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Why Christianity?

Deut 5:29

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:thumbsup: Basically the point i was trying to make but you wrote it with a more coherent and 'proper' manner :)
I believe in a higher being and i view all these religions different manifestations of the same thing really. Some religions of course dont describe their deity as I would like to think He/She/It is and that is part of why i dismiss them. Christianity(and parts the New Testament specifically) is the closest description of God that suits me. But i cant really be called a christian because i disagree with several ( if not most) parts of the scripture

So, what you're saying is, you are a quivering mass of indicision and don't really know anything.
At least you're a big enough person to admit it.
 
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alexacker said:

Saying that Bible . . . is the word of God, begs the question "" How do you know that?"

Biblical Christians know that the Bible is the word of God (2 Timothy 3:15-4:4, John 8:31) because they've been granted God's miraculous gift of Christian faith (Ephesians 2:8, John 6:65, 1 Corinthians 3:5) and some measure of God's own Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:11-16). And so they're able to spiritually recognize if something is said by God (John 10:4,27) or only by some "stranger" (John 10:5).

Biblical Christians believe that the Bible is the word of God not only because of the spiritual evidence of faith (Hebrews 11:1), but also because Jesus himself confirms that all of the Old Testament is true (Matthew 5:17-18, Luke 24:44-48). And all of the New Testament was written by eyewitnesses of Jesus (2 Peter 1:16, 1 John 1:1-4, 1 Corinthians 9:1, John 19:35, John 21:24, Luke 24:48, Revelation 1:17-19) or their immediate followers (Luke 1:1-2, Hebrews 2:3). Also, no teaching in the Bible has ever been proven false. So there is no reason for any Christian to reject anything in the Bible.

Jesus says to Christians: "If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed" (John 8:31). Christians must be willing to die before they would deny any part of his word: "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels" (Mark 8:35-38).

It's only the Bible which is able to make people wise unto salvation through faith which is in Jesus Christ (2 Timothy 3:15, Romans 10:17, Acts 13:48, James 1:18, 1 Peter 1:23-25). All of the Bible's teachings were given by the inspiration of God, so that all of the Bible is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly equipped to perform all good works (2 Timothy 3:16-4:4).

One of the prime aims of the devil is to get people to reject God's word and start believing something else which sounds better to them (Genesis
3:1-6, Matthew 16:21-23), but which can't save them.

For example, Islam sounds better than the Bible to many people, but Islam can't save them because it denies that Jesus is the human/divine Son of God (Koran 9:30, Koran 4:171, Koran 5:72), and it denies that Jesus died on the Cross for our sins (Koran 4:157) and rose from the dead on the third day. In order to be saved people have to believe that Jesus is the human/divine Son of God (John 3:36, 1 John 2:23), and that Jesus died on the Cross for our sins and rose from the dead on the third day (1 Corinthians 15:1-4, Luke 24:46-47, Matthew 20:19, Matthew 26:28).

The reason why it's necessary to believe these things in order to be saved is because it was only as the human/divine Son of God that Jesus' suffering during his Passion could satisfy God the Father's justice (Isaiah 53:11), which requires an infinite amount of human suffering for sin (Matthew 25:46). During his Passion, Jesus as a human suffered for our sins an infinite amount because he is at the same time God (John 1:1,14, John 10:30, John 20:28): his soul is infinite, and so the suffering of his soul (Isaiah 53:11) was infinite in amount, even though it wasn't infinite in duration. Because humans who aren't God have finite souls, for them to suffer an infinite amount for their sins they must suffer over an infinite duration of time (Matthew 25:46, Revelation 14:10-11, Mark 9:45-46). Every human has sinned (Romans 3:9,10,23, Isaiah 53:6) except Jesus (Hebrews 4:15, 2 Corinthians 5:21). But because Jesus suffered an infinite amount for all human sinners (1 Peter 3:18, 1 John 2:2, Isaiah 53:6,11), all human sinners who believe in Jesus' human/divine sacrifice can have their past sins forgiven (Romans 3:25, Matthew 26:28) while God the Father's justice remains fully satisfied by Jesus' suffering for their sins (Isaiah 53:11, Isaiah 53:6).

alexacker said:

If it is gods word, then i'd rather not worship such a vengeful being..

