I order to believe in Hell you have to be Christian in the first place. Therefore to threaten me with eternal damnation if I don't repent is about as effective as telling me I'm going to have to stand in line at the DMV for all eternity after I die because I don't believe either are true.
2007-03-25 07:05:12 · 24 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Because its their way of trying to control people.
In the early days of the Christian Church there were many differing points of view (i.e. whether Jesus was a man or divine, whether Satan existed, how the church was to be goverened..whether we worship one God, etc, etc, etc. There was a lot of debate and dissention at this time. This threatened to destroy the budding religion so some charasmatic people of the church decided they needed something that would solidify the faith. They couldn't very well have thousands of differing views so they got together and decided they had to agree on what was the "true" Christian faith. The most famous of these Christian meetings was called The Nicene Creed that took place in 325. As a result of The Nicene Creed any views that did not fit in with the agreed consesus was labelled as heritical. It was quite convenient for Christians now, to look upon other viewpoints as being heritical and thereby, if you were found to disagree, you were told you would go to hell.
Ironically, this threat was not only useful against other sects of Christians (the typical facist system that says if you don't beleive as I do, then you're going to go to hell, or going to be put to death or be put in prision etc...) it was also effective at converting non Christians to the new faith. After all, no one wants to burn in a pit of eternal fire!
In a nutshell, it was, and still is a method of controlling people by fear. It's quite sad really, you'd think after all this time humans would have evolved and realized that pitting "us" against "them" is a very poor way of promotting peace and understanding which are "supposed" to be Christian virtues.
2007-03-25 07:47:56 · answer #1 · answered by Silverwing6700 2 · 1⤊ 5⤋
Does it matter whether you believe something is true or not for it to be true? You can tell me the colour of grass is blue for all eternity, but does that change that the colour of grass is green? No! So whether or not you believe in heaven or hell, it doesn't change the fact that if you do not accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour, you are going to die in your sins and are headed for eternal damnation. It is that simple, take it or leave it, it is up to you.
2007-03-25 07:18:16 · answer #2 · answered by charmaine f 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I believe they need to justify all the time they waste in church. It's like, they'd better be getting something out of it, and it probably bugs them that the non-believers get to have that free time to themselves. I agree with you; might as well spend their time in line at the DMV for all the good it's going to do. We all end up dead, that's it.
BTW, where does anyone get statistics on how many Christians say non-believers are going to hell. Isn't that the basic text of most Sunday sermons, never mind how often it comes up here?
2007-03-25 07:10:54 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
Hello James C.. :)
Just because someone does not believe something to be true, does not mean it is not so..
If a person told you that they heard on the News that a tornado was going to touch down in your city..
You could either believe they were telling the Truth or not..
Now what would the danger be, if you did not heed their warning and it does turn out to be true.. :(
I Love you and do not want to see you or anyone else perish..but share eternity beside me, in Paradise.. :)
In Jesus Most Precious Name..
With Love..In Christ.. :)
2007-03-25 07:19:29 · answer #4 · answered by EyeLovesJesus 6 · 1⤊ 2⤋
A lot of Christians are hypocrites. But the ones who truly obey Christianity's teachings wouldn't force their religion on others. Don't worry about it.
2007-03-25 07:14:18 · answer #5 · answered by John F 5 · 3⤊ 0⤋
My 11 year old daughter, who has many Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist and Jewish friends, was told by two of her Christian friends that she would go to Hell if she didn't attend Sunday School with them. Concerned, I talked to my daughter to see if she was hurt by this. The only sadness she felt was that her friends seemed so tortured by the idea. My daughter knew that the idea that all of her nice non-Christian friends would go to Hell is absurd.
As adults, we should feel the same way. The only people who are hurt by the idea of Hell are the people who give credence to such absurdity.
2007-03-25 07:13:48 · answer #6 · answered by Dendronbat Crocoduck 6 · 1⤊ 2⤋
I especially like it when they say it's common knowledge. If you don't worship Jesus you are going to hell. Common knowledge???? The christian religion is about as far from common knowledge as you will ever get. It's common knowledge that man cannot walk on water or turn water into wine. Unless of course parlour tricks are involved. So please Christians. Give that common knowledge phrase a break. It definitely does not belong in the christian realm.
2007-03-25 07:16:48 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 3⤋
Because they think it's reality. They think they are doing you a favor by telling you that you will spend eternity in fire if you don't believe what they believe.
They can't grasp the concept that believing in something doesn't make it truth.
2007-03-25 07:20:13 · answer #8 · answered by Sun: supporting gay rights 7 · 1⤊ 2⤋
Not believeing in 'Hell' does not mean it does not exist. Does believing a drink is good for one but is pure lethal poison; does it mean that when a person drinks it, the drink will not harm them?
2007-03-25 08:08:34 · answer #9 · answered by jefferyspringer57@sbcglobal.net 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
This question has resurfaced many times... we can't condemn anyone to hell, but we are instructed to tell the world the consequences of not accepting Christ and repenting to Him your sins. Read the New testament, preferably the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) and you will understand the stance that Christians take.
2007-03-25 07:10:52 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 4⤋