Misconceptions about Christianity ;+)

Yes I do understand about creativity as I work within it everyday of my life. Come on most leading hippies are now multi-millionaries working in the computer or advertising industry. I have a lot of time for the ideals they offered and think for ashort while they did change the world. But hey all fads come to an end. I just think comparing Jesus to hippies is like comparing cheese to Ghandi. Hippies are really uncool and so is Jesus in these cynical times so maybe there is a point there.
Hey what's so funny about peace, love and understanding.

Originally posted by The Teller
Yes I do understand about creativity as I work within it everyday of my life. Come on most leading hippies are now multi-millionaries working in the computer or advertising industry. I have a lot of time for the ideals they offered and think for ashort while they did change the world. But hey all fads come to an end. I just think comparing Jesus to hippies is like comparing cheese to Ghandi. Hippies are really uncool and so is Jesus in these cynical times so maybe there is a point there.
Hey what's so funny about peace, love and understanding.

It only came to an end because of the disinformation campaign that damaged it. Our government worked night and day to slander the hippies with similar tactics that are being used today to rally support for war. Lies go a long way, when you have the power of the media to feed them. There are still hippies, but most live "underground." They've long since given up on fighting for the change in mindset, and did the only thing they could do...avoid the ignorant population as much as possible.

Wow, my head is spinning.

You know, there really are just two commandments (and they cover the original 10 if you think about it)

1. Love God with all your heart soul and mind.
2. Love your neighbor as yourself.

And it can't be said enough that to become a Christian does not make one perfect. I would say that I am not a hypocrite, I am human. This, however, is not an excuse to continue on doing wrong and then expect that I can still see Heaven someday. My flesh wishes to do wrong. But, I am to continually (my own choice) renew my mind daily and think upon what God has done for me. Then I should look for ways (or He might present them to me) to show God's love to others.

Why do people try so hard to say there is no God? There are times I struggle with it. But, I know that things have happened to me that are not just coincedence.

The Bible has been called many things. And sometimes I wrestle why THOSE 66 books. Why not others? I'm sure there are some.

I remember reading the Bible before I was saved. It sounded so foolish. But, when I accepted Christ into my life and heart, something did change inside of me. The same words now had a different meaning. I began to see myself in those words. And through those words I could feel God speaking to me. I have been convicted, encouraged, strengthened, loved, etc. in those words. If you want to arugue about what this or that verse says, then you have free will to do so.

I do not feel for one second that I am brainwashed or under mind control. The most important thing to me is not what Church I go to, but my realtionship with Christ. He is the bridge that brings man back to God. Now, I can go back and forth on that bridge all I want, but I can tell you it is no fun to return to the old man.

The Bible is very accurate from a historical standpoint. And that can't have been achieved with just a few. I have heard that they ancient Hebrews were meticulous in the way they told stories and wrote. No mistakes, everything had to be just as it was. So, I think that even if hundreds of people contributed to the Bible, they were all credible.

woah, there's some serious vitriol going on here!
I remember Ghandi once saying, 'The worse advertisement for Christianity is Christians'. I also remember a Christian guy saying to me 'Christians are the only army who shoot their wounded'. It's sad but often true.
Jesus told us to love our enemies. He didn't say we had to like them. I guess that's the same with other Christians. We tend to rub each other up the wrong way (cos we're human) and assume that because we share a common faith and belief, we all get along. Oh, as for that bit about Jesus 'smiting' in his youth, that came from one of the Books in the Apocrypha (The book of Tobit I think). I't not in the bible because it was never considered a reliable source or divinely inspired. I know the Catholics tend to read it. Gues that's all for now. I just wanna see where this is going.

Originally posted by Damned
There are still hippies, but most live "underground."

I think you are thinking of moles, or possibly rabbits!

Originally posted by Lucius Driftwood
woah, there's some serious vitriol going on here!

