The beauty of Christianity

ldonjohn · Mar 7, 2022

A non-believer cannot truly see the beauty of Christianity while living in the darkness of unbelief. The light God gives a believer is like a blind person who has suddenly been given the ability to see a whole new world that is full of the wonder & of gratitude because of the love of a gracious and merciful God who gave Himself as a ransom for His creation.
You will never know that beauty unless & until you come to Jesus as a repentant sinner in need of a savior and trust His finished work on the cross for the forgiveness of your sin.

Regards,
John

James_Lai · Mar 7, 2022

ldonjohn said:
A non-believer cannot truly see the beauty of Christianity while living in the darkness of unbelief. The light God gives a believer is like a blind person who has suddenly been given the ability to see a whole new world that is full of the wonder & of gratitude because of the love of a gracious and merciful God who gave Himself as a ransom for His creation.
You will never know that beauty unless & until you come to Jesus as a repentant sinner in need of a savior and trust His finished work on the cross for the forgiveness of your sin.

Regards,
John

I understand what you are saying, but you are wrong. All people are capable of understanding beauty - it’s a God-given capacity. People in general are more alike than they’re different. God wants us to see that, and often all we see is differences, which I think is pretty sad.

ldonjohn · Mar 7, 2022

James_Lai said:
I understand what you are saying, but you are wrong. All people are capable of understanding beauty - it’s a God-given capacity. People in general are more alike than they’re different. God wants us to see that, and often all we see is differences, which I think is pretty sad.

The beauty of which you speak is of the world, but the beauty of which I described is spiritual; it is of God, of the Spirit of God and unbelievers cannot see that beauty.
1Corinthians 2:14, "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can they know them, because they are spiritually discerned."
Many years ago, as an unbeliever, I saw the beauty of the world in a totally different light from that which I discovered when I became a believer in the Gospel of the cross. The believer has a completely different perspective that is foolishness to an unbeliever. You cannot understand it because your mind is blinded by your unbelief.

Regards,

John

James_Lai · Mar 7, 2022

ldonjohn said:
The beauty of which you speak is of the world, but the beauty of which I described is spiritual; it is of God, of the Spirit of God and unbelievers cannot see that beauty.
1Corinthians 2:14, "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can they know them, because they are spiritually discerned."
Many years ago, as an unbeliever, I saw the beauty of the world in a totally different light from that which I discovered when I became a believer in the Gospel of the cross. The believer has a completely different perspective that is foolishness to an unbeliever. You cannot understand it because your mind is blinded by your unbelief.

Regards,

John

It’s very wrong. Nobody is blinded. God is equal to all people. To think otherwise is to diminish His power and love

James_Lai · Mar 7, 2022

Carved church in Lalibela, Ethiopia

Beauty!!! Amazing

ldonjohn · Mar 8, 2022

James_Lai said:
It’s very wrong. Nobody is blinded. God is equal to all people. To think otherwise is to diminish His power and love

God's Word, the Bible, says otherwise; some ARE blinded.

2Corinthians 4:4, “In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”(KJV)

John 12:40, “He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their hearts, that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.” (KJV)

Regards,

John

PloverWing · Mar 8, 2022

The chapel at Duke University, where I was a grad student. I loved sitting in the silence there, when the building was empty.

GreekOrthodox · Mar 9, 2022

Joy of those who Sorrow Orthodox Church San Franscisco

san-francisco-california-may-altar-holy-virgin-cathedral-holy-virgin-cathedral-also-known-as-joy-all-who-sorrow-148437525.jpg

James_Lai · Mar 9, 2022

PloverWing said:
View attachment 313818

The chapel at Duke University, where I was a grad student. I loved sitting in the silence there, when the building was empty.

Mind-blowing, wow… How many people with talent, skill, dedication and God’s inspiration and faith have created this!!!

James_Lai · Mar 9, 2022

GreekOrthodox said:
Joy of those who Sorrow Orthodox Church San Franscisco

Amazing… Beautiful, so much love and worship in this. Also filled with meaning!! Many messages that speak directly to heart and soul

James_Lai · Mar 9, 2022

GreekOrthodox said:
Joy of those who Sorrow Orthodox Church San Franscisco

Amazing… Beautiful, so much love and worship in this. Also filled with meaning!! Many messages that speak directly to heart and soul

James_Lai · Mar 9, 2022

ldonjohn said:
God's Word, the Bible, says otherwise; some ARE blinded.

2Corinthians 4:4, “In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”(KJV)

John 12:40, “He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their hearts, that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.” (KJV)

Regards,

John

It’s talking about something else there. Nobody is blinded to see God’s beauty in His love towards us! It’s simply absolutely impossible.

