“I like the one where Jesus says that if you don’t hate your family … you’re not a real Christian.” – John G.
The verse being referred to is Luke 14:26, where Jesus said, “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.”
This is what’s known as “hyperbole.” It is a justified statement of exaggeration –contrasting love with hate for the sake of emphasis. It means that you and I should so love God that the love we have for our loved ones should seem like hatred, compared to the love we have for the One who gave those loved ones in the first place. This shows how far we fall short of how loving we should be towards our Creator and how ungrateful we are for the gift of life.
“John Lennon was an atheist, you idiot.” – Bipin K.
Most atheists assume that John Lennon was an atheist, probably because of his famous song, “Imagine.” I have heard one well-known atheist call it “the atheist’s anthem.”
I guess he hadn’t listened to (or thought about) the words: “Imagine there’s no heaven.” If I said, “Imagine there’s no New York,” it means I think that New York exists, but we should imagine (pretend) that it doesn’t. John Lennon actually wrote the song as a prayer to God, praying that the world would set aside its differences about countries, wars, religion, etc., and be as one. He shared this in his famous 1980 Playboy interview.
“And since the auto response will be, ‘What do atheists do?’ here are a few secular charities: Doctors Without Borders, The Red Cross, UNICEF, Amnesty International, Kiva, Goodwill. Me myself, I give to all charities regardless of denomination. Saturday afternoons I volunteer at a hospital. I also do regular clean ups of our waterfront, donate blood and support businesses through Kiva.” – Bridgette P.
There is nothing more nauseating than having to listen to someone boast about their own goodness – something called “self-righteousness.” Christianity has nothing to do with doing good works.
Some who mistakenly think so quote the book of James, which says that faith without works is dead. However, if they would read the verse in context they would see that it is merely saying that good works are evidence that someone is truly a Christian. We do good works because we have been given everlasting life (from a motivation of gratitude) and not to try and earn everlasting life (trying to bribe God to forgive us by offering our good works).
Please take the time to read this verse carefully (your eternity could depend on your understanding of what it says): “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Check out NeedGod.com if you are interested in eternal life. By the way, there are thousands of secular and Christian charities. You would be hard-pressed to find even one legitimate atheist charity.
Explore WND’s complete collection of Ray Comfort books and videos here.
