There are many reasons why people don’t choose to follow Christ, and after reading someone’s blog I thought it best to post some things that might help people understand a little bit more about Christianity. I am not saying or trying to force you to choose Christianity, and I am not looking to argue or debate about disputable things, but to have some guidelines for some things in which areas people have concerns with.
1. The Doctrine of Hell – We know that there are people in the world and the world is full of things that go on the world that you think are just wrong. People suffer. God has provided a way to make right the injustices of the world through Jesus Christ. Jesus was in heaven before the foundation of the world, but when He came and took human form there was a place called Hades and it was divided into two parts: A place of Torments, and a place called Paradise. It was originally created for satan, the devil, or lucifer, and it was for him and the fallen angels or evil spirits that dwelt with him. The unrighteous people lived in Torments, and these were people that did not follow the Ten Commandments, and the basic guidelines for living during those times. Similar to the laws that we have in the Constitution and the ones that break those Laws go to jail based on evidence. The number one Law that God was concerned with the most was – to have no other gods before Him and the best way to explain that is that is to say that if you are married and you are madly in love with your wife, you wouldn’t want to see her with another man, or if you are a wife you wouldn’t want to see your husband with another woman. This is the kind of fire of passion that God has. If you’ve ever seen the movie The Fantastic Four, the man with the fire, something inside him insights this fire and it causes whoever he touches to be consumed by it. The same way God has a passionate fire of love in His heart and if you are human and you’ve ever had something that just makes your blood boil, then that’s similar to what God feels. He wanted to be loved and worshipped by the people, and when they didn’t He couldn’t contain His emotions or suppress them. God could not be put into a box. Humans are created in the image of God. The problem was that people would do horrendous things, and God wouldn’t stop it because He would be merciful to the people – you see He is out of time, and He weighs His decisions very carefully and when people do things like steal, cheat, lie, murder, or do anything that you would get mad at, He takes justice, but He is quick to forgive. Imagine a married couple – let’s say like on the “I Love Lucy” show- Lucy does something that just ticks Ricky off and He gets so mad and just starts yelling, “Lucy, what are you doing?” then she says “Ricky I am sorry” and if he doesn’t forgive her, she cries, “Waah!” then Ricky is able to say, “Oh, Lucy, It’s ok” Now if Lucy stole all his money, poked holes into his car, put his hair on fire bleached his clothes, cheated on him with 1000 men, had 250 children with them (I know exaggerated example, but using it to make a point – wouldn’t you think that he would figure out that she wasn’t going to be faithful, and that she probably didn’t really love him or at least had no respect for him? That’s the way God is. The Israelites weren’t special, they were just being treated like slaves and they were not being let go by the Egyptians so that’s why God chose Israel, otherwise they were a “stiff necked” people, and He knew that they would disobey Him, but the Egyptians wouldn’t let them go so being like a father judging between two sons, one kept abusing the other, he would have to make an ultimate decision to separate the two, and so that’s what God did.
That brings us back to Jesus – when Jesus was born and after He died and rose again, he descended into Hades and let out the people who were righteous and not being “evil” and raised them to go to heaven. Now it is up to you to choose Him, if you don’t choose Him, then you will be ultimately deciding your own fate – God doesn’t make you go to hell, – you choose to go to hell if you don’t accept His Son. This is why it is just – Let’s say you were in a jail, wouldn’t you want keys to take to take you out of it? If you were drowning because you chose to venture out to dangerous waters wouldn’t you want someone to throw you a life preserver. I think everyone has a desire to want to live. Jesus basically paid the bail for your imprisonment. Now it’s fine if you want to stay in prison, especially if there is a place similar to Guatanomo Bay, but Jesus provided the way out. Why are you in prison, because you disobeyed the laws, but when you accept Jesus, He pays your bail and then you are freed from the bondage that you were in because of disobeying the laws.
This is a very good link on the subject and I believe it can answer a lot more questions than I can:
http://www.lamblion.com/articles/articles_eternity3.php
Also I’d like to provide a verse here that is pretty encouraging-
Psalmm 44:
O Lord, You have searched me and known me.
