are "christians" (in name and banner) even seeking God?

David Sylvian

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My experience with people who are basically waving a banner they are Christian is they have almost zero experience with God whatsoever and they have no idea of what they are talking about.

I am extremely frustrated on this.

There seems to be zero concern about allegiance to dogma and tradition, and zero concern about actually holding and keeping the actual teachings of Jesus. Far more important seems to be holding to some "church" teachings and a bunch of nonsense which ends up basically being well founded fodder for the critics -- of whom are many and very relentless.

Great example: Carl Sagan's book on the supernatural. I forget the name of it, but I painfully read through the whole thing. All he did was use worse case examples - strawman arguments - and for the fuel for his fodder of complaint he used these liars and fakes.


I then come down to earth and deal with agnostics and atheists and others, and shake my head because I can not help but be stereotyped by them because of these people who claim to know God but show no spirituality at all. In fact, they just make up and repeat what others have told them and completely disregard the teachings of Christ.

I am not sure what it is, we are called to live a life on another plane of existence entirely.

We are called to rise above all of this.

But, everyone seems to act like they do not care about anyone outside their own social spheres, they do not even begin to try to be merciful or not judge by appearances. As though this is something Jesus taught, when his whole life was teaching the exact opposite of that.

Has the antichrist taken over the "church", while the real church has risen up in the rapture and left them behind?


I mean, for me God and angels are more real then people. I do not understand their earth or their lives without miracles. Miracles seem more real to me then the weird physics and "science" guided rules they live by.
 

rocklife

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Life isn't all about signs and wonders though. I love studying science and engineering, but as Christians, I see it through the Creationist point of view and just gloss over the "billions of years" theories. There is educational value in science but take it with a grain of salt.

And there are a lot of people who say they are Christian just as a ticket to heaven, I can think of several celebrities who started their careers in Gospel but their lifestyles of promiscuity and drug use are their fruit. We don't have to judge everyone though, sometimes we have to mind our own business and be productive to be helpful for our families and others very prayerfully. I don't know what it's like in Japan but I have Japanese relatives, I'm sure it isn't easy to live in a non-Christian country compared to for example the U.S. but there are plenty of fakers in the states. Don't let them faze you, Jesus had to deal with terrible religious people who killed him.
 
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Ark100

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You wouldn't know who is close to God and who isn't. What their experience is or what its not.
We are called to be in the world but NOT of the world. But we cannot totally exclude ourselves from the world.
There is a way to be in this world and not be of it. When you do that, you make impacts in the lives of those who are of the world.
Its not good to judge others like that. There is no one God can't touch/change
 
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orangeness365

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I think that because God calls for mercy and asks that yes, there should be justice, but there should also be mercy, that a lot of things from Christians can get out of control. Christians are told to allow God to deliver the Judgment, whilst christians are typically only supposed to meet out justice according to the law, and sometimes the laws don't cover the ability to do anything about it. For instance, the crusades were out of control, but it would be difficult for the average christian to stop them using the laws of the day. It will be for God to judge. As for the book you're talking about, I have no idea, but there is almost no censorship so there is little way to counteract something like that aside from writing a book contradicting it, a critique. However, even though Christians aren't supposed to judge, and leave that to God, you can't expect others not to. It's easy for me to say it's not a big deal, cuz I come a country that is majority christian, but i can only imagine how hard that cross would be to bear elsewhere where the actions of others are used against the individual with the same religion. The way I see it is being tested by fire, and even if others say that they are judging you for what another radical of your religion has done, I see it as suffering for Christ.
 
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StormHawk

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My experience with people who are basically waving a banner they are Christian is they have almost zero experience with God whatsoever and they have no idea of what they are talking about.

I am extremely frustrated on this.
You are not the first, David said:
(Psalm 12:1-2)"Help, Lord; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men. They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak. "

Elijah also:
"I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts: because the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away....
The Lord replied: I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal" (1 Kings 19)


For many, church is for entertainment, social life and potential marriage partner as well as doing what they want to do in "ministry". Little or no revelation of what "salvation", the new life actually is!

But, God has his people. We are in Japan, contact Pastor Kevin at:
quirk(at)iinet.net.au for details.
 
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Inkachu

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One of the hallmarks of wisdom and maturity is learning that our own small circle of first-hand experience is always a far-cry from the bigger picture. Decrying an entire worldwide faith over what you've personally experienced is really, really foolish.
 
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