Does this example help Christians understand why they will NEVER, EVER bring the world to Christianity?

Question

The biggest challenge to change is entrenched dogma. Once a belief has been maintained and reinforced long enough, it cannot be changed via reason.

But why is this?

Lets suppose I took an entire town and had every parent raise every newborn child with a "revised" bible. In this new bible, everything would be REVERSED. God would be evil, and Satan would be good. Hell would be a reward, and heaven a punishment. Same basic story except everything would be backwards. To completely innocent minds, they could not know the difference, and with no exposure to outside thinking, they never would.

Fast forward ten generations. Their belief system is now as certain as yours. They believe Satan is as good as you believe god is.

Do you have ANY chance of convincing them otherwise?
Wouldn't your assertions that god is their savior sound as insane to them as someone declaring to you that Satan is your savior?

This is why you cannot "save" people, or "bring" them to Christianity.

Get it?

Answer 1

You're argument doesn't hold water. For that matter ,it can't even pass the laugh test. How would you explain children indoctrinated into communism then rising up against the regime that had brained washed them since birth? These children had zero outside contact.Communism is all they knew. They certainly rejected the nonsense and lies being fed to them. Get it?

Answer 2

Perhaps you wish to deflect criticism away from Christians for their part in the evils of Naziism and the Holocaust, and you think that by narrowing it down to whether Hitler was Christian or not, you can do so, using the logic that if Hitler wasn't Christian, then Christians weren't responsible for all those terrible things. But yours is a false logic. Whether Hitler was a Christian or not, it's abundantly clear that the vast majority of supporters were Christians. As you yourself say, 90% of the population was Christian. Without those supporters, Hitler would have just been some crackpot on the street corner shouting crazy things. Those Christian supporters praised him, supported him, ran the government, ran the concentration camps, killed the disabled, rounded up dissidents, turned their backs on the suffering, and committed countless cruel acts. Also: you have no evidence about him being in favor of evolution. However, we have considerable evidence that he believed in junk science that contradicted evolutionary teachings.

Answer 3

IF this were to happen I suppose God would speak to someone in the same way He did the prophets of old and tell them to warn the people that they were being deceived. You underestimate the Holy Spirit. The very thing you speak of is being attempted to a smaller degree all the time but the Holy Spirit can break through the lies and cover ups to reveal the truth. That's His job and He is very good at it. Jesus said the gates of hell will not prevail against His church! Hell keeps tring and keeps losing. The more Christians have been killed throughout history, the more the church grows. Sorry it can't be stopped. We don't "bring'' people to Christianity. The Holy Spirit does.I once thought pretty much as you do. I was raised by an Atheist father and when the Holy Spirit began drawing me I thought I was losing my mind. I know the power of the conviction of the Holy Spirit firsthand. He's not limited to what we think of Him. May your thoughts be drawn into the captivity of the Holy Spirit.

Answer 4

It may help some of them, but just as with Christianity and the fact as you assert, that they will never convince the world to convert, all the wisdom in the world is not going to convince all of the Christians that their god can't do everything and anything.

But if anyone could, you could. You always have powerful and logical arguments. There are a few people who post terrific questions on this site, questions full of logic that is not possible to refute, other than by ignoring it. You are one of those people.

Ciao,
Lady Morgana

Answer 5

We plant the seeds, God makes it grow. We don't change people's hearts - we can't! God can - and He does so every day.

"Belief system"? God is permanently ingrained and embedded into my heart. It's a whole lot more than a belief system, believe me! Just had to point this out...

Not only that, but do you realize that people convert to different religions every day?

Do you realize that there are people here on this very website who have been saved, brought to Christ by other people?

We Christians aren't out to convert the world's populace, but rather to spread the Gospel to the ends of the earth, just as Jesus commanded us to do. Converting people and spreading the Gospel aren't the same thing.

Okay, I've made my point...

Get it?

Answer 6

While your premise is interesting, and actually valid in some regards you err at the following point:
"This is why you cannot "save" people, or "bring" them to Christianity."

The truth of the matter is I can save no one, even myself. God does the saving. You can read the first 2 chapters of Ephesians for more but here is a sample:
2: 8 For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; 2:9 it is not from works, so that no one can boast. (NET)

We are going to have to do a little Greek grammar here so bear with me. We will examine the phrase "you are saved" at this point.

It parses out this way [perfect | passive | participle | nominative | masculine | plural]. Now what this means is this: You have been saved by the work of someone other than yourselves (the passive part) you are in a constant state of salvation (the perfect part).

Looking at the verses we see that this is a gift that God bestows on everyone. The only thing at issue is that not everyone accepts the gift.

Now, as to the remainder of your argument, it is this method of counterfeiting that has always been the favorite method of the enemy. In religion as you bring up, in sex we can see the perversion of the method that God designed everywhere. It is the way Satan works even scripture tells us that Satan and his servants are transformed in to "angels of light".

Answer 7

Christians are not trying nor can they bring the world to Christianity. The only ones who will become Christians are the ones chosen by God before the foundation of the world.

Answer 8

Wow dude i read the first page of answers. It's feels like a lost cause doesn't it? I can't believe they are actually THAT stupid. I mean i thought there was a limit to stupidity. apparently not. They just throw sass and trash at you, they may as well let drool dribble down their weak lips as their mind slips into a stupor.

They have No common sense or even the ability to just MAYBE consider Hypothetically what you have said They have been born raised completely stupid. and they are stuck stupid. Forever. If only they could peer into the wisdom of the atheist Logic would they then see your point. that they are merely following what was told to them as a child, and now they are forever doomed to follow the idea like sheep without ever once stopping, even for a moment to ask themselves, "How do I know this is true?"

They are doomed to be ignorant fools for eternity. I only wish one would listen.

Answer 9

People through history have chosen society based upon either the path of mutual assistance and democracy, or fear and subjugation of the masses. Though there are still both present in todays world, it seems pretty obvious which system is preferred and more common. Teach your evil dogma, people will eventually "see the light" and rebel.

Answer 10

Can you prove that? No you can't but I can tell you that I never got any sort of upbringing in church and even got in trouble when I went to church when I was a teenager. However, I knew from a young age that God was real and somehow I knew at 7 years of age that when my dad died God was the only Father I had. I went into my room after the funeral, hid between the wall and my dresser and told Him that was the situation and that I needed to be able to count on Him because I had been left with a bunch of idiots.
All of your arguments, ideas for bringing about some sort of revelation of nothing, all of your ranting and raving about us and what we believe, is never going to change a thing. There are people who believe and people who don't - PERIOD. I understand that you don't want to be preached to therefore I don't preach to you but I will insist on my right to defend my beliefs just as you do. Why can't we get over this and start doing something worthwhile?

Answer 11

Do you "get" that the first several THOUSAND Christians were people who were firmly entrenched in JEWISH dogma? Yet after simply hearing the good news they changed to a new belief system?

And several more were Roman citizens who were also firmly entrenched within their own dogmatic belief system, but again, changed that system after hearing the good news of Jesus Christ.

I don't think you really "get" that the Holy Spirit is at work among us!