10 Reasons to Not Believe

So I'm going to take a different approach to argue the case for believing in Christ by starting from the position that what is said about Him in the Bible is plain and true. If you read the New Testament at face value it's clear that Jesus was God, that He came to the Earth to die for our sins, that He came back to life after His death and that if we accept what He did and believe in Him, He promises us the same thing which is eternal life after death. No need for us to appease God, no need for us to make sacrifices, and no need for us to be perfect in everything. Just accept that Jesus died for your sins and follow Him. Done.

If it's that plain and simple, why doesn't everyone respond and believe in Him?

There are many reasons to not believe. I'm going to present 10 I can think of and over the next several blogs I'll attempt to unpack each one, giving some counter-arguments for believing anyway. My hope and prayer is that I'll help someone to face their objection, their excuse for not believing, and get off the fence. Here goes...

1. Comfortably Numb

I may be totally wrong, but I think this might be the number 1 reason in the Western World why people don't believe in Christ, or at least don't respond to Him.  We live in comfortable homes, with TV's and all modern conveniences. We don't think about eternity, we don't worry about life after death. Life is good. Until it's not...

2. Cultural Constraints

This is a big one for anyone growing up in a community with strong cultural and religious roots.  This is not something I can say I've experienced directly but if, say, you've grown up in a strong Muslim, Jewish or Buddhist family and all your family value their religion with all it's traditions, then it's extremely tough to decide to follow a different path.

3. Missing Out

If I believe in God I'll have to give up smoking, drinking, cussing, sinning, having fun, breathing, eating... oh wait maybe I got carried away.  But there is the sense that in order to follow Christ you have to give up on fun and freedom.

4. Intellectual Objections

This is the one I've read about a lot. Doesn't science prove there's no God?  How can a rational person believe in something that requires "blind faith"?

5. Plain Ignorance

There is a scripture that says "how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?" That's fair enough. If you've never heard about Jesus and what He did, then you can't respond to Him.  You can't believe in something if you've never heard about it.

6. Maybe Later

Strangely, this is the one that kept me from believing for many years.  I'd heard about Christ and "the full gospel message" and it made sense to me, but I just never responded. I figured I'd do it someday in my own sweet time but God had other ideas!

7. Peer Pressure

What will my friends or family think of me if I become a Jesus Freak?

8. Christians

Yup, they're all hypocrites, right?

9. All Paths Lead to God

This is the Hindu position, I think, that it doesn't matter which religion you follow because they all lead to God. Let's be inclusive and not be exclusive in our claims. Sounds nice but it's problematic, especially when you consider it's a belief exclusive to Hinduism. Hmmm.

10. Too Far Gone

God could never love me. He can forgive others but not me. I'm not worthy of His love.

So, I just finished writing the last blog in this series, so I went back through the list here and added in hyperlinks to each one for easier access. Enjoy!