With or against Jesus?

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Augustine3

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Jesus said “if you are not with me you are against me”. How do we deal with this in regards to Jehovah’s Witnesses and Muslims that do not believe in Jesus’ divine nature as we do?

God bless,
 
Matt 12:30 right?

Haydock:
He that is not with me. This sentence is not to be understood as directly spoken of heretics and schismatics, although at first sight it may appear so, but of the devil, who wishes to lead the souls of men captive, whilst Christ wishes to free them. He entices men to wickedness, Jesus Christ draws them to virtue: how therefore can the works of Christ be compared with those of Satan!

As far as people’s misinterpretations, if their ignorance is invincible then:

“Invincible ignorance, whether of the law or of the fact, is always a valid excuse and excludes sin. The evident reason is that neither this state nor the act resulting therefrom is voluntary. It is undeniable that a man cannot be invincibly ignorant of the natural law, so far as its first principles are concerned, and the inferences easily drawn therefrom. This, however, according to the teaching of St. Thomas, is not true of those remoter conclusions, which are deducible only by a process of laborious and sometimes intricate reasoning. Of these a person may be invincibly ignorant. Even when the invincible ignorance is concomitant, it prevents the act which it accompanies from being regarded as sinful. The perverse temper of soul, which in this case is supposed, retains, of course, such malice as it had. Vincible ignorance, being in some way voluntary, does not permit a man to escape responsibility for the moral deformity of his deeds; he is held to be guilty and in general the more guilty in proportion as his ignorance is more voluntary. Hence, the essential thing to remember is that the guilt of an act performed or omitted in vincible ignorance is not to be measured by the intrinsic malice of the thing done or omitted so much as by the degree of negligence discernible in the act.”

Catholic Encyclopedia
 
Indeed. I can only speak the truth to them. If they choose to reject it, then their path is certain. However, I have come to be at peace with the fact that most people I know may end up in hell. Jesus said as much, and so we know it is true. We still must present the truth to them. If this is upsetting to us, imagine how God must feel about losing souls.
 
Augustine3 said:
Jesus said “if you are not with me you are against me”. How do we deal with this in regards to Jehovah’s Witnesses and Muslims that do not believe in Jesus’ divine nature as we do?

God bless,
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We say you are not for Jesus therefore you are against Him.persons may say they are not against Jesus but when they disregard His teachings and follow some rule or program or ideology other than that which Jesus preached they will at some point go contrary to the truth.
 
Augustine3: Jesus made it pretty clear.There is one truth.Anything else is false.
 
Obviously we cannot judge in absolute terms who’s going to hell because only God knows what’s in each person’s heart, but in light of the verse below (within its context) I remember hearing that the Catholic Church extends the gates of salvation to non-Christians. How is that possible since with technology today almost everybody around the world have heard of Jesus and what He has done but yet continue to practice their own religion?

"If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.” – John 15:33

God bless,
 
I’d say if they do corporal acts of mercy, then they are on Jesus’s team.

If they do certain spiritual acts, within the limits of not imposing their religion on others, I’d say that’s the work of Jesus. If they come to the door and try to change my fundamental way of looking at things, I think, “yes, I see some smiley faces and nice coats, even on the little one, but I’m not convinced they are any happier than I am.” And then I might thank them for their pamphlet and politely close the door, or I might just ask them some sort of leading question about something you may or may not be interested in, but will get them going. You know, like "how does YOUR religion say we have to get to heaven? Then whatever they say, protect yourself from the stupidity it is likely to contain by raising your shields:
http://bestsmileys.com/notlistening/2.gif

When they’re done, thank them profusely and say, “I can see how much this must mean to you. I’m changed because you came here. Goodbye and God Bless. I really do have to go now.”

Why spoil their day? Truth is love, not words. It is in thanking them for coming that we are washing their feet. We don’t want to get anywhere near their heads because they are just a bit wacko :whacky: We don’t have to even hear them, just tell them it was interesting and it gave you something to think about. That’s not lying in spirit or letter, IMO. Doesn’t a genuine act of love trump what you know is going to be a vain attempt at instructing the ignorant?

I’ve had a lot of strange thoughts since I gave up having to be right, for Lent. 😃

Alan
 
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