Offering warm greetings, and a question...

[CIYA]

Hi everyone.

Glad to see there's a Christian forum group that's still alive, some of the ones I used to haunt seem to be dying down...

Does anyone know if you're allow to promote local Christian groups here? And if so, which forum(s) should I post in? I'm trying to jumpstart a small social group called CIYA (Christian Introverted Young Adults), hence my username, and I'm trying to give some exposure to it. It's a group in the Central MI area.

Thank you, and may the Lord guide and keep you.

~ Lauren

 

[maintenance man]

Welcome to CF! I don't have an answer to your question, but someone will be along soon and point you in the right direction. Many blessings!

 

[Michie]

Welcome! You might try here: Questions about CF Hopefully someone will get back to you.

 

[Unqualified]

Welcome to the forum @CIYA . What do you do in your organization?

 

[Maria Billingsley]

Hi everyone.

Glad to see there's a Christian forum group that's still alive, some of the ones I used to haunt seem to be dying down...

Does anyone know if you're allow to promote local Christian groups here? And if so, which forum(s) should I post in? I'm trying to jumpstart a small social group called CIYA (Christian Introverted Young Adults), hence my username, and I'm trying to give some exposure to it. It's a group in the Central MI area.

Thank you, and may the Lord guide and keep you.

~ Lauren

Welcome!

 

[Lost4words]

Woof!

 

[RileyG]

Welcome Lauren!

 

[CIYA]

Thanks for the welcome everyone! ^^

 

[CIYA]

Welcome to the forum @CIYA . What do you do in your organization?

I'm just starting out, but I plan on just hosting in-person meetups focused on reaching out to introverts who have a hard time feeling comfortable/fitting in to normal young adult church fellowships. I also have a discord server for hosting events that aren't in-person. It's very casual. Less of an organization and more of a "group" I guess.

 

[CIYA]

The group's also non-denominational, but I do have a statement of faith to preserve Christian integrity, which doesn't go against any of the points on this site.

 

[AlexB23]

The group's also non-denominational, but I do have a statement of faith to preserve Christian integrity, which doesn't go against any of the points on this site.

Welcome to the forums. Can you post the CIYA group's statement of faith, so we on the forum can vet it? I could run it through an artificial intelligence that is self-hosted (private and offline run on my laptop) and connected to Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant documents. The machine can "take the average" of the three major denominations and analyze your statement of faith.

 

[CIYA]

Welcome to the forums. Can you post the CIYA group's statement of faith, so we on the forum can vet it? I could run it through an artificial intelligence that is self-hosted (private and offline run on my laptop) and connected to Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant documents. The machine can "take the average" of the three major denominations and analyze your statement of faith.

Sure thing.

This is what I have:


1. The original 66 books of the Bible in its initial text are the literal inerrant Word of God.
Not all translations are created equally, and it is left up to the individual to deduce, at their own discretion and research, what version(s) of the Bible should be utilized.
(Deut. 4:22; 2 Tim. 2:15; 2 Tim. 3:16; 1 Pet. 1:20-21; Rev. 22:18-19)

2. God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and has perfect wisdom.
(Deut. 32:4; Job 38-41; Isa. 46:9-10; Ps. 139:16; Prov. 2:6; Heb. 4:13)

3. God exists as a Trinity: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit.
All three predate creation, are parts of the same whole Being, and possess equal authority.
(Gen. 1:26; Gen. 1:2; Deut. 6:4; Isa. 9:6; John 1:1–5; John 10:30; 1 Cor. 8:6; Col. 2:8-9; 1 John 5:7-8)

4. Every person who has committed a conscious sin in the sight of God have fallen short of earning salvation. They must accept God's gift of atonement through Jesus's sacrifice, and express genuine repentance, to receive salvation and avoid "damnation".
(John 3:16, 36; John 14:6; Rom. 3:23; 1 John 1:9; Acts 17:30; Eph. 2:8; Rev. 3:19)

5. The Word of God is the ultimate source of morality.
What God deems as evil is evil, and what God deems as good is good. We are expected as Christians to continue seeking "goodness" over "evil". Consciously refusing to do so puts us at risk of "mocking" God's gift to us, and we may suffer potential consequences.
(Isa. 5:20; Matt. 7:21; Rom. 3:31; Rom. 12:2; 1 Cor. 3:12-13; Gal. 6:7; 2 Tim. 3:16; Rev. 2:12-16)

6. At some time in the future, God will cleanse and remake the earth, and the faithful will literally reign on earth with Jesus for 1,000 years.
(2 Pet 3:1-7; Rev. 20:4; Rev. 21:3)

7. Humility, respect, peace, discernment, and a desire to uplift are our most important tools to settle any divisions or conflicts that arise between us.
We reserve the right to shut down discussions that are not being driven by these virtues.
(Matt. 7:12; Gal. 5:22-23; Gal. 6:2; Phil. 2:3-4; Eph. 4:2; 1 Thess. 5:21; 1 John 4:1; 1 Pet. 2:17; 1 Pet. 5:5)


It's not intended to be exhaustive, just a general idea of distinguishing belief.

 

[CIYA]

Thanks for taking the time to look at it, it's appreciated.

If anyone is wondering about the 5th point, it is not referring to "earning salvation". It's referring to God's right to still exact fair consequences on people for consciously sinning after accepting Christ, whatever this consequence may be, at His discretion. (ex. when God directly punished King David for committing murder and adultery, even though we consider him amongst the most faithful and he repented. God still slayed Bathsheba's first child with David to set an example. (See 2 Samuel 12.)

