Doing some internet exploring and ended up here.

I mean, I've done a bit of reading of the bible, and god just kinda seems, mean and vindictive.

I think that Holy and Just would be better words to describe those aspects of God.

At the same time, however, God is also gracious and merciful.

I mean, in its simplest form, the Bible basically comes down to this:

"For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 6:23)

We're all going to die one day...me, you, everyone.

Death is actually our "wages" or what we've earned for sinning against a Holy God.

It's as if we're standing in a Divine Court of law, and we're sentenced with capital punishment for violating God's commandments.

That's the bad news.

The good news, however, or the gospel message is that Jesus Christ left his habitation in heaven and came to this earth in the form of a man in order to willfully take the punishment for our sins upon himself that we might be forgiven.

Further still, he also rose from the dead, while defeating death, and he gives the very real hope of eternal life to those who truly belong to him.

Again, this very real hope isn't merely some sort of wishful thinking or self-delusion.

Instead, when someone truly turns back to God through Christ, God sends the Holy Spirit to dwell inside of them.

This same Holy Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead is basically a Christian's promissory note from God that they too will one day be raised from the dead unto eternal life.

My best friend became a christian and now she doesn't really like hanging around with me which sucks, and I guess I just couldn't believe someone coming back from the dead like that and such.

I'm sorry that your friend no longer likes hanging around you.

I cannot really speak on her behalf because I don't know her, but I do know that Jesus regularly spent time with social outcasts like prostitutes, tax collectors (who were hated in his day), etc., etc.

In fact, on one occasion when the religious leaders (read: hypocrites) basically reviled him for eating with sinners, Jesus told them that it was the sick who need a doctor.

Again, we've all sinned against God, but he sent his Son, Jesus Christ, into this world that we might be saved.

in that relationship, if anyone is going to shun anyone, then it will be us shunning God's gracious offer of forgiveness and eternal life, and not the other way around.

As far as coming back from the dead is concerned, do you believe in the afterlife?

Not sure if I do or don't. And thanks, hurts but her choice I suppose.

As far as the afterlife is concerned, as you're probably already aware, the Bible only gives two options after physical death:

1. Eternal life in the kingdom of God which is yet to come (heaven is an intermediary place where the righteous dead go in the meantime).
2. Eternal damnation.

There's only one person who ever walked the face of this earth without sinning, and the one person is Jesus Christ.

Having never sinned, he is the only person that death had no legal claim to because, again, the wages of sin is death.

In his great love for us, Jesus chose to suffer and die in our places as our scapegoat or substitutionary sacrifice.

That takes care of the sin part, but there's also the death part to deal with.

As I mentioned earlier, when he rose from the dead, he defeated death, and he will give the Christian the indwelling Holy Spirit as a sort of promissory note that they too will one day be raised from the dead unto eternal life.

I don't know you personally, but I do care about your eternal destiny.

Have you ever thought about what is going to happen to you after you die?

As far as your friend's choice is concerned, it doesn't necessarily mean that she made the right choice.

God hasn't abandoned you.

Of this, I'm sure.

I just think once you're gone you're gone, more comforting for me at least, whole idea of eternal punishment as well seems strange, eternal punishment for a finite transgression just seems wrong to me.

Well, the only way that I can truly help you is by telling you the truth, so here is some truth concerning eternal punishment or hell.

Hopefully, after considering it, things won't seem so "wrong" to you.

Jesus said:

"Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:" (Matthew 25:41)

The first thing that we need to understand about hell or "everlasting fire" is that it was prepared for the devil and his angels.

Satan is real, and so are demons, and they are the invisible motivating forces behind all of the evil which has ever been perpetrated in this world.

Tell me, do you believe in justice?

If someone, God forbid, raped and then murdered one of your female friends and the judge turned a blind eye to her assailant, how would that make you feel?

Would it be "wrong" for a judge to provide a just sentence against the assailant's crime?

