In the New Testament, these words are ascribed to Jesus: "Judge not lest you be judged, for the judgment you give you shall receive." In other words, if you damn people to hell, you're really damning yourself--if Christianity is true.
Also, the Turn 'n' Burn argument actually drives non-believers away. Why would any sane 'heathen' want to believe in some damnation-happy Guy in the Sky?
Finally, it's just offensive. You might not believe in Harvey the Invisible Rabbit yourself, but if I keep harping constantly about how Harvey is going to smite you with the Carrot or Wrath (TM), it's probably going to annoy you anyways.
So, why are some True Believers so damnation-happy and quick to send others to hell? Do they have a lot of hostility towards the rest of the human race?
2007-10-28 14:15:24 · 23 answers · asked by crypto_the_unknown 4 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Great question! I am new tonight to this forum, but let me shed some light on your concerns the best I can. The judge not lest ye be judged is very important because most of us talk about the speck in our brothers eye, not paying attention to the plank in our own eye! This is one big reason for that Scripture.
It does not however keep us from making judgements for situations and things that are occuring to us personally! This is where having the Holy Spirit dwelling within you, that will keep you from temptations, and making the wrong judgement calls on situations in your life.
We need to follow all of God's happiness rules, His 10 commandments! We need to share this message of love(gospel) carefully, because the words we say have eternal consequences for those who would be listening at the other end! Like you are saying, who would want anything to do with a God who supposedly would enjoy torturing people in a burning hell!
Okay, this question is great! I really want to explain this one!
It is deep, so stay with me! To verify, you will need to search the Scriptures to know what I am about to reveal is truth!
Satan wants people to believe their souls are immortal.
His 1st lie in the garden was "you shall surely not die". Most people on the planet have been led to believe they have an immortal soul. This is New Age thinking.
Death is sleep. When we die we are in a state of sleep in our graves, awaiting the first resurrection when Christ returns (His redeemed or saved), or the 2nd resurrection of the damned 1000 years later (those who rejected the plan of salvation that Jesus offered sacrificing Himself at the cross as our Lamb of God).
I will back this up with Scriptural references that death is sleep so we can go from there.
Psalm13:3 Consider and hear me, O Lord my God;
Enlighten my eyes, Lest I sleep the sleep of death;
How long will my enemy be exalted over me?
Matthew 9:24 He said to them, "Make room, for the girl is not dead, but sleeping." And they ridiculed Him
1st Corinthians 15:51 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed---
52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead
will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
Ephesians 5:14 Therefore He says:"Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light."
John 11:11 These things He said, and after that He said to them, "Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up."
Jesus did not take Lazarus back from heaven! Think about how silly that is!??!!
The beauty of people believing this lie for satan is this. Once he has people believing that their souls are eternal, then he has you believing that you must then therefore spend eternity either in heaven (immediately after death), or you go to H E double hockey sticks immediately, and then must burn forever since you supposedly are immortal! This is beautiful deception, because exactly what you said comes into play for millions of fence sitters. They now think, why in the world would I want to believe in a God, who would torture people forever in hell? Right? Who would?
Remember now that satan is the "great deceiver"! God is a God of love. He does not anyone to perish, He wants everyone to choose life and be with Him throughout eternity, since you are the only one like you and you are irreplacible, and the fact that He loves you so much He gave up His only Son for you and me.
Getting people to believe in the immortal soul, then creates that ridiculous image that God is a God of hate and torture, and satan wins those people!
The answer to your last question, is there are many totally ignorant Christians, who do not spend time in the Scriptures, to know God's truth! They claim to be Christians, and like you say, may point fingers, but do not know their Father in heaven!
They do more harm than good for His Kingdom! Satan is happy! Half witted so-called Christians saying things that are just not Scriptural at all, and driving possible souls for His Kingdom away! Satan wins, and takes more to destruction with him!
God has reserved immortality for His people! Immortality is not for the wicked! Destruction is reserved for the wicked, and it will be eternal, and final. There will be nothing left of the wicked but their ashes under our feet forever, or eternally!
No getting to be an immortal in a hot furnace, where satan gets immortality too, to use his pitchfork to "turn and burn" people! It is really really sad that satan has deceived so many, making them believe in a place called hell! Hell is death or grave in translation! Hell is the event of fire being brought down from heaven by God to extinguish all evil once and for all!
