A question for all christians

I'm not a devout Christian, but when I hear a question like this, I can only think of one thing.

Jesus' parable of the 11th hour.

As the story goes, a farmer finds three men to work in his field, for a 12 hour day. He finds one at the first hour, one at the sixth hour, and one at the eleventh hour.

At the end of the day, he pays them all an equal wage. When the first man complains, the farmer responds by telling the man that it's his money, and he'll pay how he likes.

Now the intent of this story is to illustrate that it's almost never too late to find God. He rewards all in the same fashion, and loves everyone equally. In the eyes of God, GradyPhilpott and myself are equal, as is an unnamed serial killer off the street. We'd all do well to remember that in the eyes of God, EVERYONE is equal.

I can picture God saying "where were you yesterday? When the world was not ending, you did not want to know me".

And I could answer back, "Where were YOU for the past 2000 or so years? You used to show up to the flock at the drop of a hat back in the old days, but why not lately? In such times, you made yourself seen, feared, and worshipped, so it was easy for us to believe.... People have killed in your name, yet you remained silent, your clergy committed terrible acts upon children, and yet you remained silent. Where were YOU yesterday oh Lord?.... Where were YOU...???"

Originally posted by Gazrok

I can picture God saying "where were you yesterday? When the world was not ending, you did not want to know me".

And I could answer back, "Where were YOU for the past 2000 or so years? You used to show up to the flock at the drop of a hat back in the old days, but why not lately? In such times, you made yourself seen, feared, and worshipped, so it was easy for us to believe.... People have killed in your name, yet you remained silent, your clergy committed terrible acts upon children, and yet you remained silent. Where were YOU yesterday oh Lord?.... Where were YOU...???"

Would you go where you were not wanted? Why do people wait until the last minute to call on God? As far as children dying - men kill children - Why do all bad things that happen get blamed on God? Why not take a long hard look at what man has and always be? There have been lots of reports of miraculous things happening, but nobody hardly pays attention until something bad happens and then it gets blamed on God. My opinion

Originally posted by Gazrok

I can picture God saying "where were you yesterday? When the world was not ending, you did not want to know me".

And I could answer back, "Where were YOU for the past 2000 or so years? You used to show up to the flock at the drop of a hat back in the old days, but why not lately? In such times, you made yourself seen, feared, and worshipped, so it was easy for us to believe.... People have killed in your name, yet you remained silent, your clergy committed terrible acts upon children, and yet you remained silent. Where were YOU yesterday oh Lord?.... Where were YOU...???"

Would you go where you were not wanted? Why do people wait until the last minute to call on God? As far as children dying - men kill children - Why do all bad things that happen get blamed on God? Why not take a long hard look at what man has and always be? There have been lots of reports of miraculous things happening, but nobody hardly pays attention until something bad happens and then it gets blamed on God. My opinion - we are soooo self centered

Originally posted by Gazrok

I can picture God saying "where were you yesterday? When the world was not ending, you did not want to know me".

And I could answer back, "Where were YOU for the past 2000 or so years? You used to show up to the flock at the drop of a hat back in the old days, but why not lately? In such times, you made yourself seen, feared, and worshipped, so it was easy for us to believe.... People have killed in your name, yet you remained silent, your clergy committed terrible acts upon children, and yet you remained silent. Where were YOU yesterday oh Lord?.... Where were YOU...???"

Would you go where you were not wanted? Why do people wait until the last minute to call on God? As far as children dying - men kill children - Why do all bad things that happen get blamed on God? Why not take a long hard look at what man has and always be? There have been lots of reports of miraculous things happening, but nobody hardly pays attention until something bad happens and then it gets blamed on God. My opinion - we are soooo self centered

Originally posted by zi2525Now my question is, if the world was going to end and you turned to god and started praying for him to save your soul, what if you where only praying to him because you where scared of going to hell would he still let you in to heaven?

Fire Insurance??

In short, Yes. That's good enough. Since the New Testament seems to be a hanging point for some, you can search the old testament and you will find hundreds of instances where we are told to fear God. If you obeyed you parents simply because of your fear of punishment, is that enough? If you work hard for fear of getting fired, is it enough? Yes, and yes. Ideally you should serve because you love God, but the former will work until you grow into the love part.

Still I think you are asking the wrong question. You assume you will have that chance. No one is promised to live until the end of the world. Even if you were given the date, ( say... Dec 2012 ) it would not come with the guarantee that you would have the opportunity at that time, or that you would live to see that day. Ideally and probably yes, but not for sure. If you are going to make that decision, then don't wait until the end of the world.

Such learned rhetoric. Prognostraverbage![fake word]
First, you have to look at who re-lated, re-wrote, re-told, re-formed, and
re-shoveld this hooie from the start: Non-christians who were practicing Semites. Seeing a need to gain control over others, what better way than to give them some stories they would relate to. Back then, or when, people didnt relate to very much more than eat, sleep, take a dump, not get killed, or maybe do a little killing. Referencing Semitic "truths" is like mixing oil and water. "They" have their selfish beliefs that do not include "Others", allowing mis-information and profundity to wow the rubes who were just asking for it!

No true benevolent higher power would let it's pet project to be sabatoged the way humans are doing to this experiment. Ergo:NO GOD!

Hi MWM 1331:

I think you are referring to the socalled RoofTop vision of "Peter" in the book of Acts?

The book of Acts was written allegedly by Luke, a travelling companion of Paul, or at any rate, a Paulinist in many ways...

Luke shares with Paul at least a tolerance for gentile goyim which "Jesus" never would have put up with.

And what was "Peter's" speech on the roof top? Do you remember?

"Lord, in MY WHOLE LIFE, I HAVE NEVER EATEN ANYTHING THAT WAS NOT OF THE KOSHER DIET OR UNLCEAN"

which means that the disciples kept kosher while at least "Jesus" was alive.

This anti Jewish story-illustration (or rather, pro Gentile) is not necessarily "historical"--but was a made up story on the part of the author (Luke) or his source, and placed into the Book of Acts (after AD 90) to encourage goyim-Gentiles to join the Chrstian community--and not worry about Kosher food or circumcision or any of that "Jewish stuff" these Gentile lovers were making "Iesous" more universal than he really was---at a time, after all, that the Temple and Jerusalem was a pile of rubble and Jews were persona non grata throughout the empire (they lost the war and losers are never popular) so obeying the "torah of Moses" when the Book of Acts was written was a literal impossibility---as any modern day Rabinnic Jew will tell you...

A contradiction? Only between the Antiochan Nazoreans (torah abiders) who wrote Matthew's gospel and the freer-thinking goyim loving people who were ultimately responsible for the Book of Acts----hint: the books were written by two competing groups who followed different theologies...
which is why I use the term "Christianities"....in the plural...

Proverbs 1:7

The fear of the LORD [is] the beginning of knowledge: [but] fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Your fear of God sets you heading in the right direction. If you want to continue on this right path take a trip to the following link. You will find outstanding Christian material to help you on your way to building a relationship with Christ Jesus that goes beyond fear.

www.equip.org/