by changeling 120 Replies latest jw friends
Changeling you asked:
"If I do not renounce my atheism, repent and start believing in and worshipping the christian god, what will happen to me?"
Changeling, if you are RIGHT and there is no God, you can answer that question easily yourself.
If you are wrong, you just have to accept the potential consequences. Maybe, if there is a God, he is merciful too.
I am not in any church, nor will I ever be. Maybe we are in the same boat.
Brant
Honesty matters to me.
This is debatable since you seem to not want to go to the original source documents to answer a question you have.
Be honest, what do you believe/were taught will happen to unbelievers?
I will be honest, but I would rather you discover this for yourself. If I, or any other Christian tell you, then you will simply say that this is our opinion, and then rake us over the coals for being "judgmental". I have been down this road too many times to play this game. That is why I asked you to look it up for yourself.
Since it rejects or denies the existence of God, atheism is a sin against the virtue of religion
My question is: what is the penalty for this "sin"?
changeling :)
I don't believe in the book or it's supposed source, I want to know what YOU believe.
Seems rather contradictory, doesn't it? You seem to want the official teaching of a religion in your original post, now here you want to know someone's personal belief.
In the other thread I posted:
Only God knows. Only he can perfectly know what factors are involved in an individual's decision: intellectual, psychological, and emotional. A life experience may have made so it is impossible for a person to consent. A person may be "invincibly ignorant" in this life be it intrinsically or by external circumstance. I believe that God will not fault someone for that which it is not possible for them to do. We are all of the same stock, we all have a common origin in God and those that do our best to choose good with what we know and are capable of will have a common destination in God.
and:
I believe that if you reject God with full knowledge and assent of your will, then you will be without God in eternity, just as you willed. You will get what you choose.
Both things I said are in harmony with Catholic belief, this is one of the reasons I like Catholicism so much.
BTS
XJW4ER: I was a second generation JW. I left at the age of 46. Dad an elder, husband used to be. I know what the BIble says and I know how different religions interpret it. It baffles me that I can't get anyone to spell it out!!!!!!!!!!!
changeling :)
Changeling, I get what you are saying.
You seem to want to hear someone say: "You will burn forever in a fiery hell." You want someone to stand up and honestly
admit this is what their so-called Christian religion teaches. Nobody seems to want to admit to that even though that is what
many mainstream Christian denominations teach. But saying it OUT LOUD sounds horrific so they skirt it with "official" church
explanations that beat around the bush. It's like when witnesses won't say out loud that everybody is expected to die at Armageddon
except for them. It just sounds TOO STUPID AND UNREAL when you say it out loud!!
Who agrees that the chart posted by "eyes open" is an accurate representation of their current belief system?
changeling :)
It shouldn't challenging... they're ashamed of what they believe as well they should be.
Their God, the one they've created is evil... plain and simply evil.
I wouldn't burn my dog in a fire, nor would I kill them for a mistake, especially when I was my fault for not outlining clearly the message. The Bible simply isn't believable for many reasons..
changelng,
(1).For the wages of sin is death(,2) but the free gift of God is eternal life in union with the Messiah Jesus our Lord.
I would strongly recommend number 2 !...... Death to me is a very clear term not needing defining !
Caliber
You seem to be ignoring my responses Changeling, and it seems that you want a simplistic reductionist answer that is easy for you to pillory rather than a discussion. I am giving you original authoritative documents from the largest Christian denomination, I am not ashamed ,as some here allege.
Here is the Catholic Catechism on Hell. Fire is a metaphor for something worse:
IV. HELL
1033 We cannot be united with God unless we freely choose to love him. But we cannot love God if we sin gravely against him, against our neighbor or against ourselves: "He who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him." 612 Our Lord warns us that we shall be separated from him if we fail to meet the serious needs of the poor and the little ones who are his brethren. 613 To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God's merciful love means remaining separated from him for ever by our own free choice. This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called "hell."
1034 Jesus often speaks of "Gehenna" of "the unquenchable fire" reserved for those who to the end of their lives refuse to believe and be converted, where both soul and body can be lost. 614 Jesus solemnly proclaims that he "will send his angels, and they will gather . . . all evil doers, and throw them into the furnace of fire," 615 and that he will pronounce the condemnation: "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire!" 616 1035 The teaching of the Church affirms the existence of hell and its eternity. Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into hell, where they suffer the punishments of hell, "eternal fire." 617 The chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God, in whom alone man can possess the life and happiness for which he was created and for which he longs.
BTS
