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From: swc@cbscc.UUCP (Scott W. Collins)
Newsgroups: net.religion.christian
Subject: Re: A primary reason for belief in Christ
Message-ID: <5822@cbscc.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 30-Aug-85 13:33:58 EDT
Article-I.D.: cbscc.5822
Posted: Fri Aug 30 13:33:58 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 31-Aug-85 09:01:46 EDT
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories <SCCS>, Columbus
Lines: 100

~
Stephen Kurtzman writes:
> 
> I have always had the feeling that many people choose to believe in the
> claims of Christianity because it gives an alternative to an eternal
> death. The excerpt above is a classic example of why I get this feeling -
> Christ "sets us free from this world of death". Is my feeling justified?
> 

As a Christian, I am not so concerned with my physically being dead
(although I concede the usual fear of the unknown and loss of life).
More importantly, I am concerned with the quality of life that I
experience.  Rather than live a lifestyle that gives a lot of
short-term satisfaction and very little or no long-term benefits,
I prefer to risk the short-term "return on investment" and look
for the long-term prosperity.  This sounds rather monetary, so
let me give an example.

	I have to decide upon buying a fruit tree for my yard
	so that I might have pleasing foliage and also have
	a source of nourishment.  I see a splendid looking
	tree that has huge, appealing pieces of fruit hanging
	off of it.  I can buy it and possibly later find out
	that the fruit is either inedible or not nutritious,
	or I can investigate it further to see if the tree
	is healthy inside and will bear good fruit.  The
	former gives immediate gratification of having a
	seemingly attractive and bountiful tree with a risk
	of problems.  The latter makes me wait to buy until
	I decide that the tree is really what I want.  If
	it isn't I must wait even longer while looking at
	the next tree.

The point here is that I am naturally concerned that I might
be poisoned by bad fruit (common sense).  But I am most
concerned with the fact that I make the proper decision on the
investment.  Short-term gain is not always what it appears to be.
Taking the time to find out the truth about life situations is not
easy and is usually time-consuming as we are barraged with a variety
of misinformation.

> play upon the inherent fear man has of death. Does anyone know of any
> Christian sect that does not try to exploit fear of death? A lot of the
> Christian sects actually go one step further and tell people it is not
> just death you will experience but eternal damnation. It makes me uneasy
> and suspicious when someone tries to scare me into doing or believing
> something. How does it make the Christians and non-Christians on the net
> feel?

I had trouble with this for a long time.  It was not until I found that I
could not comprehend the vastness of God's greatness and goodness that
I realized that despite how relatively good and great I could be compared
to a murderer or even a mild conman, I am still miles away from God (not to
make a finite measurement, though). Therefore, I am still a "wretched soul"
and hence no better than ANYONE else.  Once you see your own depravity
(not in a consuming, "oh-wretched-me" sense, but in a global sense), you
can see that you are unacceptable to God as-is.  He loves me, as he is
a loving God, but he sees me unacceptable.  [Insert here the Gospel, or
"Good News", which tells of how we CAN be acceptable, free of charge]

Now, I don't know what "eternal
damnation" specifically entails, whether it means burning bodily for
eternity, burned once and for all, left on this earth until it is
destroyed, or simply separation from God; the Bible references a variety
of descriptions.  I believe that whatever it ultimately means is in
accordance with God's will (what I consider perfect and therefore what
I will accept), instead of a ghastly sentence that is imposed out of
someone's unrighteous wrath.  The latter belief would scare me into believing
in Him just to save my skin; an ingenuine motive that would be known
by Him anyway.  This kind of "fear" of God is what a lot of people seem
to think the Bible talks about.

The former belief would make me want to be with Him
on this earth and afterwards - still really out of selfishness, but
with a genuine heart.  It is said that none of us can turn to Him of
our own accord.  This means to me that we do not turn to Him because it
is the natural thing to do; we must have ulterior motives for the
choice (self-gain: prosperity, truth, eternal life, etc.).
SSSSSooooo, in short, the fear of God is a reverence for Him as a
response to his love and grace and not a trembling response to his
potential wrath.

> What do you think the consequences would be to the Christian churches if
> they did not play on fear? I believe many would fall apart because it
> would rapidly become apparent that without fear all they would have left
> is meaningless dogma. Those Christian communities that have some basis
> other than fear might indeed find themselves bursting over with true
> believers. What do the Christians and non-Christians that read this
> news column think about this possibility?

I know that the fellowship I attend here in Columbus is about 2100 strong
and the message is not "death unless we uphold the law" (Old Testament),
but salvation due to the loving grace of God and the works of Jesus (New).
The laws apply and are to be upheld as much as we humanly can, but we are
to realize that we cannot come to God by our "works", only by the perfect
works of Christ.

Thank you for taking the time to read this!

Scott W. Collins