The purpose of life in Christianity

Red Sky at Morning

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OR ELSE!!


You can’t blame Jack Chick for doing his best to get the message over...

A Russian atheist was once asked if he believed in Hell. He replied that he didn’t, but if he did, he would crawl across Russia on broken glass for just one person.

If it seems that people are “trying too hard” consider that many of us give up leisure and family time for the sake of strangers who matter to us.
 

Daciple

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However what if you aren't allowed to know who it will be?
Then you would have to refer to the 2nd half of my answer, which is I would like to be able to say definitively that yes I would but I would be lying to say I for sure would. I would like to think I would, but I dont know if I would without a doubt for a stranger.

Reminds me of what the Word of God says concerning this:

Rom 5:6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.
8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Even tho you and I are not righteous and are fully deserving of the Wrath of God against our Sins, still Jesus came and died for us so that we never have to experience that Wrath.

Regardless of whether or not I would be able to give up my spot in Heaven for my family or a stranger, the facts are the one and ONLY person who was actually Righteous enough to take His place in Heaven WAS willing to give it up for you and I. In fact He was willing to give up His place in Heaven 2 times actually as He stepped out of Heaven to come to Earth, then took upon Flesh so that He could be perfect and live up to the standard of the Law that you nor I could possibly attain and then when He had secured His spot in Heaven via the Flesh (by living perfectly) He once again gave it up and took upon Himself the Wrath of God that is due you and I so that we dont ever have to experience it.

All you have to do is believe in Him and He will keep you from the Wrath you know you deserve, so the real question is, why would you or anyone else choose to pile upon themselves the Wrath they know they deserve instead of taking the option to go to Heaven they dont deserve, because someone has already literally stepped out of Heaven and then was willing to give up His rightfully earned place in Heaven for you who deserves Hell not to go...

So why would you choose Hell over Heaven if someone willingly gave up their spot for you?
 
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Then you would have to refer to the 2nd half of my answer, which is I would like to be able to say definitively that yes I would but I would be lying to say I for sure would. I would like to think I would, but I dont know if I would without a doubt for a stranger.
Why not? I don't understand this mindset. it's self-contradiction or self-denial. If you would prefer to think that you would, then just change your thinking. If you can't change to what you prefer to think, you're probably not being completely honest with yourself about what you truly prefer.

So why would you choose Hell over Heaven if someone willingly gave up their spot for you?
No idea. Ask @elsbet ;)
 

Daciple

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Why not? I don't understand this mindset. it's self-contradiction or self-denial. If you would prefer to think that you would, then just change your thinking. If you can't change to what you prefer to think, you're probably not being completely honest with yourself about what you truly prefer.
I really dont know how to be any more clear than how I have written it out already, in my heart I would like to be able to choose to give up my spot for someone else I do not know, but I have absolutely no idea how exactly I would react in the actual situation. I think that is called being honest, in my Spirit and Heart I would like to think I would, but I am also Flesh so there is also a possibility that I wouldnt choose to do so.

To say anything other than that is to be dishonest about my thoughts and feelings of the hypothetical situation
you asked about...

No idea. Ask @elsbet ;)
I am asking you because I what I am stating isnt a hypothetical, it is a reality and from what I have read from you, you have chosen to reject the offer given to you to accept your Free Spot in Heaven that someone purchased for you by giving up their spot in Heaven.

Also from what I have gathered from elsbet, they have already chosen to accept the offer that has been extended to them to take their place in Heaven when someone offered to take up their deserved place of Wrath.

So why would and do you refuse to take the Free Offer to be given a place in Heaven by the one person who gave up their Spot and took the Wrath you deserved so you can go to Heaven?
 

JoChris

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OR ELSE!!


The whole "This was your life" tract available here.
https://www.wordproject.org/bibles/resources/tracts/en/life/
Question for anyone: If God told you "you believed, so you are saved, and you're free to take your place in heaven, but I am giving you the choice for someone else to take your place in heaven instead"

In this purely hypothetical scenario, what is your answer?
The only alternative option is Hell. Therefore you are asking this question:

Are you going to choose:
1. to go to Heaven and let someone destined for Hell go to Hell because they choose to reject Jesus, someone who would say when asked that they would rather party in Hell than be bored in Heaven OR
2. to burn in Hell for all eternity for someone who never wanted to be with Jesus, a place where Heaven will be like Hell for them personally, where holiness and worship of God would be absolute agony and a source of personal shame?
Option 2 will make both of you absolutely miserable for no point for all eternity.

