Are You Glad Christian Churches are closing?

reply to post by devareous



d, I do appreciate the 'spirit' of what you are saying (posting) but....


the folks need a place to meet right? it's cold where some believers live...

OT

reply to post by marg6043


YEP!


If the believers would do a little more John 13:34 and 35....and the skeptics would do a little more Romans 1:20....OT thinks the world would be a better place...

Thanks for the posts friend!

OT out!

Originally posted by OldThinker
Dude!

Not sure where to begin....your post is a reflection of your name bro...

I'll check out the link....although it would take a few earthquakes to change OT's belief...check out profile man!

As to the rest of your post, you make some deep, wise comments....would love to hear them fleshed out sometime...

There is a lot going on in the head of yours....btw....welcome to ATS!

[edit on 14-3-2009 by OldThinker]

The Churches I have no regrets about closing are the money grubbing phoney Churches and ministries. There are many well meaning honest pastors/priests and for them I am sorry. Personally I've been suspicious about Christianity for a long time and have read many disturbing articles that questioned the authenticity of the New Testament etc. Tony Bushby's book puts it all together with excellent research.
Personally I am not an atheist. I think atheism is egotistic, short sighted and smug. I am agnostic. I do believe in a god force and a spiritual realm. All religions including christianity do touch on universal truths but from my vantage point, all stray off into lies and fabrication and myth.
As far as how I got my screen name, it came to me during a conversation with a particular christian (a closed minded fundamentalist bigot) with whom I became impatient and may have raised my voice begging this person to end the conversation in which we were on opposite ends and would never agree. He called me an enraged maniac, okay... that's good enough for me. I ran with it.

Originally posted by enragedmaniac
Christianity is a fabricated religion. I can recommend some good reading on the subject; The Crucifixion of Truth by Tony Bushby......

OK, Mr Bushby's reputation for scholarship is a tad wanting...

During my first leisurely read-through of The Bible Fraud, I immediately began to notice some serious errors but offered Bushby the benefit of the doubt in believing he may have simply cited other authors who previously
presented erroneous material. However, once I began to investigate his claims, I was left to conclude his many errors were no accident. Unfortunately for us wishing to investigate Bushby's claims, we are told many of his sources are "preserved in rare archival manuscripts and difficult-to-find ancient reference books." On several
occasions, he makes vague references to phantom evidence such as "ancient documents" or "inscriptions" without offering the name or location of such evidence. Though this creates many dead-ends in our investigation, Bushby does reference several verifiable sources on which we will focus our research.

link: www.thedevineevidence.com...

I dunno?

OT

Originally posted by enragedmaniac

The Churches I have no regrets about closing are the money grubbing phoney Churches and ministries.

With out money, how can the churches help the poor? Feed, cloth, shelter?

OT

Originally posted by enragedmaniac
As far as how I got my screen name, it came to me during a conversation with a particular christian (a closed minded fundamentalist bigot) with whom I became impatient and may have raised my voice begging this person to end the conversation in which we were on opposite ends and would never agree. He called me an enraged maniac, okay... that's good enough for me. I ran with it.

Good story....maybe some

DEE

CAFF


would have been good on both sides?

So you got your name from a xtian dude? Funny!!!

I haven't read the Bible Fraud. The Crucifixion of Truth seemed to be well researched and had quite extensive footnote references.

People are going to see the light soon enough. Its a proven fact that the poorer a community is the more they believe in God. This has been like this for centuries and nothing has changed. So no that the economy is going in the crapper You might see a renewing of the belief in God.

Originally posted by enragedmaniac
Personally I am not an atheist. I think atheism is egotistic, short sighted and smug. I am agnostic. I do believe in a god force and a spiritual realm. All religions including christianity do touch on universal truths but from my vantage point, all stray off into lies and fabrication and myth.

Maybe...

"It isn't a matter of validating or invalidating arguments. It's about being able to see those same arguments from a different perspective. . . What I discovered was an intellectual riddle that couldn't be solved by the logical mind. It had to be solved by the intuitive heart." ~ A.S.A. Jones in The Unexpected Journey by Thom S. Rainer.

God wants your heart....prayin you'll give him another shot...

link: www.ex-atheist.com...

Maybe this guy could help...its only 9 minutes or so... search.live.com...

Thanks so much for your time here!!

