Dear Friends - Atheists and Questioning Believers,
A letter from Brian
I must ask the question. Are you willing to risk losing your eternal soul by placing your faith in anything other than God's Son?
The Bible is very clear. Jesus said, "36 For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
37 Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
38 Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels." - Mark 8:36-38
I mean, let's get right down to it.
Just what if, WHAT IF, Jesus Christ really is the Son of God, the Creator of the entire universe? What if the Bible really is true, and every skeptic in the world with all their PHD's are wrong?
If you reject him my friend, you are facing an eternity in hell! I do not say this to threaten you, but as a beloved friend, I warn you.
My advice is two fold:
1. If you are looking to anything other than the Bible and God for your answers, you are asking to be led astray. "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." The Bible says ALL are sinners, including me and including you. That's why we need God as our Saviour, because we're imperfect with a dark sided nature.
2. If you have not truly repented of your sins and asked Jesus Christ (by calling him Lord) to save you and forgive you, then what does it profit you to just simply believe (or not believe) that his life, death, and ressurrection ever happened? The devils believe and tremble. Atheists don't believe, and they don't tremble, but at their own eternal risk.
3. Lastly, nothing I say will really change your mind about God, the Bible, and his Son, my Lord and Savior, will it?
---------Brian
I must ask the question. Are you willing to risk losing your eternal soul by placing your faith in anything other than God's Son?
The Bible is very clear. Jesus said, "36 For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
37 Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
38 Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels." - Mark 8:36-38
I mean, let's get right down to it.
Just what if, WHAT IF, Jesus Christ really is the Son of God, the Creator of the entire universe? What if the Bible really is true, and every skeptic in the world with all their PHD's are wrong?
If you reject him my friend, you are facing an eternity in hell! I do not say this to threaten you, but as a beloved friend, I warn you.
My advice is two fold:
1. If you are looking to anything other than the Bible and God for your answers, you are asking to be led astray. "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." The Bible says ALL are sinners, including me and including you. That's why we need God as our Saviour, because we're imperfect with a dark sided nature.
2. If you have not truly repented of your sins and asked Jesus Christ (by calling him Lord) to save you and forgive you, then what does it profit you to just simply believe (or not believe) that his life, death, and ressurrection ever happened? The devils believe and tremble. Atheists don't believe, and they don't tremble, but at their own eternal risk.
3. Lastly, nothing I say will really change your mind about God, the Bible, and his Son, my Lord and Savior, will it?
---------Brian
Comments
As much as you wish you could convince us to share your belief again, as much do we feel sorry for you for believing the fairy tales of the Bible and wish you could just once for a short moment look at your belief and your god from a rational standpoint.
I understand your belief and how you feel that we are lost and will go to hell. I feel the same way about you, except that you're not going to any hell or heaven, and neither does anyone else.
I once thought it would be a "sin" to do research about religion and read texts and books that were not religious, and yes, they separated me from "god" and the religious belief. Thank god?
Get some reason, please. Do yourself a favor.
I regret all the time I wasted in churches and money I gave and feel so stupid and ridiculous for some of the things I have told others, especially children, and for the whole circus I was once part of.
But you know what? After some withdrawal from religon and breaking free from the community, I can breathe again. I didn't even lose any real friends.
Sean
In the end as to your last question of "what if", I do not believe in heaven any more than hell, so I do not see how I would ever be able to enter either or that it should matter to me. I will live for the work I can do today, as I do not live for an infinite.
You also make a fallacious argument from authority when you tell us that what the Bible says on the issue is clear. Ignoring the question of how clear the Bible is for a moment (lots of contradictions -- not so clear), why should we accept the Bible's authority? Why don't you accept the authority of other holy books? There's the Q'uran, the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, and on and on. You really should accept the authority of the Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, or risk losing out on Pastafarian heaven. No beer volcano or stripper factory for you!
If you were our “friend” you would respect us and not try to recruit us to your cult.
I’m sorry… Yours isn’t a cult, is it?
You follow a religion, the guy down the street from you belongs to a cult and your ancestors believed a myth… Isn’t that how it works?
Many religions utilize Pascal‘s Wager.
If THEY are right - that means YOU are wrong and you’re going to wherever they say wrong people go.
Oh, but you KNOW you’re right don’t you? Those other “cults” are misguided, confused, stupid or whatever aren’t they?
