My friend has interesting question and I don't know quite how to answer

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Hey everyone!
I’m a 19 year old college student who has just convinced his friend that Jesus is divine. He however states “Jesus probaly isn’t for everyone”. Even though I disagree with him, I get where he is coming from. This guy has figured life out. He’s in great shape, gets straight A’s, is at total peace with himself, and clearly has Christ showing through him because he is the most loving and caring individual (at least at my age) that I know. All I can answer to him is that “Jesus says so” but that’s clearly not a good convincing answer. Does anybody know what I can say to him to have it make sense for him to become a Christian and eventually Catholic?

Thanks a whole lot guys! Your responses are greatly appreciated!
 
Binto said:
Hey everyone!
I’m a 19 year old college student who has just convinced his friend that Jesus is divine. He however states “Jesus probaly isn’t for everyone”. Even though I disagree with him, I get where he is coming from. This guy has figured life out. He’s in great shape, gets straight A’s, is at total peace with himself, and clearly has Christ showing through him because he is the most loving and caring individual (at least at my age) that I know. All I can answer to him is that “Jesus says so” but that’s clearly not a good convincing answer. Does anybody know what I can say to him to have it make sense for him to become a Christian and eventually Catholic?

Thanks a whole lot guys! Your responses are greatly appreciated!
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I don’t believe anyone can really have it made or have life figured out except for a few relatively brief moments when things seem to be going relatively well. 🙂 Jesus is for everyone for many reasons but chief among them is the resurrection. The human mind can live in a sort of denial about death for awhile but in the end we aren’t complete or satisfied until the question of whether or not we continue to exist is resolved. And Jesus answers that question definitively-and then provides us the grace to believe in it.
 
OK, hold on to your seat belts…

“Christ” is not the last name, of Jesus of Nazareth. It was a title, even a description.

We are all connected to the divine by the way we were born. But the way we are brought up, we are basically vaccinated against accessing the divine.

Jesus came to show us how to be a perfect human, to rise above human thinking actually by becoming “nothing” like a servant, and into divine thinking. It is clearly His intent to bring us into His kingdom, even while we are still alive. But our consciousness has to shift to a Christ-consciousness, if you will. That is, once we obey the commands of Jesus (and I didn’t say the law) and live with the consequences, we get closer and closer until He decides we are ripe for the harvest. Jesus calls the process of shifting, being born of the spirit. And on Pentecost we pray that the spirit renews the face of the earth.

The Church does not say that non-Christians will go to hell, regardless of popular opinion. She has a lot of fine print surrounding this issue it seems, but ultimately it’s up to God. God said whoever gives a person a drink, gives Him one. He said whoever is not against us is for us.

Alan
 
Binto said:
Hey everyone!
I’m a 19 year old college student who has just convinced his friend that Jesus is divine. He however states “Jesus probaly isn’t for everyone”. Even though I disagree with him, I get where he is coming from. This guy has figured life out. He’s in great shape, gets straight A’s, is at total peace with himself, and clearly has Christ showing through him because he is the most loving and caring individual (at least at my age) that I know. All I can answer to him is that “Jesus says so” but that’s clearly not a good convincing answer. Does anybody know what I can say to him to have it make sense for him to become a Christian and eventually Catholic?
Thanks a whole lot guys! Your responses are greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...
BINTO: That’s a great question. I suggest you and your friend should revisit the question of “CHRIST’S DIVINITY” because IF your friend accepts CHRIST’S DIVINITY, he shouldn’t have difficulty embracing the statement that “Jesus Christ is for everyone.”
In the Bible there are lots of scriptural references that support Christ’s Divinity.

QUOTE: “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I Am”—invoking and applying to Himself the personal name of God—“I Am” (Ex. 3:14).
Christ’s audience understood exactly what He was claiming about Himself. “So they took up stones to throw at him; but Jesus hid Himself, and went out of the temple” (John 8:59).

In John 20:28, Thomas falls at Jesus’ feet, exclaiming, “My Lord and my God!” (Greek: Ho Kurios mou kai ho Theos mou—literally, “The Lord of me and the God of me!”)

Go get him, BINTO!
 
Oops, sorry I wasn’t focusing on the “Jesus probably isn’t for everyone.”

I’ll have to rethink my ideas.
 
Jesus is for people that want happiness,peace and everlasting life. Your friend is at a good stage in life now but sadly things change.
 
VeritasLuxMea said:
Isn’t that basically Gnosticism?
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I don’t know what that is, exactly.

