Trying to understand Christianity

[Malificent]

I am not here to offend, but to learn, so if you have anything negative to say to me, please think before you say it! Thank you:

Question number one: "Thou shalt not judge." This being believed, how come when I tell a Christian I am not a Christian, they tell me I am going to hell. I thought only God could judge me!

And question number 2 (I'll just leave it at this for now...): God gave his creations free will, correct? Well if you have to be a Christian (basically) to get into heaven, what if you choose another religion? You go to hell? Seems more like bribery to me: believe what everyone else believes, or suffer eternal damnation.

*shrugs*

Please help me understand! Again, not trying to offend so just teach me please. Thanks guys!

*MaLiFiCeNt*

[Tibby]

The first question sounds like a personal problem to me. What are you doing that make them believe you are going to hell?

The second one, that is a fair statment. What can I say? 2+2=4. You can believe 2+2=5 all you want, you have the free will to believe 2+2=3, but that doesn't make it true.

[ollie]

I am not here to offend, but to learn, so if you have anything negative to say to me, please think before you say it! Thank you:

Let us pray everyone practices what they preach.

Question number one: "Thou shalt not judge." This being believed, how come when I tell a Christian I am not a Christian, they tell me I am going to hell. I thought only God could judge me!

God does judge through His word as does His people and His word says if you are not one of His you are going to the "Lake of Fire". So His believing Him can make such a judgement.

And question number 2 (I'll just leave it at this for now...): God gave his creations free will, correct? Well if you have to be a Christian (basically) to get into heaven, what if you choose another religion? You go to hell? Seems more like bribery to me: believe what everyone else believes, or suffer eternal damnation.

God gives only one way. If you choose another then your free will has betrayed you.

*shrugs*

Please help me understand! Again, not trying to offend so just teach me please. Thanks guys!

*MaLiFiCeNt*

Your welcome.

P.S.

Are you related to this or does the "i" instead of "e" make it different?


****
ma·lef·i·cent
Pronunciation: -s&nt
Function: adjective
Etymology: back-formation from maleficence
Date: 1678
: working or productive of harm or evil : BALEFUL

****Merriam Webster Online Dictionary

[Malificent]

OK If you read carefully at what you wrote, it doesn't really make sense or it basically reinstates what I just said. Example:

"God does judge through His word as does His people and His Word says if you are not one of His you are going to the "Lake of Fire". So His believing Him can make such a judgement."

"So his believing him can make such a difference"--God believing in himself? Please clarify.

"God does judge through His word as does His people"--What does this mean? That his people can judge? Because it says that nowhere in the bible.

And "God gives only one way. If you choose another then your free will has betrayed you."

So basically I DON'T have free will then, unless of course, free will means "believe in God or burn in hell" which is NOT free will; it is in fact one or the other.


Thanks!

And Malificent is a name. That's all. I like the way it sounded and it is the name of a Disney character. That sounds personal to me. Don't take my name that far please it will make my head hurt!!
;P

love and light
malificent

[Tibby]

“Eternal suffering for those to question Gods Eternal Love… BELIEVE OR DIE. Thank you, forgiving Lord, for all those Options”

-Bill Hicks

 

[Malificent]

LOL....LOL

That's what I mean! Doesn't it seem like that to anyone else?!



love and light

[Whitehorse]

“Eternal suffering for those to question Gods Eternal Love… BELIEVE OR DIE. Thank you, forgiving Lord, for all those Options”

-Bill Hicks

 

Bill's assumption is that he was created to do whatever he wants. Men take horses they did not create, and breed them. God gives life and provides the stock. Men train those horses and expect them to obey, even though they had nothing to do with what God created. But if they expect a horse that God created to act the way they wish, does not God have the same right with what He created?

Do children have a right to choose other parents, to say to some drugged out bum on the corner that they don't even know, "You are my father"? Would that not completely offend those who do the same to God? Does not God have a right to be worshipped, by virtue of His creating those very beings? Who is man to argue with God?

Edited to correct very unfortunate typo.  

Embarassment number three for Whitehorse today.  