We must be careful not to condemn the way that God himself has chosen to reveal all that he is (Romans 9:20-24), both a loving being (John 15:13, Matthew 26:28) and a vengeful being (Luke 12:49, 2 Thessalonians 1:8). We mustn't say that it's evil for God not to save everyone and to send the unsaved into eternal torment (Matthew 25:41,46, Revelation 14:10-11). For by saying this we would be making humans more important than God and his wishes. And this is something which Satan causes people to do, just as Jesus at one point "said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men" (Matthew 16:23).

No matter how it may irk the Satanic pride of us humans, wanting to be important like God (Isaiah 14:12-15), so important that God would never even think of not saving all of us and casting some of us into hell forever (Isaiah 14:15, Revelation 20:10,15), we must always remember that it's God's right to do whatever he wants with his creatures (Romans 9:21-23). We must always remember that even all of humanity together is infinitesimal and worth less than nothing compared with God (Isaiah 40:17-18). We must resist our Satanic, human pride (which we can unsconsciously disguise with good-sounding words about God's love for us), and completely humble ourselves before God (James 4:7-10, 1 Peter 5:6-8), pleading that he might have mercy upon us sinners (Luke 18:13-14).

The devil would love nothing more than to get us humans in our sinful pride to wrongly reject the God of the Bible (YHWH) as evil, so that we will end up in the lake of fire forever with the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41,46, Revelation 20:10,15, Revelation 14:10-11, Mark 9:43-44). The coming Antichrist, who will be empowered by the devil (2 Thessalonians 2:9, Revelation 13:4), will utterly revile YHWH (Revelation 13:6, Daniel 11:36), and no doubt one of his chief blasphemies against YHWH will be that YHWH is an evil god. (This is one of the ancient blasphemies of Gnosticism, another being the antichrist lie that Christ isn't in the flesh: 1 John 4:3.) During the coming world-reign of the Antichrist, the whole world will be deceived into rejecting YHWH and worshipping Lucifer (the dragon, the devil) and the Antichrist (the beast) instead (Revelation 13:4-18).
 
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r035198x

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Why not any other religion of the world? I am a Deist really, but i say i am a christian generally to not upset my family and becasue i like some of the sayings in the New Testament :)
So what about you? Why Christianity and not something else?

Power.

The power of the gospel is underestimated. Most people become Christians before they have read and fully understood the verses in the Bible that convince one to be so. This is done through the sheer power of the gospel compelling people to accept Jesus as their Lord.
How this power is manifested to different people differs from culture to culture and indeed from individual to individual.
 
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bling

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Again that is the God i believe in ....But the Christian God as mentioned in the Bible, and especially in the old testament is very cruel :(.
I agree some parts of the New Testament are awesome and very advanced for their age( Love your neighbor as you love yourself etc) but a considerable portion of the Bible is full of contradictions and evil things ;/

No matter how Christians alter the meaning of the words of the Bible the bottom line is this. Bible is NOT the word of God. Some parts are inspired by him of course but Human influence is too obvious.
If it is gods word, then i'd rather not worship such a vengeful being..

