Thoughts and Prayers: The Religion Thread

As you may have noticed, I'm quite stubborn.

 

Why would God force someone to be with Him for eternity if that man didn't choose to be?

People change faith all the time. All the time. By the millions.

 

Um.

 

Wait, now you're saying G-d is taking the person's best interests into account when denying them heaven because they didn't worship him in the way he wanted when they were alive? Do you even think before you post this shit?

The majority of people stick to the faith they were born to. Please, for one, just stop with your bullshit.

 

God is taking their interests into account with free will, yes. It isn’t their best interest. But it is their will.

It’s what Christianity teaches. You believe and acknowledge Jesus was who he says he was and did the things the gospels say he did - which means you accept he literally died for your sins and rose from the dead to have victory over the death he died for you - or he wasn’t who he says he was and didn’t do those things, which means he didn’t die for you or, even if he did, it didn’t mean anything.

Anything less than that is not even worth believing on the Christianity front. If you don’t believe that, there’s no point in even being a Christian. It frankly isn’t worth it.

Now, you wanna say Christianity sucks and isn’t real and I’m big fat idiot, go ahead. I can’t stop ya. But don’t tell me Christianity isn’t actually “Jesus is the son of God, he died, he rose and he will return.” That’s what it is. Jesus isn’t a nice guy or a prophet. He says he’s literally God.

 

Does

did Jesus say he was Literally God. Did he say that he was his own father.

 

I never questioned what Christianity is, so why are you suggesting that I did? Oh, that's right. You can't post honestly. Ever.

You are the one who worded it that way. "Why would God force someone to be with Him for eternity if that man didn't choose to be?" The use of the word force suggests that the person wouldn't want to be there. It was yet another attempt to cover for one of the biggest problems people have with Christianity, that bowing down to Jesus is more important than living a good life. Honestly? That doesn't feel like my understanding of Jesus Christ. It feels more like the guys writing the word down many years later wanting to establish control over the people in their church.

The larger issue is that it isn't their free will. People are born into faith and unless something goes very wrong, they don't switch. I get why you cling to it so fiercely. You want it for yourself. It just doesn't fit in with the idea of a just G-d.

 

It can feel however you want it to feel to you.
But Jesus tells the story of the prodigal son for a reason. And it’s offensive to the Pharisees -who represent the “good” older brother - for a reason. And that reason you can’t live a good enough life. No one can. A Christian absolutely should live the best life possible according to the gospel, but some deeply moral, good person - who doesn’t believe Jesus is who he says he is and did what he did - can’t be good enough to make up for the unbelief.

It’s *absolutely* offensive on some level initially - especially in 21st century America.

As for a “just” God - well, God is just on God’s terms. That is, God in Genesis wipes out almost all of humanity with the flood. Your idea of a just God may very well be one who agrees with you. If there is a God, a Creator - and I believr there is - what you or I think about justice is immaterial.

 

Seriously, can you get through one post without including some intellectually dishonest accusation? It isn’t about being offensive. It is about the pieces not fitting. It is about knowing these are not the direct words of G-d, but the words of men translated multiple times by other men. It is knowing those men had agendas beyond truth.

The bit about me insisting it has to be something I agree with is crap. That is your approach, not mine. This isn’t my religion we are talking about here. I’m trying to have an honest discussion and you just won’t do the same.

Nearly wiping out all of humanity in the flood is very different from the issue we're discussing here. For one thing, those that drowned but were worthy would have gone to heaven. Isn't that final reward more important than existing a little longer on Earth? It was also a unilateral action taken against all life on Earth, not picking and choosing.

It comes down to that concept you don't want to accept, the one you can't refute aside from one vague, misleading and unsupported accusation. The vast majority of people end up following the faith they are born into, or at least something close to it. Most people don't choose to be Christian, Jewish, Muslim or anything else. It is chosen for them at birth. You wan't some moral high ground that you didn't earn.

 

Maybe for the sake of this discussion, the definition of what it means to be Christian is fairly narrow. The truth is far more complex. Christianity is a spectrum of beliefs, mores, writs, etc Just like any other religion, really.

• Some groups believe in Biblical inerrancy, others take into account that canonical text is a flexible, imperfect collection of documents that have been translated, interpreted, and generally folded, spindled, and mutilated to fit agendas of the powers that be.
• Materials transmogrify, or they don't.
• Christianity is THE way, or it's part of a bigger picture of human behavior.
• Christianity says to not be a douchebag to your fellow man, unless your leaders tell you anyone different from you is not really human.
• Christians support and encourage scientific inquiry unless they believe Darwin was an agent of de debbil and that Greta wench is a handmaiden of the Dark Lord.
  
• Some Christians don't believe in Hell while others get a chubby little mantwig at the thought of the damned roasting for eternity.

It depends on who you ask.

XOXO
One of God's Frozen

 

I can never remember: Is the X a kiss, or is it a hug?

I like both, by the way.

 

On the matter of Jesus, Christianity is narrow. It's mentioned over and over and over again, how defined it really is. The truth is not complex as it relates to who we are in relation to God, who Jesus is, what Jesus did, how Jesus rose, what that means and why God did it. That doesn't mean it's an easy thing to accept, but it's not a complex one.

I appreciate the conversation about Biblical errancy and try to be mindful about it. But if the Bible is errant on the matter of Jesus' divinity - that he is who he says he was and did what the gospels said he did - then the gospels are bunk. I don't know what the point of them would be.

The last three points about politics, to which I absolutely say, yes, so-called Christians have allowed their testimony to be tainted by conservative politics. Feeling...good?...about how shitty those folks are is no particular consolation, in my book, but whatever.