Therefore I am going with option 1.

P.S. If you choose to reject Jesus despite gaining more knowledge of Christianity than many people ever did over their lifetime, you have only yourself to blame.
Don't you try and blame my response for your decision.
 

Wigi

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Could you explain why you think that?
I've read the following testimony from an ex-nihilist who basically summed why I think Christianity is the antithesis of all godless mindsets.

https://reasonsforjesus.com/cs/from-nihilist-to-pastor-theologian-how-dr-greg-boyd-lost-faith-in-atheism/

if the universe has no value and is meaningless then who cares if you’re courageous, valiant, and heroic or not? Where did that value come from?… Why do we try and do anything if it all comes to nothingness?

Death is the last word, it all comes to nothingness, all our hopes and dreams to make the world a better place come to nothing.”

This raised a few important questions for Boyd that challenged his nihilistic worldview:

  • “How did an irrational universe produce a rational being?”
  • “How did a meaningless universe produce a meaningful being?”
  • “How did an amoral universe produce a moral being?”
  • “How did the universe create a being that longed for things that don’t exist?”
 
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Are you going to choose:
1. to go to Heaven and let someone destined for Hell go to Hell because they choose to reject Jesus, someone who would say when asked that they would rather party in Hell than be bored in Heaven OR
2. to burn in Hell for all eternity for someone who never wanted to be with Jesus, a place where Heaven will be like Hell for them personally, where holiness and worship of God would be absolute agony and a source of personal shame?
Option 2 ill make both of you absolutely miserable for no point for all eternity.

.
Obviously no one would actually choose torture over not being tortured. No matter how miserable they would be in heaven at least they’re not being tortured. It’s still the better option by far LOL.
Anyway... these are not my beliefs in the first place, and the idea is that you wouldn’t even know who was chosen to take your place.

Gotta say option 2 still, sorry.
 
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I've read the following testimony from an ex-nihilist who basically summed why I think Christianity is the antithesis of all godless mindsets.

https://reasonsforjesus.com/cs/from-nihilist-to-pastor-theologian-how-dr-greg-boyd-lost-faith-in-atheism/

if the universe has no value and is meaningless then who cares if you’re courageous, valiant, and heroic or not? Where did that value come from?… Why do we try and do anything if it all comes to nothingness?

Death is the last word, it all comes to nothingness, all our hopes and dreams to make the world a better place come to nothing.”

This raised a few important questions for Boyd that challenged his nihilistic worldview:

  • “How did an irrational universe produce a rational being?”
  • “How did a meaningless universe produce a meaningful being?”
  • “How did an amoral universe produce a moral being?”
  • “How did the universe create a being that longed for things that don’t exist?”
I'm not talking about Atheism here.......
 

JoChris

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P p
Obviously no one would actually choose torture over not being tortured. No matter how miserable they would be in heaven at least they’re not being tortured. It’s still the better option by far LOL.
Anyway... these are not my beliefs in the first place, and the idea is that you wouldn’t even know who was chosen to take your place.

Gotta say option 2 still, sorry.
A person who hated and rejected God all their life (whether they realised it or not) would hate being with God in Heaven for eternity.

Think of a evil sinner who loved their sins and remained unrepentant until their last breath:
why should they be with God, a Being of Light, Righteousness and Holiness for Eternity?

Think of a Christian - born again through faith in Jesus Christ, made a child of God - who from their conversion has sought to please/ follow God, their pattern of life showed a 180 degree turn, a progression from walking to please self to living to serve God:
why should they be asked to consider giving their heavenly inheritance to someone who will always have the *heart* of a Satanist (live to please SELF not God)?

God the Father would never ask such a question of His children.

Matthew 7:9 Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?
10 Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?
11 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?
 
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manama

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It was a Sacrifice, yes... I'm glad you were able to answer your own question.
If it was a sacrifice from people, it has nothing to do with salvation or wiping people's sins. If it was a sacrifice from God, jesus being God according to you would make it suicide, no?
 

Red Sky at Morning

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If it was a sacrifice from people, it has nothing to do with salvation or wiping people's sins. If it was a sacrifice from God, jesus being God according to you would make it suicide, no?
What do you suppose the pure Passover Lamb, and the blood on the doorposts signified? Was God just being mean to lambs or was there more to it than that?

 
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