Brien your post is the only one I've read that falls in line with mine, we should start our own religion! LOL

 

What can I say? LOL

 

I heard a story once that may help with the "Why does God allow people to harm one another question"

It goes something like this...been a while so it may not all be here but he gist is

A christian man and a barber were in a discussion and the barber says to the man "I cannot belive in your god. I cannot allow myself to belive in a God that allows nation to rise against nation and people to kill other people." So the christian man does not know what to say when he sees a man walk by who was very unclean cut with a long beard and a scragaly beard. The christain man says to the barber "You are an awful barber my friend, you allow this man to walk around like this when you have the ability to make him look nice." The barber replied by saying "How can you balme me for the way this man looks, I do not know this man and he has never come into this shop. So the christian man replies "Then how can you blame my God for nation rising agains nation? These people do not know God and have never been into His "shop".

Many have pointed that Hitler was a christian. However about anyone can state that they belive in God, let me remind you that the devil believes in God.

>>As Well, Religions, especially Catholics, believe that while God ??>>Gave EVERY ONE OF US the Free Will to CHOOSE our lives accordingly, >>they should regulate our Free Will by telling us how to live

I , as a catholic, have never been told how I should live and when I was in high school was encouraged by the priest to attend services at other churches and to ask them questions about their religion so that my choice to be catholic was in fact my choice because of what I belive...sound like someone regulating my life ? I don't think so.

We all have our own opinions and nobody should try to force theirs on anyone else...who is to say which is right. This has been a very good discussion and I have really enjoyed following it.

 

Yes, I do believe in God. Why, I can't accurately explain but I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt He's real and everything He and the Bible says is true.

 

>Is it posssible
>that the Bible is just a good book written by some
>well-meaning people years ago?

No, I don't think so and here is why I believe that:

1. Every new archaelogical discovery in the middle east harmonizes with the Biblical account.

2. The Bible was written over a 1500 year time period by dozens of human authors; And yet it has an internal harmony and consistancy that not ONE author of a modern day novel can achieve, much less multiple authors collaborating on the same work. But maintaining that harmony is no problem for the God inspired writers of the Bible.


You asked if the other religions were wrong. I believe they are. Some say Jesus was a prophet or a teacher or a holy man. Is Jesus just a prophet, or a teacher, or a really good man? He claimed to be God made man. He said He was the way, the truth, and the life. He said everyone who believed on Him would have everlasting life. He said no man comes to the Father except through Him.

Only one of three things can be true about Jesus:

1 - He was a nut case lunatic who really thought He was God but wasn't. In that case He was neither a prophet, a teacher, nor good. And it would be pretty hard to explain the miracles He performed.

2 - He was a liar who knew He wasn't God but had a good scam going. He had a bunch of groupies who followed Him everywhere and hung on His every word. The problem with this scenario is that a con man wouldn't be willing to go to his death to maintain the charade. He would have ducked out when the going got tough to run the scam somewhere else. And being around Him for three years so convinced His disciples that He was who He said He was that they too were willing to go to their deaths rather than deny Him as God.

3 - Which leaves us with....He was EXACTLY who He said He was.

And If He is exactly who He said He was, then all the other religions MUST be wrong because He said He was the ONLY way to God.

Religion is man reaching out to god, trying to be good enough to be acceptable to a god.

Christianity is God reaching down to man, providing the way to reach God. All we have to do is accept it.

That is what I believe and why. God has given you the gift of a free will, You are free to reject Jesus or accept Him. Choose well.

 

> I believe we, as humans, are hard wired to beleive in some
>form of a diety
...
> All the people in history, even those back woods tribes in
>austrailia still being discoveried believe in some form of
>diety,
...
>just my 0.02 please no hate mail

No hate here! Yes it is interesting that people throughout the world believe in a diety:

Romans Chapter 1 verse 19 & 20 - since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made so that men are without excuse.

 

>In response to your many deep and probing questions, here
>are my beliefs, thoughts and views with scripture to backup
>some of my beliefs.

Sportdeck, you da man!

 

I'll add another thought to my previous post. My parents, brother and I stopped going to church when they FIRED our favorite pastor for not bringing in enough money.......

 

>I'll add another thought to my previous post. My parents,
>brother and I stopped going to church when they FIRED our
>favorite pastor for not bringing in enough money.......
>

True diety is not about money. Unfortunately, organized religion can be all about money.
NO THANKS!

