Christian Forums

So I am curious, is being a Christian training yourself to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ? For example, Jesus said when you give to the poor do not brag about it basically. So, if I gave to the poor and I chose not to reveal that to anyone then I am being a Christian by following his teachings, right?

Of course, I am not saying we should follow him halfway. But I'm just asking that if we really trained ourselves to follow his teachings, like fighting our lusts and loving our enemies (which is very difficult for me to do), and praying for those who hate us, and all his other teachings, we are being Christians, right? This should be obvious to me, I know this. But I get confused. A lot of people say that it isn't by our works that...

Matthew 5:48 reads:

"Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
So what exactly does Jesus mean by "Be perfect, as your heavenly father is perfect."? does this mean we can achieve perfection in this life? Does this mean we can be sinless and completely perfect in this life? That we should strive for perfection? No, what Jesus meant by "Be perfect" was he was telling his listeners the requirements to get into heaven. To get into heaven we have to be perfect and sinless. However, this is an impossibility in our life. You see, when we are born again and washed by the holy spirit our spirits are made sinless and enter heaven. This is not any of our doing it is the work of God. Then when our physical bodies die we are taken...

Here we see that the 'saints in heaven' are aware of time and attending things going on here on Earth.

They are told what the wait is about, and are encouraged to rest.

Revelation 6:9-11

And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.

They are waiting...

Did God exist from infinite time in the past?

If so.... what was God doing?

There is a saying that "It's the economy s.....!" This question actually
has a relationship with the economy and money because...... .if.....
God existed from eternity in the past and if God..........
actually planned, engineered and choreographed an essentially infinite
number of Big Bang type events......(they might actually might have been more
like a Big Flash though)...... .then..... investing infinite time in the past in the
creation........ could make the creation infinitely valuable to God.......
but we humans are so young...... that we place relatively low value on our
lives and even less value on the lives of others...... and even less value than...

In objection to the term "theotokos" it seems some have adopted the incarnation happened at birth not at conception. I was rather surprised at this and it leads me to wonder how common place is this thinking. So when did the incarnation happen?

I recently made a topic about how we are saved by faith and this was brought up in another thread and I thought that it would be interesting to discuss in a separate thread. 1 Cor 6:9-10 reads:

"Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God."

Now does this teach that we are not saved by our faith? Or that there are conditions to our faith? We must not be sexually immoral, commit idolatry, adultry (Which is a difficult one Jesus said that to even look at a woman in lust is adultery), Homosexual, a thief,...

When Mary revealed she is the Immaculate conception to Bernadette Soubirous at the Lords apparition she did not reveal its meaning. Many religious scholars of the Roman Catholic Church have tried to interpret and give an exact meaning of it. Many have even rejected Mary saying this at the onset of this revelation. The true meaning is revealed now in this thread. The Rev. 12 sign means a time of revealing.
I have uploaded the meaning of the Immaculate Conception and The proof in scripture that Mary when the Holy Spirit came upon her became the full embodiment of Wisdom and it was at that moment that she was Immaculately Conceived . This will be in two uploads.
She should be venerated , it is through her that the graces given by Christ...

Here is the quote from the epistle of Jude concerning the prophecy of Enoch:.

Jde 1:

4 For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

14 Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints,
15 “to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”

I thought I would make a thread based mainly on the 10 week prophecy mentioned in that...

Let's assume it's the end of the world and Jesus has returned, in fact you have heard the fanfares and the trumpets over the hill in the next village, you know who it is over the hill it's Jesus. Will you run to see him or will you hope with all your heart that your not on the naughty list? I can imagine the pain of being rejected by Jesus as being like the loss of a loved one mixed with terror and despair. Would we know the answer just as we approached him? Would we dare look upon his face if we knew he was going to condemn us? Will all the sins of our past come up to haunt us and a dark terror come upon our souls? Will it be a firing squad or the hug of a father? Are you confident that Christ will welcome you?
Personally I'm not 100%...

When you baptize a baby you are making a promise to raise the child and teach it as a Christian.

Make your vows unto the Lord.

Forgive me...