Religious Convictions

originally posted by: WakeUpBeer
a reply to: BELIEVERpriest

I appreciate your responses but I'm not sure if they are answering my question. You say any fallen angel can crank out parlor tricks. I am assuming from your perspective that the other religions or beliefs stem from fallen angels and Satan, which would make them ultimately wrong because they are there to lead people down the wrong path. This I can agree is true from a Christian point of view. But what confirmation do you actually have that Christianity is "the way the truth and the light"? You said God provides you with confirmation. I am not questioning powerful experiences one can have with religion, spirituality, faith, or however you want to define "it". I'm wondering what makes people so sure that their belief system is the universal truth. Confirmation of beliefs are experienced by people of all belief systems. Because you've had confirmations in your beliefs, and your beliefs teach that other belief systems (for the most part) are essentially works of fallen angels and Satan, that makes your belief the right path to take? I don't think there is a way to know beyond a shadow of a doubt.

I'll show you what I believe God has shown me, a fellow Christian researcher, and a prophetess. It will go against what many churches falsely assume about the end times, but I believe it is biblical to its core.

The Old and New Testament follows a numerical metering pattern within its syllables (Hebrew/Greek).
www.brainout.net...

Ive discovered that this pattern shares similarities with the Mayan Calendar, and actually completes it.
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Both the mathematical pattern and my forcasted conclusions are reflected in the visions of Iris Nasreen. As far as I know, Iris is unaware of the bible's meter.
books.google.com...

I believe God is telling the Church that Jesus will return on a day/hour that no one knows in 2023.

This has been my experience.

a reply to: Sump3
a reply to: BELIEVERpriest
a reply to: LadyGreenEyes

Great posts but I'm still only getting what you believe and/or what makes you believe!

But the question I'm most interested in having answered is how are the things that confirm your beliefs to you any different from what confirms the beliefs of another to them, in a completely different religion?

The point I'm trying to make with this thread is that profound religious/spiritual experiences, texts, etc., shouldn't be considered evidence that your belief system is "the right one". Because people in other religions have them too.
My apologies if I'm just doing a horrible job articulating.

originally posted by: BlueMule
Nope. All religions are true, for their time and place.

Totally disagree. There is no 'truth' in human sacrifice. There is no 'truth' in misogyny. There is no 'truth' in religions that tell a believer to take slaves and/or to mass slaughter and/or to rape non-believers. Sorry ... no truth there.

originally posted by: WakeUpBeer
What tells you your belief system is the truth?

Personal experience tells me I'm on the road to finding the truth.
I won't get there totally until after death and then we'll all know for sure.

originally posted by: FlyersFan
Personal experience tells me I'm on the road to finding the truth.
I won't get there totally until after death and then we'll all know for sure.

Best answer so far! Thanks for your input.

a reply to: WakeUpBeer

But the question I'm most interested in having answered is how are the things that confirm your beliefs to you any different from what confirms the beliefs of another to them, in a completely different religion?

As i stated earlier, what sets Christianity apart from religion is salvation by faith rather than works. All of the miracles/confirmations I have experienced teach the central theology of Grace.

That really is all I can do to answer your question.

I think the more important question should be: Is God more interested in your faith in His work or your faith in your own work, as a deciding factor for Eternal Life?

Once this line is drawn, the separation is very clear.

originally posted by: WakeUpBeer
The point I'm trying to make with this thread is that profound religious/spiritual experiences, texts, etc., shouldn't be considered evidence that your belief system is "the right one". Because people in other religions have them too.

Spiritual experiences and what God calls fruit are two entirely different things.

Matthew tells us "You shall know them by their fruits"...

God did not put us here to have spiritual experiences, He put us here to bare fruit.

This is how one can know the difference between religion and God.

The agenda behind false religion is to keep you disconnected from God.

God's agenda and religion's agenda are completely opposite.

The hidden agenda behind FALSE Religion is to destroy spirituality and cause people to hate God.

Religion is a mind control tool designed to steer you AWAY from the truth and to keep the truth hidden.

Religion puts you in shackles but Jesus sets you free.

Religion makes you blind, but Jesus lets you see.

