yes, SOME, absolutly. not all.
as i went back and read this i thought, could I accuratly say most?
My anacdotal evidence which is personal expierence has been most.
but i realize that does not have a ton of weight.
there was once a christian that was attending seminary that felt unusually bold one sunday morning.
he decided to go to a random church that he had never attended before.
he went to the service and sat in one of the pews.
yes, SOME, absolutly. not all.
as i went back and read this i thought, could I accuratly say most?
My anacdotal evidence which is personal expierence has been most.
but i realize that does not have a ton of weight.
there was once a christian that was attending seminary that felt unusually bold one sunday morning.
he decided to go to a random church that he had never attended before.
he went to the service and sat in one of the pews.
SBC, you mean like "I dont judge and I believe in equal rights, but marriage is only between a man and a women" or "I dont judge, but God didnt destroy Soddom and Gehmorah for no reason"
Those are 2 things I recently read in a discussion (not here) about gay people from Christians.
click link to original thread..... then click page 34 http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/204106/1/active-bethelite-calls-into-six-screens-conference-call-and-exposes-the-evils-of-the-watchtower.
yeah, laverlite, totally agree. i like rick as well, but one thing that is making me not like him so much is how he is talking about people who are skeptical. thats messed up and i dont think its right.
Rick if your reading this, you cant come on here and say "hey its up to everyone to make up their own mind" and then refer to people who have made up their mind and dont believe him or doubt what he says in negitive or disrespectful terms.
the watchtower talks badly about people who disagree with him, i thought you were above that.
click link to original thread..... then click page 34 http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/204106/1/active-bethelite-calls-into-six-screens-conference-call-and-exposes-the-evils-of-the-watchtower.
so he was sabotaged by the watchtower who used a vacum cleaner left in a place where there was no carpet. johnny then tripped over the vacum cleaner and hurt his back.
do i have this correct?
click link to original thread..... then click page 34 http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/204106/1/active-bethelite-calls-into-six-screens-conference-call-and-exposes-the-evils-of-the-watchtower.
yeah, this call sealed it for me as well. total BS. i still like Rick though, yes some of the critisms for his sensasionalism are warranted, and there are times wher he gets a bit ridiculous, but I think he is helping people get out, and his site was helpful by having his recording of his JC.
I will say that if Johnny keeps playing up hard this "I have documents to take down the watchtower" then I think the people who are saying he is there to spread disinformation will have a point.
there was once a christian that was attending seminary that felt unusually bold one sunday morning.
he decided to go to a random church that he had never attended before.
he went to the service and sat in one of the pews.
Dan, I enter this discussion with assumption that my entire post would be responded to rather than one small part of it. There were relovant questions I asked you that go along with the one sentance you quoted.
If you are going to ignore the rest of my post, thats your poragitive, but if thats the case i'll bow out of this discussion for now as its a waste of my time to make a thoughtful answer to a thread you started and have you simply take one part of it and ignore the rest.
Perhaps you dont have the time now, and were planning a fuller response later. Hopefully thats the case.
If not, thats fine too. I'll know where we stand. Respect.
there was once a christian that was attending seminary that felt unusually bold one sunday morning.
he decided to go to a random church that he had never attended before.
he went to the service and sat in one of the pews.
brotherdan, you ask those questions as if you know more than we do. so you tell me, which of those things can you prove with certainty? do you have tangible, emprical evidence that all non-christians go to hell? have you been to hell? or do you have footage of hell? how can YOU say these things are so without evidence?
you talk as if you have been to hell and know for a certanty that it exists. if thats the case, and you know all this for sure, more power to you.
i have been researching things like this for almost 2 years, and i cannot say with certainty that hell exists, or all non christians go to hell. there are verses in the bible that can be interpited that way, but they can also be interpited other ways. there is also questions about which verses were originally in there. there is also evidence that the catholic church used the hell teaching much like the witnesses with armegeddon to keep the ignorant masses in line and in fear so they would be obedient to the leaders.
but apparantly you have discovered the truth about hell and what happens to non-christians with an absolute certainty. so maybe there is something wrong with me.
