Do Christians only serve due to blessing and/or fear?

[Jason76]

In the book of Job, Satan said people only worship God due to blessings. In addition, I can add another thing which might cause worship, fear. Let's say you just knocked up a psycho woman who can extort you, or you've just landed in prison. Now you turn to Jesus.

Of course, it's reasonable to serve God somewhat out of fear or due to possible blessings, but it shouldn't be the core reason.

 

[dogtowner]

Of course, it's reasonable to serve God somewhat out of fear or due to possible blessings, but it shouldn't be the core reason.

are you that sure that we do ?

 

[josuemilan]

The reason Christians serve is primarily due to fear, otherwise they would not serve. There is no tangible pleasure out of dedicating your life to something that is abstract, except the reward in the after life. If there was no punishment for not believing, a large number of people would not believe. The fear of burning in hell is the only reason people consider the idea. Nobody would give up the pleasure of life unless there was a major stipulation to it. To be a Christian, you must constantly deny being a human to something abstract. It is one of the most difficult things to commit to. Religion is man made and there is an abstract side to things that people dedicate there life to. If there was no punishment for stealing more people would steal inadvertently. It is just a mechanism that social engineers have created to control people.

 

[Jason76]

The reason Christians serve is primarily due to fear, otherwise they would not serve. There is no tangible pleasure out of dedicating your life to something that is abstract, except the reward in the after life. If there was no punishment for not believing, a large number of people would not believe. The fear of burning in hell is the only reason people consider the idea. Nobody would give up the pleasure of life unless there was a major stipulation to it. To be a Christian, you must constantly deny being a human to something abstract. It is one of the most difficult things to commit to. Religion is man made and there is an abstract side to things that people dedicate there life to. If there was no punishment for stealing more people would steal inadvertently. It is just a mechanism that social engineers have created to control people.

One incentive to serve God might be to have a better quality of life, and a low quality of life is considered the domain of Satan. Christ offered a more "abundant" life. I suppose it depends on what you consider a good life. A lot of people who like drugs, booze, sex, and power are happy with thier chosen lifestyle. On the other hand, maybe they haven't been exposed to anything better.

 

[Zynni]

Maybe there is more to it than that for most Christians. I certainly like to think so. Part of the reason for me is because I am grateful to Him. That may fit into your blessings argument in the abstract, but you made it sound like it was more about trying to score future blessings.

I also want to have a relationship with God, because He's changed my life. Sure, He's given me much but He's also shown me that I have value as a person. He's taught me to love myself, which to me is greater than material things.

 

[josuemilan]

One incentive to serve God might be to have a better quality of life, and a low quality of life is considered the domain of Satan. Christ offered a more "abundant" life. I suppose it depends on what you consider a good life. A lot of people who like drugs, booze, sex, and power are happy with thier chosen lifestyle. On the other hand, maybe they haven't been exposed to anything better.

Humans like to put meanings into things that are arbitrary to what they really stand for. There is an objective and subjective realty that we vacillate in. Religion is a way to escape the objective reality to live in an abstract realm. In that realm you can create a whole new reality. None of this would exist if we were not forced into it by fear. The bible is a political war book. There are so many hidden messages passed on from leaders, all ways to control the mind. The bible was revised many times and majority of the content was dated before the bible was created, in other religions. I only go on a rant about the history because it leads to what people believe in now. Now people claim that it "is to live the good life" but that was the theme in the bible. If you worship this war lord you would have a good life, and if not you suffer tenfold. When I say warlord that would be any of the leaders at the time conquering land by bloodshed in the story. It is an excuse to say the only way you can live a good life is vicariously through somebody else. When you come back to looking at things objectively, you are saying you look up to something abstract to tell you how to live in the non abstract world. You can not deny the fact that bible was written by men, and that poses the thought other men are telling you the right way to live. The idea is to sacrifice pleasure to have gratified pleasure, but there is not much pleasure giving up pleasure for something that may not exist. It does exist abstractly.

 

[josuemilan]

Maybe there is more to it than that for most Christians. I certainly like to think so. Part of the reason for me is because I am grateful to Him. That may fit into your blessings argument in the abstract, but you made it sound like it was more about trying to score future blessings.

I also want to have a relationship with God, because He's changed my life. Sure, He's given me much but He's also shown me that I have value as a person. He's taught me to love myself, which to me is greater than material things.

