Love thy neighbor. Turn the other cheek. Wash the feet of a beggar. If I understand correctly, Jesus' teachings (as far as I can tell) had little to do with the God of Heaven and Hell. Those are two distinct things. I mean, there is certainly a grest deal of conflation in the centuries that followed the creation Christianity, but none of that is on the guy's shoulders. It's a tough line to walk as an atheist, but I choose to believe that Jesus did not set out to create a cult. He just wanted people to do right by each other.
No idea. Hopefully not. Part of wisdom is learning from others who have gone before, not reinventing the wheel. But it doesn't matter. The point of a role model is to observe their way of life and take from it nuggets of what you want to be. I take only the portion that I choose from what I've learned. I have other role models: Doc Savage, John Blackstone from Shogun, etc.
Be nice to everyone, friend and stranger alike. Be pacifist. Don't countenance or promote violence. Forgive. Be humble.
In general that sounds like perty good stuff which Jesus has in common wit me... but my more profound pholosophy is that nobody deserves punishment... an if you wish id be pleased to be on you'r list of roll models Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
You continue to conflate Jesus and the God of brimstone and eternal damnation. Jesus was just a guy. Christianity as a belief system is something completely different. Jesus was dead before any of that came along. It was retroactively attached to him by religions. There are religions that follow Jesus on the basis that he is a human being, and therefore an effective role* model, as opposed to God, which is does not exactly provide much in the way of practical life tenets. *note the spelling
No im talkin about real life (not bible stories)... "i dont thank any body deserves punishment".!!! EDIT::: Oops... Id be pleased to be on you'r list of role models Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Ah. Well, this world is a finite place. And we do have a societal contract to abide. What do you do when some dude decides that all your neighbour's sheep should really be his sheep, and your neighbour's family are in his way? Perhaps. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Have you diverted any rivers lately? Slain any Hydrae?
No... even beter... due to my influence i saved my wife by causin her to quit goin to a Dum-Azz Pennycost church Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
What is the difference between calling Jesus God and calling Jesus one part of a Trinity that is God? Nothing. DE
Is this some sneaky method of calling Jesus God but not God so that no one can object to him being called God. What is a third of a person? Answer: the person. Personhood is not the same as pies. DE
I'm not sure what's sneaky about it. It's not like they're trying to prove anything to anyone else. I think maybe it would behoove one to learn a little more about it before passing judgement on it. Passing quick judgment is what results in statements like "If man evolved from apes, why are there still apes? Evolution is wrong." Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
To be a true Christian you must have the Spirit of Christ (Rom 8:9-10), and you receive Him if you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." (John 1:12-13) It's simple: Christians are those who believe in Jesus Christ. I hope the following may help lead someone to Christ: When one person writes a book they can include clues and hints about a character coming later and about how the story will resolve. They can be quite hidden like in mystery novels, where the secret of whodunnit is given piecemeal in the early parts of the book but it's not apparent to anyone but the most savvy reader. At the end of the book, the detective reveals the killer and going back to the early clues declares how he knows who the killer really is. And the reader gasps with surprise and exclaims, "The clues were there all along, why didn't I see it!?" The Bible is like this in that it foreshadows the coming of the Saviour of the world, and how He would die for our sins and rise again from the dead, and that He would come a second time to reign over Israel and the nations in righteousness forever. But because the Old Testament was written over thousands of years by many different people from different locales and walks of life, we can't say that this was intentionally done by man. How could man have known what would come to be in the future? And even more, how would these different men have foreshadowed or prophesied the same person and future events? No, this is the proof that the Bible is from God. So if anyone wants to find God, this is a good path to take: consider the Old Testament prophecies and how they are foreshadowing of Christ the Son of God who was, and is, and is to come. Read for example Isaiah chapter 53 which was written 700 years before Jesus came from heaven, and consider how it speaks of Him dying for our sins and also implicitly speaks of Him rising again, because it promises that He shall "divide the spoil with the strong" even after He has died. Isaiah said He would be "numbered with the transgressors", and when He was crucified, it was with two thieves, the one on His right hand the other on His left (Mark 15:27-28). King David prophesied of the resurrection of Christ, in 1000 B.C., and the Apostle Peter referenced these verses when he preached the first Christian sermon after Pentecost: "I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore." And there are countless more prophecies and prophetic pictures like the binding of Isaac, the life of Joseph, the sufferings of Job, Jonah who was swallowed by the whale and went down to the bottoms of the mountains and was in the belly of the whale for 3 DAYS AND 3 NIGHTS (Jonah 1:17), just as Jesus Christ would be 3 DAYS AND 3 NIGHTS in the heart of the earth (Matthew 12:39-40). And Jesus was witnessed to be alive after His Passion by the Apostles and also by upwards of 500 men at one time . This is part of the explanation for the explosive expansion of the faith of Christ in the world at that time (1 Cor 15:1-11). Christian faith is not first about your behaviour or your pursuit of virtues: it is foundationally about believing the record God gave of His Son: that He has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son (1 John 5:10-12). Without believing God, you have no hope even if you develop some virtues. But with this faith, you have eternal life and God working in you to produce virtue and fruit to His glory.
Huh. A thread entitled What is a Real Christian draws new members in to preach about Jesus.... Never saw that coming. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Thanks... but much more like that is considered preechin an not toletated well here... if you woud put some thouts in you'r own words then a good discussion might happen.!!! O... welcome to the forum Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Sure. Like all the nutbags... Jim Jones "believed in Jesus Christ", so (we're told) do money-hungry cretins like Creflo Dollar and Joel Osteen. God helps those who help themselves (to the proceeds of the collection plate), right? You need to get a little tighter with your definitions, and throw the copybook crap out with the snake handlers and roadside revivals that only kill and impoverish the ignorant.
The core principle of Christianity is love. Beloved, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 1 John 4:7 That is how I know that most Republicans [at least the vocal ones] aren't really Christians. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
The new testament isn't 'anything goes'. It's filled with threats, condemnations and moral exhortations. There are dozens of literally hellfire-and-damnation examples that I won't bother quoting. http://www.cedricstudio.com/personal/judgment.html I take it that you don't love Republicans, and that suggests that you and those who think as you do can't be Christians either, by your own chosen criterion. I think that it's hypocritical for the left to condemn others for 'hate', while their social and cultural criticism condemns everything in sight for falling short of their peculiar vision of perfection. The unfortunates on the receiving end of all the moralizing are dismissed as 'capitalists', 'racists', 'homophobes', 'sexists', 'exploiters', 'hegemonists', possessors of 'privilege', 'destroyers of the environment', 'haters', 'xenophobes', 'fascists', 'populists', 'deniers' and for being 'antiscience'. All of those words just as judgmental, insulting, intolerant and perjorative as anything that the worst Republican could dream up. There's lots and lots of moral posturing going on, lots and lots of condemning, lots and lots of hating. Republicans have little to do with much of it.
