If Threatened With Death Would You Renounce Your Belief In God? (suicide, Holy Spirit)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
A post I just read about muslims converting into Christians got me to thinking about how brutal people can be when it comes to enforcing beliefs, especially in past centuries. There are countless historical events in which an individual would be asked to publicly renounce their beliefs or face immediate execution and this happened to Christians many times. This still happens today in places like Africa and the Middle East. From documentaries I've seen about the competition between muslims and Christians in Africa it appears that killing people for their religious beliefs is probably more common in certain African nations than any other place in the world. So my question to Christians is this, if you actually were facing such a brutal situation in which you would either have to renounce your belief in God or face execution what would you do?
Just to be fair I'll tell you what I'd do if I had to face renouncing my atheism and accept Christianity or face death. I'd lie through my teeth and renounce my atheism on the spot. I'd explain how I'd just been filled with the Holy Spirit and ask them where I could pick up a copy of the Good Book and maybe a couple of crosses to hang in the living room. Afterall, I truly believe that this life is all there is so I see no point in cutting it short.
Did you watch the movie Kingdom of Heaven? There's a scene where a group of crusaders and a priest were captured by the muslim fighters and was given the choice to either convert to Islam and walk free, or keep their religion and be put to death immediately. The priest told the crusaders: "Convert now, repent later"
In all honesty, almost all religions (except probably Buddhist) have committed plenty of murder in the past to force their belief upon another. Christians have their hands slick & sticky with blood too. Let's not forget the inquisition, the crusades, Knight's Templars who were hunted and butchered by the Pope's order until they no longer exist all for the sake of money & power, etc..etc.
To anwer your question: I would renounce my atheism in a heartbeat when faced with death alternative. I don't believe in afterlife, so why expedite my journey to a place I don't believe exist? Only I know what I belief inside, so everything else is only lip service anyway.
So my question to Christians is this, if you actually were facing such a brutal situation in which you would either have to renounce your belief in God or face execution what would you do?
NOTE: I did not read any other posts than the OP.
What would I seriously do? I'd be dead. I could not and would not ever renounce Jesus as my Lord and Savior. I'd be executed. I could not live with myself if I turned my back on Jesus, the one who has never turned His back on me. He has been with me every moment of my life, through the joys and the trials, ever since I accepted Him. He's the reason I'm here right now.
To deny Jesus, even if it meant keeping my life, I couldn't do. What life would I have if I did deny Him? It wouldn't be worth living. My wife and children understand this as well. And, IMO, there's a point in the future where this will not be such an outlandish situation even in "civilized" countries like ours.
Didn't he deny he knew who Christ was three times during the night of the passion? So we're all denying him somewhere around the second time.
Hey, I was blasted on Sunday in the book store by the amount of books and titled sections with the word 'atheist'. Of course, I could also be Judas if I'm the responsible one for it.
I like to say thank you for this site to speak so frankly. It's not so available on the internet.
Location: land of quail, bunnies, and red tail hawks
1,513 posts, read 3,389,387 times
Reputation: 3540
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mooseketeer
With all due respect I do wonder how forthright our religious friends who would not deny God or Christ under any circumstances would react faced with hot iron brands on their genitals, being disembowelled alive, or hung upside down for hours whilst your eyeballs are scooped out, electric shock treatments performed on their bodies or even simply mental torture, sleep deprivation for days, months etc...
You've brought up some good points. I think most sincere Christians like to believe God would give them the grace to endure to the end.
There's actually a book called Foxe's Book of Martyrs. It documents some people who went through some of the very things you've mentioned. One man who denied his faith actually recanted his denial and placed his hand that wrote his denial down into the flames as he was being burned at the stake. Also, many Christians were on the receiving end of torture during the long span of the Inquisition, as well as current day Christians in other countries. Amazingly, some are given the grace to endure and/or the strength to die well.
From a Christian perspective, the period of torture is but a blip compared to eternity. If faced with the unthinkable, I hope and pray I will look toward eternity rather than temporal peace and comfort.
Isn't that still even a type of confusion, a belief in God for what? Fear, Anger, Confusion, what is worth dying for. Is not the message really of all of them is to live Life as the work of what you believe, not how or what you describe is the Source. And if you die, and suffer intense or not so intense martyrdom, does that not invite others to try as much faith. If others can't they are rejected, the early Christian Church certainly had that argument even, not a dead on either to me. There the argument collapses for me. If you cannot see the spirit or ever heard the voice of it, your are kinda dead already, no? What does killing the voice of the flesh do to God, and kill what and why? Does God require it from us. What if you are born in another country with other customs and beliefs and religions, where people doesn't believe exactly the way we do is that our fault in the first place? In the constitution enough when it says all religions and beliefs and then watch the fruits. Belief in God and the incredible varieties of all the kinds of believers there are in every religion is the part where God laughs and says consider the flower this time, whose DNA is even close to ours. So defend exactly what? I would rather evow the type of encumenicalism that patterns not that behaviour but acceptance of others and their beliefs and not having to have to defend vocal and spiritual beliefs to the point of no return.
I would probably end up taking six hours in total to try getting to recant the whole thing and they give up on me. Or by asking God what and it comes back, go home son, poor pathetic creatures. Or be the Christian an find that you are found just silent and then afterwards talking to unseen master and still looking enough like an idiot to them. Is that not enough? Most peoples don't ask for the physical confirmation of an all-powerful God and if they did, wouldn't be all-powerful enough to prove experiences that syncretised with divine intent, maybe a whisper and a power of the spirit within and through mankind and also found in nature and its very nature to, great, not enough power to die for but enough to live by. Or what have to die for what something between a mental and social and physical evolution by design, but with Creational elements to stop and guide start the beast, that would be where I stop perhaps, but where do you stop in that belief of God?
I hope I would not deny the Lord as well - may He give me the grace not to do so!!!
There is a very modern-day American example of this, though - Cassie at Columbine! WHen those sneering boys with guns asked her if she believed in God, she said 'Yes!' She had a rich reward into God's kingdom that day, not for being murderous and suicidal like the terrorist Muslims, but for speaking the truth in love about her faith without being hindered by fear. Her short life was one well spent!
A post I just read about muslims converting into Christians got me to thinking about how brutal people can be when it comes to enforcing beliefs, especially in past centuries. There are countless historical events in which an individual would be asked to publicly renounce their beliefs or face immediate execution and this happened to Christians many times. This still happens today in places like Africa and the Middle East. From documentaries I've seen about the competition between muslims and Christians in Africa it appears that killing people for their religious beliefs is probably more common in certain African nations than any other place in the world. So my question to Christians is this, if you actually were facing such a brutal situation in which you would either have to renounce your belief in God or face execution what would you do?
Just to be fair I'll tell you what I'd do if I had to face renouncing my atheism and accept Christianity or face death. I'd lie through my teeth and renounce my atheism on the spot. I'd explain how I'd just been filled with the Holy Spirit and ask them where I could pick up a copy of the Good Book and maybe a couple of crosses to hang in the living room. Afterall, I truly believe that this life is all there is so I see no point in cutting it short.
LOL...if faced with death, it would just mean I'm that much closer to find out whether I'm right or not!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Afterall, I truly believe that this life is all there is so I see no point in cutting it short.
And I'm ill-repentnent now anyway.
But I'd wonder of St. Peter Simon.