The Bible says we were made in His image. We know He knew us while we were in the womb. So I choose to say we are connected to the divine. Also, if we are His mystical Body we are connected to the Divine. I don’t know how that compares to Gnosticism.

Jesus teaches us to be like a child, because we systematically remove its innocence through behavior modification and other means. Then they respond like lab rats to bribes and threats. We make the basic presumption that we need to use these things to teach kids.

We have to teach them that love is stronger than bribes and threats. This is what Jesus came to do … unite. All the groups that are scattered, bringing them back together and insisting on losing group identity.

Alan
 
Binto said:
Hey everyone!
I’m a 19 year old college student who has just convinced his friend that Jesus is divine. He however states “Jesus probably isn’t for everyone”. Even though I disagree with him, I get where he is coming from.
Click to expand...
Not sure how you might put it in conversation, but the question really isn’t one of Jesus being for everyone but rather - Is everyone for Jesus.
Clearly NOT everyone is for Jesus. Many - Many reject Him.

So the thing to discover is just what he means by his statement and then to discover if he really is “for” or “against” Jesus.
This guy has figured life out.
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Makes me think of the old saying - “If you want to make God laugh, just make plans…”
He’s in great shape, gets straight A’s, is at total peace with himself, and clearly has Christ showing through him because he is the most loving and caring individual (at least at my age) that I know. All I can answer to him is that “Jesus says so” but that’s clearly not a good convincing answer. Does anybody know what I can say to him to have it make sense for him to become a Christian and eventually Catholic?
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There are many arguments that we might toss out, but honestly the best one is the witness of your own life, peace and joy in your faith.
He is on top of the world right now. He’s got it all in hand - so he thinks…Life WILL deal him blows. Will he be able to handle them? Will he continue to be " the most loving and caring individual" when things are not going so well?
That is the time when faith is critically important.

The most important thing is to be the best friend you can be to him - and be an even better friend when things go wrong for him (which they will one day).

For now…I dunno. There is probably no argument that will really sway him. his heart is not yet ready, although it does sound like the spirit is already working in him for John tells us that he who knows Love (agape) knows God. (1 John 4:7-8)
Thanks a whole lot guys! Your responses are greatly appreciated!
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Sorry I can’t be more help

Peace
James
 
Thanks for the answers guys! Much appreciated! God bless you all! I’ll be sure to pray for you all
 
It sounds to me your friend has been blessed with all the good things of a smooth life.
He does not see a need for a relationship with Jesus even he may acknowledge Jesus’ divinity.

The bottom line is not if one day he will face some trials or not. Rather that as a creature, one should know his creator and build a relationship with Him. Just like a child ought to have a relationship with his earthly parents, one should have a relationship with his heavenly Father.

Of course, as a non-believer, he does not have such a concept. Maybe you can approach from this angle. However, the most effective way is to pray the Holy Spirit’s guidance for him. No one can say Jesus is Lord except led by the Holy Spirit.
 
Binto said:
Hey everyone!
I’m a 19 year old college student who has just convinced his friend that Jesus is divine. He however states “Jesus probaly isn’t for everyone”. Even though I disagree with him, I get where he is coming from. This guy has figured life out. He’s in great shape, gets straight A’s, is at total peace with himself, and clearly has Christ showing through him because he is the most loving and caring individual (at least at my age) that I know. All I can answer to him is that “Jesus says so” but that’s clearly not a good convincing answer. Does anybody know what I can say to him to have it make sense for him to become a Christian and eventually Catholic?

Thanks a whole lot guys! Your responses are greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...
I like the comment above mine - about being blessed and being spared trials. Sometimes the test of our “having it together” is when some trial is before us - how do we react? What will be his strength then? And let’s not forget that it is the measure of love behind an action that gives it value, and not the act itself. Only God sees our hearts. There are many seemingly loving and charitable people who do so only for self-aggrandizement and praise. Not saying this is the case with your friend - only that there is a danger in not living with one’s eternal security in mind, or with love for God as the ingredient in good works.

I will say though, that I do know of extraordinarily charitable and selfless people who do not profess to be Christians, but at least aren’t against Christianity. Sometimes I think of people who are Christ-like as clearly knowing and believing in Jesus, but who show that faith rather than profess it. Iow, they know Him by concept and show it by expression. In contrast, there are those who profess to know Him, who show clearly by their daily walk that they do not know Him at all.
 
“No-one comes to the Father except through Me.”

If God the Father isn’t for everyone, then I guess Jesus isn’t either. Of course given that we all die and have to face an afterlife, God the Father, and Jesus, most certainly ARE for everyone.
 
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