How many of you are actually Christians?

[sweetasshugar]

Originally Posted by switchback

The question was directed at those who claim to be Christians.


I just want to know how legitimate they are.


Like 'sweetasshugar' for example...this person does not Legitimately follow the words of The Bible.


concepts like 'Repentence' and 'Hell' are too hard for them to hear...thus they reject it in order to appease their own comfort.


it's sad.


however, this is EXACTLY what The Bible said would happen at a certain point in time in history.


where in 2nd Thessalonians 2:3 there is described a FALLING AWAY or a DEPARTURE from the TRUTH...the truth that INCLUDES the need for repentence and the punishment of hell.


also:


"Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall DEPART from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils..." 1Timothy 4:1

My response here was not to insult anyone, as I said I do believe in god, just not neccessarily a Christian based god. I would think that not believing in the devil would be a relief to many people. It is fear based and I do not believe in a fear based god. I believe in a loving, all-encompassing god. That being said, that is only MY belief. There are many people out there who feel differently and like myself we are all entitled to our own beliefs. You follow the christian way of thinking whereas I follow the Novus Spiritus approach.

[switchback]

The Christian God IS a God of Love.


but He's also a Holy God who by that very definition CANNOT co-exist with evil.


which is why He requires REPENTENCE.


Jesus DIED on the Cross to appease our sins...that is Love.


Jesus said "Greater is no Love that a man should die for his friends."

[sweetasshugar]

I completely agree with you on all of your last post. I am only saying that our views on hell and satan differ somewhat. If you are interested, here is a site than can maybe explain it better. Society of Novus Spiritus: Information from Answers.com
In no way and I trying to insult your beliefs or tell you to change any of them, but only educating you as to my beliefs.

[switchback]

i read it.


but why do you adhere to that belief?


do you believe that notorious serial killers should just be accepted into Heaven for no good reason?


you keep mentioning how 'loving' God is but ask yourself this...does allowing one of these psychopathic monsters into Heaven without TRUE HEARTFELT GENUINE REPENTENCE sound "loving" to you?


what does that say about how God feels towards the victims of these murderers?


doesn't make sense does it?

[extravagantdelight]

I am not a Christian.
But I bless every religion out there, we are all aiming towards the same goal.
I do however, believe in the Creator. But I do not believe what the majority of people say about him/her/it.
The Creator is not vengeful, not punishing, not JUDGMENTAL.
Every one goes to heaven. When you realize this, all thoughts of this fictional ''Vengeful God" will dissapear.
The reason so many of us ultimately fear this fictional idea of the Creator is because we have always been taught to, by our parents. And they by their parents. And so on.
This is a mockery of the Creator. He does not judge us. He knows we will make mistakes. He expects this. If the Creator wanted us to be perfect, and all of us act in a certain way, He would have created us to do so! Do you doubt He holds that power?
Why would he give us the gift of total freedom and free will if He would in turn Damn us to "hell" if we made the ''wrong'' choice? This is a laughable concept! What would the Creator gain from this?
The Creator lives through us, in us, with us. He is experiencing Himself through us. That is the purpose of life. So that He may experience himself as Who He Is and Who He Chooses To Be. In billions of different ways.
When we make a decision, He is a part of that decision.
I tell you, there is no such thing as ''wrong'' and ''right''. It is an illusion in this world of the relative. In the realm of the absolute, where the Creator resides, there is no such thing. Everything simply ''is''.
You see, the world of the relative, where our souls now reside, we must experience who we are not in order to experience who we are. You cannot know yourself to be a loving soul if you have not known yourself to be the opposite. Which would be fearful, vengeful, hateful, etc.
The Creator has given us the wonderful gift of experience. And he condems none of our decisons. He only watches and waits. He knows we will all eventually come back to Him, to Love, because that is what we truely are, and it is impossible to escape the Truth. We are free to experience ourselves as we choose to. We all eventually end up in the same place, that is the Divine Truth.

This concept of ''Hell'' is laughable. Everything came from the Creator, yes? He is all that is and all that is not. Everything began with Him. So this place we have conceived absolutely could not exist, at least not as we think of it. What would be the point of such a place? What would the Creator gain from this? If you did not live the way the Creator ''wanted'' you to, why would he not just do away with you? What would be the point of everlasting pain and suffering?
We created this place in our minds. People, especially religious leaders, use this place to scare us. ''If you do not live to serve the Lord, if you do not do this, and this, and this, you will be damned to everylasting hell." It is a wonderful tactic! What more is there to fear? Satan was also created by us to scare others. To control others.
The true ''hell'' is separating yourself from God. Of course, it is truely impossible to do so. However so many people have this illusion that we are separate. That we are separate from Him, and from each other. We feel truely alone and out of place and unimportant, and that is the true hell.
When you reconnect with the Creator, you will know yourself to be a wonderful and vital part of Him and the universe. And then you will be living in Heaven on Earth. Then you will be living as Christ did, and as Buddha did, and as did all of the Creator's wonderful teachers/masters.
Free yourself from ''vengeful God'', from ''hell'' and from ''satan''.
Know yourself to be a part of the wonderful, loving, abudant, eternal Creator. Know yourself to be Love, and then you will really be living.

