Question that I have pondered

[The Son's Anvil]

The problem I have with atheism is the fact that they are making a religion of their unbelief.

Some of it is our fault. We raise the children to believe in the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, and Tooth Fairy. When they are mocked in school by the ones that learned early these don't exist, they have their first taste of what it means to be lied to by their parents. This is their perspective.

And then what else is false? If these things weren't true, what else isn't true?

We create, by nature of how we raise our children, a society of scheptics.

Those scheptics grow up, look around, and say, "Where is God? All I see is technology. The work of humankind. There is no God."

But here is the interesting part. If they really don't believe God exists, then why bother argueing it? Why even mention it? If they are so intelligent and wise as to come to the correct conclusion given a tiny fraction of the facts available to them, why do they then prove themselves foolish by trying to argue against Faith?

This is where the line is crossed, and it becomes a religion in and of itself.

What should THEY care...what I believe?

It is the justification of pride, the first sin, that they are commiting. They would rather roast in hell, honestly, than admit they were wrong in even the smallest perceptions they have in life.

I've seen people flip out, and go postal over a GAME. Somebody would say, "Pfft, this game is terrible. It isn't any fun." And they go absolutely ape because somebody is stepping on THEIR pride. "Hey, I purchased this game, there is NOTHING wrong with it. Crai more newb!"

Everybody is so busy trying to justify THEIR lifestyle, they aren't listening anyway!

Read Ecclesiasties. What a great book, my favorite. "Vanity of vanities. All is vanity." Solomon saw the truth, even so long ago, and it all holds true today. And it almost drove him mad! He saw the world for what it was. Twisted and evil, all because of pride in one form or another.

Now, you are bombarded with it constantly, because it invades your living room. It touches everything you do. You can't escape it, and if you do try by alienating yourself from the nonsense, then you are counted as a fool and insane.

CONFORM.

I reject this world. As far as I'm concerned, they can have it.

People can believe what they want to believe, but in the end, there can be only one Truth.

 

[Kuwanyauma]

Here's something I wonder about: If a person who has never heard of Jesus, but who believes in as much of the truth as they do know about ("Oh we know all about Him, we didn't know His name, but we knew what He did, and that you would come.") is saved, why do we bother telling them about Christ?

 

[Dmckay]

Here's something I wonder about: If a person who has never heard of Jesus, but who believes in as much of the truth as they do know about ("Oh we know all about Him, we didn't know His name, but we knew what He did, and that you would come.") is saved, why do we bother telling them about Christ?

Because we are not commanded to save anyone, ONLY GOD can do that. The Great Commission is: "Going, (an imperative{command} assuming obedience—could better be translated "as you go") make disciples of all nations, teaching them to observe whatsoever things that I have commanded you."

In Acts we are told of Aquila and Priscilla meeting Apollos in Ephesus just after Paul had left. He was boldly preaching in public and debating from the Old Testament with the opponents of Christianity both boldly and effectively. After speaking with him they learned that his message was based on the Old Testament prophecies of a coming Messiah, and the message he had learned from John the Baptist. After taking the time to disciple him bringing him up to date on what Jesus had already done and teaching him about the coming of the Holy Spirit, Apollos—saved, discipled and filled with the Holy Spirit had a new energy and boldness in his ministry.

Even a staunch 5 point Calvinist still believes that there is a need to preach and teach the Gospel. "How shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard, and how shall they hear without a preacher?"

 

[Dmckay]