It’s not just limited to people that follow other Gods, there are other Christians that will tell you that YOU are going to Hell because you don’t go to the right Christian church, you don’t pray the right way, you eat the wrong foods, you don’t wear the right clothes, you don’t pay enough money, you don’t have sex correctly (too much, not enough, with the wrong person or for the wrong reasons, the wrong positions etc).
You’re apparently going to Hell too “friend”, just ask the guy from the church down the street…
I appreciate your heartfelt attempt to reach out to us ex-christians. I can empathize with your position because I used to feel the same way once. At least your post appeared to be a genuine plea and not condescending like what we usually read from christians who post here.
Nevertheless, I have a concern about something in your post. You said that we were at risk for "losing" our eternal soul if we continue to deny your jesus. To my knowledge, according to the bible, those who go to hell will be conscious of eternal suffering (i.e., burning, weeping, gnashing of teeth, etc.). Does that awareness of suffering not require a soul? Or at least a consciousness? If the unsaved lose their souls, then what exactly is left of our person that will suffer in hell?
I think you meant to say that we are going to burn for eternity, rather than "lose" anything. According to the bible, whether you make it to heaven or hell, you will experience either place forever. So either you will have a good experience of eternity or a bad one. Am I getting that right? So it is up to me to decide if I want a room in god's mansion and heavenly treasures (whatever they may be) or if I want to "burn" and cry and "gnash my teeth" (assuming that we will be equipped with nerve ending and teeth in the afterlife).
Do you realize how ridiculous that sounds? Just one of the many reasons why I no longer believe.
Michelle
For any who might be interested, I also have a post about my first encounter, as a Christian, with a biblical contradiction I could not comfortably wriggle my way out of.
I appreciate your concern for us by asking us this question, and I applaud you for not being outright hostile as some other people have been.
However, if we look at the bible, Jesus does answer the question of salvation pretty easily:
"On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?"
"What is written in the law?" he replied. "How do you read it?"
He answered: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and, love your neighbor as yourself."
"You have answered correctly," Jesus replied, "Do this and you will live." (Luke 10:25-28)
In terms of logic and what Jesus says, this verse states:
Loving others and God IS THE WAY TO eternal life.
Simple as that! Note that Jesus does not say to follow him, or to worship him, or anything like that. He says in clear, easy to understand words that if you want eternal life, love others and love God.
It's rather unfortuante that most churches won't adopt this policy in place of scare tactics.
What if the Koran is true? Have you fully studied the pages of the Koran objectively, to the point that you can prove it to be wrong? Somehow I would guess no, you have not!
Brian, who told you the Bible was true? Your mother, father, uncle aunt, grandmother, grandfather, preacher, etc?
Brian, are you stupid enough to believe there exists a God whom cannot save souls on his own, but had to invent a demi-god-Jesus, to help this God save souls?
Do you really believe there exists a God that cannot write his own book, but has to let humans write it and translate it for him because he cannot figure out what it says?
Do you really believe there exists a God as stupid and ignorant as you?
Steve
Why did it take Jesus 3 days to resurrect, if he was God himself in disguise?
Keep in mind, that this same God created the whole universe in just six days?
Why did Jesus say "My God, My God why has thou forsaken me? If he was indeed God, himself?
Because Jesus was told that he was from God!
Jesus was the biggest naive ignorant fool to have ever walked the face of the Earth, including his followers.
Jesus believed he was from a God, only because he was told that he was.
The Bible works perfectly, until you question it.
Why would a God who has the ability to create the whole universe, send anyone to Hell based solely upon what people believe in their heads?
Why does a belief someone holds in their head, determine the mood or the amount of love given by this God?
Why would a belief that people have in their minds, devide the way a God thinks?
Many people believe in Buddha, Santa, Elves, Trolls, Ghosts, Allah, etc, etc. why would a loving God send anyone to (Hell) just because they do not believe in Jesus?
I know I would not send people to Hell, based upon what they have been told to believe?
Does this make me better than your God? Yes it does!
Brian, if you're in agreement with your make believe Bible God and you go along with sending people to Hell, based on what people believe, then this makes you no better than your imaginary evil God.
Brian, do you agree with sending people to Hell? If you do, then you are a very evil hatefilled(not-loving) person!
