Christian lied about faith to survive Saudi siege

Reuters ^ | 31 May 2004 14:43:21 GMT | Samia Nakhoul

[sauropod]

read the entire thread please.

[kittymyrib]

Those who have given their lives for their faith in Jesus will be given the places of honor in heaven. Those who have lied and denied Him to save their lives here have broken the First Commandment: Thou shalt have no other gods before Me. When you deny Jesus to save your life, you tell Him that your life is more important than your faith in Him. Millions of martyrs over the millenia have had to make the choice. This is nothing new. Only by the power of the Spirit can we confess that Christ is Lord...and that certainly is true when faced with denial of Him or death.

[sauropod]

Read the entire thread please.

[sauropod]

If there is no hell, what is the inducement to walk the Christian walk?

[madison10]

The guy may be off the hook on a technicality--the terrorist asked if the Jordanian was a "Christian," he didn't ask if he believed in Jesus Christ. "Christian" can have all sorts of connotaions & baggage which does not even involve professing to believe in Jesus. Christian in that part of the world may be more of a cultural & a western concept.

Not my call, but the scripture does say if you "deny me before men..."

[sauropod]

Thank you for judging me. I really appreciate it.

[sauropod]

"We live according to the law of love. If love is better served by lying or murder or anything else, then so be it."

I really think you're gonna need to explain this one.

[chris1]

You guys are sick in the head to even think for one moment that this guy did anything but the right thing. Peter was not facing a throat slitting at the time he denied Christ. Woulnd't be an overall plus if now this person led a better life and helped people for the rest of his life than to let himself be slaughtered by these scum. Would it not have been better for Jews during WWII to deny their faith then immediately take up arms against the Nazis than to be led to the slaughter? Many of you so called "good chrisitians" are going to get more of us murdered, more of us decapitated, and slaves to the Islamic menace. You can turn your cheek only so often before your head comes off.

[cookcounty]

" This guy has just lost his eternal life. He'd better enjoy this one."

He "denied Christ" before 2 terrorists rying to kill him and destroy his family........then, before the 200 million people who watched the news, he said he's a Christian from Jordan (and being a Christian in Jordan is 1000X harder than being a Christian in Nebraska). Those who have never experienced persecution should be very slow to criticize, and it might be worth some time to study what is meant by "denying."

[RansomOttawa]

You have been refuted.

You realize you're not dealing with a garden-variety ignorant fundy, right? I'm not impressed with your ability to fire off a Bible verse and draw a conclusion without your also showing your work. Spouting off Matt. 16:23 and declaring me "refuted" is a bit of a joke, to tell the truth.

[PleaseNoMore]

Thank you. That was a beautiful reply.

[AndrewC]

You realize you're not dealing with a garden-variety ignorant fundy, right? I'm not impressed with your ability to fire off a Bible verse and draw a conclusion without your also showing your work. Spouting off Matt. 16:23 and declaring me "refuted" is a bit of a joke, to tell the truth.

A logical argument does not rely on the characteristics of the viewer. You stated "The disillusioned Peter who saw his rabbi railroaded and executed, and had no idea that his grave would be empty a few days later,".
Mat 16:21 From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. refutes that.

[tray-sea]

How do you know that God wasn't using this jordanian Christian? If he was not feeling guilty (OK, I'd like to think the best) would he have told his story of lying? Also, his friend - the Muslim covered for him.

Sure, he lied about following Jesus. For all we know, this experience will help him stand tall on his beliefs or if he was a Christian in name only, perhaps he will learn more about it and begin to follow it.

The bottomline is it got me thinking about what I would do. I consider myself a decent Christian (new Catholic). I have a lot of room for growth and I struggle daily with having God in the center of my life. I have to admit, in this situation, I am not sure I would of told the truth unless I knew that my death would actually mean something. Also, if I was with a muslim, me not following along with the "out" I would of had could of jeopardized someone else. It just makes you wonder. Could God be using this situation to get us thinking and preparing for the same thing?

There will be a time when we're tested and I trust that when that time comes, I'll have the courage to speak my heart. However, if your heart is true, does it matter to speak the truth on deaf ears? The terrorist's don't care about anything but killing non muslim's. My death would just be another number-- I don't get the martydom thing unless your actually standing up. How one can stand up to someone holding a AK47 at your head is beyond me, I'd rather live and use the rest of my life to defeat them (fanatics) and spread gospel then just die b/c I won't save myself.

If your heart is true, then it's true.

Just my thoughts. In's God's time, he'll judge. Let us take this and learn from it. Prepare b/c the time will come where we could be faced with the same choices.

[Bobby777]

I have not weighed in on this matter, but I am reminded that Peter boasted that he would never deny His Lord, only to be prophesied by Jesus Himself that Peter would do it, no less than 3 times, a significant number ...

I am also reminded that Peter became a great witness for the Lord afterwards ... One thing we know for sure, when the Mark is being handed out (Revelation 13) that kind of denial is definitely irreversible ...

prior to that period, let us pray the Lord finds us worthy, which we can only be in His Blood (Luke 21:34-36), to escape those things that will come to pass ...

[aruanan]

Pod, if he HAD eternal life, he still has it.

If you believe in tulips. Old Calvin really took after his father.

[FlJoePa]

You don't get it. YOU are the one doing the judging. And from the comfort of your home office, not with knife wielding maniacs on top of you ready to cut your throat.

[SheLion]

So this man has committed an unpardonable sin? One sin and he's toast? I'm not so sure about that.

I didn't say ANYTHING about that!  One guy posts that DocRock and I said that this man will not be forgiven.  We never said anything like that.  I wish people would take time to go back and read.

DocRock mentioned a scripture, and I said that I had read that and this article was sad.  I never once said that he would not be forgiven.  Please go back and copy and paste what you think I said that was so wrong!

The thief that died on the cross next to Jesus cried out to the Lord at the last minute, and his soul was saved.  I don't know how you got the idea that I didn't believe this.  It would be a mighty hard road to walk on this earth if our sins had not been forgiven on that Cross.

[SheLion]

You guys are sick in the head to even think for one moment that this guy did anything but the right thing

Ok! You copy and paste in here just what you think I said that was so wrong.  I'm tired of being put upon for what you THINK I said!  You better go all the way back and read my posts!

[sauropod]

I DO get it. There are a lot of uninformed people on this thread. YOU are among the number.