When people reject what they should desire because they don't want to accept some of the other implications, the result is much worse than simply facing the truth and its consequences.
The following short discourse came into my mind as I was thinking of an atheist’s YouTube production that essentially said the world would be a better place if no one spent any time thinking about the possibility of heaven (after “proving Christianity and the Bible false by showing that Noah’s Ark and the Flood was impossible because races couldn’t have been established over such a short period of time from then to now”). Never mind the absolute absurdity of those claims…I dealt with that at that time. You’re welcome to comment and dismantle such allegations if you want to. But this article isn’t directly in reply to such claims. It, rather, just spawned out of thinking about them.
It’s interesting, many times my best inspiration comes in the form of pithy two-liners like these, if not in poetic form. I guess God designs us all differently with different talents, tendencies, and combinations of talents and tendencies.
The After-Life:
Live like there is no heaven, and you’ll never have to worry about going there.
Live like there is no hell, and that will become your eternal home.
Absolutes:
Live like there is no absolute good, and you will do little of it.
Live like there is no absolute evil, and you will do much more of that.
The Spiritual Realm:
Live like there are no angels, and they won’t hang around you.
Live like there are no demons, and they will never leave you.
God and Satan:
Live like there is no God, and He will never be your Father.
Live like there is no Satan, and he will forever remain your father.
Possession and Authority:
Live like your life is yours and yours only, and someday you will find it was Satan’s.
Live like you will never bow, and someday you’ll have no choice but to.
Soul’s Condition:
Live like you don’t have a soul, and yours will be dead forevermore.
Live like your soul is fine just as it is--without the saving blood of Jesus, and yours will be dead forevermore.
Materialism and Relativism:
Live like this life is all you get, and you will wish that you were right.
Live like you can’t know what the truth is, and you won’t like what you eventually find.
How Then Shall We Live?
Live knowing that there is a heaven and a hell. Act accordingly. (namely: salvation through Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and all that entails.)
Live knowing there is absolute good and evil. Do the former. Suppress the latter in the name of Christ.
Live knowing there is a spiritual realm. Allow the angels to help you. Shackle the demons in Jesus’ name.
Live knowing there is a God and a Satan. Pray for the Former to help you become His child and no longer the child of Satan .
Live knowing that your life can ultimately only belong to two entities—God or the devil. Dedicate yourself to the service of God.
Live knowing that souls do exist, in a stained state. Realize that human souls are the most important thing in the universe, and realize that we are all doomed—without Christ—to spiritual death. Act on these realizations.
Live knowing that you know the truth.
~Kingdom Advancer
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21 comments:
I'll post a real comment on here later. Right now I just want to ask you something.
How did you put your blogger blogs onto your google account?
Oh yeah, I'm going to link you. I would have done that long ago, but it's been a while since I've updated my links.
I had never had a google account before. I went to "upgrade to Blogger in Beta" and, after I signed up for a Google account, it did it for me automatically.
Thanks for linking me. I'm going to try to start a link section just for blogs who have linked me (you'll be the third, I think), but I'm still new at this "in Beta" format.
Yeah, I had to get a google account to use the Christmas Watch too, but mine didn't put my old blogs onto the new format. They told me that it might not, but that I could do it on my own if I didn't want to wait for them to invite me to do it. but i don't know how.
Oh, I think what you do is go to your blog's headquarters (or whatever), go to template, go to customize, and then click "upgrade."
It warned me that it might take away some of my customizations but that it would save my old template for reference.
Thanks, I'll give it a shot.
Kingdom Advancer, I need your help! I've posted a comment or so on the Skeptic Friends' Network, and I need help from fellow Christians in talking to these people. There are too many of them, and I'm only one guy.
Please, if you have time, go to Skeptic Friends' Network: Biblical archaeologists really dig Jesus and join the convo. I'm going to try and get others to help too. like maybe Jonathan.
Here Austin. I don't want to give that garbage site my e-mail address in order to sign-up, so just copy and paste this in your comment and tell them it is from Kingdom Advancer.
"Lack of a sense of humor -- especially a bristling reaction to any poking of fun at one's own beliefs -- is a trait common with True Believers of all sorts, austin. Fascists, Communists, Muslims, Christians, all the "fundies" in those systems have this trait. They operate with minds that allow no deviation from what they believe. Their beliefs are "burned in" like Read Only Memory chips, soldered in place. No user upgrade is possible."
I've actually got a great sense of humor. But when one knows the truth (like Austin and I do), and when one knows that the truth is a very serious thing, jokes insulting the truth aren't so funny. I'm sure you'd think hearing about your grandmother, mother, sister, or wife being raped and killed would just make you crack up?
