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How does it feel?

Buttermilk

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Veritas said:
Europe as a whole has become quite Godless

During the summer I was on holiday in a small village in Switzerland. On the Sunday there was an open air service/reachout thing (all in German :D) and quite a few people were participating - now that was only one small village.
 
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Jer

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David Brider said:
To be honest, it doesn't feel (to me, at least) as if it is particularly non/anti-religious. Sure, there're more non-Christians than Christians - be they people of other faiths or of none - but people are free to believe what they like and to practice those beliefs (the potential ramifications of the religious hatred bill notwithstanding).

If you want an anti-religious country, try North Korea...

David.

I didn't hear about it firsthand, but from what I've heard off a friend the bill has not been passed, just so you know.

A lot of the anti religious stuff is hidden under "humour" and so on. I know so many people who joke about them being god and they will send me to hell and so on if I don't do such and such. Now that could be construed as mucking about, but it is also putting down someone's belief.
 
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Naomi4Christ

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Originally Posted by: Latreia
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It is ridiculous to assume one knows everything about living in a country one has not spent their entire lives in.
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Agreed.

Actually, that's a bit of a silly argument. It says that anyone who has spent any time in another country is disqualified to comment. Yet people who have lived in another country are in a great position to be able to compare what they have experienced in one country vs another.
 
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Kehaar

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Can't agree, sorry.

I haven't lived in America, although I've visited but I wouldn't be happy to rhyme off just how christian or unreligious the US of A is. Such a blanket statement would be ignorant, I don't have that knowledge.

I'm sure there are others who do feel qualified to give their verdict, and that's fine, I'm simply not happy making statements about a people I do not know well, or have any experience of living with.

Just my personal opinion.
 
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Freakconformist

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Nepenthe said:
Can't agree, sorry.

I haven't lived in America, although I've visited but I wouldn't be happy to rhyme off just how christian or unreligious the US of A is. Such a blanket statement would be ignorant, I don't have that knowledge.

I'm sure there are others who do feel qualified to give their verdict, and that's fine, I'm simply not happy making statements about a people I do not know well, or have any experience of living with.

Just my personal opinion.

Agreed.

Sorry to disagree with you, ButterMilk, but I don't think this can be turned into an interesting discusssion.

This is a debate over personal opinions, if we were talking more about law rather then culture, this would be more valid. As it is, no matter what kind of opinion you express it can be interpreted as trashing somebody elses homeland.

I think we should all agree that we can not say who is and who is not "God-less" take that home, chew on it, and learn a lesson about cultural (and personal) tolerance from it.
 
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stranger

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Freakconformist said:
I think we should all agree that we can not say who is and who is not "God-less" take that home, chew on it, and learn a lesson about cultural (and personal) tolerance from it.

Well that would not be so if we were to accept the scriptural metric of truth... and in principle, if not in practice ,all chrsitain belief should be in line with all scripture...

Thus I think it would be a BIG mistake to conclude that the matter is not relovable by reference only to CONSISTENCY of one's views ... christians inconsistently like to hold beliefs which run counter to SOME scripture, thus by reproving that one could resolve the matter by appeal to the fact that there is but one truth of God which CAN be used to reprove private interpretations of tradition that are majorly followed by men

So to take the bull by the horns, consider wht God says through Jesus, His prophets, and His saints :-

Joh 16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth:

Eph 5:9 (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;)

Thus those who are in christ are led into ALL truth of God BEFORE death ...

We can then see how many men are truly 'God-less' in this sense as far as God is concerned.... anyone without all truth of God before they die is NOT a saint and will not be redeemed at the first resurrection [because one is noy "just" unless one has all truth tobe able to judge ... and those of the frst resurrection will judge angels so they nEED all truth for that , let alone for their resisting Satan's wiles in this life in their trial of perfection BEFORE redemption]

Thus God's measure is simply perfection, His saints mUST be perfected in this life, the must be images of the Son of God, sin-less as Jesus was without sin {but God forgives them all sin that was before their being baptsied with his spirit into all truth...