This is a huge subject needing weeks of discussion, which I have done, but it takes a lot of study and not just quick answers.
We need to remember the following:
Death is the way good people get to go home and the way bad people quit doing bad stuff.
God will tell the Hebrews to drive the people out three times more often than annihilate them.
We really do not have the gory details of how this actually went down for example: do we know if any young Hebrew soldier actually ran a sword through an innocent child? How many fled before the Jews and who would have stayed? We do have examples in the Bible and secular history of deranged parents murdering their families and killing themselves when they are trapped. Also, like with Gideon’s little army the enemy turned on themselves killing most if not all.
There is a reason for all this that may explain a lot about the way God works. If God went in and destroyed everyone it would be totally complete and perfectly done, but that would not produce the desired results. There is a problem God created by making the Jews, His promised chosen people (pride among the Jews). It would be hard for the Jews not to be proud. If the Jews do everything right in taking the Promised Land they will have fed their pride. God warns the Jews about screwing this up and that is what they do. The enemies left in the land become a constant reminder and are a humiliation for the Jews which is good. Trusting God is needed in all this for the Jews to not be cruel and personally kill an innocent child.
You can ask why God killed innocent children, but that is the same question you can ask today at the local Hospital. We have no record of a torturous death of an innocent child and it would have been torturous to allow babies to live in the desert area without parents.
Just a little introduction.
 
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alexacker

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So, what you're saying is, you are a quivering mass of indicision and don't really know anything.
At least you're a big enough person to admit it.

I wouldnt put it in such a way but you could say that... People that dont question anything are sheep... And people that say they know the absolute truth are delusional
 
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alexacker

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Biblical Christians know that the Bible is the word of God (2 Timothy 3:15-4:4, John 8:31) because they've been granted God's miraculous gift of Christian faith (Ephesians 2:8, John 6:65, 1 Corinthians 3:5) and some measure of God's own Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:11-16). And so they're able to spiritually recognize if something is said by God (John 10:4,27) or only by some "stranger" (John 10:5).
..........

So Bible is the word of God because the Bible says it.... Don't you something is a little wrong here?
 
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alexacker

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Power.

The power of the gospel is underestimated. Most people become Christians before they have read and fully understood the verses in the Bible that convince one to be so. This is done through the sheer power of the gospel compelling people to accept Jesus as their Lord.
How this power is manifested to different people differs from culture to culture and indeed from individual to individual.

Most people become christians because of the family background. Period.

And if you were looking for power, the quran mentions alot more brute force than the bible.. especially than the 'love each other' stuff in NT
 
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Hentenza

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r035198x

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Most people become christians because of the family background. Period...

A common belief among non-Christians but false.



...And if you were looking for power, the quran mentions alot more brute force than the bible.. especially than the 'love each other' stuff in NT
The point is not to mention power a lot, but to have it and exhibit it. Christianity shows its compellling power by the sheer numbers it drives towards it and often in places with no strong Christianity presence.
 
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Bible2

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alexacker said:

People that dont question anything are sheep...

People who aren't Jesus' sheep (John 10:26-28) are goats who will be cast into eternal torment in fire (Matthew 25:32-46, Revelation 20:10,15, Revelation 14:10-11).

alexacker said:

And people that say they know the absolute truth are delusional

People who know Jesus and the Bible know the absolute truth (John 14:6, 2 Timothy 3:15-4:4).

People who reject Jesus and the Bible are deluded and taken captive by the devil (2 Timothy 2:26, 2 Corinthians 4:4, Revelation 12:9).

alexacker said:

So Bible is the word of God because the Bible says it.... Don't you something is a little wrong here?

Biblical Christians know that the Bible is the word of God (2 Timothy 3:15-4:4, John 8:31) not just because the Bible says it, but also because they've been granted God's miraculous gift of Christian faith (Ephesians 2:8, John 6:65, 1 Corinthians 3:5) and some measure of God's own Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:11-16). And so they're able to spiritually recognize if something is said by God (John 10:4,27) or only by some "stranger" (John 10:5).

And Biblical Christians believe that the Bible is the word of God not only because of the spiritual evidence of faith (Hebrews 11:1), but also because Jesus himself confirms that all of the Old Testament is true (Matthew 5:17-18, Luke 24:44-48). And all of the New Testament was written by eyewitnesses of Jesus (2 Peter 1:16, 1 John 1:1-4, 1 Corinthians 9:1, John 19:35, John 21:24, Luke 24:48, Revelation 1:17-19) or their immediate followers (Luke 1:1-2, Hebrews 2:3). Also, no teaching in the Bible has ever been proven false. So there's no reason for any Christian to reject anything in the Bible.

