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.
You do like to provoke people don't you? The moderators are here to keep things from getting out of hand. I have no problem making use of them. Saves the time of dealing with preachy, judgmental people who are intent on straightening people out and going way overboard in their comments, and won't let it go.
You do like to provoke people don't you? The moderators are here to keep things from getting out of hand. I have no problem making use of them. Saves the time of dealing with preachy, judgmental people who are intent on straightening people out and going way overboard in their comments, and won't let it go.
Mike, there is none worse than you for that. You actually have surprised me with some of your recent comments to me and a few others.
You do like to provoke people don't you? The moderators are here to keep things from getting out of hand. I have no problem making use of them. Saves the time of dealing with preachy, judgmental people who are intent on straightening people out and going way overboard in their comments, and won't let it go.
I merely remember what people say, especially, when they accuse others of doing that which they do themselves.
You'll get tired of it. But if you don't and you continue to harass me, I'll let the moderators deal with you.
Mike, anytime you want to "let the moderators deal" with me--please go ahead. The last time you did so, I went back and spent HOURS, literally hours, searching your posts and sent to one of them the posts where you do EXACTLY the same thing. I'm an old man, crippled, and have nothing better to do!
I'm not required to leave this thread, and if you don't have the gumption to get off it, then you can put me on your ignore list. I'm quite used to fundamentalists doing this as I know the "letter of the Law" at least as well as you do--and how to use it successfully in debate.
The problem is your starting premise---that Scripture is perfect. I don't believe that and am willing to use Scripture to prove it. I believe like Enns, that it is inspired, not that it is infallible. That seems to be your difficulty with anyone who can quote it back to you and create DOUBT. One must have DOUBT in order to find any Truth at all.
Your belief is that the system is being attacked and YOU are the one who can defend it. As Enns wrote "When knowing what you believe is the nonnegotiable center of true faith, questions and critical self-examination pose a threat." That's YOU.
Quote:
"But it seems for some the gospel is always at stake. They have mistaken their own thinking about God with the real thing. They have become so enamored of their own self-referential God talk and believe their own propaganda that they can't tell the difference."
Peter Enns, The Sin of Certainty, Chapter When Christians Eat Their Own
I'm not afraid to argue with God and put up a different viewpoint. Neither were biblical writers. They were not so fearful of God that they wouldn't talk back.
Quote:
"When an 'us vs. them' is your way of life, loving a 'them' is hard enough. Praying for a 'them' is harder still. We want to pray down God's blood-curdling war cry of wrath and pestilence---or at least pierce and wound them with our sharp words while making photocopies. But Jesus says enough of that. To be like God means to be perfect in love.------
Two thousand years after Jesus spoke these words (Matt 5:43-48), the 'us vs. them' mindset is still quite common among Christians. It takes hard work and vigilance to see how we can put Jesus's words into practice in different ways and places. That's what Christians do: we read the Bible, written at a different time for reasons that were relevant back then, and ask ourselves, 'What does it look like for us to follow Jesus like that right here and right now?"
Ibid, Chapter God Is Not My Father
If you are interested only in "winning" then you most certainly are losing. Put Jesus' words and actions first and foremost in your life--and you will have lost your life, but gained the Cross.
So don't call another poster a "fool" and then expect the mods to bail you out because someone turns the heat up in your kitchen.
What you did was make an inaccurate statement concerning the formation of the New Testament canon, after which you then proceeded to tell me that I don't have the spirit. And again, the New Testament canon was not the result of any council determination.
This is a cavil you actually claim to give the REASON the councils voted the way they did and then claim what? They didn't? Come on. the reason there is a canon is because canon law was established by councils.
This is a cavil you actually claim to give the REASON the councils voted the way they did and then claim what? They didn't? Come on. the reason there is a canon is because canon law was established by councils.
Since the canon existed before any of the councils, the councils were not responsible for the canon. Again, the councils merely acknowledged the books that had already been accepted by the church at large even though some people still had disagreements. The bulk of the New Testament canon was never debated and was established quite early. There were only a few books that were debated. You might try actually studying the subject.
Until recently,I have always thought that Christianity is a Religion. In fact even in a dictionary, it says so. But much to my surprise, the Evangelists nowadays insist Christianity is not a religion at all. Why this recent change in nomenclature? And at what point did it change? After all, Christianity has been seen as a Religion for so many centuries. So why the sudden change?
Very simple. They don't practice the Christian religion.
The New Testament says this:
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress -- James 1
Since they don't do that, they truly don't practice religion.
Mike, anytime you want to "let the moderators deal" with me--please go ahead. The last time you did so, I went back and spent HOURS, literally hours, searching your posts and sent to one of them the posts where you do EXACTLY the same thing. I'm an old man, crippled, and have nothing better to do!
