That's
what one atheist said a couple days back. Specifically, “The Bible
is full of references to hell.”
Really?
Going
by the certainty with which he spoke (and those who commented on his
statement, agreeing wholeheartedly) you'd think these people must be
some kind of Biblical experts. You'd think they knew what they were
talking about.
Sadly,
no.
In
point of fact the Bible is not full of references to hell. The Old Testament makes no mention of hell whatsoever.
It's
Jesus – you know, the one that people say is all about love – who
talks / warns about hell. To be clear, Jesus speaks more often about
hell than He does about heaven – both places He proclaims to be
real.
So
why would an atheist do that? Why would s/he make such an inaccurate
statement? Well, I think it's for two reasons:
.
Virtually all the explanations given for ranting about the God they
don't believe in, and the explanations they give for rejecting Jesus
and His teaching (Christianity) are overwhelmingly based on ignorance
and incorrect information. eg. “All Christians do bad things
therefore what Jesus taught doesn't apply to me.” It's the same type of
thinking that goes, “We now know how electricity works, therefore
Creator God does not exist.”
Pretty
typical for atheists, the majority of whom display a very low “good
enough for me” threshold when it comes to explanations for
rejecting Jesus. The second reasons is,
.
It suits their agenda and aides in propping up their rejection of
their Creator. These people who say they hold no opinions that aren't
based upon the truth of science are quite satisfied to do zero
research or to rely on Youtube scholars as their source of
information regarding Jesus / Christianity.
If
some goof says that Jesus never existed, well then by golly Jesus
never existed.
So
we have atheists making comments like the one above, “The Bible is
full of references to hell.”
Thank you for visiting my blog :-)
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on this blog entry :-D
There's a lot of people talking about Bible who haven't really read it, or have read it, very selectively... both Atheists and Christians.
They are mostly repeating hearsays, told by them by someone they take as an authority, and as "Chinese Whispers", the already misunderstood message told to first person gets more and more twisted, the more times it's being told.
Yes, I was expecting more of the Atheists, but I suppose they are just humans. I appreciate the skeptics who say "I'd like nothing better than be proven wrong, because if "it" is true, it would be truly amazing" and mean it, than the "skeptics" who think it's fashionable to object to everything and try to be sarcastic and smart-ass...
And the "evidence" is really just as you say: "It's this way because I believe it is" :-D
In Finland we have a saying "there is no argument in matters of belief/faith/religion". Because - people believe what they believe because they believe it, not because of any evidence - there is never enough evidence if you don't believe, there is always enough, if you do. :-)
But, back to your comment to my blog. :-)
It is very kind of you to wish "the truth may reveal Himself" to me, but if you with that mean something like "finding Jesus", I won't ever get any closer... perhaps I'm not supposed to, either. You see, I think C.S.Lewis was right when he said that the names we use of our deities are totally irrelevant. It's what we do that matters. I am not supposed to "believe" words, but... hmm... express the "fruits of spirit" with my actions.
Anyway, I am not interested in trying to figure out whether I believe in "the right" God or not, I believe in God and I trust in God with all my being, and I leave the judging of my beliefs and actions to God. If God IS good, fair, kind and just - which I believe God is - God chooses to see my faith, and not the words I use when I talk about it.
Nevertheless, thank you :-)
And God bless you too :-)
I've never heard the phrase, "Chinese Whispers" before.
ReplyDeleteAs to the rest, I deeply hope you are correct, Ketutar.
Although it would make Jesus a liar if He's wrong and "unfair" from your perspective if He's right. For He said, "If you reject Me, you reject God who sent Me."
"I won't ever get any closer." I wasn't a Christian until I was thirty years old. My wife turned to Jesus before me and she wrote in her journal at one point, "I don't think Rod will ever come to Jesus." :-)
Don't dig your rut too deep. Keep your mind sensitive to what might be revealed.
Good luck on your journey. May you and your family have mercy and peace.
I mostly* agree with Rod here. One should not make comment on something he/she does not understand. Repeating what someone else said just because they are "family" is not a good way to form an opinion.
ReplyDeleteAs Ketura says, we are all just humans though and people make mistakes. Hence, I could not agree more with the statement:
"I'd like nothing better than be proven wrong, because if "it" is true, it would be truly amazing"
As an atheist, this is one of the main reasons why I like discussing what I believe in and why. I want to test my beliefs as much as I can to see if they match reality or not, in order to correct the ones that are wrong, because there must be things that I believe in right now that are wrong! It cannot be otherwise; I am just human...
What I find funny in Ketura's comment is what came right after:
[...] than the "skeptics" who think it's fashionable to object to everything and try to be sarcastic and smart-ass...
