If you found out today with 100% certainty there was no afterlife or......

Been following this thread for several days...

But I just want to say... there is nothing MERE about TRUE repentance. Many confuse repentance with being sorry they got caught. True repentance means to the greatest degree possible... whatever wrong was done is made right. You see... you don't get to steal... get caught... say I am sorry AND keep the loot. If one is truly repentant the money is returned with interest.

A Great example is the story of Zachaeus.

 

I'm not even gonna think of an answer for that question because I know He's real. All the bibles prophecy's given to us from God have and are coming to pass. Just look at how he's blessed us all. I can never understand someone when they say theres not a god because they can't explain how we all got here if there wasn't. The real question is if all nonbelievers found out that God was real would you start living for him? Or would you rather gain the whole world and lose your soul? God said you can't love the world and go to heaven. How many put church off for the world and how many put drugs and alcohol before praying. Its crazy if people only knew how much longer they had in life before Jesus comes back. Then it will be to late.

 

How does one repent murder?

 

Guessing you didn't see what Hooker wrote. Also it's not about what the "real" question is, it was just a theoretical question which you're refusing to answer.

 

Ahhh! Great question... the same problem the people gathered in the streets of Jerusalem had to deal with. Acts chapter 2... they had a really big problem didn't they? So there is nothing we can do to undo the fact that we are hopelessly lost... That's where grace comes in. Christ became sin for us so that Father views us no longer through our inadequate works but through His finished works. Grace doesn't erase our sins... it propitiates (covers over) our sins.

 

There is no real answer to rhetorical questions which is what this really is.

It could just as well be: "Would you stop breathing if someone proved to you oxygen doesn't really exist?" The question would make no sense at all to anyone who has experienced breathing.

 

Many animals have their own moral structure and/or code. It might not fit any religious morality, but it is geared more towards the survival and prosperity of the species.

If somehow man all of a sudden was able to disprove religion 100%, then I'm sure it would be pretty bad for awhile with people going nuts about their belief system completely turned upside down, but eventually the species would establish a moral structure to save itself.

 

Re-read my post.

 

There are two sides to the original question. One would be the situation you pose. The other would be to ask; what if we humans had always known that there is no god and no afterlife?

 

I understand what you mean about genuine repentance. I believe the thief on the cross was genuinely repentant. But when I say mere repentance is not enough, it means that, in my religion, the thief would not have gotten off the hook.

 

I did.

Explain to me how it would be "ugly".

 

We would just be animals. No soul. There are enough examples out there to prove that out, people that do not act with conscience .

 

This is not true at all. I have a bit more faith in the Human race I guess.

 

The reason that even athiestic countries have law and citizens that obey the law is because we are all made in God's image and we all have God's law written on our hearts.We know right and wrong even if we don't always practice it.It's interesting that almost all nations have laws against murder,stealing,etc...Anywhere you look in the world,even countries that are totally without the Bible,there is some type of government and some type of law system and morality.Sin has corrupted our sense of right and wrong but by God's common grace,we live in a orderly and law abiding world.Common grace is a term that is used to descibe God's grace to all creatures,whether they are His children or not.We all receive rain and sunshine,for instance.Most people are law abiding,love their families,work hard,are basically honest,etc...This does not mean they are Christians.All people are totally depraved but that doesn't mean they are as bad as they could be.Total depravity just means that all human beings are born with a sin nature.Our nature is totally corrupted by sin and we are unable to do anything in and of ourselves to please God apart from His grace.
God ordained government for our good and to maintain order in society.Now,I do believe that the U.S. is the greatest nation that this planet has ever seen because of the Christian faith.We are not and never have been a theocracy but our laws are based on Christian principals and the founders of our nation believed that this nation would not succeed without a religous people.Our founders weren't all Christians but they for the most part,had respect for Christianity.If you look at the heathen countries that are totally without God's word,they seem to be more violent and less respect for human dignity than nations with the gospel,but they do still have a degree of law and order.We are human beings,not animals.Thank God that we do have the gospel and that He has given us His Word as a light in this dark world.Be thankful that we do live in a nation with God's Word readily available.There are many people in this world who have never and will never hear the gospel.They remain under God's wrath but we will be judged much more harshly because we have God's Word in our hands and have rejected it.May the name of Jesus Christ be forever glorified.

 

You gentleman are forgetting that we are all born with a soul and we are created by God after His image.

If there was no God, we would all be base animals, albeit at the top of the food chain.

 

RayJ, how much studying have you done of other countries?

Could it also be that it's not God in our hearts, but instead it is innate to live in a orderly and law abiding world? Even primates and other pack animals have their own sense of primal order/justice.

This is going to rapidly deteriorate to a religious debate again but id have to disagree and say that we are not founded on Christian principles, well I guess you could call it that, but if you do you should acknowledge those principles are in other religions/cultures too. Of which they didn't have Christian principles to derive from.

Also if you could please, use some spaces or paragraphs, it would really help to read your writings better.

 

True, it is our ability to think and reason that puts us at the top above all the other dangerous animals! If I were unable to reason that my hands would be far less effective than putting together a bow and arrow, then, well id probably die pretty quickly.