15 (almost 16) year old non-denominational Christian lurker

reply to post by punisher97


Welcome.

I was raised Non-denominational Christian, and I abandoned it when I was a few years younger than you. I'm sure we will disagree in the future, but your intro was outstanding for any one, and certainly exceptional for your age. You will add something intellectually stimulating. and certainly interesting to the fabric here. Good luck, and see you on the boards.

Welcome, it's always good to see a well-written post.
Enjoy your stay

reply to post by punisher97


Welcome to ATS. I look forward to interacting with you. Here's your complementary tinfoil hat, refreshments are at the back, and please do not feed the trolls. They tend to get loud.

reply to post by punisher97


I think imitating Christ is noble and the key to peace on Earth and within the individual. But that's me. There are other 'deities' who are "Christlike" and carry the same message to other people on the planet. I think there must be something to it. Krishna, Buddha, etc and (even the visitors to the 62 schoolchildren and who knows who they were?) shared this unified message of brotherly love, forgiveness and peace. It is possible this is a message of self preservation coming to us from our own core and inner selves. We may be complete units, self sustaining. In fact in tests and experiments, prayer is effective at calming a person and even affecting outcomes but so was meditation and chanting and other methods of INTENTION were better than nothing. I guess the secret is to calm down, so the universe can talk to you. Whether there is a human loving God behind the whole thing - truthfully, I'll be able to better tell you when I am dead. What that means is, I don't know. None of us does. And lately I doubt more than I believe. So much is based on either simple hope & faith or a cold miracle free logic on the other side of the coin. It is all so personal as well, but seems like you have a good foundation and can follow your heart and mind to the truth, as much as we can know of it anyway. I pray in spite of my nagging doubts. Sometimes I look around and think God or a higher power doesn't exist, but then I think back to a time when prayer saved my life, actually a couple of times .... I just guess this is a confusing God and I don't know all intention behind the madness, cruelty and injustice. I DO know that Christ is an excellent example and worth anyone's best efforts to imitate. "Pray to God, but depend on yourself." Funny, I was thinking this in the car today. That is my best advice. And yes, WELCOME to ATS! Very good intro - Flag!... and star if I could but I can't...

Welcome to ATS!!!

Good intro, from what i can digest, i will be on the opposite end from you when discussing religion.

I welcome new challenges, looking forward to our confrontation in the forums!

reply to post by punisher97


I think you're a little too well-spoken for your age. In fact, I think you may be an adult with an agenda.

You're welcome to convince me otherwise.

I read everybody's posts and I thank you all for responding. I'm not going to respond to all of them individually, but I may address a few.

Welcome to ats.

Have fun, see ya around

reply to post by Gaussq


Thanks. I'll look into it. I have more of an interest in eastern philosophy than most western. I find Taoism quite similar to Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, and a few other books of the Old Testament.

I've also heard of the theory that Jesus spent his "lost" years in India. I tend to doubt this, but it definitely piqued my curiosity on Christianity's relation to other religions.

I cite Ecclesiates 3:11 as showing how non-Christian philosophers had some things right, but not others. I take all of them with a grain of salt, but there are some truths and parallels to the Bible in eastern texts and teachings.

"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end."

reply to post by Creep Thumper


I don't know what I'd have to gain by pretending, thus I am not. I'm just mature for my age, as others have suggested.

reply to post by UnderGetty


I know. A lot of the internet is definitely against Christians as evidenced by this and just about every social network.

www.whatdoestheinternetthink.net...

reply to post by punisher97


Dear punisher97,

Welcome to ATS. I was mature for 15 (that was about 40 years ago) and I have a couple of suggestions. If at 50 you think the same as you did at 15, then you never really tried to learn. You see, the person who ends a journey is never the same as the one who began it. The second thing I want to say is that love finds you, you don't find it and true love is not lust and we are to love our spouse. Believe in love as we are told to, God created men and women to be helpers to one another.

Something to consider, a way of looking for the truth and at the world. The way treasury agents are taught to spot forgeries is by studying the real thing. They learn how the paper is made, how the ink is made, how the plates are made, they learn how the presses work. They learn the real deal so well that the fakes are obvious. Love is the real deal, lust is a pale imitation; but, you cannot know that until you have known real love. Along the way, most of us make mistakes and get hurt; but, never give up on love. Peace. By the way, I am also a Christian and will keep an eye out for your posts.

reply to post by punisher97


Thanks for your reply.

