Admittedly, I did not read all of the posts but I will share my experience quickly:

It seems to me that it is silly to sit in most "churches" to hear a "pastor" ramble on for and hour or so over 1 or 2 freakin verses' Ok, it is like, I am smart enough to read those books and decide truth for myself. Thank you anyways! And really, should I pass my dollars into your bucket for your time? Nope, don't think so, but even if that sounded like a good idea, it turns out that those silly little green pieces of paper are worthless anyway (needs another thread). But then again, it helped purchase his pretty little watch, now didn't it?

Oh, and let me listen to you tell me just how sexy my wife is during marital "counseling" sessions. Good times to be had by all. Was that god or an invite to a threesome? Well, I wasn't allowed to become a "member" of that church. Oh well, I suppose that the next step was an indoctrination into the military anyway..

I choose discernment. Here's to free will!

Actually, there are 38.001 denominations of Christian churches. Cuz I jut started the Church of Holy Hell, I Dunno! If anyone can sort out all of the writings presented in the Holy Bible, I would like to meet that person and listen to the explanations of "the truth".

Hey, I was driving down the road the other day, just having visited the newly opened Liqour Mart in Lancaster, a city where alcohol has been outlawed for over 60 years, until this year. Heh. I passed what used to be a restaurant and now the sign says, "Welcome ot the Church of the Tabernacle of Fire" Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek! This stuff is scary. Didn't God say to no longer pass your kids through fire? Yikes! I watched, from a distance, as kids came out of a church one Sunday night and there was a big pile of CD's of rock music placed in the parking lot and the kids all danced on top of the CD's, praising God and telling the Deviil to "get out!" And then there was a big fire built where these CD's were burned and melted while the children running rampant in a "Jesus inspired" rampage and the parents all stood around and said, "Praiseeeeeeeeeeee Gawwwwwwwwwwwwwwd!" He is here tonight!!!!!!!! Ever watch the documentary titled "Jesus Camp"? Scary............and sad. It all makes me want to say, "Jeeeeeeesus Christ!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

In my studies 10 years ago, I remember the number was thought to be around 30, 000 denominations. That's quite an increase but why does this surprise people?

The growth of many things can be expressed exponentially, I figure the growth of the various heresies and religious movements within Christianity to be no different.

The great majority of these denominations were born out of the last 500 years with some contributing factors being the diminished influence of Rome, the Protestant Reformation and the general liberty-loving environment of western civilization.

The reason for all these divisions is not because the Bible is a confusing, hard to read text. It's because many regard the Bible as the sole, stand alone, all authoritative source of Christianity, when in reality, it must be read and interpreted in context; from "within the walls of the church" so to speak.

The large number of these denominations reinforces the notion that we are each a "little pope." We pick up the Bible, read a little, and thereafter voice our interpretations with papal-like authority, elevating those who agree and excommunicating all dissent. This just shows that our rebellious and prideful human nature is alive and well.

The bible is a story that was derived from a history book that was a shared resource OF THE COMPLETE REMNANTS OT HUMANITY AFTER A GOBAL NEAR EXTINCTION EVENT.It was written after a time of high education HENCE HIGH TECHNOLOGY.It was designed to help humanity restore itself to a technological level as soon as humanly possible and it contained all of the direction we needed to get this far.

The bible was OBVIOUSLY distributed to one large group of humans who then splintered into several groups and then told two friends who told two friends and so on and so on.But the information was original to one source then was spread out in different directions and bastardized over and over through time until we got to where we are now.

Not a story of god but a story of survival and all of the lessons of humanity that we are required to learn in order to have a reasonable chance to survive in this universe.


We were supposed to let go of the religos angle when we were re-established,I just think it took a little longer than expected and a select few people took advantage of the power possesion of the knowledge afforded them.

Knowledge has always held immense power it still does today.