Below is one example that shows just how different the two are:

Brother Yun shared the story about how the prison guards broke both of his legs, so he could not escape. He began to complain to the Lord. He was really mad and upset. He complained, "How can I go to the West and the South with these broken legs?" Around this time, lots of Chinese Christians along with Brother Yun were imprisoned for their faith. People around the world heard about the captured Christians. Letters were sent to the Chinese government pleading for their release, but the Chinese government didn't do anything.

There was no authority that could set them free. Someone offered to give one million Euro dollars to free them, but they did not relent. After this situation, brothers and sisters in China started to fast and pray for their fellow brothers and sisters in prison. They prayed to God, "You are the God of Peter... and You are our God. Please do something now."

In May of 1997, as Brother Yun was complaining, Jesus came to his cell. Brother Yun then genuinely prayed and sang for God's rescue. Jesus came and told him to get up and walk. He told Jesus, "This is a top security prison, you can't just walk out." Jesus replied, "I know... I am your Lord and Salvation. The Truth shall set you free." Brother Yun felt the urgency in his heart, "I have to go. I have to walk." This was the mighty movement of the action of the Holy Spirit. www.kensingtonchurch.org...

During those times when Brother Yun was in the hands of government officials, he was repeatedly beaten and tortured with electric batons. He was also kicked and trampled upon. Furthermore, he had needles being jabbed underneath his fingernails.

Once, Brother Yun was paraded through the streets with a red cross tied behind him for half a day. When night fell, he was locked and left alone inside a large interrogation room. The wooden cross was taken off his back but his hands were still tied up. All of a sudden, the rope that was used to tie his hands snapped by itself. He immediately walked out of the interrogation room and walked through the courtyard in the midst of onlookers. Nobody stopped him or said anything to him. It was as if God had blinded their eyes and they did not even recognise who he was.

Because the front gate was locked, the only way Brother Yun could get out was to climb over an eight-foot high cement wall. He climbed up as much as he could manage. Then he looked over the wall and saw that there was a ten-foot wide open tank directly below. Suddenly, he felt as if someone had lifted him up and thrown him over. He was thrown so far that he did not land in the tank.

Brother Yun’s 3rd imprisonment was a very dark period in his life as the prison guards in the maximum security prison were determined to prevent his escape. So they beat his legs to cripple him permanently. They had him beaten up everyday, even in his crippled state. One day, God instructed him to escape from the prison. This was confirmed by a brother-in-Christ. Thus, on May 5, 1997, he miraculously walked past dozens of prison guards and out of the maximum security prison. It was as if he had become invisible to the guards. He did not realise that his legs had been miraculously healed until later.

Brother Yun 'Heavenly Man' Biography and Testimony

Brother Yun fasted for 74 days without drinking even a drop of water and eating in prison ...finally he escaped from jail like apostle Peter did (all the gates were opened when he walked out... guards didnt see him he was in invisible mode)

Brother Yunn - Bethel Church Jail break Testimony @24 min:

a reply to: WakeUpBeer I was burnt in a fire when 4 or 5yo until all the flesh left my bones and i was dead out of my body above the earth. The thing is before i was thrown in i was told of their plans to continue burning children like the past twenty years. They were coming for my siblings so i stepped up and said that Jesus would save me from the fire and that would stop them from killing babies. Sure enough i was drawn back into my body later and was fully restored and being held by Jesus. Since then i have been drown posioned shot and many other ways of death that were reversed. I always imagine someone up there keeping track of all this. A way of weeding. My faith is tightly in tact.

Another example that perfectly illustrates the vast differences between true enlightenment and religion is Ian Clayton.

Ian Clayton is an ex-sorcerer who has experienced BOTH sides of the "force".

"Ian Clayton, a New Zealand prophet and father of four, is a man who found himself seemingly chosen by the demonic realm to become a great occult leader.

At age 12, his growing awareness of God led him to the Bible and he started reading it from the beginning. Halfway through Deuteronomy he decided that it was full of rules and regulations and didn’t want anything to do with it. Just as he shut the Bible he heard a voice say, “Put your hand on top of the table and pick the table up.” Ian put his hand flat on the table top and it rose, sideways off the floor.