I remember Ghandi once saying, 'The worse advertisement for Christianity is Christians'. I also remember a Christian guy saying to me 'Christians are the only army who shoot their wounded'. It's sad but often true.
Jesus told us to love our enemies. He didn't say we had to like them. I guess that's the same with other Christians. We tend to rub each other up the wrong way (cos we're human) and assume that because we share a common faith and belief, we all get along.

[In my opinion].. people like to 'know' that they're in fact immortal and.. god gives them that security.. it also gives them purpose and power. People who challenge that concious belief in fact are challenging the very core of their existance so of course they are going to violently resist.. even die for it as they believe there is no real death. Whilst spirituality can be very healthy.. blindly adhering to rules of religions has proven to be very distructive.

Oh, as for that bit about Jesus 'smiting' in his youth, that came from one of the Books in the Apocrypha (The book of Tobit I think). I't not in the bible because it was never considered a reliable source or divinely inspired. I know the Catholics tend to read it. Gues that's all for now. I just wanna see where this is going.

Thanks.. might do some digging now. I guess the judgement that my posts are 'hilarious ignorant rambelings' and my opinions worthless was a little premiture after all. Judge not.. etc. I guess underminding a person's persepctive is sometimes easier than actually argueing their points.

[edit on 16-11-2004 by riley]

Dealing with God is not a matter of opinion, nor of preference, nor of political correctness. It is a matter of commitment of relationship to an Absolute Power, despite the cost, despite the outcome.

Humans can argue opinions all day and all night, and it doesn't MATTER.

God--the One Who formed our DNA and initiated our lives--is THE ONE accountable to Himself for the condition of His Creation.

He said, at the beginning, "and this is Good." Well, it is no longer Good.

So, despite all our opinions, all our hopes, fears and dreams, what we can expect is intevention AND A RETURN to the condition "Good." This means Free Will will be restored.

"For the meek themselves shall inhabit the earth; and they shall find their exquisite delight in the abundance of peace," Psalm 37--

Psalm 37 absolutely contradicts the massing-power of the New World Order built on TOP-DOWN RULES.

Expect the New World Order to come crashing; and expect with that, some physical, economic and political chaos. But out of Chaos a new way will be established that will respect the spirits of men, women, children and the elderly.

1. Society must be built on "freely taking turns" at options.

2. Families need to be built on freely participating in "healthful disciplines for the mind and for the body" and NOT on "exercising preferences for material expansion."

3. Children thrive when they get to discover their world, one-on-one. Never mind, sitting at a desk six hours a day. Never mind, virtual worlds of violence and cruelty. Children must be freed from the tyranny of dogma and visual sources alone. They must touch and interact with the real world.

Positive choices and options for "DNA-families" are not presently on the drawing board of options for New World Order living. The NWO wants to diminish all human life; squander reproduction; regulate and mechanize all people according to preferences of industrial cabals and goals of the already-well-to-do. This is evil.

BTW, "meek" means the opposite of "tame." Meek means the people who refuse all alliances, all churches, all denomination, all attachments due to fears about the inability to fulfill top-down roles. The birds in the trees and the snake in the grass are "meek." They hide rather than commune with humans. And so it will be, among those who get "left on the earth" to live here indefinitely.

After Holy personalities are taken up [who changed the world for the better and asked nothing back] they will be vibrated to life on the Subjective surface of this planet.

And those that show colors of Evil Intent [who herded good people toward the experience of Harm] are shaken apart and dispersed. They will never be human again because their spirits no longer cohere.

Finally, those LEFT OVER are people who merely cope with Physical elements of cause-and-effect and have no expectation of going to any Heaven or Reward or Bliss or anything like that--Agnostics inherit this earth--certainly not Christians who failed their Covenants and served as goats, tares and wolves to mislead even the Elect.

Law-full Jews and Christians worthy of being ascended will have sacrificed everything they had for the privilege of living in the lighter dimension. Jews and Christians removed--their memories having been "saved"--get to opt for space travel from lighter frequency bodies easier to transport great distances.

