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Abimael
Guest
Prayer.
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Are you taking the time to pray? Christ is the answer in times of need
https://christianforums.net/threads/psalm-70-1-save-me-o-god-lord-help-me-now.108509/
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Wearing the right shoes, and properly clothed spiritually?
Join Elected By Him for a devotional on Ephesians 6:14-15
https://christianforums.net/threads/devotional-selecting-the-proper-shoes.109094/
D
Dunamite
Guest
You have a mind and you have to use it. God gave us free will so that we could choose. Not choosing is not an option either. We cannot sit on the fence. Either God exists or he doesn't. Either Jesus Christ was God or he wasn't.
Each religion has its pluses and minuses. You need to know what they are and evaluate each. Then you can choose the one that best answers the fundamental questions that explain who we are, why we exist, how we came into being, what is the purpose of life and what happens when we die?
From a Christian perspective, we are God's children made by him to be in a loving and personal relationship. This is because God is love. We cannot live without love. We exist because God made us in his image so that we could commune with him. We were made differently from the rest of creation. We alone have God's character. We can think, create and love because made us that way.
The purpose of life is to glorify God. We do that when we put him in his proper place, as our Lord and Father. We enjoy a special relationship as his sons and daughters. He dotes on us and is with us in good times and bad, just as a parent would to a child. He rejoices in our successes and feels our pain when we fall short.
We do not die. Life goes on. We will all stand before God whether we believe or not. We can do it as his adopted sons and daughters and receive the benefits of being an heir of God or we can do it as rebellious outsiders. It is our choice.
Being adopted as his children is made possible by Jesus Christ. He died so that we might know the extent of God's love for us. We did not deserve it, but Jesus died for us anyway. God knew from the beginning that we would err and be self centered. He never forces himself on anyone. He wants us to choose to love him freely. This is why he is willing to pay such a huge cost. Our sin pains him. When we suffer he feels our pain.
We were never able to bridge the gap that separates people from God because we do not know him the way he knows us. He alone can do it. He has never stopped loving us. He knows each person intimately even if we profess not to know him.
So from the beginning he planned to enter into his creation at a time and place of his choosing to give us the message that we rejected from out predecessors. He made it possible for us to be made right with him and to approach him directly. This was through believing in Jesus Christ.
When Jesus died and rose again we were not left on our own. God left part of himself behind in the person of the Holy Spirit. He is inside of each believer. He reminds us of God's love, the teaching of Jesus and empowers us to do the unfinished work of God.
In this way the church has grown from a few individuals to a great religion that is global in scope. It has survived persecution and stood the test of time.
What Christians have that other religions lack is a personal relationship with the God who made the universe. We live in his grace and have his love. We are no better than anyone else. We still make mistakes. The big difference is that we have Jesus on our side. He makes up for what we lack. Through him we have God's forgiveness.
To not have this means that God would have to deal with our sin out of his righteousness and need for justice. We deserve to be punished because he cannot tolerate sin. However, Jesus adds to this God's mercy and love. This tempers God's wrath. When God looks at a believer he does not see the sinner we are, but a righteous person because Jesus stands between us and God.
To a Jew or a Muslim, God is remote and external. To the Christian he is personal and close at hand. To the Jew or Muslim, religion consists of a list of rules which we are incapable of keeping. We are therefore always caught in a cycle with no way out. We sin. We fall short. We need to make amends. To the Christian, the cycle is broken. We still struggle with sin, but Jesus paid the price for us. Our forgiveness is guaranteed.
Hindus and Buddhists are stuck in a karmic cycle. Life brings suffering. The escape is to reach a higher state of being through self discipline. There are penalties for failure, just as there are in other religions. The only escape is to destroy the self and cease to exist. This is in stark contrast to Christianity on so many levels.
For the Christian the journey is outward. For the Buddhist the journey is inward. We look up to God and outward to the world. They look inward to the self and ignore the world. We do not cease to exist at the end, but become new and better people. They desire to reach nirvana when they no longer exist and are one with the universe.
The Christian, the Jew and the Muslim are God centered. He is the maker of the universe and the reason for all life. He is the foundation on which we exist. The Buddhist or Hindu have no need for God. They have no explanation for existence. It merely is.