One of the prime aims of the devil is to get people to reject God's word and start believing something else which sounds better to them (Genesis 3:1-6, Matthew 16:21-23), but which can't save them, so that they will end up in eternal torment with the devil (Matthew 25:41,46, Revelation 20:10,15, Revelation 14:10-11).

alexacker said:

Most people become christians because of the family background. Period.

Ultimately, one's family background is irrelevant, because people come into Christian faith through a miraculous gift from God (Ephesians 2:8, John 6:65, 1 Corinthians 3:5) as they hear the word of God (Romans 10:17), which is preached throughout the world (Mark 16:15-16). That's why there are Christians from every family background (Revelation 5:9b).
 
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Harry3142

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alexacker-

Here are my reasons for accepting Christianity over other religions:

1. God is perfect.

2. He requires perfection of all who would enter his presence. Being 'good enough' is unacceptable to God.

3. We are not perfect.

4. We are incapable of becoming perfect through our own effort. The more we try, the more we fail.

5. God is both the Author of Justice and the Epitome of Mercy. Since he knew we could never 'measure up' to the standard that he requires, instead of 'writing us off' he formulated a plan that became, for all intents and purposes, a rescue mission.

6. In order to carry out this rescue mission he had a Son through the Virgin Mary, namely, Jesus Christ. Since God was his Father, Jesus knew through his foreknowledge exactly why he was among us. He gave God the Father his full cooperation, and together they succeeded in gaining for us our salvation.

7. Because the rescue mission was successful, we who were condemned due to our own sinfulness can now be assured of salvation.

8. We recognize and accept that the saving righteousness which we now possess was not earned by us; it was earned for us by God himself, through his Son Jesus Christ. It is ours now for no other reason than that God himself has chosen to give it to us freely.

Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.

But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished - he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:19-26,NIV)

9. Other religions teach their members that they must do this, that, or the other in order to get into heaven. Christianity teaches that God has already done all that was necessary for our salvation, and our assurance can now rest on the work he has already done on our behalf.
 
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Wackotic

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Thorough/detailed account (not polished so there are redundancies):

I went back to Christianity because I wanted to be virtuous and to obey God's law but couldn't as well as I thought. I found knowing I had the blood atonement and the strength in Christ to make up for my lack of strength to be comforting and to be an enabler to lead me on the right path than trying, failing, getting discouraged, and living with a sense of failure.

I also tried to see ways around believing the Bible was God's Word but for some reason something was driving me to open it and read it when I was calling it quits. It was really, really weird and as soon as I started reading, I just felt something powerful working in me and I admit that I have always experienced that when reading the Bible since I was 'born again' seven years ago. Like, I will just open it up, read, and find myself praying and repenting and stuff, even when I could care less about how I live.

I like to read other religious texts from other religions but the Bible is the only one which really impacts me, keeps my interest, and feels relevant to my life in all areas. The Dialects of Confucius, the Tao Teh Ching, etc, just don't do that, no matter how much I respect those texts.

But I find myself truly believing in the Gospel more than anything. I read the Bible and despite doubts end up saying to myself that these are truly God's words. The consistency through the many books through thousands of years in the Bible also sticks out to me.

There are or have been times I did not want to believe but deep down, it is what I believe. I tried to see the world in so many different ways and felt my sense of perception being turned upside down. But I had to find what I believed in all honesty. And it came back to the Gospel and the Bible. I believe it because as much as I tried, I couldn't stop believing. I had gone through legalism and some extremist faith stuff in my teenage years and so wanted nothing to do with God or Jesus and was developing a phobia of religion and was close to having panic attacks. My mom prayed for me when I told her I didn't believe anymore. It didn't last long. I had to find closure for my own peace of mind to find what I believed, and being able to throw away the whole do's and dont's I clung to and just accept the simplicity of the Christian Gospel has really changed me since then putting away my old fears and my intense bitterness after having a fall out of faith.

