Worrying about Athiest Friends

[apples]

Any of you ever worry about your athiest friends?

I know I do. It disturbs me very much, because Hell is nothing to forget about. I love my best friends, and it's very difficult knowing that they reject God. Stupid existentialism; I hate those false/selfish philosophies.

Is there anything one can do besides pray? Everytime I try to tell the gospel to my friend, she just tells me that "religion" is fake. I don't plan on giving up on my friend at any time that I'm alive.

So what the heck.

 

[StMichaelTheArchangel]

Any of you ever worry about your athiest friends?

I know I do. It disturbs me very much, because Hell is nothing to forget about. I love my best friends, and it's very difficult knowing that they reject God. Stupid existentialism; I hate those false/selfish philosophies.

Is there anything one can do besides pray? Everytime I try to tell the gospel to my friend, she just tells me that "religion" is fake. I don't plan on giving up on my friend at any time that I'm alive.

So what the heck.

Don't worry so much about your friends, we are commanded not to judge those who are outside of the Faith. St Paul makes that clear in the Corinthian letter that, "Those outside (of the Faith) God judges" (1 Cor 5:13)

Just think about how many people have already died without Faith in God or in Christ, are you really going to take it upon yourself to judge them as "going to hell"? Only God can judge these things, these people are in his hands.

It is a really heavy burden you are placing upon yourself, I have experience of it myself as I live with atheists as well. It brings nothing but stress on me when I think about it too. But that is where God comes in, we are not God and we are not the one's who decide who's going to hell and who is not.

Of course you can do what you can to lead them to the Lord but not so much in words as in actions (James 3).


If this friend of yours is a committed atheist then theirs really not much you can do other than try and prove creationism to her / him. Also a debate about morality could prove fruitful, you could prove that atheists have no morality while Christians do. You should talk to her about things of this life and not of the other life because she does not have the eyes open yet.

 

[apples]

Thank you very much, sir. I really appreciate your explanation.

I, too often, forget that I really shouldn't judge others.

 

[rodogg]

Nothing you can do, in terms of talking and debating religion will do near as much good as praying for your friends. Every time you start to think about them and worry for their salvation, pray for them! It's not judging, it's a loving thing to do to worry about them.

 

[StMichaelTheArchangel]

Nothing you can do, in terms of talking and debating religion will do near as much good as praying for your friends. Every time you start to think about them and worry for their salvation, pray for them! It's not judging, it's a loving thing to do to worry about them.

No, don't pray for them when you worry about them, pray for yourself. Do people not remember the parable of the Publican and the Pharisee? Little by little, by making you think of the sins of others, the Devil will deprive you of repentance and you will be mortified by the remembrance of the sins of others.

Listen to this audiobook written in the 7th Century by a Christian monk from Gaza:

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohmQtmsoWrI[/video]

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6GQE0gA0sg[/video]

 

[rodogg]

No, don't pray for them when you worry about them, pray for yourself. Do people not remember the parable of the Publican and the Pharisee? Little by little, by making you think of the sins of others, the Devil will deprive you of repentance and you will be mortified by the remembrance of the sins of others.

Dont pray for your friends? Ignore the fact that they are not with Jesus and let them walk towards Hell without helping them? How does praying for yourself help them? The Publican and the Pharisee is not the same as this. We aren;t praying like "thank God Im not like that person", but praying for them to be saved. That is love

 

[StMichaelTheArchangel]

Dont pray for your friends? Ignore the fact that they are not with Jesus and let them walk towards Hell without helping them? How does praying for yourself help them? The Publican and the Pharisee is not the same as this. We aren;t praying like "thank God Im not like that person", but praying for them to be saved. That is love

Yes, but this kind of "love" can be very burdensome and unnecessary. If the prayer is done because you have condemned the others it will not be profitable.

 

[Kyouken]

Any of you ever worry about your athiest friends?

