How about all of the children suffering in the world today...just to name one thing. If he REALLY cared he would do SOMETHING to end the suffering of the innocents. Good question by the way.

Satan

Being harrassed by people asking me if I am saved.

The basic issue for most people I think is just the whole notion that they need to be saved, combined with the presumption that Christians have The Answer. Most people do not accept the notion that they need to be saved, therefore preaching salvation is somewhat ineffective. You first have to convince someone that they're lost before becoming saved has any attraction... and that can present challenges to the evangelist. However, assuming you succeed in either convincing a person that they're lost, or finding someone who considers themselves lost, your next challenge is to demonstrate that you have the solution. One thing to bear in mind is that the Christian gospel isn't really news to very many people -- it's hard to surprise someone by telling them that Jesus died for their sins, or that redemption is available if they accept Jesus into their hearts. Pretty much everybody has heard this many times, and has already formed their own views about what to make of the offer. One thing I observe Christians doing with great regularity which I think is particularly ineffective, is becoming strident, self-righteous, or intensely sincere, and then simply repeating the message everyone has already heard. It's as if turning up the volume will make a difference when the listener doesn't seem to care for the song! This strategy really represents a lack of understanding of the audience, which does not reflect well on the evangelist. In order to communicate your message effectively, you really need to know what you are "speaking into" -- the matrix of preconceptions and existing attitudes which are already there before you even open your mouth about the gospel. That means getting to know the person you're talking to quite well -- making friends first. This seemingly obvious step is brushed over so often, it's completely baffling. It simply does not work to stand up on the street corner and start preaching. You need a relationship with each individual, and you don't have a relationship with the general population flowing by on a busy street! So I think this is really the #1 thing which inhibits the spread of Christianity -- Christians need to build relationships -- one at a time -- with people they want to convert. It's time consuming, and requires listening to and caring about others. But the alternatives really just produce a backlash from the audience, which makes it even harder for the NEXT evangelist who comes along.

If you do not accept Christ it doesn't automatically mean you are lost. Different beliefs doesn't mean WRONG. Some people will claim later if they convert to have found Christ, but I believe that it wasn't so much finding him as it was deciding they accepted his teachings. I'm agnostic. I do not think I am lost. I know exactly where I am and what I am doing.

I think the number one reason people don't get "saved" is the lack of the love of Christ in the lives of the people who claim to follow him. If we as Christians focused more on being Christ-like and less on saving the lost, we would find that people will be drawn to Christ by the love we have for each other and for them. It was through the love Christ had for people that first drew people to him. Loving people is the example he gave us to follow.

because i am not lost and i dont need an imaginary friend to tell me i am saved. i dont need to be saved, i am a good person, i am accepting of others and i help people for a living. does that sound lost?

Ego, pride, self-centered, not willing to place themselves under a higher authority due to the fact that they don't want to give up their immoral life-style. Many are also unwilling to take responsibility for their own actions. Sin in general. It's not so much that they don't believe in God rather it's that they refuse to serve Him so they simply and conveniently say that He doesn't exist. It's neat, tidy and, "supposedly", gets them off the hook.

When Christians use such terms as 'lost people' it makes you appear to be condescending to those persons who are comfortable with their own beliefs. Live and let live.

Surprise! We're not lost. That's a popular myth among the religious wackos. We're right here, in the Real World. We're healthy and rational. We don't chase after invisible ghosts, gods, goblins, and other imaginary spirits, hoping to win their favor. My imaginary brother, Timmy, lives near you in Fantasy Land. You might see him there. Say Hi for me. :-)

A lack of arrow shaped signs showing the way.

I know this is going to sound radical, but I'm not the slightest bit lost. I don't "come to christ" for the same reason I don't "come to the zeus" or kneel before Zod. I simply don't believe in him. The fact that you don't see how condescending your entire "if you don't believe as I do you are lost" routine is makes it so that many not only believe in your Jesus, but gives a very negative view of christians as being mean spirited bullys trying to force jesus down our throats.

Sanity.

The difficulty for most of us in the modern world is that the old-fashioned idea of God has become incredible or implausible. When we look through our telescopes and microscopes, or when we just look at nature, we have a problem. Somehow the idea of God we get from the holy scriptures doesn't seem to fit the world around us, just as you wouldn't ascribe a composition by the Beatles to The Stones. The style of God venerated in the church, mosque, or synagogue seems completely different from the style of the natural universe. It's hard to conceive of the author of one as the author of the other.

Religion.....I'd happily accept christ if I didn't have to deal with his stupid friends, the churches, priests, pontiff, etc.

I think it has to do with people being SO judgemental about theor different faiths. They tell you you are going to hell for just about anything. That you need to be "saved" Well that is between the person and whoever/whatever they believe in. What human being on this Earth has the right to tell another they need to be saved?

You mean other than the fact that he's been dead for over 2,000 years?

