Why would anyone want to be a Christian?

[ChristianT]

So what faith are you mr s.a.32?

 

[XSpiritualX]

Guys let's be nice to each other here.
If there's one thing I don't like on the internet it's all this senseless fighting... like theres not enough of that in reallife.
Christian or not Im sure anyone prefers a kind tone of discussion.
Oh sometimes I wish all humans could be friends. I know that sounds so naive but I still love the thought of it^^

 

[SolomonVII]

That'll just emphasize her face more, and she's a beautiful young woman. People can deal with that ...

That is all I noticed the first time was the pretty face actually.
Now I am kinda embarrassed that I misunderstood what the rudeness was all about.

 

[SolomonVII]

The alternative to not being a Christian does not offer much at all ...I believe in Jesus' return to take us away from this world of sin and misery and pain...not much hope in this world.

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes;and there shall be no more death,neither sorrow,nor crying, there shall be no more pain, for the former things are passed away.
Revelation 21:4

Life is hard. As the Buddha might say, life is suffering, even meaningless suffering. From that it is easy to include that it would be better to enter a state of non-existence, in essence, nihilism.

Ecclesiastes comes to much the same conclusion; you live, you die, everything that you work for in a life under the sun comes to naught. All is transient, and nothing is permanent. All is vanity.

Christianity recognizes the suffering in life, even the horrifying suffering of being hung naked and humiliated on the cross, in excruciating pain, alone, spit on and laughed at.
And the answer of Christianity is that however great suffering is, love is greater. Jesus demonstrated this in offering in his forgiveness, even in this, his darkest hour.

Love conquers even a horrible, brutal death. It makes a life bigger than the suffering.
This is good to know, a good reason to be a Christian, for it shows us the kind of life that is actually worth even dying for.

 

[seekingagnostic32]

If love conquers all, as you say, why are Christians so angry, judgmental, hypocritical, rude, unkind and hateful towards anything that is not of their particular brand of Christianity? I ask this in sincerity.

 

[razeontherock]

They aren't. You do so passionate debate online, but generally the tone of face-to-face discussion is not at all what one imagines from reading online. and we're doing better about not resorting to bloodshed Hasn't happened much since ... quite some time now.

 

[seekingagnostic32]

Guys let's be nice to each other here.
If there's one thing I don't like on the internet it's all this senseless fighting... like theres not enough of that in reallife.
Christian or not Im sure anyone prefers a kind tone of discussion.
Oh sometimes I wish all humans could be friends. I know that sounds so naive but I still love the thought of it^^

That is a nice thought. But unfortunately, as long as people are around and religion exists, that will never happen.

Look at the division in the church alone. Hundreds to thousands of denominations all believing that they ALONE have The Truth. Come on now.

I truly believe religion starts wars and kills people. Its track record has already proven this fact.

 

[XSpiritualX]

Yeah I think people shouldn't categorize themselves so much...

 

[SolomonVII]

If love conquers all, as you say, why are Christians so angry, judgmental, hypocritical, rude, unkind and hateful towards anything that is not of their particular brand of Christianity? I ask this in sincerity.

That is a generalization.
Many are like that;more are not.

Many are, because of the nature of faith, I think. People want to believe, need to believe even as it is part of our nature to believe in something larger than our own lives.
But faith is not science. There is no ultimate answer that is available, indeed that can be available, because the nature of transcendent truth is that it lies outside of ourselves. We can touch it, but never grasp it, never fully possess it.

There is anxiety in this for many. They tolerate no differences than the aspect of truth that has touched their lives, lest their experience of the ephemeral disappears in the questions and the different experiences of others.
Because they are afraid of the questions that come with faith, they will not allow others to ask what they are so unsure of themselves.

And then there is the politics that are involved in any social endeavor, churches included. That has been substantial, and still plays a role.

 

[peacekeeper208]

Can someone tell me, please?

What were your reasons for becoming one?

Well, I don't have a long, factual reason as to why I became a Christian. For me, I always believed in Him bc it's what I was taught as a small child, but it wasn't anything deep. Just your basic- be a good person and go to heaven, or choose to do evil and go to hell.

As I got older, life was not kind to me, (I'm pretty sure many others on here can relate) and I reached a point of total brokenness. I cried out to God with all my heart, and had my spiritual born-gain experience, and developed an actual relationship with God instead of seeing Him as some distant being who was watching my every move, just waiting to punish me when I did wrong. (And actually, even though I'd always believed in hell, I never really feared it or felt compelled to be super-religious bc I felt like my life was already a living-hell.)

I still struggle with my faith, as I believe all Christians do as some point. But for me there was never any intellectual debate in my head of what I should believe. I just felt led in my heart to read the Bible and certain verses would just seem to jump out at me, and I learned this is how God speaks, to the heart of a person instead of the mind. I'm just a regular human being and I sin and make mistakes all the time, but now I have comfort and guidance that I didn't before.

So there's my two cents.

