Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I don't know who the OP is referring to, but I'm sure there are some that are guilty as charged. An example would be nice. Christian doctrine all fits together like a huge puzzle, that gives us a beautiful picture when we see it all. However, students have to realize that this only comes with time and study. Some things that don't make sense at first later become clear. Think Nicodemus.
I don't know who the OP is referring to, but I'm sure there are some that are guilty as charged. An example would be nice. Christian doctrine all fits together like a huge puzzle, that gives us a beautiful picture when we see it all. However, students have to realize that this only comes with time and study. Some things that don't make sense at first later become clear. Think Nicodemus.
Simple faith in Jesus Christ did make sense until after attending church services and bible studies a few times,where it's indoctrinated out of us.
Yet I have this against you--that you no longer love Me as you did at first
I believed everything on the left column when I first believed,but it didn't take long for me to become double minded and speak from both sides of my mouth( the right side of the column).
Not surprising and to be expected. Though many of the false expressions from the link come from decision theology, nevertheless the link itself originates from the satanical lie .... "christian" Universalism Library.
While Unitarians aren't Christians, the words of a very famous Unitarian, John Adams (second President of the United States) are appropriate here:
From "A Dissertation on the Canon and the Feudal Law," printed in the Boston Gazette, August 1765:
Quote:
Numberless have been the systems of iniquity. The most refined, sublime, extensive, and astonishing constitution of policy that ever was conceived by the mind of man was framed by the Romish clergy for the aggrandizement of their own Order. They even persuaded mankind to believe, faithfully and undoubtingly, that God Almighty had entrusted them with the keys of heaven, whose gates they might open and close at pleasure ... with authority to license all sorts of sins and Crimes ... All these opinions they were enabled to spread and rivet among the people by reducing their minds to a state of sordid ignorance and staring timidity, and by infusing into them a religious horror of letters and knowledge. Thus was human nature chained fast for ages in a cruel, shameful, and deplorable servitude....
From one of John Adams’ last letters to Thomas Jefferson, January 23, 1825.
Quote:
Now, what free inquiry, when a writer must surely encounter the risk of fine or imprisonment for adducing any argument for investigating into the divine authority of those books? ... I think such laws a great embarrassment, great obstructions to the improvement of the human mind. Books that cannot bear examination certainly ought not to be established as divine inspiration by penal laws.
I don't know who the OP is referring to, but I'm sure there are some that are guilty as charged. An example would be nice. Christian doctrine all fits together like a huge puzzle, that gives us a beautiful picture when we see it all. However, students have to realize that this only comes with time and study. Some things that don't make sense at first later become clear. Think Nicodemus.
Well, how about the fact there are countless examples in the bible of falling from grace or doing something and losing your way. Countless do's and don'ts like the commandments all laid us for us to follow, yet some believe if you walk to the front of church say that Jesus is your Lord and Savior, then you're in like Flynn. Doesn't matter what you do after that.
Or the many restoration churches who believe that God 3000 or so years ago chose Abram (Abraham) to be the leader of his people, then Isaac, and through the millenium and through the House of David God waited until the perfect moment when man was ready to understand and the embrace the Messiah, He sent his only forgotten son who He knew would be sacrificed for the good of all mankind. But before Jesus was crucified, Jesus built His Church on Peter and then soon as the last apostle died, the true church just disappeared even though Jesus said the gates of hell would not prevail against it. Despite all of God's planning and Jesus's words, the church was lost for a better part of 1700 years only to be reestablished again with folks that know nothing of the Apostles except what is written in the Bible. Oh, and they use a Bible that was canonized more than 300 years after the last Apostle walked the earth, yet they denounce that any true church was around at that time.
Some denominations have systems and doctrine that just don't make any sense if you look at Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition comprehensively.
If you are protestant, forget I said Sacred Tradition, and just look at it strictly from a Bible perspective.
Why? We look to church history. We just don't value it above Scripture.
Quote:
Truth is truth folks. Spiritual, science, philosophy, etc. If it is true, then it stands the test of time and can't be counter to what you find elsewhere in the Bible or science or anywhere else.
So why do some denominations intentionally tell you NOT to try to inquire why something is the way it is?
Good question. I spent the first ~20 years or so of my life in the Catholic church. I was discouraged from asking those tough questions.
Quote:
Why do they ask you to check-in your brain at the door and more importantly why would ANYONE allow their brain to be checked-in at the door?
Shouldn't the church and it's doctrine make comprehensive sense? I am not talking about the things that are misunderstood, but rather things that are taught as doctrine that counters things that you have already learned from them or you understood to be true.
Yes--it should. To be honest, I doubt that most of the rank and file Catholics have a clue what is happening in the Mass.
it is easier to just accept what is taught as the truth. seeking the truth requires work, and many people don't want to do that type of work. it is easier to go to church on sundays, listen to the guy/gal on the stage, and then go eat with the family. no real thinking required. just patience as the person on stage delivers a message.
it is easier to just accept what is taught as the truth. seeking the truth requires work, and many people don't want to do that type of work. it is easier to go to church on sundays, listen to the guy/gal on the stage, and then go eat with the family. no real thinking required. just patience as the person on stage delivers a message.
Unfortunately, you're probably right. I guess I have always looked at things and tilted my head wanting to know what it's about or how things work. Most people just want to be entertained.
(...and that's only begotten son. I can reread things 10 times and still miss it. Hope I didn't offend anyone.)
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.