Posted on 12/15/2011 9:12:53 PM PST by Arthurio
R.I.P. Christopher Hitchens
December 15, 2011 11:51 P.M. By Daniel Foster Vanity Fair reports that Christopher Hitchens has passed away. Often frustrating, usually provocative, always brilliant. He added to the culture, and the conversation.
I’m sure I join many in hoping he is in for a glorious, glorious surprise.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
No, he didn’t. He made a statement that he no longer believed ‘that which does not kill you makes you stronger’.
He also said that any rumors of a deathbed confession would be false.
Now, deathbed confessions can and do occur, but it is my experience (end of life care with many atheists), that dying makes them more - not less - adamant about their atheism. It was true with my father, and my uncle, and my great uncle and my great aunt. One even cursed the idea of God as his last words. In fact, out of about a dozen atheists/agnostics, I only knew of one deathbed confession and that person had been ‘seeking’ for several months prior.
It is sad, for I weep every time a non-believer dies, but there was no evidence that Hitch had any indication of changing his mind.
mlo you posted “We aren’t talking about someone that thinks they are smarter than god. We are talking about someone that didn’t believe in god. But the question remains. Why should god care so much whether you believe in him?”
My Comment:When I read Romans chapter 2, I get the feeling Paul agrees with you.
Romans 2:25 For circumcision indeed profiteth, if thou be a doer of the law: but if thou be a transgressor of the law, thy circumcision is become uncircumcision.
Romans 2:26 If therefore the uncircumcision keep the ordinances of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be reckoned for circumcision?
:>)EasyDoesIt
I’m sure that would be surprising to folks who expect that their good deeds will get them to Heaven even if they don’t believe, but you can’t reject God and expect to live an eternity in His presence.
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WORTH A REPOST!
MrR and I will definitely keep them both in our prayers.
God can and does work miracles. My best friend, who grew up atheist, had an intense conversion experience a few years ago and became a Christian. It has been wonderful to see the changes in her. My great-grandfather, who was an atheist his whole life, came to faith in Christ in his early 70’s. It can and does happen.
Side note - have you read the Case for Christ books? IMO, they are pretty good at answering the questions and objections atheists have.
“We don’t know the real reasons why people reject God”
Some people look at the world with its many senseless evils and injustices and come to the personal conclusion that there is no reason to believe in any Higher Power.
I appreciate your description of God. But my question is to define justice. When you say Gods justice must be satisfied. Define for me please what that justice is. If possible...
Many of you freepers act like Hitchens was Timothy McVeigh. So sad to see so many Christians assume equal punishment for a nonbeliever to that of murderer.
Me thinks many of you will be on bended knee apologizing for the polarization of people who have differing religious and nonreligious beliefs.
To say your intellectual capacity is infantile, is a mass understatement.
Then I guess you and I will not be meeting in the afterlife. That’s a relief!
Larry, I’ve been called some pretty nasty things on this thread just for expressing a simple religious belief espoused by most Christian sects. Whether I have committed the sin of pride, well, I do not believe I have done so.
I do not know what happens after death as I’ve never been dead, but I agree with you on this: RIP, Christopher Hitchens.
May he rest in Peace.
I bet that Mother Teresa, sweet soul that she is, was the first one to come out and greet him.
You said: “Well, I guess all of the non-christians, who are good, i.e. the “golden rule” are damned to hell.”
If they ONLY live by the golden-rule, then, yes, they are [self]damned to hell. Because the “golden rule” (do unto others as you would have them do unto you) is a paraphrase of what Christ called the second great commandment. Christ prefaced it by citing the first and great commandment: “You shall love the lord, your God, with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength.” According to the Bible, this is done by entering into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ by accepting Him as your savior (confessing your sins, acknowledging His redemptive work on the cross) and allowing Him to be Lord of your life (repenting from your sin, walking in the Spirit by faith).
Living by the golden rule is wonderful. But it is not a qualification for heaven. ONLY knowing the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior gets you in to heaven.
Do you base your understanding of my faith/comments on the scriptures or your own “gut reaction”?
Again, you said: “Many of you freepers act like Hitchens was Timothy McVeigh. So sad to see so many Christians assume equal punishment for a nonbeliever to that of murderer”
What does the Bible say about the punishment for sin?
Ezekiel 18
“Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.”
1Corinthians 6
“Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.”
Galatians 5
“...Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”
Ephesians 5
“For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.”
Man makes distinctions among types of sin. God does not.
Finally, you said: “Me thinks many of you will be on bended knee apologizing for the polarization of people who have differing religious and nonreligious beliefs.”
I currently live my life on bended knees before the Lord of glory. My professing with confidence to know Him and state with certainty what His word reveals about Him, I believe, will, in glory, bring me rewards, because I do it for his glory, not my own. As to bringing “polarization” I stand with Christ. He was villified for His view of His Father. I will endure the villification for expressing my views of the Son.
Now, tell me...what do you base your views of God, His will, His intentions, His views of sin and sin’s punishment on?
Lastly, you, like quite a few other freepers today have been incensed...offended that there are some here who would dare say they know just how God might/would treat an unrepentant individual (like the late Mr. Hitchens)...and then have turned around to say (such as you’ve done) words like, “Me thinks many of you will be on bended knee apologizing for the polarization of people who have differing religious and nonreligious beliefs.” What makes you “know” so much about what will happen before God’s throne? Hmmmmmmmmmmm? You are offended at the supposed “effrontery” expressed in such an unchristian spirit, and then with all sobriety commit the same effrontery. Such hypocrisy!