I know I do. It disturbs me very much, because Hell is nothing to forget about. I love my best friends, and it's very difficult knowing that they reject God. Stupid existentialism; I hate those false/selfish philosophies.

Is there anything one can do besides pray? Everytime I try to tell the gospel to my friend, she just tells me that "religion" is fake. I don't plan on giving up on my friend at any time that I'm alive.

So what the heck.

You should keep this in mind: most people reject the God taught by religion. That people have their reasons for not believing in God. Some things that you could say is that while other people may die for their god, our God is the only one who died for people (I'm not sure if that is entirely true, but then again I don't study anything but Christianity ), or that we pray to the only living God.

Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Ever wonder why Jesus said after a parable, "He who has ears to hear, let them hear!"? It sounds like you're telling them the Word, though...

It can be a bit depressing, but don't lose heart.

I recently witnessed to an atheist a couple days ago (I've known him for a while and he came at me every time I mentioned Him and he ridiculed Him), and I did all of the things below and then some (the day I witnessed to him). Not to say that there wasn't other things that helped, or that those below helped completely, but I wasn't doing some hit and miss tactic:

The only thing you can do is pray, if they aren't listening to you. If I could explain this better, or give any explanation, I would, but here's what I do:
I pray in the name of Jesus and, while using authority, I command the blinders to go and that person's heart to soften, and I remit their sins in Jesus' name. Then I pray that a spirit-filled believer talks to them, and that they'll listen. I also asked God to tell me what to say.

I countered the religious teachings of God, answered the things he threw at me, and now he says that he knows who to talk to about any matters relating to God. The only thing with the things I have said above this paragraph is that the way I figure it is that person has 95% influence on them self. You may have to keep commanding the blinders go and that their heart be softened and that more workers go in. You also have to remember that 95% of any one person is their own influence. It's ultimately their choice.

I'll get back to you on this with some sort of an explanation for why I did what I did + the Scriptures.

 

[LovesBrokenDream]

Honestly, the best thing that you can do is pray for them. My best friend and my sister are both Atheists, and I worry about them all the time. But, trying to explain the concept of God constantly doesn't work; it just pushes them farther away from Him. If the opportunity presents itself, witness. But don't try to find ways to push it into casual conversation.

 

[Kyouken]

You should keep this in mind: most people reject the God taught by religion. That people have their reasons for not believing in God. Some things that you could say is that while other people may die for their god, our God is the only one who died for people (I'm not sure if that is entirely true, but then again I don't study anything but Christianity ), or that we pray to the only living God.

Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Ever wonder why Jesus said after a parable, "He who has ears to hear, let them hear!"? It sounds like you're telling them the Word, though...

It can be a bit depressing, but don't lose heart.

I recently witnessed to an atheist a couple days ago (I've known him for a while and he came at me every time I mentioned Him and he ridiculed Him), and I did all of the things below and then some (the day I witnessed to him). Not to say that there wasn't other things that helped, or that those below helped completely, but I wasn't doing some hit and miss tactic:

The only thing you can do is pray, if they aren't listening to you. If I could explain this better, or give any explanation, I would, but here's what I do:
I pray in the name of Jesus and, while using authority, I command the blinders to go[<-- what I should have done there is bind the demonic influence, sorry] and that person's heart to soften, and I remit their sins in Jesus' name. Then I pray that a spirit-filled believer talks to them, and that they'll listen. I also asked God to tell me what to say.

I countered the religious teachings of God, answered the things he threw at me, and now he says that he knows who to talk to about any matters relating to God. The only thing with the things I have said above this paragraph is that the way I figure it is that person has 95% influence on them self. You may have to keep commanding the blinders go and that their heart be softened and that more workers go in. You also have to remember that 95% of any one person is their own influence. It's ultimately their choice.

I'll get back to you on this with some sort of an explanation for why I did what I did + the Scriptures.

2nd Corinthians 4:4
2nd Peter 3:9
1st Peter 1:23
Matthew 9:38
John 14:26
John 20:23 Remit sins, (the effect of sin)

 

[apples]

Thank you so much everyone.

