My Friend a Theist

[bkeesee]

Greetings everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Easter and blessed Lenten season.

So my friend Sam is having some troubles. He was raised without any real religious background. He NEVER went to church growing up but his mother is a protestant. Sam’s new girlfriend has got him going to church (Calvary Chapel) with her and her family, but the primary issue is this:

Sam believes in the God of Abraham. Sam believes in Jesus Christ. Sam believes in the miracles of Christ and of God. Sam believes in Heaven and Hell. The issue here is that he has a VERY strong resentment towards God. He can’t understand why God would throw great people into Hell just because they aren’t Christian.

How can I help him out of this blindness without being too “fire and brimstone”-ey

All I’ve been able to really say so far is how the wages of a sin is death. That no matter the size of the sin, that sin equals death. And that only through Christ can that sin be forgiven. Therefore without Christ, that sin will remain as death. (Referring to Roman 6:23)

Thank you all for taking the time and please help me reach my friend. I hope he will be in your prayers.

Have a blessed day!

 

[Neofight]

Greetings everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Easter and blessed Lenten season.

So my friend Sam is having some troubles. He was raised without any real religious background. He NEVER went to church growing up but his mother is a protestant. Sam’s new girlfriend has got him going to church (Calvary Chapel) with her and her family, but the primary issue is this:

Sam believes in the God of Abraham. Sam believes in Jesus Christ. Sam believes in the miracles of Christ and of God. Sam believes in Heaven and Hell. The issue here is that he has a VERY strong resentment towards God. He can’t understand why God would throw great people into Hell just because they aren’t Christian.

How can I help him out of this blindness without being too “fire and brimstone”-ey

All I’ve been able to really say so far is how the wages of a sin is death. That no matter the size of the sin, that sin equals death. And that only through Christ can that sin be forgiven. Therefore without Christ, that sin will remain as death. (Referring to Roman 6:23)

Thank you all for taking the time and please help me reach my friend. I hope he will be in your prayers.

Have a blessed day!

Pray for him, and witness by the example of how you live.

 

[OurLadysServant]

Greetings everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Easter and blessed Lenten season.

So my friend Sam is having some troubles. He was raised without any real religious background. He NEVER went to church growing up but his mother is a protestant. Sam’s new girlfriend has got him going to church (Calvary Chapel) with her and her family, but the primary issue is this:

Sam believes in the God of Abraham. Sam believes in Jesus Christ. Sam believes in the miracles of Christ and of God. Sam believes in Heaven and Hell. The issue here is that he has a VERY strong resentment towards God. He can’t understand why God would throw great people into Hell just because they aren’t Christian.

How can I help him out of this blindness without being too “fire and brimstone”-ey

All I’ve been able to really say so far is how the wages of a sin is death. That no matter the size of the sin, that sin equals death. And that only through Christ can that sin be forgiven. Therefore without Christ, that sin will remain as death. (Referring to Roman 6:23)

Thank you all for taking the time and please help me reach my friend. I hope he will be in your prayers.

Have a blessed day!

Tell him if a person doesnt know about God, but lives a good life, they can get into Heaven. God gave everyone a Conscience .

If a person is in a different religion or christian religion and doesnt know any bbetter, if they live a good life they can be saved.

If a protestant or christian knows their religion is true, but joins another religion or becomes aetheist, then their salvation is in trouble, because they were close to the truth, believed it was the only path, and left it

If a catholic knows catholicism is the truth, and becomes protestant, another religion or aetheist, then their salvation is in trouble because they knew Roman Catholicism was the absolute truth and rejected it!

God doesnt put people in Hell.
People decide where they go by their own actions on earth.

God wants everyone saved.

 

[angell1]

Tell him if a person doesnt know about God, but lives a good life, they can get into Heaven. God gave everyone a Conscience .

If a person is in a different religion or christian religion and doesnt know any bbetter, if they live a good life they can be saved.

If a protestant or christian knows their religion is true, but joins another religion or becomes aetheist, then their salvation is in trouble, because they were close to the truth, believed it was the only path, and left it

If a catholic knows catholicism is the truth, and becomes protestant, another religion or aetheist, then their salvation is in trouble because they knew Roman Catholicism was the absolute truth and rejected it!

God doesnt put people in Hell.
People decide where they go by their own actions on earth.

God wants everyone saved.

well, why would anyone reject something they believe to be true. most catholics I know who leave don’t know the faith well, didn’t have a good relationship with God, or didn’t want to follow certain church “rules” or are just simply apathetic and don’t care. or else, didn’t feel spiritually fed so go elsewhere because protestant services have better music or more emotions involved.

that hardly sounds like they were convinced of the truth and rejected it though

 

[OurLadysServant]

well, why would anyone reject something they believe to be true. most catholics I know who leave don’t know the faith well, didn’t have a good relationship with God, or didn’t want to follow certain church “rules” or are just simply apathetic and don’t care. or else, didn’t feel spiritually fed so go elsewhere because protestant services have better music or more emotions involved.

that hardly sounds like they were convinced of the truth and rejected it though

I’m only paraphrasing the Catechism.

A person isn’t in mortal sin if they don’t know the truth?

For it to be.grave matter they need full knowledge.

So:
Is it possible for someone to know Catholicism is the truth and turn their back on it?
That would be full knowledge, one of the conditions of mortal sin.

 

[ChikaisHis]

God doesn’t throw people into hell. Hell is a choice.
Heaven is where we are united with God.

Sin prevents us from being united with God but because Jesus conquered death and sin He makes friendship with God possible again. Whether or not we accept is our choice.

If people reject friendship with God, then they are rejecting heaven. Love is a choice, not something that is forced upon someone. He wants us all to choose Him, but God loves us and respects our freedom

 

[ThinkingSapien]

God doesn’t throw people into hell. Hell is a choice.
Heaven is where we are united with God.

There may be a work of convincing him of that depending on how he views the position of the un-saved. For those that know that hell is a consequence of X and choose to do X I’m sure he would see that person as choosing hell in much the same way that he might see someone that has chosen to publicly break state laws as choosing to be put in prison.

But we might not saw that someone that was unaware that she were breaking the law had chosen to be on a pathway to prison (someone guilty of insider trading without realizing that what was being done was illegal comes to mind). Under some Christian views not being convinced of the existence of God and Jesus is sufficient cause for one to be hell bound (though I’ve heard some mentions exceptions such as for children or the mentally handicapped). To some this is seen as unfair/unjust. I think that is what is happening with the person mentioned above.

I think it may be first necessary to get a good understanding of what his view of hell is. If he’s not been a church goer then his view may be an amalgam of descriptions picked up from different sources instead of conforming to the view of a specific denomination. More detailed knowledge of his view of hell may help in forming a response that he finds satisfying. Also I think it may take more than one sitting to give a satisfying response; give him some information, let him go off and think about it and make adjustments to his mental model, and address concerns and questions as they come up.