about one-third of the planet’s current population live in areas that have historical ties to the religion associate with jesus christ — and yet so very few people actually study and follow his teachings.
here in indiana, where i live, you’re hard pressed to find someone, anyone, who doesn’t believe in god in some capacity or another, and its is even tough to find someone who does not claim to be a christian.
but the way they behave proves out that they don’t really believe in him, or the power of his teachings.
we humans always act in accordance with what we really believe to be true about the universe.
this is what jesus meant when he spoke of a “good tree can not have bad fruit and a bad tree can not have good fruit”.
just because people claim to have opinions on things does not mean they actually believe those opinions to be Truth.
christians are taught, in the text held as god’s very word, that condemnation of others should never be part of our lives.
we are never to condemn, simply.
some of us who claim christ as lord DO, and it grieves him, and me, but none of us ought to.
and we are to never feel condemned, since we know that there is One Who Is True and who loves us, no matter what others who do not know us, say.
some of us forget this, too — and get very offended when opposing views are brought up.
again, god is grieved by this behaviour, too.
that’s one of the things about claiming to follow a god who asks for no less than perfect — we simply can not live up to that.
but, that is also what is so beautiful about jesus’ teachings: he shows that god is loving, and accepts us as we are — faults and all.
now, i am old enough, and been online long enough to know that none of us are going to change anyone’s mind here who doesn’t believe god exists.
be that as it may.
i hope my post has been able to show you a more accurate portrayal of how we who follow christ see the world — as opposed the the view imposed on us by movies, tv and popular culture in general.
we believe things far more mysterious than hollywood can imagine, and greater than you could believe.
there were both explicit and implicit conditions on being “accepted” by god.
god desires to accept us, but respects our opinion in these matters.
to those who have no desire to have anything to do with him, he respectfully backs off and waits, and hopes.
this is, of course, rather than simply coercing with a fire and light show so irresistible you’d have no real say in the matter.
the former, imo, is the better way to run the universe, if one is stuck with the job.