I'm not required to leave this thread, and if you don't have the gumption to get off it, then you can put me on your ignore list. I'm quite used to fundamentalists doing this as I know the "letter of the Law" at least as well as you do--and how to use it successfully in debate.
The problem is your starting premise---that Scripture is perfect. I don't believe that and am willing to use Scripture to prove it. I believe like Enns, that it is inspired, not that it is infallible. That seems to be your difficulty with anyone who can quote it back to you and create DOUBT. One must have DOUBT in order to find any Truth at all.
Your belief is that the system is being attacked and YOU are the one who can defend it. As Enns wrote "When knowing what you believe is the nonnegotiable center of true faith, questions and critical self-examination pose a threat." That's YOU.
Peter Enns, The Sin of Certainty, Chapter When Christians Eat Their Own
I'm not afraid to argue with God and put up a different viewpoint. Neither were biblical writers. They were not so fearful of God that they wouldn't talk back.
Ibid, Chapter God Is Not My Father
If you are interested only in "winning" then you most certainly are losing. Put Jesus' words and actions first and foremost in your life--and you will have lost your life, but gained the Cross.
So don't call another poster a "fool" and then expect the mods to bail you out because someone turns the heat up in your kitchen.
You're lying about what you said in the first paragraph. And yes, I will let the moderators deal with you if you intend to start following me around from post to post and trying to 'get me right with Jesus.' And by the way, I don't need to be bailed out of anything. I stand by what I said.
Last edited by Michael Way; 08-20-2018 at 09:57 PM..
I've been an evangelical Christian for 40+ years, and I've never heard ANYONE say that CHRISTIANITY isn't a religion. Christianity is obviously a religion.
Jesus was a Jew. Jesus didn't think he was starting a new religion. Christianity evolved as a separate religion early in its history when the differences between the traditional Jews and those Jews and Gentiles who didn't require strict adherence to traditional Jewish practices became too large to ignore. It was no longer possible to pretend that the followers of Jesus were just another Jewish sect like the Essenes.
The point that IS consistently made is that we Christians have a direct, living relationship with God through our salvation by Jesus and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The point that IS often made is that "being a Christian" as commonly understood by the world isn't enough. One must have entered into a direct relationship with the living God through repentance, acceptance of his offer of salvation and the indwelling of his spirit.
It's questionable how much of today's Christianity Jesus would recognize as anything that he had in mind. In my experience, this is what evangelicals are saying: Don't confuse "being a Christian" with having a direct relationship with the living God. It's this direct relationship with the living God that isn't a religion. This is what Jesus meant when he said that in the last days many who had done great deeds in his name would be astonished to discover that he'd never known them.
If Jesus was either God or the son of God how could he not have known he was starting a new religion?
You're lying about what you said in the first paragraph. And yes, I will let the moderators deal with you if you intend to start following me around from post to post and trying to 'get me right with Jesus.' And by the way, I don't need to be bailed out of anything. I stand by what I said.
I have very right to point out to other readers that you claim the Bible is inerrant and infallible but don't practice what it preaches. The mods have given you a way to avoid seeing my posts so stop being a crybaby.
And you tried to use one of my favorite theological writers to prove your point that HE thinks of the Bible in the same way you so. You once tried the same sly trick with Prof. Bart Ehrman. In both cases I've shown your thinking to be anything but straightforward.
Call yourself a Christian if you wish. I'm just pointing out that neither your posts nor your apologetics line up with what we see of Jesus.
And I am NOT lying about what I said in the first paragraph of my last post. You threatened another poster with the same B.S. regarding "reporting" them. I dug through all your posts to point out to a mod that you were saying the same things about other posters. I think you are so caught up in your own self-righteousness that your fundie blinders are not only blocking your vision but impairing your thinking.
And I have support for my claim about you calling the kettle black by other posters on this very thread. See post 442 and 443. It's quite obvious to more than yours truly.
Again, let me point out why Peter Enns is definitely one of MY theologians and why he is so foreign to your way of thinking:
Quote:
Doubting God is painful and frightening because we think we are leaving God behind, when in fact we are only leaving behind ideas about God that we are used to surrounding ourselves with—the small God, the God within our control, the God who moves in our circles, the God who agrees with us.
Peter Enns, The Sin of Certainty, Chapter The Lie It's All Your Fault
Report me. I'm as entitled to my thinking as you are to yours. I'm certain the mods will agree. But if you think you are so very special that you can convince the mods that certain people may be banned from responding to your awful posts---give it shot. If they would such a thing, then I wouldn't want to be on CD anyway.
By the way, the entire Christianity thread is all about getting someone right with Jesus! Indeed, that is the point of your idol, the Bible.
As for "following you around," I say what Aslan the Lion said:
"Child,’ ‘I am telling you your story. . . . I tell no one any story but his own.’”
Last edited by Wardendresden; 08-20-2018 at 11:13 PM..
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.
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.
