Religion IS Malware

originally posted by: BuzzyWigs
a reply to: ServantOfTheLamb

Depends on what your talking about. Salvation is by faith(trust) alone. This is one of your favorite topics and I don't think you understand how silly it is.

How is it "silly"?

So - all you have to do is say "yes, please, Jesus" and everything is awesome? You have no responsibility to participate in or contribute to the well-being of your fellows?

As long as you "say you believe", everything is fine and dandy and your ticket is reserved?????????

I'm sorry, I just don't buy that.
"Faith alone" is lazy.
Just saying.
PROVE IT.

From Matthew 25:31-46:


34"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

37"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

Yeah.
So - all you artful dodgers ------
no, "faith alone" is not enough.



Or, here ya go:

New Living Translation
"And he will answer, 'I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.'

English Standard Version
Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’

New American Standard Bible
"Then He will answer them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.'

And then, "I do not know you, yada yada and scooby dooby doo."

You said to Servant,

So - all you have to do is say "yes, please, Jesus" and everything is awesome? You have no responsibility to participate in or contribute to the well-being of your fellows?

I don't know about that person, but I know that it doesn't work that way. Sometimes saying "yes, Jesus" means that you lose friends because they don't understand why you do certain things. They think that you have to do what they think is reasonable to them and not what is helpful to someone else.

One time when I was living in North Carolina, a cousin of mine that lives in England called me crying because of some reason her daughter was arrested in New York because of some circumstances that she was innocent in. However, through the confusion she was arrested by Customs, taken to a Federal holding jail for illegal immigrants. When her mother talked to me, she was crying that she wanted someone to go visit her daughter, because mothers are like that, no matter where they are.

I prayed about it and after much thinking, I felt it a moral obligation to go to New York to see the girl. I drove all the way from North Carolina to New York, her lawyer was not a good one and prevented me from seeing her. Now some people did think it was ridiculous to drive all the way there and then be turned down. But I knew that I had to go visit the girl.

Then after some time she was transferred to a county prison in Pennsylvania. I had kept praying for the girl and her mother. So I contacted the warden there and explained to them who I was and he said that I could come and see her. So then I drove all the way to Pennsylvania, went into the prison and talked with the girl.

Then a week later she got the news that the person who committed the crime had confessed that it was not her fault and that she had nothing to do with it, then the Secret Service and ICE confessed the reason they held her that long was because they had misplaced her passport and had secretly accused her of being an illegal immigrant. They then had to drop all charges and pay her way back to England. They had not even let her see anyone from the British embassy.

But I had gone to see the girl because it was a moral obligation for me. While we think that what we do might be small, some people just don't see the whole picture. I took a lot of flack over going there, not from her mother or brothers, but from people who lived around me, people who claimed to be my friends.

I knew that my prayers were heard, yet to other people they thought that it was silly for me to extend myself like that. I didn't care what they thought, to me I heard a mother crying over her child and no one else would do anything to bring her comfort.

Sometimes what seems silly to some, isn't really silly to others. We don't see the big picture because we are too limited. Those people who gave me all of that trouble who said 'Oh you know God doesn't talk to people, and God didn't talk to you" ended up later being arrested for heroin trafficking and then cried to me for sympathy for their addiction to heroin. When they sent me a message, this was my reply "So you want sympathy for yourself for a heroin addiction that you knew 5 years before when we had that discussion about it, that you told me not to have sympathy for the grief of a mother over her child that was innocent, when you finally get off the heroin then we can talk".

My sympathetic heart can only take so much. But when I know, I know.

a reply to: 3NL1GHT3N3D1

What's supposed to happen before Jesus returns? War. What's been happening for thousands of years now? War. What have people been saying for thousands of years now? The end is near. Why? Because war is supposed to happen before Jesus' return.

The second coming of Jesus being preceded by war has caused complacency toward war because people see it as fulfillment of vague prophecy and to stop it is to try to stop God's grand plan of salvation.