Brian, why is it that millions of people have been praying fervently for over 4 years for the war in Iraq to end, but no Christians has enough sense to see that prayer never works and it never will?
Brian, I know you will brush all these questions off as, "It is simply God's Holy will", we used to say the same stupid garbage, you're no different than us Brian, you've been told you're special, because you believe in Jesus....lol
Brian you're no different than anyone else on this planet, but you've been told that you are, because you believe in Jesus...grow up Brian and get a life, you will never see Jesus.
Happy New Year to all
Grandpa Harley
xxx
This, of course, would explain why there are approximately 40,000 denominations of Christianity worldwide.
Oh, that's right. Sorry, I forgot. You've got the True Christian Beliefs (Newly Adjusted Millenial Dates and Teh Rapture) 2.0. Or has the 3.0 come out now?
So, Brian, the reason you will not change our minds is this: we (excepting the trolls) have used experience, critical thinking and logic to reach a point of rejecting the Bible and it's adherents.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of you.
What their kind don't get is that some of our lives simply don't revolve around jesus. Whether or not Jesus and his dad exist is simply not of paramount importance to us. Life is too short and too precious. We can't afford to live it as though it was a wager in some cosmic battle.That would make life negligible. Given what we know about the universe, life is so rare that we can hardly afford to think of it in such negligile terms.
My desk is inside the window and I have such a beautiful view of sky and trees and birds and squirrels--of LIFE. It feels really good to think of myself as part of this life. This is heaven enough for me. On the off-chance that a warm and loving god exists, I am sure I will be admitted to heaven--providing I survive death and heaven exists.
I/we would never follow,believe,or submit to a tyrant who is sending in
your words,.."billions to a fiery hell"
Once again thank-you for reminding us of the "Amazing Disgrace"and lunacy of your belief in the savior of this world!
ol, ain't it wonderful the way religion invents a problem (sin) with one hand and then offers people the cure (faith, belief, money, time) with the other and yet there still exist people who don't notice the parralells between a priest and a new york matchstick man...roflmao
Funny, this is the first post I've seen that addresses the fact that preachers are running a protection racket, something I've pointed out for decades.
"Nice soul ya got there... Be a shame if somethin' happened to it..."
Now wouldn't a Creator who is capable of creating billions of galaxies, planets, etc., have enough intelligence to create those critters with an instinct SO POWERFUL, to worship their creator, that there wouldn't be any other alternative?
If God needs our constant praise, wouldn't he have made us to be able to know who he is from our birth? There wouldn't be any ambiguity about it. We would just fall down on our knees and start telling him how wonderful he is as soon as we learned to speak!
Lets say he made a mistake and didn't make us with big enough God glands. The least he could do is preempt all of the television programs in prime time, show up sitting on his throne, with the angels all around, and identify himself once and for all.
Give God a break! He ain't stupid. If he isn't getting enough loving from us, he certainly has the power to do something about it. He wouldn't have to copy an old pagan blood sacrifice story, that can be found in many ancient religions that preceded the Jewish one.
Just don't forget! God can do anything he wants, anytime he wants, he knows everything, is everywhere, and he loves all his children. If you are not worshiping him enough, he is certainly smart enough to do something about it.
Dano (Trusting in God, Allah, and whoever else is responsible for creating this mess)
If you are right then I guess "we all" are in deep shit. You will spend your days with God, Jeffrey Dahmer and every other killer who asked to be forgiven.It sounds like heaven!
On the other hand will spend our days apart from God (like we do now) with people like Albert Einstein. Its going to be rough but we will be ok.
It's called Pascal's Wager, and it's a SUCKER BET.
Because Easter Friday would sound silly.
I can't believe you used that arguement. That has been explained eons ago not to your credit. Anyway Jesus coming back to life after three days is not such a big deal. The BIG deal was ALL the saints in their graves coming back to life and appearing to many. Now that was a miracle! Now seriously Brian Atheists are not Atheists to be spiteful they are Atheists because they have done the research and have concluded that the claims of Christianity are sorely lacking and if you did the research you would find this out also. WHere I come from believing without evidence is called gullible. I don't think the creator of the universe(if there is one) rewards such stances.
Do you not see how that can apply to every single fucking religion? None of which have the right evidence to prove their validity?