My grandfather was a religos man and we talked a great deal about religon ,a topic I could never endorse even with his sustantial experience in indoctrinating new recruits.When I was a grown man shortly before my grandfathers death he sent me a letter.In the letter he explained to me that he understood my lifelong inability to endorse any religon at all because he himself had never come to complete terms with the theology and the spirituality ,BUT HE IN ALL OF HIS LIFE COULD NOT FIND A PLACE WITH BETTER PEOPLE TO SURROUND HIS FAMILY WITH.He taught me that he sought to find order out of chaos and as a man he had to look beyond his own spiritual quest and protect and provide for his family and I learned that it was through his ability to answer his questions of creation and divinity BY GLANCING OVER AT THE WOMAN AND CHILDREN HE LOVED that he was able to attend church in good conscience. I learned about the absolute need we all have to feel safe and understood,that religon actually prevented chaos at least until a better way could be found and a better place to take a family could be found.

We are still searching for a perfect world and although science has overtaken religon in the minds of many we will always need to feel safe and loved.

Lose the government and monetary connections and the business connections and I say keep religon forever.
IF WE CANT SEPERATE CHURCH,MONEY,AND GOVERNMENT WE NEED TO ABOLISH ORGANIZED RELIGON TODAY BECAUSE THESE THREE THINGS CANNOT EXIST TOGETHER WITHOUT DESTROYING HUMANITY SOONER OR LATER.

We need to abolish religon because PEOPLE DONT KILL PEOPLE FOR MONEY AND PEOPLE DONT REALLY KILL PEOPLE FOR THEIR COUNTRY THEY KILL PEOPLE IN THE NAME OF RELIGON IN SUPPORT OF MONEY AND GOVERNMENT.


If there was no heaven and no redemption for sins HOW MANY PEOPLE WOULD BE WILLING TO DIE FOR a god they have never seen?

The light of the sun of god is cast upon everyone.
Some are radiated by its brilliance, others consumed by its wrath.
Judgment is always among us as it always has been, from birth, through life and at our death. People self reflect the light on themselves; good people surely know of their good deeds as the wicked know theirs. I know mine, for I am no perfection in this life, as NONE of us are.

The fear of judgment by god is over-rated, but unfortunately very real. People, including myself(though I'm not religous), mostly the religous though, seem to damn themselves into a following to 'save' their eternal soul through worship and asking of forgivness for 'sins'. I know, for I have feared god as have many. There is no rationalizing of this fear, unless you are wicked. I have 'sinned', I'm human, I make mistakes, but I feel I am a good, logically minded and moral soul.
I belive in an energy to which I retain the name 'god', for without which nothing would exist(in my mind at least). I console myself in a personal meditation, conversing (one way, I'm not insane..yet!) with god letting god know that I am aware of my negative actions and that I dont agree with them and want to better my train of thought.
Judgment is in this life and in death, acceptance to gods 'kingdom' is based on this... I dont think you'll face damnation coz you swore a cashier for short changing you 2 mins before you died. Religion doesn't matter, god and jesus care about the embers of man, the heart, soul and mind of us all. Wanting who you ARE not who you pretend to be.
Religion as it stands, is probably the biggest squabbling of fear and rejection, besides political conquests, which are involved in religion anyway.
Together in one denomination against all others. what's that all about? more like demonination.
As mentioned by watchtheashes; jesus turned NO ONE away. Imagine getting to the pearly gates and pete says, sorry dude, you had one too many 'bad days' gods still thinking about it, join the queue on the left to await judgment.
I love this life!
"it's just so ridiculous!" - (wish I could remember the movie that comes from)
Life is just so entertaining, fun and a little scary, occasionally, all at the same time.

Surely we are all here to benefit eachother, together we stand tall, divided (like that tower babel) we fall.

Sorry if i've gone off on a tangent, but damn, ain't that the joy of this site
Keep well, peace find you, even in pieces, peace out
Jimjolnir

The bible is a history of one nation of people and their interaction with their god. We follow the story, supposedly given to Moses by god, of creation and the start of mankind, up to the formation of the Mosiac Law and the religion of the Jews, don't forget that kind and peaceful genocide on the people of Canaan! Then we come to the birth of Jesus and the so called history of his ministry.

The reason for so many religions is anyone can pretty much warp the words into their own meaning, hence all the various denominations. If we look to history we see the stories repeated in nearly all civilizations. The account of the worldwide flood is part of all history. From the days of Sumer to Egypt the birth of the godman has been told over and over again. Every so called sacred text urges the readers to live a good life, to be kind to their fellow man, and to deal honestly with their fellows. Why is the bible supreme??? It isn't, it is just another account of another civilization.

