Tell me, what turns you off at the church.

you're welcome, okinrus. ha anyway, personally the rituals in Christianity do not make much sense. and I am talking about the catholic sect in particular. People think that by eating the little bread and drinking wine they are purified. they totally miss the whole point of the body of Christ thing. Communion, confirmation and all that is unecessary. One does not have to confirm one's faith to the Church, that's ridiculous. It appears to me as if the Christian leaders are afraid they will lose believers, they make a big deal convincing people that there is a God. People have the right to find that out for themselves. Nothing should be forced, and ritual disolutes spirituality by making it orderly and monotonous when actually it all depends on the person.

you mispelled my name. :bugeye:

 

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Jesus says that we must eat his flesh and drink his blood to have life within us. Communion serves two purposes: 1. Jesus really is present in the bread. 2. To bring rememberance of the new convenant." And no we are not a sect but a faith that can trace its history back to the twelve apostles. Our Communion was practiced by the early church and we read about it in 1 Corintheans. The key is not so much doing what is only necessary for salvation but doing so as Christ commanded. All ritual must be done through the love of God. It might seem strange and unnecessary that Moses and Josuah had to take off their sandals because they were steping on holy ground, but all of this served a greater purpose. The time would come when Christ would wash his disciples feet.

"And this food is called among us Eukaristia [the Eucharist], of which no one is allowed to partake but the man who believes that the things which we teach are true, and who has been washed with the washing that is for the remission of sins, and unto regeneration, and who is so living as Christ has enjoined."
http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/justinmartyr-firstapology.html

From Ignatius a disciple of John.
"Especially [will I do this139 ] if the Lord make known to me that ye come together man by man in common through grace, individually,140 in one faith, and in Jesus Christ, who was of the seed of David according to the flesh, being both the Son of man and the Son of God, so that ye obey the bishop and the presbytery with an undivided mind, breaking one and the same bread, which is the medicine of immortality, and the antidote to prevent us from dying, but [which causes] that we should live for ever in Jesus Christ"
http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-01/anf01-16.htm#P1192_220613

I'm not confirmed either. It's not necessary for salvation, but I see it more like a renewal of the baptism vows made when you are an infant and growing into greater awareness of our faith. Confirmation is of course the "laying of hands" given by the bible. Though the Byzantine Catholic church does it at baptism and it is reconized by the roman catholics as valid. Oil was of course used by early christians in ceremony. James 5:14 "He should summon the presbyters of the church, and they should pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord, and the prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the Lord will raise him up."

 

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The thing that turns me off about the church is that everything they say is a lie. If they just dropped the whole God thing, then it might be okay.

 

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The Lie

If they dropped the whole God thing, the human race would be more like a real family.

 

a turn off you ask? well I would be much turned off at a church if I didnt feel GOD there........

 

Feeling God

If you don't feel God (your perception of what God is) in your heart, you're not likely to feel God there either.

 

Volter (jk)

Luckily our faith in God doesn't have to be based off of the actions of our church or even the actions of those who call themselves christian. Christianity is a choice you must come to on your own no one can force it on you, but yes people try. They have good intentions, but unfortuantly it pushes people away. So I would encourage you to dig into the Bible and see what you can find (Start in John if you don't know where to begin); it's one of the ways God speaks to us. You don't need a church to become a christian, but it helps if you can find one that is really for God.

Christ's love to you,

Mystee

 

You seem to have the words proselytizing and debating
confused. I have a question - without using the bible as
your proof, can you prove God exists?

 

you guys don't get it. I have been a freakin Catholic for my whole life until now. i finally awoke from the web of lies implented by this religion. man, i even went to a fu***** (sorry

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) private school. The majority of these people are a bunch of hypocrites.
Also don't lecture me on the Bible because honey, I have read it. I know the whole deal about the body of Christ.
I have heard the Catholic church has hidden some lost records that talked about reincarnation and stuff but they decided not to put it in the Bible because they thought people would become lazy since they would have all the time in the world to do good deeds. Now if they hid that from us what other things do we not know about? :bugeye: The Bible, I repeat was writen by humans, it is not the whole truth an dis not perfect as well. However, one can still learn from cool man Jesus. if people were to follow his teachings the world would be a better place.

