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Get off your self-righteous ignorance and stop judging who has or does not have God's love. God's love is the ONLY kind available . . . and you cannot love at all without loving God. God IS LOVE! Your problems with lust in the name of love have corrupted your understanding of love and to accuse June of that kind of love is unconscionable!Knowing all is not necessary. The real question is when are the literal fundamentalists going to abandon the ancient ignorance and actually try to know SOMETHING . . . ANYTHING to ameliorate the ancient ignorance?
Hebrews 11:6
And withoutfaithit is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
without faith all the "love" is a bunch of humanitarian used tampons Isaiah 64:6
Get off your self-righteous ignorance and stop judging who has or does not have God's love. God's love is the ONLY kind available . . . and you cannot love at all without loving God. God IS LOVE! Your problems with lust in the name of love have corrupted your understanding of love and to accuse June of that kind of love is unconscionable!
Why is it self-righteous ignorance when we don't agree with you?
It doesn't matter who has God's love. Loving your neighbor, by itself, won't help you get into heaven.
It is not who has God's love - it is who has God, through Jesus Christ.
You cannot get into the kingdom of God unless you are one with the Father, Son, and Spirit. And that takes place through faith in the gospel of Christ.
Everyone has a sin problem. Sin is what keeps everyone, on their own merit, from the kingdom of God. The Father is holy and is separates Himself from sin. But when we are united with the Father through Jesus - it is the righteousness of Jesus that the Father sees in us (since we are one with Him) that will allow us to be in the kingdom.
I read the first few pages then skipped to the end so I might be repeating some things.
Very few religions have no variances at all. The Bahai are about 99% of the main "Bahai World Faith", but they are relatively recent of a religion. Most religions have varied interpretations or disagreements amongst themselves.
In the "Bible Belt" you have a strongly Protestant culture that also tended to de-emphasize any kind of hierarchy or standardized seminary education. In much of the Bible Belt you can "proclaim" yourself a minister with little, or no, formal religious education other than personal reading of the Bible. The Bible is an ancient book subject to poetic or allegorical language so variant readings or translations are possible. So a multitude of people who do not require training will interpret it in various ways and that is to be expected to some degree.
You might be asking "but if you believe Christianity is right which form of Christianity is right and why does God allow the variance?" I'm not sure I can answer all of that, but essentially I think the variance might have some instructional value or be inevitable process of allowing freewill. As for which is right there is no need to go into that. Although as you likely know I never personally considered it could be any of the Protestant denominations. If anything I go too far on that as I've been more willing to think Taoism was right than the Baptists. However this is a personal perspective and I understand if Baptists find it insulting.
Now if you're asking "why are Southern versions of the exact same denomination different?" For example why are Southern Baptists so different from the North's "American Baptist Churches, USA" or why are some orthodox Presbyterians in West Virginia so different than those in Maine? I would think the explanation is similar. They are based in the Bible and they interpret it from the perspective of their culture. Their culture is going to read it differently than the culture of Maine or the Outer Hebrides for that matter. (To pick a place outside the US that is still religiously Protestant) Although even within the Bible Belt I think you get a great deal of variance due to the relative lack of hierarchy or standardization. I knew of churches "down home" that basically believed Christ ended sin so if you were saved you could do whatever you wanted. (Promiscuity, drunkenness, abortion) And the stereotypical thing of churches that really did forbid movies, card-games, and women wearing anything except dresses. I even have a distant cousin who was a preacher in Oklahoma and told his daughters the Bible commanded that he "tutor" them in sexuality before marriage. (Yes I mean he told his daughters that the Bible demanded they lose their virginity to him)
One that might be more perplexing, now that I think on it, is that "Bible Belt" Catholics and Eastern Orthodox are also sometimes different than Northern ones. I think the beliefs are the same as we have more of a hierarchy, but expression can be a bit different. On the whole Catholics in the Bible Belt had to deal with being much more of a minority, sometimes even a despised minority, than those in the North. So at times they are much less complacent and more energetic than Northern Catholics. Orthodoxy in the South has a good deal of converts from Evangelicalism or Catholicism, which might make some things different.
Last edited by Thomas R.; 01-07-2011 at 01:45 AM..
I don't have a lot of time for this post but I want to point something out:
As someone whose grown up in the South with Northern parents I think a lot of what is being overlooked is the tremendous cultural difference between North and South. You have to remember that the two parts of the country were more or less isolated from one another for a pretty long time. Yes, it was still the same country but there was a lot of vast space in between that country which separated the more populous areas of the North(east) and the South. Like any emerging population of animals, plants, or ideas, they tend to grow and vary in different directions. The mindset of the South and the mindset of the North grew independent of one another over the span of time.
What we're now experiencing, due to the internet and instant travel, etc... is the relative merger of two pretty different cultures for the first time. Personally, I find the arrogant, self-centered righteousness of many "Southern" religious denominations to be a peculiar characteristic of those brought up in small towns where the entire world to most people is that small town. "Outsiders just ain't welcome."
I wish I had more time to elaborate but I need to go to bed. I have a bad sinus infection from the toilet seat at Hardee's. Don't ask.
Maybe, maybe not. None of us are in a position to judge the state of your soul, or anyone else's for that matter.
But, the path to true salvation is clear and unambiguous.
A: Admit you're a sinner, that you've violated God's laws.
B. Believe in your heart that Christ was the only Son of God, that He died in payment of your sins and that God raised Him from the dead and He lives today.
C. Confess that, outloud, with your mouth, to another person.
If you've done that, you're as saved as anyone else. If you haven't, your not.
Salvation has nothing to do with religiously inspired lists.
I suppose a mute person who cannot speak out loud is damned because of course your ABC list is unambiguous.
Or a person who perhaps is alone and dying cannot cry out and be saved because they have no other person to confess outloud to.
I am sure you didn't really think your list through very well because it truly bothers you to think that June might be saved after all and there really isn't anything you can do about it.
Personally, I find the arrogant, self-centered righteousness of many "Southern" religious denominations to be a peculiar characteristic of those brought up in small towns where the entire world to most people is that small town. "Outsiders just ain't welcome."
isn't that true.I call the small town my dad grew up in 'the cave'.when we pass it on the hwy,I say 'look,there's the entrance to THE CAVE'.LOL.he came out of it,but has stuck to,those small-town ideas all of his life,despite eventually moving to a larger town.(which was smart-the only places to work there then were those old sock mills,i.e.-low wages) but at least he got out of it.my gma died the most naive woman I have ever seen.the whole world was THAT TOWN,and that town and it's ideas only.what a narrow-minded way to live.
Salvation has nothing to do with religiously inspired lists.
I suppose a mute person who cannot speak out loud is damned because of course your ABC list is unambiguous.
Or a person who perhaps is alone and dying cannot cry out and be saved because they have no other person to confess outloud to.
I am sure you didn't really think your list through very well because it truly bothers you to think that June might be saved after all and there really isn't anything you can do about it.
Absolutely
The message of christianity has become like the armor they tried to put on David as he went out to fight Goliath, he said "i cannot go out in these", it was an hinderance to him and no help at all,infact i think if he had go out to fight Goliath with the armor on he would have lost.
The armor they wear in the bible belt is no different to the armor they wear north of the mason dixon line,if there is a difference in it, it's the weight of the burden of it being on you.
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Knowing all is not necessary. The real question is when are the literal fundamentalists going to abandon the ancient ignorance and actually try to know SOMETHING . . . ANYTHING to ameliorate the ancient ignorance?