After taking His saints (rapture or snatching away) with Him for 1000 years in heaven, where we will be judging even the angels, satan and his demons (1/3 fallen angels) will be bound to the desolated earth, see Peter 3:10, to contemplate his fate for 1000 years with no one left to deceive, and only his demons are left to ponder with him.
Jesus and His saints return with the New Jerusalem after 1000 years, and the 2nd resurrection of the damned takes place, and satan is loosed for a short time. Then they try to war with Jesus and His saints, and this is when the event of hell takes place where fire comes down and destroys the wicked once and for all!
Check out Revelation 21:8
8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
Rev 21:8 (KJV)
No turning and burning, or wicked given immortal suntans! It says death! Death is not being alive and burning, and screaming in pain, it is non existence! Our first death is like sleep, but the second death is being extinguised, and non existant!
Real Christians my friend are guided by the Holy Spirit, and know the Scriptures, and care what comes out of their mouths, and speak truth!
Thanks for your important questions that needed answering! I am available for all who need answers, as there is not much time left to get ready! Feel free anyone to email me with your questions, as I need to be about my Fathers business, which includes everyone on the internet!
Blessings to All!
2007-10-28 15:43:21 · answer #1 · answered by NationalSundayLawComingSoon 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You know I have the same issue with them. I think its because of the inherent flaws in their argument, biggest reason why I'm a Norse Pagan.
Simply put, how can a loving God damn those who do not accept His commandments as precisely as the current mortal interpretation to everlasting pain and suffering? If there was a human dictator like that he would be called capricious and probably psychotic as well as narcissistic, but its ok because it is a divinity, go figure.
The only logical possibility is that there is another, possibly more, competing and sadistic divinity powerful enough to take people into this place of torment if they are not protected by a particular God. But this doesn't work if Jehovah is all-knowing and all-powerful because if He truly is then there could not be such a competing divinity to threaten Him and His Creation and followers, so there lies the conundrum.
On one hand you are stuck with a very sick loving God or on the other an all-powerful God who isn't. Either way you have inherent conflicts of logic involved to believe in something like that especially when you assume both tenets to be true. My theory is that because of this the Fundies instead of working on introspection and intense examination of themselves to understand what works best for them turn their frustration outward so they don't have to deal with what is roiling around inside them. Not to say Christianity itself is bad or the teachings of Christ are, just that the best Christians I've met are the ones who live their lives according to the words of Christ and read the Bible for themselves as well as interpreted it for themselves NOT evangelizing to other people. I think this is because they've found the peace they need to lead good, fulfilling lives and have no need to vent their frustrations in an odd and rather hostile fashion.
For that reason I'm happy with my very simple (by comparison) system where what Gods favor one the most determines one's place in the afterlife between lifetimes and all the Gods ask for is demonstration of virtue, not prostrate obedience. Heck, even a hardcore Christian if they prove themselves worthy when they shuffle off the mortal coil instead of seeing harps and angels hear the great horns and the rush of the Valkyrie wings as they are swept off to another place set for them at Odin's table. That and it just makes more sense to me that there is more than one God out there, it helps make sense of all the chaos in the world. And please don't preach at me, I'm happy with my Gods thankyouverymuch.
2007-10-29 02:34:17 · answer #2 · answered by lonehawkboy 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I am really really glad you said "some " believers, thanks.
The only answer I can give is -twisted doctrine.
Some only read the Bible the way they want it to read in their minds.
In John 12:47 Jesus is talking and He even says" If anyone hears my sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world , but to save the world." It goes on to say that yes these people will be judged on the last day, but anyway, so yeah, people are twisted, and the Truth is twisted all the time.
2007-10-28 21:36:01 · answer #3 · answered by wxyz 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Nobody judges but God himself and no-one can send anyone to hell but God. If your house was on fire, I would not just knock on your door and go away if you did not answer.Especially if I knew you were at home. The same goes for warning non-believers about the wrath of God. God is very forgiving but if you have been taught and you still refuse to accept Jesus Christ as your savior,You are choosing yourself to go to hell.People that keep talking to you and keep talking are just doing their job as Christians and trying to save your life. If you truly think a Giant Rabbit is going to come and smite people with a carrot, you need to try to warn them.
