Originakalokalo:


Deep.

True.

Knowledge.

crafteck:


Wrong

Heartbender:
You still don't get. And now that insult is beginning to encroach i'll end my argument like this. You can be morally ok as in the case of the rich man who wanted to follow Jesus, Nicodemus and even one of the foremost disciples during selection stages and still not be righteous. Righteousness is by faith, not works. Saul, the king, lost God's favour because he wanted to please men (works, morality) not God (obedience to His word, faith

Primesky:
Sorry, an atheist and a pegan can not be righteous. Righteousness is a gift of God to man through Christ Jesus. So both a wicked Christian and an atheist are alike. Non of these two can enter heaven. That's the crux of the matter.

jesusjnr:
It's fair enough that we can at least agree on the fact that a Christian can be wicked.

Originakalokalo:


OK.

crafteck:


Christianity, Islam, traditional... All same

Originakalokalo:


OK.

jesusjnr:
Not OK!

crafteck:


I think there is. A pagan can have a loving heart, a Christian might be heartless

Mobilia:


Also...when God sent Jonah to preach at Nineveh (to Jonah's disgust and unwillingness at first), God did so...in order to "save" the people. They were wicked and God in His infinite compassion and mercy, was trying to save them. He wasn't trying to save them so they could continue in their sins...but so they could repent and be changed.
They repented and weren't destroyed.
They changed their wicked ways, so it's safe to deduce that they began serving the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob at that point.
He makes it clear that He's calling ALL people to repentance...and a turning back to Him in order to be saved eternally.
Anyhow, it's called an "oxymoron" to call an atheist/pagan "righteous"...
The very essence of "righteousness" is God...so if they don't believe in Him..then it's impossible for them to attain that characteristic.
Also ...what barometer would non-believers use...since "morality" is based on God's "10" commandments.
No one would know "right" from "wrong" if it hadn't been laid out for us in the beginning of time....
See I get what you are trying to say here, but it's a little jumbled up and can cause confusion.
I hope you are not offended.
The message is that we, Christians, need to live lives acceptable to God because we are called to a higher standard.

jesusjnr:


Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people. Proverbs 14:34KJV

Now do you interpret the "righteousness" implied there which exalts a nation as one which cannot be attained without believing or worshipping God?
For if "righteousness" as implied by that saying was not attainable without believing in God, then Nations e.g. Japan, China, India, Singapore, Greece etc. would have never been as exalted as they are today, but would be reproached. But it would instead be a Nation as Nigeria that would be so exalted and not reproached as it currently is.

Because those mentioned exalted nations are not known to believe in God, but pagan worshippers and also atheists. And then you have a nation as Nigeria that almost everything that we do here, there's is the name of God somewhere, with all the churches and mosques that saturates the land, and yet is suffering much reproach.

Because the saying is not believing in God exalts a nation, or not worshipping Him brings reproach to any people, but righteousness and sin respectively. That's why despite not believing in God, righteousness has exalted those pagan nations, but despite believing in God, sin has been a reproach to Nigeria.

jesusjnr:
So how can you stand right with Jehovah whom you've never seen, without treating your neighbors rightly?

It seems you adamantly want to remain in your deceit.

This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (November 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
Virgil. Fresco from the Cathedral of the Annunciation, Moscow.

Virtuous pagan is a concept in Christian theology that addressed the problem of pagans who were never evangelized and consequently during their lifetime had no opportunity to recognize Christ, but nevertheless led virtuous lives, so that it seemed objectionable to consider them damned. It is thus analogous to that of the "righteous gentile" in Judaism and Hanifs in Islam. A modern Catholic rendering of this is known as "Anonymous Christianity" in the theology of Karl Rahner.

Primesky:
Sorry, an atheist and a pegan can not be righteous. Righteousness is a gift of God to man through Christ Jesus. So both a wicked Christian and an atheist are alike. Non of these two can enter heaven. That's the crux of the matter.

PastorAIO:


The City of Nineveh was the capital city of the Assyrian people. The principal Deity of Nineveh was Ashur. In fact the bible itself tells us that Nineveh was built by Ashur himself.

Ashur left that land, and built Nineveh Genesis 10:11

So bible tells us that they were wicked and Yahwooh was peeved at them. When they repented did they start worshiping Yahwoo? If they did they couldn't have done so for very long because whenever we hear of Assyrian in History there is no mention of their worshiping Yahwooh. They even prospered to the extent of having their own empire and part of their Empire was Israel whom they conquered and took away 10 of the 12 tribes.

crafteck:


Christianity, Islam, traditional... All same

Mobilia:


Who is Yahwooh?
Also I'm not understanding what you are trying to say.

PastorAIO:



Yahwooh is the deity of the Hebrews. They spelt his name YHWH so nobody today knows what the vowels between the letters say. Many have tried to guess. Some say YeHoVaH. Some say YaHWeH etc. There is good and compelling reason to believe that the appropriate vowels are actually YaHWooH.


In the book of Jonah, according to you, the people of Nineveh repented and started worshiping Yahwooh, or whatever you want to call the deity of the Hebrews. The point of my post is that there is no historical record of this.

Right from the time of Genesis in the bible we are told that the Principal deity of Nineveh built Nineveh himself. His name was Ashur. And all the way up until the time that the Assyrians (ie the people of Nineveh) conquered Israel they continued to worship Ashur. There is no historical record of them ever worshiping Yahwooh (or whatever you may prefer to call him). Furthermore there is no record of the Assyrians ever being less wicked that they were reputed to be.
They were the nastiest of all empires. They started the practice of relocating entire populations of conquered peoples to become slaves in their land. The Babylonians were even considered nice in contrast to them. They are the ones that destroyed 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel and scattered them to the winds.

None this tallies with your notion that they repented after hearing from Jonah and started worshiping Yahwooh (or whatever you wish to call him).