Let me try this again - I received this email and think it's very misleading. Just wondering?

Question

what are your thoughts? Since no one read the end of my last post, here are MY thougts first thing before you read the email. I believe this is a misrepresentation of the God I know. My God is full of love and grace and has been known to discipline but I don't believe He is so bent on getting people to believe in Him that he would kill someone for not believing He existed or for speaking badly of Him. How many people do you know that take God's name in vain every day or speak out against Him in one way or another? Have they died recently? Probably not. I think this email is sad but I wanted to post it on here just to kind of take a survey and see what your thoughts are. Please don't think that I believe this or back it up in any way. Don't point your anger or answer in my direction as I did not make this list up. Ok here it is:

John Lennon:
Some years before, during his interview with an American Magazine, he said:"Christianity will end, it will disappear. I do not have to argue about that. I am certain.Jesus was ok, but his subjects were too simple,Today we are more famous than Him" (1966). Lennon, after saying that the Beatles were more famous than Jesus Christ, was shot six times.
Tancredo Neves (President of Brazil): During the Presidential campaign, he said if he got 500,000 votes from his party, not even God would remove him from Presidency.Sure he got the votes, but he got sick a day before being made President, then he died.

Cazuza (Bi-sexual Brazilian composer, singer and poet):During A show in Canecio (Rio de Janeiro),whilst smoking his cigarette, he puffed out some smoke into the air and said:"God, that's for you." He died at the age of 32 of AIDS in a horrible manner.

Hold your answers- not done yet!

The man who built the Titanic
After the construction of Titanic, a reporter asked him how safe the Titanic would be. With an ironic tone he said:
"Not even God can sink it" The result:
I think you all know what happened to the Titanic.

Marilyn Monroe (Actress)
She was visited by Billy Graham during a presentation of a show. He said the Spirit of God had sent him to preach to her. After hearing what the Preacher had to say, she said: "I don't need your Jesus".A week later, she was found dead in her apartment.

Bon Scott (Singer)
The ex-vocalist of AC/DC. On one of his 1979songs he sang:"Don't stop me, I'm going down all the way, down
the highway to hell".On the 19th of February 1980, Bon Scott was found dead, he had been choked by his own vomit.

Almost done.

Campinas (IN 2005)
In Campinas, Brazil a group of friends, drunk, went to pick up a friend..... The mother accompanied her to the car and was so worried about the drunkenness of her friends and she said to the daughter - holding her hand- who was already seated in the car: "My Daughter, Go With God And May He Protect You.."She responded: "Only If He (God) Travels
In The Trunk, Cause Inside Here..... It's Already Full" Hours later, news came by that they had been involved in a fatal accident, everyone had died, the car could not be recognized what type of car it had been, but surprisingly, the trunk was intact. The police said there was no way the trunk could have remained intact. To their surprise, inside the trunk was a crate of eggs, none were broken.

Christine Hewitt (Jamaican Journalist and entertainer)
Said the Bible (Word of God) was the worst book ever written. In June 2006 she was found burnt beyond recognition in her motor vehicle.

OK. That's the whole email. You know how I feel. Tell me what you think about this. I'm really curious about what people believe

That's what I thought about John Lennon too. So God waited that long to kill him for saying something like that but about a week for everyone else? What about the girl who gets into the car full of drunk friends? Kind of a "duh" moment. I don't think God had to do much in that situation. It's just very angering that people pass this on as fact and try to frighten others into becoming Christians.

No, chapelite_av, I have not made a god in my image. I know that God is just and disciplines and has wrath. I kinda touched on that a little. Do you really think that God killed these people for saying how they feel? What about all the people in the Bible who questioned God? They weren't all stricken dead.

Answer 1

Though I don't believe in the BIble, I think the proper rebuttal to all this can be found there:

Matthew 5:45--"That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust."

In other words, things happen. To all of us. How many Christians die horrible deaths? Lots, from people who are shot in drive-bys in America to the people being massacred in Darfur. And how many non-Christians die peacefully in their sleep of old age? Again, lots.

I am so glad there are Christians like you who have more compassion than that.

Answer 2

My thoughts are, someone had to do some research to come up with this. In all cases, there is a rational, non-religious answer. BTW, if you really research it (I've read other arguments but don't have access to actual records-like most people); there is no direct mention of a Jesus Christ outside Gnostic and the Bible gospels we have now (there were mentions of 'Christ' but at the time it was a description word for other 'saviors'), so I would say that John Lennon was right. He was simply stating a fact that the Beatles were better known at their time of existence than Jesus was at his. I don't know about now but there's not a lot to go on historically). He goes on to state an opinion about the longevity of the religion but the author apparently is forgetting the thousands of years Egyptology, Mayan/Aztec religions, Greek, pagan, etc have survived and yet, they had an ending, too.
But, if you don't believe in Hell, why limit your beliefs to a monotheistic deity, when there's not reliable evidence to go on? There's a lot to learn from other religions if you don't worry that you'll be punished from pursuing knowledge.

Oldguy124 answer-who is that?! I just read his 'answer'. What a world of misery he must live in to be that mean!

Answer 3

Do you not read your Bible at all? Why do you point to these examples about Hollywood actresses? And let me tell you something else; Billy Graham is the last person to listen to regarding anything spiritual.

I watched him say on Sep. 14 2001 that God is not the author of evil, and on 9/11 he couldn't even watch what was happening, in fact he didn't want it to happen. Can you believe that?

Ish. 45:7 "I form the light and I create darkness, I make peace and I CREATE EVIL; I the Lord do all these things."

