If Christianity were like this.... All welcome?

Question

Let's say that Christianity was slightly different. All of the teachings and laws were the same. There's a compassionate God who loves his children (yes, I know this is a debatable point which I too would contest, but assume it for this question). Everything is the same except for two small points. God, whether by lack of ability or a want to make us independent, informs us that he will not respond to requests in prayers. That and there's no salvation. No damnation either; just nothing.

If you are a Christian, would you still follow a Christian life living by God's law and praying to him? If you would continue this, would your faith or religious experience be different at all?

For anyone, Christian or not, how would you expect this change to affect Christianity's following? If you expect a significant decline, does this mean you see their faith as motivated by selfish interests rather than altruistic sentiments? I guess that wording shows my opinion, but I'd like to hear yours.

Elisha- God created a lot of other things besides people, many of which die out or are destroyed. I've never heard of anything besides people having a chance at salvation. Does that mean the rest of God's creation is pointless?

Justin- I don't think it's really moot in the least. Yes, it would be pointless to imagine a water molecule with an extra atom, but asking if this new chemical would have properties similar to water, like would it be an appropriate chemical to allow for life, is an interesting and useful question.

WhynotaskDonnieandMarie- You think this God is evil? Just because you don't get eternity, he's evil all of a sudden? He made the world that we could live in it (albeit for a limited time) and gave us life. To me that's like saying that giving a doll to a girl is evil because she wanted a pony.

Matt- Thanks for your answer. The reason I worded it that God would not respond to requests in prayer was that I still wanted to allow for the possibility of other meaningful prayer. Saying "God doesn't respond to prayers" would have cut off more than what I meant. People could feel free to chat away with God, just don't ask for a loan.

Cari: I was thinking about what you said, and I think that if God had given us these conditions, it would be inviting us to question him. It would be the true free will, where we are free to make our own choices and only deal with the natural consequences, not some being's judgement.

Answer 1

It's hard to say how different it would be. I can reflect on how I feel now.

I'm not in my faith for any sort of reward other than the feeling I get knowing I am close to God. Prayer, for me, is not only about asking things...that's one type of prayer (Petition). One thing prayer always is for me is communicating with God. It might be reflecting on how my day went. It might be enjoying a nice day outside. It might be thankful that the rain came and I don't have to water the lawn. :)

I think an interesting way to look at this might be to see how different stages of faith development would react. Look at Fowler's Stages of Faith Development sometime. It's an interesting theory and I have used it as a model for thinking about a lot of religious/faith related questions. Check out the link in my resources page. Just an avenue to look at it differently.

Matt

Answer 2

I guarantee there would be a decline.. in a good way. It would weed out all the people who are only in it for the reward and the chance to tell everyone else the great rewards they will enjoy and the great punishments everyone else will suffer. There really and truly are people out there who arent in it for the supposed rewards those are the Christians I like to be friends with, those are the truly tolerant people who simply believe in a higher power and a larger reason for morality. Those people I respect, the ones who tell everyone else they are going to hell are the ones I disrespect and the ones I believe are only in it (so to speak) for the promised rewards and the false sense of superiority it gives them. There are both kinds of people within christianity, those motivated by selfish interests and those who truly are altruistic. For these people I think the religious experience would not be different at all because the "salvation" was never their motivation to begin with.

Answer 3

Most of the appeal of a religion is the chance of heaven if you are good (do what the priests say) and the threat of hell if you are bad.

If you just die at the end of your life, then what is in it for them? What was the point of giving 10% of all your money to the priests if it is not going to buy to a place in heaven?

I would expect a significant decline, and an increase in the nearest religion with a decent heaven and a threatening hell.

Answer 4

Yes, that would cause a decline in the Christian religion because Christianity, like most other religions, offers people what they want most. The chance to live after death. If that is stripped from the Christian masses they will gripe, complain, call their previous god a deciver and eventually move on with their lives. Greed is what draws people to religions and if the rewards are removed then what point is there to follow?

Answer 5

Even the Bible itself encourages its readers to evaluate the scriptures simply because the Beroeans did. For they got the phrase with the finest eagerness of brain, cautiously analyzing the Scriptures day-to-day as as to whether those matters have been so. Notice that they tested the scriptures day-to-day to look if what they have been being instructed was once within the scriptures. (Acts 17:eleven) As a Christian and a pupil of the Bible, I have talked to many professed Christians in my ministry. I can inform you that the majority recognize not anything approximately what the Bible particularly teaches and correctly have under no circumstances learn it. Yet, those ones declare to be Christians and haphazardly think with out 'examing' for themselves. Thus, they think improper teachings as fact and feature grow to be facet of Babylon the Great, the Empire of False Religion. They have made a 'Great Compromise.' Under attack and scrutiny via technological know-how and philosophy, rather of taking a stand for what the Bible teaches, Churches have given in to the pressures and compromised even on such principal articles of religion as construction via God and the authenticity of the Bible. The outcomes? Christendom’s church buildings have misplaced credibility, and lots of humans have misplaced religion. The failure of the church buildings to come back to their possess safety leaves the door extensive open for the hundreds to march out. To many humans, faith is not more than a sociological relic, whatever to mark the top features in a single’s lifestyles—beginning, marriage, demise. Many have all however given up the seek for the actual God.

Answer 6

It wouldn't matter what the conditions or rules are, as you might say. If God is the Creator and He sets certain ways of how things are and what He expects from us, His created beings, then who would we be to question that or complain about it? I would serve God in whatever manner He deems as the right way to do so.

Answer 7

Your question starts based on a premises which is contrary to the basic fundamental of the Bible's standpoint regarding God and his nature; hence, any explanation given around this assumption would always lead to the wrong results. Bible which is the Word of God (the instruction manual) for human beings in whom God breathed his soul (which is not so in animals and hence they are different who were made to be subject to man and do not need salvation since they don't have any concept of sin or good and bad). Man committed sin and separated from the Holy God who loves them as father. Man is not capable of justifying himself before God when he has to face God after physical death and hence a pardon to sin was required. God himself paid the price because of unselfish love for us by incarnating himself as human being (Jesus Christ) and has made a way for salvation.

Based on this, our faith in God should not be based on our physical/material needs which God provides when we pray but it is actually to be based on the Love of God and our need for God's love and salvation. If our faith in God is based on this principal, I am sure there is no one who would waiver from his faith whether God answers the prayer and provides the need or not.

The need for salvation and condemnation for sins cannot be discarded because this is a fact. If God was not a just and holy then probably your assumptions would apply, which is not the case in reality.

So may God bless you and open your eyes of understanding to know the truth, and the truth may set you free.

Answer 8

As a Christian for 44 years, I can truly say that I wouldn't have lived any other way. It's been a clean, fun, healthy, just, and family,friend oriented way of life. The choice has been all mine!

Answer 9

This sounds like the John Lennon song. Yes i would still follow God as i do now and i hope i would do it better than i am now. God still loved us enough to create us and this world we live in so why wouldnt we.

Answer 10

When God created man, He gave him one simple rule:
(Gen 2:17 KJV) But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
But man rebeled. Man is the one that brought the punishment in the lake of fire upon themselves. The lake of fire was created for the devil and his followers.
Sin works death, that is sickness, lack of what is needed, and spiritual and physical death.
Man calls God mean, when His rules actually work to protect and prosper man.Man try to justify their sins like abortion, fornication and other sexual sins, and all sins as rights when, they were declared sins to keep people out of punishment.
Jesus himself declared that HE was THE way and that there was no other way besides Him. Gandi and the others will not be in heaven, only those in faith of Jesus.