Each person needs to come to his or her conclusions. We all exist. We can deny God because he gave us that freedom. Believing in him or not believing in him changes nothing but our relationship to God. He is unaffected whether we choose to belive in him or not.
He made us all unique but we are all made of the same things. We have God's DNA. Yet we aren't God. It is what we share that holds us together as people and that also links us to God. That bond is love.
The Buddhist is right about some things. They see the end as being blissful. The sense what Christians sense. The sense that whatever they are heading towards is good and loving. The want to be immersed in that love and goodness. Jews and Muslims are right about some things. They have put God in his rightful place. He is the master of the universe. He is Lord of all.
Yet, each of them is missing some of the pieces. They have a partial view of who God is. He is all of these things, but he is more. Only God could fill in the missing pieces. That is why Christianity alone has all of the pieces. Jesus Christ gave us those pieces. God physically came to earth to give them to us.
Christianity is the complete package. The problem is that when people think of Christianity, they don't think of Christ. They think about people who are flawed and weak. They think of the church and its failures over the ages. Instead they need to look at the one whose name we bear. Where we are lacking, he is not. People need to look to God. While we will fall short, he never will. God never fails to deliver on his promises. Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of God's promises. We can only enjoy and partake of them through him.
Each religion has its pluses and minuses. You need to know what they are and evaluate each. Then you can choose the one that best answers the fundamental questions that explain who we are, why we exist, how we came into being, what is the purpose of life and what happens when we die?
From a Christian perspective, we are God's children made by him to be in a loving and personal relationship. This is because God is love. We cannot live without love. We exist because God made us in his image so that we could commune with him. We were made differently from the rest of creation. We alone have God's character. We can think, create and love because made us that way.
The purpose of life is to glorify God. We do that when we put him in his proper place, as our Lord and Father. We enjoy a special relationship as his sons and daughters. He dotes on us and is with us in good times and bad, just as a parent would to a child. He rejoices in our successes and feels our pain when we fall short.
We do not die. Life goes on. We will all stand before God whether we believe or not. We can do it as his adopted sons and daughters and receive the benefits of being an heir of God or we can do it as rebellious outsiders. It is our choice.
Being adopted as his children is made possible by Jesus Christ. He died so that we might know the extent of God's love for us. We did not deserve it, but Jesus died for us anyway. God knew from the beginning that we would err and be self centered. He never forces himself on anyone. He wants us to choose to love him freely. This is why he is willing to pay such a huge cost. Our sin pains him. When we suffer he feels our pain.
We were never able to bridge the gap that separates people from God because we do not know him the way he knows us. He alone can do it. He has never stopped loving us. He knows each person intimately even if we profess not to know him.
So from the beginning he planned to enter into his creation at a time and place of his choosing to give us the message that we rejected from out predecessors. He made it possible for us to be made right with him and to approach him directly. This was through believing in Jesus Christ.
When Jesus died and rose again we were not left on our own. God left part of himself behind in the person of the Holy Spirit. He is inside of each believer. He reminds us of God's love, the teaching of Jesus and empowers us to do the unfinished work of God.
In this way the church has grown from a few individuals to a great religion that is global in scope. It has survived persecution and stood the test of time.
What Christians have that other religions lack is a personal relationship with the God who made the universe. We live in his grace and have his love. We are no better than anyone else. We still make mistakes. The big difference is that we have Jesus on our side. He makes up for what we lack. Through him we have God's forgiveness.
To not have this means that God would have to deal with our sin out of his righteousness and need for justice. We deserve to be punished because he cannot tolerate sin. However, Jesus adds to this God's mercy and love. This tempers God's wrath. When God looks at a believer he does not see the sinner we are, but a righteous person because Jesus stands between us and God.
To a Jew or a Muslim, God is remote and external. To the Christian he is personal and close at hand. To the Jew or Muslim, religion consists of a list of rules which we are incapable of keeping. We are therefore always caught in a cycle with no way out. We sin. We fall short. We need to make amends. To the Christian, the cycle is broken. We still struggle with sin, but Jesus paid the price for us. Our forgiveness is guaranteed.