Yes, religious people believing in religious doctrines have facilitated war throughout history.

This may have been relevant hundreds of years ago, but today it is a paltry estimate.

a reply to: BELIEVERpriest

originally posted by: BELIEVERpriest
a reply to: Akragon

In a world full of people trying to achieve some form of eternal security by good works, don't you think Faith Alone would be the narrow path?

No, that's not what Jesus said the narrow path is.

Matthew 7:12-14 King James Version (KJV)

12 Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.

13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:

14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

Many people around the world either believe works don't matter, OR, are believing bad works are good - yet many people refuse The Law and Narrow Path - to treat others as they would like to be treated. They would rather believe it's ok to treat others in any way and stay on the narrow path.

a reply to: BuzzyWigs

How is it "silly"?

Because the argument has no merit any person who thinks it does simply hasn't read the Bible.

So - all you have to do is say "yes, please, Jesus" and everything is awesome? You have no responsibility to participate in or contribute to the well-being of your fellows?

Yes all I do is trust Christ, and why would I have a responsibility to contribute to the well-being of others? I contribute to the well being of others simply because I care about them. Its not a sense of responsibility its just the type of person Christ inspires me to be.

I'm sorry, I just don't buy that.
"Faith alone" is lazy.
Just saying.
PROVE IT.

I am not going to prove something that has been accepted for 2000 years, not to mention that nothing I say could make you think otherwise.

a reply to: ServantOfTheLamb

This is a good summary, If you truly choose Jesus, you will get the Sin out of your lifestyle.:

www.gotquestions.org...
Question: "Why did Jesus tell people to ‘go and sin no more’ if sinlessness is impossible?"

Answer: There are two instances in the New Testament when Jesus told someone to “sin no more,” and they were each under very different circumstances. The first is when Jesus healed an invalid by the Pool of Bethesda (John 5:1–15). Afterward, Jesus found the man and told him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you” (verse 14). It is clear that Jesus knew what had caused the man’s condition. We are not told the specifics of the man’s physical impairment, but the context implies that it was caused by sinful choices. Jesus warned the man that he had been given a second chance and that he should make better choices. If the man returned to his sinful behavior, he would have wasted the opportunity Jesus gave him to live whole and forgiven.

The second instance is in the account of the woman taken in the act of adultery (John 8:3–11). When the woman’s accusers brought her before Jesus, expecting Him to pronounce judgment, He told them that the one who was without sin should throw the first stone. One by one, the condemning crowd left. Then Jesus told the woman, “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more” (verse 11). She had been caught. She was guilty. She did deserve stoning according to the Law of Moses (Leviticus 20:10; Deuteronomy 22:22). But the religious leaders who had dragged her there had no concern for holiness. They were trying to trap Jesus into saying that the Law did not matter (verse 6).

Jesus often reminded those religious leaders that He had not come to abolish the Law but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17). He, as God, was the Author of the Law (2 Timothy 3:16). The Pharisees focused on the letter of the Law but missed the true spirit of it, which is given in Galatians 5:14: “The whole law can be summed up in this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” When Jesus refused to condemn the woman, He was not minimizing the importance of holiness. He was offering her the same kind of forgiveness He offers every one of us (Acts 3:19).

In saying, “Go and sin no more,” Jesus was not speaking of sinless perfection. He was warning against a return to sinful lifestyle choices. His words both extended mercy and demanded holiness. Jesus was always the perfect balance of “grace and truth” (John 1:14). With forgiveness comes the expectation that we will not continue in the same path of rebelliousness. Those who know God’s love will naturally want to obey Him (John 14:15).

