My views on Christianity

MDTyKe

Hey guys,

This is my first post on the Irish Boards, from up North (just.. at the border) here!

Anyway,

I'm 18 years of age now, and I discovered who Jesus Christ was when I was 17, so I haven't been a Christian long. But, it's changed certain aspects of my life, which I love. I wish I could explain to you in words the joy I feel sometimes, it's unreal. Anyway, it saddens me how much religion is messed up things. In all honesty, to everyone here - you are better not so much as touching religion with a barge-pole! By religion, I am referring to denominational religions. I attend a non-denominational Church; one that is, well, quite.. lively? And I absolutely love the fellowship. There is so much more to Christ and Christianity than attending a sermon, or attending a mass every week... that means absolutely nothing; that just satisfies your human 'fear' of not going. Man, there is so much out there with Christianity guys, it's amazing. I pray that you all "find" Him as they say, and that you experience what real Christianity is all about, away from the curtains and walls of religions.


God Bless


Matt

smidgy

Great for you mate.I mean that sincerely.
Religion is great, God is great! You have nothing to fear from conventional religions. You must remember that millions(if not billions!) of people have found joy truth and a reason for living from conventional religions and millions still cherish the 'boring sermons' as sacred and divine. Just because just have found something new, it does not mean it is greater than belief or faith from conventional religions, if anything I'd say it is less but that is just my opinion.

By 'non-denominational Church' do you mean that you all just read the bible and take everything literally, do you all read it and interpret it yourselves, or do you all read the bible and one guy interprets it?

Danno

I can also say that since I accepted Jesus that my life is much better. It is easier to motivate oneself and enjoy oneself better.

I felt that conventional "Mass" is a bore a minute and depressing. I don't attend any church or gathering at all. I am sceptical about such places!

Excelsior

But Danno, there is nowhere in the Bible where a Christian exists independent of a local church. Do you not think that tells us something?

How do you reconcile your personal decision with the very high priority that Christ had for the church? It is spoken of in terms of being his bride and being his plan for the world. (When I use the word church here I mean the invisible pilgrimaging people of God sense- you know, the whole and total body of believers, not one denomination).

MDTyke, if your church is successful and grows over time it will form into something that a sociologist can call a denomination. The fact that I am a baptised, communed and confirmed Roman Catholic practicing in a Presbyterian church means nothing as to whether or not I can experience "real Christianity". It is not a very grace laden opinion that you express.

Dades

MDTyKe wrote:

I'm 18 years of age now, and I discovered who Jesus Christ was when I was 17, so I haven't been a Christian long

Good for you.

Can I ask what prompted you to become a Christian, or who it was that introduced you?

Just interested.

doctor_gonzo

I was brought up as a catholic but have gradually lost my faith over the years. I haven't attended church for a few years and I find that I am so much more at peace without it all.

I have studied a lot of philosophy in the past five or six years and found myself constantly tripping over questions that I didn't have the answers to. My family have always told me to forget what the Catholic Church says and put my faith in Jesus. The truth is, I find that I don't believe in any of it. Nothing about it makes sense to me and I certainly don't feel I have enough information to base my life around.

Instead, I steer clear of anything religious and simply try to live my life in a way that I can be proud of. I don't pray or attend mass or even think about a higher being, and I certainly don't feel the presence of one.

Excelsior

So philosophically, how do you account for your ability to philosophise?

Playboy

Excelsior wrote:

So philosophically, how do you account for your ability to philosophise?

Well obviously God gave us that ability ... the bible is absolute proof of that .. Cant believe u didnt know that Excelsior :rolleyes:

R0ot

Heya all, my story is the same as the doctor here, raised a catholic and gradually lost faith, and about 1 and 1/2 months ago i was at one of the OM run camps in Drewstown House near navan and for lack of a better word i was redeemed, and as previously said the feeling is just indescribable. Ive still been hanging around with various leader that ran the camp because 4 of them live in my area in donegal, and they've been a great help. Now im not saying im completely fulfilled because as most of my friends tell me "stop asking questions" because 'apparently' i do that alot. Well ive started a bible study kinda thing with one of the OM leaders, and ive been asking a few different questions and id like to ask your opinions on this aswel.
1. Did Mary remain a virgin for all her life?
2. Did jesus have brothers and sisters, when i say this i don't mean humanity in general i mean did mary have other kids.
3. Before jesus died on the cross for our sins, were people able to go to heaven?
Now all these questions have been answered to me clearly and precisily, but id still like to know your views on these questions and what answers you have?

doctor_gonzo

Excelsior wrote:

So philosophically, how do you account for your ability to philosophise?

