Please Explain

This is a serious and sincere attempt to understand Christianity's biggest faith beliefe.

Why is it, just because a book says it is from God, it has to be? I understand it all has to do with faith, but does that literally make any since? Couldn't be a big attempt to control the masses? If someone, a long time ago, wanted to bring all people together, all they'd have to do was say, believe this and be with us, or you will burn.

Please don't take this as offence, I really want to know.

 

Don't bother with logic and reason. God has given Christians immunity from it.

 

Hmmm...that was kind...

Whatever.

 

That is a question only you can answer for yourself. Honestly, how would someone else's interpretation of this influence your opinion? I'm sure you'll get many many opinions from people in here, especially those who do not question the book. At the end of the day, the only preaching that matters, is that which you faithfully preach to yourself.

 

I understand what you're saying completely and thank you, but, I wanted the opinion of a believe in the Holy Bible.

Thank you again for your response.

 

i understand what you're asking, nathan, and i agree. they call it faith, and i call it completely illogical.

 

these are weak, fearful people with no hope of understanding the true meaning of christianity. the fact they worship a cross violates one of their 10 commandments....thou shall not worship false idols. If they really understood their religion they would have respect for all of nature and stop worshipping an imbalanced cross.

 

Nathan, there are a number of reasons here are a few:

1. Internal evidences which strengthen the integrity of the writers
2. External evidences which strengthen the validity of the Bible
3. Textual criticism which says the Bible is more reliable textually than any other ancient text
4. Fulfilled prophecy
5. The Resurrection of Christ which is demonstratively true through critical analysis
6. Personal experiences

 

1. Such as?
2. Such as?
3. Let me guess...the "textual critic" in question moonlights as a Christian fundamentalist. The Bible is grossly inaccurate in many places.
4. Such as?
5. I'd like to see some evidence of this one.
6. I can have a "personal experience" of monkeys flying up my ass. That wouldn't make it true, and it wouldn't make me any less delusional.

 

Christians are actually quite strong. Giving into temptation is weak. Abstaining from it is hard. No true Christian will ever tell you that being one is easy. We don't worship a cross. We acknowledge that fact that Jesus died on the cross, but we do not worship it. True Christians have respect for nature because the Lord created nature. As we have stated in the past, the Bible was not just written by men. It was written through the influence of the holy spirit.

 

but i think the question is, why are you abstaining from these temptations? i could also abstain from the temptation of... say, eating breakfast on thursdays. it would suck, i would be damn hungry on thursdays. you could say i was being quite strong in not giving into temptation. it wouldn't be easy. etc etc.

the point is, it's not logical. show us the logic.

 

Let's say you had a valid reason for not eating breakfast on thursday morning. Lets say you are scheduled for surgery. Well, eating before surgery is not a good thing at all. Can make for a very big mess, can be unhealthy, so many reasons why you wouldn't do it on top of the fact that your doctor told you not too. Now, the same implies for a lot of other tempations. Obviously these temptations that we try to avoid are not good for us spiritualy, emotionaly, and sometimes physicaly. So, to a Christain that is trying to live his life according to the Will of God, it is important for us to arm ourselves with His Word, ask for guidence, and fight off these temptations.

As to Nathans original question. You can listen to what others tell you or you could make up your own mind. Nothing I will say in the end will make up your mind for you. For every posative thing I have to say about my faith, some predicted lost soul out there will attempt to point out something negative. Take for instance this abbadabba character. The Bible tells us people like him will always be there to ridicule and question us. If that isn't good enough proof then I don't know what is. He will likely come back with some sort of comment stating that what I said was dumb, illogical, or didn't make sence. In the end, I know what I believe is right, he knows what he believes is right and God knows what will happen in the end. Pick up The Bible and read it for yourself. Don't read it with a condecending attitude, read it with a willingness to learn, and see what you come up with in the end.

 

Christians don't worship the cross they worship God...sometimes they focus on a cross because its a visual sign of jesus....

roly.xxx

 

For me...i do it coz God has told us how he would like us to live (coz of free will alot of people don't) and its kinda like a thank you and mark of respect to him. I want to honour him in all i do...therfore i live in a way pleasing to my saviour.

roly.xxx

 

religions arent systems or methods of "knowing"

they're sets of beliefs. and sets are finite.

you believe in them or not. You can not know whether theres God or Jesus or Muhammed or whatever. IF it makes u feel right, then pick one and believe in them.
Religions MAY BE useful when they dont cause wars and prevent crime to some extend.

 

Yes, but religion itself doesn't cause war. People do. War is driven by greed and selfishness. People feel the need to control others, and they want what they can't have. True, there have been many religious wars. But if you look at them closely, they were all due to someone deciding that the way they worshipped was more superior than the way others worshipped and felt the need to control it.

 

But most of the people that caused the wars did it under the influence of religion. Their excuse is that it was God's will. Kind of the same reason why people claim the bible is the true word of god, even though written by men. But this case is different, because they were inspired by god to write it[sarcasm +10]. Holy wars were started by people inspired by god, too. So, what's the difference? I'm sorry, but christianity (IMO) is just a mass control system. They use scare tactics to make people submit. You're right, people cause the wars because they're greedy, however they've hidden behind the protective shield of their religion that they created and made the rules.

I'm not saying the message is bad, but you don't need a fictional book from thousands of years ago to know how to live a decent life.

 

Nathan11,

Thy God understands you - to a point. In this day and age, it is hardeth to believe all. Thy can have question, spend time introspecting thy self - but please, just put money in the hat on Sundays. That I really appreciate. You how much it costs to heat the place up here? Last year only, I had to sell Jesus' cross on ebay.

 

That is what they claim. However, the Bible already prohecised that this will take place. Many false prophets will spread a message and people will fall prey to it. They influence others and get them to believe that they are spreading God's message, but in reality, they are only spreading lies. God simply says, "Thou shalt not kill". Killing in the name of religion proves nothing other than breaking a commandment.

Honestly, most churches don't preach that way. Yes, they talk about hell. They speak extensively about the price of not choosing Christ. However, they don't use this as a means to make people submit to him. The message is based on God's love, not his wrath. When they feel the power of Christ, they submit. It has nothing to do their pastor telling them that they will go to hell.

 

check out this site if you wanna see a REALISTIC approach of christianity. www.christiantribes.org most christians i have met are stereotyping, greedy, holier than thou people. the word christian means christ-like.


~shine on in love and light~
Sundance