When we turn to Christ and receive His forgiveness, we experience a heart change (Luke 9:23; Acts 1:8). Forgiveness is not cheap, and it does not excuse the sin that separated us from God. It cost God everything to offer us the cleansing that pronounces us righteous before Him (John 3:16; 15:13). Rather than continue in the self-centered path that led us astray from Him to begin with, the forgiven can walk in God’s path (Luke 14:27). A move toward God is a move toward righteousness, purity, and holy living (1 Peter 1:16; Romans 8:29). We cannot experience the transforming power of forgiveness without being forever changed.

It goes without saying that the woman caught in adultery did not return to her infidelity. She had met Jesus. She would not be perfect. No one is. But she was forever changed. Her eyes had been opened to the depravity of what she was doing. Sin no longer held the appeal it once did.

When we meet Jesus, sin no longer holds its fatal attraction. Grace changes things. “Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” (Romans 6:1–2).When we are born again (John 3:3), the power of the Holy Spirit breaks the power that sin once had over us (Romans 6:6).




Once we lived only to please ourselves, but when we have been forgiven, our motivation changes. We now live to please God (Galatians 2:20).

It should be the goal of every Christian to “sin no more,” although we recognize that, while we are in the flesh, we will still stumble (1 John 1:8). God’s desire for each of us is to be holy as He is holy (1 Peter 1:16). We still sin, but sin is no longer a lifestyle choice (1 John 3:9–10). When we fail, we can come to God and ask forgiveness (1 John 1:9; 1 Peter 4:1–2). And if we are truly God’s children, He will correct us, disciplining us when we need it (Hebrews 12:6–11). His work is to conform us to the image of His Son (Romans 8:29).

a reply to: soulpowertothendegree

Now....
Where have I heard a "everyone who does not believe as I do is defective" rant before?
Oh yes.
Certain religious people........

originally posted by: soulpowertothendegree
Religion IS Malware

Malware is a malicious virus that needs to be destroyed, coincidentally Hitler said Jews, Gypsies Gays and others were subhuman beings and need to be purged.

Today the modern psychopathe have turned to calling religion the subhuman virus that needs to be purged.

i guess nothing has changed, it all the same,.

It will take 1 charismatic leader and many will do what has been done many times before.

Same rhetoric different target.

I am religious, I am a virus, I will expect you at my door one day.


You are what you are and it cant be changed.

My problem with religion....I was not born with "Faith" and am unsure how to just turn off My "Reason". I have questions that nobody will (or maybe its can) answer, because simply asking questions makes You a "distraction" or worse a "Godless Heathen". Faith is literally accepting the story put in front of You no matter how much it doesn't make sense, I am unsure how to do that....so I am Godless and doomed to Hell.

a reply to: WarminIndy


I'll drink to that! For the contents of the mug please choose whatever beverage you please. Full bar tonight folks, on me.

Well said indeed!

I wonder what the youngsters are learning in Sociology 101 these days.

In my day, it was taught that all social activity, including religion, ended up displaying three attributes:

1) Function: That which was the purpose.

2) Misfunction: Non-stated as primary yet side-effects which may complement or detract from function.

3) Dysfunction: Results which are contradictory to the explicit function.

Obviously dysfunctions should be identified and corrected whenever possible. Example: If the downspout from the roof gets twisted to the side so that the water flows out of the intended channel, thus causing erosion, don't tear the downspout out, just twist it back.

Too bad I can only give you one star.

a reply to: infolurker

When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. 10

That happened between February 28 and April 19, 1993 in Texas.

It may sound like a joke, but I'm not laughing. I had associates on both sides of that stand-off. I heard the FBI white sheet in toto. The feds were actually suffering under the delusion that they were "protecting the country from a grave threat."

I tried to talk to the now famous FBI profiler to correct his BS profile, but his people didn't put me through.

The only thing I could manage to do was convince the state of Texas to remove its flag from the flag staff, because they really didn't want to be taking any credit there.

a reply to: WarminIndy

What is the reward or punishment in the fortune cookies?

