BellaOnline Forums Religion and Spirituality Spirituality Is Christianity a religion of fear?

AMEN!! my God can speak for His self!!! No sales man required!!!

I dont do well at saleing anything anyways!lol
I some funny

Hello Im your local Christian! Would You care for Some God today? $25 check to my church and I will save your soul from Hell!!! and for Just $50 more I can Santify it also!!!

no I just dont see Jesus doing that!!

so how about this one!!

Buy God now or you are going to burn is Hell!!! $25 to get in to heaven is all it takes!! your insureince is waiting!!!! here today hell tomorrow!!!

No I dont buy that way either and I believe that is why Jesus tore down the Temple His Fathers house to stop it!!!

Thanks linda for makeing my point!!!
God bless ya anyways no matter way or who or how you believe!!!

Jesus said, " Go and make disciples of all the world." Now there are sins of commission ( doing something you're not supposed to do) and sins of omission ( not doing something you ARE supposed to do). Not telling others about Christ is a sin of omission. It will not cost you your salvation but it will cost you your reward.

Linda, it is your belief that our God is fictional. You have no more proof that He doesn't exist than we do that He does.

I do agree that statements of damnation can be more terrifying than helpful. Even as a Christian I have times where it is hard to understand how God can allow certain things to happen.

That is why I believe it is much more accurate to demonstrate and speak of God's love. If He did not love us then Jesus would never have given all He gave.

If that is so Michelle, and neither of has proof of the existence or non-existence of God, than Allah and all of the other pantheons of Gods and Goddesses are just as likely to exist or not as the Biblical God.

So, how do any of us know what deity we will be facing when we leave this Earth. By your own reasoning, isn't just as likely that you will find yourself in front of Allah, explaining to him why you were not a Muslim?

I have good reasons why I don't believe in the Biblical God.. and having someone who does believe in him trying to send me to Hell is one of those reasons. I am not terrified by it.. far from it... I don't believe in Hell. What bothers me is that someone would consider anyone to be damned in the first place.

Love and Light..

My point is that you say everyone's beliefs have value - but then turn around and call our beliefs "fictional".

In all honesty I do admit that there is a possibility of my beliefs being wrong going by just logic and proof. But in my heart I believe in Jesus Christ and that is where I put my faith.

Michelle..

Do you believe that Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny or the Tooth Fairy exist? Did you believe that they did as a child.. and did you teach your children that they existed?

Why would you teach your children that something existed if you knew that it did not? How is God or Allah or any other Deity any different than Santa or the Easter Bunny?

The difference may be that we outgrow belief in Santa and the Easter Bunny and realize that they are fictional beings.. but not all of us outgrow belief in God.

There is nothing wrong with that.. we like to hold onto beliefs that make us feel warm and fuzzy. I was devastated when I found out that Santa was my parents in disguise. I thought if I had enough faith that Santa would re-appear.. Well, apparently faith was not enough because he didn't reappear. I had to accept the fact at some point that he was a fictional being.

So, it is all a matter of opinion.. in my eyes God is fictional.. in your eyes he is not... and you said it.. it is a matter of faith. There are things I like about Christianity.. maybe not modern day Christianity as much.. but I do love the Gnostic version.

I put my faith in a higher power.. it doesn't have a name.. but I prefer to see it as the Great Goddess.. Now if you were to tell me that she is a fictional character.. I would totally agree with you. But, she is my adult version of Santa Claus..and she makes me feel warm and fuzzy..lol.

We create whatever we need to create to make sense of something we don't understand. Some call it God.. some call it Allah.. some call it Goddess..it is all the same.. but the underlying source of all Creation is the same.. no matter what name we choose to give it.

I am not putting down your God or Jesus.. if they work for you.. wonderful!! By the same token I am not putting down Allah..if he works for someone.. wonderful.. same with Krishna, or Shiva or Kali.. etc, etc, etc.

So, think about this ... If God and Allah and Krishna and Shiva and Kali.. etc, etc, etc, really exist and none of them are fictional.. then we must have a whole lot of conflicting deities pulling our strings.

Either they are real or they are fictional.. there is no in between.. either they all exist or none of them exist.. I prefer to see it as none of them exist.. they are our creations rather than the other way around.

So, when I call God fictional.. I am also referring to any deity that someone says that I am answerable to when I leave this earth.. be it God, Allah, or anyone else.

No offense intended.. simply a matter of opinion... and faith.

God exists as a matter of FACT. Those who deny Him generally do so because to acknowledge Him would mean they would have to deal with the reality of it. Darkness flees the light.

Well, give me one iota of tangible, visible, actual current working proof of this, then I might agree with you.
But the reason I deny his existence is for no other fact than he actually doesn't exist. THAT'S the reality.
No matter how much you want him to, no matter how much you believe he does, no matter how much faith you have that he factually exists -
he doesn't.

Arrange a light buffet and invite us both.
If he doesn't turn up - then that's my point proven.

Unless of course he has a more pressing engagement like eliminating poverty, famine and aids in Africa, or the war between Israel ands Palestine, or in Iraq and Iran, or attrocities against humankind, children and women, virtually globally.

Then I shall be happy to accept his apologies.

I have no problem with you believeing as you do, and you believeing what you do.
But I DO have a problem when you try to tell me that every evidence you have which is based on faith, you put forward as incontrovertible proof. Because I'm afraid it isn't.

Jesus Christ is God. God manifested Himself into flesh and He rose from the dead. That is your proof. " It is an evil and wicked generation that seeks after a sign, but no sign will be given unto it but the sign of Jonah; that just as Jonah spent three days and nights in the belly of a fish so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the belly of the earth."

Jesusfreak.. If you believe that.. I have a beautiful wooded lot with magnicient Oak trees for sale in the Sahara Desert.. really cheap.. Wanna buy it?