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A theist is someone that believes that God exists.
An atheist is someone that believes God does not exist.
The truth is you shouldn't believe anything. You should always know.
If I have a coin with two heads and I flip it then I know that it will land heads.
If it has one heads and one Tails then I don't know what it will land but I still know the probability Is 50/50.
If I don't know how many heads or tails the coin has then I don't know what the probability is but I still know what the Bayesian probability is.
At no point is it necessary to believe anything.
A moral person is a person that understands that the Universe does not revolve around their ego.
A civilized society is a society whose laws do not revolve around any one individual or any one group of people. The more a society treats everyone as equals the more civilized it is.
Kavalier, I hope you can come to the realization that God is a great deal more loving, forgiving, merciful and compassionate than most people give him credit for. Sometimes you just have to dismiss what pretty much every religion is telling you and focus on what you believe a loving Father in Heaven really wants for you. Know that He loves you and cares about you, even at those times when it seems like He doesn't. Don't rely too heavily on the myriad of opinions you get here on City-Data or the myriad of things you're told in a church setting. Your relationship with God and indeed your salvation is between you and Him and nobody else.
I'm going through a midlife crises right now and don't know who to talk to about this, and it's tearing at my heart and soul lately. So anyone here willing to read/listen to what I have to say, thank you.
Forgive me if I ramble, but right now I'm in a state of despair and don't know who to go to about some of these things.
I was raised Protestant evangelical and never had a problem with Christ - I always believed, or at least never really questioned the truthfulness of the story of Christ. Even through college (where today as many of you know that is where many impressionable young adults lose their Christian faith) my faith held steady and I was not swayed.
But lately...I don't know what it is, but I'm struggling to believe.
I've been through a few things in my life, and more things in the last few years.
Alcoholism - I finally (hopefully) have gotten sober - it will be a full year since my last drink here shortly, for the first time in my adult life I got a year sober. I totally cars, been in several treatments, detox, jail, ruined relationships - the whole nine. But I never really lost my faith, and in some ways I always felt my faith kept me alive through all of the carnage I left behind from it, by the way.
Death - my mother committed suicide not long ago. My father and I found her hanging. She was bipolar but a devout Christian - she led my father to Christ, tried to raise her children in the faith, but went off her meds and my father and I found her deceased not long ago.
Broken relationships - I've had a few girlfriends over the years. relationships that lasted as long as 5 years, but the girl I was with lastly found some unemployed drug dealer and got pregnant with him. That kind of rocked me a little bit.
But I think what's really been tugging at me lately is HELL. I'm having a hard time lining that up with Jesus/Christ/God.
I've always beeb raised to believe that there is Heaven and there is Hell, and many of the things I see today are A LOT of people are going to Hell. Those practicing alternative lifestyles are most likely all going to Hell according to my religion; those not practicing my Faith are going to Hell (that means all the Mormons, Muslims, Jehovah's Witnesses, maybe even Catholics are all going to an Eternal Hell).
My mother's passing didn't shake me as much as I thought it would (we didn't have a good relationship) but lately I miss her more. I wanted for us to grow as she and I got older. My girlfriend getting pregnant definitely made me question why I'm here, and then for some reason this thought of Hell is kind of like the final thing that has just got me confused.
You know...I've always felt like Christ answered some of my prayers. Some real biggies, too.
I was so broken and destroyed by my alcholism that I couldn't find a job, and I got a stretch of sobriety a few years back and just prayed and prayed and prayed and one day, I opened a link to a job thinking there was no way, and I went for the interview....and I got that job.
It was like God answered my prayer.
Then, when I needed a car and was doing some serious prayer and daily devotions, I got the best purchase on a car I have ever had in my life. Again, it was like God answered my prayer.
Then, I was out of relationships for years from 2013 to about 2015 and then again, I felt desperate and alone and just prayed, and then God sent me my girlfriend and that felt again like he answered my prayer.
And finally, my sobriety for once in my life feels like it's here to stay, and again I feel like it's a miracle, and possibly because of prayer.
But....I lost that job (due to a relapse a couple years ago), then I lost that girlfriend who I thought cared about me (and she went and got pregnant) and in addition to my thoughts about Hell, I'm just kind of broken right now.
I'm 36 years old, by the way.
Recently, when I feel like there might be no God at all - like all this time I've been believing in...Nothing - my whole world feels like it's dark and cold.
Last night at work (I work alone) it felt so cold and dark. With no God...what is there?
Do we just go dark when we die? That's it? Is there Heaven? Hell? Nothing?
I'm sorry for rambling but I just needed to write this out to someone, somewhere, with some degree of anonymity.
Thank you for reading. God bless.
Before you believe all the pre conceived ideas you leaned in a church that is directly hostile to the religion of Jesus, you should look for yourself to see what is, and stop believing a bunch of people who didn't know what they were talking about. There is no hell in true Christianity, there is only Temple design, and that Temple design is specifically there to inform us what the after life is. That outer court of darkness that people are sent to, is for all purposes ,'' HELL,'' but it is not what you have been taught all your life, and temple design should prove to you what is, and what isn't.