“It was an amazing power rush,” Ian explained. “Suddenly, I walked in power.”
Spirits started materializing at night and taught Ian how to do things such as astral travel and psychic healing, pendulum diagnosis, use of herbs in healing and in gaining power, and the power of demons in the spirit world. As the lessons continued, people grew frightened of Ian’s power. Many would talk about the headaches they got after being around him—headaches Ian attributes to the demonic resonance of the spirit force around his life. Meanwhile, signs and wonders manifested in Ian’s life much to his surprise and others’ shock.

“I would put my hand out and it would go into the wall—not up against it,” he said. By age 17, Ian was frightened of his own power and turned into an introvert attempting to shelter himself from others because of the phenomena that would occur.

According to Ian, the spirits taught him to become a psychic healer and he would lay hands on a body and take out the bits that were diseased. He could heal and he could kill with the same power that resided within him. “The moment I touched their flesh they submitted to the demon in my life. When I got angry at somebody I would release spirits and the people either were killed or became sick. At one point, my father got sick and my mother ended up in hospital because of my cursing them.”

Excerpt from Shifting Shadows of Supernatural Power

Ian Clayton shares about moving in the Spirit by the power of God. Be challenged and grow with this teaching full of amazing testimonies of how God is working through the miraculous and what it means for you.

Transrelocation (Teleportation) by the Spirit

Ian Clayton Interviews on YouTube: www.youtube.com...

This search will show MP3's and video by Ian Clayton.

How To Build A Galaxy www.youtube.com...

The freakin Gate of Ian www.youtube.com...

originally posted by: FlyersFan

originally posted by: BlueMule
Nope. All religions are true, for their time and place.

Totally disagree. There is no 'truth' in human sacrifice. There is no 'truth' in misogyny. There is no 'truth' in religions that tell a believer to take slaves and/or to mass slaughter and/or to rape non-believers. Sorry ... no truth there.

Don't get me wrong, I very much respect your position. I am not attracted to those things. But I've somehow found a way to avoid judging things I'm not attracted to, and I am aware that my time and place have had an effect on me. I don't want to impose my local values on a system that I am not a part of. It's not my place to judge, it's my place to accept, forgive, and love unconditionally. Even slavers and rapists. I am conscious of my shadow-self, and I try not to project it onto others. I don't always suceed.

Every religion, every mythology is true in this sense. They are true as metaphorical of the human and cosmic condition. People looking back through the ages and through the lens of their time and place can't hope to understand the now dead metaphors.

a reply to: Murgatroid I have no problem with any demonic forces ever since i learned how to kill a spirit.

However the video titled how to make a galaxy caught my eye even though i can't watch cause dialup. The time i spent dead i am told was over an hour and something was being done in another realm. It had to do with planets being strung together and gold but i can't explain much more. I just found the title simular.

originally posted by: WakeUpBeer
a reply to: Sump3
a reply to: BELIEVERpriest
a reply to: LadyGreenEyes

Great posts but I'm still only getting what you believe and/or what makes you believe!

But the question I'm most interested in having answered is how are the things that confirm your beliefs to you any different from what confirms the beliefs of another to them, in a completely different religion?

The point I'm trying to make with this thread is that profound religious/spiritual experiences, texts, etc., shouldn't be considered evidence that your belief system is "the right one". Because people in other religions have them too.
My apologies if I'm just doing a horrible job articulating.

Well, some of your OP seemed to be about the "what", so I listed some of that. As for why any of that is more or less relevant, well, how many in various beliefs can claim they know the one in whom they believe? In my case, I do know my Savior. So, that is a difference.

That the book I use is one written over hundreds of years, by various people, many of whom had no communication, yet the whole thing fits together perfectly, is something most religions can't claim. There is a LOT of historical and archaeological evidence supporting the Bible as well, which always, when fully understood, aligns perfectly. So, it isn't simply a book of fiction.

Overall, though, a belief in a higher power does require some degree of faith. I can't prove to you that I know Jesus, and I can't prove to you anything He's done in my life, so any belief on your part would be a matter of faith. I do know that lives are changed for the better for people that follow Him, which isn't something all can claim.

As atheist believe there's no God.

So, All these Religions are bull#.