 

>>I'll add another thought to my previous post. My parents,
>>brother and I stopped going to church when they FIRED our
>>favorite pastor for not bringing in enough money.......
>>
>
>True diety is not about money. Unfortunately, organized
>religion can be all about money.
>NO THANKS!

Couldn't have said it better myself!

 

Brienobrien, ForDen and others:

Your view of Christianity has been twisted by man's creation of religion to get to God on man's terms. This is unfortunate. If your view of Christianity is right, I've lived my life as a better person following Christian virtues, and we'll both end up as fertilizer several years after we pass away. If my view of The Bible, God and Jesus Christ is correct, I'll be in Heaven and, due to your rejection of Christ's gift of salvation, you won't. The choice is yours.

 

>I'll be in Heaven and, due to your rejection of Christ's gift of >salvation, you won't

I guess we'll see......

 

>Brienobrien, ForDen and others:
>
>Your view of Christianity has been twisted by man's creation
>of religion to get to God on man's terms. This is
>unfortunate. If your view of Christianity is right, I've
>lived my life as a better person following Christian
>virtues, and we'll both end up as fertilizer several years
>after we pass away. If my view of The Bible, God and Jesus
>Christ is correct, I'll be in Heaven and, due to your
>rejection of Christ's gift of salvation, you won't. The
>choice is yours.

Pompous, assuming, and most intolerant. I have no view of Christianity in which I JUDGE any Christian as either right or wrong. So you condem me from heaven eh? Yes, the choice is mine, so I don't think I want to be in your heaven sir! Thanks anyway. I will find my own way.
:-)

 

>>Brienobrien, ForDen and others:
>>
>>Your view of Christianity has been twisted by man's creation
>>of religion to get to God on man's terms. This is
>>unfortunate. If your view of Christianity is right, I've
>>lived my life as a better person following Christian
>>virtues, and we'll both end up as fertilizer several years
>>after we pass away. If my view of The Bible, God and Jesus
>>Christ is correct, I'll be in Heaven and, due to your
>>rejection of Christ's gift of salvation, you won't. The
>>choice is yours.
>
>Pompous, assuming, and most intolerant. I have no view of
>Christianity in which I JUDGE any Christian as either right
>or wrong. So you condem me from heaven eh? Yes, the choice
>is mine, so I don't think I want to be in your heaven sir!
>Thanks anyway. I will find my own way.
>:-)


Most of the time, truth hurts and is offensive because we want to do it OUR way.

"For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." 1 Corinthians 1:18

Think about it.

 

>>Brienobrien, ForDen and others:

>I guess we'll see......

>Pompous, assuming, and most intolerant. I have no view of
>Christianity in which I JUDGE any Christian as either right
>or wrong. So you condem me from heaven eh? Yes, the choice
>is mine, so I don't think I want to be in your heaven sir!
>Thanks anyway. I will find my own way.
>:-)

ForDen & Brienobrien:

I'm not judging you. I've never said that your sin is greater than mine and therefore unforgivable by a perfect and loving God. I'm stating what the Bible says and what I beleive. Jesus never preached tolerance. In fact he was very intolerant of sin (but not sinners) and of the current form of religion defined by the Pharisees and Sadducees.

As a child, I asked Jesus to forgive me of my sin and to enter my heart. That was the beginning of my personal relationship with the King of kings, the Mesiah and my Lord and Savior.

John 14:5 Thomas said to Him, "Lord we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?"
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me."
2 Timothy 3:16 All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.

If your statement is correct, "I will find my own way", then John 14:5-6 is false and you have successfully disproved the entire premise of Christianity, that Jesus Christ was the one and only way to Heaven as the perfect sacrifice for our sins. If John 14:5-6 is false, then 2 Timothy 3:16 is also false as John 14:5-6 is part of the scriptures and a false verse couldn't be inspired by God. If we can prove that 3 verses are false, then using logic and deductive reasoning it shouldn't be diffcult to prove that the entire Bible is false as it all leads to Christ as the Mesiah and Redeemer of Isreal and the entire human race.

As I stated in my first post on this topic, no one was ever convinced into Heaven. You are apparently not convinced. I would no more trust "your own way" to get me into Heaven than you should trust my way.

Thanks anyway, but I'll follow God's way as stated in the Bible.