Christians - what if you're wrong?

[oi_antz]

Besides,nothing i do or say will convince anyone anyway.

This part is not fully true, people do look to what is said that supports their endeavours. I just thought your comment about following another religion might have given someone the idea that you knew the only correct path to God, and anyone walking a different path must be on the wrong path. I wasn't sure if that is really what you meant, I see now that it's not. Thanks for that clarification

 

[doomsayer2]

Actually that is not entirely true,but i was only implying any other path was not wrong for them. Perhaps God allows some people more free-will than others,in particular those He has a "calling" for which cannot be accomplished following some other religious path. And He most certainly will not let me follow another way,to the point of even letting me know about it when i do stray outside of HIS plan even for a very brief time period. Don't ask me to explain. Just know that i personally have enough of a time trying to do His will and become prepared for that "calling" than to worry about how someone else is going there own way unimpeded by the Holy Spirit. And i suppose if there is no real inner conviction then it's the same as being "led" into that particular way of believing or thinking. For some reason God simply allows the "seeker" to do there own thing for the most part,or so it seems.
Maybe He is just happy for someone to actually believe He exists other than the 110% fundamentalist Christian? Just another way of saying He may already have enough preachers and apostles,etc.

 

[oi_antz]

Actually that is not entirely true,but i was only implying any other path was not wrong for them. Perhaps God allows some people more free-will than others,in particular those He has a "calling" for which cannot be accomplished following some other religious path. And He most certainly will not let me follow another way,to the point of even letting me know about it when i do stray outside of HIS plan even for a very brief time period. Don't ask me to explain. Just know that i personally have enough of a time trying to do His will and become prepared for that "calling" than to worry about how someone else is going there own way unimpeded by the Holy Spirit. And i suppose if there is no real inner conviction then it's the same as being "led" into that particular way of believing or thinking. For some reason God simply allows the "seeker" to do there own thing for the most part,or so it seems.
Maybe He is just happy for someone to actually believe He exists other than the 110% fundamentalist Christian? Just another way of saying He may already have enough preachers and apostles,etc.

Fits well with my understanding. He clearly does have a unique plan for each of us, and I think faith rather than belief is the more fair measure of one's regard for Him.

 

[moerunamida]

I'm not wrong, and no one on this earth will ever convince me otherwise. I see God everyday. Not literal, because you obviously can't see God's face. I see God's beauty when I gaze up at the stars in the sky and am awe stuck by how the universe is so vast and infinite. I see God in a glorious sunset on a beach. I saw God on the day I met my husband, because I knew he was the man I was going to marry.

I've played that game before though 'what if I was wrong'. If I was wrong, then I lived a good life by high moral standards. I believed in a higher Entity that set a good examples for me to live by, and I tried my darnest to live by them. I die. The end.

But, God is very real, and we all have a choice. We choose not to believe or believe. I choose to believe without tangible proof, because if there was tangible proof don't you think most people would want to go to Heaven?

 

[doomsayer2]

I agree,and the real line in the sand for me has always been Galatians-1:8,which is really a slap in the face to ANY other "faith" or belief system.
But Micah 4:5 kind of nails it..."For all people will walk everyone in the name of his god,and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever."

 

[oi_antz]

I agree,and the real line in the sand for me has always been Galatians-1:8,which is really a slap in the face to ANY other "faith" or belief system.
But Micah 4:5 kind of nails it..."For all people will walk everyone in the name of his god,and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever."

I think that not every religion attempts to promote a 'gospel', a means by which to have salvation or relations with God. At the least, there are people in various religions who do not treat them as such, so I would assume that there is an extent of religious activity outside of Christianity that is not in direct conflict with Christianity. The passage from Micah was made before Jesus came along, so the purest context of that quote is actually made before the gospel of Jesus Christ was known. It is therefore not directly supportive of the gospel, but serves to state that God is superior to all others.