Well.. that's where it all gets confusing doesn't it?! Still..i'm pretty open to other ideas and beliefs, i'd never cut myself off completely to the idea of a higher being etc..just don't feel that right now.

Excelsior

But DrG, surely you have read in your philosophy texts that what you feel should be secondary to what your rationality leads you to?

To R0ot:
1) I feel there is no reason to believe Mary was a virgin her whole life. In the Bible as a whole, sex is exalted as a gift from God to be relished by all married couples. There is in fact a whole book about it: The Song of Songs. No biblical text alludes to life-long celibacy from Mary and none of the early leaders of the church talked about it either. I don't think that belief has any real grounding.

2) From the evidence it is almost certain that Mary had kids. James, the first leader of the church in Jerusalem and the author of the letter that bears his name is referred to as the brother of Jesus. Old school Catholic priests would at this point declare that in the greek there is an ambiguity between "cousin" and "brother" in the meaning of the word used. But John the Baptist is declared very clearly to be a cousin to Jesus and he is not referred to in the same way that James is- therefore, I firmly believe he was Jesus' brother.

There is also a fascinating and strikingly honest scene in the Gospels where Jesus' family come to him to dissuade him from causing all this commotion with the whole "I'm the Creator of the Universe" malarkey. It doesn't say "Mary and Joseph". It suggests that there are siblings involved.

Also, in the culture that Jesus grew up in, children served the purpose of social security for elderly parents. It would be very rare for even a wealthy fertile couple to not have a Space-Wagon load of kids. If a woman was actually infertile it would be a great cause of shame for both- a theme which again is reinforced throughout the rest of the Bible. So I think JC had siblings.

3. Abraham and David are both described as "friends of God". Moses is described in similar terms. Paul says in the great Romans 3-5 chapters that Abraham was saved by his faith. So how it is commonly understood is that those who had faith in God prior to Jesus still benefit from Easter since God is outside of time such things as chronology don't limit him.

So I would say yes, people went to heaven prior to Jesus. But the Bible is clear that they receive entry to heaven on the same grounds as us today- by faith.

Great to hear about you finding God again! Hope to see you round the Christianity board some more. Bring all those questions here and we'll share our opinions!

buellershow

Welcome to the boards matt! great to have you. I haven't posted here much but look forward to making more friends on the board.

CerebralCortex

What happens to Christianity/Spirituality if scientists come up with a way to prevent death?

Excelsior

Excellent question.

Even if we had the technology, humans would kill each other, the technology would be only for the elite and I think it would ensure fairly widespread depression.

Living beyond 100+ years is actually pretty nightmarish to me.

Dades

Excelsior wrote:

Living beyond 100+ years is actually pretty nightmarish to me.

Too true.

People in the first world aren't living longer - they're just taking longer to die.

Another aside - I'm reading a book on the history of Cryogenics and from what I can determine that particular method of cheating death is still very pie-in-the-sky. Probably just as well given that the world population will be a crisis point in 50 years time.

Excelsior

The Atheist wrote:

the world population will be a crisis point in 50 years time.

I'll take two of your Malthusian hysterias sir!

Sadly, nature has a way of bringing population crises to a quick end...

CerebralCortex

This doesn't answer my question what I'm asking is if they actually find a way to cheat death.

Dades

Excelsior wrote:

Sadly, nature has a way of bringing population crises to a quick end...

Pandemics such as Europe had in the past like the Black Death seem unlikely to impact hugely again. The current pandemic only seems to have poorer nations in a death grip. Of course AIDS is a huge problem globally but only an extinction scale in the third world.

Of course we can't discount man-made population levelers either like nuclear or biological weapons disasters.

CerebralCortex wrote:

This doesn't answer my question what I'm asking is if they actually find a way to cheat death.

