“On The Fence”

Monday, October 21, 2019

     I just wanted to say that I’m not an atheist, and I don’t want to challenge religious views or anything.  I am curious about Christianity and have a puzzling question.  Since I currently don’t believe in any sort of religion and am unsure whether or not there is a god, if I died right now, would I automatically go to hell just because I haven’t accepted the Lord as my savior?  I have morals and am generally a good person, so how could God send me to hell to burn forever? Is He really that cruel?  Thank you in advance to whoever reads this; I appreciate your time.
Sincerely,
Agnostic

Dear Agnostic,

Jesus is a very exclusive Savior.  He very boldly claims, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no comes to the Father, but by Me.” (Jhn 14:6).  If you don’t have a life of faith built upon following Christ, you won’t be saved.  We aren't saved by being good people (everybody thinks they are a good person); we are saved by being in Christ (Jhn 10:9).  That may sound harsh, but let’s talk about the evidence that God provides to make it possible for a deist to turn into a christian.

First of all, all faith is built upon some sort of evidence.  That evidence may be historical data (like when you trust traffic lights to work properly because they have statistically done so in the past), it may be personal experience (i.e. when you trust a friend because they have shown good judgment and loyalty in the past), or circumstantial evidence (like when a jury convicts a murderer based upon the evidence presented to them – even when there weren’t eyewitnesses at the scene of the crime).

Your belief that there is some sort of Supreme Being is probably based upon some sort of basic evidence from the world that you see around you.  Rom 1:20 says that God has provided evidence of His existence in the creation around us.  From galaxies to atoms, this world shows the signs of design.  A design requires a Designer.  God’s handiwork is seen in the finely-tuned craftsmanship of the human eye, just like Nikon’s handiwork is shown in the craftsmanship of their cameras.  You’ve done well to acknowledge His existence in a general way… but we would beg you to keep digging deeper.

After looking at the general evidence of God’s existence, it is time to look at the specific evidence of the Bible’s supernatural origins.  The Bible is a unique book; it is a book that no human could ever write.  We would encourage you to read “Who Wrote The Bible?” for a comprehensive list of reasons why the Bible is a book that only God could have written.  Once we begin to see the evidence for the Bible’s divine origins, we have no choice but to ask ourselves, “Will I follow God’s Word?”.

God expects us to follow Jesus, and we stand condemned if we don’t, because He has given us plenty of evidence that Jesus is the one and only true Son of God.  We would encourage you to follow the evidence – it will lead you straight to Jesus the Christ.

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