Jesus promised: “Ye shall KNOW the Truth, and the Truth shall set you free” (Jn 8:32)
Paul promised: “That IF thou shalt BELIEVE in thine heart that God hath raised Jesus from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” (Ro 10:9)
Knowledge and belief are two completely opposite concepts.
Knowledge is based on facts, belief is based on very little or no fact and Truth. Knowledge sets you free, belief is required to be deceived. With knowledge you may have control over certain things, with belief you have no control of what you don’t know.
Knowledge brings peace, with belief exists fear of the unknown.
For example, those who have had “near death experiences”, almost all say they are no longer afraid of death. Why? Because they now know, not believe any more, what lies beyond after death.
What you DON’T KNOW can generate fear. What you DO KNOW you may have control over — and set you free from fear. Truth is based on fact. Belief is based on speculation or imagination with few facts, and frequently with no facts at all.
You have NO POSSIBLE way of KNOWING:
- If Jesus even died
- If God really raised Jesus from the dead
- If Hell even exists
Just because the Bible says so, is not proof or evidence of the death and resurrection of Jesus or Hell — it is certainly not able to be fact. The certainty of this is impossible.
Fear Mechanism
Belief can be used by some religious folks as a fear mechanism to control and manipulate large groups of people. If salvation means one is saved from Hell and a promise of free entrance to the Kingdom of Heaven, someone is promising something that is impossible to be delivered and wrong for them to promise.
Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. (Mat 7:21)
Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. (Jn 3:5)
Entering the Kingdom of Heaven is not granted by belief, but deserved by what one does in the life he has been given — by righteous living, good works and doing the will of God. And a man may need to be born again many times before he is able to enter.
Salvation From What?
In the Bible, salvation originally meant deliverance from a physical enemy. Paul turned the concept of salvation from being delivered from a real physical enemy to salvation from an imaginary place called Hell, which is impossible to prove the existence of.
If one is uncertain of what lies beyond the grave, there will be the fear of the unknown. It is much better to know that one will have a second chance and have to be “born again”, to try and get it right the next time, than to believe that he or she may spend eternity in Hell.
The idea of Hell — a place of eternal constant torment — generates great fear. Fear can be weaponized to manipulate and control large groups of people. This fear has been used to cause people to believe in a complete lie. A free and easy way to get out of having to go to such a horrible place, according to Paul, is simply by accepting the condition of believing in one’s heart that God raised Jesus from the dead — something there is absolutely NO facts or evidence of.
Exclusivity
The concept of the “Virgin Birth” gives Christianity exclusivity to the idea of salvation from Hell and the free and easy entry to the Kingdom of Heaven. No other religion on Earth can promise this kind of “salvation”.
Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name (Jesus) under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)
A focus on the phrase “we must be saved”. “Must” means there is an obligation to be saved from what? Hell. And the condition for that salvation is belief.
Remember, belief is required to be deceived.
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