I used to be a Christian

Going to church is not the same as being a Christian. A Christian is someone who has put their trust in Jesus’ sacrificial death for their sins, and therefore has been repented and been forgiven by God. Such people are changed forever (see II Corinthians 5:17).  It is highly unlikely such people would desert God, because there is nowhere else where they would rather be:

‘So Jesus said to the twelve, “You do not want to go away also, do you?” Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. “We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God”,’ (John 6:67-69 NASB). When people know Jesus, there is nowhere they would rather be. People don’t become Christians because they wants perk or a quick-fix – they become Christians because nothing else matters. Following Jesus is not something you grow out of, it’s something you grow into. If you think it’s just about Sundays, you probably don’t know what it’s about.

I’m already a religious person

And who said anything about religion? Jesus certainly didn’t. In fact he wants quite the opposite. Religion is men inventing rules and rituals in order to feel better about themselves (many of these rules are invented to show others exactly how religious they’re being – such as special prayer times and special dress, and special diets etc). Jesus on the other hand, wants relationship free of religion. He had just about enough of religion from his dealings with the Pharisees, and he doesn’t want any more. What he wants is a relationship with all of God’s children. He wants you to put your faith in him, he wants to forgive you your sins, and he wants to help you through life – he wants to change you for the better and make you ready for eternal life with him, he wants you to be fulfilled. There’s nothing religious about that! Religion drags a person down with rules, but a relationship with Jesus builds a person up and sets them free – there couldn’t be anything more different.

I know Christians and I don’t want to be like them

The thing to remember with Christians is that they are a work in progress. Every day of their lives God is trying to make them better, more like what he designed them to be. He wants to do that to you too. What you don’t like about Christians is what God hasn’t finished working on yet. Christians make mistakes, lots of mistakes and they need forgiveness as much as anyone.

You can’t judge Jesus by the short-comings of his followers; you need to judge Jesus on his own merits. Eternity is a long way to suffer for bearing a grudge against someone. You can find out about Jesus in the Bible – find out about his claims here rather than looking at some of his followers. Be forgiving – none of us are perfect, and Christians certainly aren’t any more perfect than anyone else, it’s just that they realise their shortcomings, and they realise they need God.

I believe in God anyway

What does he think of you then? Do you belong to him? It’s not just about believing God exists, it’s about belonging to him. After all, the devil believes God exists (see James 2:19) – but is he heading for a fulfilling relationship with God for eternity? No. There is more required of us than simply believing that God exists; we are to recognise our need for his forgiveness for the things we have done wrong, and also we are to put our faith in Jesus’ sacrificial death for our sins. If this doesn’t happen, then our sins remain with us and we will be separated from God forever. It’s not enough to believe, we have to put our faith completely in Jesus, and allow him to change us and our lives. Believing in ‘God’ is one thing, and being a Christian is another – after all there are many religions in the world, but their claims for God are very different. You need to know exactly who it is that you believe in. Just have a vague notion of ‘God’ is not enough. If you do not know who God really is you are likely to be led astray. Believe in the one true God is essential, and that is the God of the Bible; it’s not Allah, it’s not Buddha, it’s not Vishnu or any of millions of other gods, it is the God of the Bible. Only he can save.

I’ll worry about it when I get there

It would be a shame if you did. Eternity lasts forever, and here on earth it’s difficult to get our heads around things that last forever. Once we die, then we will be judged (see Hebrews 9:27) so once we have died, it is too late to do anything about where we will end up. But it’s not too late now – there is still time, but we don’t know how long our life on earth will be, so we don’t know how urgent is the need for us to get right with God. Now is the only time that we have to make sure we’re on the right track. Worrying about it later is not good enough. Later is too late.

I’d rather stay open to possibilities

It’s one thing to be open to both sides, and it’s quite another to be presented with compelling evidence and still refuse to commit. Are you willing to look at the claims of Jesus Christ? Are you willing to draw your conclusions then? Are you willing to commit if you find that he is who he says he is, beyond reasonable doubt? You can only be agnostic if you’re willing to find out what’s what – if not you’re avoiding the issue. If however, deep-down you’re claiming to be ‘open-minded’ to avoid having to commit to Christ, then you’re quite the opposite – you’ve made your decision in a very closed-minded way. Be careful!

I’m an Atheist

Most people who claim to be atheists aren’t actually atheists. Most of them have a downer on God, and feel as though they deserve more than they’ve got or that God owes them something. Is that you? Honestly? You can’t be an atheist and hate God. We’ve never met a real atheist.

The extent of the atheist’s claims is that he doesn’t know that there’s a God, because there is no proof to suggest that he doesn’t exist. A person can believe that there isn’t a God, but he can’t prove that there isn’t.

