"Study shows those who believe in heaven commit more crimes"

Unitarian universalists also believe in Heaven, and that EVERYONE goes there, regardless of what they believe or do.

Yea, the hypocrisies of the left in writing such articles are clear.

Well, no one on the streets seem to be listening, maybe some in jail will.

A bogus science Paper from 2 muslim scientists at a very liberal College, published in a secular humanist science Journal, and the article posted in the extremely left wing 'The Blaze'.

"Lies, damned lies, and statistics."

The sources going back as far as 1980 from such places as Post Christian Western Europe where many identify themselves as infant baptised Christians, or of Christian heritage, or those who go to Church perhaps once or twice a year, if at all.

Or South America where so-called Christians practice the dark arts of Santeria, Macombe, and other African religions. The Statue of Jesus on their mantles right next to the Catholic version of Mary, next to other idols of pagan deities, and a dead chicken under their bed, they are obviously hedging their bets on whom will give them their desires.

Or from the non-Christian religions.

I personally do not believe in everlasting hell where people are tormented forever. This belief of mine has not led me into a descent of ever increasing sinfulness. I rejoice in the love of God and fellowship of the saints.

Is it the fear of hell that keeps us Christian?

Or is it the fellowship, love and mercy that God has bestowed upon us when we were lost in our sins, through His only Begotten Son, the perfect Paschal Lamb of God whose blood washes away all our sins for all time? It is God's love, Kindness, and forgiveness that changes us. It is the indwelling Holy Spirit whom works God's good will in His children.

I have no thought for a reality of, nor fear of, a 'hell', because God's love for me has cast out all fear. I know that God who called me is able to transform my very nature via the indwelling Holy Spirit, that I may natural do the good He created us to do. I have a daily fellowship with God. And I believe you do also. When we confess our sins, God forgives them and He also cleanses us of all unrighteousness.

Or is it fear of hell that keeps people from sinning? I seriously doubt that. History says no to that question.

I admit, reading your comments made me leery of reading the article. I expected it to be hype and spin – a slam against believers and an incentive to persecute us. But, folks I don’t see any of that. Consider this quote:

“Belief in hell predicted lower crime rates … whereas belief in heaven predicted higher crime rates.”

This is not saying that belief in heaven predisposes people to crime! It’s a comparative study.

Shariff and Rhemtulla believe that the study raises “important questions about the potential impact of religious beliefs on global crime.”

Is this not true? Perhaps further scientific studies could distinguish authentic forgiveness from permissive enabling. That factor is not foreign to the scientific world – certainly in the area of psychological treatment in relationships - ie differentiating the pattern of enabling from truly holding one accountable.

A good point to gain here: Let’s keep hell in our theology! That’s something that has been fading away. But at the same time guard against presenting an enabling permissive kind of God.

Further scientific study might discover those who believe in both hell and a forgiving God. That is the God of scripture!

May God’s glory shine through those criminals who have been truly forgiven by God and are walking on a path of holy living.

Diane

I agree with this article, this is a clear proof that if you evangelize people based on Heaven and Hell destination you will only lead them to a life of Crime.
The salvation of New Covenant is not only a change in destination from Heaven to hell. It is the way in which you go. For example if you change your destination place for your vacation you will also not change your flight or bus or driving direction, won't you? You will not take the same direction. But many Christians alone preach an impractical Christianity where the destination changes without any change in your direction. This is illogical.

First let us lean what True salvation is, it is to be saved from our Sin, based on the very first promise of New Covenant (Matthew 1 -21). Salvation is to be saved from this perverse generation (Acts 2-40). If you are not being saved from Sinful life style and the acts of a perverse generation then you are not saved, Period.

After reading the comments here, I checked out the article myself.

All I can say is that it describes what is true here in the Bible Belt of the USA, like it or not. And like it or not, it describes those given to Calvinism who think they can sin with no fear of eternal consequences because God, after all, has forgiven all their sins, both past and present. Granted, not all Calvinists behave this way, but far too many do.

