{"id":41197,"date":"2016-01-19T08:00:29","date_gmt":"2016-01-19T16:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/?p=41197"},"modified":"2017-10-24T14:35:58","modified_gmt":"2017-10-24T21:35:58","slug":"eating-meat-hell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/eating-meat-hell\/","title":{"rendered":"Stop Eating Meat or You’ll Go to Hell!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\u201cYou shouldn\u2019t eat beef. It is forbidden by the ancient holy books, the Vedas. If you eat beef you will suffer eternal punishment.\u201d<\/p>\n
If my Hindu friend told me that, I would think it strange. Why? Because I\u2019m not a Hindu, and don\u2019t follow the teachings and beliefs of Hinduism. Since I am not Hindu, I do not believe that the commands of the Vedas apply to me. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The same is true for you. If you are not Hindu, you probably sense no need or desire to follow the teachings of the Hindu Vedas, and would probably be somewhat offended if a Hindu tried to force their beliefs and practices upon you.<\/p>\n
But let’s turn this around. <\/p>\n
Why should we expect people who are not Christians to think that Christian beliefs apply to them? <\/p>\n
Why would they think that our holy book, the Bible, is anything more than a collection of ancient writings that has little or nothing to do with them? <\/p>\n
Hopefully, you have some friends who are not Christians. If you do, most of those friends probably do not agree with all of the Christian beliefs and practices. Since they\u2019re not Christians, they don\u2019t think the teachings, beliefs, and moral values of Christianity apply to them. <\/p>\n
Of course, they probably also see that many of the people who self-identify as Christians do not act as if the teachings of Jesus or the Bible apply to Christians either. As one of our friends said, \u201cIt\u2019s something they like to spout off about. They want to tell me how to live my life, but they don\u2019t follow their own rules. They say \u2018hate the sin, love the sinner.\u2019 I get it that they\u2019re calling me a sinner. I also get it that they don\u2019t love me. The only ones they\u2019re fooling into believing that they love me is themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
A well-respected businessman in the city in which we live, upon hearing someone in a group of about a dozen people say something that indicated we are Christians, immediately blurted out \u201cYou can\u2019t be Christians. They hate us, but you love us.\u201d Everyone else in the group, including an atheist, immediately agreed.<\/p>\n
I think even most people who are not Christians think that Christians do not love them or care about them. Why is that? Let\u2019s allow some of our friends to speak to that issue:<\/p>\n
\u201cJesus told them to love other people. Instead they judge other people. They think God appointed them to judge me because I don\u2019t live by their rules. Why should I? It\u2019s their rules, not mine.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMost church people don\u2019t want to have anything to do with us. The ones who do are doing it to make them feel good about themselves. They don\u2019t really care about us.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey all have an agenda. Do they think they get points with God for converting someone?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cReligion is all about politics. They\u2019re pushing their political agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a weird religion. They do stuff their religion says they shouldn\u2019t do. Then they tell me not to do the same stuff because they feel guilty about what they\u2019re doing. That seems to make them feel better about what they\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone needs a crutch. Their religion is their crutch. Religion is not my crutch. I don\u2019t need their religion.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey give a few dollars to some group that claims they\u2019re fighting the evils of (fill in the blank with words like homelessness, drinking, drug addiction, prostitution, homosexuality) because they feel guilty, but they\u2019re afraid to come near us. Or they don\u2019t care enough to come near. Do you think we ever see them or their money? That money never makes it to us. Those people (the groups who receive the money) spend it on their own paychecks.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
My wife and I have heard every one of those sentiments and variations of them expressed dozens, sometimes hundreds, of times. Clearly, many people have a low opinion of Christians. <\/p>\n