 

[AvgJoe]

ok I don't want this to end in a heated debate but I must say that I find your criticism to be unfounded.
If you judge me by my appearence alone then I guess you can already see the problem with that. Jesus preached tolerance and it is my believe that what he preached is good. I don't believe in hell but if you do and it helps you be a better person then I won't judge you for it. But as it says in John 13:34 we should love one another. Be christ with you

You believe in Jesus and what He preached? He preached about hell more than anyone else.

 

[sedg]

Can someone tell me, please?

What were your reasons for becoming one?

Before I respond to your question, I sincerely ask you this question:

Why would anyone reject God's love,blessings, inheritence of all things, forgiveness of sins and the free gift of salvation and eternal life through Christ Jesus?

Rejecting all of the above makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, IMHO, one has to be totally insane/depraved to reject all of the above.

However, God's word says people will not go to the light because they love the darkness and their deeds are evil and choose to die in their sins.

Whats your choice?

 

[Ant1986]

Anyone?

I used to be one, but the more learned, the more repulsed I became by it.

What was the foundation of your reasoning when you professed to be Christian and What is the foundation of your reasoning now?

As christians the foundation of our reasoning is God. When we don't understand something, what do we do? we lean on God.

Proverbs 3:5-6
5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
6 In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.

How do you reason from God being the foundation of your reasoning to you being the foundation of your reasoning. It's impossible.

If you reasoned out of Christianity then you were always the foundation for your reasoning.

1 John 2:19
19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.

 

[Soothfish]

That is a nice thought. But unfortunately, as long as people are around and religion exists, that will never happen.

Look at the division in the church alone. Hundreds to thousands of denominations all believing that they ALONE have The Truth. Come on now.

I truly believe religion starts wars and kills people. Its track record has already proven this fact.

Religion causes some wars. Most wars are caused by pride and lust for money and power.

It doesn't matter. Christ didn't come to start a religion. He came to forgive humanity and give them the gift of spirit and eternal life. Religion is man-made.

 

[ChristianT]

On the matters of religion, I look to my sig and James 26 & 27.

If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Peace.

 

[FreeinChrist]

MOD HAT


Folks, the only nonChristian allowed to post in the thread is the OP. This thread had a small clean up

 

[Chany]

Okay, let me, before I go into why I'm Christian, let me see if what I think about your views are true:

You seem to believe in a divine creator, or at least entertain the possibility of one. You believe he is selfish and hate-filled (or at least the God of the Bible is), so you decide you should have nothing to do with him.

As I said in another thread, let's throw out everything we know and start from square one without the Bible. Then you will understand we certain people are Christian.

Okay, first things first, is relative or objective beyond one's subjective opinion?

I answer that truth is objective. There is a definite truth beyond our personal preferences. I'm not saying we can know everything; all I'm saying there is definite answer, even if we don't fully comprehend or understand it. One does not say, "I can fly because I believe I can fly." Such a person would be regarded as crazy and of a flawed reasoning.

I look forward to your response. You actually give arguments and reasons.

 

[forGod1]

Can someone tell me, please?

What were your reasons for becoming one?

Because you'll be saved from hell.. because God loves you.. because it's real.

 

[FutureAndAHope]

My reasons for being a christian are fairly simple, I did not really choose to become a Christian, I had a dream that motivated me to become one. I had spent most of my life not seeking God even though my parents were Christian. The dream was about hell and scared me out too church. I became a christian that Sunday. From that time on God progressively revealed himself to me. He now some times will speak directly to me. I have recorded the stories of God speaking to me and performing other signs like healing at Know God Personally

 

[Soothfish]

I have news for you: People are naturally inclined to blaspheme or speak ill of a murderous, violent, cruel person, whether or not said being is supposed to be a god or not. If you think that a man should run to the very god who is killing, torturing and abusing them, then what you have just said is that "love" is the same thing as that of an abusive relationship. But then, god does 'wound and bind up' does he not? I think that's in Hosea.

Unfortunately, Calvinism is Christianity. It also bears a striking resemblance to Islam, in that it is entirely deterministic and fatalistic. Que sera sera, whatever will be will be? The future is not ours, you see. Nevertheless, I have never heard an arminian argument that took the Bible as seriously as Calvinism without twisting its context, meaning or ignoring plain parts of the Bible. If you're going to believe something, why pick and choose?

So is your mind entirely closed to further study of the Bible? It is extremely easy to explain what is actually happening in the "violent" passages. The problem is that many non believers have no interest in looking or listening. The first step is that you have to be willing to accept the possibility that your interpretation is wrong. The next step is that you have to be willing to resist the temptation to be on the attack (debate-wise) when someone tries to show you. This is particularly difficult among atheists who feel that they must always win the argument and never be wrong.

I have tried being the man after god's heart. I have even been called that by spiritual leaders in churches. Now, I reject their idea of god and religion entirely. I find myself more and more disgusted with the Christian god the more time passes. I honestly hate religion.

Then it sounds like you need to stop with the emotion and take a few minutes to do an objective literary study of scripture. That would make all the difference in eternity. The Bible is a very difficult book to read so this will take some effort on your part.

This is the only deity ever who fully loves humanity and hates injustice. Even if you cannot believe he exists, you will still love the idea of him once you do a proper study.