 

[Akureyri]

I'm not wrong, and no one on this earth will ever convince me otherwise. I see God everyday. Not literal, because you obviously can't see God's face. I see God's beauty when I gaze up at the stars in the sky and am awe stuck by how the universe is so vast and infinite. I see God in a glorious sunset on a beach. I saw God on the day I met my husband, because I knew he was the man I was going to marry.

So God is a real thing in this universe which you observe every day. That means you're merely assigning the term "God" to various things which are readily observable to all. Therefore, you are really a Pantheist.

I've played that game before though 'what if I was wrong'. If I was wrong, then I lived a good life by high moral standards. I believed in a higher Entity that set a good examples for me to live by, and I tried my darnest to live by them. I die. The end.

But, God is very real, and we all have a choice.

The God you're saying is real is different than the god I'm talking about. I'm not talking about things like the stars, the sunset or the love you felt with the man you married. I'm talking about a supreme being who knows everything and can do anything.

We choose not to believe or believe. I choose to believe without tangible proof, because if there was tangible proof don't you think most people would want to go to Heaven?

Really? Can you choose to believe I own 60,000 orange fire breathing dragons and keep them on a big dragon farm in the middle of downtown Philadelphia?

 

[xTx]

I'm often asked to consider what if I'm wrong. What if I'm wrong and I end up going to hell and suffer for eternity. Christians have presented Pascal's Wager to me in an apparent attempt to keep me from suffering for eternity in hell. But it's a two way street:

What if those who hold belief in the Christian God go to a hell of eternal punishment and suffering, while rational non-believers go to an eternal paradise full of love and happiness.

Have you ever considered this?

Yes, I have considered this. Sometimes I wonder if religion was all a fairy tale?

To control people by frightening them with hell. Honestly, I have no idea if Christians are right. What do you think?

 

[Soul2Soul]

I'm often asked to consider what if I'm wrong. What if I'm wrong and I end up going to hell and suffer for eternity. Christians have presented Pascal's Wager to me in an apparent attempt to keep me from suffering for eternity in hell. But it's a two way street:

What if those who hold belief in the Christian God go to a hell of eternal punishment and suffering, while rational non-believers go to an eternal paradise full of love and happiness.

Have you ever considered this?

At least the "rational" non-believers believe in a paradise. How and where did they get this concept of paradise? A belief in the after life? Can you maybe explain a bit more please .... is this a yearning or a guarantee?

 

[dhh712]

Why have you never had to consider that you may be wrong? There is nothing that gives me the idea that any kind of god has any intentions.

I definitely can be wrong--I would never assert that regarding my religious beliefs that I am right. What is right is the Bible. Unfortunately, there is nothing I can say or do (on my own, on entirely my own efforts) that will convince anyone of that. The main point concerning the God of the Bible is that we are not at the center of His plan. He is. We are so insignificant and really non-essential to it all, yet it seems like we get so caught up in the mistaken assumption that we somehow are very vital to God and that He needs us.

My understanding of the Bible can be entirely wrong. Any one of our understandings of the Bible can be wrong; it is my opinion that there is none of us on earth who have a perfectly correct understanding in every regard of His letter to us. Since we are relying entirely upon Him to understand it, we should pray to Him before reading it that His Holy Spirit will be a guide to our understanding; that we lean not upon our own judgment.

I trust in God that He will lead me to my understanding of the Bible. It is all I can do. Whatever I do understand of it, it is His will that I understand what I do.

If I am totally wrong and mistaken in it, it is my wish spiritually that I will be satisfied with whatever God has ordained for me. Of course, my physical self cries out against it. I would be utterly crushed. I don't believe any human flesh can ever desire the will of God upon them.

I don't know about other religions. I don't have a real desire to learn about them; I don't have the time. I don't have a real strong compulsion to make sure "I am right". I know that I cannot be.

You don't need to understand decisions that God makes to understand that God can't love everyone and be capable of doing anything in the presence of mass suffering or mass calamity.


