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Wow! this thread exploded. I will read it all and respond individually, Miss H. It is difficult for those who have not had a personal experience of God to credit the experiences of those who have.
So Mystic, what will happen to us if we don't actually love God or are just indifferent to Him? I don't particularly love God and I certainly don't repent of sins anymore. I don't think there ARE such things as sins. These are just learning experiences to hopefully make us better people. I mean I've never heard a word from Him even in the quiet of my room when I contemplate Him. Far as I can see He was the spark plug for life here and then left us on our own. He doesn't talk to us in any meaningful way--and I am not talking about those Christians who have conversations with Him in their heads or one-way talks out loud with Him--I mean conversations that even a non-believer can hear. He doesn't interact with us. We as a human species are still here so we must be doing something right. I'd say there are 20% bad people out there but 80% of us are decent and keep the world running.
So my question again: if we're just indifferent to God like I am now, because He had absolutely no impact on my life other than through Christianity to screw it up pretty badly, what will happen to me when I die? I'd really like to know. That is a sincere question, not mocking.
It is not possible to love God if you do not love each other. But when you love one another you are "conceived by God" who IS agape love and you know God whether or not you understand it. You know and have repeatedly said that we have no basis to determine what actually happens after our physical death and that is correct. But those of us who KNOW (personally) that God IS agape love use the characteristics of agape love to evaluate what is consistent with that love. Given my understanding of the inherently vibratory nature of our Reality, those things you resonate with will be your fate, those things dissonant will not. The parts of your Spirit (character) that are dissonant with the unified field (consciousness of God) that establishes our Reality will be refined out as dross ( I do not know if they can be "re-tuned" to love). The parts of your Spirit (character) that are resonant will be joined with the whole Cosmic Orchestra. Love is the key, both literally and metaphorically, for the Cosmic Symphony we are playing.
Some of them changed their minds. Believe what they tell you. There is no reason for them to lie about their beliefs.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mensaguy
As I said in another post (just a few posts up), we have members right here in R&S that were once devout fundamentalist Christians who are no longer. Some of them have stories of great anguish about their path away from Christianity.
I suspect that the reasons for the defections lie in their inherent love and inability to accept the unloving and even hateful aspects of the savage biblical dogma the Christian mainstream has incorrectly adopted and merged with Christ's Gospel of love.
I’m one of them. But jimmie has me on ignore, and John (jghorton) told me long ago he wouldn’t respond to anything I have to say. They’ve heard my story: 40+ years as a person whose entire life was dedicated to, grounded in and led by Christian beliefs founded on a sincere faith in the Bible as the word of God, and the immense grief and distress I experienced when I lost that faith. It’s apparently easier for them to dismiss me as never having been one of them and shun me as damnable and unworthy of their time. Though they insist I was never one of them, I believe they see me as a traitor and is anyone hated more than a traitor?
That hate plays any part in their Christian faith belies their understanding of Christ and His Gospel, Pleroo! There is no greater evidence of your resonance with Christ's love than your escape from fundamentalism, IMO.
By Jimmie's standard, then, I'm still a Christian? Yet he pretends I don't exist. I don't remember reading in the Bible that that is how you're supposed to treat a "sister in Christ".
Inconsistency and contradictions litter the mainstream Christian "precepts and doctrines of men" and their attitudes. I suspect they really don't see them, Pleroo.
I believed that I was a Christian because God, the Father, had granted me the faith to receive Jesus as my savior. I believed the Bible was the infallible, inerrant word of God. I privately and publicly professed the Nicene and Apostolic creeds as true representations of my faith. I desired, above all else, to live in accord with what I believed God desired for and from me.
I wonder if jimmie and jghorton can find a reason to deny I was ever a Christian?
Christ makes that determination, Pleroo, not jimmie or jghorton and I have no doubt what that is.
Of course, but Christianity is more than a head knowledge about Jesus. It’s a heart knowledge of the sacrifice Christ made for us, His love and care for us daily, and our eternal home with Him one day soon.
It is far more than a self-centered heart knowledge about what will happen to YOU, jimmie. That is why you miss the point of Christ's Gospel.
jimmie believes there's "real" Christians like him (a fundamentalist) and then there's the pretend-Christians (all others).
jimmie's bought the narrow-gate-to-heaven thing, and is determined he's narrow-minded enough to fit.
I partly agree.
Quote:
Originally Posted by phetaroi
I really like the way you phrased the bolded. I've got to remember that line!
Trout has a gift, but I'm not sure it is an appreciated one by fundies.
I am one of them. All it took was being brave enough to step outside my Christian bubble and use the Internet to research such topics as "Historical proof for Jesus" (none) "who wrote the gospels" (anonymous authors) and when were they written (100-150 years after Jesus crucifixion). What I uncovered about Christianity horrified me. I ran away and never looked back.
Sad, very sad.
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There is no greater evidence of your resonance with Christ's love than your escape from fundamentalism, IMO.
I forgot my place.
