I need advice and help

[12344321]

I am really afraid of losing faith because of hell. I read somewhere about false Christians and that article really hit home. In the article it said that the false Christians may be afraid of hell and that's their motivation and that's how it was for me. It also said that they may fear losing faith if I remember correctly. This has me anxious to my core. I can not find any rest. Also I have already entered faith and that means if I leave the faith my end will be worse than the beginning.

 

[Christian-DetLions-Fan]

You have to believe that if you are sincere in your heart that Jesus is the Son of God and He came and died and rose again to save you from your sins. If you believe that and you confessed your sins and repented then you are a Son of God and nothing can change that in God's eyes even your doubt! Please read 1 John 1:9

 

[friend of]

Fear of God is better than no fear of God at all.

 

[Campos]

Fear God more than hell, only He will decide where you go.

 

[DialecticSkeptic]

I am really afraid of losing faith because of hell.

I don't know what article you had read or what it said, but I can tell you that there is a ring of truth to the idea that false Christians are motivated by a fear of hell—but it's just a faint ring, because the truth is a lot more nuanced. That ring of truth is heard in passages like 1 John 4:17-18 which says that love is perfected or made more complete with us (the family of God) "so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love."

But, you see, there's that nuance, too, because it doesn't say the one who fears is a false Christian. Did you notice that? True Christians also struggle with fear—I sure have!—and it's because they haven't been "made perfect in love" yet. They are a work in progress, so to speak, but on the authority of God's promise we can rest assured that the time always comes, for each and every one of us, when perfect love finally drives out that fear. We can be confident that "he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus (Phil 1:6). That love will be made more complete in the life of every believer until they have no more fear of punishment. "The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it" (1 Thess 5:24).

I have a question for you: What brought you to the faith originally? Why did you first believe?

 

[subtlecollision]

I am really afraid of losing faith because of hell. I read somewhere about false Christians and that article really hit home. In the article it said that the false Christians may be afraid of hell and that's their motivation and that's how it was for me. It also said that they may fear losing faith if I remember correctly. This has me anxious to my core. I can not find any rest. Also I have already entered faith and that means if I leave the faith my end will be worse than the beginning.

Hi, I just wanted to follow up. Have you found that you are starting to have a desire for God?

 

[Soyeong]

I am really afraid of losing faith because of hell. I read somewhere about false Christians and that article really hit home. In the article it said that the false Christians may be afraid of hell and that's their motivation and that's how it was for me. It also said that they may fear losing faith if I remember correctly. This has me anxious to my core. I can not find any rest. Also I have already entered faith and that means if I leave the faith my end will be worse than the beginning.

There is nothing about being afraid of hell that makes someone a false Christian, and in fact that is what leads many people to become Christians. However, as a Christian matures in their faith, it is good to move on to stronger motivations, such as being a Christian because we love God, we trust Him, we want to build godly character, we want to grow in a relationship with God, or we want to make the world a better place.

 

[ViaCrucis]

Fear of hell doesn't make one a false Christian. Neither does struggling with our faith make anyone a false Christian. Fear of hell is a shallow motivation for Christian living, however, and so the Christian should be encouraged and comforted with the Gospel, and trained not to fear what is already defeated and destroyed. Christ has already died and been raised from the dead, in doing so He has defeated sin, death, hell, and the devil; and His victory is yours as the free gift of God. Christ has made satisfaction for us, and we are declared righteous on His account--we are therefore justified freely by the grace of God through faith.

I'm going to say something that might sound radical: There's no such thing as a false Christian. There are, to be certain, false teachers, there are Christians living faithless lives who are on their way to apostasy by making shipwreck of their faith. There are heretics and the those deceived by heretics. There are, to be certain, goats among the sheep, and tares among the wheat--whom Christ alone shall judge and He alone shall separate.

But one can't be a "false Christian" because their faith isn't "good enough"; or because they have questions; or because they are struggling with the flesh.

When we think like this we are injuring our own faith, and thinking that it is up to us to be right with God, rather than the truth of the Gospel: God has declared us right with Him on Christ's account. We are not justified by our works, we are not justified by our having all our theological t's crossed and i's dotted. We are not justified because we are performing well by being holy enough, godly enough, righteous enough, good enough, or any other enough from our end. We are justified because Jesus Christ is enough.

Yes, we can leave Jesus, we can walk away--but that doesn't happen by accident. Nobody, seeking to follow Jesus, hearing about Christ and hungering after Him, just falls away as though they just tripped and fell out of the Church. There may be many roads that lead to apostasy, and we should be wary of them, but they are not roads we are walking when we are hungry for God's grace and love and mercy. The one forging their path to apostasy does so with a callous heart, a faithless heart, and a mind devoted to apathy and antipathy. No one who would end up on a discussion forum worried about whether they are saved is someone who is on that road. It is the one who places their confidence in themselves, rather than in Christ, who boasts of themselves, rather than Christ, that has reason to fear. And you, dear sinner beloved of God, are not that person.

-CryptoLutheran