Posted on 12/15/2011 9:12:53 PM PST by Arthurio
R.I.P. Christopher Hitchens
December 15, 2011 11:51 P.M. By Daniel Foster Vanity Fair reports that Christopher Hitchens has passed away. Often frustrating, usually provocative, always brilliant. He added to the culture, and the conversation.
I’m sure I join many in hoping he is in for a glorious, glorious surprise.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
Without faith it is impossible to please God.
I am pleased to see that several FReepers chastised you in real time for this despicable comment.
That’s what I’ll remember him for. Telling the absolute brutal truth about the then president of the United States better than anyone else at the time.
The real problem with this comment and all of the self ordained judges of the disposition of souls is that you yourself are not competent to judge. Stating it as opinion is on the level of asserting that the moon is composed of cheese.
For more on the spiritual danger - Google search and read up on "prelest."
It's a good question. I think of the scathing rebukes our Lord saved for the smug and self righteous ones of His time - the ones who thought they had it ALL figured out.
I also think of the parable of the sheep and the goats - many surprise on that day, as our Lord tells us.
He is the one who actually testified that the clintonistas had planned to cast monica lewinsky as a crazy bimbo who came on to bj along with other so-called crazy groupies. He did it because he believed it was horrible and dishonest. He did it even though it cost him a friendship. He did it under oath. He did it even though he was ostracized and crucified by the lsm. He did it. When NO ONE ELSE WOULD...when all the so-called good Christians and Jews up there on Capitol Hill and in the clinton administration defended clinton and protected him and lied for him.
WHO in this board has done anything even remotely comparable?
How dare any human judge what G-d thinks or why.
“On balance, I believe Hitch will be well treated because no matter what one can say about his lack of religiousity, he understood gross evil emblematic of Islamofacism, and spoke out.”
It is not the recognition of evil (in whatever form) that gets you into Heaven. It’s the realization/acceptance of that alone which is Good (Christ). Without a personal relationship with the living God, through the Lord Jesus Christ, one cannot enter into the kingdom of God, indeed, one cannot even see the kingdom of God (see John: 3).
Boy, you’re a cheerful earful on FR. You remind me of Preacher in Night of the Hunter.
Christopher: rest in peace.
It was Christopher Hitchens (as well as the blue dress) that saved Monica Lewinsky. After Sidney Blumenthal told him that he was going to smear her, Christopher revealed it to the press. He then worked hard to get rid of the Clinton presidency.
For that alone, he deserves a seat in Heaven. And all those holy rollers condemning him to hell should be ashamed of themselves.
Be grateful. Heaven is full of sinners.
You two don’t have a CLUE who is there and who is not. Get over your pride and admit it.
RIP, Mr. Hitchens.
If, at the end, he continued to reject Christ as his Lord & Saviour, he will go to hell.
His choice & decision - no one else’s.
Neither do you have a clue where souls are. You are not that bright. And you did NOT get an advance copy of the Book of Life. You are clueless. Get over yourself.
RIP Mr. Hitchens.
Ye young debaters over the doctrine
Of the soul's immortality
I who lie here was the village atheist,
Talkative, contentious, versed in the arguments
Of the infidels.
But through a long sickness
Coughing myself to death
I read the Upanishads and the poetry of Jesus.
And they lighted a torch of hope and intuition
And desire which the Shadow,
Leading me swiftly through the caverns of darkness,
Could not extinguish.
Listen to me, ye who live in the senses
And think through the senses only:
Immortality is not a gift,
Immortality is an achievement;
And only those who strive mightily
Shall possess it.
Thanks for your wonderful words, Mesta. I’m shocked that so many people do not remember their history. Freepers at the time of the Lewinsky scandal LOVED Hitchens and took him to their hearts. Now some of them are praying he rots in hell. I’m disgusted with some of them.
You have no idea what he did “at the end.” Personally, I don’t care one way or the other. He was a brilliant writer and a fighter for many good causes (as well as ones I disagreed with).
His last column in VF was about how he no longer believed the aphorism “that which doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.” If he backed off that one, he may very well have backed off his views on God and eternity.
But as I said, I don’t care one way or the other. RIP, Christopher.
Lighten up, Francis!
Of course I don’t know what he did at the end of his earthly life, Captain Obvious.
My post simply clarified your post that the good he did should get him into Heaven.
Clearly you lack the intellect to comprehend God’s Word that ONLY believing Christ as your Lord and Savior will allow you to enter Heaven.
Good deeds but rejecting Christ will ensure one’s eternity in hell.
That’s God’s rule - not mine.
The Bible is so full of very clear statements that Christ is the only way to God and that even Christ Himself posited this as truth, that your comments are, at best, disingenuous, for someone who proclaims to have read the New Testament over and over again.
“I am the way, the truth and the Life, no man cometh to the Father except by Me,” seems like a pretty clear indication of what Christ believed was the way to Heaven. Apprehension of this truth is not something gained by intellectual pursuit, but by a transformative Spirit-generated faith that “sees” God’s truth in His Word. Jesus calls it being “born again” (John chap. 3), and except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Jesus said the consequence of not having that Spirit-generated transformative faith in Him is to remain in your sins, where, ultimately, the person experiences sin’s consequence: death. “I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.”
The very simple, but life-changing truth is this: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved,” (from Acts chapter 16). This is pretty specific, don’t you think? All that are His know this, believe this, acknowledge this, profess this. It is the message of joy this holiday season...that one can be born again by receiving Him whose goings forth were foretold from of old.
Many have read these truths over and over again and have missed their import. Grasping the scriptures on an intellectual level is great. I’m sure Mr. Hitchens was quite good at this. But being, instead, grasped by the scriptures and their spiritual truth is another matter entirely. Jesus, when He was talking about His imminent death on the cross to His disciples said, “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you.” God gives His Spirit so that people can have the scriptures illuminated and made clear. Mr. Hitchens, you, I or anyone else cannot manufacture the kind of illumination (saving faith) that does this. It is God’s spirit which illuminates, which “gives life...the flesh profits nothing,” and His spirit comes to those who are seeking Him.
Interesting article, thanks for linking.
I won’t lighten up. I only met Christopher Hitchens once and he made an excellent impression on me. Having read him since the 1970s, I feel I have come to know him. His final VF article saddened me. He was a fine writer and a fellow American. I noticed in the Guardian obit photo, he is wearing his Remembrance Day poppy - so he was patriotic, too.
What a sad and cynical outlook you have on life and death.
Rip, Christopher.
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