God--YHVH who is >here< now (near Jupiter)--puts each inhabited planet through the exercise of Good Vs. Evil. And He identifies Spirits who persist in Good despite any and all circumstances. These become His servants in Space. The rest are simply recycled without any memory of their experiences, life-to-life.

And that's how it all works--millennium-to-millennium, Covenant-by-Covenant, DNA-family - by DNA-family. And this is why "Family" is sacred. DNA-Family is the unit by which a group of people ascend or don't ascend.

The ONLY means for adoption of a lost soul is by acceptance into an Angelic Covenant in Christianity. Judaism has no such provision. This is WHY there are entrance sects into Christianity that deal with the lost, homeless and drug-dependent (Salvation Army, Jehovah's Witnesses, etc.). They exist for a REASON, to bring lost souls back to God, even in a primitive state of mind.

Making fun of the covenants and provisions that God has made merely reveals who's on which side of the Division of Truth between Facts and Fables.

And so it is.

Originally posted by Damned
4. Christianity is not based off, inspired by or derived from any other religion in existance.

You'd better do some studying here. Christianity is a meddley of a few religions. It's definitely a spin-off. Of the thousands of sects making up "Christendom", no two agree entirely.

Christ was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. God's plan for man's salvation was set in Christ before the world was made. It is mentioned in Genesis ch. 3. It is what is foreshadowed in the sacrifices of the OT. Just because it's not mentioned by name until the NT doesn't mean it didn't exist before this. Christ's sacrifice as payment for sin is christianity and on that basis alone a person is saved, no works, absolutely none.

Originally posted by Emily_Cragg
Dealing with God is not a matter of opinion, nor of preference, nor of political correctness. It is a matter of commitment of relationship to an Absolute Power, despite the cost, despite the outcome.

I think you will find that dealing with god is exactly only a matter of opinion. One man may believe, one man may not. A difference of opinion nothing more. Show me proof of god and I will agree with you. Otherwise do not insist that god is a given and anyone who thinks otherwise is a fool.

I never said that atheists or agnostics are fools: they will inherit the Earth. They are the meek who make no promises and take no dogma seriously.

What's wrong with that?

Aeonian [aka Emily]

Originally posted by The Teller
Show me proof of god and I will agree with you.

Don't ask a person to show you proof of God. Ask God to show himself to you. I wouldn't expect a front-door visit, but you'll get an answer.

Originally posted by Emily_Cragg
I never said that atheists or agnostics are fools: they will inherit the Earth. They are the meek who make no promises and take no dogma seriously.

What's wrong with that?

Aeonian [aka Emily]

How does believing in a different ideology make one meek? And if your argument is correct let's all be atheists and then when the day of judgement comes they will then get it all and believers will get the short straw. Cool, great system
How come anyone who is religious feels the need to be patronising towards people who either have no religious conviction or a different religious ideology to themselves????
God moves in mysterious ways, and those ways seem to be the ways of a crazed fool if all is to be believed.

Originally posted by dbrandt
You'd better do some studying here. Christianity is a meddley of a few religions. It's definitely a spin-off. Of the thousands of sects making up "Christendom", no two agree entirely.

Well I have no problem with explaining myself to you, but if you do not bother to read my answers to the exact same question earlyer in this thread, then you may not even read my answer this time.

The bible is interpreted by some groups in different ways, this does not mean it's a different religion.
People worship God in different ways, this does not mean it's a different religion either.

You talk about a different religion when only a small part of the bible is being used/abused and when the religion does not evolve around Jesus and his teachings.

The Christian religion (and in the earlyer form Judaism) is not based on or derived from anything else. If you have proof to think otherwise you might as well include it in your next reply.

