"I am the way and the truth and
the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6
I have a close friend whose husband is not a Christian meaning he does not
believe that Jesus died for his sins. In the religious world, she is referred
to as unequally yoked. It is very hard for her and she struggles with the issue
every day.
She recently said that the thought of him going to hell is troubling to
her. It troubles her that her daughter will one day have to make the choice as
well as realize that her daddy will go to hell.
She called recently upset because of an argument she had with her neighbor.
She had mentioned being upset about him going to hell. The neighbor immediately
went off saying that he was a good person and she found it hard to believe that
God would send good people to hell. My friend held strong to her belief that
the Bible is very clear.
This is an age-old debate. How do you get to heaven? Do you hold strict to
the above Bible verse? Do you believe that God is full of grace and will not
send the undeserving to hell?
We hear the word tolerance and religion used so much in society these days.
Some people refer to going to church as being religious or being Christian.
Some people are switching churches so fast they don’t even know what the church
they are going to even believes. Yet they have an opinion on what is right.
I think they spend so much time defending their beliefs that they fail to
find out what are their beliefs.
A new study was released from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
What is interesting is that the majority of Americans believe there are many
ways to eternal life. Some refer to this as tolerance.
It seems to be a new trend in America. We need to get along with one
another and the way to do that is to take on others beliefs. It comes back to
the core fact that most Americans really don’t know what they believe in. They
were raised in a church, they have this friend who is caught up in a mess of
sin or they compare themselves to others. Either way, they begin to leave the
judging to themselves.
According to the study, by many measures, Americans
are strongly religious: 92 percent believe in God, 74 percent believe in life
after death and 63 percent say their respective scriptures are the word of God.
How can you believe the scriptures are the word of God, but not believe what is
said in the scripture?
But deeper investigation found that more than one
in four Roman Catholics, mainline Protestants and Orthodox Christians expressed
some doubts about God's existence, as did six in ten Jews. How can individuals
identify themselves with a particular church or as a Christian and not believe
God even exists?
Another finding almost defies
explanation: 21 percent of self-identified atheists said they believe in God or
a universal spirit, with 8 percent "absolutely certain" of it.
Is it me or does no one know the
definition or terminology anymore? I continue that people are confused and want
so badly to believe in anything or anyone?
Sixty-eight percent of Americans
said there is more than one way to interpret the teachings of their own
religion.
I think Americans just don’t
know the fundamental teachings of their own religion. It is funny to me that we
can memorize stats at a baseball game, retell a conversation we had twenty
years ago with the boy who told us what life was about, know everything there
is to know about our profession or field, but we don’t take the time to study
what we believe.
How many Americans know what
they personally believe and why they believe that? Those who attend church, do
they know why they go to church, what their denomination believes or even what
their own church or leader believes.
I hate to be one of those
negative people, but I think American is in trouble. I think we listen to
individuals talk a great talk and jump on the nearest bandwagon without ever
looking for truth to live by during our daily lives.