Most of my clients at the Crises Pregnancy Center were single professing Christians. They knew they did wrong, they sinned. Many did not feel God would send them to hell because they believed themselves to be too good for it. Others believed, that yes, they will end up there but had no motivation to change.

One thing this article did not say is what all they considered to be criminal. If they lump Christians stance against perversion with stealing, murder, etc it should give one pause for concern. On the other hand if so-called Christians do engage in criminal behaviors this is tragic. (Corrupt southern politicians are notorious for using God, prayers in their rhetoric...and since it sounds good, people are blinded to the realities that go on behind closed doors. Yup, Calvinism Missippi style.)

EDITED: It is well-known here in the states of some radical preachers and his family who engage is protests against what they perceive as anti-American...It embarrasses many devout Christians, provides fuel for the atheists or humanists to declare Christianity dangerous...

ginnyrose

QUOTE: " This type thing is at the "tip of the iceberg on the horizon" stage. There's a spiritual storm like a train just starting to leave the station and build steam. That baby is gonna get flying at top speed deceptively before you even realize it. "All aboard" Is the call I hear in my Spirit."==JEFFMAR

Yes, i hear the train coming too. Have for a long time. Back in the 90s already, when i first turned to Christ. And you are right about the "deceptively" too. AND i think you will discover that most of the people in the churches will be among your greatest enemies or among the most untrustworthy.
Lately i think that it is better to build my friends from among the sinners.

QUOTE: "I agree with this article, this is a clear proof that if you evangelize people based on Heaven and Hell destination you will only lead them to a life of Crime.
The salvation of New Covenant is not only a change in destination from Heaven to hell."==SREE

Say wwwwwwwwhat?

by ginnyrose on 2012/6/24 6:23:21 wrote:
"All I can say is that it describes what is true here in the Bible Belt of the USA, like it or not. And like it or not, it describes those given to Calvinism who think they can sin with no fear of eternal consequences because God, after all, has forgiven all their sins, both past and present. Granted, not all Calvinists behave this way, but far too many do."

Ginnyrose, I'm very sorry to hear your testimony, that Christians inside the Bible Belt would be just as sinful as Christians outside the Bible Belt, if they were not kept in exceeding fear of being hell bound. But Take away the Hell-Bound threat and they would be their true selves and sin as much as Christians outside the bible Belt. Apparently their sin nature has not been transformed. The word for this is called ‘Hypocrisy’.

As for me, I have a personal relationship with God. I love him and He loves me, and this, ever since I was 4 years old. Ever since He speaks to me in words of love, every day these words, and this does something to me. It’s Him for me, and I for Him, and He tells me this every day of my life.

Life is like riding a bike or motorcycle, where you look is where you go. When a policeman pulls over a driver on a highway for an infraction of the driving rules, he tells the driver to get out of the car and move away from the car. He does this because many pulled over cars get hit by drivers who stretch their neck to see the poor sap who got pulled over.

This was also true for the Mosaic Laws, it kept their minds focused on sins, and when opportunity to commit sin undetected, sin calls upon them, they cave in.

People tend do what their mind keeps focusing on. If a child is told constantly to not put beans in his ears, and beans are available, it becomes almost certain that sooner or later the child will put beans in his ears. People have a strong penchant to do what they think about. A mind set on negative laws, Thou Shall not do, the very thought stirs up passion to do the opposite, and when opportunity comes, the will to resist simply breaks down.

This is why Paul wrote, The Power of sin is in The [Mosaic} Law. Paul plainly declares that the purpose of the Mosaic Law was to cause sin to increase. It was our tutor until Jesus Christ arrived. Through His grace, God washed away all our sins for all time by the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, our Perfect Paschal Lamb.