This rather reveals how much the arguments presented onthis thread are mostly hot air, not based on scripture or God's truth, by people who like to think that they can have baprtism of the spirit WIYHOUT it bringing ALL truth of God... one can fool oneself it seems, but how could one even hope to fool God, either one knows all truth of God in this life or one does not...

It is very clear actually, just by looking , that very few people do have all truth of God given to them in this life, but that very few of these realise that without this baptism into all truth they simply cound never resist Satan, could never be perfected, could never be translated to spirit in redemption...

Thus it is actually VERY important to this discussion and to the rules of salvation laid down by Jesus and God that one realises that God PROMISES that ALL men , even ALL those already dead, will receive ALL truth of God eventually , just [OBVIOUSLY!] NOT in this life!

The irony then is that the very many men who belive one must be saved in this life [despite that God and Jesus have both said that this is NOT the time of judgment!] ,all these many who condemn other men as 'unbelievers' who have no hope if they 'die in sin' , all these many christians, do not have ALL truth of God , so how can they rightly claim to have baptism of the spirit ?

So almost all christians actually, demonstrably depend for their salvation on being WRONG in their tradition!

I guess that would be remarkable , or even amusing to some, were it not that it is also prophesied, so that God has even told men it will happen and still men pursue their tradition with zeal claiming it is true ... even though if they looked at what Jesus says in scripture [above] thye would see that their condemnation of some others would condemn them too...

reproof from scripture is then necessary for resolving this issue , and it is not a question of whos is right, but of seeing that God says that bOTH sides are WRONG !!

It is the right of men to be wrong in their beliefs and so this is actually an equable resolution of this debate of great passion but of little regard to God's truths in scripture [or by his spirit, of course ;) ]

So one might hope [a vain hope of course] to end it with the scripture that shows that all men will eventually recieve baptism of the spirit and thus all truth of God and the opportunity thus to resist Satan and live righteous lives in the new earth , and so perfectionin trial and salvation :-

Joe 2:28 And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:

Ac 2:17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:

[We might note that our sond and dughters are NOT prophets, that we have not all been given all truth by God's pouring out Hs spirit on ALL of us YET , but that it will be poured ou on ALL, thus it cannot be poured out, but will be , when God has resiurrected ALL, after the second resurrection then...

We might also note that this one scripture goes against almost every creed expressed by modern chrsitisns.... so why do men not read and believe God, but believe tradition of men instead.. that explained by scripture, but it is another thread]
 
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Freakconformist

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So by the Holy Spirit we are justified in our condemnation? I think not. We have the right to inspect our own lives and to steer our coarse ever closer to the Lords.

However Judgement is not ours, niether is retribution in case you are wondering. More then once God has reserved that right for Himself.

If a man breaks man's law, then he is judged by man's laws. If a man breaks his covenant with God though, then is God's right to judge him.


Genisis 18:24-25
24 What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare [forgive] the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? 25 Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge [Ruler] of all the earth do right?"

Deuteronomy 32: 36
The LORD will judge his people
and have compassion on his servants
when he sees their strength is gone
and no one is left, slave or free.

1 Samuel 24: 12
12 May the LORD judge between you and me. And may the LORD avenge the wrongs you have done to me, but my hand will not touch you.

1 Chronicles 16: 33
Then the trees of the forest will sing, they will sing for joy before the LORD, for he comes to judge the earth.

Matthew 7:1-2
1"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

Luke quotes the same sermon:
Luke 6: 37-38
37"Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. 38Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."

Luke 18: 6-7
6And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?

John 5: 22- 23
22Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, 23that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father...

I reiterate that this is a pointless thread and nobody, but God, has a right to condem anybody as "God-less", much less whole countries.
 
