126 replies to this topic

[TempName123]

Aye pretty much every war boils down to religion somewhere.

I am not a religious man myself but i fully respect others peoples views. in a lot of situations when people have lost everything they need to turn to something.

The majority of the population of the world is at least nominally committed to some religion or another. Despite the perception in some parts of the Western world that religious belief is in terminal decline, or that economic and social development go hand in hand with secularisation, there are many parts of the world where fundamentalist religious belief is firmly entrenched (including the most developed and powerful nation on earth, the USA).

At the moment its American central Belt Christian fundamentalism aganist Middle Eastern Fundamentalism. thts the new "war".

in my opition "War. What is it good for?" "Absolutely Nothing!" Sing it now "WAR...."

[Peachy]

i dont no where people get the idea that 2 be a Christian u have 2 be "good". its nothing to do with that. its about Jesus, as the name suggests(CHRISTian). all u have 2 do is have faith in Jesus. good works come from faith, not the other way around. nobody can be sinless, thats why Jesus died for us. Christians still sin, but God looks at us like we've never sinned, because he took all his wrath out on the cross, 2000 years ago. I think thats pretty amazing.

[smb]

i dont no where people get the idea that 2 be a Christian u have 2 be "good". its nothing to do with that.
its about Jesus, as the name suggests(CHRISTian). all u have 2 do is have faith in Jesus. good works come from faith, not the other way around. nobody can be sinless, thats why Jesus died for us. Christians still sin, but God looks at us like we've never sinned, because he took all his wrath out on the cross, 2000 years ago. I think thats pretty amazing.

Yes, I agree although I know a few folk might read that as "christians can do what they want and get away with it cos of one flimsy belief.

I can see thats not what your saying though. Personally, I agree with pretty much all you have said there.

What a christian believes: We should try as hard as possible to be good. But yeah, we all sin all because Adam took the fruit of the tree (original sin). So we have sin in us - everybody - no one is perfect. All apart from Jesus - God's son, who, by the Holy Spirit came down to earth and died for our sins. Jesus took everyone's sins on himself and even went through hell. Believe it or not, this was a gift from God. It meant that no-one needed to sacrifice things anymore to say they were sorry - instead, all they had to do was believe that Jesus died for our sins. Sounds simple - and it really is that simple to a certain extent.

But simply being a Christian isn't enough (but it is the most fundamental belief in being a christian). Nor is going to church every week enough. (darnit.) If you are a Christian, and believe that Jesus died for our sins etc it means that you follow Christ. That involves doing good, so you do not get away with just saying you "believe". And surely, if you are a Christian you'd want to do good! (Like waht Peachy was saying - having faith results in being good ). You shouldn't just ignore the rest of the bible because that is hypocritical. But then again, it also doesn't mean that you have to take every word of it 100% seriously. For example, all these verse in Exodus where it talks about the Israelites laws - for eg. killing anyone who walks in to your field and all that. That was written in the Old Testament, before Jesus died for our sins. Doesn't mean it is completely irrelevant however and should still be read.

If a Christian sins they should really still ask God to forgive them for what they have done wrong. i think, becoming a Christian means God has forgiven you for all you did wrong in the past. And he will forgive you for what you do wrong in the future too but it doesnt mean you have to stop "asking for forgiveness" even though he has already done it by washing your sins away.

The thing about being a Christian is that God brings us back to be what we were meant to be - thats why he takes our sin away through Jesus - and then us and God can be good buddies . The trouble with people is that they are trying to forget about God saying he doesnt exist or doesnt matter when christians think that they are actually made to be at their happiest when their trust is in God.


I'm running away before I get shot...again (thats precisely the reason i've been cowardly enough to stay away from this topic!)

[TempName123]

People its offical. Sharon has entered the debate.

[coca]

But who is to decide what 'sinning' is and isn't?

The observer?

What do you mean by the observer? As in, the deity or whatever? Sorry, please clarify.

Hehe, I was going for a "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" type of idea^^

[John]

i dont no where people get the idea that 2 be a Christian u have 2 be "good". its nothing to do with that.
its about Jesus, as the name suggests(CHRISTian). all u have 2 do is have faith in Jesus. good works come from faith, not the other way around. nobody can be sinless, thats why Jesus died for us. Christians still sin, but God looks at us like we've never sinned, because he took all his wrath out on the cross, 2000 years ago. I think thats pretty amazing.

Yes, I agree although I know a few folk might read that as "christians can do what they want and get away with it cos of one flimsy belief.

I can see thats not what your saying though. Personally, I agree with pretty much all you have said there.

John: I cut this bit out to save space, and I also agree with you lot

The thing about being a Christian is that God brings us back to be what we were meant to be - thats why he takes our sin away through Jesus - and then us and God can be good buddies . The trouble with people is that they are trying to forget about God saying he doesnt exist or doesnt matter when christians think that they are actually made to be at their happiest when their trust is in God.


I'm running away before I get shot...again (thats precisely the reason i've been cowardly enough to stay away from this topic!)

I'm not shooting you or anything Sharon...

But just want to make a minor/major point, which is...

Each person can have their own way of following Christianity, whether that is by being a memeber of a Church(eg Roman Catholic, Protestant, Episcopal, Eastern Orthodox, Free Church of Scotland, Church of Scotlan,Church of England, Evangelical Church, etc) or by simply having faith in the Bible and what it says, whether wholely or partly, they are all christians, just in diffrent ways.


And I apologise if I mis-interpreted your post, which I think I may have done.

[smb]

I'm not shooting you or anything Sharon...

But just want to make a minor/major point, which is...

Each person can have their own way of following Christianity, whether that is by being a memeber of a Church(eg Roman Catholic, Protestant, Episcopal, Eastern Orthodox, Free Church of Scotland, Church of Scotlan,Church of England, Evangelical Church, etc) or by simply having faith in the Bible and what it says, whether wholely or partly, they are all christians, just in diffrent ways.


And I apologise if I mis-interpreted your post, which I think I may have done.

Alright.

My belief on that is that if you are a Christian, its not best to simply pick which parts of the Bible that you want to follow. I believe God made people in his image. Nowadays, it seems like people want God to be in their image, or to suit their image of what God is.