The Fear Card

[Godscreated]

In response to the OP, I am in the middle of writing an article on this very issue. Hell is nothing more than scare tactics because Christians know they really don't have anything else. When offering an invisible best friend for life and a mansion in the sky after you die doesn't work, they have to rely on the scare tactics. But my stance is that threats of Hell don't work on those of us who don't believe in such a place. It's like saying that you have an invisible dragon in your back yard that will eat me if I don't believe it's there.

I do not have a dragon but, I do have Rotties that might find you tasty... just kidding, they might lick you to death. To give an answer to your above statement though, Christians have nothing to give you or offer you, all we can do is witness to what we know. Jesus preached more on hell than he did heaven so, it must have been extremely important to avoid hell. I would rather witness to a person about how wonderful it is to be a christian and what wonderful things God has in store for us. The loving relationship with God is what I want people to know about, what peace and comfort there is in this relationship and I'm not referring to, not going to hell, but what God does for me in my every day life. When people say it's not true or real then there is not much left to tell them about but hell and I believe that a christian would be negligent if he/she did not witness to the tragedy of hell.

Secondly, threats of hell are pretty silly to begin with, because these people are saying that God loves us but will send us to Hell not only if we don't worship him, but if we break the tiniest of many conflicting rules he set down for us in an ancient, confusing book. If he loves us so much, why eternal torture? Why even the threat? It's like a deranged stalker holding a gun to a woman's head and threatening to kill her if she doesn't marry him.

Hell is not a threat, it is the result of non belief, no more no less. God does love us all, it is not his will that anyone go to hell and it is not his will to force anyone to believe. God gives you a choice to believe, he wants you to come to know him through love not fear. If one comes to believe in him through fear and then through love come to know him that's better than the results of choosing to not believe. Salvation has nothing to do with works as you suggest but through faith in Christ, which leads to belief, which leads to knowledge and which leads to understanding. A woman with a gun to her head has no choice, God does give you a choice and tells you of the results of the choice so, you will not be surprised.

Thirdly, the idea of sending unbelievers to Hell is totally cruel and unjust for a god which is supposed to be totally just. He never shows us proof that he exists or why he should be worshiped, but if we don't then he casts us into a lake of fire.

Yes, God will send you to hell if you decide not to believe in Christ, he is giving you the result of the choice you made not, one he forced you to make. I'm not sure why you believe the way you do about God's justice. How is justice served if God allows unforgiven sinners into heaven
with the forgiven sinner when he promises that would not be the case. Do you think that a criminal and an innocent person should be treated the same? God's justice is determined by who he is and not what we might believe he is.

And lastly, Pascal's Wager is no way to live your life. If you honestly believe that God is real, that's fine. But if you're just going through the motions because you're afraid Hell might be real, then you're not being true to yourself or to God. And of course an all-knowing God would know that.

I agree with you, I say it this way though, if you are using christian beliefs as an insurance policy it want work, there is no true belief in that kind of fear.
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