Are you a TRUE Christian?!? (page 7)

The Finger

"The first man, Adam, became a living person." But the last Adam--that is, Christ--is a life-giving Spirit."

Ding

Finger,

Okay, but if someone says, "I want to be born again," what would you tell them to do?

Thanks for the comments, that was too funny and totally on point. My wife gets this glazed over look when I speak to her about religion and starts spouting off WT nonsense. She knows she cannot logically refute my points and there are times when I've even shown her where the Bible disagrees with a tenet of their doctrines.

But no matter, just fire up the WT CD and pull out the Proclaimer's book to get her back to her comfort zone.

garyneal

Oh and thanks for the hugs Tammy. I've always admired and respected you.

ProdigalSon

With over 40,000 sects and denominations, who can possibly define a "true Christian"?

According to Barron's Encyclopedia, they all "hate each other".

It only proves one thing: There are at least 40,000 ways to interpret Christianity's "Holy Book".

Yes, God is one Hell of an Author. A prolifically coherent writer.

The only truth in Christianity is the esoteric symbolism that it has in common with all the other myths.

Eve eating the fruit= Pandora opening the box.

Seven chakras, seven days of the week = seven Cosmo-Creators, sevens throughout Revelation.

Twelve Apostles, twelve tribes of Israel= twelve signs of the Zodiac, etc.

garyneal

With over 40,000 sects and denominations, who can possibly define a "true Christian"? According to Barron's Encyclopedia, they all "hate each other".

If love was the simple litmus test for being a true Christian then all of the sects and denominations would not matter. However, people get hung up over the scripture where Paul speaks of another gospel and now everyone is trying to discern the TRUE Christian walk from the 'false' one. At times, I wish that scripture never appeared in the Bible as it would make things much simpler and possibly averted the bickering going on between Christian sects. Makes one wonder how can this religion even claim to hold any kind of stake on the concept of love.

PS: I've been reading your posts with great interest. A few years ago, I came to a similar conclusion on my own that we all seem to have two natures. A sinful / animal one and a spiritual / God-like one and I concluded that the only way this planet will be transformed into that earthly paradise the witnesses speak of is a complete transformation of the very nature of our being. In other word, discard the animal nature that requires us to feed off other living things for survival along with our other carnal needs that detract from our spiritual person. We as human beings somehow seem to know the ideal scenario but we habitually fail to acheive them. In that vein, we all know how things are suppose to work in an ideal environment and try our best to create something that is as close to it as possible. But never acheiving it. Either we have the god-like nature that helps us identify ideal devices, situations, scenarios, etc. or we simply make up in our minds what the ideal things are.

In regards to what I think a true Christian is. Frankly, I do not know and somehow I doubt that anyone truly is unless of course that person was perfect in every way. I remember back in college when some of us was on a Christian retreat at a campus called Eagle Eyrie, I attended a gathering where the question presented to the group was, "If everyone was Christian, would we have world peace?" A lot of students replied with yes, or it would be a step in the right direction, etc.. I said no. Some of the other students agreed. One girl said, "Their are so many denominations and they bicker over some of the smallest things." I rather liked the progressive thinking of today's Christians, a stark contrast from what is presented in the Watchtower.

But here's the most peculiar oddity of what we discussed when we gathered in small circles. One person of the group suggested including the Jehovah's Witnesses within the overall body of Christ, likening them to another denomination. The rest of the group, myself included, saw no issue with it as we all tended to think they were simply another denomination. This is in stark contrast to how witnesses view themselves and other Christians. We were trying to be inclusive and they are trying to be exclusive.

mindmelda

Seems to me the problem is that most Christians are exclusive with other Christian churches to at least some degree, so they all believe. The more fundamentalist, the more exclusive they seem to be, at least to me. And as for non-Christians, forget it, you're gonna burn! That makes for a "them against us" mentality from the outset. How can you genuinely love everyone with that mindset, but apparently, Christians are supposed to love everyone but hate everyone who isn't Christian at the same time.

And I've heard, "hate the sin, not the sinner" but I'm not quite sure how to do that about some things like fornication when it seems to be built into us by the same God to really really like sex a lot so doesn't that make us all want to sin like crazy all the time? Why just make it so we are more indifferent to sex and then we'd not have to learn to hate wanting it so much? Seems a better plan to me, but hey, what do I know?

They may play nice with one another in some ways, but a lot of Baptists must believe there's something inherently superior to being Catholic, or they'd not mind converting.

And some do convert to another version of Christianity, admittedly, because there's a few things that trump exclusion or wanting to be right and one is wanting to belong, and a lot people will convert for a family reasons. Even Witnesses do that...I know because I became one mainly for my parents sake.

It's not that hard to convince yourself another sect of Christianity is now "the right one" because there are no real rational reasons to believe church teachings in the first place, it's mostly about "belief". When it's convenient to change belief or one is sufficiently propagandized, a good many people will change.

Ding

Finger,

You have made several statements:

1. "Being a true christian to me is being born again."

2. When I asked what you mean by "born again," you said, "The first man, Adam, became a living person. But the last Adam--that is, Christ--is a life-giving Spirit."

3. I said, "Okay, but if someone says, 'I want to be born again,' what would you tell them to do?"; your answer was, "Seek God."

I still don't understand your answer.

Many people seek God in ways that are in conflict with each other.

Jehovah's Witnesses are seeking God by trying to follow all the directives of the GB of the WTBTS.

Mormons are seeking God by trying to follow all the directives of their church authorities.

Still others are seeking God by keeping the Ten Commandments.

Are you saying that all of these paths are ways of being "born again"?

If not, I'd appreciate it if you would explain further what you're saying.

The Finger

Ding,

I don't think it is my place to say who is born again or is'nt. Somebody said to me "there are sheep on many hills"

The wheat and the weeds grow together.

Are you a TRUE Christian?!?

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