Does Going to Church make you a better person?

Akragon

colbe

Akragon
reply to post by colbe

 

no these are not "end times"... and she is protestant.... so she'd never convert to Roman catholic

thanks for your reply though colbe

edit on 6-11-2013 by Akragon because: (no reason given)

Hello Aragon,

Read the paper, we sure are I pray near the end of an evil time. I realize your dear friend is a Protestant but at the "awakening", she will convert. MO, free will is a factor still at this gift from God.

When it happens..."oh my gosh, the most loving Lord, My God and Savior wants me to become Catholic."

She will melt, be joy filled.

The Remnant is of one belief. Roman Catholic.

Sorry colbe... IF she was to convert to anything It would be to my side... not yours

She hates the roman catholic church...

And unless Jesus himself comes down and tells me I need to be roman Catholic... you guys have no chance in converting me....

Soooooo...

I know without a doubt in my heart He is going to tell you, invite you both.

p.s. I am just happy right now you have fallen for someone who loves Jesus very much.

boymonkey74
reply to post by colbe

 

No No No.
Sorry colbe you want people to follow a religion where they have golden crosses and take from the poor?
Did you read about that bishop who spent 42 million doing up his digs? corrupt and wrong, I just hope the new pope sells all the CC belongings to make an actual difference.
The CC is just the roman empire re-branded.
You keep on trying to scare folk with end of times BS...how long have you lot been doing that? 1600 years or so?
I and many will not fall for fear and trust humanity, we will reach the stars someday.
Humanity ftw!!

edit on 7-11-2013 by boymonkey74 because: (no reason given)

Yes Yes Yes.

I want you to become Roman Catholic and far, far more important so does Our Lord.

You mean 'crucifix' and not every 'crucifix' is made of "gold." Actually a WOODEN cross with the corpus on it has the most spiritual power. And the 'gold' in Cathedrals throughout history honors God, for Him the best. Roman Catholicism has a 2000 year history of giving to the poor.

One sinner doesn't show the falsehood of Catholicism. What about Judas who spent 3 years with Our Lord? We're all sinners.

The messages from Heaven are not to "scare", they're a comfort and a help. I post the links to the daily messages a lot, begin reading them, bookmark them. One link: www.afterthewarning.com...

Never "trust humanity", our fallen nature, even loved ones closest to us fall down sometimes. Give your
heart to God, God never disappoints. Human respect is worthless.


God bless you boymonkey,


colbe

I stopped going for the past couple of years but recently started going back. It just seems to help being with others who pray and it seems to help give me the strength I need to face the week.

I only go on Sunday mornings but to each their own on going to more services. I know many who do and did when I was a kid.

Anyways good luck with your new love.

reply to post by maybee


Interesting...

How does that make you a better person though?

I can see how it can give you "strength" being with others that have similar beliefs... but does that "strength" make you a better person?

Thanks for your thoughts on the matter

Does asking stupid questions make you a stupider person?

reply to post by corvuscorrax


To others it might...

I try not to ask stupid questions as much as possible

I think some would think it makes them better people but even if it did, what else can you do to become a better person?

Everyone within mankind is constantly changing to become something wether it's for progress or for regression or even stagnation and that's only for what we can observe in space/time/matter.

You became something when you were born, you're becoming something now, and you'll be becoming something later and when you die.

You never stop becoming, we all progress towards Love, Light, Spirit, and a Consuming Fire (which the former three are the same, light = heat = love = unseen spirit etc).

Those attributes that are listed above are frequently used to describe what God IS. Light is information and it can also carry information, essentially everything is information which means that all possibilities are possible (with God all things are possible). Anything that you can or can't do is already predetermined in the sense that all of the possibilities are laid out for you to choose from.

Deception of self comes when you think you're making a choice free from causation and effect for you're own benefit, none of us controls anything because everything and everyone is in a constant state of becoming. If you decide to change yourself, do it for the betterment, or do it to make others better, not yourself. Loving one another is the best way to achieve this, and loving others enough not to think that doing anything specific and narrow as going to church or feeding the homeless for the benefit of image is truly the selfless thing to do.