While I remember...someone said about Christianity 'straling' or borrowing from other religions, ie 'communion'.
I can understand the belief behind this (ie-Catholicism using little circular wafers that were pagan in their birth and symbolic of the sun-god), or even concepts like Mary being 'Queen of Heaven' (which is a pagan/witch concept that is not biblical in its basis), but one must remember that this 'communion' or 'last supper' was the celebration of the Passover meal, a Jewish tradition and festival instigated to celebrate the departure of the Israelites out of Egypt some 1500-1000 years earlier. As it was Passover, the bread eaten would've been made without yeast, definitely not some round wafer or even loaf of bread that you see in many churches that celebrate communion. When Jesus took the cup and said 'This is the blood of the new covenant', one must have an understanding of the Jewsih custom of Passover. The cup was taken AFTER the meal, and in Passover, the cup drunk after the Passover meal is the Cup of Redemption. This is the cup Jesus refered to as the blood of the new covenant, or 'My blood shed for you'. I don't know of any other faith that has a cup of Redemption. Jesus wasn't creating a new religion, he was fulfilling the Jewsih faith.
Nuff said for now

Nobody got my point either. I think we're all pretty stuck in each our own thoughts today.

Maybe we'll do better tomorrow.

Let me toss in my two-cents' worth to clarify some things.

First off--Catholicism is NOT Christianity. The first pope was actually Constantine, back in the 4th century A.D. His brand of Christianity mixed Christianity and paganism, and eventually evolved into the Catholic system. True Christians would not buy into that compromise.

The Inquisition was the Vatican persecuting Bible-believing Christians, Jews, and anyone who wouldn't kiss their heinies.

The Crusades--The pope wanted the Muslims to drive the Jews out of Jerusalem; the pope wanted Jerusalem. The Muslims did so, then decided to keep it for themselves and called the pope and the Jews infidels. That's how the Crusades got started.

Real Christianity goes by the Bible--Sola Scriptura. The Catholic church tried to keep the Bible from the people, and failing that, corrupted Bible versions came out. Just about every single Catholic tradition/teaching/dogma runs contrary to the Bible. They did NOT give us the Bible...at least, not the King James. They gave us a lot of false ones though!

If you are a saved Christian (kinda redundant there), you will want to serve God, that's part and parcel. Of course Christians make mistakes, and what we do is confess (not to a priest but to God), ask for forgiveness, and move on. As my pastor says, "keep on keepin' on."

If you are not saved, you're going to hell, simple as that. But it's not up to Christians to make that judgment call unless it's blatantly obvious. Christians can and do backslide.

I noticed some of the complaints about Christianity (homophobia, divisive, etc.). That's like a child complaining that his parents won't let him get drunk, trash things, etc.

Charismatic lines of Christianity "go by" the Holy Spirit and prophesy even now.

They take the book in context, and expect God to be able to speak up for Himself any day of the week.

These would include Quakers, Charismatic [Cursillo] Catholics [many orders of monks and nuns-- viz. Trappists, Poor Clares] and Episcopaleans [Anglicans] and Pentacostals.

For these denominations, the Bible is just the jumping-off point for hearing and understanding the specific Will of God.

As the prophet Joel said: "young men will have dreams and young women will prophesy."

Emily, I don't belive in *god*. Why? Because I am an Alcoholic who needs a drink. When you almost die...... God does not help. My Grandpa died this morning from cancer. I have to go Cambridge Illinois for the funeral. God will not help me not drink, but maybe he does not care if I do?

"Amethyst" -> King James = BAD TRANSLATION made in the 1700's - yeah your "Christianity" is Real Accurate - I am sure!!!

Why don't you learn Hebrew & Greek (the Alphabets of which correspond to each other BTW) - then you can speak with REAL Authority!

[edit on 18-11-2004 by Seraphim_Serpente]

... Because I'm not into Bibliolatry, that's why.

... God is just as fluent with language and meaning today, as He was 2000 or 4000 years ago.

... The Scriptures [by whichever translation] merely place God's Spirit in a historical context so I can tell when what I'm sensing in prayer is congruent with the Past, or simply some other kind of idea.

... God doesn't change much, so Scriptures are handy for setting boundaries; but I'm not obsessing over them.