My Christian Answers

Hello everyone,

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted. I suppose I have been drawing a bit of a blank. But anyway on to the news:

McDonald’s has recently joined the NGLCC (National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of commerce). The NGLCC is a large organization backed by corperate sponsers promoting the homosexual agenda. McDonald’s, where I usually eat twice a day, is now a member of this organization. I hate to say it, but I will no longer be supporting them with my money. I ask many of you reading this to do the same. Many people boycotted Wal-Mart when they joined the nglcc. It was enough to make them not renew their membership. McDonald’s is no different. If we will stand up for what we believe in as christians, McDonald’s could be forced to drop its membership as well.

Some of you may think, “What does it matter if they have their own chamber of commerce?” But if you will, think of it this way: Say an organization gets backed by 100’s of the biggest companies in America, then that same organization pushes for some laws to be passed, such as gay marriage. Having the support they have from companies like McDonalds would definately put pressure on law makers to lean more in their direction.

I don’t know about your Bible, but my Bible still says homosexual acts are wrong. By supporting the companies that support them you are vicariously supporting a terrible sin.

I ask you to follow me and spend your money somewhere other than McDonald’s. Hey maybe if we start brown baggin it we’ll save money and be a little healthier while we are standing up for our beliefs.

“He who knows nothing loves nothing. He who can do nothing understands nothing. He who understands nothing is worthless. But he who understands also loves, notices, sees….The more knowledge is inherent in a thing, the greater the love….Anyone who imagines that all fruits ripen at the same time as the strawberries knows nothing about grapes.” Paracelsus

The question here is what do you know about love? Are you as one who knows nothing and is therefore worthless? He who knows nothing knoweth not that he knoweth nothing…

Is love a feeling? Are the senses the determiner of love or the mind? Is love a work? The ideas here in this first part are in a large part taken from Erich Fromm’s work ” The Art of Loving.” Whether he knew Christ in a personal relationship or not, one cannot be certain but he did have a conservative and moral thought pattern. He understood the Scriptures and uses it quite frequently in this book. His work on love should go down in history as one of the most comprehensive books on the subject. His thoughts have been priceless to the problem of love. With this laid down we will continue to try and understand this thing we call love. Fromm states that first of all there are several faulty premises which most people have concerning the problem of love.

1. “Most people see the problem of love primarily as that of being loved, rather than that of loving, of one’s capacity to love.” Therefore the action they take is how to be the object of love. How can they become lovable? Men try and become strong, successful, rich, influential. Men figure that if they can be someone, have an identity of power, they will succeed in gaining love. Women on the other hand seek to become attractive. Now men do that as well in todays society due to the unisex push. They wish to be an object of beauty, something the other sex will seek after. Attention becomes affection, and many times it is but at the same time affection does not always equal love. Attractive is the key. ” As a matter of fact, what most people in our culture mean by being lovable is essentially, a mixture between being popular and having sex appeal.”

2. “…the problem of love is the problem of an object, not the problem of faculty.” Fromm here explains mans warped view of love in that people now are more concerned with the importance of the object of love rather than the function.” In past cultures, that have been that way for millenia, a prearranged marriage was the norm. Matchmakers were involved, parents, social considerations, with little respect to the feelings of the couple to be joined together. Love was supposed to develop afterward not before. In our capitalistic culture we are consumed with the (consumer effect). We want to get the best quality for our money at the least possible cost. We are looking for an attractive package. “For the man an attractive girl - and for the woman an attractive man - are the prizes they are after. ‘Attractive’ usually means a nice package of qualities which are popular and sought after on the personality market.”

3. The third problem lies here…”in the confusion between the initial experience of falling in love, and the permanent state of being in love, or as we might say, of ’standing’ in love. If two people who have been strangers, as all of us are, suddenly let the wall between them break down, and feel close, feel one, this moment of oneness is one of the most exhilarating, most exciting experiences in life.” Those who have been shut off from love experience this excitement twofold. The power of sudden intimacy is many times consummated and or caused by sexual action. This can add even more to the heightened sense of ecstasy. However this type of closeness is at best short lived. It has not the fundamental seed by which to stand on. Instead it is like a beautiful cut rose, in all its glory, velvet to the touch, nectar to the nose, dead and brittle by the next week. The individuals involved become then better acquainted with the thorny side. As in the rose, once the petals fall all that is left is the thorns. ” The two persons become well acquainted, their intimacy loses more and more its miraculous character, until their antagonism, their disappointments, their mutual boredom kill whatever is left of the initial excitement. Yet in the beginning they do not know all this: in fact, they take the intensity of the infatuation, this being ‘crazy’ about each other, for proof of the intensity of their love, while it may only prove the degree of their preceding loneliness.”

There are many questions that I have seen as I have looked around the internet about forgiveness. I decided to write a series on forgiveness to address many of the questions I have seen.

Maybe you have a question. Many questions I have seen and will answer in this series include:

1:)How could God ever forgive me after what I have done?

2:)Why does God forgive sins?

3:)Can I ever do something that God will not forgive?

4:)Why do people go to Hell?

And hopefully many more questions will be answered in this 3 part series.

Please read about the forgiveness of God

Part 1 When God forgave man

Part 2 Who did God forgive?