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Victory of the Cross

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Now I am Welsh, lived in the UK my whole life, I am not that impressed with the country in general, nor with most of europe, the Americans seem to have a lot of troubles, YET THEY DO SOMETHING, Europe is far too slow, we talk everything to death, then wait till its too big to deal with, and need to go begging to America
 
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stranger

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Freakconformist said:
So by the Holy Spirit we are justified in our condemnation? I think not.

I realise that you "think not", but I submit that this is possibly because you heard or read other people talk or even teach that way and perhaps never got around to thinking: "Condemned to what?" ...

thus I ask that you consider that the wages of sin is simply [mortal] death , that is what sinners are condemned to, to die, that is all ... in death one is freed from past sin, the price is paid ...

but all who die go to hell, just as even Jesus went to hell at death [Acts 2:31] ...

but through Jesus we all have now a solution to death, as Jesus showed, all who die are guaranteed resurrection , the first resurrection for the justified saints who die in Christ, the second resurrection for all sinners ... thus hell will be empty eventually ... !

But very many christians say souls are condemned to be somehow lost , even those who had no chance whatever of believibg in Jesus in this life and the strangge thing about this is that there is no evidence whatever for it in scripture all souls are resurrected to the body , just as Jesus went around showing people that he was resurrected to the body, NOT to the spirit [only some time later was he translated to spirit because he had been through trial and God found him perfect, sin-less, and thus justified to redemption...

If God had indeed comdemned souls to some sort of limbo or to non-existence just because they never had a chance to believe in Jesus, would that be even slightly just or loving ? Clearly not! ...but indeed that is not what scripture says ... God resurrects all sinners from hell snd at some time after that will judge them but he cannot judge them on what they did before death, that has been wiped out by their paying the price of sin in death ... equally WHY should God resurrect sinners from hell jsut to judge them yet again and send them back to hell if they were already pre-judged at death.. again it is nonsense only made credible to some beacuse many say it without considering what it would mean or what ALL the scripture says about resurrected sinners ...

So let us consider a scriptural prohecy :-

Joel 2:28 And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:

[this repaeted in NT by Paul -Acts 2:17-18]

Clearly our most of our sons and daughters do not yet prophecy so God has not yet poured His spirit out on all flesh, but what will be the effect when he does [apart from mass prophesying and visions ] :-

John 16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.

Eph 5:9 (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;)

Thus it is baptism of the spirit that ENABLES righteousness by giving all truth of God to men .... Jesus and the saints received it and were/are perfected through trial of their faith made possible because ALL truth of God anables one NOT to be deceived by Satan's wiles and empty temptations of flesh...

BUT how many christians have all truth of god BEFORE they die , I submit that it is very few, the saints only ... most christians I know of died without ALL truth of God and the implication of that is that they were not baptised of the spirit since god has NOT poured His spirit out on the many, only on the few saints of Israel ...as YET!

So consider the above scripture in relation to the sinners who died already ...clearly they did not receive baptism of the spirit in this life ,so this scripture guarantees that they will receive all truth of God in the new earth !

So all sinners lose their past sin in death, are give all truth by god ,and thus have every opportunity to live a righteous life in the righteous new earth up until the judgment day of God.... so if they are righteous and perfect themselves by trial in the new earth just as Jesus and the sasints did in this earth, what do you think god's judgment will be? ... No need to guess because God tells us the answer in scripture :-

e,g, Ezek 33:19 But if the wicked turn from his wickedness, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall live thereby.

thus God is far more merciful than men give Him credit for in the traditions of men, and the scripture explains that [but men have had millenia to misrepresent scripture in and they have ended up changing scripture to fit their traditions instead of reproving traditions to fit ALL the scripture ]

We have the right to inspect our own lives and to steer our course ever closer to the Lords.

As you probably know, even a single sin makes one imperfect , thus getting closer is not good enough for redemption by translation of the spirit , that requires that one is the very image of the Son of God, Jesus, perfect, sin-less.... NO-ONE can do this without all truth of God which ONLY comes by God's giving it WHEN He will [according to HIS plan, purpose and will, not our will!]

