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From: kurtzman@uscvax.UUCP (Stephen Kurtzman)
Newsgroups: net.religion.christian
Subject: A primary reason for belief in Christ
Message-ID: <908@uscvax.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 16-Aug-85 18:29:10 EDT
Article-I.D.: uscvax.908
Posted: Fri Aug 16 18:29:10 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 20-Aug-85 21:01:01 EDT
Distribution: net
Organization: CS&CE Depts, U.S.C., Los Angeles, CA
Lines: 33

A recent article on this news group ended with:

> Praise be to Christ Jesus, who sets us free from this world of death, and
> raises us up alive with Him to be His servants and ambassadors back to
> this world.
> 
>                                   Peter Homeier
>                                   ARPANET:  homeier@aerospace

I have always had the feeling that many people choose to believe in the
claims of Christianity because it gives an alternative to an eternal
death. The excerpt above is a classic example of why I get this feeling -
Christ "sets us free from this world of death". Is my feeling justified?

Many of the ministers, priests, and tv evangelists/preachers I have heard
play upon the inherent fear man has of death. Does anyone know of any
Christian sect that does not try to exploit fear of death? A lot of the
Christian sects actually go one step further and tell people it is not
just death you will experience but eternal damnation. It makes me uneasy
and suspicious when someone tries to scare me into doing or believing
something. How does it make the Christians and non-Christians on the net
feel?

What do you think the consequences would be to the Christian churches if
they did not play on fear? I believe many would fall apart because it
would rapidly become apparent that without fear all they would have left
is meaningless dogma. Those Christian communities that have some basis
other than fear might indeed find themselves bursting over with true
believers. What do the Christians and non-Christians that read this
news column think about this possibility?

Note that I have not tried to pass judgement on whether or not Christ
is (the son of) God. That is irrelevant to my questions.