Explain why being a good Christian requires you to push your beliefs on others.?

Question

If you do not believe that you have to push your views on others (no matter how much this annoys them), explain why you do not believe this despite the fact that the New Testament seems to suggest that you must do this to get to Heaven (for instance, in Matthew 28:19-20).

Answer 1

i throw water at the jehovas outside my door

Answer 2

Actually, only those born again go to heaven. The other sheep get everlasting life on a paradise earth.

As for pushing Christianity, most New Israelites (Christians) reject that particular teaching of Christ. Most churches don't even follow it. Christ didn't say to build large churches, to create elaborate and complicated rituals, and all the other games they play, instead of doing what they are suppose to be doing. Christians are to learn God's Word, as a whole, not the sum of its parts. They are to continue taking in "accurate" knowledge, according to the Apostle Paul.

Once they know the Bible, they are suppose to preach, teach, and teach others how to preach and teach. This does not mean standing out on a street corner and yelling, it means finding three people whose hearts are seeking change and truth. Then, each of those three teach three others, and so on. This is where the churches fail. They preach, but they don't teach, and they certainly don't teach all their members how to preach and teach.

Yes, you may not like it, but if a person is following the teachings of Christ, than that is what they are suppose to be doing.

As most know, they is what Jehovah's Witnesses do. Every witness, man and woman, are ministers. To become this, they have to learn the Bible, and take a written test before being baptized, which is a symbol of their informed decision to follow Christ. They attend ministerial classes weekly, and the Sunday talk can be given by anyone in the congregation, or from another. Kids learn the Bible, as a whole, from age two. And though they may not understand it, they are taking in the knowledge. Than, at age 12, when they begin developing conceptual thought process, they take part in the ministry school, even giving talks. Not much different from what Christ did at age 12, in the Temple.

This is why they are continuing to grow, but without building bigger and bigger churches, because nearly everyone is qualified to lead a new congregation. Instead of a church holding 500-1000 people, being preach to by one only one person, because no one else will do it, they have congregations of less than 200, with 3-4 congregations per Kingdom Hall. When the have conferences, everyone attends, and not just the elite, like when the Baptists have the conferences in Kansas City. They have three a year, two circuit conventions, made up of 10-15 congregations. Yearly, they have district conventions, made up of 10-15 circuits. There are over 250 district conventions in the world. Speakers are drawn form the attending members, but some self important individual from elsewhere.

Perhaps if other churches did the same things, they would also be growing, and not having the problems of finding people to pay to preach.

Yep, that's a lot of preachers. Watch for the PBS special called Knocking on the JWs.

Answer 3

Perhaps the terminology is important here.

To push one's beliefs on someone else is to forcibly make that person accept what you believe (the crusades, the colonizing of the Americas, etc)

To share one's belief, is to explain what you believe and let the listener decide if they want to know more.

Yes, Christians are given a command to make disciples, and this is something that must be done to gain God and Jesus' approval, but just as Jesus did it, so should we, with love and tact.

Also, Paul said he became all things to all people, in that he was willing to take the other's feelings into account, or to talk in a way that that person could understand. He was also willing to give up certain personal pleasures that might be insulting to others (such as the eating of certain kinds of meat - that were forbidden in Jewish law, but not in the Christian arrangement, to avoid insulting the Jew that he was speaking to or around at the time of a meal.

And, then you have the attitude of the listener, some will accept the person's sharing their belief in that manner - as sharing, whereas another listener would call it "pushing" even if it is done mildly and not by force.

Answer 4

Please refer to University of North Carolina's BART D. EHRMAN's "Misquoting Jesus".

"...despite the fact that the New Testament seems to suggest that you must do this to get to Heaven ..." is not true because the modern bible is totally false. Because of too many errors by ancient copyist (since there are no printers to speak of, so all duplicates had to be copied manually) when they duplicate manuscripts and scriptures. The errors were so great, ie the last twelve verses of Mark was actually an addition by a scribe in the ancient times, and the story abt Jesus forgiving the woman caught in adultery (John 8:3-11) doesn't belong in the bible (it is just a folklore which scribes thought that it was a truth but it was fiction) The true bible (or original) was already lost for more that 1500yrs! Read the university text and understand some great facts.

Btw, preach you must but just dun overdo it. ;D

Answer 5

Doesn't everyone, non-Christians as well, have a point they try to make? Christians have the same rights as anyone else to influence those around them, and I would hope that their lives would in every way back up what they say they believe.

To take your question a step further, though, we are not "pushing" our beliefs on anyone else so much as we are trying to share the truth that there is in fact objective, historical truth about God that can be known and that can lead us to a person, life-changing relationship with God. The alternative would be to not have that life-changing relationship with God and to end up robbed and empty in the end.

We DO claim that Jesus is the ONLY way to get to God because that is what the Bible teaches. This isn't because we are trying to be exclusive and to say that WE are right and everyone else is wrong--rather, we're saying that THIS is the one way to get to God and we are following in that direction. It's not about us, it's about Jesus. Nobody else can claim to be the way to God because nobody else made the claims that Jesus did. He was not a good teacher whose teachings could be reduced to a simple set of rules on how to live--Jesus' teachings cannot be separated and set aside from Him as a person, because the very message of the Bible cannot be separated from Jesus. Without Jesus, the Bible is nothing but a bunch of empty history, poetry and prophecy that means nothing except to point to Jesus in the first place. On top of that, the resurrection of Jesus is the one historical event that has never been explained away except to affirm that He did indeed rise from the dead, prove that He is God and that nobody else and no other way is the way to get to heaven. It just can't be done.

I do agree that some people try to assert themselves a bit much when it comes to trying to make a point about their faith, and I think that often is the case with spiritually immature believers who aren't settled in what they believe. Those who are more spiritually mature will not seem pushy but rather will show through their lives that what they say they believe is for real and does make a difference in their lives. And they'll want to share that with others. I think it was St. Francis of Assisi who said, "Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words."

Answer 6

Wrong!
Christianity should never be pushed on others.

Colossians
2:16 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:

I'm Christian but I stay away from PUSHY So called Christians.
Most are hypocrites-selfrighteous air bags.

Remember Matthew

5:5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
5:9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

And also remember all Religions are not CHRISTIAN belief.

Answer 7

they actually believe you are going to Burn for all eternity.
They do it out of love.
Even though they have no evidence.
This is how christians can be involved in things like the crusades, the inquisition which burnings and building bombing, etc
Its logically conclusive given the belief in an eternal damnation.

Thats why of all the religions Christianity must go. Islam also maybe, I dont know much about their beliefs.

So just remember, believe it or not, they actually are trying to save you from suffering in their opinion. Even though its BS!

Answer 8

Actually christian shd be like JC. note JC never have to push people to accept him, He is so in tune with His Father, miracles & healing are happening around him, He also has words of wisdom; people just are just draw to Him. If we , christian can & shd walk like tt , people will listen & want the goodies betow upon them too.

Answer 9

I don't belive my beliefs need to be pushed on others to gain eternal life. Everyone has been granted free will, and if I foist my beliefs onto others, I impinge on that free will.

Those who think they need to don't realize this is for APOSTLES to do, not disciples.

Answer 10

spread the word, amen. It's normal isn't it to try to convert as many people as possible. I think it's not just christians who do that. sorry i can't remember the word that defines it.

Answer 11

It's said you're supposed to spread the gospel. And in doing so, you make religion and churches money.

So you get called a good Christian, when really they just want your money. See how that works?