To the layman, it might seem that evolution is as difficult to believe in as biblical Christianity; however if we look closer at the claims of Christianity, we can see that it actually makes more sense to plump for Christianity. For example, a quarter of the Bible is predictive prophecy which means history written in advance. Much of that has now been fulfilled literally (the bits that haven’t are to do with the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, and therefore due soon). Because biblical prophecy is detailed and specific and because it gets fulfilled literally (and there are many cases of this) it makes most sense to believe that God is who he says he is rather than that the laws of probability are at work (because that would involve astronomical numbers due to the hundreds of prophecies that have been literally fulfilled). Occam’s razor is a theory that claims that the simplest solution to a problem is generally the correct one – and it definitely isn’t simple to suggest that all these prophecies have been fulfilled by the god of probability. Have a look at Josh MacDowell’s book ‘Evidence that Demands a Verdict’ which details many of these prophecies and their fulfillments with sources and evidence.

There’s no reason to absolutely plump for the ‘no-God’ universe. It doesn’t make you any better off in life, or after death. However, sticking with Jesus Christ stands to get you the greatest gain ever – and what is there to lose? At least find out for yourself.

I’m Agnostic

If you’re agnostic, that means you ‘don’t know’. That’s what the term means, it’s from the Greek gnosis ‘knowledge’ and a ‘not’. So it literally means you don’t know. Now not knowing is absolutely fine, and being sceptical is absolutely fine too. However, to remain in this state and not find out anything is not a good thing.

God welcomes people who are genuinely looking for him – and there is no need for blind faith either. This is a myth. God put a lot of predictive prophecy in the Bible especially for people like you. Like you, I find it impossible just to believe something with no evidence. The prophecy is in the Bible to show people they can trust God. If the prophecies come true in a literal and recognisable manner, then we can trust that God is who he says he is, especially when fulfillments happen again and again throughout history, making it highly unlikely that these could all be attributed to probability due to the specific nature of the prophecies. If you are interested, it might be an idea to read a couple of books by Josh MacDowell: Evidence that Demands a Verdict is a book that has a lot of details about literal fulfillments of Bible prophecy, and Resurrection Factor is about the evidence surrounding the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and what it means. There are good books out there to help you. You don’t have to stay ‘I don’t know’ forever!

Being a true agnostic is actually a transitional state. No one stays an agnostic. Those who say they are agnostic but don’t actually WANT to know the truth, are a different category entirely. Don’t be like them. Be a don’t know’ because you don’t know, not because you’re not interested or too lazy. After all, what is there to be not interested in about where you’ll spend eternity? It’s all about you. And it’s your decision to choose whether to find out more, or not. This is your chance, don’t waste it.

I always try to do the best I can, and God will recognise that

And what basis do you have for this belief. Is it because you think you’re not a bad person God will have to recognise that? There is no biblical basis for this belief whatsoever. Instead the Bible tells us that all of us fall short (see Romans 3:23) and therefore without God’s help we are heading for an eternity without him. Jesus tells us that there is no way to God the Father except through him (see John 14:6).

In short you could go through life trying to do the best you can – but there is no way that anyone is able to wipe out their own sins. And we can’t get it right all of the time. So do you think God has a set of scales that he measures out good and bad on? If so, if you’re on one side of the scales, what is on the other? There are no scales – because we’ve all sinned, and therefore we’re not going to get to heaven by our own efforts, God has made a different way for us, and that is by accepting Jesus as our Saviour and having a relationship with him. If we humbly ask for forgiveness of our sins, and want what Jesus has to offer, then we will be saved, but there is no way anyone in the world can possibly do enough to get themselves into heaven, because their previous sins will ensure that they won’t. Eternity is too valuable to gamble away on something that doesn’t work. God himself has told us how to get to heaven – who are we to try to find another way?

It doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you’re sincere

In short, Hitler sincerely believed that the Jews were better off being annihilated. He also believed that Bible-believing Christians were better off dead, as well as gypsies, disabled people, old people, ill people and people he thought weren’t very bright, as well as anyone else he wasn’t very keen on. He was sincere about that. Was he right?

No of course he wasn’t – his crazy yet sincere ideas led to the deaths of millions of people; that’s a lot of lives ruined. How about the fanatical muslims who flew planes into the World Trade Center? Did they deserve to get to heaven because of their sincerity? I don’t think so!

Hitler is a prime example of sincerity being wrong. Anyone who is fanatical about anything is sincere, otherwise they wouldn’t be fanatical, would they? By claiming sincerity is enough, people are claiming that God doesn’t care what they believe, just the strength of those beliefs. Where is the logic in that? If that was what God thought, however, we would have evidence of that. Instead, what we DO have evidence of is God’s instructions on how to get a relationship with Him and an eternity in heaven: ‘ I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me,’ (John 14:6 NASB).

Sometimes those who believe that sincerity is enough to enter into heaven do so because they already think they are good enough – but the Bible tells us that we all fall short: ‘ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,’ (Romans 3:23 NASB). We are not good enough, we need Jesus’ sacrifice, otherwise we will never see heaven. To believe we are good enough or sincere enough is a prideful stance. Also, the name of the game is not to get into heaven, but to get a relationship with God – that’s God’s purpose – the eternity in heaven comes after that. We have to sincerely want God’s presence in our lives (I suppose that’s a better place for sincerity!)

Belief in our sincerity is not going to get us anywhere other than being cut off from God forever. This is a modern idea that has no basis whatsoever in the Bible. It serves solely to keep people as lost as they currently are. Don’t fall for it!