Heaven and hell
I was reading OMF's website (http://www.au.omf.org) and there was this article and it was talking about how if people don't respond to the gospel, then they are going to hell.
And if you're a Christian you already know that, or maybe we all secretly hope that there is some way that other people can hear about it and respond to it........anyway, it kind of hit me that we need to evangelise, because people's eternal lives really are at stake.
Let me pause for a second - if you're reading this thinking, "How arrogant/narrow-minded can you get?!" - imagine that you were someone who lived in a country where there was no such thing as a church, where Christianity was non-existent, where you never got to hear a thing about it. And then imagine that it really was true that if you didn't accept that Jesus Christ lived, died and was resurrected for your sin - that you would go to hell. Wouldn't you be mad that I knew and I didn't tell you?
Why should people have to go to hell because I didn't tell them?
Less complacency and more action! If anyone reading this blog has a question about Christianity and what it means, just chuck a comment in and we can email.
And if you're a Christian you already know that, or maybe we all secretly hope that there is some way that other people can hear about it and respond to it........anyway, it kind of hit me that we need to evangelise, because people's eternal lives really are at stake.
Let me pause for a second - if you're reading this thinking, "How arrogant/narrow-minded can you get?!" - imagine that you were someone who lived in a country where there was no such thing as a church, where Christianity was non-existent, where you never got to hear a thing about it. And then imagine that it really was true that if you didn't accept that Jesus Christ lived, died and was resurrected for your sin - that you would go to hell. Wouldn't you be mad that I knew and I didn't tell you?
Why should people have to go to hell because I didn't tell them?
Less complacency and more action! If anyone reading this blog has a question about Christianity and what it means, just chuck a comment in and we can email.
posted by Noof @ 5/07/2006 04:32:00 pm
5 Comments:
At May 10, 2006 12:01 pm,
Anonymous said…
[tongue in cheek]
Why Christianity and not anything else? Bhuddism is cool. So is Kabbalah. Even the Mormons get a look in with multiple wives!
;)
What makes Christianity right and the others so wrong that I should choose to NOT believe what they preach?
Open forum - let's not take this offline...
[/tongue in cheek]
At May 11, 2006 2:37 pm,
Mathieu said…
Tongue in cheek aside, I can't leave this alone. I need to answer it.
Simple answer: Because Christianity is the truth.
If mormonism lets you have multiple wives, so what? You don't need a religion to tell you to do what you want.
Therefore, because Christianity is the truth then all the implications Noof brought up should make you want to take action, but that's jumping way too far ahead and skipping the important stuff.
Because Christianity is the truth, all other religions have to be wrong. Why? Beause they all contradict Christianity.
Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." (John 14:6)
All other religions tell you that way to survive death is through good works (what you do). Christianity says you'll never get there on your own, and you need Jesus to pay the price instead (what He did).
If you're going to say there's no absolute truth, then I won't waste anymore of your time because postmodernism doesn't need me to disprove it, it does a better job on it's own.
But if you're going to say that Christianity is not the absolute truth, then allow me to give 4 reasons why I believe it is. These same four points, are the things that make Christianity unique:
1. Prophecy:
There are over 1000 prophecies in the Bible. 668 of them have been fulfilled. The rest of them are in our future. None of the past ones have failed!
These are not the "something-different-will-happen-to-you-today" sort of vague predictions that fortune tellers tell you. These are outrageous claims that were very improbable of happening, and mostly people couldn't imagine how they would come to pass.
For example, the Bible said that the city of Tyre was seiged, that "they will break down your walls and destroy your pleasant houses; they will lay your stones, your timber, and your soil in the midst of the water." (Ezekial 26:12) How often does a city get thrown into the sea? In 332 BC, the people of the city of Tyre tried to escape being conquered by Alexander the Great by fleeing to a nearby island. Alexander used the debris of the abandoned mainland city to build a causeway to the island and gott'em!.
Over 300 of the prophecies in the Bible are about Jesus' first coming. Every single one of them was fulfilled in Jesus (if you want examples, etc. just say so). Also, Herod killed all other children that were born at the time and place that Jesus was, because of the prophecies (Micah 5:2, Matthew 2:1,4-6). Imagine the probability of the one surviving man fulfilling all 300 prophecies!
