The Religion Forums Unable to Discuss Topics Without Arguing

    I have gone to the Forums which try to discuss the religious and spiritual belief systems of various people, but it seems that everyone is just a bit touchy and seem almost scared that someone is going to try to change the way they believe.  I never can figure out what any body's opinion is, because of all the contention and friction that goes on before any real discussion can be even started.  Let me just say that I respect everyone right to believe what they wish, but I am also interested in feedback on my beliefs, for I have gone to probably  no less than 20 or more churches looking for answers.  I do believe that I found some answers too but not where you might think.

     After my parents dragged me around from one church to the next, I had a rough time sorting through what everyone had to say, for they seemed to put their thoughts out there, but then would also  tell everyone that this is the only true church.  This was terribly confusing, and disturbed me for finding the true church out of all of them, and then being told that if you didn't  you would be punished eternally.  wow--

     So I decided to go to the source of where they were all getting their information, and thought I would read and interpret what was said for myself.  Here are a few things that I came up with right off the bat.

     Jesus, the man who walked on the earth, said that we his followers should live our lives as He lived his, that we should do as he did.  So I started reading in the New Testament, in the books of Matthew Mark Luke and John, which is the same story, but told by four different men who were his disciples and followed him preaching his word.  In reading these four books, I learned one thing, and that was that Jesus did not go to church at all himself.  He was a church where ever he went.  The only two times that I could find that He went to the church, it was with a whip to chase out the money changers.

     So, if I am to live my life, fashioned after His, we would not go to church at all but be a living church, a living testimony.  Jesus also talked about the last days, and things that we need to watch out for, and one of those things was what he called the anti christ.  Men who preached the word of God, who professed to be men of God but were deceivers, wolves in sheep's clothing He said.  So here now we have all these different denominations all claiming to be the right church, the only true church, and putting all the rest of the churches in hell.

     If we are to take the words of Jesus literally, we then would fashion our lives after His, and by this I mean that we would not belong in a church, we would belong on the streets, and  in the bars, and with the prostitutes, and  on the street corners.  So, who then are all these flashy and righteous preachers who claim to be Holy Sons of God?  My answer to this question is obvious.  They speak of spiritual things, but something is not right.

     I believe that there are those who are the true and faithful  people of God, Jesus said in a parable that this is how you can tell the true and faithful followers from the impostors who are there to confuse and destroy.  Here is what He said:

     By their fruit you shall know them.  If you have a tree, and there is no fruit on it, or if you have an apple tree, and it is producing lemons, it is not what it appears to be,  and so it is with people.  If a man produces good from the work that he does, he is a man of God, if his works produce something bad then they are not of God. 

     I believe that there are true believers that are doing the work of God in every church, and that there is no church that is the right and holy church.  God's true church is within  a man's heart, and no matter what name you call your higher power, it is all the same God..

      Whether or not you believe in God does not change His existence.   I have heard some say that those who have faith in God do so because they are weak of mind.  To the contrary, it takes a strong person to stand up and say that you believe in someone that you cannot prove exists.   The world calls you names, and makes fun of you, so I say it takes strength of spirit to stand up to those who laugh at you.

       I also say to all of you, live and let live.  To actually bend low enough to call someone names because of their faith, tells me that you must feel threatened by them, or you are afraid that they may be  right.  Trying to make them look as if they are idiots does not make you look like you know anything either.  It definitely does not make you look like you are better than anybody else.

     If you cannot agree, or at least debate the subject at hand in a respectful manner, go and make you and those who do not believe like you a place of your own to discuss whatever it is that you need to say. 

     Go in peace, and be happy within your heart.  Allow others to do the same.