I think I need to do a search. I need to find all these Christians who are looking forward to dying. According to this graphic, the earth is apparently overwhelmed with suicidal followers of Jesus of Nazareth.
OK, so maybe I’m just having a little fun. But I have to wonder why anyone in the atheist community (which is where I found this graphic) could so thoroughly believe such a notion that they would create a graphic to tell the world.
While I’m sure there are some Jesus followers out there who want to die (perhaps a few on their death beds, for example), I’ve yet to meet even one of them.
In the meantime, what about “wasting their lives”? The Jesus followers who are still in the Nepal helping victims of the devastating 2015 earthquake are certainly doing something that most people would call productive.
Same for the Jesus followers who join Samaritan’s Purse around the world helping survivors of earthquakes, wildfires, volcanoes, tornadoes, floods, tsunamis and cyclones. Wasting their lives looking forward to death? Really?
Should I wonder about the Jesus followers who put their lives on the line (again with Samaritan’s Purse) fighting the deadly Ebola Virus in Liberia in 2014? Was that just a death wish?
Now, about the central figure of Christianity: was He a human sacrifice? In some respects, yes.
Most Jesus followers believe the original source documents that state God put His love on the line for us through Jesus (who many people believe is God’s Son).
A letter from one of Jesus’s first followers explains it like this: “Christ himself suffered when he died for you, and with that one death he paid for your sins. He was not guilty, but he died for people who are guilty. He did this to bring all of you to God.”
Nothing you or I can do will make up for the wrong things we’ve done and the right things we’ve failed to do. Nothing. Indeed, all of us go wrong every day, in ways we don’t see because we live in a world that suggests “if it feels good, do it” and “it’s only wrong if you get caught”.
The only difference between you and me is I’ve figured this out. I know I can’t come close to God’s standard of perfection. But because I follow Jesus, I don’t have to. Jesus did the heavy lifting for me.
Oh, one more thing. After doing that heavy lifting, He came back to life. Paul, an ancient missionary who spent much of his life telling people about Jesus, wrote a letter that says “But Christ really has been raised from death”.
In fact, that’s such a central part of following Jesus that in the same letter, Paul wrote “if Christ has not been raised from death, then your faith is for nothing; you are still guilty of your sins.”
Paul spent most of his life telling people this. And God worked through him to start churches and spread Christianity throughout the Mediterranean.
So much for a death cult, eh?
Does this make you rethink what you thought you knew about following Jesus? Yes or no, post your thoughts below and let’s have a conversation.
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