Replies

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.”