a little more Love and Grace is all it takes.

"In one of his organization's polls, Barna found that only 22 percent of non-Christians have a positive view of evangelicals."

What can evangelicals/born-again Christians do to change the negative view that non-Christians have about them?

I think as Christians often times we fail in loving people for who they are instead we only love them for who we want them to be.
I think that a major struggle for the church today is judgment. I think that we get too comfortable with what we are use to, or what is right, that we don't accept those who are different.
(Now at the same time I have seen too many churches accepting people to the point where they don't think they need to ever change. This isn't okay either. But I think that we need to better at balancing these two issues. But that is another topic for another time...)
The body of Christ needs to be all about love. I think the only way this generation is going to ever have a positive idea of Christianity and potentially even come to know Jesus it through love. Theology is not the answer most want today especially when it is being shoved down their throat's.
No one likes people looking at them because they dress funny or don't say something right. A person doesn't want to walk into a room and feel out of place like they don't belong.
I think that as a body we do this. We look at people like they are odd or like we are better than them. And although we may be uncomfortable, it still doesn't make it right.
We have been given so much grace, but we fail too often at giving that same grace to others.
So I think as Christians we need to love and show grace more. People don't want to be be judged and they also don't want to have Jesus shoved in their face.

Again, What if...

What would life be like if Adam and Eve had not sinned?

I truly cannot fully fathom the idea of what life would be like had they not sinned. I mean basically we would be living now in a sinless world (given that someone else along the way didn't "take the fruit").

We would be living in a world without pain or sadness or suffering.

So many many things would be different. In this world there is so much corruption. Each day we experience so much that is wrong, unsettling. The injustice that we see, the sin that encompasses our society and world would be

gone.

And we would be living in complete oneness with the Father. We would be walking and talking and living life with the creator of the universe.

It blows my mind to think that God could have been completely content living alone as God. But He created us in order that we would get to experience the greatness of Him. That is love.

We would be living in a world smothered by love not hate

of peace not war

of right not wrong

we would be living in an Eden.

But because Eve took the fruit and Adam allowed her to do so... we are here. An who's to say that someone else wouldn't have done the same.

Now the idea of life being perfect and never knowing sin is something to think about. But this was God's plan.

Because now when we get to heaven we can bow in total reverence and adoration at the one and only who lived life perfectly. We live in humility knowing that we can never be God.

There is no question that life would be different... better. But that wasn't God's plan so clearly what happened was ultimately for the best. And now we have a hope for something we cannot fathom. But someday we will have a taste of what that would have been like. Someday we will be in heaven and that is what is worth thinking about, instead of playing the "what if" game.

Divorce

Should Christians divorce their spouses? Why or why not? What does the Bible say about this?

I think there are very few and specific examples that allow for divorce to be okay. The Bible encourages all Christians to refrain from divorce, because marriage is such a sacred thing. We as Christians are Christ's bride. In the same way we anticipate walking down the isle, the excitement should be so much more in anticipating Christ's return. Marriage is a covenant with God, not contract. This means that just because the state says your divorced, it's not the same in God's eyes.

Matthew 19: 5-9 tells us first what marriage is and then second how God feels about divorce. If your spouse commits adultery more than once and is not willing to stay and work on the marriage there is grace given to the departed spouse. The same goes for a person being beaten or left. I think that almost any other instances than the ones previously mentioned are not grounds for divorce. As Christians divorce shouldn't be an option to make life easier. In Malachi 2:16 God expresses how he hates divorce. The
Bible makes the few circumstances very clear on when divorce is acceptable and forgiven. At the same time I think the bible makes it very clear that divorce is wrong.

Those who are getting married should never consider divorce as an option. Those who are married and struggling should do everything in their power to make it work. And those who have gotten divorced should realize that all sin is the same and they are no different than anyone else and not dwell in remorse.

In conclusion I don't think that Christians should divorce their spouses. However there are times when only one person is committed and the other person has no control. I know that the Bible encourages divorce in absolutely no way. Marriage is so much more than just love, it requires commitment. It is so much more than a legal binding contract. It is a covenant with the Almighty God.