Part 3 If God forgave man, why do people go to Hell?

Most professing Christians today, at least in America, have never faced this thing called suffering. In fact many believe that becoming a Christian makes everything peachy in life.

Biblical Christianity is far from a peachy life. The reason Christians do not suffer as much in America as Paul and others did is that Christians do not stand up for the truth of the Gospel. Probably because most don’t know the truth. Today’s “Christianity” is an easy one, “abc or 123″ and you have it. Witnessing consists of nothing more than asking someone to come to church (because most don’t know enough of the word of God to be a witness themselves), salvation consists of simply praying a prayer any time you choose and being baptized, and being”Christ like” only matters on Sundays. If there were more to Christianity than what we see today then there would be suffering.

For the true follower of Christ, suffering is not a possibility it is a certainty and a privilege (Phil 1:29). The apostle Paul invited suffering in his life, Phil 3:10 he says “That I may know…the fellowship of his sufferings”.

Christians in America need to change their thinking. A man that realizes that temporal things are not important and lay up treasures in heaven (Matt 6:20) would have a powerful impact on the lives around him. We need to challenge people as Christians, shaking the foundations that their faith is grounded in. Many professing Christians need to check their own foundations. I thought I was saved for years before someone challenged my faith. They told me things in the word of God that I could not refute. The things they told me went against what I had my faith grounded in. If it had not been for that person shaking my foundation I would not have found out that it was faulty.

Tell people the truth, invite suffering in your life. Tell someone that there is nothing they can do to earn salvation. Tell them that Christ finished the work of salvation when he put away sin (Heb 9:26) and all that’s left is to trust in the living savior. Tell someone that there is not a prayer that can save, there is not a baptismal pool that can save, and there is not one good work that can save. Tell them the truth, that only true faith allows salvation to take place, nothing more and nothing less. Tell them this and you will suffer for Christ’s sake and blessed are they that suffer (Matthew 5).

Two choices

1.) Invite his suffering into your life by standing on truth

2.) Do nothing

The choice is yours!

Finally we get to the last article in this series (maybe). Why do people go to hell? To most anyone the answer to that question is simple. Most would say people go to hell because of their sins. This is wrong. If you have not read parts 1 and 2, please read them before going any farther.

To summarize parts 1&2, God forgave mankind two thousand years ago. We do not have to ask for God to forgive us as lost people. Instead we believe that God has forgiven us, and that Christ’s work is complete.
Realizing God’s complete forgiveness the question of why people go to hell becomes a little more tricky. To say that Christ paid the price for the sins of the world then to say we go to hell to pay for our sins does not make sense.

This is the reason people go to hell. Jesus put a stipulation on his forgiveness. He said all manner of sin and blasphemy would be forgiven. That prophecy came true when he placed his blood on the mercy seat in heaven. He follows that statement in Mark 3:29 with, “but he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation”. So, there is one thing and one thing only that will cause someone to go to hell. Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. The meaning of blasphemy is debated among most commentaries. Some because of the context of this passage say that blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is ascribing a work of God to Satan. But, taking this passage in the context of the entire New Testament we can conclude that calling God’s work Satan’s work is not blasphemy. Jesus was accused of committing blasphemy because he made himself equal with God.

Christ making himself equal with God in the pharasee’s mind was blasphemy. Making himself equal with God was in their opinions synonymous with rejecting the deity of God thereby rejecting God. The scribe’s in Mark 3 did not commit blasphemy because they called the work of Christ the work of the devil. Instead, they said that Christ had a devil in order that they would not have to accept that Christ was equal with God. Because of pride they said the only thing they could say and still reject the message of Christ as being from God. Thereby committing blasphemy. They said what they said in order to reject Christ.

So, the only thing Christ said would never be forgiven is rejecting the Holy Spirit. That is not my words, but Christ’s. Take the Bible for what it says or not at all. Sin has been taken care of. The worst men in history are not in hell for what they did, but for the one thing they did not do. That is to seek Christ. The reason that someone goes to hell is not because they are sinners, but because they reject the drawing power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit works in the hearts of individuals telling them to seek and accept the finished work of Christ, to stop working and just believe the work has already been done. The reason anyone goes to hell is that they do not accept that.

Because of what is said in Mark 3 we know that blasphemy is not a one time event, but more of a path. It says in verse 29 that one in this condition is not condemned to eternal damnation, but is in danger of eternal damnation. I know that this article is short and does not do the topic justice, but it does give the simple truth from the word of God. If anyone is reading this article and is doubting their salvation, if you are wondering whether or not you are going down the wrong path in your beliefs, if you are unsure in any way, you don’t have to be. The Bible in Isaiah says that the effect of righteousness is quietness and assurance forever. If you don’t have quietness and assurance then you don’t have righteousness. Romans 4 says that it is imputed to us righteousness when we have saving faith. So, if you know enough to get you to heaven then you will know it and nothing will be able to shake your foundation.

If not, maybe it is because you are rejecting the light that the Holy Spirit is trying to reveal to you. If this is true then you are in grave danger. Seek Him while he may be found, HE PROMISES that you will find him.

“And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:13

Still not convinced? Click here to read on further.