Can I be a Christian with these beliefs? (moved from New Member Intros)

[Emmy]

Dear nnmartin. In Matthew, chapter 22, verses 35-40, Jesus tells a Lawyer: " The first and great Commandment is: Love God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. The second is like it: Love thy neighbour as thyself." Then Jesus points out: " On these two Commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." Love is what God wants from us, selfless and freely given. Everything we say, or do, or advocate, should be done from love for God, and for each other. If Love is missing, it is not from God. Straightforward and easy to remember. Jesus has promised us His Love and Joy, and the Holy Spirit will give us His Love, also. Jesus told us: " Ask and ye will receive," then we thank God and share all Love and Joy with all around us, friends and not friends. ( ours included) God will see our sincere efforts to love and care, and God will approve and bless us. God will also know that we love God, Why?? because God will know that we are following His Commandments to love. We may stumble and even fail often, but then we ask God to forgive us, and God will forgive us as we will forgive others. We carry on loving God with all our beings and loving our neighbour as ourselves. God is Love, and God wants loving children/sons and daughters, to be with for eternity. Jesus our Saviour is waiting to help and guide us back to where we came from, our Heavenly Father. Love is a Christian`s sword to overcome all enmity and adversity, and Love will carry us on, and on. Can we be Christians when we follow Christ our Leader and Friend? Yes and Yes again. I say this with love, nnmartin. Greetings from Emmy, your sister in Christ.

 

[Aibrean]

If one is a believer, that means they have faith. Faith is the result of the Holy Spirit working in us after we've been presented with the gospel.

It is quite beyond me why the Holy Spirit would impart faith of "bits and pieces" for all scripture is God-breathed and Jesus is the Word of God, made flesh. Therefore, to deny the writings of any part of the Bible, you are rejecting the work of God.

For, how can one understand they are a sinner and need a savior if they do not believe the law that tells them they are a sinner?

Do you also not believe the words that Jesus said in the gospel, where he clearly referenced the OT?

 

[joycem]

My opinion is that because you are a newbie, just getting the basics down for now is ok...believing you are a sinner, and Jesus died for your salvation. Faith plants the seed, even if it doesn't make sense, alot of the bible is hard to understand and you could be led astray by other humans because they are interpreting things with their human mind.

You should stick with a bible based denomination that believes the word is inspired by God and then allow the holy spirit to reveal the truth to you...not other humans.

 

[brinny]

How far can one realistically move away from the key concepts of the Bible and still be considered a Christian?

For instance I believe that through Jesus one can attain a sense of oneness with the cosmic life force but in no way can you actually commune with this force. As such Jesus himself is the highest power that man can strive to associate with without there being a Father of Christ as well. This cosmic life force could be interpreted as the biblical God in a sense though my view of this tends to reject many of the ideas of prayer to God, the burning bush, etc.. unless we think of Jesus and God as the same thing.

I guess this isn't really too far away from the biblical concept of God and Jesus?

anyone have any thoughts on this?

thanks

I guess this isn't really too far away from the biblical concept of God and Jesus?

Did you reach that conclusion (next to last sentence) from the Bible? you are denying the One Who raised Jesus Christ from the dead and the One Who sent His only begotten Son to die for man's sin.

No, this is not someone who loves the One you deny with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength. It isn't at all what a Christian believes.