Thus as Jesus said , NO-ONE enters the kingdom of God without baptism of the spirit :-

Joh 3:5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

Thus we all await receiving all truth of God BEFORE we even CAN get to heaven [as spirit]

So it is good news for EVERYONE that God will baptise ALL flesh into ALL trth of God [as Joel's prophecy states and Paul repeats in NT] , but what christians might see as bad news [because it reproves common christian belief] is that ALL sinners MUST wait until after the second resurrection for all truth of God... one is only condemned to death by sin, one is not yet rejected by God by any means ... Jesus came to redeem ALL sinners and Rev 7:9-10 shows the uncountable number redeemed at judgment ...

Thus it is both very weird and unscriptural to pretend that God judges man in THIS earth, Gd has said when He will judge, He does not prejudge , sin omly condemns one to death and to destruction of the body, it is far from the end for the soul ... and the spirit returns to God in any case :-

Ec 12:7 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

However Judgement is not ours, niether is retribution in case you are wondering. More then once God has reserved that right for Himself.
It would be well to remeber that when pronouncing the condemnation of 'unbelievers' which God has not condemned to anything more than mortal death of the body ... which all will escape in resurrection ... there is plenty of time after resurrection for sinners t be righteous and to believe i Jesus after God has gven them all His truth ...

If a man breaks man's law, then he is judged by man's laws. If a man breaks his covenant with God though, then is God's right to judge him.

That is true enough, but if you read the scripture you will find that God has no covenant yet with most men, there are very good reasons for this , God's purpose and plan ,which curiously most people do not bother to study in scripture ...

Thus you will find covenants with various Hebrews , and the old and new covenants with Israel in scripture ... the new covenant [Jer 31:31-34, Heb 8:6-13] specifically ONLY with the House of Judah [Jews] and the House of Israel [ Israelites who were never Jews, paganised as gentiles , the nation that disappeared, became "not a people" , but to whom alone God sent Jesus] :-
Mt 15:24 But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

Mt 10:6 But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

Ac 2:36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.

Thus Jesus is the prophesied Messiah who is the annointed king of Israel ... Israel will be kings and priests [Ex 19:6] in the new earth [since they never were that and Jesus is in heaven until he returns] , a royal priesthood [1Pet 2:9-10] , so Jesus is King of the kings of Israel who rule in the new earth over billions of resurrected sinners ... but the new earth is RIGHTEOUS, no sin is permitted there by Jesus and His saints , Jesus rules with a "rod of iron", complete righteousness under pain of a second [mortal] death [again for sin , to purge that sin yet again. the price of sin has not changed] - and then the lake of fire for te most evil [which is a different fascinating thread really, but note that there is no more daeth and no more hell, they both END at the lake of fire , hell does not continue once it is empty and no more dead enter it ]

Genisis 18:24-25
24 What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare [forgive] the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? 25 Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge [Ruler] of all the earth do right?"

Not quite sure why you quoted this, but God will indeed do right, so it is just as well that men are not right about their tradition that men are condemned to more than mortal death for sin , God's mercy endures fro all time [which the bible repeats over a hundred times, more than any other principle, but which is denied by men's tradition in most christianity...

Deuteronomy 32: 36
The LORD will judge his people
and have compassion on his servants
when he sees their strength is gone
and no one is left, slave or free.

It is indeed true taht almost all the saints will die in christ, but it is not possible for hell to hold them, any more than it was for Jesus, thus all saints that die are resurrected at the first resurrection, to the body, prior to translation to spirit soon after, because like Jesus that were erfected in trial in THIS life... all others are NOT erfected in this life simply because they do not have ALL truth of God and are thus tempted away by Satan all-too-easily .. but a little study reveals that this is no less than exact unfolding of God's plan and purpose .. God never intended to redeem al men until He had established a perfect priesthood [the order of Melchizedek] under Jesus ,as hgih priests, to minister in the salvation of billions in the new earth ... that is why Israel is first, God needs the priesthood set up first [and they judge angels too during the millenium]

1 Samuel 24: 12
12 May the LORD judge between you and me. And may the LORD avenge the wrongs you have done to me, but my hand will not touch you.

