Biblical Reasons Why Christians Might Feel Impelled To Evangelize.

a reply to: Blue_Jay33

When I say to someone wicked, ‘O wicked one, you will positively die! but you actually do not speak out to warn the wicked one from his way, he himself as a wicked one will die in his own error, but his blood I shall ask back at your own hand.
9 But as regards you, in case you actually warn someone wicked from his way [for him] to turn back from it but he actually does not turn back from his way, he himself will die in his own error, whereas you yourself will certainly deliver your own soul.

So.............The "Good News", that Jesus commanded you to "preach" is the message "O wicked one, you will positively die!"?

And..............The message that YOU'RE preaching to Christians is "whereas you yourself will certainly deliver your own soul."

This is clearly a doctrine of salvation by works, not faith.

Does this accusation of wickedness, that seems to be required for salvation according to Ezekiel, extend to enacting laws that ban deeds that "Christians" deem "wicked"?

a reply to: windword

Actually faith compels works. The two are linked. You can't have one, not truly, without being brought to the other.

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: windword

Actually faith compels works. The two are linked. You can't have one, not truly, without being brought to the other.

.............. "whereas you yourself will certainly deliver your own soul."

a reply to: Hecate666

I guess what makes me different is I will NEVER say somebody is going to "Hell" ever. I simply don't believe it exists because of the Greek and Hebrew words I have studied and what they really mean, I have an entire thread on it.
An invention of the Roman Catholic church to control people with fear during the dark ages. It's hard to let go of centuries of dogma.

But this fact still exists, lives are still in peril, in the future, and we don't now when, Jesus will judge every human soul on the planet, and souls will die forever. So God with the scriptures mentioned in the OP has told believers to warn others, just like Noah, Jeremiah, Jonah & Jesus did in the past. And of coarse there were those that scoffed at those warnings too. Jonah story is interesting because pagans repented in Ninevah to save their city, but didn't convert to Judaism. It's a fascinating account of God's mercy to those that were not in a relationship with him.

Why is it that humans always build holy sites on top of older holy sites? I don't think it's because of a lack of new real estate? I imagine it has something to do with crushing old traditions and force feeding the population whatever drab nonsense the new leaders want them to regurgitate back. Rome is a wonderful example of this. The holiest of holy churches are all built on much older complexes. I don't recall Jesus ever saying, "Though shalt desecrate ancient holy sites in my name and build directly upon them." There is only one reason for this. Destruction of evidence. There is a reason why people like you believe what you believe so vehemently. You have been programmed that way for many, many generations. So methodically, so perfectly that history itself has been removed and built over. The rest of the world looks at you like blind children. We really just feel bad for you guys. You also scare the crap out of us when you run for office. Imagine if the Muslim brotherhood just won the presidency of the united states. Yeah it's kind of like that.

Start with this: "What if... Jesus didn't exist?" and see where it takes you. Good luck you maverick renegade(s) you.

originally posted by: Blue_Jay33
a reply to: Tangerine

I have listed the examples of people in peril, either drowning or in a burning home and how a human has a basic moral obligation to try to help them live and survive those situations, and you ask me why I can't understand, I pose the same question back to you ?

If you can't comprehend my perspective, I guess we have to agree to disagree.

I do comprehend your perspective but you do not comprehend my right to privacy. Your rights end where mine begins and vice versa.

originally posted by: NOTurTypical

originally posted by: Tangerine

originally posted by: NOTurTypical
a reply to: Blue_Jay33

Or why do we even try ?

When people say that to me I think back to Noah. He preached for 120 years straight and didn't gain a single convert.

And Dumbledore ran Hogwarts.

You're a troll.

Your inability to hold your own in conversations, name-calling, and inability to recognize that your rights do not trump the rights of others does not make me a troll.

originally posted by: rokkuman

originally posted by: Blue_Jay33
So many times on ATS people say I don't want to hear it. Or why do we even try ?
Yet for Christians who take the bible and Jesus words seriously, it something they feel compelled to do.

I think of proselytizing as advertisement campaign to win converts and that isnt a problem in itself because everybody has the right to promote what they believe. the problem is that christians advertise their religion dishonestly, they do so using only the nice bits of the bible and leave out the nasty bits.

you say "Jesus loves you he died for you blah blah" to portray Jesus as a nice guy but you leave out the bit about jesus ordering the deaths of those who opposed him and the "I came not to bring peace but a sword". you dont even touch upon these types of verses in your campaigns.

second christians are also extremely manipulative and play heavily on peoples emotions. saying "he died for you wont you accept him" is pure emotional blackmail 101.

Does someone have the right to pound on your door and play a recording of a commercial for a brand of soap they're selling? Does someone have a right to stop you and prevent you from going about your business in public and play a recording of a commercial for a brand of soap they're selling? I think not. It violates our rights to privacy and to go about our business freely in public.

originally posted by: Blue_Jay33
a reply to: Tangerine

I have listed the examples of people in peril, either drowning or in a burning home and how a human has a basic moral obligation to try to help them live and survive those situations, and you ask me why I can't understand, I pose the same question back to you ?