People have a hard time believing what they can't see. If there is no physical proof staring at them, then it can't be true. And so many money hungry evangelist have made religion and faith look really bad. And on a final note, I've been called a completely uneducated moron because I have faith. So I don't tell people or admit it to just anyone :)

I think I would be considered lost. For me it's simply that I have yet to hear, see, or feel anything that convinces me there's more to existence. Up to now, & I'm not discounting the possibility that it could change, everything I've experienced seems to confirm my belief that we are simply animals with no purpose. So for me its not that something is keeping me from Christ but that there is nothing drawing me to him.

In most cases, Christianity itself. If you look at the average behavior of Christian people, I'm not talking about the Sundaymorning behavior, but the rest of the week, you will see the reasons. Especially the "good" Christians, hollier than thou types, who consider themself seated at thre right hand of The ONe whom IS seated at the right hand of God. The ones who plan on cheering loudly as people are thrown into the pit of hell. I am a Christian, and I can hardly stand what I see happening in the Christian faith. Judgement, immoralities, selfrighousness. My biggest fault, I have not figured out how it is I am supposed to forgive these self proclaimed "people og God" who judge me based on my God fiven brain tumor, my shabby looks, and my God given altered brain chemistry. Somehow this is all a result of unresolved sin? A congenital(born with it) brain tumor? Yet it is ok for a "good Christian"" to strike down an abortion doctor in the name of God? Murder is murder, sin is sin. Christ died for all. Not just for "the chosen few."

Hypocritical Christians who believe that castigating homosexuality is more important than helping the poor.

Bigots like you whom assume that people are lost because they don't worship a guy who throws people in hell because they are homosexual, or because they don't think the same way they do.

Maybe they don't want to do that?

Short answer, Christ's followers. "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ. " - Mohandas Gandhi

sometimes people dont have any direction and are at a loss so thats why we pray for the lost souls and hope they find their way to Christ

Because we "lost" people, or non-believers, realise that your "believe: OR ELSE!! ZOMG!!1!eleven!" propaganda is a load of bollocks.

Brains. Logic. Occasionally toast (Christ that toast was worth eternal damnation)

You know... i walked on water once... and I impregnate virgins ALLLLL the time... you don't see me making people clean my room and do my chores, threatening them with eternal suffering, but even though I'm throwing you in hell for disobeying me... I STILL LOVE YOU!!

They fell in a well and never came back

I know some people who feel like they don't deserve God's love and everlasting life with Him. It's very hard to explain that God loves every one of us, no matter what we've done. Someone very close to me just accepted Christ this last Christmas, 2008 and I cried so hard knowing that we will see each again after we die. Good question, Points!

Ignorance is bliss.

Jesus saves at Washington Mutual, and look what happened to WaMu! Swallowed up by the money changers at Chase!

Reality

they do not succumb to brain washing they do not agree with your definition of lost their "TOM TOM HEAVANLY EDITION" has not got the latest update

Very loaded question there Trust. Well I was "saved" until I worked out all the lies. My biggest reason for not being a believer in Christ is this: The Christian NT God including Jesus and the Holy Spirit are not the same gods as the OT deities - the Elohim. In particular YVHV. The OT LORD God, who Jesus is suppose to be the incarnate of, drinks wine, eats meat, has sex and loves golden things. The NT God is spirit, love and lots of other warm fuzzy things. Two different animals - not the same. This alone undermines the whole of christian theology and doctrine! There are many other reasons ... would you like to know more? :)

Intelligence, maturity, not being insecure, psychological health. It could be a long list.

God sometimes hardens the hearts of some people temporarily for a purpose. For example, God hardened Pharaoh's heart to show his (ie God's) great power in Egypt in the time of Moses. (Romans 9)Similarly, God has hardened the hearts of most Jews. (John 12)(Romans 9, 10 and 11)(Isaiah 6)(Acts 28)Only a few Jews can accept Jesus as their saviour at this time. However, eventually all Jews will be saved. (Romans 11)This occurs for the vast majority at least a thousand years after christians are resurrected at the return of Jesus to earth.(1 Corinthians 15)(1 Thessalonians 4)(Revelation 20)(Ezekiel 37) Best wishes, Eddie Cairns.

Christ isn't that hot, really.

Its the honest fact that they dont believe. Its not something that you or any other believer should worry about. If some one like me choses not to partake in any religion, than leave it at that, I dont bother you and ask you the specifics as to why you DO believe in you "ALMIGHTY LORD JESUS CHRIST". It gets annoying when a beliver tries to figure out how to change someones view on things. I know I joked around and im sorry, but seriously, its a lost cause.

I'm only addressing the part about non-believers only wanting to do whatever they want without accountability.

Creepy people like you prevent me from "being saved"...

The fact that mythical dead people can't save anyone? Just a thought. +5

For some it's the fear of being made fun of by others...worried about what others might think of them. Not everyone who believes in God is a 'Jesus freak'. While there are some extremists, these type of people exist in every faith and even non-faith based groups. For some, it's being associated with these type of people that keeps them from coming to Christ. There appears to be a fine line sometimes between believer and fanatic and some people only see the latter when they look at religion in general.

I'm not lost; I don't need to be saved; too many Christans are hypocrites; Christianity makes claims about the physical universe without evidence; Christianity makes claims about the universe that are incorrect; condescending questions like this one.