Date:   2/11/2007 8:24:44 AM ( 17 y ago)
Popularity:   message viewed 1943 times
URL:   http://www.curezone.org/blogs/c/fm.asp?i=1002543

Good point about how God deals with those who are not his people. 

But it's ironic, isn't it? Atheists have nothing to gain by proselytism, yet they engage in it with great religious zeal. If they get a convert, who cares? When they die, they believe they just cease to exist, and all they ever did was for nothing. If they comfort themselves in thinking they've made the world more atheistic, they still have to realize that all it does is take all hope away from people and take all the meaning out of life. If it's only about physical life on earth, then what's the point of anything? The bad as well as the good leave their legacies, and there is no ultimate justice for the oppressed, the victims. This is the atheist's utopia??

But we who believe in eternal life have a sensible motive for spreading the gospel. We care where people spend eternity and know that either heaven or hell awaits us all. And given that this life is the only chance we get of deciding, we are all the more eager to see people choose heaven. Yet for this we are hated, and our motives are not believed. We oppose falsehood because it has eternal consequences. If we didn't care about the lost, we'd just say "whatever" and be done with it. But we struggle and contend for the faith out of love for all people.

Yet at the same time, we realize that many people resent our caring and lash out in hatred. Are we to present ourselves as punching bags to them? Not at all. Self-defense is not a sin! One cannot "earnestly contend for the faith" (Jude 1:3) or "vigorously refute" (Acts 18:28) by holding out flowers and candy. "There is a time for everything"  (Eccl. 3:1); a time for peace and a time for war. We live in a hostile world and must stand strong, while also being ready to show gentleness to the humble and peaceful. Discernment, knowing when to do what, is as much a gift as a command.

Yes, there will come a time, and none of us knows how long we have here. And there will come a time when even God's patience with mankind runs out, as it did before (Gen. 6:3). So we must continually pray for both wisdom/discernment and strength, to be found being "about our Father's business" and not "beating our fellow servants" or shirking our responsibility to "go into all the world and preach the gospel".

 

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