Then again, either way you'll inadvertently help others, even if you do it for prestige LOL. Nothing is free from cause and effect, it seems...

3NL1GHT3N3D1
Of course going to church doesn't make you a better person, look at the "ain't no homo gonna make it to heaven" video from a couple of years ago. I'd even argue that going to church makes you an even worse person in some cases.

Just because some people made a video and called it Christian doesn't make it so. If someone claims Christianity they claim to adhere to biblical teachings and this is not one of them.

OP,

I am a Christian and I would just like to say that if your girlfriend is telling you attending Church is necessary for Christians please tell her to back that statement up with Scripture, and I assure you she cannot.

The Church mentioned in the Bible the majority of the time is not a building or sect of Christianity, but rather all believers in Jesus.

I have had plenty of conversations with you on here, and know that you know more of the truth than most Christians, and refuse to accept it. Maybe your girlfriend will open her mind and research her religion a little more on her own. I don't understand her giving up on you after three years either. If she really loved you, and believes what the Bible says she wouldn't stop until you saw the Truth behind the word.

The point of this post is to say that no Christian should get on here and say Church is a bad thing, but it definitely doesn't make you a better person or a better Christian. Actually as a Christian they should know that everyone is a sinner and none are good, but only God is good. The rest of us always fall a little short when it comes to being good.

reply to post by ServantOfTheLamb


She didn't say she would give up on me... she said the church would...

I appreciate your reply brother

my thanks

reply to post by Akragon



Well brother I hope you know the true church(body of believers) will always want you, and God will attempt to gain your attention more and more from now on. The girlfriend might just be the start of God trying to get you to see him.

ServantOfTheLamb
reply to post by Akragon

 

Well brother I hope you know the true church(body of believers) will always want you, and God will attempt to gain your attention more and more from now on. The girlfriend might just be the start of God trying to get you to see him.

What makes you believe I don't know God on a personal basis... Considering I ONLY study the gospels in the bible and live my life by them, and Jesus said to know God you must know me

hmmm?

Yes it makes you a better person Akragon. I just said that because it is the opposite of what you want to hear. If you can figure out the meaning of what I just said you will have the real answer to your question.

Akragon

ServantOfTheLamb
reply to post by Akragon

 

Well brother I hope you know the true church(body of believers) will always want you, and God will attempt to gain your attention more and more from now on. The girlfriend might just be the start of God trying to get you to see him.

What makes you believe I don't know God on a personal basis... Considering I ONLY study the gospels in the bible and live my life by them, and Jesus said to know God you must know me

hmmm?

edit on 10-11-2013 by Akragon because: (no reason given)

I don't, but if my memory serves me correctly you normally were on the non-believers side of arguments on my threads. What is your opinion on the deity of Jesus, and do you believe he died on the cross to pay the sins of all sinners?

reply to post by ServantOfTheLamb

I don't, but if my memory serves me correctly you normally were on the non-believers side of arguments on my threads.

Apparently your memory fails you tonight...

What is your opinion on the deity of Jesus,

He is the Son of God, as he said... are you asking me if I believe in the trinity?

IF so find the word trinity in the bible and I might consider it

and do you believe he died on the cross to pay the sins of all sinners?

Yes... but not in the way Christians understand it

reply to post by Akragon


The word trinity doesn't appear in the Bible, however Godhead appears three times in the KJV. One of these is Colossians 2:8-9:

8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.


The word trinity is used to refer to a concept that is all throughout the Bible, our one God exists in three Persons. Evidence for this is all throughout Scripture. Lets start with Genesis 1:1

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth"

The word translated God in this passage is Elohim , which is a plural word. While this does not prove the concept of the trinity it points to multiple persons in one God. Late we will see Genesis 1:26 where it says let us make man in OUR image. Plurality is added to the one God again.

John 1:1-3
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2 The same was in the beginning with God.

3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

Here we see God and the Word are one.

John 1:14-18

14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

15 John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me.

16 And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.

17 For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

18 No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.

Here John tells us that the Word as Flesh is Jesus, and verse 18 again reiterates the plurality and names them and God and The Son.

Isaiah 9:6
6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

This one is pretty self explanatory I think.

John 14

16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;

17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.