Jesus fulfilled over 30 prophecies on the day of his death alone.
2. Jesus' claimed to be God (John 5:16-18; 8:56-59 (compare Exodus 3:13-14); 10:24-33), which makes him either a liar, a fruitcake... or God. He also proved it.
Jesus said, "Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves." (John 14:11; John 10:25,37-38; 14:10, Psalms 78:32)
Did Jesus' works back up His claim? Let's see now: He cast out demons, healed diseases (including leprousy, blindness, deafness, paralysis), fed multitudes with a boy's lunch, walked on water (compare Job 9:8), calmed a storm with a command, raised the dead (which got him into loads of trouble), and most important of all...
3. Jesus rose from the dead! The evidence for this is overwhelming (ask me to elaborate). Bhudda never did that! Every other religious founder who ever died is still dead! Jesus is the only one you can trust to tell you how to have eternal life.
4. The Holy Spirit lives in me and changes my life so that it can be full as was intended when I was created. This is not something that I can prove to anyone else externally, and before becoming a Christian, it's something that must be taken on faith (which is how we're saved in the first place, Ephesians 2:8-9), but it certainly beats other religions that rely on mystical experiences, continual blind faith, and do not offer a personal relationship with God Himself. It's also something you can try for yourself, "Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!" - Psalms 34:8.
At May 11, 2006 2:59 pm,
Pete said…
Very Nice
At May 12, 2006 8:25 am,
Anonymous said…
Mathieu, a well considered response - thanks for all your work and effort on it.
I have to ask though - to just say that Christianity is the truth is fine, but so a follower of Islam says that it is the truth. So they also say that all other faiths have to be wrong because Islam is the truth - and they are wrong because they all contradict Islam. From a follower of Islam's point of view, they are right and everyone else is wrong - so where does that leave us?
I have to follow this by saying that I am a follower of Jesus, and have been for all my life in some form of another, but made my own personal decision when I was in Year 11. I agree with what Mathieu says as to the reason to choose Christianity. I ask these questions to help people THINK about why they choose what they do, as we often have churches full of people who have great emotional attachments to their faith, but no grounded, bible-based understanding (like Paul writes about in Colossians 1 - the wisdom that only God can offer us with regard to his will).
We do need to consider, though, that people who choose alternate religions, that, as Christians we need to be evangelising, have similiarly one-eyed views on their faith... how can we respond to that? We are surrounded by "cool" expressions of faith like Kabbalah, made even "cooler" by famous people saying they are assoicated with them (although scientology will NEVER be cool, no matter how many couches Tom Cruise jumps on)... It puzzles me sometimes why people will swallow anything as whacky as scientology or kabbalah and then look at Christians like THEY are weirdos... Aliens are our gods, anyone?!?!?! ;)
Keep on truckin'...
At May 12, 2006 2:49 pm,
Mathieu said…
Work and effort? I need more. I was hoping to be asked more questions. Not the same one again.
Although I'll admit my reasoning was a little back to front in that I said "Because Christianity is the truth therefore..." in the first part, and then gave 4 reasons that Christianity is the truth afterwards, however I could have written it the other way around, and I did give reasons.
If a follower of Islam is right from his point of view, it doesn't mean that he is right. He needs to have reasons. Reasons that show that what makes Islam unique are what makes it true.
I was already certain that you are a Christian (I have been to your blog before) and of your reasons for asking the question. Thanks for the opportunity.
"But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;" - 1 Peter 3:15
There were other reasons I was tempted to include that showed that Christianity was more appealing than any other religion, but I would rather that anyone shopping around for a "cooler" religion would leave Christianity alone. I'm only concerned with those who are searching for the truth.
I'm sure that Noof's blog already has readers who genuinly have their own personal questions, and I think that's who the invitation was to, so I'll try to refrain from continuing this path, sorry. Thanks again for the opportunity to answer your question though, it was fun.
Anyone else have questons? Noof's email address is... just kidding!
"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." - Jesus, Matthew 7:7 (Luke 11:9-10; Jeremiah 29:11-13; Deuteronomy 4:29-31; Acts 17:26-27)
P.S. btw, my address is here somewhere.
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