If you can't comprehend my perspective, I guess we have to agree to disagree.

You have cited examples of people in peril based on fact (ie. burning home, drowning) and tried to pass off your fantasy-based beliefs as fact. They are not comparable.

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: Tangerine

Oh I don't know. But I do know that most of society runs on an atheist perspective particularly when it comes to school, so if my rights end where yours begin ... then you should be very happy most of the time as your life is more or less free from religion.

But mine is not so happy as mine is more or less free from religion thanks to society's belief that this is fair.

You get your way most of the time, but I don't get mine except in private.

So stick a sock in it.

Perhaps you haven't read the Constitution. We have a secular form of government.

originally posted by: Hecate666
So christians have a moral obligation to warn us just like firefighters have the right to educate us about fire hazards?
These two things have nothing in common, because fire is a real danger and evidence can be seen everywhere.
However talking at me about your own belief and what you think could happen to me if I don't has no merit in reality [and that my religious friends is MY belief].

I see animals living fine lives without a god, I see religions that are not yours and they seem to be doing ok, I know that for thousands of years people believed in multiple gods and not yours lived quite nice lives, druids, buddhists, witches, tribes of the Amazon, tribes in Africa, Aboriginies in Australia. All these humans live without Jesus and they are doing ok.

This means that yours is just one of MANY, MANY belief systems, with no actual evidence.

Someone once said [sorry can't remember who]: "It's your hell, you go and burn in it."

In my reality there is no hell, nor armageddon, nor anything else. There are only humans [and they are bad enough]. Maybe you should try my reality for a change [but I won't hassle you]?

They choose to not get that. Not one of those people has responded to my questions about our right to privacy. They have no awareness of the rights of others. It's simply not something they take into consideration.

I don't think that Believers are so much afraid, and that's why they want to tell you about God and Christ.
I think its more lke seeing a great movie, or a new ride at the fair. They just want to share the experience with everybody.
I remember my friend when he became a believer, he wanted to tell me all about it, and everything was fine until he mentioned Jesus, at that moment I took offense, and ripped him a new one.
I later thought and wondered why I went off on him, and the only reason I could figure out was. That I had taken offense at the name of Christ. I had never really ever talked or heard about Jesus at that point in my life, nobody had ever told me about this. I think that name triggered something in my falling nature.
That's my thought on it.

originally posted by: Michaelfunction
I don't think that Believers are so much afraid, and that's why they want to tell you about God and Christ.
I think its more lke seeing a great movie, or a new ride at the fair. They just want to share the experience with everybody.
I remember my friend when he became a believer, he wanted to tell me all about it, and everything was fine until he mentioned Jesus, at that moment I took offense, and ripped him a new one.
I later thought and wondered why I went off on him, and the only reason I could figure out was. That I had taken offense at the name of Christ. I had never really ever talked or heard about Jesus at that point in my life, nobody had ever told me about this. I think that name triggered something in my falling nature.
That's my thought on it.

So you're saying that a name you'd never heard triggered something in you? That's called magical thinking. I would also put your claim that you had never heard of Jesus (unless you grew up in Outer Mongolia) to be in the realm of fantasy, too.

a reply to: Tangerine

Perhaps you haven't read the Constitution. We have a secular form of government.

Perhaps you haven't given the proper gravitas to the first amendment and how it applies to the passive rights of Christians which have been upheld in the supreme court of United States.
Even going so far as to rule Christians don't have to buy permits to preach.
Village of Stratton, 536 U.S. 150 (2002)

is a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that a town ordinance's provisions making it a misdemeanor to engage in door-to-door advocacy without first registering with town officials and receiving a permit violates the First Amendment as it applies to religious proselytizing, anonymous political speech, and the distribution of handbills.
On June 17, 2002, the Court ruled in an 8–1 decision that the requirement of the Village of Stratton's ordinance for solicitors to "register" before engaging in door-to-door advocacy violated the First Amendment. The Court stated "it is offensive, not only to the values protected by the First Amendment, but to the very notion of a free society, that in the context of everyday public discourse a citizen must first inform the government of her desire to speak to her neighbors and then obtain a permit to do so."

So if you want to disagree with the first amendment and the SCOTUS, that's your right of coarse.
But this only applies in America anyways, I would really like to see these standards rolled out into countries like North Korea and Muslim countries, that kill people as apostates, if they change from Muslim to Christian.

originally posted by: Blue_Jay33
a reply to: Tangerine

Perhaps you haven't read the Constitution. We have a secular form of government.

Perhaps you haven't given the proper gravitas to the first amendment and how it applies to the passive rights of Christians which have been upheld in the supreme court of United States.
Even going so far as to rule Christians don't have to buy permits to preach.
Village of Stratton, 536 U.S. 150 (2002)

is a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that a town ordinance's provisions making it a misdemeanor to engage in door-to-door advocacy without first registering with town officials and receiving a permit violates the First Amendment as it applies to religious proselytizing, anonymous political speech, and the distribution of handbills.
On June 17, 2002, the Court ruled in an 8–1 decision that the requirement of the Village of Stratton's ordinance for solicitors to "register" before engaging in door-to-door advocacy violated the First Amendment. The Court stated "it is offensive, not only to the values protected by the First Amendment, but to the very notion of a free society, that in the context of everyday public discourse a citizen must first inform the government of her desire to speak to her neighbors and then obtain a permit to do so."