[breaker]

Originally Posted by Hawk

I am a Christian who believes that you can only go to the Father God through accepting Jesus in your life.
Now the problem is that satan believes the exact same thing, but do not consider himself a Christian. He believes/knows there is a God and that the Bible is true, he was actually there before he was casted out, so what make us different?

It boils down to faith and your choice or will to follow Him, His guidance, to repent your sins, to glorify Him with your body, mind and soul and to have trust in His promises we read in the Bible. These are the people He wants to award with the Gift of eternal life, but still it is only through Grace and not good works we can enter Heaven. We can never be good enough, but we must strive to be like Jesus.

We start growing spiritually when we are born again and made a serious choice to accept Jesus in our lives and that we want the Holy Spirit to fill our bodies and want to fight the flesh and resist evil!

satan attacks Christians, deceive them thinking they are serving the Lord, but actually does the will of satan. This is the way satan gets most of his souls and that is through deceived Christian deceiving others!

This is me and I am not supporting a certain religion, church or doctrine, I believe in the Church/Body of Christ and the Word of God and is still learning and open for the Holy Spirit to use me as He see fit!

All the best people and have peace in Jesus!

bingo

[lizzygirl]

Yes I’m a Christian.

[marywilkinson45]

Originally Posted by lizzygirl

Yes I’m a Christian.

I AM A CHRISTIAN TOO. IT IS AN HONOR TO BE A CHRISTIAN. BLESSINGS TO YOU.

[sweetasshugar]

Originally Posted by extravagantdelight

I am not a Christian.
But I bless every religion out there, we are all aiming towards the same goal.
I do however, believe in the Creator. But I do not believe what the majority of people say about him/her/it.
The Creator is not vengeful, not punishing, not JUDGMENTAL.
Every one goes to heaven. When you realize this, all thoughts of this fictional ''Vengeful God" will dissapear.
The reason so many of us ultimately fear this fictional idea of the Creator is because we have always been taught to, by our parents. And they by their parents. And so on.
This is a mockery of the Creator. He does not judge us. He knows we will make mistakes. He expects this. If the Creator wanted us to be perfect, and all of us act in a certain way, He would have created us to do so! Do you doubt He holds that power?
Why would he give us the gift of total freedom and free will if He would in turn Damn us to "hell" if we made the ''wrong'' choice? This is a laughable concept! What would the Creator gain from this?
The Creator lives through us, in us, with us. He is experiencing Himself through us. That is the purpose of life. So that He may experience himself as Who He Is and Who He Chooses To Be. In billions of different ways.
When we make a decision, He is a part of that decision.
I tell you, there is no such thing as ''wrong'' and ''right''. It is an illusion in this world of the relative. In the realm of the absolute, where the Creator resides, there is no such thing. Everything simply ''is''.
You see, the world of the relative, where our souls now reside, we must experience who we are not in order to experience who we are. You cannot know yourself to be a loving soul if you have not known yourself to be the opposite. Which would be fearful, vengeful, hateful, etc.
The Creator has given us the wonderful gift of experience. And he condems none of our decisons. He only watches and waits. He knows we will all eventually come back to Him, to Love, because that is what we truely are, and it is impossible to escape the Truth. We are free to experience ourselves as we choose to. We all eventually end up in the same place, that is the Divine Truth.

This concept of ''Hell'' is laughable. Everything came from the Creator, yes? He is all that is and all that is not. Everything began with Him. So this place we have conceived absolutely could not exist, at least not as we think of it. What would be the point of such a place? What would the Creator gain from this? If you did not live the way the Creator ''wanted'' you to, why would he not just do away with you? What would be the point of everlasting pain and suffering?
We created this place in our minds. People, especially religious leaders, use this place to scare us. ''If you do not live to serve the Lord, if you do not do this, and this, and this, you will be damned to everylasting hell." It is a wonderful tactic! What more is there to fear? Satan was also created by us to scare others. To control others.
The true ''hell'' is separating yourself from God. Of course, it is truely impossible to do so. However so many people have this illusion that we are separate. That we are separate from Him, and from each other. We feel truely alone and out of place and unimportant, and that is the true hell.
When you reconnect with the Creator, you will know yourself to be a wonderful and vital part of Him and the universe. And then you will be living in Heaven on Earth. Then you will be living as Christ did, and as Buddha did, and as did all of the Creator's wonderful teachers/masters.
Free yourself from ''vengeful God'', from ''hell'' and from ''satan''.
Know yourself to be a part of the wonderful, loving, abudant, eternal Creator. Know yourself to be Love, and then you will really be living.

Thank you for puttting forth so eloquently exactly what I was trying to explain! This has been an interesting debate.

[merenwenrago]

Ive been a christian my whole life