I'd also like to add something, Dan, if you are going to pick out parts of the Koran that are harsh you need to be fair and pick out parts of the Bible that are harsh.
While the Koran can at times be harsh, so can the OT.
there was once a christian that was attending seminary that felt unusually bold one sunday morning.
he decided to go to a random church that he had never attended before.
he went to the service and sat in one of the pews.
MrsJones makes a great point. And what about the Indian tribes that were around BEFORE the Bible? Some Indian tribes got along peacefully, they had their own values that worked for them. To judge them as "lost" or "hellbound" or "not of God" because they didnt use the Bible's golden rule is not reasonable to me.
Also, im not sure its accurate to call it universal if people were getting by peacefully before the Bible was written. I think its more accurate to say that humans have the universal ability to live by moral codes/golden rules. The writers of the Bible wrote down theirs, and we can learn from it. Just like the other groups listed in MrsJones post above.
If you want to believe God put that ability into humans, im on board with that. But if your going to tell me that the ONLY true universal golden rule is the one in the Bible, and that all other groups who have their own golden rule are of the devil or not of God or untruthful, thats where I disagree.
there was once a christian that was attending seminary that felt unusually bold one sunday morning.
he decided to go to a random church that he had never attended before.
he went to the service and sat in one of the pews.
I get your point, I dont agree with it. I think the preacher was more on the right track. I'd rather not judge anyone as "untruthful" and accept people for who they are, and then let God sort it out in the end.
there was once a christian that was attending seminary that felt unusually bold one sunday morning.
he decided to go to a random church that he had never attended before.
he went to the service and sat in one of the pews.
I lean/identify Christian, but am done with churches and organized religions. but more and more I find that I have nothing in common with many Christians as I refuse to judge people. There are several fundemental problems that I have that are leading me to feel their is merit and some truth in all of the holy writings and ways humans have expressed their belief or relationship with God. I think there is value to be found in all of it. However there is also fundemental problems.
I have a hard time accepting that out of all the billions of humans that have lived in the history of our civilization that only a select small group knowns as Christians are the only acceptable people to God. To me that is a delusion of grandor. It is also a very dividing way of thinking.Others relgions like Islam do the same thing, so Christians arent the only ones to claim to be God's one sole buddy.
So any religion that teaches this, I cant be down with, so really I dont think I would be considered Christian perhaps. My other fundemental problem is the way in which Christians treat gay people. And im not talking the "God hates fags" Christians, they are nut jobs and hateful. But even the ones that claim to be more "open minded", but they say stuff like "I dont judge, and I believe that everyone should have equal rights, but marriage can only be between a man and a woman". That is a total contradiction, and they are not fooling anyone. That is not equal rights.
Also, many Christians claim to be so sure that being gay is a choice. How do you know? Are you gay, have you ever been gay? If not, then how can you claim to know something for sure and put a blanket over an entire group of peoples life experience? Thats crazy.
Every single human being must have the same rights, and anything less is unacceptable. A gay person should be allowed to adopt a child, get married, or have the couples rights afforded to them like everyone else. I cant identify with a religion that is fundementally opposed to such a simple human right.
And what bothers me more is not the crazy Christians, but the ones that think they are being loving and open minded when they say stuff like I said about like "I dont judge, and I believe in equal rights, but gay people shouldnt be allowed to get married, adopt", etc. Or my favorite was this "I dont judge, I dont care what a person does in their bedroom, but God didnt destroy soddom and gamora for no reason."
How can a rational person not see the problem with such a statement?
So I guess my point is, to the man in the illistration that labeled the preacher as "going to hell" because he believes everyone is ok with God, I think the preacher is more on the right track than the student.
Im just DONE with the "agree with me or go to hell" or "agree with me that there is no god or your stupid" mentality.