So you ignore the bad? How about the mass murderer who has given some of his time & money to charities. Would you worship that mass murderer for his altruistic deeds?0

What's relevant is that it is logically impossible for an all-loving & all-powerful being to exist in the presence of mass suffering or mass calamity.

This seems to be a significant topic to you, and it seems a worth-while point you make. I have come to the conclusion that it is definitely correct according to our logic. Also, it states very clearly that God hated at least one person: Esau. It is my understanding from what I remember that He hated him from before he started doing anything--it wasn't anything that Esau did that made God hate him; we may gather from this that He created him to hate him. Sounds like a harsh God from our human perspectives.

Well, I haven't come to a clear understanding of it. It just seems more plausible that God does not love everyone. Yet I can definitely be wrong about that. I am still studying Scripture and have a long way to go with that.

With that being said, however, I think it is important to realize that some things which we may consider as acts of God hating us are not to be understood as that from His perspective. That is just the thing though, that we are limited to our own viewpoint. We are to be thankful to God for all things, not just the things which seem good to us from our perspective.

 

[2PhiloVoid]

I'm often asked to consider what if I'm wrong. What if I'm wrong and I end up going to hell and suffer for eternity. Christians have presented Pascal's Wager to me in an apparent attempt to keep me from suffering for eternity in hell. But it's a two way street:

What if those who hold belief in the Christian God go to a hell of eternal punishment and suffering, while rational non-believers go to an eternal paradise full of love and happiness.

Have you ever considered this?

It wearies me to see so many people misunderstand Pascal's Wager. Just like the bible, it gets taken out of context. Pascal's Wager was an 'offer' to those persons who, after considering other views, want to be a Christian but find it very difficult to do so. If was not a generic wager, but rather a specific wager--for those who want to be Christian.

 

[dhh712]

It wearies me to see so many people misunderstand Pascal's Wager. Just like the bible, it gets taken out of context. Pascal's Wager was an 'offer' to those persons who, after considering other views, want to be a Christian but find it very difficult to do so. If was not a generic wager, but rather a specific wager--for those who want to be Christian.

Oh, I see--like those who really wanted to believe in God, but just did not yet receive the gift of faith? I've always wondered about those and what can be said to them except to keep diligently searching Scripture and praying to God. I was once in that situation, where I really wanted to believe but if I were to be honest with myself, I would have had to admit that my faith was based on a feeling and there really was nothing making it up beyond a wish for it to be there.

 

[Sarah Sarah]

I'm often asked to consider what if I'm wrong. What if I'm wrong and I end up going to hell and suffer for eternity. Christians have presented Pascal's Wager to me in an apparent attempt to keep me from suffering for eternity in hell. But it's a two way street:

What if those who hold belief in the Christian God go to a hell of eternal punishment and suffering, while rational non-believers go to an eternal paradise full of love and happiness.

Have you ever considered this?

I'd rather be wrong, die, and there is nothing to enter into so that my energy simply returns to all that is energetic, than to be a non-Christian, die, and realize too late that the Christians were right.

 

[dhh712]

Even if you haven't been in that situation, it is real, because others believe in a different God than you and have strong feelings about their own knowledge of the intentions and meaning of their God.

Do you think these people are simply misled, delusional, what do you think?

You didn't ask this of me, but personally, I'm not sure what my thoughts on the topic would produce other than aimless speculation. I would lean more toward what oi-antz replied in that I would need a more specific situation than the one given. If they have strong feelings/beliefs about another god other than the God of Scripture, it is regrettable that they have this. I don't know if they are misled, delusional, or what. I'm not sure what my thoughts regarding it would be beyond mere speculation.

 

[Hammster]

MOD HAT ON

Closing this thread. This is not the place for non-Christians to debate Christians about Christianity. This forum is to ask questions about Christianity. And yes, we can tell the difference between honest inquiries and questions that are designed to be debate questions.
MOD HAT OFF
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