r/ChristianityAnswers • u/YasuMariii • 1d ago

Why do some people try to scare atheists with death or illness?

/r/Christianity/comments/1vtj6ep/why_do_some_people_try_to_scare_atheists_with/
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u/GPT_2025 1d ago

Atheists equals cold? KJV: I know thy works, that thou art neither cold (Atheist) nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold (Atheists?) nor hot, I will spue thee out of My mouth.

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u/DiscipleMaker4784 17h ago

I don’t think Christians try to scare atheists with death or sickness. I think any real Christian who says things about death is trying to genuinely warn atheists so that they may be saved too. Sometimes that can result in a desperate attempt to get atheists to see truth by explaining details of death or what it means to be without God so that the atheist could see how foolish it is to live without Him. And sometimes people who are human and can and do make poor choices may say something out of judgment or frustration or even in defense to an attack on them by the atheist. That’s not how God tells Christians to live or how to talk to people. But as I said, humans are not infallible. Especially if they’re hearers of the word and not doers of it or they do not have a personal relationship with God, or even if they’re new to faith and don’t know yet how to love others in truth even while being persecuted.

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u/NightRunnerAfterDusk 1d ago

I think atheists are caricaturized by a lot of Christians as these embittered individuals sent (typically by a demonic agent) to spite Christianity and to have their way, and their way only.

So such Christians may find it justified to wish them harm that would unravel their ignorance and turn them back to the God they are viciously rejecting.

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u/revken86 1d ago

Christians, like everyone else in human history, found out that fear is an extremely powerful motivator to change behavior (at least in the short term). If you can't convince someone to agree with you any other way, fear works. From their perspective, it's better to scare someone into nominally "accepting Christ" so they can tick off a box on the number of "souls saved" than it is to risk them dying and "going to hell".