This is not biblical truth. No one is neutral. And since everyone is born in Adam, they are not blameless, they are born into sin. Nowhere will you find in the Bible that people are entitled to their unbelief.
Romans 1 says that they are without excuse for not trusting in God. John 3:17-18 says that they are already condemned. I am not passing judgment, the unbeliever is already under God's judgment.
Dear
@Anna- , in this subforum the rules prevent Christians from addressing each other to discuss matters, because it is not the appropriate place for us to work things out. It is a place for those who want to learn about Christianity to get direct answers about Christianity and not to be distracted by disputes. So this thread is yours and we are meant to only address you, and only to do so for your best interests.
What I will say about brother Joe's comments here, I will say only to you for your sake for that reason.
You know within yourself whether your unbelief in
post #3 was owed to the suppressing of truths, and I perceived in your heart when you wrote, that this was genuinely not the case. I feel it necessary to ensure that you are aware that Romans 1:18 stipulates that this conscious opposition to truth is necessary before the passage can apply to you.
If you will study what that passage is saying, you will find in Romans 1:21 that St Paul is describing a type of people who once knew God and yet they did not think it valuable to retain the knowledge of God. I do not believe that this describes you though, because you are coming from a place where you have not yet known God.
So, I certainly would not have thought to apply that passage to your situation just yet. Your conscience would testify though whether it is right to do so or not.
Also as far as John 3:18 goes, it is important to note that in order for one to disbelieve, they first need to have heard (Romans 10:14). Just as the next three verses state: "This is the basis for the judgement: those who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their deeds will be exposed. Whereas those who practise the truth come to the light so that it can be made known that their deeds are wrought in God's sight".
I recognised in your post #3 that you were not actually rejecting any knowledge, but that you were actively pursuing to gather sufficient knowledge to determine whether it is right to have belief. This indicates to me that you were more of the type described in John 3:21 than John 3:20. For this reason, I also would not have thought to apply John 3:18 as a judgement against you, and again, your conscience will testify to you as the truth of your innocence or guilt.
Also, we should recognise that a large part of your investigation is to undo the misleading perceptions of Christianity that have been installed through Film and Television, where inaccuracies, jokes and selective reporting have given you (as to all in this age) an impression of Christianity that actually doesn't properly represent it.
The false impressions through these influences have probably produced some rightful tendency of scepticism and disbelief on your part, where they have constructed a
strawman view of Christianity. That strawman of Christianity might appear in your view to be less credible than what Christianity really is, and your investigations should reveal that.
Sadly, a lot of Christians also come to believe misleading ideas of Christianity, and without really scrutinising their beliefs, they will propagate those errors with the appearance and sincerity of one who is credible to do so, thereby misleading others in Jesus' name with ideas that didn't come from Jesus at all
.. So, your faith really is for you to work out between yourself and God, and while we are able to offer words of our experience that might be helpful to you, ultimately it is your responsibility to stick to the truth and to retain full authority of your convictions, not conceding to peer pressure or popular opinion if it doesn't quite rest well with your conscience. Truth will always make good logical sense and the truth of Christianity will always go well with the conscience of one who loves righteousness - although this cannot be said about some of the heretical Christian doctrines.
.. which brings me to mention this heretical doctrine suggesting children are born depraved and sinful (Jude 1:8, Mark 10:14-15). You can find some really good information by Google searching this:
children born sinners - Google Search
orignal sin heresy - Google Search
Eg:
Are We Born Sinners?
Are We Born Sinners? - Mike Miller
.. and if you
look at how various bibles have translated Psalms 51:5 compared to a
direct interlinear translation, you will see how deeply ingrained this doctrine has become in modern culture, that even the translators themselves cannot but choose words to promote this view, even though it is not actually said this way in the original text!
The basic fact is, that a child learns it's behaviours from the society around it - not the other way round as pride dictates! Children are pure to begin with, and it is the world that corrupts them. It takes time to corrupt a person too, depending on the levels of corruption it is exposed to. St. Paul mentioned this in Romans 7:9. This is how Romans 5:12 has said that sin entered the world through one man and it then spread to all.
I trust that you're enjoying your studies into our pursuit of Christ-likeness and learning some interesting things!