Originally posted by jkm1864
People are going to see the light soon enough. Its a proven fact that the poorer a community is the more they believe in God. This has been like this for centuries and nothing has changed. So no that the economy is going in the crapper You might see a renewing of the belief in God.

Satan/Lucifer/Evil one BELIEVES in God....in fact KNOWS....

Wonder if there is more to this faith thing than BELIEF?

jkm1864, thank you for the post...

Do you have any stats/evidence/data to back up the money/faith link? Very interesting point there.....

OT

I wanna see them close so that we can get back to old school Christianity and go from there; to much crap has been added or change to the religion over the past 1900 years.

I say yes so we can actually get the chance to go back and actually take a good look at the religion and go to how it should be and then take it from there to get rid of a whole lot of crap that has been added such as by King James priest back in the good old days.

Originally posted by jatsc
I wanna see them close so that we can get back to old school Christianity and go from there...

OK....there's a thought....thank you!

What is 'old school christianity' to you?

OT

I am sad,

but we will go back to meeting underground, in private homes, and in secret to avoid persecution, that is what is written.

reply to post by OldThinker


I think there is a direct correlation between the current meltdown and closing of churches. Churches being a charity empire, rely more so on handouts from its flock. Less money in the flocks pocket, means less money in the church coffers.


As a general theme, religion to me is a series of fables woven together and galvanized over centuries across camp fires and battle fields. Whether you believe that Mohamed split the moon, or Jesus walked across water, chances are the truth is somewhere in between. If you choose to believe, so be it, so long as your belief does not cloud your rationality too much.

I think the best response to the question of right and wrong religions was actually in the movie "Dogma" It went something like this.

"its not a question of which faith is right and which one is wrong. Its simply important to have faith."

Many of us attack our brothers and sisters based on which side of the fence they are on, but I grow tired of such trivialities. Regardless of who's god(s) are in the sky on the last day of our lives, we will be judged upon the merits and good deeds of our lives, not on how pious we are, or how many infidels we converted.

$.02

You know, the people that benefit from church food pantries and charities, and bread lines, will suffer, it is sad that most of these people never come to church on Sunday.

[edit on 113131p://bSaturday2009 by Stormdancer777]

reply to post by Stormdancer777


Most of the churches in my area do not offer such services. Those services which help the poor come from third party programmes, usually financed (poorly, i might add) by the government, and rely heavily on donations of food, money, or clothing.

reply to post by OldThinker


No, it makes me very sad because I believe it is a symptom of the era we live in: the great falling away. Even though we were warned it would happened, it's heartbreaking to actually be a witness to it.

On the other hand, every cloud has a silver lining. Jesus said don't let your heart be troubled because these things must come to pass. As much as it hurts to see, I know it's just a sign of the times we live in.

When I see people make statements similar to the comments you quoted in your OP, I feel a level of sympathy and sadness because more often than not, the person posting such a thing is ignorant of the facts refuting their claims.

So, yes. It can be disheartening but pray, intercede, 'go on with God' regardless of what others do, and realize this is just yet another fulfillment concerning the prophetic time line that was foretold.

I heard quite the opposite. After September 15th when Lehman brothers were allowed to fail and the DOW dropped 777 points (does that number ring a bell) that church attendance increased two fold. Spam sales hit a record high, due to its 50 year shelf life. Survivalists kicked in to full gear. It is government fear mongering that controls the masses not religion, unless you want to run out and kill your neighbor. God only has a few rules. The word religion to too broad and has branched off in every direction; however there is only one God. You’ll never know if your mind is closed to the possibility. Churches may close however Church attendance is not required to believe in God. I’m a gun bearing ready to fight warrior, does that meet your criteria of being weak?

Go on then, I'll be the first... Yes, I'm glad churches are closing. No, I'm not fond of religion, at all. Churches are just shops that sell a product to the people that will buy it. In the long term, hopefully it will mean that less children are indoctrinated, helping to break the cycle of superstition, bigotry and hypocrisy.

Originally posted by InSpiteOf
reply to post by Stormdancer777

 

Most of the churches in my area do not offer such services. Those services which help the poor come from third party programmes, usually financed (poorly, i might add) by the government, and rely heavily on donations of food, money, or clothing.

Odd, I guess it depends on what part of town you live in.

I have been to many churches and they all do this, to one extent or another.