You are making excuses.
Like I said before, true believers would risk EVERYTHING for their god. Otherwise, faith is almost always, if not always, a psychological convenience, and a justification tool.
We risk nothing.
Please take me at my word when I say we Christians only risk imprisonment, torture, ridicule, confiscation of assets and death.
These are nothing compared with what we gain, which is Christ.
>>Like I said before, true believers would risk EVERYTHING for their god. <<
Do you see that you are doing EXACTLY what they are talking about in this article? YOU are defining what you think a Christian should do.
I would risk everything for My Lord. But I have no need to risk everything to save you. You have a choice. Take it or leave it. I will take it and live it.
There are other ways to discuss your faith rather than “legal” and “illegal and suffer the consequences.”
We are instructed to abide by the laws of the land we dwell in. Not only to keep ourselves out of jail, but because one little flair of protest followed by incarceration is hardly an effective means of spreading the word.
So, thanks for the poisonous, straw-man argument, but we'll figure out another, legal, method of spreading the word.
But here's where the real deal is:
Your “advice” to Christians comes across like the advice of hardcore Leftist Democrats who keep telling the RNC that they need to be more like them.
You're pushing against a door trying to keep someone out, even if you try to deny it. Your force is against a force you deny.
True believers find out what God requires of them first, before running off half-cocked doing what they THINK He wants.
There's a big difference, one which has clearly escaped your understanding.
Christians aren't Christians only when they fit into your little imaginary *What a Christian is* box.
I would and will risk everything for my God. Risk does not always come in grand ways standing before boards of inquisition, although some are called to do that.
Everyday I risk rejection by friends and family, by co workers and my job, etc for my God.
I risk nor taking that really good business deal because I know it is shady, and wrong. I risk my job by speaking out when necessary. I risk a friendship because I won’t tell that one little lie for them.
Life is risky to a true Christian. We are beset by risk all the time. Sometimes the easier risk is to pack up and go overseas, the harder one is to be true to your Lord right in the community where you are.
But dont get me wrong. If asked with a gun in my face if I were a Christian, with Gods grace I would answer yes. I would hope the rest of my family (and Im pretty sure they would) would do the same.
And you have faith that God doesn't exist.
The Apostle Paul, one of the first Missionaries in the Church, did risk everything and did end up executed for his work. But he also wrote back to the Churches to instruct them, and the one thing he did not tell every Christian was to become Missionaries in foreign lands. Not everyone can be or should be Missionaries.
The spreading of the Gospel is not something you have to leave your home town to do; there are many people around you that need the Gospel as well.
There is a great saying about the Gospel:
Spread the message of Christ constantly. When necessary, use words.
But you are correct. Way too many Christians ignore the Great Commission of Jesus, which is to spread the Gospel to all men.
“...true believers would risk EVERYTHING for their god...”
As a true believer, I must agree with you. I have often questioned my own faith as to why I settle for the rubbish of this world while rewards in Heaven await and will be apportioned to me based on my acts of faith. I despise the weakness in me that chooses the things of this life over the joys of the next...What is it about my too, too solid flesh that is so willing to yield to the cares and worries of this world? How can it be that I, having tasted of the heavenlies, having experienced the Person of the Lord on my own personal Emmaus Road...how is it that I should turn aside every now and again to add on a room to my panelled house, cherish the praise of men and give to my career more than to my Lord, long to indulge in the fruits of my own labors rather than labor in the Lord’s vinyard for what He promises are joys unspeakable? Why don’t I trust Him?!!!
I do not mean to excuse this behavior with the following (I do not), merely explain it:
“O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then with the mind I myself serve the Law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.” Romans 7:24-25
All Christians are to do is plant the seed. Whether that seed grows or not is not for us to determine. There are many others also contributing to that seed. Some seed grows, others die and wither. But the seed is planted.
When we choose to follow Jesus and we are baptised to wash away our past sins, we are given the gift of the Holy Spirit residing in us. We are then a member of God’s kingdom while here on earth and look forward to living with God after death. Then life is spent growing in the faith. We are not perfect - we are man. We face temptations as all others and we often fail - but we have prayer to ask for forgiveness, and we form a relationship with Jesus.
How can any that choose to make the other choice - no God, no Jesus, see the work of the Holy Spirit in lives, how can they possibly understand what a Christian gets from religion?
They are not in a relationship with Jesus and God. They are merely living in a world without God which will be the same after they die. They have absolutely no control over what happens after death.
It is funny. Notice that when people talk about their beliefs - they feel that their belief or non belief makes it so for all mankind. But, how can a mere man give salvation, create heaven for man after death, or determine that there is no heaven, no hell?
Man is merely man. God is God, Jesus is Jesus. Just because one man decides there is no heaven - does not mean that there is no heaven. He just thinks there isn’t. But God is the one making heaven and hell, God is the one giving salvation not each man.
So, I would think it would behoove man to realize he is only one man and has a choice here on earth. That choice determines the future, the afterlife of him only.
But Scripture tells us - “No one comes to the Father except through Jesus”. And we choose to believe that or we don’t -it is our choice with a profound difference in our future lives and the hereafter.
What another man does or does not do should have no influence on your personal relationship with Jesus.
Are you saying you would only believe if every man was perfect like Jesus?
Never let one man or many men come between you and God. Each is judged on their own belief and hearts - not what other men did.