesus said at Matthew 24:13 “He that has endured to the end is the one that will be saved” He didn't indicate the ultimate fate since he knows how conflicted (changing our minds often) we are when depressed, sick, discouraged, mean and arrogant when we have power, and immune when we feel secure.
However in my mind, a wonderful window of opportunity extended by God to us in the promise at Acts 24: 15 “..that there is going to be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous.” This is where the spirit of the Law applies, where God will decides who lives or dies eternally. If we say we love God then it means obedience to his laws but more importantly living the spirit of the Law as outlined at Galatians 5:22. We need to stop judging people but instead think about how we affect people who want to love God but are stumbled by the inconsiderate works of self-righteous Christians
Unfortunately many "Christians" today, the Bible literalists, want us to believe that this is the kind of relationship we MUST have with God in order to have a validated relationship that will land us in Heaven. "God NEEDS us, and more importantly, we NEED God." And if we don't have each other, the world goes back to being flat, and only TRUE Christians get to go to Heaven, haven't you heard? Of course only "they", the "TRUE Christians", the ones who beat you over the head with their Bibles, are the ones who get to decide who has THAT REAL relationship with God and who goes to Heaven...and, oh, by the way, whether or not the world is flat and if we have climate change...or not. The *illusive* question is, "What makes a TRUE Christian?" They keep changing the rules...to their benefit and to their advantage.
I refrain to my first sentence, my first point.
John, doesn't the entire notion of a "god" feed on the fears and resentments of men (even more so to women and children)?
What would social order be if we just focused on the love and acceptance of each other? Not for reward in a mythical kingdom brought about by fears and insecurities, but for tangible rewards, right here, right now brought about by the need/desire for hospitality, security, comfort and personal growth.
People who attach those desirable outcomes to a god presume they do not exist without a god. Those who do are in denial and content to live in fear. That is a shame.
Kurt Vonnegut, in one of his wonderful prefaces to his novels, had a slightly different suggestion when it came to societal attitudes: less love, more common decency. He didn't have anything at all against love, he just thought that it was sort of unrealistic to ask everyone to love everyone else. Common decency, he saw that as a much more realistic goal, which would still be a huge improvement over the general state of actual reality.
Very smart guy.
As an 'outsider' so to speak, (that would be non-Christian to y'all) I see alot of screaming and anger about who has the more accurate veiw of god.
Is that what this is all about?
Is that the real concern?
I mean, really?
Personally, y'all make this non-Christian glad to never to have been one.
I could care one flying fig about the bible and how it is interpreted. It is actions that speak louder than words. And the actions of many a Christian makes it clear that fighting over the words is more inportant than what is REALLY more important:
Kindness.
I've read your bible. It is the #1 reason I am not Christian. Waaay too much anger, bloodshed, death, destruction, genocide, rape, revenge, wrath and other assorted ugliness. In a word: it is ugly.
I dont think that is the way god wants to be portrayed. But then again I dont think god cares how he is protratyed.
God cares about how we treat one another.
On that humanity has generaly for generations missed the mark on that one. BIG time.
I dont think god wants us to beat each other to death over a collection of fragmented texts and what they supposedly say and dont say.
I just think god would like for us to remember one thing: You are loved.
That's it.
Can we not at least treat each other in such a manner...?