What About Those Who Have Never Heard?
What the Bible says about eternal life and judgment.
1. All people are sinners (Romans 3:23).
2. The penalty of sin is death – eternal separation from God (Romans 6:23).
3. Christ died to pay the penalty for the sin of the whole world (John 4:42; 1 John 2:2; etc.).
4. People are saved from eternal judgment when they put their trust (“believe”) in Christ’s death on the cross for their sin (John 3:16; 5:24; 6:47; Acts 16:30,31; Ephesians 7:8,9; etc.).
5. Not all are saved; those who reject Christ’s payment for sin will eternally endure God’s wrath on sin in hell (John 3:18,36; Revelation 20:15).
Can a person have his sins forgiven and have eternal life apart from knowledge of Christ?
1. No, a person must hear the gospel of Christ and place his or her faith in Christ (Romans 10:13,14)
2. “Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but through Me” (John 14:6).
3. “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5).
4. “There is salvation in no one else…no other name under heaven…by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
Is God fair if He sends people to hell who have never heard about Christ?
1. God is just (Genesis 18:25; Romans 2:11).
2. Since all are sinners, God would have been just to send all people to hell. He was gracious to provide salvation through Christ (Ephesians 2:1-9).
3. God has put within people a basic awareness of Himself and of the requirement to do right (Romans 1:19,32; 2:15).
4. God has revealed Himself (as eternal, as all-powerful, as good, etc.) to all by means of the created world (Romans 1:20).
5. Man willfully can ignore that revelation.
a. They “suppress the truth” (Romans 1:18).
b. They refuse to “honor God” (Romans 1:21).
c. They choose to worship idols of men or beasts instead (Romans 1:23).
d. They choose to ignore God’s standard of righteousness (Romans 1:24-32).
6. So when God has revealed himself and some have willfully rejected Him, He is fair to judge them.
If an isolated person responded to God’s revelation in his heart and in nature, how would he ever hear about Christ?
1. God desires that all men be saved (1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9).
2. God seeks for those who acknowledge their spiritual need and seek Him (Ezekiel 34:11; Luke 19:10).
3. When people are seeking the true God two things happen:
a. God brings the message to them by prompting a Christian to go to them (Acts 16:6-10).
b. The person hearing the message will respond in faith (Acts 16:13,14).
An illustration: Suppose a person was lost underground in a dark cave and suddenly found a little lighted arrow pointed a certain direction. Whose fault would it be if he failed to follow it? Obviously his own. God’s “little arrows” are His revelation in man’s heart and nature. We can trust the good and loving Savior to bring the message of salvation to the one who seeks Him.
A final evidence.
If the yet unreached people of the world are not lost, why did Jesus tell His disciples to “proclaim His name to all the nations (Luke 24:47), “to Go, and make disciples of all the nations” (Matthew 28:19), and to be witnesses “even to the remotest part of the earth” (Acts 1:8)? Why did He tell them to tell others if that knowledge would only condemn most of them? Then it would actually be best if they didn’t hear. Did Christ mislead His disciples? Was Paul misguided to go throughout Asia Minor and Europe? No, the reason Christ sent them, the reason they went and the reason why many should go today is because Christ is the only way to be saved.

 

[BurningHeart]

I would like to add something. It would seem unfair to all those who never were exposed to suffer in hell. You suffer for unbelief; you go to hell for unbelief. To have never known the truth does not constitute unbelief. So I see two possibilities. #1.People who never hear the Gospel would not benefit even if they heard (and this God would know from the beginning, though we, as man, would not). or #2.Those who never had a chance to hear the Gospel will have the chance someday, somehow. Or maybe I'm making no sense. lol

Only problem in this si the The Bibel teaches that men are without excuse, fo rthe heavesn declare the ahndiwork of God.

 

[BurningHeart]

It is ou responsability to go and tell them. I once had an Atheist tell me I didn't really beleive the Bible, and what it taught. I asked why he said such things? To which he replied that if I really believed that people who died without knowing or acepting Christ would end up in Hell for all eternity separated from God, then my only driving passion everyday, would be to tell as many people about God and His plan for salvation as possible. It's something to think about, since the church as a whole seems to have lost the idea of a personal responsability to evangelize.

 

[sinner/SAVED]

Recently a person asked me "If a person never recieves the word of God, nor knew of a Christian God at all, would God be merciful to them?". My answer was that he would show the same mercy that "he would a child who dies at birth" and suddenly I am attacked for saying such being asked things like "Then why cant an Atheist who doesnt know that they have the wrong faith go to Heaven?". Help me on this , I felt I handled it well.... but I want your input.... a believers input.

An atheist doesn't believe there is a Heaven.

 

[Stinker]

"And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels.
In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:
Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power." (1 Thess.1:7-9)

Those who do not know God.
Those that do but do not obey the gospel of our Lord.

 

[he_is_risen!!]

Recently a person asked me "If a person never recieves the word of God, nor knew of a Christian God at all, would God be merciful to them?". My answer was that he would show the same mercy that "he would a child who dies at birth" and suddenly I am attacked for saying such being asked things like "Then why cant an Atheist who doesnt know that they have the wrong faith go to Heaven?". Help me on this , I felt I handled it well.... but I want your input.... a believers input.

My thing is that, the baby that's killed doesn't know about Christi and doesn't have the ability to choose to follow or not. The athiest does have the knowledge and ability to choose but the choose not to. That's just my point of view.

 

[sinner/SAVED]

Romans 1:18The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities–his eternal power and divine nature–have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.


Everyone is born with knowledge of God and everyone sees God in the world around them. Some choose to deny. Some accept what they see.

 

[tinkerbell]

Reading this whole chapter in context is better, but this verse sums up what it says, and maybe you will find it helpful

Only let us live up to what we have already attained.
~Phillipians 3:16