[Tibby]

Yeah, but Bill is just a comedian, not a Theologian. He is looking at Christianity thru the eyes of a hurt soul, burned by the Fundamentalist church of today. Give him a cross and a candle, he could be a Catholic

[Ralph]

  Malificent--God's people are termed His "ambassador's." An ambassador, if faithful, does not declare his own message to the host country, but the message of his native country.
Similarly, Christians are to deliver to others not their own "opinions" (judgments) but the record of the written revelation in Scripture. Therefore, when someone declares that "unless you repent you will surely perish," a truth which applies equally to every creature, they are not speaking as a judge, but as a messenger of Him who is the judge. Likewise,
when the Scripture admonishes God's people to rebuke evil,
they are not to do so on the basis of THEIR judgment, but upon the basis of God's own judgment.
  The exhortation "judge not lest you be judged" therefore does not apply to those who are declaring judgments which God has already made, but to those who would have a censorious spirit toward others, think critically of others without basis, or make personal demands upon the conduct of others for which the Scripture gives no support.
  However, even though simply declaring God's judgment to others is not judging them, We need to be careful in how we speak to those who are not believers. The gospel message is not to unbelievers about moral issues. The message is about Christ. We are not the ones who convict of sin. That is the work of the Holy Spirit. If we attempt to do His work, we will offend listeners. Our job is not to confront people about sin, but to present Christ. Those obsessed with the sins of others don't understand that we are all guilty and all need Christ who alone has the remedy to our problems with sin.
  But if the issue of a certain evil arises in the normal course of a witness for Christ, it is not sitting in judgment to simply declare God's judgment on the matter; but it should be done by one who realizes that he himself is also far short of what he is supposed to be.

[Ralph]

  Malificent--about judgment to hell. The truth of this matter is that God has already delivered His judgment concerning ALL of us. It is very common for people to imagine that just beyond death's dark horizon there is a gigantic balance scale.
supposedly, they soon end up before those scales. Good deeds are then placed on one side and bad deeds on the other. If their life measures up ok, they are accepted, but if the bad side of the scale is heavier, they are sent away.
  Guess what--those balance scales are not ahead of us. They are behind us. What I say to you applies equally to me and every other person. Those scales are behind us, and not one of us--not one of us--made it. God has already delivered His verdict concerning us--concerning ALL of us, and our situation is NOT pretty. Just as there is only one God who is the creator and judge of all of us, so also, there is only one God who can show mercy, and that God designed only ONE
way of redemption from our woeful estate. That way which He designed fully meets both all His requirement and all our need. Rejecting the only means by which He is pleased to remedy our woeful estate can only end in our destruction.

[ollie]

Malificent,

So His believing Him can make such a judgement.

Translation"

So God's people,(His), believing Him,(God), can make such a judgement.

God is just and lays down the law and judges by it. Not the law given to Moses but of faith in Jesus Christ through grace. God having revealed His will to man through His word so man can live by it and make judgements according to His way.

[Malificent]

Excellent replies guys thanks so much. Now I understand where Christitans are coming from. Special thanks to Ralph I think you made it most clear. Than you thank you!!

[KiwiChristian]

I"m sorry that person said to you that you were going to hell.
Before I became a christian, a "well meaning person" said that to me as well and it turned me right off.  It is basically true about it as Jesus said that no-one can enter the kingdom of Heaven unless they are born again.  I don't know about anyone else but I have found that saying something to a new or pre-christian can have a negative effect.

[Whitehorse]

I can certainly see how someone wouldn't like hearing that. It surely isn't a pleasant reality. But people have to know the truth, even if they're turned off by it. That's why the Bible teaches it-if someone's house is on fire in the middle of the night, that's not welcome news. But if we don't tell that person, bang on the windows and wake the person up, the person will perish in the flames. And then we see God and He'll say, "Why didn't you warn this person of the fate awaiting him?" What can we reply?

[Malificent]

Right, I understand. It just seemed confusing at first when everyone was like, "Don't judge!" Blah Blah... It seemed like the same thing to me. But now I understand! Yay!