My Religion Views?

Post Reply New Topic

I have actually been into church many times on Sundays. In Christianity that is. I usually go with a friend and his family. But as I grow and more cynical I have become, my angelic traits begin to fade. I have some aura about me that compels folks to confide their deepest darkest secrets to me (in spite of knowing me all of maybe 3 hours).

I have heard stories about people being abused, raped, and molested. And one person recently said to me, how can I believe in God? How can God let that happen to me? But you have to claim the Devil as well. I guess he works too. Maybe there is a God but he doesn't dowse his blessings upon the human race like some think he does. Religion was (and still is) used to control civilizations. I don't know why I went to church. Maybe it's to learn? Even if I don't go to church, I am still a good person at heart--even though I have sinned greatly sexually.

I actually stumbled upon a great church. They don't fake the funk. I was dubbed as a "Christ Follower". A person with a great heart, who does humble and great things. They told me church isn't meant for the perfect. People with problems are welcomed. It is actually preferred. But talking about science in a Christian atmosphere is like walking on tacks. It's like science and religion cannot coexist. Why not?

I went to a Bible study also. The Bible is cool. But I don't like how it tries to control how you think. As an ASD native, and person in general, I hate when people try to control how I think. I have a mind of my own. I cannot control thoughts that get in my head; no matter how sinister. If I see a woman walk by (even if I'm married) and she looks sexy, I'll lust in my head and keep it to myself. I am a human being. A man. I can't help it. And I'm pretty sure other men/women feel the same.

I can honestly say that my "faith" in God is constantly dwindling as life hits me harder. I am a cool person--never done no evil to no one. But yet God (I guess) I am on the verge of life-altering events in a negative way. My mom told me God works differently. I guess I have done something to drastically piss him off to deserve this.

There is a fine line between naivety and blind optimism. God will make it work. They say. God will bless you inevitably. They say. But yet as the days go by there are people looking for prayers to be answered. They never come.

Is there a Heaven and Hell? Nobody living knows. But all I can ask is for God (if there is one) to look into what's in my heart. But it is what it is.

They clearly emphasize on having a relationship with God/Jesus. If you don't have the relationship, then you are lost. You basically destined for Hell. But what about those born into regions of the world where they grew up with no knowledge of Christianity? Whatsoever? Never even met a missionary. Are they deemed for Hell too?

Life is strange.

I read somewhat that hell was invented by the Egyptians and they named it's devil "set."

My first time hearing that. In Egypt you are judged by Ma'at. On the scale weighs your good deeds vs bad deeds. If the bad outweighs the good then you're thrown into the dark pits of the crocodiles. If its good, then I guess you get to live among the kings and queens before you.

I don't think religion will ever be truly unmasked. Because back in Ancient times, a guy could've shouted once he was angry and a thunderstorm started to brew. If a crowd witnessed that, he was labeled some sort of god and given some sort of power. There were primitive minds back then.

I don't think it makes sense for anyone to have "invented" Hell. Isn't it basic human instinct to suspect or hope or wish on some level that people will eventually get what they deserve, for better or for worse? The concept of it happening after death is at the least a logical conclusion based on lots of people not getting their just desserts during their lifetimes.

How is it a logical conclusion?

Just because you want your idea of justice to be served doesn't mean it should logically happen.

Hell means hole in the ground, the same meaning as Hades or Sheol, the grave, dust you are, and dust you will return.

Be careful that you dont confuse God and the Bible, with doctrines of men who will harm your relationship with God unless you are already perfect and as self-righteous as they.

Jesus said he had come to save the sinner, not those who thought they were so righteous that they hardly even need the pain and suffering Jesus went through for them.

The whole message of the Bible and the Mosaic Law is that we are worthy of the Adamic death sentence due to the sin that we cannot overcome, hence we are totally reliant on Gods mercy and the punishment Jesus took in our place.
It is this that you need for salvation, appreciation for Jesus and that mercy, if you even managed to overcome your sin so that you felt you were good enough, you would actually be in a worst situation, Jesus said:-

9To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: 10“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

13“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

14“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

AS for your last point, about those who never even heard of God or Jesus, they get resurrected and judged on the life they lead:-

Revelation 20 12And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. 13The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done.

The only advantage for Christians is that those who belong to the Christ do not get judged at all as the death of the Christ has already paid for their sins.

Sounds like you need to change church to a liberal one where they don't believe in hell. Only that way are you not getting controlled by threats, which is hardly spiritually healthy is it? Hell was invented by folks who saw volcanoes.

Trouble is, if you are in a part of the world where the Evangelicals have entirely taken over all the Christianity going, then it has gone bad and you aren't getting the liberal option, or perhaps even realising it exists. Then better off giving up church. In Britain, liberal Anglican churches are the best. I belong to one to connect with religious folks socially, who are far nicer than macho yobbos, even though I'm not a Christian. It also has a Transcendental Meditationist member and it used to have an atheist. As a keen believer in ghosts, and not in the Christian afterlife at all, it's a pity I can't fit into spiritualism because I don't belive in mediumship and can't go along with someone saying things out of their own imagination and forcing it to fit approximately with stuff youer dead loved ones might say. So, though I'm closer to spiritualism than Christianity on what happens when you die, I'm closer to liberal Christianity as a social fit.