2 You know my sitting down and my rising up;
You understand my thought afar off.
3 You comprehend my path and my lying down,
And are acquainted with all my ways.
4 For there is not a word on my tongue,
But behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.
5 You have hedged me behind and before,
And laid Your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is high, I cannot attain it.
7 Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
8 If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.
9 If I take the wings of the morning,
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 Even there Your hand shall lead me,
And Your right hand shall hold me.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall fall[a] on me,”
Even the night shall be light about me;
12 Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You,
But the night shines as the day;
The darkness and the light are both alike to You.
13 For You formed my inward parts;
You covered me in my mother’s womb.
14 I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;[b]
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them.
17 How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
18 If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand;
When I awake, I am still with You.
False assumption #2:
1. The Bible contains many errors, contradictions, logical absurdities, and moral abominations –
One thing that you will only understand once you have truly accepted Jesus into your heart and have the Holy Spirit guiding you, you will not be able to see the authenticity and rhema or God spoken Word or revelation given by God. There is an expression that says that you “don’t see the forest from the trees” and the meaning of that when it comes to errors is that you are missing the big picture – the Bible is a whole wealth of spiritual information just waiting at your fingertips and because of a few little technical glitches you can’t see what a wonderful thing it is. Contradictions – the only way this issue is going to be solved is to have more understanding of Jesus and proper Biblical teaching and guidance, fellowship in a Church and Bible Studies where you can discuss the contradictions. Ultimately it’s your own personal walk with Jesus that will help you sort out these contradictions. “Logical absurdities” – God is beyond logic, beyond the Universe – beyond infinity- there is only so much that human beings can comprehend with their minds the rest is God. Another thing I want to point out is that if you ever go to sleep and dream and remember your dreams. They tell a story, but it is not logical, yet it is still existant and some people search the whole world to find the meaning to their dreams. Dream interpretations are given by God. If you are more of a left brained person you are going to look for the logical side or analytical side of things, and if you are a right brained person you are going to look things more symbolically and metaphorically, and the Bible is more of a right brained book, but there are some cases when you can even apply logical side to it. Moral “abominations” such as the killing of infants, men, women, and children in Canaan: What seems like abominations in our eyes may not be abominations in God’s eyes. He has ultimate authority in everything that happens. Yet again it takes you to accept Jesus and have a connection of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the key.
Another thing about the Bible is that it is so intricately woven that everything just falls into place. You may be reading something and then it just applies directly to your situation and if you don’t have eyes to see it, then you won’t get the benefit. The Bible is the Living Word of God and it really can change your life and transform it. If you read Psalms – there is a Psalm for every heart issue. That is what the Bible is there for – to help you grow in God, and to transform your heart. That’s what it means by:
Hebrews 4:12-
12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
What that means is when you read it – it’s going to affect you in some way.
3) God does not answer prayer. God answers prayer: It is just not when, or where, or how you expect it. Sometimes He’s testing your faith in how much you will still believe Him, and how much you trust Him. There are times when you don’t understand why things are happening and why God just “sits by” and doesn’t do anything, but He does do things, and it may even be little things. If you can start to see how blessed you really are to even have a computer and read this, to have water, food, a toilet, electricity, oxygen, that you are not a bowl of ooze on the floor, then maybe you’ll see something. Now I can write till I am blue in the face, but unless you come to your own conviction and really begin to see the love of God operating in your life, then there’s nothing I can do unless you choose for yourself. It is always good to question your faith and to decide for yourself. There are testimonies of people that have tried every religion there is and still kept coming back to Christ who is not a religion but a relationship.
There is a certain person this is intended for, and I hope you read this, and if you don’t otherwise I’ll be praying for you, but as for all the others that read this – I hope you find the answers you need for your questions.
Isaiah 55:9 –
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.”
God is so beyond our level that is like explaining the internet to an ant, we are all ants, and the Holy Spirit, gives us the Mind of Christ to just have a glimpse.
singingsinglev4 