Does God Matter?

The bible tells you to confess your sins:
Rom 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Rom 10:10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
John 12:46 I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.
John 12:47 And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.
John 12:48 He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.

Rom 14:11 For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.
Rom 14:12 So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.

So you're telling me that if say we have an atheist who sinned less than a Christian and felt bad about what he had done, he would get sent to hell and the Christian would be sent to heaven just because the Christian had confessed his sins? sorry but I find it hard to believe that if there was a God he would be that self righteous as to punnish everyone who did not worship him.

Originally posted by naybean
So you're telling me that if say we have an atheist who sinned less than a Christian and felt bad about what he had done, he would get sent to hell and the Christian would be sent to heaven just because the Christian had confessed his sins? sorry but I find it hard to believe that if there was a God he would be that self righteous as to punnish everyone who did not worship him.

I Never said that, and have no idea where you got that from. How can anyone sin less and still go to heaven? I don't get that, IF you sin you sin. If you steal something you are a theif, if you lie, you are a liar, if you sin you are a sinner. There is no loop hole there. So, you misunderstood something there, i think. It is a daily walk w/God, You need to get to know him, talk w/him, read the Bible, pray, the more you do this the stronger christain you will become and you will mature in God. No one is perfect, we all fall short of the Glory of God, but we must repent. God will convict us of our sins and we repent, but if you fail to repent, then you are a sinner.

To all Christians...

Who has a best chance of reaching heaven? A mediocre christian who hardly sins and confesses their sins to god genuinly repenting). Or an atheist who never sins (by christian definition) and constantly does well to his/her fellow man all through his/her life?

If you say the christian, then god is a vein and cruel being.

If you say the atheist, that would make christianity superfluous to salvation.

If you say both are equal you contradict your beliefs, but you may find that is the smartest thing to do.

Originally posted by WhiteEagle
To all Christians...

Who has a best chance of reaching heaven? A mediocre christian who hardly sins and confesses their sins to god genuinly repenting). Or an atheist who never sins (by christian definition) and constantly does well to his/her fellow man all through his/her life?

If you say the christian, then god is a vein and cruel being.

If you say the atheist, that would make christianity superfluous to salvation.

If you say both are equal you contradict your beliefs, but you may find that is the smartest thing to do.

Both... assuming there is a heaven. Otherwise I think they both end up worm food. Or something else... maybe some kind of spiritual existence not based in christianity.

But, I'm not a Christian so I guess you weren't talking to me.

A tough one, although by the Christian religion there is no body any where who has never sinned, hence there could be no atheists who never sinned, always at least they would be the "hardly sinned".

Originally posted by WhiteEagle
To all Christians...

Who has a best chance of reaching heaven? A mediocre christian who hardly sins and confesses their sins to god genuinly repenting). Or an atheist who never sins (by christian definition) and constantly does well to his/her fellow man all through his/her life?

If you say the christian, then god is a vein and cruel being.

If you say the atheist, that would make christianity superfluous to salvation.

If you say both are equal you contradict your beliefs, but you may find that is the smartest thing to do.

There is not anyone that will never sin, an an atheist is sinning by not acknowleging God.

No offense, but I don't remember seeing anything that said not believing is "sinning". Keep in mind that you think its a sin........

Mat 22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
Mat 22:38 This is the first and great commandment.

Like I said, its a bad thing if you think it is. If you don't, then its not.

I don't think that, I was merely saying, that in terms of the question "Who has a best chance of reaching heaven?", that, as a question that is saying, ok, if there is a God, who would he favour, a Christian who has sinned a bit, or an atheist who never has, well, in Christianity, it is apparently impossible for a mortal to go through life without ever sinning (unless you count Jesus), thus, there is no way the question could be answered as such, as it is apparently impossible for that atheist to have claimed to have never sinned. However, I am not saying that lack of belief is a sin.

and like I said: There is not anyone that will never sin, an an atheist is sinning by not acknowleging God.

Mat 22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
Mat 22:38 This is the first and great commandment.

Originally posted by Fiery Eyes
There is not anyone that will never sin, an an atheist is sinning by not acknowleging God.

I thought that word might cause some problems. I was going to say 'hardly' but I wanted to emphasise that the person had ALMOST never sinned. My bad. But don't use that as an excuse to dodge the question.

*looks at Fiery Eyes*

I didn't dodge the question, that is my answer, there is no answer to say, ok it's the christian or ok it's the athiest. You can't say that. I thk my answer was a good answer 😛

Hmmm, while my beliefs are not technically, fully Christian, and what I know of the teachings might be slightly biased, I think it is possible the Christian would probably get in, and the reasonably good atheist would miss out (well, there does seem to be rules). However I think that it would be quite certain God would not throw a good person to the wolves because they don't believe, so I will say both get in, or perhaps the atheist will go to one of these sub zones where they could earn salvation (limbo, purgatory, if they exist.) And sorry for being a pedantic sod.

Originally posted by Fiery Eyes
There is not anyone that will never sin, an an atheist is sinning by not acknowleging God.

That would be a great answer if I'd asked if it were possible for an atheist to sin.

There is an answer to the question I asked, be it right or wrong. And if you think there is no answer, then there must be a reason for it. So by all means, enlighten me.

Originally posted by Imperial_Samura
Hmmm, while my beliefs are not technically, fully Christian, and what I know of the teachings might be slightly biased, I think it is possible the Christian would probably get in, and the reasonably good atheist would miss out (well, there does seem to be rules). However I think that it would be quite certain God would not throw a good person to the wolves because they don't believe, so I will say both get in, or perhaps the atheist will go to one of these sub zones where they could earn salvation (limbo, purgatory, if they exist.) And sorry for being a pedantic sod.

That's a good answer. 😉

Thank you.

Imperial Samura, I was responding to Fiery Eyes, no offense intended.

One person says something is bad because they believe it is. Another person doesn't agree because they don't think the same way, but they are bad.....

Just because someone thinks something is right doesn't make them correct.

There is not anyone that will never sin, an an atheist is sinning by not acknowleging God

Maybe they should go by the three strike rule in heaven too.