Again the punishment for sin is death , watching their ways in this world crumble to nothing, and the woe that overtakes men when they realise what they have done that separates them a bit longer from God , why do you seek more than that very just and aopropriate redemptive puinishment by God?

1 Chronicles 16: 33
Then the trees of the forest will sing, they will sing for joy before the LORD, for he comes to judge the earth.

God will indeed judge the earth and almost all men will die and this earth and heavens pass away, but then ALL men are resurrected to a new opportunity in a new earth , a righteous plavce where God can come down and live with men again because righteousness is the condition of life in the new earth .


Matthew 7:1-2
1"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

Luke quotes the same sermon:
Luke 6: 37-38
37"Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. 38Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."

Indeed, only the saints and Jesus and God can judge rightly, so there is no way men can judge rightly before baptism of the spirit.... but that does not stop one pointing out the judgments made by God, Jesus , the prophets, the saints , in scripture , they are not one's own judgments , but rely completely only on the truth of scripture about God's judgments... hence scripture is powerful truth...

Luke 18: 6-7
6And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?

It is indeed true that even the saints wait upon God for baptsism of the spirit and for the judgment to pass on those who killed the saints ... but again God's judgment is PRODUCTIVE, His punishments aimed at redemptio of sinners, not losing them [as if He could love them and lose them]
John 5: 22- 23
22Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, 23that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father...

I reiterate that this is a pointless thread and nobody, but God, has a right to condem anybody as "God-less", much less whole countries.

Again there are very few who could make that judgment [whatever it means, i am not even sure what people think they mean by it] , but if one could put it into terms relevant to scripture then one might get a judgment of god in relation to it [as I attempted to show in my above post... not a personal judgment, but one relative completely t what God says is true in scripture ....
 
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oworm

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Tangnefedd said:
What does America do that is so wonderful?

Holds the balance of power as a stabilising influenze to overall world peace. If one of the Baltic or Islamic states held the same power we would almost certainly descend into chaos and possibly world war. Just give it a few years and some stupid legislation that allows rogue nations to have nuclear weapon capability to its fullest capacity and see what will happen! Then we will be begging the USA to step up to the mark again and help us again.
We may not always see eye to eye with the USA but as it's a democratic nation which upholds the right to free speech Im thankfull we have them as friends and not enemies.

If the USA hadn't stepped into WW2 Britain would probably have been overrun by Germanys invading forces. Japan saw that the USA could swing the balance and pre-empted by attacking Pearl Harbour. They made a big mistake by not finishing the job but inadvertantly did us a favour by dragging the USA into the war.
Also. During the cold war if there had been no NATO alliance then the USSR would simply have shouldered it's way into the UK and made us a RED Army outpost,planting intercontinental missiles on our soil and taking a tactical advantage and therefore swinging the balance of power.

So what has America done that is so wonderful? Quite a lot actually!
 
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oworm

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Tangnefedd said:
People bang on about 'sin', there are a lot of good people around who would not dream of doing anything illegal or hurtful to others, and do a lot of good. Why are they deemed to have 'sinned'? I find the concept of original sin total nonsense!
Since you "wear" a Christian icon i would have thought you would be familiar with the term "sin" and what it actually means in the context of Christian thought
 
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So what has America done that is so wonderful? Quite a lot actually!

Funny how many of us in the UK fail to see it and wonder if we would be better off if the US didn't have superpower status, which it has abused where Iraq is concerned!

'Sin' is a judgemental word that the fundies love to trot out as if it is a sort of metaphysical thing! Of course people do wrong, that is granted, but we also do a lot of good to, for that we should be given credit!
 