I use to tell Christians to read everything about John(who was Elijah that will come) Also check about the woman who met Jeses and was told by him that she had had five husbands before. Priests tell you many strange things while I believe that Jesus could see the woman´s previous lifetimes and her five husbands in those lifetimes. That is a rational reason why she mentioned Jesus as a prophet. People have forgotten that at the beginning Christianity and every folk religion across the world had reincarnation as a corner stone, ie the early Gnostics were true Christians as I understand it.

I recommend you to read the book Zhuan Falun .

At this moment you might think that it is an ordinary book but please try to read it through once, chances are that you will be amazed. It has been banned in China by the communists and if you read it you will understand many, many secrets about life, religions etc etc.

Also, please try to download some of the exercises at the website and see what happens, it will only take you a few minutes to try an exercise. Since you are young and probably have good inborn quality you should try the meditation exercise and see how it feels. The third eye or the single eye mentioned in the Bible and other religions is no fairy tale according to my humble opinion...

Again, all the best to you!

-reply to post by punisher97


Welcome Punisher!

I try my very best to not be judemental yet I am guilty of it from time to time. A quote I like to keep on my mind often: "Condemn no one, lest ye yourself be condemned." - Edgar Cayce

If you have not heard of Cayce, you may find his readings to be quite remarkable. I do not usually put much trust in what psychics say (especially if money is involved) but I believe Cayce was the real deal (I have my reasons for coming up with that conclusion). You may even be interested in his interpretation of the Book of Revelations.

Again, welcome and I will be looking forward to your future posts/threads.

reply to post by punisher97


Congrats on your courage and persistence in ferreting out the Truth.

May God lead you ever closer to HIMSELF.

He alone is worthy. He alone is able. He alone is supremely willing to keep that which you commit TO HIM against the future traumas . . . and on the day of each of our graduation.

I see this as bootcamp preparing those to rule and reign with Christ.

His priorities appear to be an eternal economy based on

1. LOVE
and
2. HUMILITY.

Lots of grist for the mill gets ground finely toward those goals.

Anyway--the Bible says MY SHEEP KNOW MY VOICE. May God's Spirit lead you ever more closely to following our Lord regardless of the noise, distractions within and without.

ATS is pretty hostile to Christians as you've likely observed. The whole planet is becoming more so, as well. Evidently we were born for such a time as this. May He strengthen you in every respect needed. May He give you wise and balanced brothers in Him that help you as iron sharpens iron.

He declares that we shall OVERCOME BY THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB AND THE WORD OF OUR TESTIMONY.

The critical thing is to live with Him eternally. Confessing with our mouths that He is Lord and our Lord and believing in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead results in Salvation (Rom 10:9 etc)

Romans is a great book for those basics . . . as is Hebrews.

Anyway--I'm 66 and still remember how life was for me at 16. May God have mercy on you and lead you into the greatest intimacy with Him possible in this life; May He enable you to discern right from wrong and give you the follow-through to behave accordingly.

May He enable and prompt you constantly to forgive yourself and others and even Him for not running your life and the planet as you might at times prefer. Forgiveness seems to be a deal-breaker high priority to Him.

May He give you wisdom beyond your years and peace in all your doings and travels.

God's best to you and those you Love.

reply to post by BO XIAN


Thanks for the great post and to everybody else as well. I'll probably be starting a topic soon, but I'm not sure what I've learned that I want to share first.

reply to post by Gaussq


I have a lot of reading to do.

I've heard of the theory that Christianity actually contains reincarnation and I can't really find anything in the Bible to refute it, so I'm open to the idea. However, I've never heard of the woman with five husbands as evidence. I mainly have heard about the man who was blind from birth. The disciples asked if his blindness was caused by his own sin (which it wasn't), but the disciples presumably knew he was blind from birth. Thus, they would have known about reincarnation, or at least have been open to the idea.

I might try the exercises, but I'll have to look into it. I'm not really into this third-eye stuff, but I do know that the pineal gland is important. I'm just not really sure how.

you should post more often

reply to post by isimba


I will. I'm planning on starting a new interesting topic soon.

reply to post by punisher97


Yes, there is alot to learn but since your mind is sharp you have a great chance to reach the sky.

About meditation, just try it without any notions and see what happens.

About the five husbands in the Bible which in my humble opinion points to reincarnation, here it comes.

John 4:18:

"The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true."

Again, all the best from me to you.