2007-10-28 21:27:31 · answer #4 · answered by Ava 5 · 2⤊ 1⤋
First, I'm sorry you feel "threatened". If a doctor told you that you are close to getting diabetes if you don't change your eating habits, is that the doctor threatening you?
Second, warning a person of the potential consequences of one's behavior ("Don't play with matches, you might get burned", et cetera) is not judging. Judging is when you take a person's actions and add motives.
Third, how would you feel if a member of the fire department decided to NOT try to awaken you from your deep sleep when a neighbor reports smoke coming from the basement?
Is it a threat, a warning, or an attempt to rescue you? From the Christian's perspective, it's no different than the fire fighter trying to get someone out of their burning house if the occupants are in a deep sleep.
Finally, nobody is damning anybody to hell. In fact, Jesus said "When God sent His Son into the world, it was NOT to condmenn the world, but to save it."
He went on to say "Whoever believes that God sent His Son into the world will NOT be condemned. Whoever does NOT believe that God sent His Son into the world is already condemned anyway ..." WHY? Because "ALL have sinned and fall short of God's glory (God's expectations of us)", but "The wages of sin is death", that is to say that sin pays us back by sending us to hell.
In fact the Bible says that God cries out, "I do NOT take pleasure in the death of the wicked!" and again that God does not want ANY to perish, but that ALL should come to a place of repentance. God cried out, "Please choose Life that you might live!" (Jesus said "I am Life.")
It's not hostility that wants to warn and rescue people from stepping off the edge of a cliff into a deep chasm 1,000s of feet deep.
I pray that this opens your eyes to what Christians are really all about.
In the words of one song that I personalize, "I once was lost, but now I'm found; was blind, but now I see."
2007-10-28 21:36:27 · answer #5 · answered by no1home2day 7 · 1⤊ 2⤋
The "Join us or Die" mindset has continued since the christian cult first began.
Fear and guilt are major tools in recruiting people into cults. Competition was eliminated so it could get a foot hold over the much nicer Pagan religions.
Doctors were also using Xianity to eliminated Apothecaries and any other medical system that actually worked.
2007-10-28 21:32:54 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
I don't understand it either. My goal when I witness is to tell the person about Jesus and what he has done for me. To speak of his love. It is not my place to pass judgment on an unbeliever.
The scripture that you refer to is for the Christian only about judging. It was written for admonishing within the Church. People seem to forget the part where it is stated that for those "unbelievers," God has sole judgment. <><
James 4:11-12
2007-10-28 21:30:56 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
To threaten another person just exposes a weakness and lack of understanding of who and what the inner man in reality is. God does not threaten His creation, so how is that man should threaten? Anyway, the threat of damnation will never cleanse a mortal of his love for sin, but understanding will.
2007-10-28 21:25:27 · answer #8 · answered by ? 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I have no power to threaten you with anything. No man or woman can "send you" to Hell. And nobody's damnation would please me. If you do not believe in any of those things, why so threatened? You can throw Harvey and his carrot at me all day long, and it won't mean a thing to me- not even to annoy me- because I do not believe in it. At all. So if you do not believe in an eternal judgment, why are you so worried about it?
2007-10-28 21:26:54 · answer #9 · answered by Amalthea 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
First, you need to learn what Jesus meant when He says "judge not..." Secondly, why is hell offensive when your's and my sin is like stench to God. He has every right to be offended at sin. Man has no right to accept Grace, but not want to hear judgement. Lastly, Jesus spoke of judgement and hell more than He did love and mercy. Obviously, God thought it was important enough to speak heavily up on, so why should'nt we as His children do the same? We do so because "He" commands us to have the mind of Christ
( Philippians 2 :5 ).
2007-10-28 21:27:15 · answer #10 · answered by HeVn Bd 4 · 2⤊ 1⤋
If you went out and robbed a bank, you will go to jail.
Does THAT offend you?
Of course not, because I'm telling the truth. Criminal activity results in jail time.
Yet you have a problem with me saying if you reject God, you will go to hell.
What's the difference?
I'm not threatening you....I'm telling you what GOD says.
As for "judge not".....you're right in one sense. We are NOT to judge whether a particular individual will be going to hell because we are not God and that final judgment rests with Him ALONE. However, in a greater sense, we DO know that those who are not saved do not go to heaven. ("They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth" Matthew 13:42)
2007-10-28 21:23:04 · answer #11 · answered by lady_phoenix39 6 · 5⤊ 4⤋