If you have time to read a few posts here Ketura, you would see who is sarcastic and a smart-ass around here recently... :-)
Cheers!
* I wrote 'mostly' because I despise the fact that he uses terms such as 'virtually all', 'pretty typical', 'the majority of whom' when he started to write a post about one person and shifted to a rant against what seems to be Atheists as a whole... as usual.
"I'd like nothing better than be proven wrong, because if "it" is true, it would be truly amazing"
ReplyDeleteYes but if she is wrong and Jesus is correct, it will be too late. All of this "I'm sure God will be fair," bs won't cut it because it has to do with a spiritual reality. You're either in a healed and forgiven relationship with your Creator BEFORE YOU DIE or you are banished from His Kingdom for ever.
We don't make the rules - He does.
There's no choice in the matter - for Him or for us. It's a spiritual reality.
That's why He went to the lengths He did to make a way for us to avoid hell. That's why both you and she know of His warning. If Jesus is correct, your fates need be no surprise to anyone.
I see no reason to believe your own interpretation of Christian texts. They were written by humans and you are just a human like us. You are actually trying to make the rules even if you pretend you don't. Your empty threats of Hell are funny to be frank :)
ReplyDeleteDon't you see that any religious group, of any religion, can state exactly the same thing as you?
Follow the same doctrine as us... or else!
"I see no reason to believe your own interpretation of Christian texts."
ReplyDeleteYes, I know that Hugo. That's why you're an atheist. In your mind the balance of evidence does not tip my way. That's the way the world works. We can look at the evidence and choose to go this way or that. I've chosen one. You've chosen the other.
-----
I guess there is no way for me to convey this to you but what I've written was in no way written as a threat. It's a warning, pleading, written with the utmost concern. It's written with sadness knowing that you will probably push away anything and everything that is said to you about the offer of salvation that Jesus is making to you.
What else could be done? One either accepts Jesus' offer of salvation or one rejects it. And that's all there is to it.
-----
"Don't you see that any religious group, of any religion, can state exactly the same thing as you?"
Yes I see that. Although aside from Islam no other religion actually has anything to look forward to or to fear. For religions like Hindu etc. even they describe it as "An endless wheel of rebirth and suffering."
And as far as religions making claims, that is why I found Christianity more believable than anything else. It not only coheres to and best explains the reality that we observe, it is rooted in history. It can be investigated.
"Chinese Whispers" is the game of a line of people sending a sentence through the line by whispering it, and the sentence is never the same in the end of the line as it began with.
ReplyDelete"unfair" from your perspective is He's right"...
I see it more like this: I reject the interpretation of Jesus as done by His followers, but I do not reject God. If Jesus IS God, I do not reject Him.
If I remember correctly, there was some talk about "those who do my Father's will" and "many will call my name but not get in" (I'm sure you know what I am referring to), which could be understood to mean that C.S.Lewis' interpretation is possible.
I see the concern behind your warning, and the warnings of others like you, and I do consider it, but if God chooses to care more of the words I use when talking about God, than what is in my heart, I don't want to spend one second with a God like that, and I would be glad to be banished from "His Kingdom".
But that having been said, my aunt was "called" when she was about 50. All I can say is may God's will happen... or, more precisely, may I have the confidence in God, what ever happens, because God's will WILL happen.
"...I found Christianity more believable than anything else. It not only coheres to and best explains the reality that we observe, it is rooted in history. It can be investigated."
Huh. Isn't it interesting how people's minds work. To me Christianity is not very believable, it doesn't "cohere to reality", nor explains it and the verity of the dogmas cannot be investigated any more than the verity of any dogmas... that's the nature of a dogma.
What makes it worse is that the whole religion is based on the idea of that it's sort of an improved version of Judaism, but the ideas and attitudes expressed in the Greek Scriptures in some cases contradict those expressed in the Hebrew Scriptures. Like the idea of hell. To me it's all very apparently constructed...
I also find the early history of Christianity and the manner with which it was spread to Europe highly offensive.
Nevertheless, I am not Christian, because the attitudes and ideas expressed in the Greek Scriptures are uncongenial with my own ethics and moral attitudes, values and ideas.
All of this is, of course, totally irrelevant, because we have the faith we have by the grace of God, not by anything we ourselves have chosen to do.
You are Christian, because God made you so.
You find what you find to be the way you find it, because God made you think that way, and see the clues in the specific order and context that made you make the conclusions you made, using the intellect God gave you the way God intended you to use it...
God hasn't made me Christian. If God chooses to punish me for that, that's God's prerogative.
Nevertheless, I don't choose my beliefs by fear of being punished for having chosen "wrong", and I pity every one who does.
Be blessed, and thank you :-)