Is it Okay to At Least Make Friends With Atheists, Or Love Them??

Question

2 Corinthians 6


Do Not Be Yoked With Unbelievers

14Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? 15What harmony is there between Christ and Belial[1] ? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? 16What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people."[2]
17"Therefore come out from them
and be separate, says the Lord.
Touch no unclean thing,
and I will receive you."[3]

If you EVER make any friendly contact with an atheist, you will go STRAIGHT to Hell. GOD of the bible HATES ATHEISTS WITH ALL HIS LOVE!

Isn't the Bible just lovely?

Answer 1

Darwin loves you

Answer 2

I have atheists friends that I love dearly. I would not marry someone who didn't share my beliefs because they are too big a part of who I am, and I wouldn't want to spend my life with someone who couldn't or wouldn't participate in that part of my life. No where in the verse that you quoted does it say anything about going to Hell for having atheist friends. I believe that not being unequally yoked is about marriage, not friendship, and when I look at my devout Christian friends who are married to either athiests or people of other faiths, I see many of the difficulties that I think God foresaw when he said that. God could not have meant that we are not to be friends with unbelievers if you look at the whole Bible in context rather than taking one passage and isolating it. We are told to love our neighbor as our selves, and we are told to evangelize. You can't very well win converts if you don't make friends first.

Answer 3

This is actually speaking about being married to an unbeliever; that is what "being yoked" means. It refers to two oxen yoked together, working as a team, just like in marriage. You don't yoke a little ox with strong ox, because they wouldn't be able to make a good team. The same is true with a Christian being married to a non-Christian; two Christians are equally yoked and therefore make a better team. This passage isn't referring to being friends with a non-believer.

Answer 4

Yes.......

.........but you seem to be interpreting the letter of Saint Paul To The Corinthians.

Protestants claim the Bible is the only rule of faith, meaning that it contains all of the material one needs for theology and that this material is sufficiently clear that one does not need apostolic tradition or the Church’s magisterium to help one understand it. In the Protestant view, the whole of Christian truth is found within the Bible’s pages. Anything extraneous to the Bible is simply non-authoritative, unnecessary, or wrong—and may well hinder one in coming to God.

Catholics, on the other hand, recognize that the Bible does not endorse this view and that, in fact, it is repudiated in Scripture. The true "rule of faith"—as expressed in the Bible itself—is Scripture plus apostolic tradition, as manifested in the living teaching authority of the Catholic Church, to which were entrusted the oral teachings of Jesus and the apostles, along with the authority to interpret Scripture correctly.

Gospel According to Saint John
Chapter 15
12 This is my commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you.


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Answer 5

The bible was written by men trying to consolidate political power and bring in believers...doubtful that Jesus would have gone along with a lot of the stuff in the bible - especially if you take the main message from Jesus which is love. Personally, I'm not a christian but there is a lot of both wisdom and foolishness in the bible - you have pointed out some of the foolishness.

Answer 6

This is talking about marriage and dating. Christian are to go forth into the nations and spread the gospel not just by our words but our actions. it is hard to show anyone Christs love through us without getting an opportunity to know them first . I see nothing wrong with becoming friends with them and you should love them as Christ does. Who was it that God hung out with was it always the believers? No he went with his disciples to adulterers, tax collectors and the demon possessed etc to help them and teach them.
" For God so love the world that HE gave HIS only begotten son to die that whosoever believeth in HIM should not perish but have everlasting life."- John 3:16

Answer 7

How do we know who the "unbelievers" were, that they are talking about? It wasn't Christianity, it hadn't been formed yet. Did you know that, after the open letter was read to the seven churches, they collapsed? So I guess organized religion wasn't the thing. Of course, org. rel. did rise again, as was predicted. Yes, I think its ok to at least be friends with atheists.

Answer 8

Ah sure, Paul... he's my in demand, maximum rabid of the converts. no longer something like an ex-sinner while it is composed of being judgmental. i've got oftentimes felt the bible could have made plenty greater experience/study greater advantageous in the event that they had in basic terms excised each and every thing Paul wrote. attempt protecting in concepts which you are going to do plenty greater advantageous spiritually in case you focus on the aspects of the bible that are the certainly words of Jesus Christ and take those written by technique of the likes of Paul with a grain of salt. Christ preached love and bringing those to the religion by technique of occasion, Paul preached hatred and intolerance and slaughtering people who did no longer have faith (no longer incredible thinking his history. He did no longer truly replace all that plenty while the scales fell).

Answer 9

Nobody knows for sure how, when, or why life started not even atheists, but I don't think we should hate atheists (even though I'm a catholic) although they are people just like you and me so the choice is up to you. You can be a friend or you can even marry one if you want but I'm not here to influence your choice.

Answer 10

As a mainline Christian .. it's those ignorant, redneck, bible-thumping scum sucking, right-wing, Jerry Falwell, fundamentalists that give me the shivers and the vast majority of Christians a bad name. Other than these "godly" sleaze balls... I love anybody of no faith or any faith that are committed to living a good, principled life.

Answer 11

That is the trickiest question I've heard in a very long time. You just have to look at my life to get your answer as to why not befriend those of