Theists: Is Rejecting God the Same as Not Believing In Him?

[lunamoth]

Originally Posted by angellous_evangellous

Belief is cheap.

So is grace. Free even.

[angellous_evangellous]

Originally Posted by lunamoth

So is grace. Free even.

Bonhoeffer would be instructive here.

The Cost of Discipleship - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

One of the most important parts of the book deals with the distinction which Bonhoeffer makes between "cheap" and "costly" grace. But what is "cheap" grace? In Bonhoeffer's words: "cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline. Communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ." Or, to put it even more clearly, it is to hear the gospel preached as follows: "Of course you have sinned, but now everything is forgiven, so you can stay as you are and enjoy the consolations of forgiveness." The main defect of such a proclamation is that it contains no demand for discipleship.

In contrast to this is costly grace: "costly grace confronts us as a gracious call to follow Jesus, it comes as a word of forgiveness to the broken spirit and the contrite heart. It is costly because it compels a man to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow him; it is grace because Jesus says: "My yoke is easy and my burden is light." "

[lunamoth]

Originally Posted by angellous_evangellous

Bonhoeffer would be instructive here.

The Cost of Discipleship - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Excellent quotes and I suppose that is the paradox of grace: it costs nothing and everything.

[DallasApple]

You can beileve IN Him...Like you know he exist...

But not "believe Him"...as in what He says in scriptures in any given religion.Or reject Him as in "I know what God says and I dont care"

And then you can not believe IN Him at all..as in there is no God.

Blessings

Dallas

[uss_bigd]

Originally Posted by ChristineES

That is question that I do not have an answer for, although I think it quite a bit. It is one thing not to believe in God and quite another to believe in God and reject Him. Or at least I think there is.
But is it the same to you? Do you think not believing is the same as believing and rejecting?

Since I don't really have an answer, I wondering if other theists do or not.

I hope this helps ...John 12:48He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.

[Scarlett Wampus]

This might sound strange and strain the meaning for most but I think its possible to not believe in (a specific God) while at the same time not rejecting God either.

I do not believe in a specific God but it is important to me to be open to what is larger than myself and/or unknown. In this sense I cannot say what God is but I do not reject what I cannot say. Its an agnostic position. Its hard for me to determine whether such a view would belong in a theist thread or atheist thread, so I just posted it anyway.

[lockyfan]

They are two different things. Not believing in god, just means you look around you and think "there is no God" which is perfectly understandable.

but knowing God exists and rejecting him is what Satan has done and Satan is set for destruction, just like everything else in his situation.