I agree with Ken, the key is asking for forgiveness. I also believe that not everyone needs to be a Christian the world is full of good heathens and pagans that hold different beliefs. Back to the OP, if the question is confined to the original time period when Jesus was on earth I probably would have been skeptical of him and remained faithful to the beliefs of my family. More gray areas in my life than strictly black and white ones I guess.
One of the friends of one of those killed in the limo accident said, "why did God let this happen?" Does something like this accident turn some Believers into Non-Believers, or skeptics, that lost a loved one to something like this?
Yes with some people it actually does turn them away from God...or at least become skeptical about Him. A lot of people believe that if God loves us He will never let anything bad happen to us...but no where in the Bible does it say that. What it does say is that He will never leave or forsake us and that we will have troubles in this world. The one to blame is not God...but satan. And sometimes what happens is just a consequence of poor choices by either us or someone else.
Your question sounds very much like bait to me. If you were a Christian or a person looking for some form of Christian redemption you would ask God. If you were a heathen or a pagan I doubt that asking a Christian God for anything would ever cross your mind. I guess I have enough faith in my beliefs to be comfortable with letting others have their beliefs. In my mind, a heathen or a pagan is just a person on a different path to the same place. If that's wrong then I'm wrong.
I'm not a baiter @Beatrice Taylor. I am very open and honest about what I believe and even sharing my beliefs...but I also try very hard not to force my beliefs on anyone. As a Christian I consider it a privilege to share with others about God and Jesus but that's all Jesus has asked me to do...share the truth and let others make up their own mind. There is no baiting here...just honesty. I have my faith beliefs but I also believe everyone has the right to their faith beliefs too.
My mother had a stroke while I was away at Boy Scout camp and died not long afterward. Only months before, I had asked Christ to come into my heart, which is not strictly biblical, but that was the way I understood it at the time. Of course, there was more to it than that. Growing up in a Christian home, I had never seriously doubted the existence of God, but this was the time when He became real to me, along with the need for repentance and faith. I hadn't been baptized because I was raised in a church where children were baptized as infants, and I didn't come to realize (or accept, since not all Christians believe it) that I needed to be baptized as a Christian until I was in my early 20s. Anyhow, my point is that I was a new Christian. Learning that my mother was hospitalized and that her condition was serious, of course, I prayed that she would be healed. As a new, but faithful, Christian, I believed that she would be healed. That didn't happen. She died a couple of days later, and I was mad at God for a long time, which gave me an excuse to do a lot of the things that I did in high school. You're right. God does not promise that bad things will never happen to good people. When you consider that those who were closest to Christ suffered greatly for their obedience, and killed in horrible ways, that should become clear. God isn't overly concerned with how good of a life we live here on earth because His focus is on eternity. It's hard for us to understand that sometimes, particularly when the person suffering is ourselves or people close to us.
@Cody Fousnaugh Beyond a doubt! Two personal instances in my experience, my ex-wife, Catholic, losing both parents in a murder-suicide, soon foreswore her belief. Rigorously religious friends of the family denounced her for asking the caskets be kept shut; she couldn't bear at 20 to look at her dead parents. The living were seeking to view the "damages". Disgusting. Frank
In answer to your question...No...I wouldn't believe it if some guy turned up out of the clear blue , and said he was the son of God!! I'd think like most people, that he was a NUT!!
Problem is, Babs, there are a certain amount of people who think "sharing" is "forcing". Wife and I don't think that way, but there are those that do.
I'm not going to quit sharing just because some people think even mentioning God's name is "forcing" Him on them Cody. And on the Faith part of the Forum I am free to share my beliefs just like everyone else is.