Oh yeah, absolutely for sure! I follow you now
You have no idea what love is. Not from a biblical Christian perspective. I AM loving my neighbor, including you.
Nah, see thats where you’re wrong. When someone doesn’t get it you just need to tell them harder! 
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Oh come on man. What next? You going to tell somebody in a wheelchair that if they Really believed they would be able to get up out of it?
I was reading somewhere that with the decline in church attendance, there has been a spike in things like crossfit memberships, reading clubs, and other groups that have a sense of community and belonging. It’s human nature to want to feel a part of a group, which even explains why some are drawn to terrorist or hate groups. This can even be extended to the sense of loyalty and family people feel with their alma maters, pasting their house and car with University of So and So memorabilia.
The OP of this thread, in my opinion, is doing an excellent job of illustrating exactly why so many are turned off from traditional religion and church, for the simple fact of not wanting to have to spend an hour or more each week around people like this.
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[quote=“Despade, post:58, topic:230512, full:true”]
So since every tribe and culture has/had different names for a creator over the course of history, are they all different roads to the same end? [/quote]
No, there is only one true and living God. The God of the bible is not offended if He is referred to by Spanish speaking peoples as “Dios” for instance. What matters is that He be worshiped in Spirit and truth as He has Himself set forth. That can be done by any people in any language.
The rice farmer in inland China (for instance) who has never heard of a bible or Jesus Christ is, by virtue of his descent from Adam, just as lost as the postmodern pretenders populating the hymn singing pews of America.
There is a chosen group selected by God the Father for whom the preaching of salvation in Christ will be effectual and will in fact unfailingly produce that salvation. Some of them may be rice farmers in inland China. If so, God will send His servants to tell them and they WILL believe. They will do it willingly and humbly and gratefully.
There are probably some small number I could be convinced that the Holy Spirit will independently reveal Jesus to in visions or dreams, but if so, that is the infinitesimal exception. What there is no such thing as, are people who never hear of Christianity, but wake up after death and find out they’re Christians. That is a wicked and evil lie contradicted by the clearest possible declarations of scripture. .
No. Physically healing is not promised, even in response to the strongest unwavering faith.
Hey, what do you know, zeb took a break from posting for a few hours and Tiribulus is back…
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How long have you been religious?
I use God’s approach according to the precepts and precedents of scripture. How off putting it is or not is no part of my motivation.
Open a bible and tell me why I’m wrong please.
So if you were approached by a member of another faith, the fact that you do not believe willingly, humbly, and gratefully means that they are not believing in the correct god? But if you do believe in it willingly, humbly, and gratefully, then it is the correct one? And that’s how you know? Why would god (neither good nor bad) not want all of his children to be saved and have equal chance? We are all equal unless you accept that he/she placed a hierarchy in place (you folks are cool and get to save people, you, over there? yeah you better hope someone gets to you before the end times)…it seems like an odd thought to me.
Exhibit A.
Not here, you don’t. Here, you dodge the hard questions and try to drown us in so much academic mumbo jumbo that a gender studies professor at Oberlin College would blush.
Predestination says that what I do or believing doesn’t impact whether I get salvation or not - it isn’t conditional. So, then why would you bother trying to persuade me to doing or believing something other than what I do?
I find it hard to believe that God’s approach would be:
- cut and paste walls of text on message boards
- annoy and offend
- rinse and repeat
But I’m not as well versed on biblical passages, so forgive me if I’m wrong.
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All faiths are false except for biblically faithful Christianity. (Which is not necessarily Calvinism btw) Every child of Adam is lost as a child of Adam. God saves some of them in Christ by the resurrecting power of the Holy Spirit. Those who trust Christ alone, by faith alone, through grace alone are the ones who willingly and humbly and gratefully believe. Once again, God alone knows infallibly who they are. All the rest are lost and justly so.
Once one understands sin, the holiness of God, and what it took for the former to be defeated so that sinful men (chicks too) could dwell in the presence of the latter, one marvels at His unspeakable mercy in saving anybody at all.
You do ask some good substantive questions. From the OP.
God’s standard is Himself. All that He has ever thought, said or done is ultimately for Himself. To display His own perfect holiness, judgment and justice in damning His enemies on one hand, and His own perfect mercy, grace and love in redeeming a people for Himself from among them on the other.
EveryTHING and everyONE has been created by Himself, for Himself.
I agree that it is human nature to long for community and belonging. And I think it’s one of the things that keeps human civilizations together (as well as contributing to all the nasty ills of civilization conflicts, a digression but also one reason I don’t believe actual “United Federation” style globalism can succeed against nationalism).
We as humans have an innate desire for belonging, and that’s a good thing. Man was not meant to live alone and solitary.
I personally also agree with your opinion on the reason that many people are turned off from traditional church as well. This is a shame because there are many out there that are not at all similar to this. Trib doesn’t agree, but then he and I don’t see eye-to-eye.
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If I am understanding you correctly, I received Christ in August of 1984
Prove it. Open a bible and prove it.
You’re forgiven.
I wholeheartedly agree.