Since I was 4 years of age I've had a daily fellowship with God. I rejected memory rote prayers by 7 years old, such as saying the Catholic "Hail Mary" or the rosary. The sole exception was the Our Father given to us By Jesus.: The perfect prayer. I learned from scripture to not multiply my words, but when I do pray, I should pray to the Father, and any request I made to God the Father and I did so in Jesus name. Thus prayer was similar to cashing a check, if the proper name is on not on the check, then the check is worth nothing.

Dear Jesus:

I thought that love was just a word
They sang about in songs I heard
It took your death to reveal
That I was wrong and love is real

Apparently, some here are arguing that we are not saved by God's grace through the Blood of Jesus Christ, and that, a gift from God, which no person can earn. But some on this thread believe that it is the fear of Hell is what leads us to salvation and/or become better Christians.

Who posting here can claim that you have become sinless because of you are terrified of Hell?

And yet you all sin continuously anyway. Have you forgotten this. Take the the beam from your eyes before you demand sinlessness from others who sin.

Our victory has never been our mastery over sin, we are saved by accepting God's free gift of eternal life in His Kingdom to come, through the Finished Work of Jesus Christ, a gift God offers freely to all who accept the atoning blood of Jesus Christ that He shed on the cross, taking upon Himself our sins - past, present, and future.

Can you love a Homosexual. Can you love and forgive those who falsely accuse you, those who whip you, those who would nail you to a cross, could you keep yourselves from cursing or condemning them? Jesus can, and He did.

1 Corinthians 15:55-57

55 O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the POWER OF SIN IS THE LAW; 57 but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (NASB)

This Victory is not our fear of Hell that makes us not sin. It is the Love of GOD for us WHOM through our purification from our sins through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, the perfect Lamb of God whose blood washed away all our sins on the cross, thereby taking away the power of sin had on us, to do wrongs that we wish not to do.

1 JOHN 5-10

5 This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; 7 but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.

Whose work is it that cleanses our sins, God is the one Whom cleanses us from our sins? But there are some on this thread that believe that it is really their fear of Hell that keeps us from sinning.

Be it known, as you measure others, so will you be meaured by your own standards you impose on others. A rock is sinless, but no one loves a rock.

The goal of sinlessness is a chaste after wind. Not any of us will be sinless in this life, get use to it. Are your sins lesser than those of gay people? Do you really think that? Sin is sin, they all miss the mark.

God does ask of us to not practice sin, meaning to not resort to sinning on purpose against our fellow humans for our gain at their loss, or better put, Jesus says we should love others as much as much we love ourselves. That is a good standard, because we all love ourselves very very much. So we should treat others as we ourselves would like to be treated. We should forgive as we wish to be forgiven. And we are very joyous when those we sinned against genuinely forgives us our sins and blesses us.

Jesus said: “Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?"

James 2:13 explaining The NT Law of Liberty:

13 For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.

Who is it capable of healing themselves. "No doctor, I don't need you, I can do this operation myself."

We are cleansed of our faults by the Holy Spirit working in each of us daily, It is God's work in us that cleanses us from all our sins. You can not have it both ways. We walk by faith in God's promises, we believe God. Or, we depend on our meager efforts to save ourselves, thinking we can pull ourselves up by our boostraps.

As for me, I accept the blood of Jesus as washing away all my sins for all time, THE PERFECT PASCHAL LAMB, and with that burden off of me, Through Jesus, I am free to delight myself in God, and bath daily in His love, with a clean conscious, and a deep love for He whom saved me and is actively transforming me daily, to be like Him, to love and forgive those who do me wrong. Love is a much greater motivator to being fruitfull, than fear. Like David, I delight in God and I give no thought for a Hell. For God has reached down His hand through His Son, and He SAVED me.

Whomever who has been freely forgiven much, also forgives and loves much. Praise be to God, my joy is complete. I love Him much, He is my joy and motivator. I am an open book to Him and delight in being continously in His presence, to be seen just as I am.