What would it take to make you a Christian?

[CherubRam]

That's your belief. But some Christians believe God has elected those who will be saved. So who's correct?

You are free to serve God, or not. The Elect agree to only worship God and keep His commands.

Deuteronomy 30:19
This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.

 

[CherubRam]

Your deity saves you from perfect peace?

You can choose peace over well being. If death is what you want, then you will certainly find it.

 

[ananda]

Many things.

To what end?

 

[ananda]

You can choose peace over well being. If death is what you want, then you will certainly find it.

I'm not searching for death or for life (physical plane of reference), but rather perfect peace and contentment (phenomenological plane of reference).

 

[jayem]

You are free to serve God, or not. The Elect agree to only worship God and keep His commands.

Is there a difference?

 

[dlamberth]

If God makes Himself known, then everyone would act differently. We are judged by our faith, what is in our hearts and minds.

What's in our Hearts and Minds will effect how we act. If we see God in others, even those of differing spiritual paths, we will treat them with Love. If we see God in the Earth, we will treat her as Sacred and also with Love. I can't help but believe that it would be a very different world in a much better way. But I don't see that happening and it's what I'd need to see to fulfill the request in the OP.

 

[dlamberth]

God is asking the question: Who loves me? This temporary life shows God what we think and feel about all things, including Him.

NO...God just Loves. Period! End of story.
It's Human Beings that ask's that question.

 

[jayem]

It took an act of God to make Paul a Christian. If it's his will, God will know exactly how to make me a Christian, too.

If there is is a God.

 

[CherubRam]

To what end?

So there is purpose in life.

 

[CherubRam]

I'm not searching for death or for life (physical plane of reference), but rather perfect peace and contentment (phenomenological plane of reference).

Phenomenology is the philosophical study of the structures of experience and consciousness.

Contentment is found in the feeling of well being.

 

[CherubRam]

Is there a difference?

There is a life and death difference.

 

[ananda]

So there is purpose in life.

The opportunity in life is the purpose in life? To what end?

 

[ananda]

Phenomenology is the philosophical study of the structures of experience and consciousness.

Contentment is found in the feeling of well being.

I referred to the phenomenological plane of reference (perception), not to the study of phenomenology.

 

[CherubRam]

It took an act of God to make Paul a Christian. If it's his will, God will know exactly how to make me a Christian, too.

If there is is a God.

Bible search results
Proverbs 8:17
I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me.
In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
Isaiah 45:19
I have not spoken in secret, from somewhere in a land of darkness; I have not said to Jacob’s descendants, ‘Seek me in vain.’ I, the Lord, speak the truth; I declare what is right.
In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
Isaiah 58:2
For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them.
In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
Isaiah 65:1
[ Judgment and Salvation ] “I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me; I was found by those who did not seek me. To a nation that did not call on my name, I said, ‘Here am I, here am I.’
In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
Isaiah 65:10
Sharon will become a pasture for flocks, and the Valley of Achor a resting place for herds, for my people who seek me.
In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
Jeremiah 29:13
You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
Hosea 5:15
Then I will return to my lair until they have borne their guilt and seek my face— in their misery they will earnestly seek me.”
In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
Amos 5:4
This is what the Lord says to Israel: “Seek me and live;
In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations

 

[CherubRam]

The opportunity in life is the purpose in life? To what end?

Self satisfaction.

 

[CherubRam]

NO...God just Loves. Period! End of story.
It's Human Beings that ask's that question.

We are made in God's likeness.

 

[ananda]

Self satisfaction.

Self satisfaction is essentially a state where peace and contentment exists, wouldn't you agree?

 

[CherubRam]

Self satisfaction is essentially a state where peace and contentment exists, wouldn't you agree?

I agree.

 

[ananda]

I agree.

The way I see it, you're > approaching your deity and the eternal life he allegedly offers > for the end goal of achieving peace and contentment for yourself.

As a Buddhist, I exclude the middle two (deity/eternal life) as unknowable & irrelevant, and work towards the final goal itself (perfect peace & contentment).

 

[dlamberth]

Phenomenology is the philosophical study of the structures of experience and consciousness.

Interesting that you brought up Phenomenology. I'd say that it's in the Phenomenological "experience" of reciprocal perceptional activity that the Earth and everything in it becomes an animated activity that we are all engage in. And when God is experienced as the Life Force of everything, the active experience of reciprocal perception becomes nothing less than God being aware of its own Self through this physical world.