Truth can be found withing the tenants of all religion. There is a very good documentary that is quite old that covers this nicely. The Power of Myth is so good, but impossible to find on line for free. I just tried to find it with no success. Everywhere I did find it said it was removed, too bad.

The whole issue with god and man is relationship. A church, doctrine, or pastor will NEVER be a substitute for a relationship with the divine. The reason the gnostics were called heretics buy the so called "holy" catholic church is simply because they taught that experience with god is personal and requires no ritual, intermediary, or church fathers. It was all about POWER AND POLITICS, from Constantine to King Jimmy....keep the power and "god" all in the hands of the rich and the paupers will blindly follow.

No pauper or follower here!

If one looks at the overwheming majority of the 38,000 denominations, one would see that they essentially believe the same thing. It is the minor issues that separate them. Even then, they're not really all that separated. Most Christians believe that Christ is God, who came in human flesh to pay the pentalty of man's sin so that whoever would believe in him needn't perish but have eternal life. The majority of Christians rejoice together in that fact.

Most of the time, the difference in denomination stems from how people believe a the churches government should be. A Baptist church believes in the autonomy of the local church, and it's headed by a pastor. A Methodist church believes that a church needs a hierarchy, with bishops and what not. Presbyterians think that the congregation shouldn't own the church, but the heads of the denomination should.

Sadly, other times a denomination forms when a group of people aren't happy with a truly frivolous issue. This isn't right but it's a fact.

Don't be so quick to say either that people in one denomination aren't willing to worship with another. I rejoice wholeheartedly with any Christian that believes what I said above. Whether they're Luteran, Catholic, Evangelical Free, or whatever. That is what matters.

Many of the younger Chritsians, such as myself, are getting back to this view of Christianity. I wouldn't be surprised, if the world is still here, if in a few years, you start seeing less and less bickering amongst the different denominations. Because us future leaders know that the only thing that matters is Christ. [That's not to say that we're wishy washy theologically though--that's simply not the case!]

Originally posted by helen670

I'm going to insist, there is no contradiction in the Word of God,.

helen

How about this one, might as well start at the very beginning...

Earth is created on the third day, but night and day started at day one. Night and day are due to the rotation of earth.
This is a BLATENT CONTRADICTION, period.


Genesis 1
1In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
[material and gaseous matter, not Heaven and Earth - those are created later Heaven in 1:8, Earth in 1:10]

2And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
3And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
[creation of the Sun]

4And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
5And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

6And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
[sounds like a continent, but He calls it Heaven in Gen 1:8]

7And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
8And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

9And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

10And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.





[edit on 8-6-2009 by notreallyalive]

Earth isn't the only planet in the universe - you, like most of pride filled mankind, are just "assuming" that the entire universe has but one planet with one species. Us. *laughable*

Millions and millions of people have, over the ages, tried to debunk the Bible, God and Jesus.

Take a number, my friend.

The Christians win in the end.

Originally posted by nomorecruelty


The OP should reread what he/she has written -

...

Same holds true for all the different "bibles" on the market today. There is only one true Bible - the Holy Bible.

I reread it. What you say seems fair enough to me but it's all within the context that you get your information from the Bible and stay within the confines of Christianity.

Which Bible do you consider to be this "true Bible - the Holy Bible" do you read the ancient texts in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek? Or do you use some translation?

Just for curiosity which English version Bible translation do you recommend?
edited to add that you recommended the King James version in a subsequent post

[edit on 8-6-2009 by notreallyalive]

Originally posted by redhead57

The whole issue with god and man is relationship. A church, doctrine, or pastor will NEVER be a substitute for a relationship with the divine. The reason the gnostics were called heretics buy the so called "holy" catholic church is simply because they taught that experience with god is personal and requires no ritual, intermediary, or church fathers. It was all about POWER AND POLITICS, from Constantine to King Jimmy....keep the power and "god" all in the hands of the rich and the paupers will blindly follow.

No pauper or follower here!

Amen!