A good or bad fortune, of course.

a reply to: infolurker

Are you dancing with anticipation at getting to "get rid" of people like me? I don't think you will have to wait much longer to be honest:

Are you dancing with anticipation for "god to pour out his wrath upon the earth" and kill billions of people just because they don't belong to the Jesus clique, so you can inherit the earth after the slaughter?

a reply to: BuzzyWigs

"reverence for the gods" and "fear of the gods" doesn't really have anything to do with human, innate, natural "conscientiousness, sense of right, moral obligation"

Please watch Darmok, 102nd episode of the science fiction television series Star Trek: The Next Generation,

The Enterprise makes contact with a Tamarian ship in orbit around the planet El-Adrel. Though the universal translator can translate their words, the Tamarians only communicate through metaphor which baffles the Enterprise crew. Likewise, the Tamarians cannot understand Picard's straightforward use of language.
Wikipedia-Darmok

Look up the etymologies of some of the words associated with the virtues. You will find that many common nouns were first proper nouns, the names of gods and goddesses. The concepts of the virtues were transmitted orally through story telling. That's what myth is. Communication of virtue.

If there is no respect for the gods whose names gave us the noun, then what have we become? A bit disconnected from our heritage.

originally posted by: BELIEVERpriest
a reply to: Klassified

That's the beauty of it, as long as humans interact with each other, they disagree. Therefore, we know that anyone seeking to unify a spiritual creed by political means or by foce is either naive or dangerous, as they are seeking to unify a force (humanity) that cannot remain unified by nature.

Therefore Christians should follow the bible the way the spirit leads them, and leave the unifying work to Christ at his return. For now, division guarantees our freedom of spiritual thought.

This may sound good from a human perspective, but it isn't what the bible teaches in verse, or in inference. "God" is not the author of confusion, and Christians are to be of one mind, and one Spirit. Additionally, the "Holy Spirit" is a unifying force among Christians. Not a force for division. Unless Paul wrote 1Corinthians 12 in vain.

a reply to: Klassified

Well we also know how God likes to sometimes send lying spirits and strong delusions. So in a way, he is the author of confusion. How many Christians can say with certainty God isn't manipulating them as part of his master plan? Perhaps this is one of the reasons some Christians accuse other Christians of not being true Christians. ...Or maybe not.

originally posted by: WakeUpBeer
a reply to: Klassified

Well we also know how God likes to sometimes send lying spirits and strong delusions. So in a way, he is the author of confusion. How many Christians can say with certainty God isn't manipulating them as part of his master plan? Perhaps this is one of the reasons some Christians accuse other Christians of not being true Christians. ...Or maybe not.

Lol! Touche! A good point.

a reply to: Klassified

The bible teaches unification and sanctification by the Spirit. All who walk in the Spirit are unified, and stand apart from those who don't.

originally posted by: BELIEVERpriest
a reply to: Klassified

The bible teaches unification and sanctification by the Spirit. All who walk in the Spirit are unified, and stand apart from those who don't.

Exactly my point. There's an awful lot of Christians not walking in the spirit then, aren't there?

originally posted by: pthena
a reply to: infolurker

When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. 10

That happened between February 28 and April 19, 1993 in Texas.

It may sound like a joke, but I'm not laughing. I had associates on both sides of that stand-off. I heard the FBI white sheet in toto. The feds were actually suffering under the delusion that they were "protecting the country from a grave threat."

I tried to talk to the now famous FBI profiler to correct his BS profile, but his people didn't put me through.

The only thing I could manage to do was convince the state of Texas to remove its flag from the flag staff, because they really didn't want to be taking any credit there.

Hugs.

originally posted by: Klassified

originally posted by: BELIEVERpriest
a reply to: Klassified

The bible teaches unification and sanctification by the Spirit. All who walk in the Spirit are unified, and stand apart from those who don't.

Exactly my point. There's an awful lot of Christians not walking in the spirit then, aren't there?

You have said the truth, I agree.

And that's what we say, the same thing you just did.