As was said though, people will always die. You can't cheat death if you're burned to ash or diced. :eek:

I guess you mean that if medical science learns to stop the degradation (or how to regenerate) living cells or something. Again this is unlikely to concern more than a tiny percentage of the population for a very long time. I'd imagine by the time such a procedure was globally available we'd be packing people off into space anyways.

In hindsight I suspect your question was on a religious level. I'll stop talking now because I'm definitely not qualified to answer in this arena.

Excelsior

I'm sorry for not answering your question. Proceed to "Christians have psychological crutches and can't deal with questions" stage. Collect £200.

doctor_gonzo

Excelsior wrote:

But DrG, surely you have read in your philosophy texts that what you feel should be secondary to what your rationality leads you to?

Ah tis true. Guess you just can't force yourself to believe what you don't? And the rational part of myself doesn't point towards a God either...

But it's difficult to put into words why I don't have my faith anymore.

I always think it's a shame. My family all have a very strong faith, I have none. I always think there's a great comfort in having faith in something bigger. I'm not for one second claiming to be right either, that's why I'd never commit myself to athiesm, it's just not happening in my own head!

I'm always open to other people's ideas and beliefs and why they believe what they do, where did all of you guys get your faith in God? I often try to pinpoint where I lost my belief in God, I don't know what happened to me, maybe I just became old and cynical...

MDTyKe

I noticed from your nick Doctor.. are you a doctor?

If so, I want to say one thing. There is something about modern day science; especially physics, but it is still evident in chemistry and biology, where people have the idea that those truly in a science, cannot believe in God. I have to argue with that greatly. Science in fact proves a God, and it shows His glory more than anything else around us.

I found my faith, by having faith. By just simply reading, and starting to believe in something. Christianity, aside from the religious bullcrap, is very faith strong, and it is very loving. It's that, that I think attracted me. I seen Christianity outside of the barriers of a religion, or of a denomination.

In response to someone else, non-denominational just means you are not affiliated with a particular denomination. Everyone in our Church believes in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and they know the basics - and we believe them in the same way as each other; that is what is fundamental. The doctrinal stuff, ie: what race was Jesus, should we do this, or do that to blah blah, the rapture, we keep to ourselves. We all believe in a Rapture of course, but we may have for example, different views on it, ie: start, middle, end tribulation theories. I personally am more inclined towards the middle.

Anyway, we're quite a lively church compared to most. Our Worship to God is heart-felt, and life-felt. It's often different too, so we can express our love and praises to God in very different ways. If you want to clap, you clap. If you want to sing, you sing. If you want to jump up and down, you jump up and down. If you want to kneel.. or stand on your head lol, you can do it. We're not there to judge each other in their practices of worship, as so many other Churches will do, as a matter of pride. We Worship how the individual worships towards God, providing it is within Biblical constraints of course.

I guess if any denomination we'd be in any way close to, would be Elim.. but we're not tied to it. I believe in the Holy Spirit and His Gifts; but I do think the Pentecostal idea can be a bit.. overdone; and especially the Charismatic idea on wealth and prosperity. But hey, that's just my 0.02


Matt

rsynnott

Excelsior wrote:

Sadly, nature has a way of bringing population crises to a quick end...

Really? It's let its guard down lately, apparently... Assuming food production is maintained (which seems to be a safeish assumption unless global warming goes quicker than can be expected; genetic engineering is helping somewhat here) there is no particular reason for expectation of an end to the current population growth in the near future. (This is, of course, ignoring extinction level natural events on the super-volcano/large meteor/gamma ray burst scale).

Excelsior

I guess I just wasn't ignoring them.

Dades

MDTyKe wrote:

... people have the idea that those truly in a science, cannot believe in God. I have to argue with that greatly. Science in fact proves a God, and it shows His glory more than anything else around us.

I found my faith, by having faith. By just simply reading, and starting to believe in something.

I'm happy you found your faith, but science does not prove (or disprove) anything about a god (and certainly not your one). Whatever your beliefs I wouldn't go throwing words like "fact" and "proof" around for fear of sounding like a crackpot.

MDTyKe wrote:

Christianity, aside from the religious bullcrap, is very faith strong, and it is very loving. It's that, that I think attracted me. I seen Christianity outside of the barriers of a religion, or of a denomination.

Shouldn't the attraction be based on the simple fact that you believe it to be true? Just throwing it out there.