brother Willi
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Plural Religions = Peace?
it would be wrong to think ALL here.
it is true, many faiths main point is to live in peace with each other.
that IS the message Jesus brought us.
but beware to test the spirits.
No Longer A Christian
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it would be wrong to think ALL here.
it is true, many faiths main point is to live in peace with each other.
that IS the message Jesus brought us.
but beware to test the spirits.
brother Willi
New member
are there beliefs that do not belong to God?
remember that silly song
one of these things is not like the other
brother Willi
New member
umm, satanism?
is that not like the other?
Poly
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You wouldn't be "punishing God" for your bad marriage by leaving Christianity would you? I only ask this because I have a brother who was recently divorced. His wife had an affair and you can tell that every fiber in my brother's being is blaming God for letting this happen. He's also mad at his former church for not addressing the situation with her (I can't blame him for this) and wants nothing more to do with church, God and all the rest. He just goes out of his way, in everything he says to make sure that everybody knows that he's mad at God for "letting it happen." His attitude is "I'll show you God! I'm not going to church, I'm not going to give you any glory and I'm going to do whatever I want, making sure that it will be something you wouldn't want me to do because I don't care anymore."
Well, for one thing, I feel more like I'm the guy who got "punished," if "punishment" is in fact going on. I don't think that's my attitude, though I can relate to your brother's situation (very much so, in fact). My church did not address the problem--the offending party was an elder's son, ha-ha, real cute--but I stayed there, after the incident, for another year. (This happened last May.)
Am I angry about this? Sure. Only woman I ever wanted, only woman I ever dated, for that matter. (Yep. I live a sheltered life.
) Prayed for her, she got saved, we got hitched. And then, wham. Gee. Thanks.This didn't help...but more importantly, I was already starting to investige the twisted history of the church, the canon, how much Christianity borrowed from and was influenced by the religions and cults around it. So, with my mind already opened to what "dangerous" books were out there, what happened next was pretty much a good, solid push.
Anyway...that's my story and I'm stickin' to it.
Poly
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You give this definite answer yet I don't think you're so definite when you follow it with...
At the risk of sounding geeky and getting too "mental" on you, I wonder if you need to get real with what really makes you want to turn your back on Christianity especially when you look at the timing. Do you think that God punishes people in this life for mistakes they make? I'm not talking eternal punishment for not accepting him but for everyday mistakes, either big or small.
As a former theonomist, I used to believe that what we do has definite "cause and effect" consequences in this life. Not so sure now.
There's a few different ways of looking at what happened:
1) he's there, but he's silent
2) he's there, but he's vindictive
3) he's there and this will eventually make sense...
4) ...despite everything I know about the church's history, the cut-and-paste resulting in the Bible we have today, the lack of archeological evidence for most of the Old Testament, and a church created in no small part by a Roman emperor who murdered his own family
5) I'm missing something
6) none of the above
7) which would mean I'm at a complete loss
:help: :help: :help: :help: :help: :help: :help:
Poly
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What do you think of this option?
He's there and has absolutely nothing to do with bringing about the bad things that happen to people and that bad things happen because of our (or other's) dumb and stupid decisions.
BChristianK
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"Yet for all the conglomeration of manuscripts we have a miraculously coherent work of literature."
I take issue with this. We wouldn't talk about discrepancies, contradictions, and absolutely bizarre passages if the Bible was miraculously coherent.
"I think you need to open up your library research on the archeological evidence that does and does not exist on the OT. If you seek out authors that tell you that the OT has no archeological support, your bound to find them, my guess is you passed up books that say the opposite in your search to discredit the archeological evidence."
I've read both sides. Let me put it this way: when all of we know about Persia reveals not a bit about a queen named Esther, when Israel allegedly had 800,000 men who drew the sword when Imperial Rome at its peak never had this many, and when everything we know indicates what the Bible tells us about David and Solomon is probably embellished (if it happened at all), what is one to say or do? I don't want to sidetrack this thread, necessarily, but these are the issues I'm chewing on. Too often I think Christians just nod their heads and take what they read and hear at face value. It's in the Bible; must be true. Well, maybe not. The "maybe" factor constitutes crossing a line that a lot of Christians (even if they doubt) are not willing to approach.
"I’m sorry to hear about your divorce. It sounds like your church has handled the whole situation corruptly and, if I were you, I’d run as far as I could from that church as well."
Trust me, I got out of Dodge without a look back.
I take issue with this. We wouldn't talk about discrepancies, contradictions, and absolutely bizarre passages if the Bible was miraculously coherent.
"I think you need to open up your library research on the archeological evidence that does and does not exist on the OT. If you seek out authors that tell you that the OT has no archeological support, your bound to find them, my guess is you passed up books that say the opposite in your search to discredit the archeological evidence."
I've read both sides. Let me put it this way: when all of we know about Persia reveals not a bit about a queen named Esther, when Israel allegedly had 800,000 men who drew the sword when Imperial Rome at its peak never had this many, and when everything we know indicates what the Bible tells us about David and Solomon is probably embellished (if it happened at all), what is one to say or do? I don't want to sidetrack this thread, necessarily, but these are the issues I'm chewing on. Too often I think Christians just nod their heads and take what they read and hear at face value. It's in the Bible; must be true. Well, maybe not. The "maybe" factor constitutes crossing a line that a lot of Christians (even if they doubt) are not willing to approach.
"I’m sorry to hear about your divorce. It sounds like your church has handled the whole situation corruptly and, if I were you, I’d run as far as I could from that church as well."
Trust me, I got out of Dodge without a look back.
PureX
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This is the tragedy of grown adults holding onto this 'daddy-God / baby-me' conception of the divine that so many churches are promoting these days. They turn their members into intellectual and emotional todlers so that they don't have to deal with any of the real complex and difficult questions. But then when their members ARE confronted by these difficult and complex problems, they don't have the intellectual or emotional maturity they need to draw on to deal with these problems. And then the church just abandons them by blaming them for their "lack of faith". It really is tragic, because people like your brother end up being abanoned by their church at exactly the times that they would need them most.
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