When you say "God" you may have to clarify it for me in regards to this post. I do not have enough knowledge to say which God or that God does not exist. The reason why I separate the two words abstract and reality is because people try to fuse them together. The burden is having a third party to prove that a prayer or paranormal activity was answered tangibly. People say non tangible things are done so that begs the question of subjectivity. I could say he has done nothing for me and that everything that happens is due to a chain of events. If you can only say he has done non tangible things, its the same as saying karma exist. The problem is we like to tie meanings to things that are non existent to satisfy our emotions. Everybody who has said " God has done something in my life" is referring to abstract realities. I would claim what happened was due to the reap and sow situation. It is cause and effect when you evaluate the event. You say he has taught you to love yourself, but ultimately you had to teach yourself. Everything we know is taught by ourselves, we just have somebody tell us ideas then we either accept or deny. You say an abstract model taught you something, but due to the lack of the third party verifying, I would say it was you. Some people are subjects of denialism, where you can slap them in the face with the truth and they would still deny. It also is difficult for me to say something subjective did or did not teach you. It really comes down to me saying whether you really are having a relationship, in the objective I could say you are not. In the abstract you could be.

 

[Jason76]

Most people worship idols to take the place of God. They could be career, nationalism, health, racism, drug use, entertainment, sex, money, fame, etc.. These idols satisfy, but according the Bible, they don't really satisfy, However, most people are not aware of what really satisfies. They think their idol is all they need. However, whether they admit it or not, the idol fails to satisfy at times.

 

[Gnostic Christian Bishop]

In the book of Job, Satan said people only worship God due to blessings. In addition, I can add another thing which might cause worship, fear. Let's say you just knocked up a psycho woman who can extort you, or you've just landed in prison. Now you turn to Jesus.

Of course, it's reasonable to serve God somewhat out of fear or due to possible blessings, but it shouldn't be the core reason.

People generally do what is rewarding.

What is most rewarding in Christianity is the fellowship, after all, all religions are, are tribal units.

We seem to need our peers or tribe to give us a better comfort level.

I think we would be wrong to think that most people really believe in a real way that theirs is a real God.

If Christians really believed it, then you would not have a 60% divorce rate.

Chances are good that when a believer says he believes, he is lying.

Regards
DL

 

[Jason76]

People generally do what is rewarding.

What is most rewarding in Christianity is the fellowship, after all, all religions are, are tribal units.

We seem to need our peers or tribe to give us a better comfort level.

I think we would be wrong to think that most people really believe in a real way that theirs is a real God.

If Christians really believed it, then you would not have a 60% divorce rate.

Chances are good that when a believer says he believes, he is lying.

Regards
DL

The reason the divorce rate is so high is because they aren't strictly following their religion. Also, they aren't planning things well before marriage. Perhaps they aren't looking at possble future problems well enough, or they didn't do enough research before picking a partner. Also, the divorce rate could be due to cheating and other problems resulting from weak religious faith. Finally, I never said most Christians really followed their religion. I'm only looking at religion, by itself, apart from hypocritical followers.

 

[Gnostic Christian Bishop]

The reason the divorce rate is so high is because they aren't strictly following their religion. Also, they aren't planning things well before marriage. Perhaps they aren't looking at possble future problems well enough, or they didn't do enough research before picking a partner. Also, the divorce rate could be due to cheating and other problems resulting from weak religious faith. Finally, I never said most Christians really followed their religion. I'm only looking at religion, by itself, apart from hypocritical followers.

I have to wonder if the hypocrisy you mention is causing most of the problems. In for a penny in for a pound type of thing.

Remember that the church is known to try to impose a false guilt into people and that they are quite good at that.

Regards
DL

 

[Cruella]

Christians serve out of a calling. Something I suspect most here wouldn't understand.

 

[Sam Dodd]

In the book of Job, Satan said people only worship God due to blessings. In addition, I can add another thing which might cause worship, fear. Let's say you just knocked up a psycho woman who can extort you, or you've just landed in prison. Now you turn to Jesus.

Of course, it's reasonable to serve God somewhat out of fear or due to possible blessings, but it shouldn't be the core reason.

Are you talking the Revised Standard Version of the Christian bible, or the republican rewritten bible called the NIV or the NKJV?

 

[Sam Dodd]

One incentive to serve God might be to have a better quality of life, and a low quality of life is considered the domain of Satan. Christ offered a more "abundant" life. I suppose it depends on what you consider a good life. A lot of people who like drugs, booze, sex, and power are happy with thier chosen lifestyle. On the other hand, maybe they haven't been exposed to anything better.

How about the child who is molested by the one serving the more "abundant life"?

 

[Gnostic Christian Bishop]

Christians serve out of a calling. Something I suspect most here wouldn't understand.

I do.

I just wonder why you serve a God with satanic morals.

For instance. Why are you serving a misogynous God who has institutionalised women not being equal to men?

Why can you not speak in church or be so uppity as to teach men?

Regards
DL