There are several problems with the “Divine Punishment and Reward Theory” of the Bible.
• The Biblical rewards or punishment happens only after death. No one knows what happens after death, it can’t be proven. This is a fact.
• There is very little motivation to follow God’s laws until you are older. “Criminologists tell us in order to be maximally effective; punishment and rewards must be immediate and certain. For most theists divine rewards and punishments are hardly immediate.”
• Since it’s a reward solely based on faith in Jesus as Savor, you really don’t need to fulfill your “moral obligation.” Wealthy Christians conveniently ignore Christ’s teaching daily, concerning Mark 10:25, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
• How can a loving God morally and ethically justify billions of people going to hell through no fault of their own, simply because they haven’t heard about Christ? If you say, God works in mysterious ways, there is a four letter word and you’re full of it. How could anyone in their right mind, think this catch all phrase can easily explain away why an all powerful loving God would be eternally mean to his own living creations for the simple reason they never heard about him?
• Believe now—just in case it’s true—it’s a nice insurance policy. Hey if it’s not true, who gets hurt? How could an insurance policy be a bad thing? Why pay for something you don't need? Wasted time results in missing out on living in reality.
• What if you live to Christ’s moral behavior, but don’t believe in Christ? Why would you still go to hell? I know, what you are saying, that person didn’t ask to get in. But an extremely immoral person can get into heaven just by asking to get in. Let me get this straight… You planned a big, Big, BIG party, but you are not inviting anyone except those that knock on your door (those that invite themselves). Your nice and extremely moral neighbor, a friend, is not invited to your party because he didn’t invite himself? But the guy who just shot your wife or husband the same day of your party, is allowed to come to your party because he asked to be invited? Wow.
I believe I can guess at the response most Christians will have on my party theory. They would say, that's exactly correct. It's time to take a quick peek at a common component of cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy (CBT), it's called, "Delusional thinking."
Almost all the above is paraphrased (direct quotes use quote marks) from the book, “Atheism, Morality, and Meaning.” Pages, 179-180, by Michael Martin, 2002.
The party analogy is mine.
2 comments:
Mike, Bet you can't predict how this Christian will respond. Ready?
Belief is an assurance of heaven, but the corallary is not spoken of in the Bible. That corallary is one that some Christians add to the Bible, without ever exploring the consistency of that statement with the message of the Bible.
I agree with your assesment of many Christians who believe such things, considering the fact that there are many simple, mechanistic Christians who see things as you've delineated. I don't think that view holds up to the view of the Bible, however.
When "hell" is mentioned in the Bible, it is almost invariably applied to people who most Jews/Christians would have thought were faithful Jews/Christians: the scribes and the Pharisees; the wealthy religious people, etc. It is rarely used in connection with "pagans" or "outsiders." On the contrary, it is the outsider for whom Jesus came, the one most people do not consider "worthy," the ones who have been prejudged by society and made outcasts (I think that clearly applies to gays).
In other words, hell is mentioned in connection with those who have been blessed by God, recognize that they have been blessed by God, but then, with great arrogance, live their lives in a manner that is not consistent with the mercy and grace that God has demonstrated to them.
I would say that the truth of the Bible is just the opposite of what many Christians believe. The warning of hell is directed at those who claim to walk with God but do not, not those who don't say the proper words for their conversion.
What about the rest of the world? I, too, have seen many great non-Christians who I have no doubt God has spoken through, including the likes of Ghandi. The Bible talks of a God of love and relationship whose purpose is not to condemn the world, but to bring the world into relationship with him. I'm sorry many Christians don't get it, but that is something for which they will have to answer and is their inconsistency, not God's or the Bible's.
I really don't understand what you mean.
Are you saying most people will go to heaven anyway, even if they never heard the message of salvation through Christ?
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