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Can I be a Christian and still be myself?

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DragonFaery77

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I'm just wondering, can I be a Christian and still be myself? I don't want to feel bad about myself because I made a mistake according to what's in some book. Right now I'm a witch, so I only answer to my family and myself and I like that. I don't want to feel like I'm being judged constantly when I don't do anything wrong. I'm married, I'm told I'm a great mom, and I enjoy giving to anyone in need. I'm not a Christian because I don't want to live my life for someone else anymore, I'm tired of that. For the first time in my life I'm living my life for me and my family.
 

New_Found_Faith

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Of course you can. You can't help but mess up, none of us can. God doesn't want you to feel guilty and hate yourself or anything, he loves you and wants you to be happy. Give your guilt up to the cross and just try your best to be a good Christian. End of story.
 
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When I became a Christian, I just...really wasn't searching for anything monumental. You can say I walked into Christianity with a sort of unexpectedness about the whole thing. I didn't know that what I would find would be a savior that is tottally devoted to me. I didn't know that I would find a God who completely loved me in each and everyway. I didn't know I would find a Messiah who would revolutionize everything about who I was simply because he loved me far to much to leave me in my sins. And I had no idea that I would find myself, more whole and more complete than ever. Isn't that amazing?
 
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Radagast

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... I'm not a Christian...

I'm having trouble reconciling that with your icon.

But certainly being a witch is incompatible with Christianity.

...because I don't want to live my life for someone else anymore, I'm tired of that...

Well, being a Christian means living your life for God first of all.

Christians are still "themselves" of course -- in fact they are on a journey to becoming better versions of themselves -- but God comes first.
 
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70x7

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Yes, God loves you regardless of what you do or have done!
But, I am confused with how you say you are a christian yet still a witch. Please enlighten if you will on how you identify with both. It will help answer more of your questions.
Salvation is only achieved through Jesus Christ and repentance of ones sins, not by acts or by being a good person. Jesus does want us to be good people though!!!!!
 
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FredSmith

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You don't seem to have any remorse at all for your sins. You don't even seem to want to acknowledge them as sins. You say they're just "mistakes" and you say that the Bible is just "some old book". You say that you don't plan to repent or stop what you're doing.

To me, the question isn't whether or not you can be a Christian, but why in the world you would want to become one.
 
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LJSGM

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Christianity isn't a set of rules and laws, it is a way of life. The two commandments that we focus on: Love the Lord God with all your heart, and love your neighbor as your self.

To become born again, you must die to yourself, take up your cross and follow Jesus. In doing this you will recieve a joy that is unspeakable, and you will be given eternal life in Christ. But you have to give up everything else in your heart.
 
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Yardstick

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To become a Christian means that you must wear the wedding clothes. You can not continue to be a witch if you wish to be at the banquet.

 
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Well, it seems like what most draws you to wicca is that you are free from guilt. There is nothing in the bible that commands up to feel guilty. If you've made a mistake, admit it and move on. Focus on living the best life you can instead of dwelling on what has happened before.

Saying so may rub some the wrong way, but the bible is not the center of christianity. The religion did just fine for 300 years before the bible was collected. What was there before was the message. Love God, Love others as yourself. Drumming up guilt works very well for getting people to church and getting them to try and tithe away their sins, but it doesn't help you get any closer to where you need to be.
 
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Radagast

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[serious];49895641 said:
Saying so may rub some the wrong way, but the bible is not the center of christianity. The religion did just fine for 300 years before the bible was collected.

Well, reading the Bible is a very important part of being a Christian. And most of the New Testament was written and circulated among churches within a few decades of Jesus' death and resurrection.
 
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[serious]

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a few decades? it wasn't compiled until the council of Nicea in 325 AD

I do agree that the bible is a good document of the beliefs of the religion, but looking at the history of it's compilation, I can no longer honestly believe in it's inerrancy. The council of Nicea understood that they were mere men and could make mistakes in their judgments on what got included. This was why for quite a while, the apocrypha were included with published bibles as well.