Laughing and joking about everything isn't the sign of a great sense of humor: it's the sign of a sick disconnection from reality.
" If you are going to take a boneheaded position that allows yourself no questions or critical thought, and discourages it in others, you should expect (at a minimum) to have yourself and your silly beliefs laughed at by all those with more agile minds."
You way overestimate both your "agile mind" and your "critical thought." You call that post critical thought? At least you are exercising free speech and thought--you're freedom to say outlandish and false things.
"I now know I hit just the right nerve with the Jesus bones joke."
What nerve, exactly, does it hit, when you don't have any bones?
An imaginary nerve, just like your imaginary bones.
""On the contrary. What you fail to understand is that personal experiences are no guide to truth."
True. On one's own, you cannot know the Truth. To know the Truth, you need the assistance of the Holy Spirit.
"I have no reason to believe that your sincerely felt belief is any more "the Truth" than that of countless others who's beliefs are equally sincere, yet mutually exclusive with respect to yours."
Correction: you don't WANT to believe it is the Truth. That would require a drastic change in your thoughts, actions, beliefs, and life's purpose.
"I thought your sig was a bit funny. Both directly, and in the ironical sense that it is a human-written gag (like the Bible) that fictitiously quotes a highly unlikely entity."
Hmmm... "like the Bible"... I guess that falls under "insert subtle and false opinion here."
Any of your atheists lines about God not existing are the human-written "gags," if anything is.
"Better to have lived and died, than never to have lived at all."
Best to have lived, accepted the Savior Who lived, died, and rose again, and died, with the assurance of eternal life.
"...Truth(tm)...."
Thanks for trademarking Christian Truth. You seem to realize that Christianity is the only religious belief that has the real truth.
"Funny sidelight on this: Finding Jesus' bones would actually be an improvement for Christians, who presently have the scantest of evidence that he even existed, much less that he was resurrected."
Repeat "insert subtle and false opinion" here.
"...scantest of evidence..." Yeah, right.
The reason you get people like me and Austin riled up is because we are concerned for your souls. You seemingly are not.
Your efforts are admirable, Austin. Are you still going to Beepbeep's blog? I stopped because I don't think that's exactly the fertile ground to spread the seeds (to mention a parable of Jesus) of the Gospel. It was a little bit like throwing pearls before swine. And, I eventually felt that we should "shake the dust off our sandals," so to speak.
By all means, I still care for their salvation! But, when you look at the 24 hours in a day, you almost have to pick your battles, and try to get the biggest bang for your buck. What I'd really like to find are some skeptics who care about finding the Truth, not making the Truth look false so they could continue to live comfortably in their lost and sinful state.
I'm not discouraging you, necessarily; it is just something to think about.
Listen up! You asked me to tell you when I change my display name, and I did. (this is JO)
It's Sunny_12, because I have a rabbit named Sunny, and that's the first thing that came to my mond when I went to change it.
Is often changing your display name part of your and Lanna's "mysterious" mystique?
Just kidding. ;)
Thanks, I'll post it next week. You rock.
Yes,
It's part of our mysterious mystique.
Why you joke, I do not know.
Lanna;)
Your welcome, Austin.
Yes, Lanna, like your mysterious ages. But then there's your suspicious use of the number 14 in your Drumstx blog and your sister's suspicious use of the number 12 in her user names. ;)
Either I'm very sharp or I read too much into things...or a little of both. ;)
You read too much into things. You won't be able to figure out their ages that way, so just give up. If you don't, their mom will curse you with a hangnail.
No, I haven't been going to beepbeep's blog. I only went there once or twice, and then I stopped.
I don't have to "give up" like you say because I'm not obsessed with figuring out their ages like you were. I just thought I'd note the suspicious nature of those two artifacts.
obsessed? no more obsessed than they were with finding out what I look like.
He's right.
But, like he said, you won't be able to learn our ages that way. Those are just our favorite numbers. Random numbers.
And, just how old are you?
Also, I want to see what Austin looks like mostly because he bugged me for so long about my age. Also, I just want to know why he thinks so badly of his looks Every time he says something like "You wont like it" or something. I don't believe him.
Lanna
Lanna,
I didn't ask you your age, so why are you asking me mine? ;)
As you see on my profile, I didn't put much personal information because I want to prevent and avoid any stereotypes that would skew a person's view of my views right off the bat--not based on what I say--but based on who they imagine me to be through their perhaps very false and/or erroneous generalizations of age, location, occupation, etc.
Just to waste space, time, energy....the list grows on.;)
Lanna
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