The point that I'm heading towards is this:

Whenever we sin, we are in league with either Satan himself or demons/fallen angels.

With such being the case, we basically bring ourselves under the same Just Divine Judgment that they are under.

Well I think rape and murder should be punished definitely, not sure what that question was supposed to elicit, of course I'd feel strongly about that. Maybe I'm a bad person but I don't even think rapists and murderers should be punished for all of eternity.

God created us as eternal beings.

Furthermore, in the Bible it actually says that God has placed eternity in our hearts:

"He has also set eternity in their heart..." (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

In other words, we all initially start out with an inward realization that there is something more than just this finite life.

As eternal beings, we're simply going to spend eternity somewhere.

Again, it's either eternal life or eternal damnation.

I guess what you are saying is starting to sink in yeah

I'm happy to hear that, but it begs this question:

Where will you spend eternity?

This question is a huge motivational factor in my desiring to speak with you.

Again, I don't know you, but you're an eternal being, just like the rest of us, who is facing only one of two possible eternal destinies.

I want to see you choose the right one.

More importantly, God wants you to choose the right one.

I will choose the right one, I will choose God.

Well I think rape and murder should be punished definitely, not sure what that question was supposed to elicit, of course I'd feel strongly about that. Maybe I'm a bad person but I don't even think rapists and murderers should be punished for all of eternity.

Then you will need to be reconciled back unto him by his prescribed means.

Jesus said: "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes unto the Father, but by me." (John 14:6...the verse on my hat).

If you understood what I said earlier, then you should be able to understand what I'm about to say now.

The Bible teaches that there is only "one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (I Timothy 2:5).

The reason why Jesus Christ is the only mediator between God and men is because he is the only person to have ever existed who is both God and man.

Seeing how Jesus is both God and man, he can properly mediate on behalf of both parties involved.

Again, our problem is two-fold:

1. We've violated the law of a holy God, and are therefore sinners.
2. We're all under a Divine death sentence, and that sentence continues on beyond physical death or unto what the Bible calls "the second death" (Revelation 2:11, 20:6, 14, 21:8). This "second death" is being cast alive into a burning lake of fire which was prepared for Satan and his angels, and, consequently, all who follow them.

As I said earlier, that's the bad news.

The good news is that Jesus, who prior to his incarnation was only fully God, came down to this earth approximately 2000 years ago and willfully died on the cross to pay the price for our sins. Not only this, but he then rose from the dead unto eternal life, and he promised the gift of eternal life to all of those who are willing to repent of their sins or to break their league with Satan/demons and trust in his sacrificial atonement on their behalves.

Does this make sense to you?

I think so, the only way to God is through Jesus right?

Yes.

Again, he's not only the only person who is both God and man and therefore the only one who can truly mediate on behalf of both God and man, but he is also the only sinless person to ever walk the face of this earth, and therefore the only possible sinless sacrifice to pay the price for our sins. He's also the only person to have ever been raised from the dead unto eternal life, but those who belong to him will also get glorified bodies at his second coming to this earth when he comes to establish the kingdom of God here ("Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.").

I think its starting to make sense yeah, can see why my friend decided to change.

I'm happy that it's starting to make sense and for your friend, but what about you?

BELIEVE ME, I'm NOT trying to pressure you into making a decision.

Instead, I'm merely trying to explain things to you so you can make a choice of your own.

God is calling you.

I'm just one of many of his mouthpieces, but he is the one who greatly desires to be reconciled with you through Jesus Christ.

Jesus is God's only acceptable sacrifice, and therefore his only acceptable means of salvation.

If you turn back to God through Christ, then the Bible says that you will become "accepted in the beloved" (Ephesians 1:6) or accepted in Christ who is God's "beloved Son in whom he is well pleased" (Matthew 3:17, 12:18, 17:5, etc., etc.).

Well I will have to do some thinking, but it is feeling like a call I should answer.