<staff edit>

EDIT: fixed the date for the council of nicea
EDIT 2: I appear to be crossing the council of Nicea which was designed to settle certain other issues with the council of trent in the 1500s which codified officially the books of the bible that had been pretty much in place since around 382 AD. Doesn't change the point I was making, but accuracy should be embraced for accuracy's sake
EDIT 3: another small date correction
 
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arunma

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Hello DragonFaery. I'm a bit confused; your user title says you're a new Christian, but your post says that you're an apostate (= a person who has cut herself off from Christ). One might assume that subsequent to writing your post, you became a Christian. But I'll address your question about being yourself.

As a human being you have a conscience, and thus you are aware of many of God's decrees concerning right and wrong. As a human being your conscience is also damaged by sin. As such, some of your moral values are in accordance with God's laws, and some are not. God's special revelation through the Bible tells us about what he values. As you read his word, you'll likely find things that affirm what you're already doing, and things that declare you guilty of sin. What you ought to do, if you are a Christian, is to use the affirmations to strengthen some of your moral values, and use the declarations of guilt to cause you to change your moral views on the pertinent issues.

Now if you are not a Christian, there's a more important issue to address. The Bible says that all people who do not believe in Jesus will go to hell. It doesn't matter how well you obey God's morality (with regards to salvation, that is). You will always fail in many aspects, and are thus guilty of sin. So in this case, you should confess Jesus as Lord and Savior before you try to do God's will in other areas.

And to address the obvious issue: the Bible condemns sorcery as an abomination to God. Indeed, all non-Christian religions, whether Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, or anything else, are abominations to God. Practicing witchcraft can't coexist with obedience to Christ. The Bible describes false religions as spiritual adultery. Trying to be a Christian and a witch is like a man trying to have sexual relations with his wife and an adulteress at the same time. The former is as legitimate a Christianity as the latter is a marriage.
 
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GreenMunchkin

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Hello, sister I was involved in magick and wicca for years and, truly, there is no cross-over between that path and Christianity. Christianity is often accused of being exclusivist because it doesn't allow us to follow other paths simultaneously - but it's not a question of exclusivity, or elitism. But Jesus is the only way to God; He is salvation, and He is pure. If you add even a teeny drop of black ink to white paint, it goes grey. It will always be the light that's compromised... it's exactly the same with Christ.

Witchcraft and Christianity are mutually exclusive - one is light, the other is the dark. But none of us escape our former paths alone. Jesus rescues us, and He holds us up and it's on His strength that we're made new

Don't let other Christians push you away from Him - if you're being judged by people, remember they'll be judged by the Lord. If you choose to relinquish your salvation in Christ, He will allow you to, because He loves you so much. He'll also take you back any time you want to return to Him.

Please send me a PM if you ever want to talk, ok? God bless you.
 
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heron

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You will find many, many opinions on how Christianity should be lived. This pressure can pull you in a thousand directions. Know that your life is yours, and decisions are yours, along with accountability.

A faith walk is not meant to be a sudden burst of perfection and understanding. Being a Christian is a continual exploration and search for truth, and understanding who God is. This can't be accomplished by following what we all tell you to do, but by connecting with God for yourself. Seek Him, listen. Speak to Him, and don't be afraid to be honest. Try following when you sense He's asking you to move.

I agree that you will find incompatability with witchcraft, but we haven't really explained why. We don't have a whole understanding of what you believe and practice, because witchcraft and Wicca can be as diverse as Christianity can be.

But the basic premise that makes it incompatible, is that you would be relying on a source of strength and power that conflicts with relying on God. Putting trust in something else keeps us from putting our trust in Him.

People have a tendency to grasp for something tangible and immediate, a reliable way of obtaining the strength we need in life, or the knowledge or power or influence. With God being a person, it puts us in a position of having to trust a promise, and our experiences with trusting people do not always have happy endings.

The invitation for salvation and redemption are personal. We don't have control over them, other than to accept the invitation and agree that we can trust it. That's a scary position to be in. Over the years, people have scrambled to add more sureties to their religion, and build up more predictable methods. But God always supercedes the methods people attach to Him.

So instead of thinking about whether Christianity will fit you in, try to focus on the source -- the purest form of His truths, the simplest message He has conveyed. God considers people His children.
 
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