Hebrews 8 Christ's Eternal Priesthood 1Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; 2A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man. 3For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices: wherefore it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer. 4For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law: 5Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount. 6But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.
Hebrews 9 23It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:
LEARN FOR YOURSELF
There are 3 sections to the temple and these 3 sections are made in the fashion of the 3 sections of heaven where everyone is put in 3 categories. If you are sent to the outer court of darkness, many people would tell you this is hell, but this is where the liars, and the sexual immoral, and the lawbreakers who disrespect and teach against the law go.
WE are shown the fallen in so many places, and everywhere we are shown these people, they are weeping and gnashing their teeth because they see and realize that they were in a race, and although they are saved through the alter of burnt offerings standing in the court, they are sent to the outer court of darkness{Gentiles} WITH THEIR SALVATION.
Listen, Jesus said you could decide not to keep even the least of the laws and even teach others not to keep the laws, AND EVEN SPEAK AGAINST JESUS AND STILL BE SAVED, BUT JESUS CALLS THEM THE LEAST IN THE KINGDOM.
There ARE 3 BOOKS that come out on Rosh Hashanah where everyone's name is written in one of these books, and I see salvation for all of them. If you love God and you accept his Sabbaths and his feasts, then God will seal your forehead and right hand, and he will write your name in the lamb's book of life, and if you reject God's ways and teach against his laws, YOU HAVE NO CHANCE OF YOUR NAME BEING WRITTEN IN THE LAMB'S BOOK OF LIFE.
But that is ok, it doesn't mean you go to some hell because Babylon is slapped up there in the middle of your forehead, it simply means that your work will burn, but you yourself will be saved but only as one who has gone through a fire.
Salvation is extremely broad, and I figure that's all you really care about anyway, just that you will be in there somewhere, and I figure that you are. But salvation alone is a terrible goal to set for yourself when you will see others who have gained a great resurrection and you yourself not even in the first resurrection. The works of all men will be tested by fire, and the work you are building is YOUR future house, and if that house is burned, you have just lost your resurrection body.
Those first Gentile converts and Jewish converts went out selling all they owned to give to the poor BECAUSE they sought a better resurrection and this has somehow been lost in Christianity. People assume that you can just say,'' Jesus, Jesus,'' and that is all there is to it, and we see those people who disrespected the laws of Moses saying,'' BUT JESUS, BUT JESUS, we taught your name in the streets,'' and Jesus looks at them sternly and says,'' Get away from me you law breakers, I AINT NEVER KNOWN YOU.''
All those scriptures of hell you are reading are direct references to what happens at the feast of Tabernacles appointed for the second coming of Messiah.
If you aren't already keeping this feast, you pretty much die.
But it is the double portion of rain coming that will divide even soul and spirit when it falls, it will circumcise the flesh right off of people, and EVERYONE will be saying the same thing.
EVERYONE will see those disciples who have been anointed with the promised double portion of Holy spirit that will rain down on the heads of the saints on Shemini Atzeret.
EVERYONE will weep and gnash their teeth because they see those who received and they will want to have what those disciples received, and EVERYONE will be in a hell because they realize what they missed out on. We pray for than rain because we have been given the very smallest of seeds, a seed of spirit that lies dormant within us until that rain of spirit will fall on that seed, the seed will die and bear fruit unlike anything that anyone has ever seen.
Those people who receive the rain will be shining like angels and have the power to do anything, and in fact, they are immortal firstfruit sons who have received the greatest promise ever given to mankind.
In all the days of you visiting a church, has even one person ever told you about the promised second rain that comes in double portion that is appointed to fall on the 8th day of the feast of Tabernacles?
Everyone who does not receive, their flesh remains dying as burning away, as flesh falls off people like ash all day long, and their fire will never be quenched, their worm WILL NEVER DIE, and this is a direct reference to the seed of spirit inside you, if that seed of spirit doesn't receive the rain, then that seed will NEVER die, it will never bear fruit, and it will always bee there, undead.
Any of your preachers ever tell you of the promises we wait upon on Shemini Atzeret?
EVERY scripture about hell is a direct reference to the outcome of the feast of Tabernacles appointed for the second coming of Messiah IN YOU.
If there is no Hell, then why should I believe anything? Why should the Faith I was raised in (Protestant evangelical Christianity) be anything but a fraud since day one, and therefore my "Faith" a fraud as well?
I think this is the conundrum I'm colliding with right now. And it makes my stomach turn...and it makes my world dark to think all these years my "faith" was a fraud.
Then indeed there is no God - Christmas and Easter and Islam and homosexuality and transgenderism (I know that's not a word) and various other things I was raised to believe were wrong and hell bound...then none of it means anything.
Basically at that point - when I arrive at that point - my life - our life - none of any of this means anything anymore.
Why shouldn't I just give up and go on the street and drink myself to death when I come to that conclusion? Of what consequence is any of this life anymore if we just "fade to black" (like someone else here said and like the Metallica song)?
God it seems, he is the only thing keeping me from living on the streets doing methadone, that would appeal to me, it's what I really want to do even if it kills me in ten years.
