Christianity Without Hell

          

What is hell? Hell to some people is just a word, or an idea, but to Christians, it is ones eternity. But it is an option of eternity, the other being heaven. Christians believe everyone deserves to go to hell for eternity because of our sins, but since Jesus Christ died for our sins, we now have a chance to choose, since of course God gave us free will. But what would Christians preach to non-believers if there was no hell? Because then there would be nothing to be afraid of after death. So if there was no hell would Christianity even exist? Why would it? If there’s no hell why would we want to live our lives for God if we are going to go to heaven anyways? The problem is exactly that, we wouldn’t praise God if we didn’t have to face consequences of sin. But now the real problem is, are Christians only praising God out of fear of going to hell? You can clearly tell the difference between a Christian who legitimately has an unconditional love for God, and a Christian who is just afraid of hell, technically I wouldn’t even call them true followers of Jesus. So what is the point of hell? Hell is where sinners, which we all are, who didn’t accept Jesus Christ as their savior and live their life for him, go after death. For eternity. That is a scary thought, which is why a lot of non-believers turn to Jesus, because they are scared, which isn’t wrong, its good people turn to Jesus when they are scared. But its even better when they stay with Jesus, and they become true lovers and true believers of Jesus Christ. John 3:16 says “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Hillsong's Journey

          In our world today gay marriage has became an extremely controversial topic, which is now causing churches to get shut down and leaves the christian faith extremely frowned upon. The gay community, and the people who support the gay community do not appreciate what the bible says about homosexuality, and they are finally getting sick of it. Forcing pastors to marry gay and lesbian people, and even the situation in Houston, Texas, shutting down churches if their sermons discriminate gays at all. Brian Houston is the Senior Pastor at Hillsong Church, which is now a worldwide church with locations in New York, California, and their main campus which is in Australia. Hillsong is an extremely influential church, and is where a lot of churches get their worship music from, for Hillsong is a very musically talented organization. Recently Hillsong has been bombarded with their view on gay marriage, particularly Pastor Brian, who decided to speak on the subject. He said “Its very easy too reduce what you think about homosexuality to just a public statement and that would keep a lot of people happy, but we feel at this point, that it is an ongoing conversation, that the real issues in people’s lives are too important for us just to reduce it down to a yes or no answer in a media outlet. So we’re on the journey with it.” That is a very respectful response in my opinion. The problem with this is the government is bombarding the church with questions and accusations, and the only right answer is what the government wants to hear. For example what if murder all of a sudden became legal, and the government asked the church their views on murder. And the church said well it says in the bible right here that murder is wrong, then the government would instantly be against the church, its the same situation with gay marriage, churches are getting shut down for disagreeing with the church. What happened to the first amendment, freedom of speech, freedom of religion? The church now doesn't have freedom of speech or religion. If the government is listening and they hear something they don't like they can just shut the church down, that doesn't sound like freedom. On the other hand christians do seem to discriminate against the homosexual community, making them feel unwelcome. But if thats the case then liars shouldn't feel welcome in church either because the bible professes that lying is sin, and it is wrong, so why is homosexuality so different? Why is it that liars feel welcome in church but gay people aren't? Were all sinners so whats the difference? I think the difference is the christian community in general tends to get more on the gay peoples case than the lair, or stealers, or lusters. I think we give gay people a much harder time because they are different than us, when in reality we are just as much as in sin as they are.

Ebola Doctors

Currently in our world there is much stress over this disease “Ebola” which is a type of hemorrhagic fever. Its cause of death is multiple types of organ dysfunction, but if survived it is a quick recovery. Ebola is a contagious disease which makes it easier to obtain, unlike cancer, or a genetic disease, it is a sickness. The only way for you to get Ebola is from contact with somebody’s bodily fluids who has this disease. That being said, most people wouldn’t want to go to Liberia or West Africa, which is where this disease originated from, to help these people who have this disease. Most Americans are comfortable with their life and would not want to sacrifice, or even risk it to help others, and the fact that some people do sickens them. A few Christian doctors are over in these infected areas and it really bothers people for one reason, their faith. The fact that they talk about Jesus while they do what He asks of them is just absurd to these people for some reason. Author of “In Medicine We Trust” Brian Palmer explains his view on these doctors, being an atheist he obviously does not believe in God, so his writing of this article is completely unbiased. He says in the article that if these doctors were non-believers of Jesus Christ, he would not have any critiques or complaints about what they are doing, but since they are believers he admits that he finds faults in the work that they are doing. And why is that? Why are people getting so offended about these Christian people sharing about God, God is the reason that they are even helping these people! So why is it not okay for them to explain why they are making such a sacrifice and risking their lives? I think I know the answer to why people have such a problem with this. It is because they are uncomfortable, and scared, they are scared that these Christians might be right, but do not want to admit it because they do not want to change their ways of sin. That is just one way of looking at it. Overall I think these people have no room to criticize these Christian doctors, I don’t see them trying to help, at least these Christians are making an effort to do the right thing.

Suicide Isn't A Disease

   

                          Recently Robin Williams, a famous actor and comedian that most people are familiar with took his own life because of his disease depression, which is his cause of death most people would say. But I don’t believe depression is a cause of death, I believe suicide is, and that it is a choice. Depression is a serious thing, Clinical Depression, is a serious thing actually, I don’t believe being upset for a few weeks about a break up or a loss of something or someone is depression, I believe if you are diagnosed by a doctor with clinical depression it is a serious matter. Now if you are clinically depressed is suicide an option? Or even a thought? Although I am not depressed and have never had suicidal thoughts and I cannot speak on the minds of those who are suicidal, I do not believe suicide is an option or ever should be. The thing is many people take their own life and use depression as a justified reason for their death, which it is not. The definition of suicide is- the act of taking ones life intentionally, but for me there are two different definitions of suicide, one being selfish and one being selfless. If you kill yourself because you’re sad and feel you have nothing to live for you’re a coward, whereas if you are jumping in front of a bullet to save your mothers life you are brave and a hero. The story of Sampson in the bible could be labeled a suicide but in reality it is an act of valor. During battle Sampson knocked down the pillars of the building he and all of his enemies were under, killing thousands of Palestinians and himself. Suicide because of depression is a cowardly thing, and it is selfish, it is not a symptom of depression, it is a choice. There are so many different things you can do to help with your depression, and programs you can attend to help. Robin Williams tried attending rehab but it did not help him because I believe he did not want help, you have to want help to get it. Suicide however is a very very serious and sad matter, any loss is a tragedy. Feeling so strongly against suicide I wanted to just rant about how suicide is wrong and bad and say Williams is stupid for his decision, but how can I say all that? I have absolutely no idea what he was struggling with and what he was going through, so how could I sit here and ridicule him? My heart longs for him actually, the fact that he was so unhappy with life and his decisions that his only way out of everything was suicide. My heart longs for all the people who feel this way, it is indeed a sad thing, and is no way people should be living.