There is a simple logical way to belive in God without having that anguish over the problem of evil and all the magical things he should do if he can but he obviously does not. Simply believe, for it fits the evidence, that he can't do these things: that he is not all-powerful, he is just as subject to the limits of rational reality as the rest of us. This is aomnitheism: a - omni - theism. Gnosticism always included aomnitheism.

Well, think of it logically. Does it necessarily follow that those people who grew up with no knowledge of Christ would have accepted Christ even if they HAD met a missionary? The keys to answering this question lie God's omnipotence and in predestination. My view on predestination is more closely related to Armin than Calvin, fyi. No one will accept Christ without hearing testimony concerning Christ, so missionaries must be sent and the gospel must be preached.

I can't remember the name/location, but I know of at least one primitive tribe that has consistently resisted conversion because one key aspect of their culture is the idea that you cannot truly know something without experiencing it for yourself. In other words, if you don't know Jesus physically, face-to-face, in the flesh, then Jesus doesn't exist. To my knowledge, no one within that people group has ever converted to Christianity.

And since you can't really accept Christianity unless you do it willingly, and since no one is taking this particular tribe by force to convert them, then this tribe is purposefully resisting the gospel message. And that, unfortunately, means for as long as they retain this hardline attitude, no one growing up in that culture will be in heaven.

So in at least one instance, we do know that it doesn't always matter if the gospel has been heard. So how can we say that others who have yet to hear the gospel would accept the gospel any more readily? I think we have to be careful not to let that attitude make us complacent; we're called to go out and tell all the world about Christ. But I don't think we need to be overly concerned about the acceptance of those living in the dark affecting compatibility with what we know of God and his perfect justice. God does not WANT anyone to live eternally separated from him; it is those who refuse God from the outset who make that choice on their own.

If God is omnipotent and is hidebound about all that the creation he loves can't approach him unless ritually cleaned by a legal contrivance written in blood, yet he does not want anyone to end up separated from him by that same legalese stuff that he chose to put in place -

then he would do 2 things.

1. He would speak to everyone inv the world directly in a physical voice. this would prove his existence and tell everyone Evangelical Christanity is the right religion. There would be no other religions, no cults, and no atheism. The excuse traditionally given for why he can't do this is that he is too overwhlemingly powerful a being for us to bear to see or hear hm - that won't stand up for an omnipotent being, if he can do anything he can choose to speak in a voice whose modulation and volume is at our level and we can bear to hear.

2. He would send the risen Christ to appear directly to that that tribe. Who have effectively requested that, after all, and who are only applying the same reasoning as the disciple Thomas: we'll believe this when we see it.

See, as man, we are very limited in out understanding of God and how he works his purpose, you can only think of two good reasons, I can think of a third.

The separating of the Sheep from the Goats, or the good from the bad, if God flew across the sky then every bunny boiler would be professing a belief in God, the way God has done it, is so that only those genuine folk who want a rulership by a Loving God would search for him, those that dont will be happy their science has proved he doesn't exist.
One scripture says, God is not far from each of us, if we search and grope for him, he will let himself by found by us, that is the test you see.

God himself probably has a thousand other reasons that is beyond our Apes brains to comprehend.

And yet this Yahweh God is clearly an imaginary god made up by ancient Jews who ascribed their own zealousness and holy strictness to such an entity.

With the result that many genuine searchers who want to find him don't, because of the conceptual contradictions they come up against.

The separation isn't a good argument. If god is all-knowing, then he would know who is sincere and who isn't. Therefore that is not a good reason for god to not make himself known as was described.

Also to say he will make himself known to those who seek is not a good argument. There have been several hundred thousand gods and religions on the earth. Each makes the same claim, that God made himself known to them. So if your statement is true, then God has dissociative disorder, which actually might explain a few things.

I'm incredibly rich. My father is a well known author; my mother is a successful entrepreneur and philanthropist.

If I meet a nice young lady, I could say "I am incredibly rich and I have cool parents". She'd probably find me extremely interesting as a result.
Alternatively, I could not tell her about my considerable wealth and how amazing my parents are. That way, I know any interest she has for me is genuine and not motivated by my position.

Similarly, if God said "I am God, I am brilliant, worship me or go to Hell", then our love for him would not be as valuable. We would essentially be forced to love him, rather than struggling to love him as we do now.

(I'm not incredibly rich and my parents have fairly mundane jobs, in case you thought I was being serious- I was adapting Peter Vardy's analogy of the king and the servant girl)

God is loving, just, and 100% fair to all. No one will be sent to hell for anything beyond their control. God wrote His laws on the hearts of all mankind, and sent Jesus to take the full sum of punishment we all rightfully deserve. We say things like "I'm a good person", but God doesn't compare us to others; He Himself is the standard. For those who hear of what Christ did for them and reject it, they've made their choice. As for the rest, I can only assume God somehow applies that sacrifice to their life, in ways we can't understand. C.S Lewis put it like this, and I love it...

"We do know that no person can be saved except through Christ. We do not know that only those who know Him can be saved by Him."