Just an important note to make I think, as I've seen Christians make some very poor moral decisions under the assumption that Christ's sacrifice will "protect" them from disciplinary action, or give them authority to amend God's standards of what is good and bad.

This point also touches on the curious statement from Paul about your heavenly rewards being determined by the level of your "good works".
He distinguishes this from salvation, but he still adds a strange anecdote that people will "suffer loss" if they did not strive towards good works. What this means exactly is unknown. (See 1 Cor. 3:10-15)

[Deciding to remove the part I wrote here about the "irreverent" points in case they cause a stir on here for some reason. Most of them are covered in the site's rules anyway, and none of the points violate them.]

I mention that if anyone wants to bring up a civil question about these issues, they are free to, but there will be low tolerance for trolls and people who are trying to "bait". Pretty much anyone deemed violating the 7th point of the Statement of Faith.

Biblical theology and morality can be a really slippery slope to navigate, especially for newer Christians and those still "soul seeking", so my intention is to try leaving conversation as open as they can be without a vicious firefight breaking out or compromising integrity.

If people wanna talk about politics, world events, etc., with good intentions, it's cool by me. Better to share awareness than let something take us by surprise.

I just wanted to promote striving to try understanding one another over hiding what we truly believe, which is what my culture does constantly, and they wonder why so many scandals are coming out and divorce rates are so high.

Sorry if that's a lot of words. It's just something I'm passionate about I guess.

 

[CIYA]

Sure thing.

This is what I have:


1. The original 66 books of the Bible in its initial text are the literal inerrant Word of God.
Not all translations are created equally, and it is left up to the individual to deduce, at their own discretion and research, what version(s) of the Bible should be utilized.
(Deut. 4:22; 2 Tim. 2:15; 2 Tim. 3:16; 1 Pet. 1:20-21; Rev. 22:18-19)

Thought I'd say quick: I have the wrong Deut. verse for this point. It's Deut. 11:18. Sorry about that. The rest are correct.

 

[Michie]

This is the intro forum. This thread needs to be moved to a different forum for theological discussion imo.

 

[AlexB23]

Sure thing.

This is what I have:


1. The original 66 books of the Bible in its initial text are the literal inerrant Word of God.
Not all translations are created equally, and it is left up to the individual to deduce, at their own discretion and research, what version(s) of the Bible should be utilized.
(Deut. 4:22; 2 Tim. 2:15; 2 Tim. 3:16; 1 Pet. 1:20-21; Rev. 22:18-19)

2. God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and has perfect wisdom.
(Deut. 32:4; Job 38-41; Isa. 46:9-10; Ps. 139:16; Prov. 2:6; Heb. 4:13)

3. God exists as a Trinity: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit.
All three predate creation, are parts of the same whole Being, and possess equal authority.
(Gen. 1:26; Gen. 1:2; Deut. 6:4; Isa. 9:6; John 1:1–5; John 10:30; 1 Cor. 8:6; Col. 2:8-9; 1 John 5:7-8)

4. Every person who has committed a conscious sin in the sight of God have fallen short of earning salvation. They must accept God's gift of atonement through Jesus's sacrifice, and express genuine repentance, to receive salvation and avoid "damnation".
(John 3:16, 36; John 14:6; Rom. 3:23; 1 John 1:9; Acts 17:30; Eph. 2:8; Rev. 3:19)

5. The Word of God is the ultimate source of morality.
What God deems as evil is evil, and what God deems as good is good. We are expected as Christians to continue seeking "goodness" over "evil". Consciously refusing to do so puts us at risk of "mocking" God's gift to us, and we may suffer potential consequences.
(Isa. 5:20; Matt. 7:21; Rom. 3:31; Rom. 12:2; 1 Cor. 3:12-13; Gal. 6:7; 2 Tim. 3:16; Rev. 2:12-16)

6. At some time in the future, God will cleanse and remake the earth, and the faithful will literally reign on earth with Jesus for 1,000 years.
(2 Pet 3:1-7; Rev. 20:4; Rev. 21:3)

7. Humility, respect, peace, discernment, and a desire to uplift are our most important tools to settle any divisions or conflicts that arise between us.
We reserve the right to shut down discussions that are not being driven by these virtues.
(Matt. 7:12; Gal. 5:22-23; Gal. 6:2; Phil. 2:3-4; Eph. 4:2; 1 Thess. 5:21; 1 John 4:1; 1 Pet. 2:17; 1 Pet. 5:5)


It's not intended to be exhaustive, just a general idea of distinguishing belief.

Thank you. I might plug this into the AI later, but my computer is being really slow.

 

[CIYA]

This is the intro forum. This thread needs to be moved to a different forum for theological discussion imo.

I agree lol. If someone can direct me to which specific discussion thread this type of conversation belongs to I'll make a thread and we can all continue conversation there.

 

[CIYA]

Thank you. I might plug this into the AI later, but my computer is being really slow.

Thanks Alex. Definitely let me know what your thoughts are when you're able, I'd be interested in hearing about it. Same goes to any other mods or random people viewing this thread.

 

[CIYA]

I'm going to have a website up soon so it's easier to share info about my group, if it's deemed appropriate to share. All I have right now is an X account, a Meetup group, and the Discord server.

 

[AlexB23]

Thanks Alex. Definitely let me know what your thoughts are when you're able, I'd be interested in hearing about it. Same goes to any other mods or random people viewing this thread.

You are welcome. Should I plug it in now? The AI could work on the problem overnight, over an hour or so. Also, there are more than 66 books in the Bible according to Catholic and Orthodox traditions. We will have to see what the machine says about that.