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oworm

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Tangnefedd said:
So what has America done that is so wonderful? Quite a lot actually!

Funny how many of us in the UK fail to see it and wonder if we would be better off if the US didn't have superpower status, which it has abused where Iraq is concerned!

'Sin' is a judgemental word that the fundies love to trot out as if it is a sort of metaphysical thing! Of course people do wrong, that is granted, but we also do a lot of good to, for that we should be given credit!
I can discern that to enter into any meaningful discussion with you on these subjects would be a fruitless task since you suffer from something of an inverted fundamental attitude to them. I will glady withdraw from interaction with you. :wave:

Now to get back to the subject of this thread:
How does it feel?
Although religious faith is constantly under attack in the US, it's still a rather religious country. I'm wondering though, what it feels like for you British folks to live in a country that is non- and even anti-religious. Europe as a whole has become quite Godless and I find that troubling. Years ago I lived in Austria and the only people that went to church were tourists and old people. I felt out of place being so young at the time. How did Europe get this way? And how do people handle crisis and trouble in their lives without a faith background?
 
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oworm

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Veritas said:
Although religious faith is constantly under attack in the US, it's still a rather religious country. I'm wondering though, what it feels like for you British folks to live in a country that is non- and even anti-religious. Europe as a whole has become quite Godless and I find that troubling. Years ago I lived in Austria and the only people that went to church were tourists and old people. I felt out of place being so young at the time. How did Europe get this way? And how do people handle crisis and trouble in their lives without a faith background?

Yes it is true that the USA has not come under the same intensity of relativism as is evident in Europe. Post modern thinking is rife on a scale which is quite unprecedented. The rise of liberalism in the church marked the beggining of the decline and we have sunk into the morass of decadence matched only by the citys of Sodom and Gommorah. What is evil is being called good now and what is good is evil.
 
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Jer

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Tangnefedd said:
So what has America done that is so wonderful? Quite a lot actually!

Funny how many of us in the UK fail to see it and wonder if we would be better off if the US didn't have superpower status, which it has abused where Iraq is concerned!

'Sin' is a judgemental word that the fundies love to trot out as if it is a sort of metaphysical thing! Of course people do wrong, that is granted, but we also do a lot of good to, for that we should be given credit!

Look at it from this point of view.

A person goes into someones house, and steals stuff from it, but they are caught and taken to court. Now say (it can't happen because of our laws, but if it did) that the judge was the person's (lets call him Bob) dad. Bob stood up in court, and told them he was guilty. Now the dad (Tim) knows Bob helps his mum with the shopping. He knows that he washes the dishes without being asked to. All good things. Yet can Tim, if he is being truely just, let Bob off with it because although he has done wrong he's also done a bit of good? No. In the same way God can't let us off with wrong things, no matter how much good we do, because He is Just.

BUT how many christians have all truth of god BEFORE they die , I submit that it is very few, the saints only ... most christians I know of died without ALL truth of God and the implication of that is that they were not baptised of the spirit since god has NOT poured His spirit out on the many, only on the few saints of Israel ...as YET!

By saying they do not have the baptism of the holy spirit you are judging them and so becoming wrong. Now I'm not saying you're worse than anyone else for this, but it's an example of how we CANNOT live a life without judging peoplel, and so it shows that there are no saints who according to the reasoning outlined above will be raised at the first judgement.

Also do you think we should go out and witness? Do you think we should bother doing good things? Because according to the logic that all will be raised to Christ then it doesn't matter about either. We will be raised with Him. I can go out there and kill 20 people, rape some people, and whatever else I want, as I will be forgiven with everyone else. Is that Just?

[BIBLE]1Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. 3For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. 4For he is God's servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. Romans 13[/BIBLE]

That clearly declares that there will be judgement in this life. Does that mean that the authorities will not have the chance to be saints because they have to judge people? It clearly says there that God wants them to judge people who do wrong.
 
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