There it says that the Lord is the original author of evil. Many people don't see the symbolism behind the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Now, to your question; God has absolutely raised people up to go against his will, so that he can either destroy them to show his power, or to save them to show his love by simple contrast, or to do whatever he needs to do in order to achieve his goal, which is to create mankind in his image. All will eventually be saved, and as the Apostle Paul said "God will be ALL IN ALL." He hardened the Pharaohs heart and then destroyed him, but it was Paul who was going to Damascus to persecute the Christians before God struck him down and changed his heart.

Just because God makes people die (in whatever way) does not mean he doesn't love them, he does. He is making children to be in his very image, and that means that his children must learn good, evil, and every value and virtue that exists. To develop inanimate things like character it takes a creation, that creation’s circumstances, and time. He develops our faith by making us live in a world without him, and because we’ve lived without him in terrible agony (wars, murderers, famine, disease etc.) it will be much more pleasurable to finally live with him.

Answer 4

The first example kind of kills their point. Lennon lived on for years after the quote about the importance of Jesus to teenagers vs the Beatles. At the time what he was saying was probably true. He was just explaining what he saw as a simple fact and not a judgment against God or Jesus.
I don't have any reason to believe they are any more accurate in their other examples.

Answer 5

Isn't it amazing how people see what they want to see? How about all the people who prayed and prayed and "never got their answer?" The reality is that some people are happy with the idea of a vengeful God that will hurt and destroy, because that is what they wish deep down inside....to hurt people, kind of like the witch burnings, which I won't go into here, because we all know about them. It is too bad that people feel the need to scare or guilt people into coming to God; if it happens at all, it should a wonderful, fulfilling experience, not to be endured with trepidation. I am not personally Christian, but I have Christian (many brands!), Episcopalian (whom I call Catholic Light), Catholic, Jewish, Mormon.....the list goes on and on, and after having spoken with most of them at length, I have come to this conclusion......The people who truly believe (whatever their religion is!) and have faith, and have made peace with themselves and whatever positive source they care to name it as, do not try to shove this crap down other people's throats, do not accuse others of being sinners, do not go door-to-door trying to save people, and do not scream at the top of their lungs, "nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah, I know Jesus, you should too!"; they just "know". According to their own religion, I think the only person who walked this earth that had the right to be arrogant (and wasn't!), they're still waiting for him to come back. I'm sorry that the e-mail you received made you sad; I get stuff like that all the time at work, even though I know they're not supposed to send the stuff. I just read it, keep in mind the bits I liked about being nice to people and stuff, delete the message, and go on with my work. I used to get upset and offended, then I realized that their beliefs didn't shake the fact that mine were different and worked for me! There's more than one road to get where we're going, and I just happen to like my little footpath through the woods. Sometimes I think the aspect of diety is a multifaceted gem (or, for you gamers [hi!], a d-100, which never roll right anyway), and everyone's peeking in at a different view of the same damn thing. It could look like a flower, but you'll get ten thousand different answers from different views....it's red, green, pretty, scary, ugly, big, little, long, short, it's a thorn, it's a petal.....If you ask a hundred people to draw a flower, they will all draw totally different flowers. How in the heck can we expect billions of people to view diety in just one form?? Anyway, those were my thoughts. I think it's wonderful if someone can find peace in religion or spirituality. I also think it's wonderful if someone doesn't feel the need to do so. All I want is to be able to look myself in the mirror every day; I don't really worry about other people see my reflection. Whole bunches of hugs to you just in case you get hate spam!

Answer 6

This is just Coincidence. Wrong place at the wrong time.

Ecc. 9:11 "time and unforeseen occurrence befall us all"

However, we need to remember:
Gal. 6: 7 says " Do not be misled: God is not one to be mocked. For whatever a man is sowing, this he will also reap."
Sometimes they reap a better harvest quickly. In other instances, they may seem to prosper for a long time. In contrast, Jesus, who never did wrong, was cruelly mistreated and put to death. So, in this system of things prosperity should not be viewed as proof of God's blessing, nor should adversity be considered proof of his disapproval.

Answer 7

God has reserved a day for judgment. But he can judge in this life as well with physical death or suffering (see Dan 4:33; Acts 12:23).

Answer 8

Every person who believes in God and a religion take God's name in vain everyday. You need to look at the definition of "in vain".......means without success. So anyone who prays to God for their child to be cured of cancer and it is not done has taken God's name in vain. Any priest who asks God to forgive our sins, yet we are judged before God, has taken God's name in vain.
You also go against religious thought by stating that God has disciplined or been known to. If we have free will on this planet (according to the religious monkeys....oops I meant followers), then God would not discipline but allow people to have free will that he supposedly granted us. If God disciplines then we do not have free will.
In regards to the e-mail, there are lots of people who believe in God and die everyday in horrible ways. Hence, humans will die in horrible ways just like we have since the beginning of time and will continue to the end of time, regardless of beliefs.

Answer 9

well christians are a manipulative bunch who try to play the fear card to win converts anyway some of those things were pretty much bound to happen particularly the car accident with the drunk teens i find the way that christians go about doing things is disgusting seriously

Answer 10

hi. well their are 2 deaths that some will have but those how have said with their mouth that they have taken Jesus as the personal savor . to save them from the second death will not die . they will be save to eternal life ..
admit you are a sinner..romans 3:10
be willing to turn from sin(repent) Acts. 17:30
believe that Jesus diad for u was buired and rose from the dead.Rom 10:9-10
through prayer, invite Jesus into your live to become your personal savior Rom.10:13.
what do u pray? dear God i am a sinner and need forgieness .
i believe that jesus shead his precious blood and died for my sin. i am willing to turn from sin. i now invite Jesus to come in to my hart and life as my personal savior.

AND TELL YOUR FRIEND THE SAME. FOR WHEN YOU DIE THE 1ST DEATH .YOU WILL KNOW NOT THE LOST.