How Much Of A Christian Are You?
Are all Christian churches even Christian?
Are some churches only cults?
What commandments should a Christian obey?
Does it really make any difference which church a dedicated Christian belongs to?
Why do some Christians even go to church? Was attending religious services ever a commandment?
Does the size, beauty, or opulence of a church building make any difference to a Christian?
Does it really make a difference whether Christians observe their Sabbath on a Saturday or on a Sunday?
Are kitchens, stages, even gymnasiums, important parts of Christian church buildings?
Is the Old Testament and New Testament Bible the only place to find Christian "scriptures"?
Must Christians believe that Lucifer and those cast down to the Earth are really here?
Modern terrorists seek to stir up enmity between today's religions. Why is it that for centuries Christians have even fought among themselves?
Without unity, is Christianity really a world religion, or just a collection of different religions?
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© 2017 Demas w. Jasper All rights reserved.
Comments
AUTHORDear Jay,
Doctrinal points, but they are not answers to the questions this Hub has asked. D.
A "Christian" follows the teachings of Christ.
Love one another.
Love your enemy.
Condemn not, for if you do you will be condemned in like measure. Condemnation makes sin.
Forgive to be forgiven. Forgiveness removes sin, Not sacrifice.
God is in you, never separate from you.
Do to others as you want them to do to you.
- AUTHOR
All good points, Ann. Thinking about our religions and faith, and how we apply what we learn, all are good activities for any day of the week.
This is an interesting way to present your argument and you pose great questions.
I regard myself as a Christian. I used to go to church with my father but now only go to Christenings, marriages and funerals, with the occasional Christmas Midnight Mass. I'm appalled at how some Christians are so caught up in their own self-righteousness that they forget the whole point and basis of Christianity and don't seem to see it happening to themselves.
Religion has been the cause of many wars, or rather those who fight in its name. That puts many others off any religion.
Your point about the buildings interested me; many of the churches in Mediaeval Britain were built by the poor, workers who had no health and safety and were building for God, the higher the better as they were therefore closer to God. I am in awe of those people and for ever grateful that they made such beauty in stone.
These days, I believe a church is still a tribute to whatever God it represents and therefore should be as wonderful as possible. Having said that, those who use it should be even more wonderful or there's no point.
Thanks for making me think.
Ann
I agree, we need a different perception of God than depicted in the Bible. My God is Good and always Good. My God did not kill or torture anyone ever. Anyone who believes in human sacrifice in any form or a for God who kills, suffers from a mental illness (sadism?).
It is time we renounce the depictions of God, especially in the Old Testament as Blasphemy.
Was "The Lord" in the OT really God or was he a person misidentified as God?
- AUTHOR
The children on my street had a shallow understanding of me, until my own children told them what I was really like. In the same vein, a minister once asked me how the same God of the Old Testament could be so much different from the Heavenly Father described in the New Testament, and I used that example as my understanding of the different perception of God.
Sacrifice removes sin?
Isaiah 53:4-6
Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted.
Matt 20:28
Just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.
Matt 26:28
For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
John 1:29
The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
John 10:10
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
* So Human sacrifice is OK? How is Sin transferred? Why do we have the sin of Adam? What is original sin?
See also
Psalms 82-6-7
I say, “You are gods, children of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless, you shall die like mortals, and fall like any prince.”
* So, are we gods?
* Why is God so Violent? See:
EX 12:29 The Lord kills all the first-born in the land of Egypt.
EX 17:13 With the Lord's approval, Joshua mows down Amalek and his people.
EX 21:20-21 With the Lord's approval, a slave may be beaten to death with no punishment for the perpetrator as long as the slave doesn't die too quickly.
EX 32:27 "Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.
EX 32:27-29 With the Lord's approval, the Israelites slay 3000 men.
LE 26:7-8 The Lord promises the Israelites that, if they are obedient, their enemies will "fall before your sword."
NU 16:35 A fire from the Lord consumes 250 men.
NU 16:49 A plague from the Lord kills 14,700 people.
NU 21:3 The Israelites utterly destroy the Canaanites.
LE 26:22 "I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children."
LE 26:29, DT 28:53, JE 19:9, EZ 5:8-10 As a punishment, the Lord will cause people to eat the flesh of their own sons and daughters and fathers and friends.
LE 27:29 Human sacrifice is condoned. (Note: An example is given in JG 11:30-39)
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Interesting and thought provoking questions, Demas. Of course, the Bible has the answer to all of the above - a good place to start.
- AUTHOR
I base my Christian faith in part on scriptures, so I will mention a few I find key to seeking to understand Christ's Atonement on the cross (for the sake of time I will list only the references, which if you are seriously asking, you can easily find): Isaiah 53:4-6, Matthew 20:28, Matthew 26:28, John 1:29, and John 10:10.
That is the question, how does that work?
- AUTHOR
Nice dialog here, but what then do you make of Christ's Atonement?
sin offering? sacrifice? I do not understand.
Sacrifice does not remove sin and never has.
Forgiveness removes sin.
Renounce all animal and human sacrifice.
- AUTHOR
The High Priest gave his approval to the two sheep that represented the sin offering for the people and one was cast out symbolic of the sacrifice of Jesus "...that a nation should not perish." Jesus accepted his part of God's plan for man's redemption from sin. We can accept it, or refuse it as done on our behalf.
This article asks many important questions. I have my answers, what are yours?
I have another question for you, Did God actually tell Jesus to be crucified? If yes, why? If no, why did Jesus meet the guards and allow it?
- AUTHOR
Erice, I started to write an essay, but the essay evolved to this series of questions that, while they do not discuss the specifics of differences between Christian faiths, does raise questions worth some pondering.
Islam is divided into separate faiths (Shia/Sunni). Buddhism is divided into separate followings of a "higher path" and a "lower path". Catholicism has its Roman Catholics and Greek Orthodox, and the list of separations goes on and on.
I am persuaded that Lucifer is real and busy, very busy dividing any of God's faithful, that they might also be as miserable.
Individual doubts can lead to individual failings and losses of faith.
Christians who have given up study, prayer, service, and sacrifice would appear to be on Lucifer's slippery slope. Call them back with your sermons. One day one or more will thank you for doing so.
Very interesting. Great notions to consider. I would venture that I now know more Christians that do not attend church than do. But I have not really noticed a change in behavior as a general rule.
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