ChetSinger · Mar 11, 2022

James_Lai said:
Hello.
How are you all doing? May God bless you abundantly in all things, especially with spiritual gifts.

Christianity is a beautiful religion. The architecture, the art, the philosophy, the music, the traditions, the literature etc are so beautiful, it’s amazing. All belief systems are beautiful in their own ways.

What kind of beauty in Christianity touches and inspires you most?

I'm especially fond of Christian music as developed in Italy, the birthplace of Western written music.

Once music was written down it could be preserved for centuries. Here's a 400-year-old piece written by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, a prolific 16th-century composer. We can still hear it as he originally wrote it, because Italian Christians developed a written language for it.

James_Lai · Mar 11, 2022

ChetSinger said:
I'm especially fond of Christian music as developed in Italy, the birthplace of Western written music.

Once music was written down it could be preserved for centuries. Here's a 400-year-old piece written by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, a prolific 16th-century composer. We can still hear it as he originally wrote it, because Italian Christians developed a written language for it.

Yes, all musical terminology is in Italian, so the whole humanity knows who invented the system to transcript music!!!

Beautiful piece , thoroughly enjoyed it. You sense an aura of the spiritual world when you hear it…

In my native culture the best and most uplifting and deep and beautiful music is inspired by faith.

I think you can look far and wide, and not find nothing more beautiful than human endeavour to experience and express the Divine…

Reasonable Christian · Mar 13, 2022

James_Lai said:
Truth is beautiful indeed and lies are ugly. All faiths have some truth in them, there’s more commonality among them all than real differences.

I disagree. The Bible says that Jesus was God in the flesh, that he died on a cross for our sins, that he came back to life three days later, and that the only way for us to have eternal life (i.e. go to Heaven) is to believe these things and repent of our sins. All other religions deny that Jesus was actually God (as opposed to "a god," a prophet etc.), died for our sins, and rose again, and that we have to believe these things to go to Heaven. I'd say that's a real difference, wouldn't you? In fact, it's the about the most important difference you could imagine.

James_Lai · Mar 13, 2022

Reasonable Christian said:
I disagree. The Bible says that Jesus was God in the flesh, that he died on a cross for our sins, that he came back to life three days later, and that the only way for us to have eternal life (i.e. go to Heaven) is to believe these things and repent of our sins. All other religions deny that Jesus was actually God (as opposed to "a god," a prophet etc.), died for our sins, and rose again, and that we have to believe these things to go to Heaven. I'd say that's a real difference, wouldn't you? In fact, it's the about the most important difference you could imagine.

I think Love trumps all. It’s best to see commonality and there’s a lot more of it than any differences. People really need to come together, not separate. Otherwise there’s no hope. God is Love.

Jesus teaches us to forgive and to accept. Let’s follow His beautiful and pure teaching. :amen:

James_Lai · Mar 13, 2022

Clare73 · Mar 13, 2022

James_Lai said:
Hello.
How are you all doing? May God bless you abundantly in all things, especially with spiritual gifts.

Christianity is a beautiful religion. The architecture, the art, the philosophy, the music, the traditions, the literature etc are so beautiful, it’s amazing. All belief systems are beautiful in their own ways.

What kind of beauty in Christianity touches and inspires you most?

Its unsurpassable glory and beauty in the wisdom, truth and perfection of God.

The black and white of belief and unbelief in the gospel, no gray.

The beauty of freedom from God's condemnation on sin, and adoption into his family as brother of and co-heir with his only begotten Son.

Reasonable Christian · Mar 16, 2022

James_Lai said:
I think Love trumps all. It’s best to see commonality and there’s a lot more of it than any differences. People really need to come together, not separate. Otherwise there’s no hope. God is Love.

Jesus teaches us to forgive and to accept. Let’s follow His beautiful and pure teaching.

Do you really think there are no material differences between the teachings of Christianity and other religions? If there are material differences, isn't it important to decide if Christianity is actually true in what it teaches, particularly about central matters like salvation? For example, how about this teaching of Jesus: "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6). Every other religion on Earth explicitly denies that teaching.

angelsaroundme · Mar 16, 2022

I think James made the thread to discuss the good aspects of Christianity, not to say Christianity is good because it is true and everything else is false. The latter is something like an argument from authority, i.e. it's a fact because the Bible says so, which he not being a Christian doesn't recognize as the case.

Put another way, I believe he is looking for what we like about Christianity, what inspires us about it, rather than to debate its claims.

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