I had been a bit backslidden in recent times but being fed up with my hollow waste of time in solely frivolous things put a yearning for a deeper connection with Christ as well as to help me overcome personal struggles so it's part of why I am posting on the forum now.

Christianity was just a part of finding closure and in finding a stable lifestyle for me which promoted the values I sought to live by (being convinced in a divine law of some sort by studying many world religions which more or less teach the same thing of a supreme maker and a righteous universal law).

So maybe I wasn't drawn to Christianity but it drew me when I was confronted with its message and Scriptures...not in the way that I found the occult alluring when I was a pre-teen but as being something which clicked in my mind and something that, after giving a chance, found to been a healing power in my life and to be a stabilizing force which I needed. The Gospels quotes Jesus as mentioning the rock foundation. That's a good way to describe it. A rock that is not anything really neat to look at, but it's a good thing to lay your life foundation on when you live life and realize how messed up you, people, and things can be. When things are so chaotic and you find your strength is not enough to deal with difficulties, having that strong fortification starts to mean something. As said, other religious doctrines and texts didn't have a strong enough foundation for me to use as a central faith and value system in my life. I also do feel a personal connection through prayer to God/Jesus and it all helps me to get some self control and to focus my energies in a less haphazard way.

But at the root is a sincere belief that is a stronger belief than beliefs of that there is no God or whatever which I wanted to believe but couldn't, ultimately, when trying to apply the concept of fairmindedness and such things related to critical thought which my composition professor taught me.

But I put everything to question and found I couldn't truly prove anything I claimed to have known about the world was true, not using empiricism. I tried to disprove God, couldn't. Couldn't prove him, either.

The logic was that if God exists, all that exists is the proof because he made it. But what exists does not stand as empirical evidence of God. So it boiled down to what I, myself, honestly believed.

When I decided I believed in actual evil because I could not rationalize the things humans do to other living things as being amoral (If I were to abide by a Darwinian viewpoint of everything comes down to Survival of the Fittest which I was briefly impressed on doing), I decided I was not atheist. I, as said, studied many religions and was taking a course in college on the subject at the same time and was struck with the similarities in belief in a cosmic creator God and in universal ethics. So, as said, it boiled down to deciding the idea of an atonement for sin to be the solution to my inability to be consistently virtuous along with being unable to truly argue against the words in the Bible plus that experience I mentioned that I would have reading the Bible (and feeling driven to read it when I was fighting against doing so after telling my mother and of course she prayed earnestly for me being the devout Christian woman she is).
 
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r035198x

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Hang in there pal
1st) I am a christian..
Good for you. I never disputed that.

Hang in there pal
1st) I am a christian
2nd) How do you think the majority of christians followed the religion? Don't give me stuff like 'They were drawn to it" when you clearly know they werent

Actually I clearly know that they were.

Going to church with your parents as a kid does not make you a Christian. People do not become Christians because they attend church with their families. They become Christians when they hear God's voice calling them to Him and decide to accept Jesus as their saviour. The decision is based on personal experiences rather than family or national as is the case with some religions.
 
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alexacker

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Considering the OP is wearing an Eastern Orthodox icon, one wonders if he has had any discussion on this matter with his priest, bishop or spiritual father.

I don't have 'my' priest... I live in a small town of 5k people and there are about 15 priests doing the liturgy... You can talk to them but people would rather talk to the priest that has baptized them, their spiritual father and such

I have a spiritual father but he doesnt come to my place often so we dont get to talk alot.

But my father is a theologian and we have had several discussions on that matter. He agrees with several of my views but he sticks with Christianity for other reasons that arent quite appropriate, i think, for public forum discussion...
(partly why i believe christianity as well)
 
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