God it seems, he is the only thing keeping me from living on the streets doing methadone, that would appeal to me, it's what I really want to do even if it kills me in ten years.
I asked a gentleman once on the street corner what he pulled in and he told me close to $100 in a couple hrs. I mean, and there is a safety net for homeless in my city and state. There are options. And even more so when you have mental health issues (which I might have).
Life is tough. Giving up would be much easier. A belief that God wants more for me, though, is about the only thing that has kept me from going under and maybe even kept me alive.
Before you believe all the pre conceived ideas you leaned in a church that is directly hostile to the religion of Jesus, you should look for yourself to see what is, and stop believing a bunch of people who didn't know what they were talking about. There is no hell in true Christianity, there is only Temple design, and that Temple design is specifically there to inform us what the after life is. That outer court of darkness that people are sent to, is for all purposes ,'' HELL,'' but it is not what you have been taught all your life, and temple design should prove to you what is, and what isn't.
Hebrews 8 Christ's Eternal Priesthood 1Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; 2A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man. 3For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices: wherefore it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer. 4For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law: 5Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount. 6But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.
Hebrews 9 23It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:
LEARN FOR YOURSELF
There are 3 sections to the temple and these 3 sections are made in the fashion of the 3 sections of heaven where everyone is put in 3 categories. If you are sent to the outer court of darkness, many people would tell you this is hell, but this is where the liars, and the sexual immoral, and the lawbreakers who disrespect and teach against the law go.
WE are shown the fallen in so many places, and everywhere we are shown these people, they are weeping and gnashing their teeth because they see and realize that they were in a race, and although they are saved through the alter of burnt offerings standing in the court, they are sent to the outer court of darkness{Gentiles} WITH THEIR SALVATION.
Listen, Jesus said you could decide not to keep even the least of the laws and even teach others not to keep the laws, AND EVEN SPEAK AGAINST JESUS AND STILL BE SAVED, BUT JESUS CALLS THEM THE LEAST IN THE KINGDOM.
There ARE 3 BOOKS that come out on Rosh Hashanah where everyone's name is written in one of these books, and I see salvation for all of them. If you love God and you accept his Sabbaths and his feasts, then God will seal your forehead and right hand, and he will write your name in the lamb's book of life, and if you reject God's ways and teach against his laws, YOU HAVE NO CHANCE OF YOUR NAME BEING WRITTEN IN THE LAMB'S BOOK OF LIFE.
But that is ok, it doesn't mean you go to some hell because Babylon is slapped up there in the middle of your forehead, it simply means that your work will burn, but you yourself will be saved but only as one who has gone through a fire.
Salvation is extremely broad, and I figure that's all you really care about anyway, just that you will be in there somewhere, and I figure that you are. But salvation alone is a terrible goal to set for yourself when you will see others who have gained a great resurrection and you yourself not even in the first resurrection. The works of all men will be tested by fire, and the work you are building is YOUR future house, and if that house is burned, you have just lost your resurrection body.
Those first Gentile converts and Jewish converts went out selling all they owned to give to the poor BECAUSE they sought a better resurrection and this has somehow been lost in Christianity. People assume that you can just say,'' Jesus, Jesus,'' and that is all there is to it, and we see those people who disrespected the laws of Moses saying,'' BUT JESUS, BUT JESUS, we taught your name in the streets,'' and Jesus looks at them sternly and says,'' Get away from me you law breakers, I AINT NEVER KNOWN YOU.''
All those scriptures of hell you are reading are direct references to what happens at the feast of Tabernacles appointed for the second coming of Messiah.
If you aren't already keeping this feast, you pretty much die.
But it is the double portion of rain coming that will divide even soul and spirit when it falls, it will circumcise the flesh right off of people, and EVERYONE will be saying the same thing.
EVERYONE will see those disciples who have been anointed with the promised double portion of Holy spirit that will rain down on the heads of the saints on Shemini Atzeret.
EVERYONE will weep and gnash their teeth because they see those who received and they will want to have what those disciples received, and EVERYONE will be in a hell because they realize what they missed out on. We pray for than rain because we have been given the very smallest of seeds, a seed of spirit that lies dormant within us until that rain of spirit will fall on that seed, the seed will die and bear fruit unlike anything that anyone has ever seen.
Those people who receive the rain will be shining like angels and have the power to do anything, and in fact, they are immortal firstfruit sons who have received the greatest promise ever given to mankind.
In all the days of you visiting a church, has even one person ever told you about the promised second rain that comes in double portion that is appointed to fall on the 8th day of the feast of Tabernacles?
Everyone who does not receive, their flesh remains dying as burning away, as flesh falls off people like ash all day long, and their fire will never be quenched, their worm WILL NEVER DIE, and this is a direct reference to the seed of spirit inside you, if that seed of spirit doesn't receive the rain, then that seed will NEVER die, it will never bear fruit, and it will always bee there, undead.
Any of your preachers ever tell you of the promises we wait upon on Shemini Atzeret?
EVERY scripture about hell is a direct reference to the outcome of the feast of Tabernacles appointed for the second coming of Messiah IN YOU.
Gonna take a sec' to digest this..
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