19 Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.

20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.

John 14

26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

Ephesians 1:13-14

13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,

14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.


Ok looking at these three segments we can see all three at play here. The Father will send The Comforter in the name of The Son. The Comforter is later revealed as the Holy Ghost(Holy spirit, Spirit of Truth). Now Look at John 14:20 and Ephesians 1:13-14. In John 14:20, Jesus is talking and states that he is part of the Father We are part of Him and He is part of Us. In Ephesians we see that we are connected to to Jesus and God by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that occurs at the moment of salvation. This confirms the connection of the trinity as the Father(God), The Son(Jesus), and The Holy Ghost(Spirit of Truth).

So while the word trinity is not in the Bible the concept is found in abundance, and these are only a few examples.

And I am curious as to what you mean when you say you believe he died for our sins, but not in the way Christians understand it..

ServantOfTheLamb
John 1:1-3
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2 The same was in the beginning with God.

3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

1 In the beginning was the Plan, and the Plan was with God, and the Plan was God.


Or something like that. Trinitarians that tout this view do not understand the council of Nicea and that Jesus himself did not support a trinity. The view of multiple gods came from prior religions and was installed into Christianty at the council of Nicea. You should also take the time to look into who wrote the book of John as it was not John. It was written down by followers long after his death to the best of their ability.

Also translate the text for yourself. "Plan" is a valid translation. I have personally translated text from the original manuscripts myself and its why I will never believe in a trinity. However this thread isn't about a trinity but its why I don't go to church. So it might be on topic. I would need to go to a Mormon church or to one which does not preach the trinity.

...this passage is the one most widely misunderstood to teach that Jesus existed in heaven before his birth. A correct understanding of these verses hinges on appreciating what "the Word" means in this context. It cannot refer directly to a person, because a person cannot be "with God" and yet be God at the same time. The Greek word 'logos' which is translated "word" here, does not in itself mean 'Jesus'. It is usually translated as "word", but also as:

Account
Cause
Communication
Doctrine
Intent
Preaching
Reason
Saying
Tidings

www.christadelphians.com...

reply to post by Pimpintology

Only one of the 12 disciples was named John and Matt.4:21 identifies him as the brother of James and son of Zebedee. In the Gospel of John he referred to himself only as the disciple whom Jesus loved. This makes sense if he wrote it, but not if he didn’t. The early church believed he wrote it and all other evidence agrees as well. Iraneus (140-203) Clement of Alexandria (155-215) Tertullian (150-222) and Origen (185-253) all stated that John, the son of Zebedee, wrote the gospel and the three letters that bear his name. The early Church also believed that the Book of Revelation was written by John, which is why some call him John the Revelator. In the 3rd Century it was first suggested that another John might have been the real author of Revelation, but events of John’s life, such as his imprisonment on Patmos, the fact that he was well known to the seven churches to whom the book was written , and his reputation as a deeply religious Jewish believer provide overwhelming evidence of his authorship of this and all of the books that are credited to him.

gracethrufaith.com...

reply to post by ServantOfTheLamb

According to most modern scholars, however, John was not the author of any of these books.

en.wikipedia.org...

I've already done the research and read the original manuscripts.

For the believer, there is more to attending church than self-interest and personal benefit.

Going to church can help you become a better person, depending on how much you put into it. Just like a person who studies a foreign language in a class for several hours a week often learns more than someone listening to a foreign-language CD when they get in the mood once in a while.

My church puts heavy emphasis on the homeless. I was homeless once, so this speaks to me. Through their organization, they do far more to feed the hungry than lone individuals ever could. Does time spent distributing food count as church? Many of us volunteer at the food pantry as part of our commitment to church....

On another level....

For the believer, it is important for the creature to spend time praising the Creator. It sort of aligns the soul, to spend effort articulating an appreciation for God's providence and care. Merely studying the Bible doesn't accomplish the same thing. You can get an "A+" in a "Bible as Literature" college course, without being a believer. Studying the Bible only makes you a historian of Christianity; it doesn't make you a Christian.

Reading the Bible without actually praising God, is like reading the sheet music instead of listening to a symphony. The art only exists in your mind, until you find a way to manifest it.