 

[jimmydiggs]

Learn to play their game. It's what I've done, and it works like magic.

 

[lil_christian]

No, don't pray for them when you worry about them, pray for yourself. Do people not remember the parable of the Publican and the Pharisee? Little by little, by making you think of the sins of others, the Devil will deprive you of repentance and you will be mortified by the remembrance of the sins of others.

Listen to this audiobook written in the 7th Century by a Christian monk from Gaza:

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohmQtmsoWrI[/video]

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6GQE0gA0sg[/video]

Wow...that has NOTHING to do with praying for someone's salvation. You're not saying "Oh, God! Please forgive that wretch of his sins!" nooo way. That IS being judgmental. And extremely rude. >.> but praying "God, show me what to do...give me an opportunity to show how much You love them..." or something along those lines. That has nothing to do with their sins or anything, that has to do with their salvation. And it's not judging them or assuming they're not Christian, they already said they aren't.

Praying to ask Jesus to help witness to someone or to pray for their salvation is like, not praying for a fellow Christian when they need it, and instead praying for yourself (you mentioned that in another post).

 

[LukeF]

hey i'm new to this forum (and atheist)...

sometimes i find it slightly patronizing when christian friends offer to pray for me.. and sometimes it just irritates me.. BUT IT'S NICE TO KNOW THEY CARE I GUESS

i'm kinda surprised this has been posted as a topic really... and pleased to meet everyone as well!

 

[LukeF]

as a generalization i've found that Christians regard Atheism in two ways... 1st as somebody who hates and rejects God.. this isn't usually true... because i personally don't believe there is a God there to begin with to hate..

and 2nd as somebody who hasn't yet looked into the Bible/God... ignorant etc.. which is understandable

but i guess the point i'm trying to make is that the majority of the Atheists i know HAVE looked into Christianity... and then made up their mind that they don't believe it... this is the MAJORITY...

have i made sense lol?

 

[lil_christian]

Welcome to CC, Luke.

 

[LukeF]

hey lil_christian!

i don't mean to sound rude or anything by the way... i'm just saying what i've noticed/think

 

[lil_christian]

as a generalization i've found that Christians regard Atheism in two ways... 1st as somebody who hates and rejects God.. this isn't usually true... because i personally don't believe there is a God there to begin with to hate..

and 2nd as somebody who hasn't yet looked into the Bible/God... ignorant etc.. which is understandable

but i guess the point i'm trying to make is that the majority of the Atheists i know HAVE looked into Christianity... and then made up their mind that they don't believe it... this is the MAJORITY...

have i made sense lol?

Well, to me personally, saying there is no God means you reject God. And and that's the main thing on atheists. There is no God. Period.

Well, in reply to the second misconception, I've found out that a lot of atheists that have gone on here have read the whole Bible, then start picking at us (not saying that that's all atheists, and from I see you're not one of those people).

and to the third part of your post, yes that makes perfect sense. Someone looks into Christianity but then decide "Eh, it ain't for me." and just forget about even reading or hearing about Christianity...and that probably DOES make up quite the majority.

 

[lil_christian]

hey lil_christian!

i don't mean to sound rude or anything by the way... i'm just saying what i've noticed/think

hehe I know, and as you can see I've made a reply to it....hoping what I say makes sense....and doesn't sound rude

 

[LukeF]

i see what you mean, it's just the word 'reject' which i'm uncomfortable with. i mean we both don't believe in like mermaids or something (as an example) but we don't reject mermaids... we just don't have any emotional attitude towards mermaids at all...

i'm only saying this because i've been argued at before, called ignorant, blind... all those things... and it sort of irritates me... because i don't hate Christians or god or the bible or anything... i just don't believe it..

and yeah i can imagine lots of atheists would love to come on these internet sites just to 'have a go'... not good

but yeah thanks for replying to me!