Hindus and Buddhists are stuck in a karmic cycle. Life brings suffering. The escape is to reach a higher state of being through self discipline. There are penalties for failure, just as there are in other religions. The only escape is to destroy the self and cease to exist. This is in stark contrast to Christianity on so many levels.
For the Christian the journey is outward. For the Buddhist the journey is inward. We look up to God and outward to the world. They look inward to the self and ignore the world. We do not cease to exist at the end, but become new and better people. They desire to reach nirvana when they no longer exist and are one with the universe.
The Christian, the Jew and the Muslim are God centered. He is the maker of the universe and the reason for all life. He is the foundation on which we exist. The Buddhist or Hindu have no need for God. They have no explanation for existence. It merely is.
Each person needs to come to his or her conclusions. We all exist. We can deny God because he gave us that freedom. Believing in him or not believing in him changes nothing but our relationship to God. He is unaffected whether we choose to belive in him or not.
He made us all unique but we are all made of the same things. We have God's DNA. Yet we aren't God. It is what we share that holds us together as people and that also links us to God. That bond is love.
The Buddhist is right about some things. They see the end as being blissful. The sense what Christians sense. The sense that whatever they are heading towards is good and loving. The want to be immersed in that love and goodness. Jews and Muslims are right about some things. They have put God in his rightful place. He is the master of the universe. He is Lord of all.
Yet, each of them is missing some of the pieces. They have a partial view of who God is. He is all of these things, but he is more. Only God could fill in the missing pieces. That is why Christianity alone has all of the pieces. Jesus Christ gave us those pieces. God physically came to earth to give them to us.
Christianity is the complete package. The problem is that when people think of Christianity, they don't think of Christ. They think about people who are flawed and weak. They think of the church and its failures over the ages. Instead they need to look at the one whose name we bear. Where we are lacking, he is not. People need to look to God. While we will fall short, he never will. God never fails to deliver on his promises. Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of God's promises. We can only enjoy and partake of them through him.
RobertMazar
Member
By logic. Logic dictates that Christianity(All historic Christian Churches that acknowledge the Deity Of Christ and the Holy Trinity) is the only True religion. I utilized logical and analytical thinking to ascertain that Christianity is the only True religion.
:microwave:
:microwave:
D
Dunamite
Guest
There is truth in other religions, but partial truths are as bad as no truth because they can deceive us into feeling complacent and good when we should be concerned about our status with God.RobertMazar said:
It is not really a question of one true religion. It is more correctly one true path to salvation. The only option God has given us is through Jesus Christ who is God. If God had meant it to come through Mohammad or Buddha then he would have presented himself to the world as them. Instead he presented himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ. If we accept the existence of God then we must determine how he has chosen to reveal himself to the world and proceed from there.
Hi, duval -
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Pogo
If you are not logged IN, log IN.
Then, simply scroll to the top of any page here.
At mid screen, look to the left-hand side of the page, on the same line where you click to log in/out, where it says (1 new messages), or something similar.
Then, click between the parenthesis'.
Pogo
dadof10
Member
Free said:
Great points. I don't get to the "Christianity and Other Religions" topic much.
About the only thing that I would add is that when we study the historicity of religions, we should focus on the founder's and search for motive. No one starts a false religion for no reason. If we look at Mormonism, for example, we see that Joseph Smith and Brigham Young both died rich men with many wives. If you're looking for a reason to found a false religion women, money and property are great motivators.
Contrast that to Christianity where Jesus and the Apostles gave up everything. Jobs, home, money, standing in the community, and ultimately their lives. The strange thing about this Religion is that this is WHAT THEY TAUGHT. This is what Christianity offered. Poverty, chastity, obedience, and eventually martyrdom. To me, this speaks volumes to it's Truth.
R
Rick W
Guest
Let's just be sure this thread doesn't go toward becoming another Catholic-oriented debate.
Our Statement of Faith is quite clear.
Statement of Faith
"The bible is the inspired, infallible and authoritative Word of God."
Our Statement of Faith is quite clear.
Statement of Faith
"The bible is the inspired, infallible and authoritative Word of God."