So if you want to disagree with the first amendment and the SCOTUS, that's your right of coarse.
But this only applies in America anyways, I would really like to see these standards rolled out into countries like North Korea and Muslim countries, that kill people as apostates, if they change from Muslim to Christian.

I was referring to the secular nature of our government.

The fact that something is legal does not mean that it is OK. I'm pretty sure you'll agree with that and can cite many examples of things that are legal but you find unacceptable. My point is that you do not respect my right to privacy when you pound on my door, whether or not it is legal. You do not respect my right to privacy and to go about my business when you accost me in public. Do you understand that?

Perhaps giving you another example will help you to place yourself in my position: imagine hordes of Muslims, Wiccans, Satanists, Hindus and atheists pounding on your door and accosting you in public. Do you fully and without reservation support their right to do so?

Yes I did not know the story and history I had seen Jesus in movies on TV and saw churchs and saw the billboards I had been thought not to believe in God, in evoloution, my science teacher made that very clear. But I did not know a negative, or I did not have a presupposition, that I could go back to, of why I was so reactionary with such anger. a reply to: Tangerine

a reply to: Tangerine

imagine hordes of Muslims, Wiccans, Satanists, Hindus and atheists pounding on your door and accosting you in public.

Actually I would talk to them all, with the intent to educate myself on their belief systems, and then to perhaps share mine

It is obvious we are coming at this from 2 very different world views.

Here are more scriptures to answer your question
Acts 4: 18-20

They called Peter and John and ordered them never to teach about Jesus or even mention his name.
19Peter and John answered them, "Decide for yourselves whether God wants people to listen to you rather than to him.
20We cannot stop talking about what we've seen and heard."

Acts 5: 27-29

27 So they brought them and set them before the council (Sanhedrin). And the high priest examined them by questioning,
28 Saying, We definitely commanded and strictly charged you not to teach in or about this Name; yet here you have flooded Jerusalem with your doctrine and you intend to bring this Man’s blood upon us.
29 Then Peter and the apostles replied, We must obey God rather than men.

What I emboldened is where your right to absolute privacy ends, as per God's instructions.
It doesn't exist anyways, unless you go to a deserted island with no communications.

I think you need to learn others are always going to put things in front us that that we don't like, be it religion, atheism, politics, local civic policies, federal laws, types of entertainment, sports and the like, if our levels of tolerance don't increase we will become pretty unhappy in society in 2015. We can vehemently disagree with them, but we need to tolerate it in the aspect of others rights to do it, to function in civilization today and going forward.

a reply to: Blue_Jay33

there is something should be said.. you (or at least I) feel the pull so strong to speak about Jesus and salvation to people that its like if you don't you will die, like when/if you try not to you feel as if your soul will split apart.. hard to describe.. but.. it just is..

originally posted by: Hecate666
So christians have a moral obligation to warn us just like firefighters have the right to educate us about fire hazards?
These two things have nothing in common, because fire is a real danger and evidence can be seen everywhere.
However talking at me about your own belief and what you think could happen to me if I don't has no merit in reality [and that my religious friends is MY belief].

I see animals living fine lives without a god, I see religions that are not yours and they seem to be doing ok, I know that for thousands of years people believed in multiple gods and not yours lived quite nice lives, druids, buddhists, witches, tribes of the Amazon, tribes in Africa, Aboriginies in Australia. All these humans live without Jesus and they are doing ok.

This means that yours is just one of MANY, MANY belief systems, with no actual evidence.

Someone once said [sorry can't remember who]: "It's your hell, you go and burn in it."

In my reality there is no hell, nor armageddon, nor anything else. There are only humans [and they are bad enough]. Maybe you should try my reality for a change [but I won't hassle you]?

I am a fundamentalist Christian and agree with most of your post. You are so close to what a true Christian is and you understand how life works on this planet. You are one step closer to God than you think. I hope God will reveal more to you as time goes by.

I say, instead of talking about religion and your beliefs, I believe it is important to establish a personal relationship with God. He will guide you and reveal to you the truth and then you will be set free.

How is your relationship with God?

originally posted by: OpinionatedB
a reply to: Blue_Jay33

there is something should be said.. you (or at least I) feel the pull so strong to speak about Jesus and salvation to people that its like if you don't you will die, like when/if you try not to you feel as if your soul will split apart.. hard to describe.. but.. it just is..

Sometimes over the years I have restrained myself, scared that I might offend people like "Tangerine" and his type face to face. But it always bugs me later that I didn't speak up. I will never forget one time in the lunch room somebody asked me something, and I debated how much to say as there was 7 or 8 people in there. Then a discussion started, about 10 minutes in somebody started mocking me, in another 5 he was still at it. Then a 20 year old girl who hadn't said anything the whole time, angrily told him swearing to shut up, "because I am listening to this"
After she tuned him up he stopped, but you never know who is listening with interest.