If a person asks me, "do you think I am going to hell?", the first thing that goes through my head as a Christian is, "huh?"
You see, I don't actually believe or have a preliminary judgement that a specific person is going to hell. My official answer is that I do not know.
The fringe-lunatics that go around telling people they are going to hell, having signs that say, "fa*s burn in hell", at peoples funerals.
The truth is, I would rather have the nice none-believer go to heaven than an evil Christian go to heaven. I simply don't think God is stupid in this way!
Because of the fringe lunatics, I think some atheists believe that Christians have a grim desire to see them in hell.
So this question is actually a concern to me because it supposes that I have established a belief that a particular person is going to hell. That "belief" in itself, is a dangerous belief. I do not actually go around establishing thoughts such as, "oh he is atheist he must be going to hell". That would be - well, a horrible thing. We are taught not to judge others.
Now in the scriptures, it appears CLEAR where salvation comes from, (Jesus Christ) but at no time does it say that we have a clear dichotomy.
Sure - there are the "clearly" lost people, who we can't see going to heaven such as Hitlers or whatever, but to put me infront of a lovely person, who is an atheist, and expect me to even want to believe they are going to hell - this is the hardest thing for my belief system.
Sure - I will always act with caution - that's why we share the Gospel, incase somebody is lost and there is absolutely nothing we can do about it, but I think that sometimes this gives the impression that Christians would think you are going to hell, in a judgemental way.
Our position is more adequately presented in this way;
"We are told, by God, all have sin, and there is a way back to God, a way out of punishment for that sin, therefore we want everyone to take that way out. Everyone."
Romans 3:22-24 (New International Version)
22 This righteousness is given through faith in[a] Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
But to believe this would give us a mandate to individually pick on certain groups of people is just a horrible misunderstanding of scripture.
That's the thing - if these fringe lunatics thrive and are happy that they believe gay people are going to hell, if anything, doesn't that show that they don't have the love of God? For how could anyone want somebody to go to hell? That is not a normal way to think, it is a sick way to think, to derive pleasure from this
So if, for example, someone pushes me for an answer, and re-phrases it, and says, "okay - do you believe atheists are going to hell?", if you have to answer then I would say, "I hope not", but if they insist on a yes or no answer, do I qualify to have that belief either way? Do I believe they are certainly going to hell? I am not certain - no. Not that I am giving you a sugar-coated Gospel, but God says He will judge not by what He hears or sees, (like humans do), but with righteousness. Therefore I trust in God - and hope and pray for Him to be merciful.
I think this is a major problem for a genuine Christian because you yourself know you are not a fringe lunatic, or that you have these beliefs towards people and yet there is the common belief that because of what the bible says, then you must believe that atheists are certainly going to hell. Does God even term "atheism", as we do?
(I type this post because of the Theroux-program I saw on the BBC, and ofcourse, I was mortified by the fringe-loons, and felt so sorry for their kids that are guaranteed to be brain-washed in the same way.)
Edited by mike the wiz, : No reason given.
Edited by mike the wiz, : Shortened rant
Edited by mike the wiz, : No reason given.
Edited by mike the wiz, : No reason given.
™ Version 4.2