I tried to have a discussion about the bible once with a very intelligent colleague of mine. She was prefacing our discussion with all manner of intellectual understanding and I simply listened. After a time, she paused. I asked her, “Have you ever read and studied the bible?” She, answering honestly, replied, “No.” I said, “well we are about to try to have a discussion and one of us doesn’t know what we are talking about.”
The truth is, Hitchens is where he belongs. And I can’t say where that is, but my first statement is absolutely the truth.
And then there's always the thief on the cross, as mentioned earlier.
He died to save us, why should He be picky about *when* people repent?
Cheers!
I posted Scripture where God states clearly and unambiguously that those who reject His Son as Savior will not have eternal life. I don't have to claim to speak for God - He does a fine job of it all by Himself.
Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3)
Like I said, God speaks for Himself without anyone's help. God said that those who reject Him will spend eternity in Hell, not me. Most of the world hates that fact and hates God for the fact that there is only one road to Heaven, but it is what it is.
Take it up with God.
Did me and SatinDoll post some threatening Scriptural truth that made you afraid like those nasty prophetic Scriptures?
I stand by what I said and the Scripture I posted. If you don't like what I posted, take it up with God. He is the One Who said it.
And the visceral reactions to the plain, clear Scripture about the fact that there is only one road to Heaven is expected also.
No one is cheering the fact that Christopher Hitchens has died, and no one is happy that he very well may have not changed his choice to spend eternity apart from his Savior, in the place God created for Satan. No one is happy about that, and hopefully in the days to come we will hear someone who was with him at the end come forward and tell us that Hitchens did indeed accept Christ before he died.
But the idea that because Hitchens was "honest", or "good" or anything but a sinner who had thrown himself at the feet of Christ and accepted His free gift of salvation was somehow acceptable to God because of characteristics that man considers admirable but which God calls "filthy rags" cannot go without being corrected.
Even if the world hates the message, Jesus Christ wants that message told. Because some will hear and believe and choose life over death.
It's not surprising at all.
If only those people understood that this God they reject has provided a way of escape from the eternal consequences of the sin that has made the world the way it is now and if only those people understood the incomprehensible love it took for that God to leave Paradise, become a man, and die an excruciating death so that man could have a second chance at eternal life and a personal relationship with the Person Who spoke everything into existence.
If only they knew and understood.
Question: "What does it mean that God is a God of justice?"
Answer: Justice is a term used for what is right or “as it should be.” Justice is one of God’s attributes and flows out of His holiness. Justice and righteousness are often used synonymously in the Bible. Since righteousness is the quality or character of being right or just, it is another attribute of God and incorporates both His justice and holiness.
We cannot begin to understand God’s justice unless we first understand sin. Sin is lawlessness (1 John 3:4) and iniquity (Daniel 9:4-5; Micah 2:1; James 3:6). It embodies everything contrary to God’s holy nature and is offensive to Him. Thus, sin is a crime against God and justice demands a penalty of death and separation from Him for it (Romans 1:18-32; 2:5; 3:23). But God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to earth to pay that penalty for us (Romans 5:8-11; 6:23) and made salvation available to all who believe in His name (John 1:12; 3:15-17; 20:31).
God’s own righteousness is provided as a gift to sinners who accept Jesus Christ as their Savior and is based upon His grace and mercy in response to our faith (Romans 3:23-26; Ephesians 2:3-7). His mercy and grace are not in spite of His justice, but because of it. He loved us so much that despite the fact that our sin demands our death, He sent His Son to be our substitute upon the cross, thus demonstrating that His justice was not violated, but instead satisfied (1 Thessalonians 1:10; 5:9).
Having been made in His image (Genesis 2:26-27), we humans long for moral justice to prevail upon the earth and are outraged when we see injustice happening around us. Why do we seek justice for crimes? It’s in our DNA. King David’s outrage when the poor man’s lamb was taken away by the rich man resonates within us (2 Samuel 12:1-14). That is why Nathan told the story to David in the first place because it revealed David’s own injustice in taking Uriah’s wife from him. David’s immediate repentant prayer was effective because by admitting his sin against God, he acknowledged the righteousness of God. The Lord told David through the prophet Nathan that even though his sin was forgiven, the child resulting from the adulterous affair would die, demonstrating the fact that his sin still had to be judged.
As for the future, the book of Revelation reveals the justice of God in all its glory during the end times. When the saints watch the destruction of the earth, their song will be of God’s righteous judgment upon the inhabitants for their ultimate sin of rejecting Him (Revelation 11:16-18; 15:3-4; 16:7; 19:1-4). And as 2 Peter 3:13 says, we are promised that someday, when Christ physically reigns on earth, God’s righteous justice will finally be on full display.
I don’t even mean to challenge you.
I just truly don’t understand.
If one doesn’t have faith, or believe in God or sin or heaven or hell, why would one care what another thinks about the afterlife of Christopher Hitchens or anyone else?
Maybe those you oppose here are wrong, or spiteful or overzealous, or just plain stupid, but why would it matter? I liked Hitchens’ writing too, and admired his courage—and I would certainly be willing to defend him on those grounds.
But why would you worry about what I think about his eternal fate?
And why on earth (!) would you go on urging what you see as his dead body to ‘rest in peace’? He’s gone, according to you: he’s done, he’s past. We would do better, again according to you, simply to urge people to read his books.
I’ll do that, and I will pray for him as well, as I have been doing since I learned of his illness. I don’t have the “gift” of faith either, but I’m supposing that neither God nor Hitchens will mind if I continue to try.
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