Christian Conversion

Christian Conversion

Why should someone convert?

Christianity is the largest religion on Earth, but why is that? Is it because it is the most true? Has the most answers? Brings about the most peace and prosperity?

No.

It’s because it’s the most aggressive at converting others, by force if necessary. It has a long history of violence even amongst different sects of the same religion, even going as far as executing those deemed “heretics”.

But even today we still see missionaries who try to convert those who either practice a different religion or are not religious at all, these days thankfully they usually aren’t standing at the business end of a sword while being told to convert.

So what are some common talking points that missionaries use on those they attempt to convert?

First off they usually bring up the “love of God”, that their God loves every individual human unconditionally. Most Christians will accept this as fact, yet if we look to the Bible we see that the “unconditionally” part is a bit of a lie, since if you don’t love him he’ll send you to a place of endless conscious torment.

Second, they’ll usually bring up the life and teachings of Jesus. What message he brought, how he died for your sins, and how he miraculously resurrected and ascended to heaven. The thing is he died to pay for the sin debt that God created for us and then was resurrected not having to endure the eternity of torment that would be awaiting all of us, by God’s design. Then lastly Christians, likely these same missionaries as well, don’t actually live by the very communistic type lifestyle that Jesus did. Telling people to sell everything they own and give to the poor, provide for your neighbor like they were yourself, give to the poor without letting anyone know what you’ve done…etc. So most of us just see the hypocrisy in these people trying to convert anyone to their faith.

Sure this is a failure of men versus the religion itself, but if essentially almost every Christian acts in this manner… How’s the saying go?

“Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.” (Matthew 7:17–18)

Thirdly missionaries will really try to drive home the idea of you needing salvation and forgiveness, and that Jesus is the only route you can go for this forgiveness. This plays into the fear aspect of the religion, which many fall for and convert. The thing is, this concept of sin isn’t universal, so the salvation they claim you need really only applies if you buy into the sin concept as well.

Fourth they’ll tell you that the Bible is “God’s Word”. They’ll push that while God didn’t write the book himself he inspired people to write it, some even claiming that the Bible is the “Living Word of God”. This particular point has so many issues considering there are literally hundreds of translations of the Bible, and the book is riddled with errors and contradictions as I’ve detailed in dozens of articles.

Fifth they like to point out that converting to Christianity will transform your life, they’ll point out how various people were so evil before they converted. Having attended church for decades I found that many people in the church essentially were just evil people on a leash. There’s the saying, “If the fear of Hell is the only thing making you a good person, then you’re not a good person.” I’ve honestly met so many more genuinely good people who were atheists, and even drug addicts and alcoholics. People who showed you who they truly were from the start, often broken in aspects of their life, but genuine nonetheless.

Sixth they like to point out the fellowship and community that you get by sharing time with other believers. This of course exists without subscribing to some spiritual doctrine. One could also of course argue that this exists, to an even stronger degree amongst random cults, but that doesn’t mean you should sign up for those either, although they do use it as a recruiting method as well.

The last point they usually bring up is eternal life through Jesus, an eternity in a blissful paradise of heaven. This of course plays on the anxiety some have about an afterlife, but isn’t really different from what other religions also promise. Nirvana, or reaching moksha and joining with Brahman, Jannah, Olam-Ha-Ba, reaching Mukti, etc. It’s not unique to this religion, and many of these other religions also don’t have a god that will damn you to an eternity in Hell.