 

true that we dont *have* to have a church to feel GOD but if we ,as a true christian will know if that church is filled with the holy spirit or not.........as we are never alone, GOD is with us always....no matter where we are,he sees all! it is good to be surrounded by other chistians so we can learn and become STRONGER in our faith,and stronger against Satan.......god bless and I HOPE you will open your eyes to THE WORD..........thank you for your time

 

a truly strong person does not need others around him to become stronger... his mind is strong enough... only those who are weak require the old strength in numbers idea to keep their faith strong.

 

I have always said that I am a "Church of One."

 

You can't really be a slave to yourself . . . that's sort of an oxymoron. However, I will respond to your inquiries, I suppose. No, nothing you mentioned deserves my service. It's your choice; you make it. I won't portest if you serve me though.

 

You probably haven't lived long enough to understand, but if you only live to serve yourself, your pleasures, only yourself, you are a slave to yourself. (possibly your parents are your slaves too, at 16, they don't have much choice)

too selfish, too young, how do your friends, family feel about that?

so no Army, no Peace Corps, no public service?

You can "portest" all you want, whatever that means? But, the only time I'll serve you is when I volunteer to the local homeless shelter & scoop some food onto your plate. if you think I'll ever be your slave, you're dreaming little boy, talk to your parents for that or get a job, bud

 

That reminds me too much of the army.

 

Flores:


It sounds like you are so close to perfect, you don't need help from Jesus. Maybe Jesus is using his energy on people who need his help?

 

The reason they never air condition churches: To give you a preview of hell.

 

What turns me off about church;;

gossip; somehow everyone knows whatever you told the head of the church;preacher,pastor,etc..
what ya wear,what ya dont; what ya drive,where ya live
its like being rated to see where they'll fit ya in or throw ya out
some of us just want to learn and know how to get closer.
can't take any of it with ya when ya go...but ya need to know what to do to get to go...and their opion won't matter.

 

That's what you wrote, you stupid son of a bitch.

That's why I responded:

"It's your choice; you make it. I won't portest if you serve me though."

As for "portest," one finger hit one key before another finger hit another key. This is easily dismissible.
However, you chose to be obnoxious and proclaim it on high.

Well, if you think it'll make your dick bigger to point that out without provocation, go ahead.

I hadn't made a single attempt to impugn or debase, and yet you, motivated by some wizened, pharisaic superciliousness, smugly corrected a trivial error of mine.

Just where do you get off, you sardonic wind-bag?

It's time to return the favor, bud, since you did take a go at me.

Firstly, one should never begin a sentence with "but," or any other conjunction.
Secondly, "if" should be capitalized.
Thirdly, the sentence beginning with "if" and ending with "bud" is a major run-on sentence. The comma between "boy" and "talk" should be a period, exclamation point, colon, or semicolon. Accordingly, "talk" should be capitalized.
Fourthly, there should be a comma between "dreaming" and "little".
Fifthly, "bud" should have a period or exclamation point after it. It does conclude that confounding run-on sentence, after all.

 

Flores

it's not nice, aye. it's hard for me to be able to consider any religious school of thought as whenever i think about religion i have trouble divorcing it from the type of people i automatically think of when it comes to religion and what they practice. i don't think anyone has ever made such a lasting negative impression on me in my life. it was a truly horible experience- just the pressure of the situation, i had no idea what was happening- this highly emotive speaker talking about acceptance then wham, i'm dragged up the front to complete a prayer. it is gross. hard to speak about with others as well. it's sad that it happens, i didn't understand why it happened to me either. it's hard finding people that share similar experiences, i got some grief that i need to talk through i reckon.

M*W

once again, nice. i like your church- personal. the way it should be. everyone is different, everyone's experience's are different. why should everyone share their religion when it's a wholly individual experience?